Alabama's Anniston Star
At many newspapers, the top priority is how best to prop up revenues. But the family that owns 'The Anniston Star' in Alabama is quietly planning to devote the paper's profits to training new generations of reporters. The Star is a small daily that packs an outsized punch, situated in a town west of Atlanta. The paper has a circulation of just 27,000. But it fights above its weight class -- they ... posted on Jun 14 2006, 1,670 reads

Katrina Cottage
The house everyone has been talking about isn't the biggest, fanciest or most expensive. But rather a 308-square-foot house that may change the way United States deals with emergency housing and affordable housing. Katrina Cottage, as its called, is a factory-built, do-it-yourself, expandable home that utilizes local architecture including a wide porch, and lots of windows for air and daylight. ... posted on Jun 04 2006, 2,764 reads

Be Nice -- It's Good For Business!
Negativity costs the U.S. economy an estimated $300 billion a year! On the flip side, research shows that positivity pays -- quite literally! Donald O. Clifton was one of the first psychologists to study the link between profit, productivity and positivity. Diagnosed with cancer, he raced to finish the story of the research behind his famous Theory of the Dipper and the Bucket, along with practica... posted on May 29 2006, 2,761 reads

Be-ing Other-centered in Business
He teaches them to be grateful and wants them to meditate. But Prof. Srikumar Rao's isn't a spiritual teacher: he teaches at Columbia Business School! In his gentle voice, he asks them to stop living in a "me centered" world and start living in an "other centered" one. In one exercise, students spend an hour each day for a week helping someone else without expecting anything in return. It may not ... posted on May 24 2006, 2,203 reads

Taking Notes From The Beatles
What do the most successful music band of all time have to teach management experts about teamwork and creativity? Rewind to February 9, 1964, when the Beatles debut in front of what was then the world's largest TV audience in history. Not your usual flamboyant lead singer with backing musicians -- instead, an electrifying ensemble of four equal players sharing the limelight and having the time of... posted on May 12 2006, 2,465 reads

Rugmark International
Rugmark International was founded in 1994 to eliminate child labor in carpet manufacturing. In Nepal, Pakistan and India, the organization monitors factories, certifies carpets made without child labor, and rescues and educates child laborers. In consumer countries, it seeks to create market preference for certified rugs, which could result in the rescue of thousands of children from forced labor ... posted on Feb 26 2006, 1,330 reads

Day Dream
Dean Kamen, the engineer who invented the Segway, is puzzling over a new equation these days. An estimated 1.1 billion people in the world don't have access to clean drinking water, and an estimated 1.6 billion don't have electricity. To solve the problem, he's invented two devices, each about the size of a washing machine that can provide much-needed power and clean water in rural villages.... posted on Feb 21 2006, 2,153 reads

Trash to Fashion
Using recycled plastic, the rag pickers of an Indian slum are making highly desirable handbags for the boutiques of London and New York. What started as a small scale economic and environmental development project four years ago by an Indian couple, Shalabh and Anita Ahuja, has now turned into a $180,000 a year enterprise that provides a livelihood for over 300 people. ... posted on Jan 24 2006, 1,848 reads

Green Clean
MIT scientist Isaac Berzin envisions algae, the tiny single-celled plant, transforming the world's energy needs and cutting global warming. Bolted onto smokestacks, the rows of fat clear tube filled with a green algae soup absorb 40% of CO2 and 86% of nitrous oxide emissions. After the CO2 is soaked up like a sponge, the algae is harvested daily and turned into a biodiesel for automobiles. ... posted on Jan 22 2006, 1,453 reads

Honey Bee Network
Think of a honeybee: it collects its pollen from the flowers, but benefits them rather than improverishing them. Much in the same way, Anil Gupta -- a professor at Indian Institute of Management -- started the HoneyBee Network, a grassroot entrepreneurship program where ideas are produced by village entrepreneurs. Under Professor Gupta's inspiration, the network has captured thousands of inventi... posted on Jan 19 2006, 1,946 reads