"Puppy Zen"

Here I am with Tajji, practicing "puppy zen," a focusing exercise. The dog is being rewarded for sitting very still -- calming herself, keeping her focus on her handler -- while a tasty treat is being slowly lowered. Any movement to grab the treat results in it going away. Once Tajji had gotten the idea, she also "got" that this exercise helped her become less anxious and stressed. You can see she's happy and alert, even though this is the field we use for reactivity training and that's stressful for her.

[link bouquet] for your weekend reading

Romance tropes Author Mindy Klasky has put together a compendium of tropes that are not limited to romance novels Which ones are your favorites -- or will make you hurl a book against the nearest breakable objects?

How Headlines Lie. When you read Justices Say Utah Doesn't Have to Recognize Gay Marriages, you'd think the ban was being upheld, right? Wrong! Read on... Bad New York Times! No doughnut!

HPV Test Beats Pap Smear in Gauging Cervical Cancer Risk, Study Finds

Book View Cafe's Sara Stamey on Where characters come from - I love how different we writers are and love learning from one another.

Experts map deep magma reservoir below Washington's Mt. Rainier How cool -- er, hot -- is that?