An Oil Spill and 17 Years of Silence
After seeing a massive oil spill pollute San Francisco Bay in 1971, John Francis gave up all motorized transportation. For 22 years, he walked everywhere he went -- including treks across the entire United States and much of South America -- hoping to inspire others to drop out of the petroleum economy. Soon after he stopped riding in cars, Francis, the son of working-class, African-American pare... posted on Aug 29, 2014 reads

Taking a Page from Nature's Book
The future of space exploration could lie in biomimetics -- where engineering meets biology. In effect, it steals nature's evolutionary tricks to create revolutionary applications. Engineers like Dr Alex Ellery, head of the Robotics Research Group at the University of Surrey, are trying to find out how natural systems might inspire human-made technology in space. "One obvious way is in the way nat... posted on Sep 10, 1378 reads

When Death Comes: A Poem About Life
Award-winning poet Mary Oliver has been writing for over three decades now. An intense and joyful observer of the natural world, Oliver focuses on the luminous particularities of experience, savoring the simple and the astonishing occurrences of the natural world for the wisdom embedded in beauty, and for the mysteries hovering just beneath the surface. The Christian Science Monitor archives conta... posted on Oct 12, 2671 reads

The World's Biggest Round Table
What is today's most important unreported story? What happens after I die? Can dancing change the world? These are just a sampling of the questions from around the world, posed to 112 leading thinkers, artists, philosophers, activists and scientists who participated in the "Table of Free Voices," an open-air, nine-hour marathon session of answering questions from around the world. The meeting was ... posted on Oct 25, 1474 reads

One Mother, Thirteen Kids
Mothers have a special ability to give, and Susan Tom is an exceptional mother. A 53-year-old single mother in California, 11 of Susan's 13 children are adopted, many of whom suffer from disabilities and life-threatening diseases. She never planned her current life this way, "I think when I found I could survive raising four kids, it was not that great a leap to get another one. And once I’d pro... posted on Nov 24, 1709 reads

Enabling Citizen-to-Citizen Conversation
Based out of Harvard University, Global Voices is a recent online project that is aggregating and translating hundreds of blogs and podcasts from nearly every country in the world, creating an international citizens' media portal. "Our job is to amplify these voices coming out of the developing world and help people get their voices into the mainstream media," said cofounder Ethan Zuckerman. There... posted on Nov 27, 1149 reads

A 19 Year Old's AIDS Diary
Thembi Ngubane was 19 when she first met radio producer Joe Richman in Khayelitsha, outside Cape Town. She was among a group of South African teenagers living with AIDS who he had interviewed in 2004. Richman gave her a tape recorder, and for a year, Ngubane recorded an audio diary that brings listeners into her home, among her family, to witness her daily struggles and triumphs. Throughout the di... posted on Dec 9, 1980 reads

Finding Freedom In Captivity
John McCarthy's life changed dramatically on April 17th 1986. The 29-year-old British journalist was ambushed in Beirut and imprisoned in a tiny cell, and it would be 5 years before he stood in daylight again. His companion in captivity was Irishman Brian Keenan. A recent film, "Blind Flight," powerfully dramatizes the story of their shared incarceration, and how they endured through the horrors o... posted on Dec 13, 2599 reads

Wired To Be Inspired
Most theories in social sciences say that people's actions and feelings are motivated by self-interest. So here's a puzzle: why do we care when a stranger does a good deed for another stranger? Psychologist Jonathan Haidt has been pondering this question for years. Haidt uses the phrase "elevation" to describe the warm, uplifting feeling that people experience when they see unexpected acts of huma... posted on Dec 14, 2542 reads

Art Students Gift Portraits to Orphans
Compassion: a word worth a thousand pictures. Striving toward a more compassionate society, the Memory Portraits program organizes advanced high school and university-level art students in creating original portraits for children living in orphanages around the world. Given that children who have been abandoned, neglected, abused, or orphaned usually have few personal keepsakes, the purpose of the... posted on Dec 25, 3398 reads

Creating Breathing Places
A Breathing Place is a space that people care for, for the benefit of wildlife and the community. A BBC Initiative, Breathing Places encourages people to get involved in visiting, volunteering and transforming local spaces to create tranquil, wildlife-friendly habitats: anything from school areas, workplace grounds and cemeteries to major landscape projects. Over the next three years, they are j... posted on Jan 9, 2385 reads

Harvard Negotiation Project
The Harvard Negotiation Project started with the mission to improve the theory, teaching, and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution, so that people can deal more constructively with conflicts ranging from the interpersonal to the international. Part of the problem, Harvard researchers say, is that we approach such confrontations thinking that we not only understand our own point of view,... posted on Jan 15, 2818 reads

The Challenge of Our Moment
As the unpredictable forces of change transform every sector of planetary life and culture -- societal, technological, environmental, geopolitical -- the terrain of our global village is morphing beneath our feet, bringing with it an increasingly complex, interwoven web of problems requiring our attention, demanding a response. But what sort of response will truly meet the tests ahead? What are th... posted on Jan 25, 2055 reads

From Poachers To Eco-Guides
They once were criminals who hunted endangered animals and stripped rare trees in the forest preserves of India. Now they are stewards and protectors of the land. Hired as tourist guides by the national government, these reformed poachers are using their familiarity with the area and its wildlife to start over as respected citizens. A former thief, in this video, patiently guides visitors through ... posted on Jan 26, 2409 reads

The Strings of Soweto
When professional viola player, Rosemary Nalden found these kids, they were playing music in a community lavatory dubbed "Carnegie Hall". They were from Soweto, the sprawling South African township struggling against poverty, unemployment and HIV. BBC Radio broadcasted a report on the young musicians in 1991; tuning in that morning was Nalden, who knew at once what she wanted to do. Together with ... posted on Feb 15, 2790 reads

Riders for Health
Andrea and Barry Coleman share a passion for global health -- and motorcycles. On a visit to Africa the couple was struck by the number of broken-down motorcycles and vehicles they saw across the continent. When they witnessed a woman in labor being taken to the hospital in a wheelbarrow, they knew they had to do something to change the system. Together they founded Riders for Health, an organizat... posted on Feb 20, 2444 reads

Nomads United
'A person with an address has abandoned the rest of the world for that one address.' Kareen Kohn is clearly not lacking in original ideas. He has no address, and as a nomad, travels to the farthest corners of the earth. Kohn is the founder of Nomads United -- a movement for young people from a myriad of countries -- which he hopes will offer an alternative to the current way of travelling that tre... posted on Mar 1, 2449 reads

The Speed of Trust
A sought-after speaker and advisor on leadership, ethics, and high performance, Stephen M.R. Covey, former CEO of the Covey Leadership Center, is now exploring trust. In his new book, "The Speed of Trust: The One Thing that Changes Everything," Covey challenges age-old assumptions about trust. Interviewed here, he explains why the notion of trust as a soft, social virtue is a myth and instead demo... posted on Apr 10, 4312 reads

Breakthrough In Blood Types
Blood types, for over a century, have been an important classification that have saved many lives; they have also posed major limitations in blood storage, but that may now be history. A scientific breakthrough that can convert Types A, B, and AB blood into Type O -- the universal donor blood group that can be given to anyone -- could help alleviate blood shortages and reduce the danger of acciden... posted on Apr 13, 2669 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, 3994 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, 3598 reads

Lighting Up Africa -- By Flashlight
At 10 p.m. in a sweltering refugee camp here in western Ethiopia, a group of foreigners was making its way past thatch-roofed huts when a tall, rail-thin man approached a silver-haired American and took hold of his hands.The man, a Sudanese refugee, announced that his wife had just given birth, and the boy would be honored with the visitor’s name. After several awkward translation attempts of â€... posted on May 25, 2101 reads

Songs of Love: Music as Medicine
Seven-year-old Ronald Sterling of New York City loves baseball, hot dogs, doughnuts with sprinkles and Sesame Street. This week, Ronald, who has a serious genetic disorder that affects his immune system, received a special treat. Bob McGrath of Sesame Street along with 15,000 schoolchildren recorded a song all about him at Shea Stadium. The event marked the 12,000th song produced by the Songs of L... posted on May 27, 1764 reads

Designing A Better World
“A billion customers in the world,� Dr. Paul Polak told a crowd of inventors recently, “are waiting for a $2 pair of eyeglasses, a $10 solar lantern and a $100 house.� Recognizing this, the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is honoring inventors dedicated to “the other 90 percent,� particularly the billions of people living on less than $2 a day. For example, one of the simplest and... posted on Jun 14, 2414 reads

Creating an Epidemic of Health
"It is possible to create an epidemic of health," said Jonas Salk. According to writers Tom Munnecke and Heather Wood Ion, "The convergence of the Internet, global communications, and medical technology have created an environment from which dramatic new advances in health care and enhancement may emerge. The contagion for this epidemic is healthy people. In any population, there will be some who ... posted on Jun 26, 1917 reads

The Encyclopedia of Life
Comprehensive, collaborative, ever-growing, and personalized, the Encyclopedia of Life is an ecosystem of websites that makes all key information about life on Earth accessible to anyone, anywhere in the world. Its goal is to create a constantly evolving encyclopedia that lives on the internet, with contributions from scientists and amateurs alike. To transform the science of biology, and inspire ... posted on Jun 17, 3309 reads

The Four Fingered Pianist
Born with only four fingers (two digits on each hand) and no legs beneath her knees, 20 year old Hee-ah Lee is an inspiration to all who know her. Although she began playing the piano at age 7 for therapeutical purposes, today she is a renowned concert pianist. Hannah's mother always saw her daughter as perfect just the way she was, and has been the driving force behind her amazing career. Today,... posted on Jun 22, 4657 reads

From Furniture Rags to Riches
There's always a place to sit, no matter how many people crowd around Rose Tourje's conference table. The huge table is in the middle of a California warehouse -- one that's full of chairs and other office furnishings. Tourje is founder of Asset Network for Education Worldwide, or ANEW, a 2-year-old Los Angeles organization that provides free used office furniture to struggling nonprofit groups. T... posted on Jun 25, 1521 reads

Making Cars Not Garbage
Each week, hundreds of new cars roll out of the Subaru factory in Lafayette, Indiana. But for three years what hasn’t come out is -- the trash. When the garbage truck rolls up to the curb in front of your house each week, it hauls away more trash than is generated by the manufacturing processes at the factory. 100 percent of the waste steel, plastic and other materials coming out of the plant is... posted on Jul 6, 1905 reads

The World's Biggest Concert Ever
Live Earth is a monumental music event taking place on July 7th 2007 (07/07/07). The 24 hour, 7-continent, star-studded show will begin in Sydney, Australia, and then roll around the globe with concerts in Tokyo, Johannesburg, Shanghai, Hamburg, London's Wembley stadium, New York and finally, at 8pm, Rio de Janeiro's Copacabana beach. A special performance at the British Antarctic Survey Station i... posted on Jul 7, 2992 reads

6 Principles For 21st Century Leaders
In his 15+ years of work with organizations and senior executives, Dr. Prasad Kaipa has discovered the following six internal guiding principles in coaching executives to become successful in times of such great change: clarity of intention, awareness of self and what is going on around you, empathy for one another, appreciation of others and for what you received, stretching beyond your own limit... posted on Jul 10, 0 reads

Leprosy And A Mother's Love
On her first night in India, Becky Douglas lay awake thinking about beggars. As she tossed and turned that night, Douglas prayed. "'I'm just a housewife. Tell me what I should do.' And the thought came to me: 'You can at least look at them. You can at least acknowledge that they're suffering.' And the next day I did." Six years later, Douglas is a veteran activist fighting to end leprosy in India.... posted on Aug 1, 3021 reads

First Poet of Technology
R. Buckminster “Bucky� Fuller -- designer, architect, engineer, and mathematician. A charismatic genius, Fuller was a global thinker and futurist before we knew we needed global thinking and future vision. To educator and philosopher Marshall McLuhan, Fuller was "the Leonardo da Vinci of our time." Time called him "the first poet of technology," and the Nobel committee short-listed him for its... posted on Aug 18, 2305 reads

Sewing For Hope In The Favela
Maria Teresa Leal founded Coopa-Roca, a sewing cooperative located in Rocinha, the largest favela (slum) in Rio de Janeiro, in 1981. Leal has a college degree in social science and a license to teach elementary school. It is unusual for a middle-class or wealthy Brazilian to set foot in a favela. But when Leal visited the favela with her housekeeper, who lived there, she saw that many poor women i... posted on Aug 24, 2161 reads

China's Umbrella Samaritans
Thanks to a rainy day and an inspiring series of photos that captured a random act of kindness, residents in Qingdao, China don't need to worry about being caught in the rain without an umbrella. The "Love and Care Umbrella" campaign provides free umbrellas in places like banks, shopping malls, and even buses and taxis. It was started after a series of pictures were posted online, accompanied by a... posted on Aug 29, 2615 reads

Kabul's Heroes of Healing
Orthopedic specialist Najmuddin Helal has just one requirement for prospective recruits at Afghanistan's largest prosthetics workshop in Kabul. Watching staff from technicians to security guards to helpers in the centre's physiotherapy sessions walk past with unsteady gaits, it's easy to spot. They are all disabled, and nearly 80 percent of them are landmine victims. "We employ only disabled," smi... posted on Sep 11, 1908 reads

A Dying Professor's Last Lecture
Professor Randy Pausch of Carnegie Mellon University was about to give a lecture Tuesday afternoon. Before saying a word, he received a standing ovation from 400 students and colleagues. He motioned for them to sit down; "Make me earn it," he joked. Top professors are asked to give hypothetical final talks on the theme: What wisdom would we impart to the world if we knew it was our last chance? It... posted on Sep 24, 8870 reads

Our Emotional Intelligence Online
Emails can come back to haunt us; few among us have mastered this medium, and only slowly are we realizing its dangers. Psychologist John Suler has suggested that several psychological factors can cause online disinhibition: the anonymity and invisibility that the Web provides; the time lag between sending an email message and getting feedback; the exaggerated sense of self from being alone; and t... posted on Oct 6, 2508 reads

Speed Reading People
In the workplace, social settings, and family situations, effective communication is key to productive relationships. But different personality types communicate in different ways, often causing communication breakdowns when opposing styles clash. That's why one company is putting its entire 1,100-person work force through SpeedReading People, a program that teaches techniques for rapidly identify... posted on Nov 9, 3332 reads

Immigrant Gardeners Become Philanthropists
Catalino Tapia came to the United States at age 20 with $6 in his pocket. He worked hard, as a baker and a machine operator, and eventually started his own gardening business. He and his wife bought a home and raised their two sons, putting the eldest through college. Though he never studied beyond sixth grade, Tapia was so inspired to see his son, Noel, graduate from UC Berkeley that he decided t... posted on Oct 21, 2154 reads

Finding Gifts That Don't Harm
It's hard to find gifts that don't do great harm, Dara O'Rourke notes. Flowers -- a billion roses, for example, are imported each year from Colombia and Ecuador which takes up a lot of fossil fuels to air freight to the US and leads to low-paid farm workers. Chocolate -- seventy percent of our cocoa comes from West Africa and unfortunately Ivory Coast is rife with child labor. Jewelery -- major... posted on Oct 25, 2360 reads

A Common Word Between Us & You
An open letter from 138 prominent Muslims –- including imams, ayatollahs, grand muftis, sheikhs, and scholars -– said "the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians," indicating a concern that tensions between the two faiths are in danger of spiraling out of control. The 29-page document, "A Common Word Between Us and You," calls for Muslim-Christian dialogue, prompt... posted on Nov 19, 3267 reads

Green the Ghetto
Sustainability is often the privilege of the already privileged: earth-friendly office towers and hybrid cars don't come cheap. By that measure, the South Bronx, one of the poorest and most polluted areas in the U.S., should be among the last to embrace environmental stewardship. Thanks to Majora Carter, it might be one of the first. Carter is founder of Sustainable South Bronx, a community organi... posted on Nov 20, 1656 reads

What Makes Us Moral?
We're a species that is capable of almost dumbfounding kindness. We nurse one another, romance one another, weep for one another. Ever since science taught us how, we willingly tear the very organs from our bodies and give them to one another. And at the same time, we slaughter one another. If the entire human species were a single individual, that person would long ago have been declared mad. The... posted on Nov 25, 3993 reads

Web Surfing & The Brain
The Internet is not just changing the way people live but altering the way our brains work with a neuroscientist arguing this is an evolutionary change which will put the tech-savvy at the top of the new social order. Gary Small, a neuroscientist who specializes in brain function, has found that Internet searching and text messaging has made brains more adept at filtering information and making sn... posted on Oct 31, 2183 reads

Old Master, Young Genius
Despite Robert Frost’s musing about the possibility of veering off toward "the road not taken," he and other artists are, by their inclinations, pretty much destined to follow one of two major pathways to success, contends David Galenson, Professor in Economics at the University of Chicago. Galenson, whose recent work has used economic data to examine the careers of painters, has expanded his wo... posted on Dec 6, 2577 reads

Live Like Andrew
Just months ago, his son, Andrew, a 14-year old competitive soccer player, was rushed to the hospital with a stomach ache. What Joe McDonough thought must have been appendicitis turned out to be leukemia, and doctors told him it was unlikely that Andrew would make it through the night. Andrew lived on for 166 days in the hospital, and Joe and his family were by his side each step of the way. Now, ... posted on Dec 8, 3243 reads

World's Fastest Literacy Program
Is it possible to help an illiterate rural woman learn to read in a week? According to Victor Lyons, founder of Tara Akshar, it is. Lyons, a 57-year-old Briton, has a background in mental health and IT, and has created techniques that do yield such results -- when the class size is 1 or 2. Interestingly, though, when the class sizes are scaled up, they can still teach the same population how to re... posted on Dec 17, 1688 reads

Peace Jam: An Assembly of Elders and Youth
Ivan Suvanjieff, an artist and musician, saw a teenager in his neighborhood carrying a gun to protect the drugs he and fellow gang members were selling in Denver. He approached the young men and asked why they were not in school. After a long discussion, he learned they knew nothing of American politics and could not name the president of the United States, but each one could tell him exactly what... posted on Dec 21, 1617 reads

The Giver's Gains in Giving Gifts
The holiday season offers a unique opportunity to reflect on what it means to give and receive gifts. A 2005 survey showed that four out of five Americans think the holidays are too materialistic, but recent findings point to an intriguing element of gift giving -- a surprisingly complex and important part of human interaction, helping to define relationships and strengthen bonds with family and f... posted on Dec 22, 2109 reads