The Sand Dancer
As the morning tide recedes at a beach near Christchurch, New Zealand, Peter Donnelly arrives to go to work. Peter the Sand Dancer, with a simple stick and a rake (and a not-so-simple gift of vision), paints elaborate works of art in the sand while hundreds watch in awe and appreciation.... posted on Jun 4, 8477 reads

Rescued Dog Pays It Forward
A dog rescued in March at Blewett Pass, has now become a rescue dog. Dozens of people tried to rescue the black Lab this winter after he was seen huddling in the snow at the top of Blewett Pass for a week. Wary of strangers, the dog, named Blewett, accepted food and was finally adopted into a home. On Monday the canine survivor returned the favor and helped rescue another imperiled black Lab. Jay ... posted on Jun 6, 4019 reads

A Hippocratic Oath for Managers
On June 3rd an unusual oath was taken by more than 400 students graduating from Harvard Business School. At an unofficial ceremony the day before they received their MBAs, the students promised they would, among other things, "serve the greater good", "act with the utmost integrity" and guard against "decisions and behaviour that advance my own narrow ambitions, but harm the enterprise and the soc... posted on Jun 8, 4501 reads

Neighbor, Can You Spare A Plum?
A year and a half ago Asiya Wadud began organizing a little neighborhood fruit exchange called Forage Oakland. It works simply. A woman with a yard full of lemon trees, say, can share her bounty in exchange for a paper bag full of someone else's persimmons when they come into season. So far, 200 people have signed up. All over the country, the underground fruit economy is growing. At new Web sites... posted on Jun 10, 2125 reads

An Orchestra Making A Difference
33 years ago, Dr. Jose Antonio Abreu gathered 11 students in a parking garage in Caracas, Venezuela and taught them to play music. Over the last three decades, Dr. Abreu's organization, "El Sistema" or "The System" has grown considerably and now teaches music to 300,000 of Venezuela's poorest children. This inspiring video shows the power of Dr. Abreu's vision and the incredible change that ensemb... posted on Jun 11, 3599 reads

What Mowing the Lawn Can Teach
"As I surveyed the front lawn, I realized, to my surprise, that it really did look better with a diagonal cut. If left to my own devices, I would have mowed the lawn in an ever-decreasing spiral starting with the outside edges. That's the way I'd seen others mow their lawns. It would have been more efficient, perhaps. But it would not have been pleasing to the eye, and it would not have showed the... posted on Jun 18, 3787 reads

15-year-old Social Entrepreneur-Inventor
At the tender age of 9, Javier Fernandez-Han found his calling: inventing to help the world's poor meet their basic needs sustainably. Several years of research and design have led to an innovative solution: The VERSATILE System -- a mashup of new and adapted technology -- is driven by Algae, the little organism that could. For his work, Javier, 15, won the top prize in this year's Invent Your W... posted on Jun 20, 6118 reads

31 Ways to Jumpstart Local Economy
YES Magazine shares a list of 31 ways to jumpstart your local economy, make it with less, share more, and put people and the planet first. Ideas are categorized by 'at home', 'with friends' and 'in your community': Rent out a room in your home; Shorten the supply chain; Dip your toe in the barter economy; Pool funds with a group of friends for home repairs, greening projects, or emergencies; Use p... posted on Jun 17, 5872 reads

Video Games vs. The Aging Brain
In his twenties, Mike Merzenich dreamed of mapping the neurobiology of the soul. "I was interested in the genesis of the self," he says. Four decades later, he has scaled back his ambitions. Now a graying 64, he hopes merely to reverse the toll of aging on the brain and cure schizophrenia. Without surgery or drugs. Merzenich, a neuroscience professor at the University of California at San Francisc... posted on Jun 30, 4713 reads

Trickle-down Eggersnomics
Halfway through our interview, Dave Eggers jumps up from the sofa, flips open his laptop, which is buried under a pile of magazines and newspapers, and retrieves an email from Valentino Achak Deng, the Sudanese refugee whose harrowing experiences during his country's civil war and bizarre entry into the U.S. were chronicled by Eggers in What Is the What. The proceeds from that book, a finalist for... posted on Jul 5, 2246 reads

A Retired Doctor Reaches Out
Three years ago, Everett Atkinson was a medical disaster waiting to happen. The 6-foot-7 homeless man couldn't stand up long without his legs swelling dangerously. His heart was bad, his circulatory system was damaged and his body was giving out after years of alcoholism, drug abuse and neglect. Help came his way, unexpectedly, from a doctor who had bought StreetWise newspapers from Atkinson for y... posted on Jul 8, 3811 reads

When A Phone Is Not Just A Phone
A cellphone is not just for calling, texting and taking pictures anymore. Several startup business ventures spawned by MIT students, sometimes as class projects and sometimes as independent work, are exploring new ways to harness the increasingly ubiquitous devices. They are using phones to help people, especially in developing nations, to raise their incomes, learn to read, get where they're goin... posted on Jul 15, 3914 reads

The Rock Star Who Wouldn't Give Up
The life of a rock star consists of a personal assistant fussing with your hair, a photographer snapping your photo, and a newsman coming for an interview. But Jason Becker is no ordinary rock star. He can no longer speak or move his body, but he remains a brilliant composer with a legion of fans and a new CD. Jason's musical odyssey began when he was just five and got his first guitar. By the tim... posted on Jul 22, 5207 reads

The Death of Why?
The phrase "knowledge is power" is a cliche in our culture. Yet as often as we hear it from others or speak it ourselves, how often have we contemplated the process of acquiring knowledge? Is there a blueprint for obtaining knowledge and wisdom? Are we encouraging children to be intellectually curious or merely teaching them that every question has an instant and obvious answer? In her book, The D... posted on Jul 23, 3171 reads

College Students Build Car for the Blind
A new car developed by undergraduate students at Virginia Tech is so tricked-out with safety features that its blind operators probably won't be on the receiving end of many road-rage rants. The prototype is built on the bones of an ordinary dune buggy, using technology grafted from the university's entry in the "Urban Challenge" contest. "The semi-autonomous vehicle uses a laser range finder, voi... posted on Aug 2, 3467 reads

Hardest Working Mayor of North America
Hazel McCallion is a wonderful example of leadership for many reasons: she has been the mayor of Mississauga, Ontario for 30+ years, re-elected 10 times, and is responsible for a debt-free district while creating a vibrant downtown. She's done all this with great energy and enthusiasm while approaching 90 years old! Watch her interact with others and you'll find her smile to be contagious!... posted on Jul 30, 5797 reads

The Efficiency Trap
"A central pillar of our society is the drive for efficiency. Extracting the most in the shortest period of time is the motivation behind the vast majority of actions in the modern world. As a concept, efficiency is so ingrained in our consciousness that to call it into question can seem counter-intuitive, if not completely ridiculous." So starts this Resurgence Magazine review of 'Slow-tech: Mani... posted on Aug 19, 3093 reads

They Call Him Crutch
Like one in every 1200 children, Bill Shannnon has a bilateral hip deformity -- his hips aren't round, and putting pressure on them creates swelling. Since the age of five, he's been using crutches, and by now, he considers them be an extension of his body. Instead of feeling handicapped, Shannon has turned walking on crutches into an art form! In this video, watch Bill take it to the street, danc... posted on Aug 20, 5080 reads

Summer Night Lights
In 16 parks of Los Angeles, families have started to have fun after dark as crime rates are retreating. It's part of the city's Summer Night Lights program, with the simple idea of lighting up the parks after dark and keeping the youth engaged with wholesome activities like basketball, outdoor movies and a well-lighted field. The bright glow of families and running children seems to naturally re... posted on Aug 22, 2066 reads

Tale of a Girls School in Afghanistan
Women in Afghanistan are held to be lesser beings than men; they are accorded fewer rights and fewer opportunities. But build a school for girls, and the girls will come. They will face down death to come. And their illiterate parents will support them. Their illiterate parents will push them out the door. Read about the incredible story of Afghanistan's Mirwais Mena School of 300 girls.... posted on Aug 23, 5083 reads

An Unusual Movie: Mankind Is No Island
Using images found on street signage in Sydney and New York, Jason van Genderen shot this entire movie on a cell phone! "Mankind is No Island" is a cleverly crafted visual and musical narrative, whose production budget was a whopping $57! Winner of the TropFest NY 2008 award, the world's largest short film festival, this is three and half minute experience that will leave you inspired.... posted on Aug 26, 12230 reads

How Emotions Influence Advice Taking
Research from Wharton and Carnegie Melon has shown that emotions not only influence people's receptiveness to advice, but they do so even when the emotions have no link to the advice or the adviser. At one level, the conclusion that the two researchers -- Maurice Schweitzer and Francesca Gino -- came to, seems obvious. Of course, people's moods affect their frame of mind. Most people have felt str... posted on Aug 28, 4464 reads

True to Yourself
Believing that business should serve the common good is one thing, but combining profit with purpose is no easy trick. Mark Albion, an entrepreneur, ex-Harvard Business School professor and author of "True to Yourself: Leading a Values-Based Business," is confident that it's possible to build a business with a social conscience without sacrificing business acumen and financial reward. To learn how... posted on Aug 31, 3535 reads

A Teenager's Plea for Clean Air
Among her many accomplishments, Otana Jakpor, 15, has managed to break up the monotonous atmosphere of air-quality hearings. It's no easy task. Typically, environmentalists spout acronyms and percentages, while industry lobbyists predict the economy will collapse under new rules. Then the 5-foot-6 African American high school senior steps forward in defense of clean air. Since her first appearance... posted on Sep 6, 2510 reads

You've Been Upgraded
An airplane traveler and companion get an unexpected upgrade to first class. They decide to turn that potential short-term luxury into a simple and powerful act of kindness, and long-term satisfaction...... posted on Feb 5, 4735 reads

One Man's Trash
Among the traditional brick and clapboard structures that line the streets of this sleepy East Texas town, 70 miles north of Houston, a few houses stand out: their roofs are made of license plates, and their windows of crystal platters. They are the creations of Dan Phillips, 64, who has had an astonishingly varied life, working as an intelligence officer in the Army, a college dance instructor, a... posted on Sep 13, 3739 reads

What We Need Is Each Other
There is a new worldwide movement developing, made up of people with a different vision for their local communities. They know that movements are not organizations, institutions or systems. Movements have no CEO, central office, or plan. Instead, they happen when thousands and thousands of people discover together new possibilities for their lives. They have a calling. They are called. And togethe... posted on Sep 9, 4649 reads

This Is Your Brain On Happiness
"Happiness can't be reduced to a few agreeable sensations. Rather, it is a way of being and of experiencing the world -- a profound fulfillment that suffuses every moment and endures despite inevitable setbacks." Matthieu Ricard, often referred to as 'The Happiest Man in the World" takes a deeper look at the complex relationship between our minds and happiness.... posted on Oct 20, 19272 reads

Holocaust 'Children' Meet Their 100-Year-Old Hero
Last week a steam engine pulled into London's Liverpool Street Station. On board: 22 Holocaust survivors who had traveled 700 miles across Europe from Prague in the Czech Republic. And there to meet them on the platform: the man who saved their lives 70 years ago. Back then Sir Nicholas Winton was an ordinary, fun-loving London stockbroker. But when he heard stories from friends in Prague of Jews... posted on Sep 10, 3566 reads

Delivering Furniture, Discovering Destiny
"I've been riding around with this guy for a month and a half and he's my full blooded brother," Randy said shaking his head. It reads like something out of a movie. Two men delivering furniture for the same company, constantly being told by customers how much they look like brothers, until one day they discover the truth: that they are indeed brothers who were raised by different families in adj... posted on Sep 26, 2926 reads

The Philanthropist Autorickshaw-driver
If you liked the Cash Cab for its ability to gift people a truly memorable ride, you'll love Sandeep Bacche's autorickshaw. For the last ten years, Sandeep has been giving free rides to the blind, donating money to an old age home, and raising money to distribute notebooks among slum children at the start of the school year. Right now, he's on a mission to raise funds for the treatment of a friend... posted on Sep 28, 3417 reads

The Leader's Work: Reweaving Relationships
"The scientific search for the basic building blocks of life has revealed a startling fact: there are none. The deeper that physicists peer into the nature of reality, the only thing they find is relationships. Even sub-atomic particles do not exist alone (...) We live in a culture that does not acknowledge this scientific fact. We believe wholeheartedly in the individual and build organization... posted on Oct 7, 6630 reads

Managing with the Brain in Mind
People who feel betrayed or unrecognized at work -- for example, when they are reprimanded, given an assignment that seems unworthy, or told to take a pay cut -- experience it as a neural impulse, as powerful and painful as a physical blow. Most people learn to rationalize or temper their reactions, but they also limit their commitment and engagement. They become purely transactional employees, re... posted on Oct 12, 6682 reads

Prisoners Reach Out to Zen
"I try to focus on the space between two thoughts, because it prevents me from getting lost," says Kenneth Brown, a man who discovered meditation and yoga teachings three months into his sentence. Brown is not alone. While there are no statistics on the number of inmates engaging in meditation practices, such programs are sprouting up across the country. In an environment ripe with violence and... posted on Oct 14, 3246 reads

16 Year Old Headmaster
At 16 years old, Babar Ali must be the youngest headmaster in the world. What started as a role playing game of teacher and student has transformed into daily classes to 800 poor children in his family's backyard. Despite the free schools, these children cannot afford to attend and must supplement their families' income. After his day at the best school in his region of West Bengal, India, Babar c... posted on Oct 15, 4717 reads

Goodness of Crowds
The global economic recession is an opportunity to fuel social change. While financial instinct says philanthropy will suffer in times of economic distress, there's evidence that the challenges we face are no match for collective action. People can achieve similar triumphs. One of the most promising models is "crowdsourcing," through which an organization generates content, or gets work performed,... posted on Jan 2, 2722 reads

Three Secrets To A Happy Workplace
During two years of research for his book, Punching In, Alex Frankel served as a driver's assistant at UPS, poured coffee at a busy Starbucks cafe, folded garments at Gap, rented cars for Enterprise, and sold iPods at an Apple Store. He came away from the experience with 'an appreciation for the roots and benefits of on-the-job happiness.' Frankel found being judged on what he did, rather than how... posted on Oct 28, 7735 reads

Clean Smell Inspire Virtue?
A new study found that people are more likely to give away money and volunteer their time when they're in a clean-smelling room. Researchers conducted two experiments. In the first, the participants were given $12 cash and told that an anonymous partner in the next room expected them to divide it fairly. In practice, the folks in the clean-smelling room returned nearly twice as much money as those... posted on Nov 26, 2369 reads

Dreams of a Mild Mannered Hero
The crowd, straining every muscle to get a brief touch of his robe, was violently thrown back by Indian police as the Dalai Lama passed. It was unlike anything I had experienced before or have since: such extreme fervor of religious devotion for a single man. How, I wondered, could this gentle, mild-mannered monk support such a high level of expectation? "I've never seen anything like this in my l... posted on Mar 5, 3963 reads

The Most Successful Rehab Program in the World
Nestling in the shadow of San Francisco's Bay Bridge the Delancey Street Foundation looks more like an upscale Mediterranean resort than a commune for ex-cons. Inside the place is immaculate. This foundation puts hardened criminals in charge of their own recovery and it doesn't take a penny in grant money from the United States government. Instead the residents support themselves -- and each other... posted on Nov 27, 3564 reads

In Copehagen: A 15-year-old's Call to Action
15-year-old Mohamed Axam Maumoon, a Climate Ambassador from the Maldives, is in Copenhagen this week, asking world leaders to take on climate change. Maldives is one of the countries on the front lines of climate change -- eighty percent of the land lies three feet or less above the waves. The predicted sea level rise caused by global warming could wipe the country off the map. Democracy Now inter... posted on Dec 16, 3144 reads

Mystery Couple Start A Chain Reaction
It played like a scene from a holiday movie -- a mystery couple, who didn't leave their names or numbers, walked into a restaurant, finished their meal and then set-off a chain reaction of generosity that lasted for hours. That's just what employees at the Aramingo Diner in Port Richmond said a man and a woman did during their breakfast shift last Saturday morning. "It was magical. I had tears in ... posted on Dec 15, 9387 reads

Proven Power of Giving
Volunteering in her local natal intensive care unit, Chris Haack doesn't need to see scientific evidence of the benefits of giving. For her, it is just about helping children. She says, "I get more out of it than I probably give." Nevertheless, a recent book documents several studies that show a correlation between giving and health benefits, like lower blood pressure and less depression. Read... posted on Jan 3, 1961 reads

Spontaneous Smiley Face
When we smile, does the whole world smile back at us? Ruth Kaiser, founder of the Spontaneous Smiley Project, says yes. Kaiser, who grew up when the smiley face was just gaining popularity -- the iconic yellow smiley was invented in the 1960s and paired with "have a happy day" in the 70s -- sees smiley faces in everyday life: macaroni salad, playground equipment, tree branches, and sourdough bread... posted on Dec 22, 4201 reads

A Child Poet's Inspiration Lives On
It's standing room only at the Borders bookstore in Bethesda, where Jeni Stepanek is talking about her new book, "Messenger." The book is about her son Mattie, the inspirational poet who died five years ago at 13 after battling a rare form of muscular dystrophy. Because of the same disease, Jeni Stepanek now uses a wheelchair. In his short life, Mattie wrote six books of poetry and a collection of... posted on Dec 24, 3462 reads

The Long Term Effects of Short Term Emotions
"The heat of the moment is a powerful, dangerous thing. We all know this. If we're happy, we may be overly generous. Maybe we leave a big tip, or buy a boat. If we're irritated, we may snap. Maybe we rifle off that nasty e-mail to the boss, or punch someone. And for that fleeting second, we feel great. But the regret-- and the consequences of that decision -- may last years, a whole career, or eve... posted on Jan 11, 7077 reads

A Miracle Cure
Richard Lueker, MD is a gentle giant with huge hands and a large heart. An encounter with a stranger and the unexpected healing of his son more that 35 years ago changed his life and laid the ground for his life's work. Recently, a magazine editor caught him in Berkeley for an insightful interview. ... posted on Jan 1, 4329 reads

Ben Kennedy: Living Frugal, Giving Big
Unless you live in Helena, Montana you're unlikely to have any notion of who Ben Kennedy was. And even if you live in Helena, you may have never knew his name. You might have seen him on the street or in the alleys behind buildings downtown, collecting cans and flattening cardboard boxes for recycling. On Dec. 16, the anniversary date of his birthday, there was a posthumous celebration of Ben Kenn... posted on Jan 14, 5109 reads

A Mideast Bond Stitched of Pain & Healing
He can be impulsive. She has a touch of bossiness. Next-door neighbors for nearly a year, they talk, watch television and explore the world together, wandering into each other's homes without a second thought. She likes his mother's eggplant dish. He likes her father's rice and lamb. Friendship often starts with proximity, but Orel and Marya, both 8, have been thrust together in a way few elsewher... posted on Jan 30, 2548 reads

Back On My Feet: Running For A New Life
Imagine driving to work on the first day of your dream job, seeing a few homeless folks on the street, and giving it all up to help them. Anne Mahlum began "Back on My Feet" to encourage the homeless to join her in running through the streets of Philadelphia. By using running as a means to build confidence and self-esteem, combined with job training resources, Mahlum has given many homeless people... posted on Jan 16, 3738 reads