A 9 Year-Old Writes of Loss
Milly Bell, a nine year old girl from the UK has just published her first book. The child lost her father to cancer in May 2006. "My Daddy Is Dying" is a compilation of drawings and games she created to deal with her impending loss. In Milly's own words: "I wrote about the things I found difficult like going to sleep. I hope that my book helps other children and lets them know they are not alone."... posted on Nov 04 2007, 3,273 reads

Dying Homeless Man's Lesson in Humanity
A homeless man with a few months left to live and his caregivers have formed an unusual bond. Patrick Conway, with virtually nothing to his name turned out to have a lot to offer others. And in return, Conway, who'd always hated hospitals,is beginning to understand how love and compassion can enter a man's life in unforeseen ways. Dr. Melissa Mattison calls Conway "a breath of fresh air...There he... posted on Nov 02 2007, 3,346 reads

The Blind Artist and His Wife
He is a writer and an artist whose captivating pen-and-ink drawings, books and greeting cards reflect the beauty of southern India. His wife helps compose his work. What makes their story extraordinary? Manohar Devadoss is near blind. His art is produced through a painstaking process of extraordinary will-power and dedication. His wife Mahema is paralyzed below the shoulders, the result of a car a... posted on Oct 31 2007, 4,838 reads

A 4th Grader Gives A Dime
"In fourth grade we were suppose to bring in a dime for a folder to use in class. My parents were divorced and money was in short supply. Watching my mom fend off creditors, I did not have the nerve to ask her for a dime. When I got to school, I really wish I had asked my mother for the dime because everybody else in class had the dime ready on their desk for the teacher. I was embarrassed and fel... posted on Oct 29 2007, 4,842 reads

Strangest Sights on Earth
Ever since Google first let people scour the planet from the comfort of their computers through the Google Earth software program, fans have been on a virtual scavenger hunt from the North Pole to the South Pole looking for anything interesting, unusual, or unexplained. From shipwrecks to crop circles, from ads big enough to be read from space to a giant pink bunny nearly the size of a football fi... posted on Oct 28 2007, 5,992 reads

Social Visionary's Network of Good
According to Bill Drayton, about 25 years ago something dramatic happened in the world. "We could see it," he recalls. "The system was beginning to change. It was like hearing the ice breaking up at the end of winter in a lake. Creak, creak, groan, crash! The need was so big, the gap so huge, the opportunity to learn right before people's eyes. When do systems begin to change? When entrepreneurs d... posted on Oct 15 2007, 2,030 reads

Art as Attention to Living
"works & conversations," a unique gift-economy art magazine that showcases a series of profound and deeply personal interviews with artists from all walks of life, talks with former museum photographer Nick Hlobeczy. Editor Richard Whittaker’s shared exploration with Hlobeczy pushes and redefines the boundaries of art, bringing it seamlessly into an attention to living. Among other things, the t... posted on Oct 13 2007, 2,341 reads

The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits
Conventional wisdom says that scaling social innovation starts with strengthening internal management capabilities. But a recent study of 12 high-impact nonprofits including Teach for America, Habitat for Humanity and the Exploratorium shows that real social change happens when organizations go outside their own walls and find creative ways to enlist the help of others. The secret to their success... posted on Oct 08 2007, 6,079 reads

How Captcha Puzzles Serve
A weapon used to fight spammers is now helping university researchers preserve old books and manuscripts. Many websites use an automated test to tell computers and humans apart when signing up for an account or logging in. Known as captcha puzzles, these tests usually contain a few random letters in an image, arranged in such a way that automated programs cannot read. Carnegie Mellon scientists h... posted on Oct 07 2007, 1,847 reads

Pen Pals at the Airport
"A few years ago on a trip home I was waiting in line at the airport gate counter and the agent was frustrated because a customer had inadvertently walked off with her last pen. I opened up my backpack and sure enough there were five pens, so I handed over all five and said, "Keep the change!" She was so appreciative of the small gesture that I began packing 5 pens for every trip." So begins thi... posted on Oct 03 2007, 2,460 reads