The Few Who Stayed
Much of what the world remembers about the Rwandan genocide are grim tales of betrayal, of neighbors killing neighbors and the slaughter of innocents. But there are other stories of people who resisted the urge to kill and who risked their lives to save the lives of others. Among them was Carl Wilkens, the only American who refused to be airlifted out of Rwanda with the other Westerners and staye... posted on Dec 24, 1100 reads

Ten Thousand Photographs
Southwest Airlines is a little different than other airlines. Aside from being three times more profitable than all others in North America and aside from keeping all of its employees working when others laid off by the 1,000’s in the aftermath of 9/11, the walls of their head office have more than 10,000 (no, that is not a typo) photographs of employees (at work and at play), their families, th... posted on Mar 24, 1183 reads

Free Culture
The opposite of a copyright is perhaps Lawrence Lessig. Or a "copyleft", as he is often called. He explains that we come from a tradition of "free culture" -- not "free" as in "free beer" but "free" as in "free speech," "free markets," "free trade," "free enterprise," "free will," and "free elections." A free culture supports and protects creators and innovators. The opposite of a free culture ... posted on Apr 7, 1227 reads

Newman's Own
It started off as just an idea, and then just sort of took off! Paul Newman, as sole owner of Newman's Own, donates all his profits and royalties after taxes for educational and charitable purposes. To date, he has given over 150 million dollars to thousands of charities.... posted on Jul 10, 812 reads

In the Prison Cell
While in the Soviet concentration camp -- where 60 million were killed -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn made a vow to trace back his entire life and remember (and undo) any mistakes he had ever made! The consequence? He wrote a three volume, 1900 page book, all in his head. 'The Gulag Archipelago' was published years later, after his release from the camp, and was, in part, responsible for the fall of ... posted on Apr 13, 1081 reads

Like Water For Profit
Rudolph Amenga-Atego won the Goldman Prize for, as Hillary Lindsay puts it, "his struggle to secure safe and affordable drinking water for the people of Ghana," a West African country that subsidizes the cost of water for its poor communities. But, like most developing countries, Ghana owes plenty of money to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and was forced to raise water rates b... posted on Jun 23, 1224 reads

Modern Day Alchemist
A modern day alchemist. That's what they call John Todd, who creates "living systems" that amazingly transform vile wastes into clean water and other useful commodities! His executive assistant: nature. Here's how it works-- when raw sewage is pumped into plastic tanks, 200 plant species drink up nutrients in the sewage as countless bacteria and microbes roots break down pollutants. As the sewa... posted on Apr 29, 1252 reads

Mother of Thirteen
Susan isn’t a saint. She is far from wealthy. Her husband walked out shortly after the second child was adopted. But somehow -- with no steady income or savings, but with tremendous love, compassion, and dedication -- Susan provides a home and family for children so outwardly damaged, their biological parents can’t or won’t care for them. At 53, Susan is the mother of thirteen, including el... posted on May 11, 2303 reads

Latitudes and Attitudes
Changing laws have broken many barriers for people with disabilities when it comes to the travel industry. Collectively, they now spend over $13 billion annually and attract much attention from businesses. Yet, now comes the slower change: attitudes. Recent Harris Poll shows that 58% of Americans are "scared or uneasy" around people with disabilities and 43% actually "fear" interacting with th... posted on Jul 8, 951 reads

Granny D
She is five feet tall and 93 years young. Throughout her life, she has stood up for the changes she wanted to see in the world. And so, it is no surpirse that she recently finished a 3200 mile walk across the United States -- averaging more than 10 miles a day for 14 months -- for campaign finance reform. Throughout her journey, she would make speeches, ask social action group to unite and keep... posted on Jul 14, 910 reads

Cruise Control
Sitting in stationary traffic is, at best, a Zen experience. To the surprise of many, more roads and lanes don't help. Traffic jams are caused by not having enough space between your car and the vehicle in front of you. But now, according to new research in America and Germany, drivers can take back control over the roads with ACC, Adaptive Cruise Control. It's a modified version of traditiona... posted on Jul 15, 1241 reads

Saved by the Web
The Internet has done many things for many people. For Bev Holzrichter, it saved her life. As Bev was helping her horse give birth, the horse kicked her three times, knocking her to the floor. She was alone in the stable and her husband wasn't due for another three days. Fortunately, Bev's web cam was on and people around the world were watching -- people from California to Germany, who called... posted on Jul 20, 1176 reads

Singing Flowers
A Japanese company is coming out with an amplifier that sits in flower pots and sends vibrations up the stems of planets to make their flowers act as speakers! Called the "Flower Speaker Amplifiers", the gadget made by Let's Corp is hidden in a vase or a potted plant and sends music at just the right frequency to vibrate up the stems and then be converted into audible sound by the plant as a whol... posted on Jul 29, 796 reads

An Honest Cabbie
He makes $80 a day as a cab driver in New York. But on July 16, a passenger in Nestor Sulpico's cab left a backpack stuffed with black pearl jewelry worth $70,000! It was his chance to pay off his back rent, go to college and pay his overdue bills. Instead he decided to the "right thing" and returned the pearls to the owner. As it turns out, he regained his Filipino citizenship, the president ... posted on Aug 24, 945 reads

A Mother's Pilgrimage
He's walked 3,750 miles for the last eight years and he figures he has another 12 more years left, if he lives that long. Kailashgiri, also known as Swami, is taking an all-India pilgrimage. On his shoulders rests a wooden bar, balancing two baskets -- one with his meagre belongings and the other with his blind mother! Kailashgiri Brahmachari's mother has been blind from birth and he is now ful... posted on Aug 26, 1461 reads

A Strange Anomaly
Via dei Laghi runs 60 kms south of Rome, at the edge of the Albanian lake and an extinct volcanic crater. Shortly along this uphill road, a strange anomaly occurs. Bottles and other things roll uphill here in a weak upward gradient, without additional driving power. Even heavy cars move up with engine fully switched off. Originally scientists thought it to be some sort of an optical illusion, b... posted on Sep 4, 1301 reads

Lance Armstrong's Newest Challenge
"Myself, my bicycle and my cause." With those words, Lance Armstrong, the greatest cyclist of his generation, announced on Wednesday that he's planning a comeback to competitive bike racing. But the cancer survivor has a greater goal than winning races -- he hopes to use the Livestrong Global Cancer Initiative he's launching to help meet the needs of cancer patients around the world. The campaign,... posted on Sep 30, 1848 reads

Meditation and Arthritis
Dalia Isicoff knows pain. A lifelong sufferer of rheumatoid arthritis, she has had seven hip replacement surgeries. Since leaving the hospital in February following her latest operation, however, she hasn't taken any painkillers. Not because the pain isn't there — it is. But Isicoff, 52, said she has learned to accept the pain, the disease, and herself, thanks to meditation. Researchers at Uni... posted on Sep 16, 1218 reads

Tears and Cheers at Cochrane High
It was a sight that brought tears to the eyes of many of the hundreds that lined the street outside Cochrane High School Sept. 16. The word spread like wildfire through the school during lunchtime. Cochrane High’s 800 students had just completed a 4-km Terry Fox walk and run around the school and had already gone back inside when it became apparent the mini-marathon wasn’t done yet. Fifteen-... posted on Oct 16, 1096 reads

World on Fire
Sarah McLachlan asked what her video budget could buy, and found the answer in the Third World. Instead of spending $150,000 on a music video production for her chart topping single, 'World on Fire', Sarah and a few volunteers put it together for $15 (cost of a mini DV tape) and donated rest of the money to 11 charities in developing countries!... posted on Oct 14, 1302 reads

Just say Yes!
He dropped out of 5th grade. At 16, in the mid 80s, he took off in his car to reach out to the youth. Instead of 'just say no', he was urging youth to just say 'yes' -- yes to living with meaning, purpose, integrity and commitment. One school assembly after another, he would get people fired up about service and engaged in local community work. To date, his efforts have touched more than 625,000... posted on Oct 23, 1712 reads

The Heart
Science is coming to terms with the sages, it seems. The heart, initially just seen as a mere blood pump, is now recognized as the most critical nodal point that connects a communications network of body, mind, emotion, and spirit! As a primary generator of rhythmic patterns in the human body, not only does the human heart possess a greater connection with the brain than any other major organ, i... posted on Nov 17, 1854 reads

Culture Endures Economics
Modernization theorists from Karl Marx to Daniel Bell have argued that economic development brings pervasive cultural changes. But others, from Max Weber to Samuel Huntington, have claimed that cultural values are an enduring and autonomous influence on society. Ronald Inglehart and World Values group tested out the theories, using 75% of the world's population. Their results? Well, economic de... posted on Nov 20, 1421 reads

Kids With Cameras
After her masters in theology at Cambridge, Zana Briski made her second trip to India. This time her destination was the "red light" district of Calcutta. The most stigmatized people in Calcutta's red light district, are not the prostitutes, but their children. In the face of abject poverty, abuse, and despair, these kids have little possibility of escaping their mother's fate or for creating an... posted on Nov 27, 1194 reads

Journey is the Destination
In just 22 years, Dan Eldon led many lives. Best known for his vibrant and provocative journals, he was also a photojournalist, humanitarian, entrepreneur, adventurer, and student of the world. After high school, Dan hitchhiked through South Africa to photograph anti-apartheid rallies. During one of his trips to Malawi, he donated his car to "save the children". Radiating from Dan are the spok... posted on Dec 3, 1813 reads

Running Back To Ayurveda
At age 27, one of NFL's premier running backs, shocked the sports world by announcing his retirement. In place of his annual $5 million paychecks, Ricky Williams went tenting around the world for $7/day. And instead of returning to football, the 1998 Heisman trophy winner is back in school to learn about a 6000 year old science of healing -- Ayurveda! "I realized a while back that I have an inn... posted on Nov 30, 1228 reads

Rough Guide For a Better World
Although global population has risen by two billion in just thirty years and many hundreds of millions remain poor, their numbers are falling. The number of children who die before their fifth birthday, for example, halved between 1960 and 2001. The number of adults who cannot read or write fell from 53% in 1970 to 27 percent in 2001, while today twice as many people now have access to basic san... posted on Dec 2, 1253 reads

Serving Soul Food
Service his style leaves little space for anything else. He doesn't read the newspapers or watch television. He doesn't go out with friends or take vacations. But he can cut a pound of onions in four minutes flat and make 100 different varieties of pickle. Three years ago, at the age of 20, Krishnan noticed a poor man eating his own waste. That sight shook him so deeply that the next week, he qu... posted on Dec 4, 1473 reads

Helping Others Come Alive
Each week, Matt Sanford leads disabled students -- many of whom can't walk and don't have any sensations below their midtorso -- through a series of seated yoga poses, teaching them how to bring awareness into parts of their bodies they had thought were lost to them. He is especially qualified to teach these students, as he himself is a paraplegic. Taking the funds from his lawsuit settlement and ... posted on Dec 17, 1434 reads

Stress and Aging
Scientists have identified the first direct link between stress and aging, a finding that could explain why intense, long-term emotional strain can make people get sick and grow old before their time.... posted on Dec 21, 1543 reads

Living Easy
Greg and his wife were both mainstreamers in the USA, when a chance opportunity gave them a taste of life in the rural wilds. They were bewitched. There was no road or electricity or any of the conveniences we take for granted. Greg was just 30 then, but he set out to create his Walden. Twenty years later, electricity and the Internet came to his homestead. That impelled him to share his experien... posted on Dec 22, 1328 reads

Only Good News
Germany's top-selling newspaper, Bild, printed only good news in its Christmas issue! Dropping its daily diet of stories on crime, corruption and evil wrongdoing, Bild's 12 million subscribers read headlines like "No parking tickets today -- traffic wardens have day off!" and "Merry Christmas! Fantastic severance pay package for Laurenz Meyer" (who in fact, had resigned due to a scandal). On pa... posted on Dec 31, 1323 reads

Caring Knows No Religion
Rahmatullah is a tired man. He and his nephew have just returned to their mosque after burying an unknown Christian man, identifiable by the black thread with the little cross around the neck. They hadn't forgotten to put a makeshift bamboo cross on the burial mound either. In Cuddalore, the second hardest hit Tamil Nadu town in the recent Tsunami, thousands of stranded Hindu and Christian fishe... posted on Jan 1, 1070 reads

Hotel Rwanda
Dapper, meticulous and obsequious, Paul Rusesabagina is perfectly suited to his job as manager of the elegant Hotel Mille Collines in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. Impressed with fine Scotches and adept at flattering his European guests, he would not seem a likely candidate for heroism. Yet in 1994, in the midst of a horrific genocide, in which close to a million people were slaughtered in a... posted on Jan 5, 1272 reads

130,000 And Counting
Christmas is still going strong for 14-year-old Nick Waters. When the boy's church asked what he wanted for Christmas, Nick, who cannot talk and was born with no arms, slowly typed his reply with his feet: Lots of Christmas cards. Ten thousand of them. More than two weeks after Christmas, he has more than 130,000 cards -- and they are still coming.... posted on Jan 13, 1105 reads

Unscathed Buddha Statues
Legs folded, smiling serenely, several Buddha statues of cement and plaster sit unscathed amid collapsed brick walls and other tsunami debris. The window panes of the glass case surrounding the statue shattered, but the foundation held firm in the torrent of water that killed thousands in the area, and nearly 30,000 throughout Sri Lanka.... posted on Jan 22, 1610 reads

The Plastic Cadaver
Through a blend of macabre, art, and science, the Body Worlds exhibit (now showing at the California Science Center in Los Angeles) has attracted 16 million visitors, worldwide. Dr. Gunther von Hagens’ team is displaying some 200 cadavers they have taken through a process he invented called plastination, by which the fat and water in the donated bodies have been replaced with a polymer. The rigi... posted on Feb 4, 1467 reads

MacGyver for the Third World
MacArthur fellow Amy Smith has a stable of oldfangled technologies that she has reconfigured and applied to underdeveloped areas around the world. Her solutions include new grain-processing techniques, alternative cooking fuels and water-quality tests. "A lot of people look at where technology is right now and start from there, instead of looking at the absolute functionality. If you go back to th... posted on Feb 1, 1170 reads

Photographing Hope
On a trip to Africa in 1971, while working as an economist for the World Bank, Sebastião Salgado picked up his wife’s camera and began photographing. Those images prompted him to leave his job and begin a 30-year journey documenting the migrations of the landless and the refugees of war. Now 60 years old, the Brazilian photographer is seeking out the most pristine places on earth in an effort ... posted on Feb 3, 1892 reads

Born into Brothels
In Calcutta’s red light district, over 7,000 women and girls work as prostitutes. Only one group has a lower standing: their children. Zana Briski became involved in the lives of these children in 1998 when she first began photographing prostitutes in Calcutta. Noting the children's fascination with her camera, Zana and began to teach them photography as a way to see the world through their eyes... posted on Feb 9, 1288 reads

Madidi National Park
For over 20 years, Rosa Maria Ruiz has been a one-woman army in the creation and defending of Bolivia’s Madidi National Park, a preserve roughly the size of New Jersey. Through her organization, EcoBolivia, she tirelessly battles lumber companies, land speculators, commercial hunters, oil interest, dam projects, and drug dealers to save the world’s most biologically diverse region from annihil... posted on Feb 10, 1269 reads

The Language of Service
While volunteering at a school for the deaf in Kenya, Kevin Long asked a young girl what she wanted to be when she grew up. She looked at him with a puzzled expression and responded, "But, I'm deaf." Those words changed Kevin's life, and upon returning to Minnesota in 1997 he started Global Deaf Connection with the vision of providing education and leadership skills to deaf students in developing... posted on Feb 17, 851 reads

Noble Housing
What is the secret to motivating the homeless to get off the streets? A University of California Berkeley Professor believes the answer is in homeless housing, shelters, and assistance centers that are well designed, beautiful and convey the qualities of a sanctuary. Providing the homeless noble spaces inspires them to start the journey toward a healthier life and ultimately saves society money. ... posted on Feb 25, 1692 reads

Food Fight
Thanks to the ubiquitousness of junk food, obesity has become one of the top health problems in the US with one in six children considered overweight. Alice Waters, the visionary California chef of Chez Panisse, wants to nip obsesity in the bud. She founded the Edible Schoolyard, which transformed an unused tarmac in a Berkeley middle-school into a garden from which kids can grow and cook food whi... posted on Mar 2, 1138 reads

Goldsworthy
As a chid, Andy Goldsworthy made his first outdoor sculptures in the woods near his childhood home in Scotland. Despite his poor academic performance throughout elementary and high school, and being rejected from his top choice colleges and fine arts schools, Andy stayed true to the artistic voice that shaped his first creations. Today he travels around the world, creating pieces that capture nat... posted on Mar 9, 1405 reads

A Good Night's Sleep
The average adult requires seven to eight hours a sleep a night and anything less could affect mental alertness, impair the immune system, and even increase the risk for diseases like diabetes. Sleep is as important to health as exercise and a healthy diet, yet many people are increasingly sleep deprived.... posted on Apr 1, 1472 reads

This I Believe
In 1951, out of concern that America was being driven by fear, journalist Edward R. Murrow began a series called "This I Believe". For five minutes each day, radio listeners heard essays from famous and everyday Americans as they shared their personal philosophy on what gave them inspiration and hope. In 2005, in an America gripped by the fear of terrorism and the wasteland of rampant materialism,... posted on Apr 6, 1270 reads

The Rural Studio
The Rural Studio is an architecture program started by Samuel Mockbee that sends students to design homes in some of the most poverty-stricken rural backroads of Alabama. Students learn to listen to the needs of the community and develop design solutions with materials and labor from within the community. Their work is elegantly simple, inspiring and reflects the dignity that resides in every hum... posted on Apr 15, 1183 reads

Garden Project
In 1992, Catherine Steed launched The Garden Project by convincing local entrepreneur to donate a ½ acre vacant parcel in San Francisco to set up a garden and begin offering former prison inmates an opportunity to work as gardeners. The results have been tremendous, the garden's organic harvest is sold to top Bay Area grocers and restaurants and the recidivism rate for these ex-inmates is half of... posted on Apr 16, 836 reads

Crystal Tap Water
More than half of all Americans drink bottled water; about a third of the public consumes it regularly. Sales have been fueled by ubiquitous ads picturing towering mountains, pristine glaciers, and crystal-clear springs nestled in untouched forests yielding absolutely pure water. However the supposed purity of bottle water is challenged by many facts including; bottled water standards are far le... posted on Apr 21, 2366 reads