Brain

By K.C. Cole August is a great month for celebrating human stupidity. On Aug. 6, 1945, we all but disappeared Hiroshima with a single atomic bomb, and then did it again, three days later, at Nagasaki. And now we barely seem to care. The sad truth is that we are incapable of understanding exactly what these seemingly ancient events mean - right now, for all of us, today. The August anniversaries are a stark reminder that the brains we inherited from our ancestors simply may not be up to dealing with much of the modern world we (they)

RIO DE JANEIRO - A 24-year-old construction worker survived after a 6-foot metal bar fell from above and pierced his head, doctors said Friday. Luiz Alexandre Essinger, chief of staff at Rio de Janeiro's Miguel Couto Hospital, said doctors successfully withdrew the iron bar from Eduardo Leite's skull during a five-hour surgery. "He was taken to the operating room, his skull was opened, they examined the brain and the surgeon decided to pull the metal bar out from the front in the same direction it entered the brain.

Several years ago, when the Franklin Institute began visualizing an expansion, planners became captivated by the lovely symmetry they could achieve if they only had a brain. The science museum's room-size heart - and, later, its transplant successor - not only connected to contemporary quantum leaps in understanding of the human body, but had also become a beloved landmark (if the term can be applied to a severely enlarged organ). The Giant Heart is reliably instructive in matters of blood transport.

Colin Kerr is what you'd call a creature of the city. He grew up in Powelton Village, went to Masterman, then Drexel, which he walked to from his parents' rowhouse. He was so good at computer programming that by the time he graduated in 2007, dream jobs awaited. He picked Bentley Systems, a family-owned software company in Exton, and this presented a problem for a guy who's never owned a car. Kerr figured out that, by taking his customized 27-speed bicycle on Regional Rail, he could make it to the office in two hours if he left his house at 5:30 a.m. He knew the commute was getting to him when he began sleeping under his desk on those nights when he worked so late that the trains ran infrequently.

Happiness is a Chemical in the Brain Stories By Lucia Perillo W.W. Norton. 224 pp. $23.95   Sometimes it seems like all literary fiction is about the same people: middle-class depressives, suburban adulterers — the kind of people who write literary fiction, actually. And don't get me wrong, I love to read stories like those, when they're good. But it was incredibly refreshing to meet the people who populate Happiness is a Chemical in the Brain, a first collection of short stories by poet Lucia Perillo.

    CHRIS SANDERSON, a former Wings coach and player, died Thursday. He was 38.   Sanderson died after a 3?1/2-year battle with brain cancer. He played goaltender for the Wings in 2001 and 2002 and was an assistant coach with them from 2005 to '11. He also played for Baltimore and New Jersey during his 5-year career. He played college lacrosse at Virginia. He was the starting goaltender for the Canadian national team that won the world championships in 2006.

For Kathy Tench, a 64-year-old Philadelphia charter schoolteacher, anxiety is the voice that comes nattering in the middle of the night. It might start with a stray thought after waking up to use the bathroom - "Why was I left out of that e-mail loop at work?" - and ramp up to a spiral of worry: Maybe they don't value my input. Maybe I'll be pink-slipped in the next round of budget cuts. Then how will I pay the mortgage? What if I can't retire at 70, as I plan? She sometimes lies there, obsessing, until dawn.

The meeting started at 1 p.m. Tuesday and did not end until almost 4 o'clock. It included Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., manager Charlie Manuel, and the entire coaching staff. By the time it was over, the players were already on the field going through some of their pregame routines in preparation for the start of a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies. John Mayberry Jr. was feeding a pitching machine as Juan Pierre practiced bunting. Backup catcher Brian Schneider was playing catch with Roy Halladay as the Phillies pitcher continued his rehab from the right shoulder injury that placed him on the disabled list last month.

No degree of adversity could stop Thelma Renee Stevens from living life to the fullest.   Thelma suffered from a brain injury that caused seizures throughout her life, but her spirit never wavered. "She was a fighter," said an aunt, Patricia Fletcher. "She never gave up. " Thelma Stevens, who worked as a teacher's aide at a day-care center and as a housekeeper, died after a seizure on May 31. She was 25 and lived in West Philadelphia. Despite her physical problems, Thelma's death was unexpected and shocked the family.

Underwood: Gay marriage Not one to debate politics 24/7, Carrie Underwood expressed her view on gay marriage in an eloquent, low-key chat with London's the Independent. "As a married person myself, I don't know what it's like to be told I can't marry somebody I love, and want to marry," she said. "I can't imagine how that must feel. I definitely think we should all have the right to love, and love publicly, the people that we want to love. " Tonys: Ratings disaster If Broadway doesn't know how to put on a show, who does?