America’s Best-Selling Poet
Madonna has set translations of his verse to music, Donna Karan uses it as background to her fashion shows and Oliver Stone wants to make a movie on his life. Who is he? Jalalludin Rumi, the mystic-poet born in Central Asia almost eight centuries ago! The man most responsible for Rumi's current popularity in the West is Coleman Barks, a retired professor of English whose translations of Rumi’s ... posted on Jun 20, 2430 reads

The World's Most Courteous City
We hear a lot about how common courtesy is a dying art form. Recently Readers Digest conducted a survey to find out if good manners are indeed going out of style. Contrary to popular belief they found civility was alive and well -- in a place where you’d least expect it: New York City! Survey-takers in major cities across 35 countries used three experiments: "door tests" (would anyone hold one o... posted on Jun 27, 1949 reads

Nascan Archaeological Enigma
In the Pampa Colorada (Red Plain) of the Peruvian Desert, there are huge geometric patterns and spirals, animal figures and thousands of perfectly straight lines that go on for kilometers. These drawings are known as the Nazca lines -- one of the world’s most baffling enigmas of archeology. They were most likely drawn by the Nazca Natives approximately 2,000 years ago! Interestingly though, thes... posted on Jul 2, 2388 reads

When Travel Is The Best Medicine
For years Michael McColly had no bed, no furniture and lived out of a suitcase. When he contracted H.I.V. in 1995 doctors warned him against traveling. But McColly decided to heed his inner voice instead. "Travel has become my antidote: the farther I go the more aware I become of what has kept me alive -- my desire to be in and of the world ... If I had listened to the fears of people I know or re... posted on Jul 6, 1893 reads

Legendary Doctor Passes On
Dr. V(enkataswamy), the legendary eye surgeon from South India, who with his own two hands restored the sight of over 100,000 people, passed away late last week. His work resulted in one of the world's most extraordinary models of service delivery. Thirty years ago, at the age of 58, he started an 11-bed eye clinic in an old temple-city, and with his team, turned Aravind Eye Care System into the l... posted on Jul 10, 2065 reads

The Science of TV Addiction
The term "TV addiction" is imprecise and laden with value judgments, but it captures the essence of a very real phenomenon. On average, individuals in the industrialized world devote three hours a day to the pursuit -- fully half of their leisure time, and more than on any single activity save work and sleep. At this rate, someone who lives to 75 would spend nine years in front of the tube! This S... posted on Jul 14, 2235 reads

A Formula for Beauty
Can beauty be measured? 20th century mathematician George David Birkhoff actually made a life quest of exactly that. Though best known for his work on differential equations and dynamics, he also had a keen interest in aesthetics -- the qualities that make a painting, sculpture, song, or poem pleasing to the eye, ear, or mind. Interestingly enough, Birkhoff sought a formula, a mathematical measure... posted on Jul 16, 2520 reads

Turning Water Into Child's Play
The children push the merry-go-round again and again. As they run, a device in the ground beneath them begins to turn. With every rotation of the merry-go-round, water is pumped out of a well, up through a pipe, and into a tank high above the playground. A few feet away from all the fun, students in uniform turn on a tap. Clean, cold drinking water pours out. This is Motshegofadiwa Primary School... posted on Jul 22, 1861 reads

The 'Good' Magazine
Ben Goldhirsh was always broke, even though his father was worth $200 million. But when Bernie Goldhirsh faced brain cancer, he started having his son tag along to all his meetings. One day, Bernie gave $20 million to his employees and made Ben listen to every stunned, grateful voicemail. Then he put most of his son's inheritance in a trust that would pay out in installments over the next few deca... posted on Jul 23, 2336 reads

Dollar a Day Walking Pilgrimage
It isn't easy living on a dollar a day, even when you're trekking through poverty-stricken parts of rural India. Just ask Nipun and Guri Mehta, who held themselves to that budget while taking a walking pilgrimage through the country last year. Six months into their marriage, this Berkeley couple left with a one-way ticket to journey India by foot. Eating wherever food was offered, sleeping wherev... posted on Aug 7, 3227 reads

Homeless World Cup
Imagine a World Cup played only by homeless players. Well, it's happening in Cape Town in less than 2 months! Mel Young, social entrepreneur and co-founder of the Homeless World Cup, says, "It creates a different environment. In Edinburgh last year, homeless people were playing football in the same square in which they'd been begging. They'd been spat at, the police had hassled them -- all we did ... posted on Aug 6, 1743 reads

The Clock of the Long Now
We can often find ourselves living for the moment instead of in it. Prompted by this fast (and getting faster) lifestyle of our world, a handful of key high-tech thinkers from San Francisco recently created the Long Now Foundation to provide a counterpoint to today's "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/better" thinking. Read this essay by a founding member of Long Now on The Ten Thousa... posted on Aug 13, 3169 reads

How Soccer Explains The World
Female soccer fans in Iran set aside the 'hijab' to celebrate the national team's victory halfway across the globe. Brazilian managers swindle American corporations abroad and exploit their own players at home. Undisciplined soccer stars from Nigeria are sold to Ukrainian teams and forced to adapt to chess-like coaching strategies in the dead of winter. Globalization never seems so vivid as when s... posted on Aug 17, 1490 reads

A Village Goes Online
An Indian village has uploaded itself onto the Internet, giving the outside world a glimpse of life in rural India. Visitors to Hansdehar village's website can see the names, jobs and other details of its 1,753 residents, browse photographs of their shops and read detailed specifications about their drainage and electricity facilities.... posted on Aug 19, 2343 reads

Friedman Prize for Liberty
The former prime minister of Estonia, Mart Larr recently won the 2006 Friedman Prize for Liberty. He says, "I had read only one book on economics -- Milton Friedman's Free to Choose. I was so ignorant at the time that I thought that what Friedman wrote about the benefits of privatization, the flat tax and the abolition of all customs rights, was the result of economic reforms that had been put in... posted on Sep 2, 1302 reads

Strongest Dad in the World
Eighty-five times he's pushed the wheelchair of his disabled son, Rick, in marathons. Eight times in addition to pushing the wheelchair for 26.2 miles he's also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming, and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars -- all in the same day. When technology allowed Rick to type, he said: "Dad, when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anym... posted on Sep 6, 2762 reads

Emotionally Sensitive Computers
Emotionally sensitive computers? The aggression of frustrated computer users towards their machines is a growing and increasingly costly problem. To address this unusual situation, scientists at the Fraunhofer Institute are re-examining communication between man and machine, to see if computers can be made to respond to what their users feel. Using devices that track pulse rate, body temperature, ... posted on Sep 17, 1494 reads

The Dangers of Venting Anger
The centuries-old idea that vigorously expressing or 'venting' anger is both helpful and healthy is now being disproved. Recent studies reveal that anger can be more destructive when expressed than when it's suppressed. "Talking out an emotion doesn't reduce it, it rehearses it," says Dr Travis, a social psychologist. Researchers in alignment with her theory say that by venting' rage, you're often... posted on Sep 8, 2454 reads

70 Best-Loved Words
We each have a special relationship to the words we use, and our vocabulary often reflects our way of relating to the world. An intriguing survey conducted by the British Council collected and compiled the top 70 favorite words of the English language. The Council asked more than 7,000 learners in 46 countries what they considered the most beautiful English words. "It's interesting that mother, th... posted on Sep 12, 14928 reads

Why The Brain Needs Breaks
In our fast-paced information-saturated world, what role does down-time really play? Researchers at MIT say that regular breaks in brain activity are key to forming memories. Their fascinating work supports earlier research showing that animals and people learn best when information isn't crammed together. "Perhaps we don't take breaks seriously enough," researcher David Foster says. "Perhaps we'r... posted on Sep 19, 2269 reads

Vitamin C: Cancer Cure?
Is mainstream medical science ignoring an inexpensive, painless, readily available cure for cancer? Mark Levine mulls this loaded question. The government nutrition researcher has published new evidence that suggests vitamin C can work like chemotherapy -- only better. But so far, he hasn't been able to interest cancer experts in conducting the kind of conclusive studies that, one way or the other... posted on Sep 26, 2152 reads

Village Kids Crack Prestigious Exam
A small, derelict training school in one of India's poorest states is helping an amazing number of underprivileged students crack what is arguably one of the world's most competitive exams. Bihar's Ramanujan School of Mathematics is the brainchild of a local maths teacher, Anand Kumar. In its first year, 18 of the school's 30 students cracked the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) en... posted on Sep 28, 2064 reads

Lighting Up the World with LED
While trekking in Nepal in 1997, Dave Irvine-Halliday was struck by the plight of rural villagers having to rely on smelly, dim and dangerous kerosene lanterns to light their homes. Hoping to make a difference, Dr. Irvine-Halliday, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Calgary in Canada, founded the Light Up The World Foundation. The non-profit organization has since helped to... posted on Oct 4, 2113 reads

Serial Hugger Launches Campaign
Juan Mann (pronounced One Man) has started a campaign to spread smiles that has hit international headlines. A music video posted on You Tube shows Juan on the streets of Sydney wearing a sign that says "Free Hugs". While the response from passer-bys was wonderfully varied and heartwarming, the act itself stirred some controversy in the city. "Free Hugs" was banned until a signature petition overr... posted on Oct 2, 2141 reads

Biking a Million Miles for a Cause
Born with an oxygen deficiency to his brain, Freddie Hoffman entered the world with certain challenges most of us will never face. But he went on to overcome his disability one pedal push at a time. Inspired by watching astronauts land on the moon, Hoffman realized at a young age that his limitations would keep him from becoming an astronaut, in the literal sense. So he decided to ride the distanc... posted on Oct 5, 1756 reads

The Spiritual Power of a Mayor
It’s August 1999. Cory Booker is a fed-up, 30-year-old City of Newark (New Jersey, USA) Council member, thwarted at every attempt at much-needed reform. After a particularly violent crime at a particularly drug-ravaged high-rise apartment complex, Booker decides it is time for drastic measures. He buys a tent, pitches it next to the complex and goes on a hunger strike. For 10 days, he fasts and ... posted on Oct 6, 2315 reads

Disabled Cyclist Inspires Ghana
In Ghana, West Africa, babies born with disabilities are routinely poisoned or left to die alone; those who survive face a lifetime of begging on the streets. Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah, however, had a different plan: born with a malformed right leg, he shined shoes for $2 a day and refused to accept his country's superstitious shunning of the disabled. On a bicycle supplied by the California-based Cha... posted on Oct 15, 1527 reads

The Economics of Trust
It takes trust to loan someone money, and today, as that quality deserts the credit markets that depend on it, Debbie Findling finds it alive and well at her corner market. This short audio segment provides a beautiful reflection on people connecting with people, trust, and optimism in the midst of the financial sector's current turmoil.... posted on Oct 9, 3818 reads

Banker to the Poor Wins Nobel Peace Prize
Muhammad Yunus, famously known as the Banker to the Poor, is this year's Nobel Peace Laureate. The Bangladeshi economist and the revolutionary bank he founded will share the prize. The Grameen Bank provides credit to "the poorest of the poor" in rural Bangladesh, without any collateral. It has 6.6 million borrowers, 97 percent of whom are women, and provides services in more than 70,000 villages i... posted on Oct 14, 2059 reads

7-year-old Cancer Patient Pays it Forward
Right before 7-year-old Ben Cote was diagnosed with cancer, his dog Polly began sleeping by his side instead of her usual place in his parents room. When the cancer came back, again it was Polly who picked up on the first signs. Ben lost his right eye to the cancer, and is undergoing chemotherapy, but he still managed to find the energy to raise money for a local animal shelter. In his words, Poll... posted on Oct 21, 2581 reads

A Video Game That Teaches Economics
Students taking Economics 201 at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro don't come to class -- they just log in to the Internet. The entire microeconomics course is a video game that students play online to earn three college credits. Such sophisticated tools for learning could transform the face of education as we know it. "This is a game in which the students are literally immersed in a ... posted on Oct 23, 2207 reads

Two Sides of the Same Border
Last year, three friends came up with a unique idea to portray realities along the US-Mexico border. They gave hundreds of disposable cameras to two groups of people on different 'sides': the undocumented migrants attempting to cross over, and the American minutemen assigned to stop them. The Border Film Project was started by a Rhodes scholar, a filmmaker, and a Wall Street analyst, to bring a hu... posted on Oct 27, 1937 reads

Stumbling On Happiness
Dan Gilbert is a psychology professor at Harvard, and author of Stumbling on Happiness. In his book, Gilbert skillfully and humorously explores the challenges we humans have in understanding what will make us happy. Gilbert maintains that in trying to imagine the future we make some basic and consistent mistakes. Just as memory plays tricks on us when we try to look backward in time, so does imagi... posted on Nov 13, 3386 reads

Creativity in the Daily Commute
Where do people do their most creative thinking? The most popular response: in the car! Last year’s Lemelson-MIT Invention Index survey focused on the locations and conditions that best promote fresh thinking. Program Director Merton Flemings notes, "Many Americans feel they spend half their lives in cars, but we were surprised by just how many people felt their daily commute was conducive to cr... posted on Nov 16, 2664 reads

Kansas City's Secret Santa
For 26 years, a man known only as Secret Santa has roamed the streets every December quietly giving people money. He started with $5 and $10 bills. As his fortune grew, so did the gifts. In recent years, Secret Santa has been handing out $100 bills, sometimes two or three at a time, to people in thrift stores, diners and parking lots. So far, he's anonymously given out about $1.3 million. It's bee... posted on Nov 19, 3652 reads

New York's Free School
One recent day at the Brooklyn Free School, the "schedule" included the following: filming horror movies, chess, debate and making caves for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Not that the students had to go to any of these sessions. At this school, students don't get grades, don't have homework, don't take tests, and don't even have to go to class -- unless they want to. "Free schools," which had th... posted on Nov 25, 1335 reads

Teen Amputee Dances Her Dream
It was just a tiny misstep during a dance class routine. But it was enough to cause Nathalie Calderon’s right foot to spin backward 180 degrees. "My teacher nearly fainted," said Nathalie. But the determined Central Florida girl just asked for a screwdriver — and with a few twists, her foot was again righted. Nathalie, who was born without the lower part of a tibia in her right leg, wears a pr... posted on Nov 28, 1967 reads

Volunteerism Encouraged: a New Business Trend
A new and perhaps counter-intuitive trend in the business world? An increasing number of US companies are actually encouraging employees to volunteer their time. Some have even set up special departments to coordinate volunteer work and are hiring "volunteer coordinators" or "directors of community relations." Employees who choose to take part in such programs are given time off in exchange. Tim R... posted on Dec 6, 2575 reads

A Rocket Scientist's Odyssey of Good
47-year old Jim Fruchterman, a 2006 MacArthur "Genius" is a rocket scientist turned social entrepreneur. His idea: Take existing technology and transform it into products for those with disabilities or other disadvantages. Fructerman’s early work involved the production of a reading machine for the blind using optical character recognition. His non-profit, Benentech, created Bookshare.org -- th... posted on Dec 12, 2037 reads

Time's Person Of The Year: You!
Time Magazine's person of the year 2006 is : You! In acknowledgment of the unprecedented scale of community and collaboration created by web users across the world, Time has made the public recipient of its annual award. Today, countless online initiatives ranging from Wikipedia, and YouTube to MySpace are powerfully bringing together the small contributions of millions of people and making them m... posted on Dec 17, 3159 reads

Gourmet Chef Serves the Needy
Chef Michael Ennes cooks about 500 meals a week for people who come to Broadway Community Inc., a soup kitchen in New York that serves the homeless. Ennes made good on his intentions to do more volunteer work when his high-end restaurant consultancy job vanished on 9/11. On joining the soup kitchen, he transformed it into a gourmet haven for the needy, using some of the finest ingredients availabl... posted on Dec 26, 2229 reads

Making Healthy New Year's Resolutions
January 1 is not only the start of the New Year, but is when many begin their New Year’s Resolutions. Manage stress. Eat healthier. Exercise more. Spend more time with family. Sticking to your resolutions and making changes can be difficult but not impossible. "A new year is a great time to think about the changes we want to make in our lives. Being and staying well is a resolution many people m... posted on Dec 31, 2790 reads

Companies Learn From Social Networks
A new study suggests that losing an employee, at least in a high-tech field, is not necessarily as bad as it seems. "Firms can wind up learning when employees leave their firm, which is contrary to the conventional wisdom -- that firms learn by hiring away employees," says Wharton management professor Lori Rosenkopf. Why? Because, according to Rosenkopf, there are social networks that transcend co... posted on Jan 2, 3155 reads

Children Learn What They Live
"Children Learn What They Live", an unassuming poem that is at once simple and profound, is today something of a child-rearing anthem, posted on refrigerators around the world. Perhaps no one was more surprised by its success than its own author, Dorothy Law Nolte. Nolte was on deadline in 1954 for a newspaper column in California; she wrote the poem in her kitchen, sent it off, and thought no mor... posted on Jan 17, 4438 reads

The World's Indigenous Cultures
In this fascinating video, National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Wade Davis celebrates the extraordinary diversity of the world's indigenous cultures -- many of which are disappearing -- as ancestral land is lost and languages die. (In fact, 50 percent of the world's 6000 languages are no longer taught to children.) Against a backdrop of extraordinary photos and stories that ignite the imagina... posted on Jan 19, 3080 reads

A Surgeon's Reflections on Mortality
Surgeon Pauline Chen maintains that doctors are as much at a loss as the rest of us when it comes to confronting death. Chen writes about "the final exam" -- the emotional challenges posed by terminal illnesses in the medical world. Death, she says, asks unanswerable questions. Perhaps most vexingly, it threatens to crack the hard professional shell of detachment that medical training puts in plac... posted on Jan 21, 2931 reads

49 Up: Ongoing Portraits of Life
"49 Up" is the latest installment in Michael Apted's long-running 'Up' Series. In 1964, Apted began this documentary project with an intriguing concept: he interviewed 14 British children, all age seven, representing diverse classes and backgrounds. Then, at seven year intervals, for the remainder of the century, he would seek out those same 14 people and spend a day catching up with them. Togethe... posted on Jan 31, 2996 reads

Doctor Who Treats Patients -- At Any Cost
By salary standards, Dr. Bob Paeglow may be the least-successful doctor in America. Paeglow takes absolutely no salary and survives mostly on donations. Every penny he makes goes back to his patients in one way or another. Fortunately, Paeglow didn't go into medicine for the money. He went into it -- pretty late in life -- because he kept having a vision of himself in old age that he didn't like: ... posted on Feb 7, 3056 reads

Being The Cause
In his former life as a senior management consultant at a top firm, Sukh Chugh didn't have to pay for his car, gas, apartment, or even food. In his own words, he "had it made". But 9/11 and subsequent events brought him to a dramatic turning point.. Says Chugh, "The question that hit me then was what is most important in life? I vowed that my next action would be to help the people that needed hel... posted on Feb 12, 3078 reads

South Africa's Free Science Texts
Five years ago, South African physicist Mark Horner had just finished giving a talk on wave phenomena at a South African science fair when a group of young students from a poor rural high school came up to him, asking him to proofread the notes they'd taken by hand in a notebook. The scientist was stunned by the comprehensive diligence reflected in the notes, and asked why the students were so att... posted on Feb 24, 3367 reads