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

Mother's Day Proclamation
Mother's Day is not a Hallmark holiday. It was a call to peace by women who lost their sons in the Civil War. Julia Ward Howe rallied support for the first Mother’s Day gathering in Boston in 1870 to proclaim that since men were in the midst of madness and war, women should unite to, "promote the alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement of international questions, and th... posted on May 11, 1348 reads

Harvard Quadriplegic
Ellison was hit by a car and paralyzed from the neck down. Never letting the disability stop her from living out her dreams, and with the love and support of her family, Brooke went on to earn her Master’s degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. ... posted on May 18, 2829 reads

Caterpillar to Butterfly
A growing caterpillar's cells, which later become the butterfly's cells, are distributed at different locations within the body of the caterpillar. Small clusters of tiny cells, called imaginal buds, embody the blueprint of the butterfly. The caterpillar's immune system recognizes these as foreign and tries to destroy them. As the buds arrive faster and begin to link up, the caterpillar's immune ... posted on May 13, 1503 reads

La Vida Robot
When Oscar Vazquez, Chritian Arcega, Lorenzo Santillan, and Luis Aranda, four high school students from the mean streets of West Pheonix, entered their scrappy creation “Stinky” into the underwater robotics competition, they were almost laughed out of the water. However with the will of an underdog, a lot of chutzpah, and the support of two teachers the team beat out M.I.T. to take home first... posted on May 28, 1095 reads

Mozart
The Mozart Effect is the theory that playing classical music to the very young boosts IQ, improves health, strengthens family ties and even produces the occasional child prodigy. Some studies suggest that playing classical music to babies in the womb and in the early years helps build the neural bridges along which thoughts and information travel.... posted on Jun 2, 2758 reads

Art Therapy
Jillian Hernandez's idea for Woman on the Rise! was to use contemporary female artists as therapeutic examples for teenage girls coping with juvenile detention, drug abuse, sexual and physical violence or emotional disorders. The workshop program, now sponsored by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami-Dade County, challenges these troubled girls to understand and practice art to grapple with ide... posted on Jun 3, 1202 reads

The Garbage Lady
Where others see garbage, Albina Ruiz sees opportunity. Twenty years ago, in a poor Peruvian neighborhood only half of the trash produced by its 1.6 million residents was processed by the municipality, causing serious health problems and a littered landscape. Ruiz developed a new model of waste management by helping small business people in the community to take charge of collecting and processing... posted on Jul 5, 1336 reads

Soldier Boy
Emmanuel Jal was only eight when he learnt to fire a gun. By the age of 12 he was fighting on the front line of Sudan's 21-year civil war. He once contemplated cannibalism to survive starvation and drought. Today, Jal is one of Kenya's best-known musicians, singing songs of inspiration and hope in ending Africa’s poverty and war; illnesses Jal knows all to well. ... posted on Jul 29, 1181 reads

Power of Action
Three years after finishing the Boston Marathon in three hours and 19 minutes, Brian Fugere completed another 26-mile race Thursday, but this time, it took seven hours and 48 minutes. That's because the 47-year-old Danville man was pushing an IV pole dripping chemotherapy drugs into his body as he walked around and around the halls of Kaiser Walnut Creek's third-floor cancer ward this week, 144 l... posted on Aug 5, 1143 reads

Unleashing the Genius
Good news, you're a genius! Infact, everyone is born with the capacity to be a genius. That particular talent is located in the right brain but unfortunately schools are unilaterally geared to the left brain, which is rational, linear and selfish, while the right brain is geared towards intuition, love for others, and the absorption of a lot of information. Geniuses are merely people that have fo... posted on Aug 18, 1467 reads

Green Clean
Most everything in your house can be cleaned with baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, and soap. Good news considering most household cleaners contain toxic chemicals that cause health problems, like asthma, and migrate into the bodies of birds, insects, and even newborn babies. ... posted on Aug 19, 1596 reads

Lending People
A public library in the Netherlands has been swamped with queries after unveiling plans to "lend out" living people, including homosexuals, drug addicts, asylum seekers, Gypsies and the physically handicapped. The volunteers will be borrowed by users of the library who can take them to a cafeteria, and ask them any questions they like for up to an hour, in a scheme designed to break down barriers... posted on Aug 31, 1365 reads

Living Machines
It is a rare rest stop attraction, especially in Vermont, a humid greenhouse soon to be filled with orchids and other flora better suited to steamy jungles than snowy mountains. But this exotic enticement is possible here because of the most mundane of rest stop features: flushing toilets. The State of Vermont has installed a “Living Machine” that uses plants and organisms to clean wastewater ... posted on Sep 1, 2418 reads

Community Healing
Craigslist, the famous internet classified, has turned into a place where people are offering help and prayers to the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The 'free' and 'volunteer' sections of the New Orleans page on Craigslist are filling up with postings like 'God bless you all,' 'Free housing in Austin Texas for victims' and 'Will make any long distance calls to help you.'... posted on Sep 2, 1614 reads

Power to the People
Stalin K, is a human rights activist that runs a revolutionary radio program to expose corruption in India's western Gujarat province. He trains semi-literate groups of villagers to be “fearless” reporters and take on the issues and stories that affect them directly. The project has given villagers a voice and power in making their public authorities accountable. ... posted on Sep 16, 1097 reads

Wise Women
Doulas, a Greek work translated as "wise women of birth", are part mentor, part coach, and all-around support for mothers giving birth. Researchers have found that women using doulas had shorter labors and fewer Caesarean sections. While doulas are typically used by upper-middle class mothers-to-be, there is a trend of providing such services to low-income teenagers who usually face the pregnancy ... posted on Sep 27, 1544 reads

Youth Speaks
Half content, half performance, and all art, the modern day Poetry Slam has become a way for youth turn their rage into rhythms and confusion into confidence. Youth Speaks, a non-profit based in San Francisco, has been empowering young poets by providing them a community in which to hone their slam skills through workshops, mentors, and contests to fuel their self-expression. ... posted on Oct 4, 827 reads

Master Farmers
Using stories and pictures, Michael Ableman, author of the new book Fields of Plenty, tells of the most innovative individuals growing food today — master farmers, food artisans, and those using their farms as platforms for social and ecological change. One such farmer is Chicago's Ken Dunn, who leading a movement to bring farming into the urban jungle, turning abandoned lots in poor neighborhoo... posted on Oct 18, 1011 reads

Water Life
A team in Denmark has created the LifeStraw, a $2 invention modeled on the drinking straw with sediment and pathogen filters. The low cost, durability, and ease of use make it a promising technology to the one-sixth of the world's population that has no access to safe drinking water, and are prone to water-borne diseases. ... posted on Oct 20, 1852 reads

Learning from Trees
Nobel Peace Laureate Whagari Maathai's brilliance is her ability to connect economic development, environment protection, and social justice with the simple act of planting a tree. She has managed to create a sustainable fuel, curtail deforestation and erosion, fight for education, campaign for women's rights, and challenge government corruption by mobilizing thousands of poor woman to plant 30 mi... posted on Oct 25, 1052 reads

Rough Seas
In life, it's the rough patches that build your strength and character. They test you. They make you dig deeper, think harder, and risk more. Use them to your advantage. Don't play the victim. Get up and get creative. It's what you do when the going gets tough that defines you.... posted on Oct 31, 1835 reads

Courage
Amidst collapsed building, broken roads, and row upon row of tents inhabited by those displaced by the earthquake, the city of Mazafarabad, Pakistan is showing signs of life. Grocery shops, bakers, call centers, general merchants, and banks are reopening along the city's main bazaar. While residents are still shaken, there is a strong determination to rebuild. As Abdul Hameed, a barber in Muzaffar... posted on Nov 3, 1122 reads

Unreasonable Demand
As Hurricane Rita bore down on Houston, relief agencies readied to move thousands of Katrina survivors from Reliant Area to other far off shelters across the country. Tired of being treated like cattle, evacuees let they voice be heard by demanding vacant houses and apartments in secure inland areas be made available instead. The demand worked, and families were bussed and taxied to their new home... posted on Nov 7, 1133 reads

Wide Eyed Wonder
Physics Laureate Carl Wieman used his Nobel Prize money to fund his passion; making science accessible to all students and help create a science savvy citizenry. The University of Colorado professor that proved one of Einstein's theories, has developed tools and teaching techniques that not only makes science relevant and interesting, but ensures all his students master the concepts. ... posted on Nov 2, 1297 reads

Common Justice
What could a white Republican farmer from rural Michigan possibly have in common with a black liberal inner-city resident of Detroit? Nothing, until Lynn Henning and Rhonda Andrerson met in the halls of the Michagan statehouse, and found that they were both fighting for environmental justice to prevent big companies from dumping toxins into their respective communities. To build a coalition, Lynn ... posted on Nov 8, 1043 reads

Dr. Clown
Each week Hilary Day, aka Dr Doppit, does her ward rounds in a British children's hospital, but instead of a stethoscope and a white coat, she is more likely to be found carrying balloons and magic tricks. Hilary is one of two clown doctors on staff, spreading laughter and speeding recoveries of their pint size patients.... posted on Nov 9, 1209 reads

Biomimicry
Biomimicry is the idea that nature, has already solved many of the problems we are grappling with, with far less energy, and no waste. It's one of the most exciting fields in engineering, and is teaching us how to harness energy like a leaf, grow food like a prairie, build ceramics like an abalone, self-medicate like a chimp, compute like a cell, and run a business like a hickory forest. ... posted on Nov 11, 1417 reads

Near Death
Dutch cardiologist Pim van Lommel has published a monumental study of near-death experiences in The Lancet— one of the leading journals of medical research. Never before had such a systematic study been conducted into the experiences of people who were declared dead and then came back to life – and it raises fascinating questions about life after death, DNA, the collective unconscious, and eve... posted on Nov 28, 2875 reads

The Heart of Music
Six years ago Lennar Acosta, 23, was making his ninth visit to a Caracas correctional facility after a history of heavy drug use and armed robbery. No school would take him, except El Sistema, Venezuela’s national system of youth and children’s orchestra, which has over 30 years transformed the lives of half-a-million kids like Lennar. Today, Lennar earns his living playing the clarinet, and a... posted on Dec 1, 1233 reads

What Your Musical Taste Says About You
Musical tastes and personality type are closely related, according to a study of more than 36,000 people from around the world.The research, is said to be the largest such study ever undertaken. It suggested classical music fans were shy, while heavy metal aficionados were gentle and at ease with themselves.What does your musical taste say about you? "We have always suspected a link between music ... posted on Oct 19, 5937 reads

Nonprofit Pharmaceutical
Of the more than 100 billion dollars spent each year on health research and development, only ten percent goes into treating ninety percent of the world's health problems, found mostly in the developing world. Dr. Victoria Hale saw that part of the reason was that the pharmaceutical industry had traded its aim of developing affordable drugs to those in need, to a profit-seeking one. So, she found... posted on Dec 15, 3069 reads

Democracy
One-half of the world's population lives in countries that have multi-party electoral systems that respect basic human rights; that's the highest level in history. More than 80 countries in Central Europe, East Asia, Latin America and parts of sub-Saharan Africa have all notched gains in political and civil rights and more than 30 military dictatorships have been replaced by civilian governments.... posted on Dec 28, 1135 reads

Good News Garage
"Most needy people are poor because they don't have jobs," car mechanic Hal Colston declares. And they are often jobless, because they can't to get work. In 1996, a single mom of two children approached Hal in tears; she had just bought a car for $500, her brakes started failing on the way home, and the previous owner refused to cooperate. Not only did Hal fix that car, but he gave birth to Goo... posted on Jan 2, 1850 reads

To Be of Use
As a pioneer in the sustainable business movement -- assistant to Cesar Chavez, founder of Briarpatch Natural Food, Smith & Hawken, Organic Boquet (first organic floral company), and Organic To go -- Dave Smith is on a mission to inspire people everywhere to reconcile compassionate values with capitalism. In his book, "To Be of Use", he shares stories of how business can be a force for radical ch... posted on Jan 10, 6080 reads

Green Clean
MIT scientist Isaac Berzin envisions algae, the tiny single-celled plant, transforming the world's energy needs and cutting global warming. Bolted onto smokestacks, the rows of fat clear tube filled with a green algae soup absorb 40% of CO2 and 86% of nitrous oxide emissions. After the CO2 is soaked up like a sponge, the algae is harvested daily and turned into a biodiesel for automobiles. ... posted on Jan 22, 1450 reads

Immortality
How's this for an offer you can't refuse: how would you like to live say, 400 or 500 years, or even more and all of them in perfect health? It's both a Utopian and a nightmare scenario but there are those who say it is well within the realm of possibility. Though we live longer and healthier lives than our grandparents, 100 is more or less the outer limit because, catastrophic disease aside, we j... posted on Jan 13, 1921 reads

MLK Day
Reflect and discuss the ideas and vision of the Civil Rights Movement, and their importance in our time. ... posted on Jan 16, 1342 reads

Cooperation
Is cooperation human nature? Political science professor Robert Axelford explored this idea and found that the relationship between competitors that are placed in a recurring long-term competitive environment nearly always evolves into cooperation. In one famous example he cites from the trench warfare of World War I, troops of one side would shell the other side with mortars, but would often do ... posted on Jan 17, 1720 reads

Mirror Neurons
It's billed as the most important neural discovery of the last decade: mirror neurons. The human brain has multiple mirror neuron systems that specialize in carrying out and understanding not just the actions of others but their intentions, the social meaning of their behavior and their emotions. When a person watches someone else perform an action -- say a kick -- mirror neurons in the brain si... posted on Jan 18, 2009 reads

The Long Bet
Wanna bet that by 2050 we will receive intelligent signals from outside our solar system? How about that by the year 2020, tickets for space travel - at least to Moon, will be available over the counter? Designed to foster long-term thinking, and as a forum for focussed discussion, Long Bets is a website that you can make long-term socially significant predictions and place wagers on them. The w... posted on Jan 21, 1296 reads