Meditation Literally Saves a Life
It was a cool early spring day in the eastern coastal port of Ningbo. 52 year old, Wang Jianxin was on a construction site digging a 5-metre ditch. Without warning, a wall of the ditch collapsed, burying Mr. Wang under a huge pile of earth. "It was suddenly dark and I realised what had happened and found that there was a small air pocket in front of me," Mr. Wang said. That was when he turned to... posted on Jun 1, 7817 reads

A Turtle Who Taught Kindness
"Enlightenment and epiphanies can show up in some pretty strange ways. The Buddha found it under a Boddhi tree, Nelson Mandela in prison and Ram Dass through psychedelics. Little did I know, mine would arrive in the form of a hard-shelled reptile simply trying to cross the road -- a turtle. But this wasn’t just any turtle, this was the world’s most optimistic one. He was tenaciously determine... posted on Jun 2, 4227 reads

Israeli Takes Palestinian Citizenship
World reknowned Israeli pianist, Daniel Barenboim, recently became the first person known to hold both Palestinian and Israeli passports. "It is a great honor to be offered a passport," he said after a Beethoven piano recital in Ramallah, the West Bank city where he has been active for some years in promoting contact between young Arab and Israeli musicians. "I have also accepted it because I be... posted on Jun 8, 1878 reads

Virutally Waterless Washing Machine
British inventors have designed a washing machine that takes eco-friendliness to a new level: it uses just a single cup of water to wash a load of clothes. Instead of water, the Xeros machine uses special plastic chips in each wash, and when that single cup of water is heated, these chips absorb the dirt -- including tricky stuff like coffee and lipstick. Though it's still in prototyping, the inve... posted on Jun 17, 4089 reads

A Dad's Wisdom
"Come on," my dad would say, "let's do some gardening." It wasn't a question, but a demand -– and I wasn't exempt, no matter if I said, "Dad, I'm playing baseball." Or football, soccer, or going sailing. It was a chore. I resented it. My dad's garden was a kaleidoscope of color, including dozens of roses in a bed that needed constant attention. "Roses are the greediest flower of all," dad told m... posted on Jun 15, 4244 reads

Vision Without Eyes: Caroline Casey
She's legally blind and can't see beyond one meter. But Caroline Casey managed to achieve, at age 34, the three dreams she held as a teenager: to become an elephant handler, to work for herself, and to drive a race car at 185 km/h. As Caroline puts it, "You don't need eyes to have a vision!" She went on to start the Aisling Foundation, which looks deeply at disability, its attendant loneliness and... posted on Aug 21, 2405 reads

A Homeless Man's Gift
"On New Year's eve my husband and I stopped in San Francisco for dinner on our way back from a retreat. While eating we felt that we should do something different this year. I took a $20 bill and asked the restaurant owner to give me $5 bills." So begins this heart-warming real-life story of a couple who ventured out on the streets to give and in the process received. ... posted on Jun 25, 5410 reads

The Best Education Money Can't Buy
Berea College, founded 150 years ago to educate freed slaves and "poor white mountaineers," accepts only applicants from low-income families, and it charges no tuition. "You can literally come to Berea with nothing but what you can carry, and graduate debt free," said Joseph P. Bagnoli Jr., the associate provost for enrollment management. "We call it the best education money can't buy."... posted on Jul 25, 4023 reads

A World Without Waste
Kamikatsu may be a small backwater in the wooded hills and rice terraces of south-eastern Japan but it's become a world leader on waste policy. Kamikatsu residents have to compost all their food waste and sort other rubbish into 34 different categories. There are no waste collections from households at all, instead people take full responsibility for everything they throw away. This BBC story sha... posted on Jul 28, 2698 reads

Finding A Lost Sunset
"Around 5:30pm, I was on the bus one day and everybody on the bus was quiet. People had just gotten off from work, students had just finished their last class and everybody was a little tired from a long day. I was just looking outside of the window without any specific thought in my mind. It was the same view I have seen many times before, people hurrying home. In front of me, there was a guy si... posted on Jul 30, 5817 reads

Towards More Tolerance
Today's students are the most racially tolerant generation our nation has ever seen. According to recent studies, they are more likely to have friends, or to date, across racial and ethnic lines than the generations who came before them. On the whole, they believe racism is wrong. But we still have a long way to go. According to federal statistics, one in four students report being targets of raci... posted on Aug 11, 2138 reads

13 Best Energy Ideas
"Investments in energy projects will total $16 trillion in the next two decades. That investment -- along with spending for long-lived buildings, transportation, manufacturing, and public works -- could lock us into climate chaos. Or it could set us on the path toward a sustainable future. How can we make sure that this new infrastructure is climate friendly? For starters, it will have to be both ... posted on Aug 9, 2819 reads

Bank Employees Pay-it-Forward
You think everyone would have something they dislike about their job -- with the notable exception of the people at State Bank and Trust in Fargo, North Dakota. "What do you hate about this company?" Steve Hartman of CBS asked some workers. One said: "I haven't found anything yet." Another: "No, this is a good place to work." And it doesn't stop there. Last Christmas, the bank gave each of the 500... posted on Aug 6, 4794 reads

The Responsibility Project
It all began when the insurance company Liberty Mutual ran a TV commercial about people doing things for strangers. The response was truly overwhelming. Thousands of emails and letters from people all over the country thanking them. Which led the company to think, "If one TV spot can get people thinking and talking about responsibility, imagine what could happen if we went a step further?" So they... posted on Aug 23, 3535 reads

Tell Me Your Story
Dan Gottlieb, the celebrated family therapist and radio show host who has helped thousands of people in difficulty has definitely faced his own challenges. A near fatal accident 29 years ago left him paralyzed chest down -- but it didn't take away his profound connection to others. "It came to me in the middle of the night a couple of weeks ago, four words that could change the world: Tell me your... posted on Sep 10, 3368 reads

An Unexpected Thank You
"You probably don't remember me," she began, "but I have come back to file for Graduation with Distinction" And then she pulled out a piece of paper from her wallet and gave it to me to read. It was my handwriting, but I didn't remember writing it. As the Assistant Director of the Honors Programs at the university, one of my jobs was to review student transcripts to make sure they met requiremen... posted on Oct 6, 4861 reads

Alex's Lemonade Stand
In 2000, a 4 year old cancer patient named Alexandra "Alex" Scott announced a seemingly simple idea -- she was holding a lemonade stand to raise money to help "her doctors" find a cure for kids with cancer. The idea was put into action by Alex and her older brother, Patrick, on their front lawn in July of 2000. For the next four years, despite her deteriorating health, Alex held an annual lemonade... posted on Oct 10, 2564 reads

Choosing Life: The Story of Jim Maclaren
A 300-pound, 6-foot-5 All-American football player, Yale student and aspiring actor Jim MacLaren's life literally ended after he was hit by a 40,000-pound city bus in his early twenties. Pronounced dead at the accident scene, he awoke from a coma eight days later, his left leg missing below the knee. Fast-forward a few years. MacLaren, supported by a prosthetic leg, becomes the top amputee triathl... posted on Oct 20, 4477 reads

The Generosity Gene
The thought of not receiving presents on a birthday, bar or bat mitzvah, or any other gift-getting occasion is hard to accept for most children. So, where would such an idea come from? Teachers, older siblings and parents are the inspiration. Sometimes, it's just another compassionate stranger. For Gwenna Heidkamp, 11, who requested animal shelter supplies in lieu of presents for herself, it was h... posted on Nov 5, 5834 reads

A Table For Three
"My fiancee and I decided today was the day to finally treat ourselves to a nice dinner. It started off as 'our' day' but little did we know that it would turn into much more. I didn't want the whole day to be about yearning to leave the office for the upcoming dinner and I didn't want the dinner to be just another romantic night for two... So, I felt compelled to turn up the notch of giving that ... posted on Nov 7, 5882 reads

A Hospital With A Difference
Anne Lang, head of human resources at Winchester Hospital, pulls out a simple, black box and flips it open. Inside is a small but telling stack of reasons why this 229-bed community hospital is the state's top place to work. At Winchester, Lang and other managers keep index cards listing how employees prefer to be rewarded: in a meeting, in the hospital newsletter, personally, with chocolate or sp... posted on Nov 9, 3143 reads

A Dying Boy's Last Wish
Brenden was the kid who ran the fastest, climbed the highest and dreamed of becoming a marine photographer. Leukemia took away all those things, but not his wish to help others. "He's always thought about others. Never complained about having to go through this, ever," said his mother, Wendy Foster. When Brenden was first diagnosed with leukemia, he and his mom began a new tradition. Every night t... posted on Nov 11, 6779 reads

Finding A Lifeline & A Friend
In 2000, after 31 years of robust health, James Chippendale, a wealthy Dallas business executive who had traveled much of the world, was found to be suffering from a lethal form of leukemia. Mr. Chippendale's doctors told him that his only chance of survival was a bone marrow transplant, and that the likelihood of finding a matching donor seemed bleak. More than 5,000 miles and a world away, Klaus... posted on Nov 13, 4694 reads

Measuring Stick For Managers
In one of its biggest polls, Gallup asked more than one million employees from a broad range of industries a series of questions designed to uncover the answer to the question, "What do talented employees need from their workplace?" The answer -- that talented employees need great managers -- led to the second research effort, which attempted to determine how the best managers find, focus, and kee... posted on Nov 17, 8694 reads

Kids Embrace The Giving Spirit
The very rich and the very famous capture the headlines for their charitable giving. But another group of avid philanthropists is also leaving its mark. Young people from grade school on are engaged as never before in making a direct difference in the world. They are donating via the Internet to favorite projects overseas, creating their own nonprofits to pursue social causes, and becoming grantma... posted on Nov 25, 3723 reads

The Boy With An Incredible Brain
This is an in-depth look at the astonishing mental capabilities of Daniel Tammet, born in Britain, and from a young age able to do extraordinary calculations in his head. Skeptics have thrown a number of challenges at him, for instance testing his ability to recite to 22,500 decimal points the calculation of Pi, as well as learning a language in a week. Tammet, in his gentle unassuming way, has pa... posted on Nov 27, 4254 reads

National Day of Listening
One of the largest oral history projects of its kind, the non-profit, Story Corps, has over the years enabled tens of thousands of everyday people to record the life stories of family and friends, because they believe that everybody's story matters and every life counts. This year, the organization has declared November 28, 2008 the first annual National Day of Listening -- and everyone's invited ... posted on Nov 28, 2279 reads

Clean Energy for the Developing World
Across much of the developing world, the dinner hour comes with a billow of smoke. That's because many of the world's 2 billion people who live without electricity continue to cook with wood, dung, and charcoal. These solid fuels may seem cheap, but their hidden costs are quite high. Burning them sends carbon into the atmosphere, exacerbating global warming. And the indoor air pollution they cause... posted on Dec 12, 2570 reads

Differently Abled
Javed Abidi, affected at birth with a spinal malady and confined to the wheelchair by medical negligence, is working to provide political visibility and economic opportunities for disabled persons. He rejuvenated the Indian chapter of Disabled People's International, a worldwide organization of people with disabilities, and mobilized the emergence of several grassroots groups across the country. S... posted on Dec 14, 1888 reads

Growing Seeds In Silence
"This story I'm about to share with you has been growing in the heart of many people on Cape Ann, where I live. It is the story of Jude, a young deaf man with green thumbs and a big heart who recently opened a plant store in our community called The Silent Seed. I first heard about him from my friend Nana who had noticed the new store during one of her walks and was so inspired by the owner that s... posted on Dec 13, 3982 reads

Cheering for the Other Side
They played the oddest game in high school football history last month down in Grapevine, Texas. It was Grapevine Faith vs. Gainesville State School and everything about it was upside down. For instance, when Gainesville came out to take the field, the Faith fans made a 40-yard spirit line for them to run through. Did you hear that? The other team's fans. More than 200 Faith fans sat on the Gaine... posted on Dec 28, 6846 reads

Bella & Tarra: The Odd Couple
When elephants retire, many head for the Elephant Sanctuary in Hohenwald, Tenn. "Every elephant that comes here searches out someone that she then spends most all of her time with," says sanctuary co-founder Carol Buckley. It's like having a best girlfriend, Buckley says -- "Somebody they can relate to, they have something in common with." But perhaps the closest friends of all are Tarra and Bella... posted on Jan 5, 38018 reads

A Lifetime of House Calls
In the sleepy country town of Yoakum, Texas everyone knows Doc Watson. Over the last 50 years, the tall and lanky family practitioner delivered a good many of the town's residents and doctored most of the others. The night Janet Jaco's little girl had to be rushed to the hospital with a sudden hemorrhage, David Watson walked the four blocks from his house to the Yoakum Community Hospital every hou... posted on Jan 11, 2687 reads

Inviting the World to Dinner
"Every week for the past 30 years, I've hosted a Sunday dinner in my home in Paris. People, including total strangers, call or e-mail to book a spot. I hold the salon in my atelier, which used to be a sculpture studio. The first 50 or 60 people who call may come, and twice that many when the weather is nice and we can overflow into the garden. Every Sunday a different friend prepares a feast. Last... posted on Jan 14, 6776 reads

Are You a Servant Leader?
Servant leadership is one of the most talked about yet least critically examined leadership philosophies. While many people identify with this leadership approach, an equal number are cynical and question whether such expectations of leaders are realistic. The following article provides a fascinating introduction to the concept based on the work of Robert Greenleaf and Larry Spears, and illuminate... posted on Jan 21, 7908 reads

Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior
Brothers Ori Brafman and Rom Brafman followed different paths in life, but they decided to collaborate on a book when they realized that Ori, with his MBA, and Rom, with a Ph.D. in psychology, kept running into the same dynamic puzzle through their work: What makes smart people make irrational decisions? In "Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behavior," the brothers Brafman attempt to explo... posted on Jan 31, 5460 reads

The Big Fun Box
Grant Prather knows what it's like to spend endless days in the sterile environment of a hospital room surrounded by tubes and treatment trays. Prather, 26, was born with cystic fibrosis, a debilitating disease that can progress to a systemic failure of the lungs, liver, pancreas and intestines. At one point, the doctors told his parents to prepare for his funeral. Although there's no cure for CF,... posted on Feb 7, 3767 reads

Financial Literacy for the Masses
For years John Bryant has been telling anyone who will listen about the problems caused by widespread ignorance of finance. In 1992, in the aftermath of the Los Angeles riots, he founded Operation HOPE, a non-profit organization, to give poor people in the worst-hit parts of the city "a hand-up, not a handout" through a mixture of financial education, advice and basic banking. Among other things, ... posted on Feb 9, 4443 reads

Sand Castles in South Africa
In 2007, Cape Town's Design Indaba conference organizers decided to use that concentrated creative energy to address a problem in their own backyard: the thousands of impoverished people living in makeshift shacks in South Africa's townships. Looking to create low-cost houses that could serve as models for the future, they launched the 10x10 Housing Project, which paired 10 leading international a... posted on Feb 12, 5080 reads

Benjamin Zander's Shining Eyes
There are 2 ways to approach this talk: 1. A man talks about classical music 2. A man discusses how to experience life and throws in some Chopin for good measure. Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it -- and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections. ... posted on Feb 15, 4706 reads

The Gift of Creative Confidence
Until about a year ago, David Kelley was on a roll. He had received a National Design Award, been inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, held an endowed chair at the Stanford School of Engineering, and even won the Sir Misha Black Medal for his "distinguished contribution to design education." He also had a loving wife, a daughter to whom he was devoted, and a vast circle of friends t... posted on Feb 28, 5472 reads

Bringing Peace Corps Home
It all started when Mark Rembert and Taylor Stuckert decided to put aside work in the Peace Corps to see what they could do to help serve their own community. The two friends believed the Peace Corps philosophy, of helping communities help themselves. Last fall, Rembert wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper with an idea. "Let's designate Clinton County as the first green-enterprise zone.... posted on Mar 4, 2198 reads

The Gift-Economy House of Kelowna
"Once in a while you are given an incredible opportunity to really make a difference in one family's life," said a group of volunteers in a small Canadian town of Kelowna. Just like a popular reality TV show, their idea was to demolish and then rebuild a new house -- yes, a whole new house! -- for an amazing family of nine in their community. There was only one caveat: it was 100% community funded... posted on Mar 11, 2223 reads

Free Film Screenings in Rural Mexico
"Because the price of a movie ticket is often 20 percent of a family's monthly income, 90 percent of the Mexican population doesn't have access to the movies," 27-year-old Ariel Zylbersztejn says. So he started Cinepop, which projects movies onto inflatable screens and shows them free in public parks. Now reaching upwards of 350,000 people ever year, Mr. Zylbersztejn works with microcredit agenc... posted on Mar 12, 2111 reads

A Young Inventor with Heart
Max Wallack, who's 12, has been dreaming up ideas for new inventions since he was 6 years old. Many of them were inspired by his grandmother and great-grandmother, two important role models in his life. In one corner of the room, Max demonstrates what he calls the Great-Granny Booster Step, a wooden step with a handle, which his great-grandmother used to get into the family's minivan. He also expl... posted on Mar 18, 4609 reads

An Angel in Queens
Every day, homeless, hungry unemployed men gather under the elevated 7 train in Jackson Heights, Queens. At around 9:30 each night, relief comes in the form of Jorge Munoz's white pickup truck, filled with hot food, coffee and hot chocolate. For many, this is their only hot meal of the day; for some, it's the first food they've eaten since last night. For more than four years, Munoz and his fam... posted on Mar 21, 3037 reads

Stir Your World
Write. Play. Draw. Sing You Can Do Something to STIR yourself, your friends and your world. Let it never be said that I was silent when they needed me. That's the spirit of this video, that uses excerpts of speeches from Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Nelson Mandela and more to invite us all to arise, awake and act.... posted on Mar 26, 4149 reads

Aimee Mullins' Twelve Pairs of Legs
A record-breaker at the Paralympic Games in 1996, Aimee Mullins has built a career as a model, actor and activist for women, sports and the next generation of prosthetics. In this video from TED, Mullins talks about her prosthetic legs -- she's got a dozen amazing pairs -- and the superpowers they grant her: speed, beauty, an extra 6 inches of height ... Quite simply, she redefines what the body c... posted on Apr 4, 5599 reads

The Art of Being A Good Neighbor
Eve Birch used to believe in the American dream that meant a job, a mortgage, cable, credit, warranties and success. One year, through a series of unhappy events, it all fell apart, leaving her homeless with her truck and $56. She found an abandoned shack to fix up and call home. As she rebuilt her life, she also began learning the art of being a neighbor from the locals. Read her first-person ... posted on Apr 14, 5682 reads

Scottish Woman Stuns YouTube World
She's a 47 year old woman, with a learning disability. Susan Boyle has never been married, doesn't have a job, and lives with her cat in a tiny cottage of rural Scotland. But that was last week. This week, she's been watched by 20.2 million people online, Twittered by Demi Moore and Ashton Kucher, praised by Patti LuPone, admired by the bloggerati, snapped up by the paparazzi, swarmed by camera... posted on Apr 19, 8041 reads