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, 2975 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, 1247 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

Playground
Playgrounds are not just for kids anymore. At the Santa Claus Sports Institute in Finland, a group of elderly Finns leap around on climbing frames, swing on the swings, and bounce on a see-saw. It's all in the name of science; a Finnish study of 65 to 81 year olds found significant improvements in balance, speed and co-ordination after just three months of playground activity. ... posted on Feb 9, 1914 reads

Wings of Hope
Airline pilot Marius den Dulk travels the world over, staying in luxurious hotels and enjoying exotic excursions along the way. But just as often he has been confronted with widespread human misery: begging, sick people and neglected children. Feeling increasingly frustrated by his inability to do anything about the situation, he founded Wings of Support, a non-profit foundation that relies on ai... posted on Feb 17, 1467 reads

Day Dream
Dean Kamen, the engineer who invented the Segway, is puzzling over a new equation these days. An estimated 1.1 billion people in the world don't have access to clean drinking water, and an estimated 1.6 billion don't have electricity. To solve the problem, he's invented two devices, each about the size of a washing machine that can provide much-needed power and clean water in rural villages.... posted on Feb 21, 2150 reads

Norwegian Sportmanship
"All of a sudden, I was kind of flapping one arm," Renner said. "The next thing I knew, there were three racers in front of me." At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Sara Renner broke her ski pole. A cross-country skier without a pole is like a hockey player without a stick, or a canoeist without a paddle. Renner had invested her life to be in this position; she had her tyroid removed after being diagn... posted on Mar 11, 1793 reads

Simple Church
Some Evangelicals are abandoning megachurches for minichurches -- based in their own living rooms! Since the 1990s, many Churches have gathered thousands for Sunday services; they were made possible by hundreds of smaller "cell groups" that meet off-nights and provide a humanly scaled framework for scriptural exploration, spiritual mentoring and emotional support. Now, however, those cell groups ... posted on Mar 13, 2057 reads

20 Teens Who Will Change The World
Every year, Teen People honors '20 Teens Who Will Change the World'. This year's list includes 19-year old Given Kachepa who is helping illegal immigrants who have fallen prey to human traffickers, Molly Farrell who bounced back from a paralyzing swimming accident to raise $285,000 for Christopher Reeve Foundation, Fareh Ahmedi who published an autobiography chronicling her experiences of losing ... posted on Mar 16, 2699 reads

Imperishable Body of a Russian Monk
Hambo Lama Itighelov, a spiritual Russian Leader, passed away in 1927. Per his request, he was first exhumed in 1955. When after the third exhumation in 2002 after 75 years since the Lama's death, his body still showed no signs of decay, medical experts decided to examine the miracle. The grave contained a wooden box and there was a sitting Buddhist lama in a 'lotus' position; researchers repor... posted on Mar 20, 2946 reads

World's Largest Love Letter
The World’s Largest Love Letter, soon to be delivered from children in India to children in Pakistan, started as few projects do: for visa renewal! Two Americans visiting India needed to make a quick trip outside of India to renew their visas; how wonderful, they thought, if they could arrive in Pakistan carrying armloads of friendship letters – from children, to children. So they began riding... posted on Mar 19, 2778 reads

Corporate Forgiveness
Can a corporation be more successful after downsizing if it asks for forgiveness from its employees? The echoes of a sudden spate of lay-offs reverberate far beyond the people who are asked to clear their desks, according to Dr. Kim Cameron of Case Western Reserve University. "My intent is to see if forgiveness can help the corporation and the individual survive the downsize," says Cameron, whose ... posted on Mar 24, 1304 reads

Firefighters Go Vegan
The image of big brawny firefighters devouring platters of four-alarm chili, sizzling steaks and double cheeseburgers is as much a part of firehouse lore as brass fire poles and heroic Dalmatians. But not in Austin. The five firefighters of Team C at Firehouse 2 just went vegan! It happened not for their love of sprouts, but because of high cholesterol.... posted on Mar 30, 1759 reads

Bread For My Neighbor
Ten years ago, at the age of twelve, Craig Kielburger gathered a handful of his friends over pizza to discuss a newspaper article about a young boy in Pakistan who was sold to a carpet weaver at the age of four. He wanted to figure out how they could help. Their brainstorming session gave rise to what is today the largest network of children helping children in the world. Today the youth volunteer... posted on Apr 1, 1379 reads

The World as an Organization
Will there be a bee hive on the cover of the next issue of The Economist? Likely not. But new research does show that bumble bees and other insects provide $57 billion in pollination services as well as other free labor in the U.S. alone. Unfortunately, several bee species are on the verge of extinction. By putting a dollar value on the work done by insects, the researchers hope to raise interest ... posted on Apr 7, 2673 reads

The Artist Who Was A Horse
His artwork has been described as having the "fire of Pollock" and the "fixed gaze of Resnick." Now, a Reno artist will be making his international debut, having been invited to exhibit his work in a juried art competition in Italy. He won't be going abroad, however, to bask in the aura of great Italian masters. Instead, this artist will remain at home, contemplating his next masterpiece while gna... posted on Oct 23, 3196 reads

Silence at the Emmys
Hundreds of millions around the world recognize his face, yet he bought clothes from a thrift store, drove a humble car and lived in a simple home. In 1984, he even issued a statement to the Supreme Court to say that he had "absolutely no objections" if consumers taped his telecast, violating the copyright rule. In 1999, when inducted into the TV Hall of Fame, he used his moments of glory to bri... posted on Apr 10, 2667 reads

Stand-by Energy Drain
Talk about non-intuitive: a typical microwave oven uses more electricity for its digital clock than it does in heating food! Why? Well, while heating food requires more than 100 times what it takes to power a clock, most microwave ovens stand idle -- in “standby” mode -- more than 99% of the time. Lawrence Berkeley Lab's Alan Meier did research in Florida, California, and Japan, and found that... posted on Apr 11, 1729 reads

The Altruism of Children
This may hard to believe for those of you who have to bribe kids to do chores, but the latest scientific research indicates that children are born altruistic. Psychology researcher Felix Warneken, at Germany's Max Planck Institute, performed a series of ordinary chores in front of 18 month old toddlers like Using clothespins to hang up a towel or arranging books. Sometimes he "struggled" with the ... posted on May 7, 3918 reads

Challenging the Cult of Speed
He had a major Aha Moment when he caught himself trying to save time by looking up one-minute bedtime stories to read to his son. Carl Honore began a deeper inquiry into the “cult of speed” that informs life in the 21st century; the result was “ In Praise of Slowness,” a book that explains how our world got so fast, the dangerous implications of this, and why conscious slowing down just mi... posted on Apr 19, 1633 reads

Email More Honest Than Phone Calls?
April Fool's Day isn't the only time to catch lies. A Cornell University study has found that people are twice as likely to tell lies in phone conversations as they are in e-mails. Participants were asked to keep track of their social communications for seven days, noting when they lied, and how the lie was transmitted. The study found that participants lied 1.6 times per day. 37% of these lies we... posted on Apr 27, 2265 reads

One-word Sidewalk Sermons
Talk about a man with an eternal message. At least 50 times a day for more than 30 years he wrote the word 'Eternity' in chalk all across the public streets and sidewalks of Sydney. For years no one knew who this mysterious one-word sermon was authored by. Arthur Stace's story is fascinating. Born into a deeply troubled family, he grew into a homeless, recovering alcoholic who could barely write h... posted on Apr 25, 5147 reads

The Bravest of the Brave
"The bravest of the brave," "The greatest man I have ever known." These are the words of those who knew Capt. Mbaye Diagne, a young Senegalese army officer who served in Rwanda as an unarmed U.N. military observer. He was a hero, in the spirit of Oskar Schindler in the 1940's. From literally the first hours of the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Capt. Mbaye simply ignored the U.N.'s standing orders not ... posted on Apr 23, 1601 reads

Hummingbirds Move to Stay Still
If you're lucky, you've seen them in all their jewel-like splendor hovering over your garden flowers. But did you know that the hummingbird is the only bird known to fly backwards, forwards and upside down, in addition to being able to hover? Their extremely rapid wing beat that goes as high as 200 beats per second, coupled with their unique ability to rotate their wings in a half circle are what ... posted on Apr 29, 1957 reads

Small Change, Big Difference
Small Change, Big Difference: a Cambridge University study concluded that making small, simple changes to your lifestyle can have a significant impact on how long you will live. Researchers found that eating five portions of fruit and vegetables a day can add three years, not smoking can add up to five years, and increasing exercise by a moderate amount can tack on three years. What is one of the ... posted on Apr 28, 2473 reads

No More Sodas in Schools
The largest beverage distributors in the United States have agreed to halt nearly all soda sales to public schools. Under the agreement, the companies have agreed to sell only water, unsweetened juice and low-fat milks to elementary and middle schools. "This is really the beginning of a major effort to modify childhood obesity at the level of the school systems," said Robert H. Eckel, president ... posted on May 4, 1418 reads

A Woman With A Perfect Memory
A woman’s nearly perfect memory has stumped neurobiologists. Ask her what happened on August 16, 1977 (or any other random date) and she can recall the day of the week, usually what the weather was like on that day, major events like the fact that Elvis Presley had died, and even that a California tax initiative passed on June 6 of the following year! Now known only as AJ, she wrote James McGaug... posted on May 16, 2900 reads

The Science of Me
Scientists say they can map out your medical destiny: what diseases you’ll get and how you’ll die. But would knowing the future improve your life? Two reporters went to find out and wrote a cover story for the London Times. One of them says, "I don't want to be dramatic about this, but I think I might have saved my life."... posted on May 26, 3899 reads

An Act of Kindness in 1988
Mary Menth Andersen had just married Norwegian Dag Andersen. She was looking forward to starting a new life with him. But first she had to get all of her belongings across to Norway. The date was November 2nd, 1988. At the airport she got the message that would crush her bubbling feeling of happiness: "You'll have to pay a 103 dollar surcharge if you want to bring both those suitcases to Norway, t... posted on Oct 16, 10258 reads

Japan Dresses Casual To Save Energy
People in Japan have thrown off their ties and stuffy suits this summer in a bid to save energy! The government has asked workers to dress lightly and set the temperature of their air-conditioned offices at no lower than 28 degrees Celsius. The first 'Cool Biz' drive in 2005 helped cut carbon dioxide emissions by 460,000 tonnes -- equivalent to the combined emissions from one million Japanese hous... posted on Jun 6, 1858 reads

Connecting Minds and Machines
We react naturally to the signals our brains send out to our bodies. Science has long been able to listen into the signals the brain sends, but is just now learning to turn those signals into meaningful action. The result is restoring movement and speech to the disabled.... posted on Jun 12, 1894 reads

South American Twist in Time
Einstein proved that time was relative, but he may not even have known about this: researchers studying the language and gesture of South America's indigenous Aymara people found that speakers often simply refused to talk about the future on the grounds that little or nothing sensible could be said about it! Scientists realized that the Aymara actually have a concept of time opposite to all the wo... posted on Jun 15, 2804 reads

Seven Year Old Surgeon
Deemed by some to be "the cleverest boy in the world" a boy from a small village in India performed his first successful surgery at the age of seven! Akrit Jaspal speaks four languages, he is trying to find a cure for cancer and is studying for a bachelors in science. His hero is Spiderman, and Akrit is now twelve years old. Well aware of his special gifts, this ambitious young humanitarian says, ... posted on Jun 23, 3888 reads