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More than 300 million people worldwide are at risk of developing diabetes and the disease's economic impact in some hard-hit countries could be higher than that of the AIDS pandemic, diabetes experts warn.... posted on Aug 27, 838 reads

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Luxury spending in the United States has been growing four times faster than overall spending. In "Living it Up: Our Love Affair With Luxury", James Twitchell says that this necessary consumption of unnecessary items and services is going on at all but the lowest layers of society: J.C. Penney now offers day spa treatments; Kmart sells cashmere bedspreads. He even finds ways to compare hotels to... posted on Sep 10, 1144 reads

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The longest lasting symphony, scientists just discovered, has been playing for three billion years. And it's coming from a black hole that's 250 million light years away. Astronomers at Cambridge detected the sound to be B flat, the same pitch as a key near middle C on the piano. But the song of the Perseus Black Hole is 57 octaves below that middle C -- a frequency more than a million billion ... posted on Sep 13, 863 reads

Work is Love Made Visible
He owns several successful cloth factories - yet he seldom wears any clothes himself. Lush green, rolling hills surround Mr Fabre's retreat. He is a French citizen of India, a Hindu holy man, who has renounced the material world - yet he is also a business tycoon who employs thousands of people and runs a hermitage. Still, that's only half the story. The other half -- 'I do not keep a single p... posted on Sep 17, 3074 reads

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Leaf me alone! When plants get eaten, they send out distress signals to recruit predators to eat their assailants. Plants enlist bodyguards from higher up the food chain to kill the things that eat them. Scientists are now looking at ways to harness these chemical messages and offer fresh routes to crop protection.... posted on Sep 18, 973 reads

Sewing an African Ivy League
Two decades after Patrick Awuah sought help tapping into the standard American dream, he is going home to Ghana to pursue one of his own making: Awuah, who studied engineering at Swarthmore College and made a small fortune at Microsoft, is building a university — one that he hopes becomes the seed for an African Ivy League. ... posted on Sep 23, 1252 reads

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According to a Business Week/Harris poll, 95 percent of people think that corporations should sometimes sacrifice some profit for the sake of making things better for their workers and communities. So attorney Robert Hinkley had a few words that he'd like to tack onto the corporate world. Just twenty-eight words, to be exact, that will protect the environment, public health, workers' rights--as ... posted on Oct 28, 1507 reads

Blind Leading the Blind
She's blind herself. So when she arrived in Tibet to help the blind, the community could hardly believe their eyes! Sabriye Tenberken is a German voyager to this Himalayan region known as the "roof of the world" and created the first Tibetan Braille system. Her 'Braille without Borders' program is also expanding to various other regions of the continent.... posted on Oct 2, 1250 reads

Monks' Brains During Meditation
The task was to practice "compassion" meditation, generating a feeling of loving kindness toward all beings. The subjects ranged from novice meditators to Buddhist monks (including the Dalai Lama) who had spent more than 10,000 hours in meditation. As Prof. Davidson compared their brain activity, he was able to clearly show that meditation alters structure and functioning of the brain!... posted on Nov 12, 3251 reads

Minnie Takes a Stand
Oscar nominee Minnie Driver is putting her Hollywood career on hold to work in a sweatshop in Cambodia. She will leave behind her tennis star boyfriend, Robby Ginepri, and her Notting Hill flat to experience poverty in South-East Asia. Her plan is leverage her fame to raise awareness for unfair global trade agreements: "I will be working alongside other young women for as long as it takes for me... posted on Nov 4, 796 reads

Deep Sleep
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conservatively estimates that vehicle crashes due to driver fatigue cost Americans $12.5 billion per year in reduced productivity and property loss. The greatest cost? More than 1,500 people die every year in fatigue-related crashes.... posted on Feb 7, 3009 reads

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Penelope Trunk of Seattle Times has a suggestion: abolish the word "busy." We all have the same 24 hours to fill. Everyone's are filled with something. The difference is that the "busy" people feel frenetic during those hours. Being busy gives you an excuse for poor performance. It gives you a way to ignore parts of your life that are falling apart and need attention.... posted on Nov 13, 1041 reads

Tasaday
Some call it the greatest discovery of the last century. A tribe of 26 hunter-gatherers in the Philippines rain forest, discovered for the first time in 1971 after having been isolated geographically and culturally for over 2,000 years!... posted on May 12, 1349 reads

Corporate Volunteers
CEO's of GE, Levi's Strauss, Pitney Bowes and Walt Disney all agree on one thing -- being a good corporate citizen influences business success. Donating a percentage of company profits to charity, giving employees four hours a month out of the office to do volunteer work, buying recycled products or setting up a recycling program are practical day-to-day business considerations that actually imp... posted on Nov 26, 2634 reads

Bridges I Crossed
To the litany of arguments against prejudice, scientists are now adding a new one: Racism can make you stupid. That is the message of an unusual and striking new series of experiments conducted at Dartmouth College; with the help of brain-imaging equipment, scientists found that the more biased people are, the more their brain power is taxed by contact with someone of another race, as they strugg... posted on Nov 25, 1373 reads

The Only Slavery
Ideo. Ever heard of it? The four-lettered firm has shepherded some of the most popular innovations of the past few decades. Apple's first mouse. Prada's ultrahip Manhattan store. Stand-up toothpaste tubes that don't get icky. The Palm V. How does Ideo do it? The secret, it turns out, reduces to one of those touchy-feely terms that make MBAs squirm: "empathy." In the Ideo universe, great design do... posted on Jan 20, 1625 reads

Unusual Surrender
In Africa, where ethnic wars in Rwanda and the Congo have killed millions of people, a top Hutu rebel military commander suddenly turned himself in with several colleagues at an airport in Kigali. Emerging from the Congo jungle bases where they battled the Rwandan government for years, the leader of the Democratic Liberation Forces said, "We have decided to put down guns. War is not the best solut... posted on Dec 2, 873 reads

Riding The Waves
In late October, a 13 year old lost her arm to a shark bite while surfing in Hawaii. Eye witnesses say she never screamed or panicked, although she lost more than half her blood and all but four inches of her arm. "There's no need for that," she told the press three weeks later. Bethany Hamilton was a top amateur surfer who was expected to turn pro; now, she may never be able to compete again b... posted on Nov 29, 1684 reads

Ten-Percent Myth
There is no scientific basis to the often heard claim that we use only 10% of our brains. Brain imaging research techniques such as PET scans and fMRI clearly show that the vast majority of the brain does not lie fallow. Indeed, although certain minor functions may use only a small part of the brain at one time, any sufficiently complex set of activities or thought patterns will indeed use many ... posted on Apr 9, 1710 reads

Love and Power
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Refusing an Award
Making an enemy of the Daily Mail is a little like putting your head in a lion's mouth. But Hari Kunzru, one of Britain's most promising young novelists, did just that when he refused an award because of the papers' consistent "hostility towards black and Asian British people."... posted on Dec 11, 1651 reads

Computers on Farms
A large number of farmers in rural India are breathing a little bit easier these days. For 3 or 4 decades, they have been locked into a government-organized trading scheme that nearly ensures they get fleeced by the middlemen when they sell their grains at auction. But in just a couple of years, with the help of a few thousand computers hooked up to the internet, more than a million farmers have... posted on Dec 13, 865 reads

End of Polio
We're about the see the end of polio, only the second time an entire disease is eradicated from the planet! The crippling virus, at its peak, paralyzed or killed about half a million people every year before development of new vaccine in 1955. As a result of one of the largest health initiatives in the world, we are 99% polio-free and by 2005, it is estimated the disease will be fully eradicated.... posted on Dec 12, 1082 reads

First-Class Upgrade
When the first soldier boarded the plane, the man asked, "Hey, soldier, where are you sitting?" When the soldier replied that he was sitting in seat 22E, the first-class passenger said, "No, you're sitting here," and he gave him his seat. As others soldiers, returning from Iraq on American Airline Flight 866, boarded the plane, other first-class passengers gave up their seats until soldiers fille... posted on Jul 30, 1313 reads

Pigeons Beat the Internet
Pigeons are apparently faster than the Internet. In October, Nick Andreef began a commercial operation -- using homing pigeons to deliver photographs. His Waitomo Adventures company runs various tours through a network of caves; he wanted to have digital photographs ready before the tourist bus returned, so they didn't have to spend time downloading and printing. Internet was too slow, but pigeo... posted on Jan 7, 835 reads

Chapter A Day
Suzanne Beecher's employees, stay-at-home moms, didn't have enough time to read, so she did something simple: "One night in the daily company e-mail, I started typing in the beginning of a book that I was reading. I stopped after about a 5-minute read and said that I would continue the book in tomorrow's e-mail." Pretty soon, they were all reading. Four years later, Suzanne is running an organiz... posted on Jan 22, 1118 reads

Giver and Receiver
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Too Many Choices
Too many choices actually leaves us with nothing but confusion. Research shows that as the number of flavors of jam or varieties of chocolate available to shoppers is increased, the likelihood that they will leave the store without buying either jam or chocolate goes up. According to their 2000 study at Stanford and Columbia, shoppers are 10 times more likely to buy jam when six varieties are on ... posted on Jan 28, 1548 reads

Being Nonviolence
United Nations has declared a global season of nonviolence -- sixty four days between Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi's death anniversary.... posted on Feb 5, 877 reads

Little Things Go Far
For a man who has perhaps done more than anyone to help people out of poverty, Muhammad Yunus makes no apologies for giving nothing to beggars. Yunus, 63, is the founder of Grameen Bank, which has made more than $4 billion in tiny loans to poor Bangladeshis, providing a lifeline for millions and a banking model that has been copied in more than 100 nations from the United States to Uganda.... posted on Feb 13, 1094 reads

Wheelchair as a Weapon
Bus number 86B, Frankstown, didn't pick up Donald Stancile because the bus's handicapped ramp malfunctioned and the driver wasn't trained in operating it manually. So Donald took the bus hostage by blocking it with his wheelchair. Arrested for his act of civil disobedience, Donald later said, "Ninety-eight percent of the people who ride the bus can get on the bus. The other 2 percent are like me... posted on Feb 18, 924 reads

Wish upon a Star
If anyone's ever promised you the sun, the moon and the stars, tell 'em you'll settle for BPM 37093. Astronomers have discovered that the heart of this burned-out star with the no-nonsense name is a sparkling diamond that weighs a staggering 10 billion trillion trillion carats. That's one followed by 34 zeros. This hunk of celestial bling is an estimated 2,500 miles across!... posted on Feb 27, 1126 reads

The Embryo
Some class science projects get out of hand. That is certainly the case with a do-it-yourself supercomputing graduate course at the University of San Francisco. John Witchel's idea of building a volunteer super computer on the fly is now turning into reality -- 1200 volunteers will bring their computers to a Gym and plug it into a high-speed network! "We're trying to democratize supercomputing,"... posted on Feb 26, 1299 reads

No-Flush Urinals
United States has approximately 8 million urinals, with about 100 million people using over 160 billion gallons of water each year! And along came no-flush, waterless urinals, that uses a simple design to save tens of thousands of gallons of water every year.... posted on Jun 10, 1861 reads

Secret of the Ancients
No one really knows how the ancients moved the 30-foot blocks of stone, at StoneHenge, without any steel cables, cranes or supports. But now, Wallace Wallington is out to prove to us that it's simple. "Beyond simple," he says. Single handedly, with some simple wooden levers, he is himself able to move nearly 10 tons! For a documentary aired on Discovery, he raised a 16-foot, rectangular, conc... posted on Apr 2, 1329 reads

Lovely Poem
The world's computers consume 2.5 trillion kilowatt-hours of energy in a year, or $250 billion in hard, cold cash a year. Furthermore, a pound of coal is needed to create, package, store, and move 2 megabytes of data.... posted on Mar 4, 828 reads

Acupuncture
Researchers know that acupuncture works but they can't figure out why. Recent research at Harvard Medical school provides the clearest explanation to date for how the ancient technique might relieve pain and treat addictions: Acupuncture on pain-relief points cuts blood flow to key areas of the brain within seconds, quieting down key regions of the brain.... posted on Mar 6, 1263 reads

Karma Army
Karma Army. That's what he called his accidental group. After posting an ad in the paper to "join me", Danny Wallace had 4000 passport photos of possible members but no purpose. Then his mission hit him -- acts of kindness. Every member has to sign The Good Fridays Agreement where you agree to carry out a random act of kindness for a complete stranger, each and every Friday!... posted on Mar 18, 2807 reads

Unknown Nobel Laureate
Of the three living American Nobel Peace Prize laureates, one is almost unknown and yet he is responsible for saving millions of lives. Norman E. Borlaug won the Nobel in 1970 for the "green revolution" -- using high yield crops to grow more grain, for more people on only marginally more land. Not only did he save entire countries from famines, he also saved millions of square miles of wildlife f... posted on Mar 27, 1222 reads

I am Only a Child
When she was 12, Severn Cullis-Suzuki and three Vancouver schoolmates raised money to go to the Rio Earth Summit. Her speech to delegates had such an impact that she became a frequent invitee to U.N. conferences. Now 22, with a B.S. in biology from Yale University, she will be in Johannesburg as a member of Kofi Annan's World Summit advisory panel.... posted on Mar 31, 1736 reads

Modern-Day Robin Hood
When she graduated from Harvard in 1985, she wanted to do something meaningful. Now, Laura Scher is something of a modern-day Robin Hood, an entrepreneurial activist who redistributes the wealth of the marketplace to those in need. Instead of advertising, her company -- Working Assets -- donates that money to nonprofits, relying on socially responsible consumers to help them gain market share. ... posted on Apr 1, 2429 reads

Same Dough, Different Oven
One in every three people in the world will live in slums within 30 years unless governments control unprecedented urban growth, according to a UN report. The largest study ever made of global urban conditions has found that 940 million people - almost one-sixth of the world's population - already live in squalid, unhealthy areas, mostly without water, sanitation, public services or legal security... posted on Apr 20, 1334 reads

State of the Planet
Last month, scientists from around the world gathered at Columbia University for the 'State of the Planet 04' conference, subtitled "Mobilizing the Sciences to Fight Global Poverty." Working sessions covered issues of energy, food, water, and health. To conclude the conference, they came up with a joint, consensus statement of specific recommendations for sustainable development of the planet.... posted on Apr 10, 1102 reads

On the highway of Life
When they learned how AAA, the roadside assistance service, spent much of their muscle lobbying against public transportation, two entrepeneurs took a bold step and started their own environmentally-friendly service.... posted on Jul 3, 986 reads

Your Wish Is Its Command
Your wish is its command. For years, futurists have dreamed of machines that can read minds, then act on instructions as they are thought. Now, human trials are set to begin on a brain-computer interface involving implants. Food and Drug Administration has approved a clinical trial in which four-square-millimeter chips will be placed beneath the skulls of paralyzed patients. If successful, the ... posted on Apr 21, 1120 reads

World's Oldest Worker
The world's oldest worker is calling it quits. Ray Crist, a retired scientist who worked on the Manhattan Project, put down his pointer Tuesday at age 104. Does that mean he’s calling it quits? No way. "When you have a mission, you go after it," said Crist, "And I am still going after it."... posted on Apr 16, 1037 reads

Capitalism to Clean the Sky
Investing in the future of the Earth may seem like a hokey slogan for an environmental organization, but for the 49 students in Lynne Lewis' environmental economics class at Bates College, it's a requirement. Last month, students at the Lewiston, Maine, college bid on -- and won -- the rights to pollute the environment with nine tons of sulfur dioxide at an auction sponsored by the Environmental ... posted on May 7, 1163 reads

Marathon Monks
No Nikes, no Air Jordans, no medical aid stations along the route. They run it on straw sandals. On route they make about 250 stops to pray and to chant. The "marathon monks" of Mount Hiei run a full marathon every day for more than six months, culminating with 100 days of 2 back-to-back Olympic marathons daily. Practically all known long distance running records are shattered by these Japenese... posted on May 13, 1337 reads

Lemonade Stories
Behind every billionaire is a ... mom. That's what Mary Mazzio found as she interviewed billionaires around the world for her new film -- "Lemonade Stories". The study of entrepreneurship might be all the rage in business schools but Mary suggests that b-school is too late. The nursery is where the seeds are planted, generally by moms. Incidentally, women led 28% of all U.S. businesses in 2002, ... posted on May 14, 1652 reads

Decade of Dot-Orgs
The 1990s will be billed as a dot-com decade. But considering the worldwide explosion of social organizations that far exceeded the growth of technology firms, it probably should be known as the decade of the dot-orgs. In Canada, registered citizen groups grew more than 50% since 1987, to over 200,000, while in France, close to 70,000 new groups were registered each year in the 1990s. Twenty ye... posted on May 15, 951 reads