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, 1909 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

A Reflection on Science and Wonder
When we look at the wealth of opportunities hovering on the horizon of science -- genomic sequencing, personalized medicine, nanoscience, quantum computing, space technology -- we realize how crucial it is. But the reason science really matters runs deeper still. Science is a way of life. Science is a perspective. Science is the process that takes us from confusion to understanding in a manner tha... posted on Aug 24, 3654 reads

A Lesson in Thanks
Psychologist Jeffrey Froh infused middle-school classes with a small dose of gratitude -- and found that it made students feel more connected to their friends, family, and their school. They followed 221 middle school students for five weeks. Students in the gratitude condition indeed found that they had many blessings to count. While some of these were a bit idiosyncratic (e.g., being thankful fo... posted on Jan 14, 2534 reads

A New Way of Listening
Deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie's music challenges the listener to ask where music comes from: Is it more than simply a translation from score to instrument to audience? How can a musician who has almost no hearing play with such sensitivity and compassion? The Grammy-winning percussionist and composer became almost completely deaf by the age of 12, but her hearing loss brought her a deeper unde... posted on Jan 20, 3489 reads

The Geography of Bliss
Journalist Eric Weiner deserves points for devising a new way to address the perennial question of what makes people happy and why. The central premise of his odyssey memoir is that the author, a professed grouch ("My last name is pronounced ‘whiner,’ and I do my best to live up to the name"), will travel to the world’s happier places to explore to what degree an individual's happiness is in... posted on Jan 21, 3501 reads

11-Year-Old Law-Changer
Restaurants and hotels normally throw out enormous amounts of leftover foods from their patrons. It's simply thrown away, instead of giving it away, for fear of a lawsuit from someone getting ill. Jack Davis, age 11, was at a family buffet when he was explained by a manager that whatever was not eaten would be thrown away. The sixth-grader found this unacceptable and took matters in his own hand... posted on Jan 24, 2912 reads

For the Homeless From the Heart
For Toni Dukes, love isn't delivered with Hallmark cards or red roses. It's given in a Ziploc bag stuffed with a hat, gloves and a packet of Kleenex, and the words "From the Heart" written in black marker on the outside. The 39-year-old single mom works the swing shift as a 911 dispatcher. But Dukes hasn't been able to call it a day after her high-stress shifts. On her route to work she couldn't h... posted on Feb 16, 3454 reads

Stop! Calm Down! Think!
"OK, everyone! I need you to sit quietly! Let's all sit crisscross applesauce!" says their guidance counselor, Jennifer Hegerty. Gradually the children settle down and begin to focus on Hergerty's lesson for the day -- the second lesson in the Second Step Violence Prevention curriculum. For the next 20 weeks, these children learn to use relaxation exercises, effective communication techniques, and... posted on Apr 9, 5603 reads

Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature
Before there was an environmental movement, there was one brave woman and her very brave book. "There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings ... Then a strange blight crept over the area and everything began to change ... There was a strange stillness ... On the mornings that had once throbbed with the dawn chorus of scores of bird vo... posted on Mar 13, 2253 reads

Making Friends With Time
"Time pressure can have powerful effects on the body. Our brain regards clocks, deadlines, and interrupted schedules as a threat, and calls up the "fight or flight" stress response. The incessant struggle to do more and more in less and less time also makes us more likely to respond with toxic anger to anyone or anything slowing us down. Trying to control time by strict scheduling is like trying t... posted on Mar 17, 7445 reads

A Miraculous Turn
Doctors have no explanation for why Zack Dunlap is alive. He had been riding his souped-up ATV with some friends on that fateful Saturday, less than a week before Thanksgiving. They had participated in a parade that morning, popping wheelies and impressing the crowd, and then they had gone out riding on their machines. At one point in his ride, things went awry and he flipped his bike and smashed... posted on Apr 5, 3905 reads

Joe's Journey
When a truck slammed into Joe Damon's car in 2006, the 48-year old husband, father, businessman and athlete suffered a devastating brain injury that left him in a coma for five weeks. "Joe's Journey" tells the story of everything that was lost that day, but more importantly, of all that survived. Through powerful and deeply personal encounters with Joe, his wife, children and close friends, this f... posted on Mar 31, 3403 reads

Capturing Final, Precious Moments
In the muted light of the maternity ward, photographer Sandy Puc' works steadily, composing portraits of infant David. "If you want to put your lips right on the top of his head?" she asks David's father. "There. That's beautiful." There is always a final kiss to capture. David was stillborn early this morning. His parents, Gina and Rob Harris, will take home his plastic hospital bracelet and his ... posted on Apr 1, 3650 reads

Does Counting Your Blessings Really Help?
While many would agree that "counting your blessings" is a worthwhile practice, there hasn't been much experimental research on whether gratitude really has a positive impact on our lives. Several studies have found that gratitude correlates with positive emotions such as happiness, pride, and hope, but experimental work -- showing that gratitude causes these things -- is scarcer. Robert Emmons an... posted on Apr 21, 3477 reads

Measuring Success With A Smile
"While traveling for my documentary project,"Hear Us", I pulled up to a busy Phoenix intersection and stopped at a red light. An obviously homeless man began crossing in front of our paused vehicles. I was first in line and was completely preoccupied with the reality that I couldn't find my 1:00 appointment at the nearby (or so I thought) shelter. He turned toward me, pointing to the corners of hi... posted on Aug 8, 3962 reads

The Paralyzed Yoga Instructor
Matthew Sanford once led an ordinary life in a loving family. But at age thirteen, he was involved in a devastating car crash that took the lives of his father and sister, and left him paralyzed from the chest down. Advice from his doctors to "forget his lower body," however, was what really crippled Matthew, leading him to ignore his once-athletic body, until he discovered yoga at age twenty-five... posted on Jun 13, 5003 reads

The Girl Who Silenced The World
Born and raised in Vancouver, Severn Suzuki has been working on environmental and social justice issues since kindergarten. At age 9, she and some friends started the Environmental Children's Organization (ECO), a small group of children committed to learning and teaching other kids about environmental issues. They traveled to 1992's UN Earth Summit, where 12 year-old Severn gave this powerful spe... posted on Jun 14, 4860 reads

The Hands On Network
Twenty-one years ago, Michelle Nunn was a recent University of Virginia graduate and a fledgling community activist. Motivated by her life-long zest for civic involvement and a sense of personal responsibility, she co-founded a small organization called Hands On Atlanta. Today that has grown into the largest volunteer organization in the country, and Nunn is at the helm of it all. "We have 370 vol... posted on Jul 6, 2268 reads

A Remarkable Woman's Record-Breaking Journey
Hilary Lister launched a solo sail around the British Isle, expecting that it will take three to four months to sail the 1,600 miles. No easy task for anyone in general, but even more so considering that she is a quadriplegic. 36-year-old Lister has a progressive and painful neurological disease called reflex sympathetic dystrophy and is able to move only her head, eyes and mouth. To sail the boat... posted on Jul 13, 2611 reads

Isabel Allende on Giving and Loss
"I have lived with passion and in a hurry, trying to accomplish too many things. I never had time to think about my beliefs until my 28-year-old daughter Paula fell ill. She was in a coma for a year and I took care of her at home, until she died in my arms in December of 1992." Celebrated novelist Isabel Allende shares further on NPR's "This I Believe," reflecting on giving and loss, on her own jo... posted on Jul 22, 4664 reads

Art At 35,000 Feet
It didn't take long for Jewel Van Valin's cross-country art project to take off. Passengers flying in the difficult days after 9/11 were anxious and irritable because of tightened security and fewer flight amenities. The Delta Air Lines flight attendant wanted to do something about it. So Van Valin reached back to an earlier time -- her kindergarten years -- and pulled out the Crayolas." I just pu... posted on Jul 27, 1805 reads

The Green Housing Boom
"How do you inspire a revolution?" It's a question that obsesses Matthew Berman. A 36-year-old New York architect with short hair and a starched blue shirt, he doesn't, frankly, look like much of a rebel. "There's this grumbling," he continues. "It grows, it brings things to the center, and then you get this explosion." Berman and his partner, Andrew Kotchen, 35, boast high-profile clients such as... posted on Aug 15, 3892 reads

Are We Feeling Too Good About Ourselves?
Self-esteem has become a tenet of the psychological canon and is so ingrained in popular wisdom and parenting techniques as to seem like natural law: The higher a person's self-esteem, the happier, more productive, and more mentally healthy that person will be. Psychologist Jean M. Twenge cites a fascinating statistic. In the 1950s, just 12 percent of teens age fourteen to sixteen agreed with the ... posted on Aug 10, 3836 reads

Longevity Lessons From Around the World
If you are looking for a Fountain of Youth, forget pills and diet supplements. Adventurer Dan Buettner has visited four spots on the globe where people live into their 90s and 100s and outlines how they add years of good life in his new book, "The Blue Zones." Buettner identifies four hot spots of longevity: the mountainous Barbagia region of Sardinia, an island off the coast of Italy; the Japanes... posted on Sep 11, 6011 reads

4800 Books and 10 Legs
In a ritual repeated nearly every weekend for the past decade here in Colombia's war-weary Caribbean hinterland, Luis Soriano gathered his two donkeys, Alfa and Beto, in front of his home on a recent Saturday afternoon. Sweating already under the unforgiving sun, he strapped pouches with the word "Biblioburro" painted in blue letters to the donkeys' backs and loaded them with an eclectic cargo of ... posted on Oct 29, 3026 reads

The Church of Stop Shopping
The Church of Stop Shopping is a project that has expanded from a one-man performance artist preaching against consumerism on the sidewalks of Times Square to a 35-person choir and 7-person band with dozens of original songs, a critically acclaimed stage show, a major motion picture and multiple media platforms. The Church is committed to educating the public about the consequences of unsustainabl... posted on Nov 14, 2626 reads

San Diego's Highway Helper
Thomas Weller has two gardens - one in his backyard, where he grows morning glories and other plants - and one on the highway, where he sows the seeds of kindness. "There's too much anger and distrust and fear out there. I'd like the world to be a better place," Weller said. To that end, Weller patrols the highways of San Diego in his Ghostbuster-inspired rescue vehicle - rescuing people like Mr. ... posted on Dec 4, 3293 reads

What Makes Us Happy?
In the last few years, psychologists and researchers have been digging up hard data on a question previously left to philosophers: What makes us happy? Researchers like the father-son team Ed Diener and Robert Biswas-Diener, Stanford psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky, and ethicist Stephen Post have studied people all over the world to find out how things like money, attitude, culture, memory, health,... posted on Dec 8, 23324 reads

The Art of Receiving
Receiving isn't easy. If it were, more of us would do it with grace and gratitude. Is there a way to change that? Can we learn to receive so we can be nourished and empowered? These are crucial questions, not just because the holiday season is a time when giving and receiving are part of our daily experience. The ability to receive is, in fact, essential to physical health, psychological balance a... posted on Dec 6, 3407 reads

The Unbelievable Story of Cliff Young
Every year, Australia hosts a 543.7-mile endurance race from Sydney to Melbourne, considered among the world's most grueling ultra-marathons. It was normally only attempted by world-class athletes typically less than 30 years old, but in 1983, a 61-year-old named Cliff Young showed up in overalls and work boots. To everyone's shock, Cliff wasn't a spectator. He picked up his race number and joined... posted on Dec 22, 15577 reads