What do the arrangement of rose petals, a painting by Dali, and the spiral shells of mollusks have in common? Mathematicians call it the "golden" ratio -- phi. Astrophyscist Mario Livio calls it "the world's most astonishing number." Phi is the golden ratio of antiquity (1.6180339887), a never-ending number so lauded for its harmonious qualities that in the 16th century it was dubbed the divin... posted on Nov 08 2003, 1,685 reads

To the Rescue in Bangladesh
Driving in Old Dhaka (Bangaldesh), she saw a cycle-rickshaw standing by the side of the road. Under the decorated hood were two women; one looked young and "very confused." Then she noticed a vehicle with two men in it coming down the road. She sensed something was wrong. "It looked like a dalal (pimp) and his client. I thought "I have to do something!" I looked at the young girl and said, 'Do y... posted on Nov 07 2003, 1,040 reads

The Internet makes it easy to share. Almost too easy, some say. Three years ago, the music industry sued Napster, the first popular music file-sharing network on the Internet. But what if people prefer to share their creative works (and the power to copy, modify, and distribute their works) instead of exercising all of the restrictions of copyright law? A professor at Stanford Law School, Lawr... posted on Nov 06 2003, 945 reads

26% of kids under 2 have their own TV! The same research also found that parents were not all that worried about excessive screen time. Walter F. Lambert, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Miami disagrees: "I have a very big issue with TVs in children's bedrooms, because it encourages children not to be part of the family unit." 45 percent of parents admit to sometimes us... posted on Nov 05 2003, 953 reads

Minnie Takes a Stand
Oscar nominee Minnie Driver is putting her Hollywood career on hold to work in a sweatshop in Cambodia. She will leave behind her tennis star boyfriend, Robby Ginepri, and her Notting Hill flat to experience poverty in South-East Asia. Her plan is leverage her fame to raise awareness for unfair global trade agreements: "I will be working alongside other young women for as long as it takes for me... posted on Nov 04 2003, 778 reads

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Forty years ago, George Raveling found himself on stage as Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech. After the speech, Raveling asked a question that changed his life. "I was only about four people off to the side of King," he remembers. "I don't know what possessed me but I walked up to King and calmly asked 'Can I have that copy?' Without hesitating he turned and handed it ... posted on Nov 02 2003, 1,396 reads

If keeping track of your email seems overwhelming, consider the task of two UC Berkeley professors to count all the information the world produces. They estimated that the world produced five million million megabytes of data in 2002 alone; the number was so big they even invented a new unit of measurement: exabyte. With a world population of 6.3 billion, that's about 800 megabytes of recorded i... posted on Nov 01 2003, 945 reads

It's just the kind of dilemma that entrepreneurs like David Green love. The West has cutting-edge, high-tech medicine, but the poor of the world, who sorely need it, can't come close to affording it. To bridge that gap, Green, a quiet idealist, is doing something revolutionary: applying market forces to Third World health care. In the process he has driven the prices of medical devices such as hea... posted on Oct 31 2003, 2,342 reads

Three out of every five Americans are now overweight, and some researchers predict that today's children will be the first generation of Americans whose life expectancy will actually be shorter than that of their parents. The culprit, they say, is the plethora of health problems associated with obesity. Michael Pollan of NY Times suggests that the building block of the "fast food nation" is inexp... posted on Oct 30 2003, 981 reads