A 13-Year Old's Novel Achievement
Nancy Yi Fan, now an eighth-grader, was too young to know she was breaking every rule in the book when she e-mailed her first manuscript directly to the president and CEO of HarperCollins. "I was being quite bold thinking I had nothing to lose," says Nancy. "I thought, maybe she will give me some advice." Instead, CEO Jane Friedman, gave her a contract, passing Fan's allegorical story about warrin... posted on May 14 2007, 1,954 reads

World's Largest Floating Hospital
The world's largest non-governmental hospital ship, the Africa Mercy, began her inaugural sail this past weekend and is expected to make her way to war-torn Liberia by the end of the month. The newest Mercy Ship, an elegantly converted rail ferry, departed the port of Blyth UK and set sail for Monrovia, May 8. Over 400 volunteer crew will take part in the hospital ship's first field service in Afr... posted on May 13 2007, 3,598 reads

From Illiteracy to News Reporting
Byron Pitts was chatting with students at a Harlem charter school the day before a recent visit by President Bush, when the CBS correspondent had a realization: they viewed him as just another empty suit who couldn't possibly understand their problems. Little did they know. "When I was your age," he told them, "I couldn't read." CBS correspondent Byron Pitts, reporting from the Middle East in 2003... posted on May 10 2007, 1,928 reads

Thinking Outside & Inside The Box
This takes a little outside-and-inside-the-box thinking. What looks like and lives like a house is actually a shipping container. "I call it my bunker," says Rosalynn Kearney of her container home. Used to import almost everything we use and wear, shipping containers are now a new concept in affordable housing. The containers are claimed to be hurricane-proof, fire-resistant. Increasingly too expe... posted on May 09 2007, 4,228 reads

Kindness Meters
Thirty-six Denver parking meters have been refurbished and redesigned to allow people to easily give spare change to the homeless, thanks to a public-private effort. The change that goes into the randomly placed meters will help with Denver's Road Home project: a 10-year plan to end homelessness in Denver. "You might be asking yourself how much good can spare change really do," Manager of Public W... posted on May 07 2007, 1,895 reads

So That All May Play
Justin Clemens loves baseball. Cerebral palsy may limit this 13-year-old's use of his left arm and both legs, but he plays his favorite sport on the Montgomery Miracle League. With help from parents and coaches he swings at pitches and scoots to first base with his walker. "When he's going for home, he feels like a million bucks," says his mother. For the most part, baseball diamonds are unplayabl... posted on May 04 2007, 1,778 reads

The Art of Powerful Questions
When was the last time you sat through a meeting and said to yourself, "This is a complete waste of time!"? Was it yesterday, or even just a few hours ago? Why did that gathering feel so tedious? Perhaps it’s because the leaders posed the wrong questions at the start of the session. Or, worse yet, maybe they didn’t ask any engaging questions, and as a result, the meeting consisted of boring re... posted on Apr 30 2007, 3,992 reads

A Governor's Food Stamp Challenge
If Gov. Ted Kulongoski seems a little sluggish this week, he's got an excuse: he couldn't afford coffee. He has $21 to buy a week's worth of food -- the same amount that the state's average food stamp recipient spends weekly on groceries. Kulongoski is taking the weeklong challenge to raise awareness about the difficulty of feeding a family on a food stamp budget. A mother of three who went on foo... posted on Apr 27 2007, 1,424 reads

Smiles Per Hour in Australia
In a bid to create a more harmonious society, Port Phillip, Australia, is putting up road signs indicating a street's smiles per hour! The city has been using volunteers to find out how often people smile at those who pass them in the street. It then put up signs that look like speed limits, but tell pedestrians that they are in, for example, a "10 smiles per hour zone." Mayor Janet Bolitho says t... posted on Apr 24 2007, 2,045 reads

The Good Pied Piper of Haiti
10 years ago, when American Douglas Perlitz visited Cap-Hantien –- Haiti's second-largest city -– he soon found a trail of street children following him. One child, Wilnaud Pierre, only 8 years old, especially touched his heart. "He pulled me aside and said 'Would you send me to school? I want to learn to read and write.'" Five months later, Perlitz talked to some local priests who offered him... posted on Apr 23 2007, 1,495 reads