Invest in Life
Oral Lee Brown made a promise to a group of 23 East Oakland, Calif. first-graders in 1987, “Stay in school, and I’ll send you to college.” The realtor began saving immediately, putting $10,000 per year in a fund from her $40,000 salary. Over the years she tracked their progress, mentored them, took them on recruiting trips to colleges, attended their high school graduations, and sent 19 of t... posted on Apr 14, 1909 reads

The Hunger Project
Despite a food distribution system that can put a can of soda within arms reach of every person, one-fifth of the world's population suffers from chronic hunger and 41,000 of them, mostly children, die each day. Instead of looking to just feed the one-billion hungry mouths with aid, one NGO views those one-billion mouths as hard-working creative people that are an instrumental part of the solution... posted on Apr 22, 1171 reads

Universe
The Hubble telescope celebrates its 15th birthday this week, and in that time it has provided scientists breakthrough images on everything from the birth of stars, to the age and expansion rate of the universe, to the presence of dark matter, to comet Shoemaker-Levy 9's impact with Jupiter. Take a virtual journey thru Hubble's top 10 discoveries. ... posted on Apr 29, 2766 reads

The Refugee
After Saigon fell 30 years ago, a 6-year-old Tran Nguyen Toan became a refugee as he left Vietnam in his pajamas aboard an overcrowded flotilla of 10 boats, 9 of which sank in the storms they encountered over the two week journey. With the help of strangers and the United Nations, Toan went on to became a doctor that never forgot his refugee roots, devoting himself to improving childbirth practic... posted on Apr 30, 1196 reads

Women Build
Women Build is a partnership of Habitat for Humanity and the Lowe's chain of home improvement stores that has built 650 home so far. This year’s partnership will kick-off around Mother’s Day in 15 US cities and will give women a chance to help needy families. ... posted on May 6, 802 reads

The Nature Challenge
When Dr. David Suzuki, a noted Canadian scientist, broadcaster and environmentalist, speaks to an audience on the importance of protecting nature, the question most often asked is, “What can I do?” Based on his foundation’s scientific research, they came up with The Nature Challenge, outlining the ten most effective ways to conserve nature and improve our quality of life. ... posted on May 19, 1631 reads

Green Business
General Electric's CEO Jeffrey Immelt has launched Ecomagination in an effort to invest in green technologies that will clean GE's own processes and capture business from the increasing demand for green technologies from developed countries. Is this green washing? Perhaps, however if this green effort is legitimate it could be a catalyst for more companies and perhaps the US government to take sus... posted on Jun 1, 1301 reads

10,000 Year Clock
The Long Now Foundation was established in 01996* to develop the Clock and "Library" projects, as well as to become the seed of a very long term cultural institution. The Long Now Foundation hopes to provide counterpoint to todays "faster/cheaper" mind set and promote "slower/better" thinking. The hope is that by building a 10,000 year clock, it will inspire people would build institutions with si... posted on Jun 7, 1320 reads

The Illiterate Surgeon
Fistula is a horrible condition that afflicts many African woman with uteruses that have been badly damaged by a trauma in the birthing process, often leaving them shunned by their husbands and communities. Mamitu Gash is one of the leading fistula surgeons in the world, having treated thousands of patients and trained hundreds of doctors. She is also illiterate. ... posted on Jun 15, 1535 reads

Educational Entrepreneur
Five years ago, Teddy Blecher started a university with no resources other than sending out letters of invitation from his fax machine to 350 schools asking the brightest and poorest students to apply to the new university – promising them the “best business education in Africa”. After beginning with a borrowed building, a handful of business collogues for teachers, and photocopies of keyboa... posted on Jun 21, 1306 reads

Friendship among Women
Up until recently is was generally believed that when people experienced stress, it triggered a hormonal cascade that sent the body into a flight or fight response. However a UCLA study now suggests that women respond to stress differently than men, with a calming release of the hormone oxytocin that causes them to make and maintain friendships with other women. Oxytocin release in the brain has ... posted on Jun 23, 2354 reads

Kickstart
Dedicated to the proposition that low-tech hardware could transform the lives of Kenya's farmers by making their work profitable, Martin Fisher and Nick Moon developed a revolutionary small pressure pump for irrigation called the MoneyMaker. The invention allows subsistence farmers to irrigate significantly more land, and begin growing cash crops. There are now more than 24,000 pumps in operation,... posted on Jul 2, 1235 reads

Sompop
Sompop Jantraka's life is threatened everyday by the power, big money and corruption that rules Thailand's sex industry. Despite the risks, he works tirelessly to save young women from being sold by their families to the violence of the prostitution by providing these girls an education, job training & employment assistance. One of his organization, Daughters Education Program has given over 1,000... posted on Jul 9, 1022 reads

The Support Economy
Shoshana Zuboff, a professor at Harvard Business School, argues that consumers today want more than cheap goods and derisory customer service, instead, they are crying out for organisations that can be trusted to act on their behalf and help them to navigate the complexities of modern life. Dubbed the support economy, these organizations could be trusted to act as personal assistants by assuming r... posted on Jul 15, 1332 reads

E-Aid
The bureaucracy of traditional aid organizations like the USAID has lead to the funding of ineffective projects because there is little feedback from recipients. Tired of failed projects, Mari Kuraishi and Dennis Whittle, former World Bank strategists, created an “E-Bay” style foreign aid marketplace in which individual donors can chose projects to fund directly. The website also tracks the pr... posted on Jul 20, 1732 reads

The Great Communicators
Can cell phones empower women in poverty? Iqbal Quadir, founder of Grameen Phone in Bangladesh, has seen that giving women connectivity leads to dependability, which then leads to specialization and then productivity. Not only have Grameen’s phone ladies provided their villages necessary communication for economic development and services, they have also balanced their villages’ traditional pa... posted on Jul 22, 1424 reads

Collective Good
As of 2004, more than 600 million cell phones were waiting to be recycled. These phones contain toxic elements like Lead, Mercury, Cadmium, and Arsenic which will pollue air and water supplies if they enter the waste stream.... posted on Aug 2, 691 reads

Imagination
In an effort to reduce student's fear of failure and encourage them to take musical risks, Music conservatory professor Benjamin Zander, decided to give them, in advance, the grade the wanted most, A's. The one condition is that two weeks into the school year students must write a letter, in the past tense and dated May of next year, to Mr. Zander describing what they have learned, what type of p... posted on Aug 10, 1242 reads

DVDs to ashes, CDs to dust
In the future, you may be able to dump crummy movies and second rate music into the compost heap. The Japanese company Pioneer is developing biodegradable DVDs and CDs. The discs are made of a starch derived from corn. When the new technology goes into mass production, it is expected to be cheaper than the current plastic discs.... posted on Aug 16, 1299 reads

US Dream Academy
Twenty years ago, when a friend brought him to perform at a prison, singer Wintley Phipps was alarmed by the number of African American inmates. When he realized that nearly 70% of children of prisoners will become prisoners themselves and 80% of prisoners were high school drop-outs, he knew had to do something. So with the motto, "a child with a dream is a child with a future" he created the US D... posted on Aug 20, 992 reads

Non-Toxic Technology
What can clean up oil spills, toxic waste, nerve gas and harmful bacteria with nearly zero energy consumption and at virtually no cost? Paul Stamets is a pioneering US researcher that has discovered the solutions that the lowly mushroom can offer in cleaning toxins out of our environment. ... posted on Sep 6, 2697 reads

Natural Painkiller
Instead of popping pills to cure your next body ache, try olive oil instead. The active ingredient - found in greater concentrations in fresher olives - is called oleocanthal and inhibits the activity of enzymes involved in inflammation in the same way as ibuprofen and other anti-inflammatory drugs.... posted on Sep 7, 1360 reads

Service Vacation
Bud Philbrook and Michele Gran opted out of a honeymoon cruise to spend a week in a rural village in Guatemala. After the local newspaper wrote a story about their unusual honeymoon, people started contacting them asking how they could plan a similar trip. In response they established Global Volunteers to provide people with an opportunity to make a difference in the lives of children around the g... posted on Sep 9, 2625 reads

Locks of Love
After witnessing her own child's hardships with hair loss due to a medical condition called alopecia areata, Madonna Coffman started Locks of Love. The non-profit collects donated hair, manufacturers them into hairpieces, and distributes them to financially disadvantaged children. The protheses provide help restore self-esteem, enabling the children to face the world and their peers. ... posted on Sep 20, 1258 reads

Against All Odds
On August 28th 2005, Bobby Martin recorded his first high-school varsity football tackle, shredding the center and taking down the quarterback at the line of scrimmage. The tears in the audience's eyes were not just from the awe of seeing a legless football player march up and down the field with his arms, but from the inspiration of witnessing the determination of this extraordinary 17-year-old. ... posted on Sep 26, 1335 reads

One World Youth Project
What if globalization was more than access to fast food and bad television? One World Youth Project is the globalization of compassion among the world's youth. The non-profit pairs elementary schools from places as different as Mongolia and New Orleans in a sister school network. So powerful are the connections that when Hurricane Katrina destroyed the New Orleans school, their sister school in Mo... posted on Oct 5, 1032 reads

What Should I Do With My Life?
What Should I Do With My Life? It's a question that haunts many of us, especially in regards to work. Po Bronson, who wrote a book with that title, posits that the answer to that metaphysical question lies in finding meaning in work and life, then deciding what values are essential in the latter and making sure they're in sync with the former.
... posted on Oct 11, 2834 reads

Stop Genocide
A year ago, a group of Swarthmore students decided to take on an unusual extracurricular activity: stopping genocide. Their Genocide Intervention Fund has raised $250,000, found backing from Mia Farrow and Bill Clinton, and has inspired over 100 colleges to raise money for the fund. ... posted on Oct 12, 923 reads

Destined to Happiness
Following a study of 4,000 twins, David Lykken, a professor emeritus in psychology at the University of Minnesota concludes that 50 percent of the satisfaction a person experiences is genetically determined. Genes influence many character traits such as the ability to handle stress. Environmental factors such as income, marital status, religion and education account for only eight percent. And the... posted on Oct 14, 981 reads

Omega Boys Club
Dr. Joe Marshall does what many consider impossible, get troubled teens, former drug dealers, and gang members off the streets, out of jail, and into colleges. By reaching out to troubled teens with dozens of programs through the Omega Boys Club in Oakland, CA, Joe has been able to send 160 kids to college. ... posted on Oct 28, 1545 reads

Service Spirits
"Would you like a party treat?" chirps A'Jenné Williams as she carries around a plate of pretzels artfully topped with peanut butter and jelly from the Red Cross food table. A'Jenné has become the unofficial social director and source of uplift for the roughly 400 people living in a newly built auditorium for Katrina refugees in Slidell Louisiana. The fourth grader washes cars, shines sh... posted on Nov 4, 1465 reads

Sorry's State of Affairs
Admitting a mistake is one of the hardest tasks to do, as we work hard to make ourselves look good. However research is beginning to show that people are much better off if they say they are sorry when they make a mistake. In business and medicine, an apology has proved to lower the number of lawsuits and the amount awarded in those that are filed. ... posted on Nov 1, 1309 reads

Reading A Blade of Grass
Every notice that leaves always seem clean? Scientists asked if a building could clean itself in the same way, with the rain. The result is Lotusan paint, which allows water to bead, reducing the build up of micro-organisms and keeping building facades clean and maintenance free for years. ... posted on Nov 16, 2976 reads

Design
Design by default is the mother of disaster. Bruce Mau's Massive Change project is a collection of design problems and a collection of inspired designs that are paving the way to a more sustainable future. His message is that by utilizing the power of good design, we can minimize unintended consequences and maximize positive outcomes. ... posted on Nov 14, 1248 reads

Operation Miracle
The brainchild of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro, Operation Miracle is an extraordinary humanitarian programme that offers free treatment to an estimated 4.5 million people suffering from eye-afflictions in Latin America and the Caribbean region over a ten-year period.... posted on Dec 2, 1398 reads

Protest
For the past two weeks, as legions of gray-suited lobbyists for power companies and bureaucrats hammered away at international global warming treaties in a Montreal hotel, 500 young people from all over the world have been staging well-behaved and good humored demonstrations. The demonstrators have persistently shadowed delegates, reminding them that the decisions they make today will profoundly ... posted on Dec 13, 1202 reads

Bhutan
King Wangchuk of Bhutan, created a novel development plan three decades ago, mandating that his country’s success be judged in part by the degree to which it makes the Bhutanese citizenry happy. Yes, happiness. The result is a kingdom that has peace, an intact Buddhist culture, unspoiled forests and mountains, and one of the fastest growing economies in Asia. ... posted on Dec 16, 3377 reads

Yoga
Regular yoga sessions may be an effective way to combat chronic lower back pain. Researchers found that those who practiced weekly 75-minute yoga classes were better able to do daily activities involving the back, reported less pain, and used less pain relieving drugs than those who took part in strengthening and stretching classes. ... posted on Dec 20, 1648 reads

Vogalonga
Environmental protest meets extreme sports each year at the Vogalonga (long row) in Venice, Italy. As many as 1,000 human-powered boats take part in the 18.6-mile regatta through the famously polluted waters of Venice. Motorboats, whose wakes weaken the foundation of centuries-old buildings, and industrial pollution from mainland chemical factories are the main targets of these floating activists,... posted on Dec 27, 1549 reads

Christmas in Iraq
While Farris Hassan's (16) seemingly reckless & foolish stunt scared him and his parents, the media has been captivated by the depth of his heart. The Florida teenager traveled to Iraq without telling his parents so that he could "experience during my Christmas the same hardships ordinary Iraqis experience everyday, so that I may better empathize with their distress." In an essay written before hi... posted on Jan 4, 1572 reads

Boys of Baraka
How would the futures of four 12-year old boys change if you extracted them from their poor Baltimore neighborhood and sent them to a school 10,000 miles away in the African wilderness? The film, "The Boys of Baraka" documents this experiment, following the boys journeys in discovering the fertility of their hopes and dreams, even amidst poverty. ... posted on Jan 8, 1084 reads

Dangerous Idea
The history of science is replete with discoveries that were considered socially, morally, or emotionally dangerous in their time; the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions are the most obvious. What is your dangerous idea? An idea you think about that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true? The Edge website asked that question -- what is your dangerous id... posted on Jan 9, 2198 reads

Nature's Time
Week by week, box by box, the calendar has devolved from an eloquent representation of the year into nothing but a mechanistic productivity tool, one big numbered to-do list. Chris Hardman set to change that with the ECOlogical Calendar, designed synch its readers with the movement of time in nature. It looks nothing like a standard calendar, its long and uninterrupted, unfolding left to right, an... posted on Jan 11, 1969 reads

The Community of Commerce
Craigslist may be breathing down the necks of Google and Ebay with well over three billion page views a month (7th largest on the internet), but it still retains an almost anti-profit business model, employing just 19 people working in a San Francisco living room. Craig Newmark, the founder of the no-frill community website, attributes its growth and popularity to the common desire for urban dwell... posted on Jan 15, 1665 reads

Smiling Not Allowed
When the government is taking your photo, they won't say smile. "The subject's expression should be neutral (non-smiling) with both eyes open, and mouth closed. A smile with a closed jaw is allowed but is not preferred," according to the guidelines. "The most neutral face is the most desirable standard for any type of identification," said Angela Aggeler, spokeswoman for the U.S. State Departmen... posted on Jan 20, 2358 reads

No Regrets
Dr. Raed Arini, a Palestinian surgeon in the middle east spends his days and nights calming the living and binding the dead. He is among the good news in the violence that encapsulates the region. When asked about his motivation he simply states, I have to do this," he says, "they are my brothers."
... posted on Feb 14, 2727 reads

Can Cell-Phone Recycling Help African Gorillas?
Can Cell-Phone Recycling Help African Gorillas? Cell phones contain Coltan, a mineral extracted in the deep forests of Congo in central Africa, home to the world's endangered lowland gorillas. Fueled by the worldwide cell phone boom, Congo's out-of-control coltan mining business has in recent years led to a dramatic reduction of animal habitat and the rampant slaughter of great apes for the illega... posted on Mar 7, 1527 reads

Community Supported Agriculture
One of the most promising developments in farming is the deepening relationship between producers and consumers through community supported agriculture (CSA). CSA's allow consumers make an upfront financial investment in the growing season in exchange for a weekly box of veggie. The farmer receives the security of a steady cash flow, while the consumer knows where and who grew her food. ... posted on Feb 2, 1956 reads

The Global Plan
Tuberculosis is a tragedy, it kills someone every 15 seconds, it has been declared an emergency in 46 African countries, and it is preventable. The Global Plan is an initiative that seeks to completely halt the spread of TB and treat 50 million people by 2015. Four hundred organizations worldwide have backed the plan, including Bill Gates who donated $600 million. ... posted on Feb 7, 1374 reads

Great Bear
The Gitga'at people of The Great Bear Rain Forest in British Columbia Canada have an age old myth of a raven deity that swooped down on the land and bleached a few black-bears snow-white. These "spirit bears" were to be a reminder to future generations that the world must be kept pristine. In honor of that mission government agencies, coastal Native Canadian nations, logging companies and environm... posted on Feb 8, 1611 reads