New York's Pop Up Repair Shop
Your lamp broke? Oh well, buy a new one. Your toaster oven broke? Again, just buy a new one. Are you one of those people who are more apt to throw out older, broken household items and just buy new replacements -- instead of perhaps thinking about giving it a chance to be fixed? Well, for Sandra Goldmark and her husband Michael Banta, they finally wanted to try and create a solution that "aimed at... posted on Oct 06 2014, 14,520 reads

A Humanitarian's 4 Decades Long Adventure In Africa
When 24-year-old Molly Melching traveled to Senegal as an exchange student, she felt so at home that she decided to stay on after her program ended. Over the next forty years, Molly founded and continues to run Tostan, a non-profit organization turning the traditional model of social development on its head. Rather than short-term, top-down approaches, Tostan uses a holistic three-year, non-formal... posted on Oct 05 2014, 28,784 reads

Reading, Writing, Empathy: The Rise Of Social Emotional Learning
There's a lot of focus these days on how to improve subject learning in schools, but what about the emotional development of our children? In 2005, researchers at Yale developed a training program called RULER to help teachers integrate emotional literacy into their everyday curriculum. Studies are now showing that students in RULER classrooms aren't just expressing themselves more effectively -- ... posted on Oct 04 2014, 23,864 reads

Fluro Zebra (Age 10) Is Making The World Smile
"You can do a really simple thing, and it can turn out to make a BIG difference." That's 10 year old Fluro Zebra's motto. When Fluro wanted to do a random act of kindness, she decided to make pet rocks with the sole goal of making people smile. Read more about the ten year old girl who is reminding us that we can all make the world a happier, more peaceful place if we carry out an altruistic deed.... posted on Oct 03 2014, 27,508 reads

Perfect Pairing: Young People Teaching Seniors About Technology
"Seniors who feel like today's technology has left them in the dust are hitching a ride with a philanthropic gaggle of students who, in their spare time, are helping older generations return to the fast lane with their iPods, iPads, smart phones and computers. A group of teenagers who never knew a world before computers launched Wired for Connections/Mentor Up...designed to help senior citizens un... posted on Oct 02 2014, 39,348 reads

Moral Courage & The Story of Sister Megan Rice
When you look for examples of moral courage, do you think about the people who are in prison? Sister Megan Rice, an 84 year old nun, is serving a 35 month prison sentence for an act of civil disobedience to stand up for life itself and denounce the continued existence of nuclear weapons. Her words will reveal insight about the nature of courage and the enthusiastic spirit of satyagraha.... posted on Oct 01 2014, 34,270 reads

New Guinea's Birds of Paradise
Deep in the isolated wilderness of New Guinea lives extraordinary beauty as you have never seen it before. It pours from within the existence of 39 species of birds found nowhere else on earth. For over a decade, Ed Scholes, a Cornell Lab scientist, and Tim Laman, a National Geographic photojournalist, took on the Birds-of-Paradise project -- an incredible journey to capture the majestic splendor ... posted on Sep 30 2014, 4,068 reads

Picasso On Intuition
Brassai asks Picasso whether his ideas come to him "by chance or by design." Picasso responds: "I don't have a clue. Ideas are simply starting points...What I capture in spite of myself interests me more than my own ideas." Read more on how artists create and what they think about as they work.... posted on Sep 29 2014, 27,134 reads

Turning Inspiration Into Action
We've all experienced fleeting moments of divine inspiration. Perhaps, you've always wanted to write a book, run a marathon, or create an exciting new blog -- only to find that the spark of inspiration is too easily extinguished. It can be frustrating, to say the least. Zen Habits author, Leo Babauta offers some tips on how to translate inspiration into sustainable action. ... posted on Sep 28 2014, 26,043 reads

Bridges To Prosperity
Here's a simple yet thought-provoking question: Can you imagine your life without bridges and roads? A unique nonprofit organization called Bridges to Prosperity is looking to make a positive difference in the lives of people who live in isolated communities around the world. Using state of the art technologies, fused with local construction techniques, Bridges to Prosperity's mission is to bridge... posted on Sep 27 2014, 14,425 reads