Islamic Revival in Syria Is Led by Women
In Syria, Women are in the vanguard. Though men across the Islamic world usually interpret Scripture and lead prayers, Syria, virtually alone in the Arab world, is seeing the resurrection of a centuries-old tradition of sheikhas, or women who are religious scholars. The growth of girls’ madrasas has outpaced those for boys, Syrian religious teachers say.... posted on Sep 18, 1185 reads

Poverty is all in the Brain?
Elizabeth Gould overturned one of the central tenets of neuroscience. Now she’s building on her discovery to show that poverty and stress may not just be symptoms of society, but bound to our anatomy. "Poverty is stress," she says. "One thing that always strikes me is that when you ask Americans why the poor are poor, they always say it's because they don’t work hard enough, or don't want to... posted on Sep 4, 3916 reads

China: World's Third Largest Food Donor
Is giving a natural extension of receiving? China seems to have an inspiring answer to that question! In 2005, the same year it stopped receiving food aid from the World Food Program, China emerged as the world’s third largest food aid donor. According to the latest annual Food Aid Monitor from INTERFAIS, the International Food Aid Information System, China accounted for more than half of the ri... posted on Sep 14, 2915 reads

The Art of Disappearing
The simple yet profound lines in the quote above are from American-Arab poet Naomi Nye's piece, "The Art of Disappearing". Bill Moyers from PBS was so moved by this poem that he carried a copy of it folded in his wallet after undergoing heart surgery. In this inspiring interview the two discuss everything from poetry as a form of conversation, what it means to 'breathe in two countries', and the u... posted on Sep 16, 2003 reads

Advertising for Global Good
Never in the storied history of the Barcelona Football Club (Barca) has the club carried the emblem of a corporate sponsor as the frontispiece of its shirt. Barca has stood almost completely alone in this for over 100 years, until this week, when it joined the ranks of those who advertise. But not in the way one might expect. Barca has unveiled a sponsorship deal with UNICEF, the UN agency founded... posted on Sep 20, 1564 reads

Dime A Day Keeps Junk Mail Away
Junk mail isn't just annoying: it has a detrimental environmental impact. To deliver 800 million pounds of annual junk mail, 100 million trees are cut down each year to produce the ads and non-profit solicitations that likely end up in the recycle bin, or, more often, the trash can. Enter Green Dimes. Greendimes is a company that offers to keep you off junk-mail lists while planting one tree ev... posted on Sep 30, 1810 reads

One Million Meditate for Peace
On October 2, 2006, Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday, the ancient city of Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka is expected to host 1 million people -- the largest gathering in the country’s history -- in an interfaith meditation for peace called together by the Sarvodaya Movement. According to Dr. A.T. Ariyaratne, founder-president of the Movement, the October 2 event is "an attempt to transform the collective ... posted on Oct 1, 2151 reads

Discovering Collective Wisdom
Call it collective consciousness, team synergy, co-intelligence, or group mind -- a growing number of people are discovering through their own experience that wholes are indeed far more than the sum of their parts; that when individuals come together with a shared intention, in a conducive environment, something mysterious can come into being. If you've never read a book about this "collective int... posted on Oct 8, 3008 reads

The Compassion of Elephants
Grace, of a family of elephants that researchers call the Virtues, touches the ailing Eleanor, the matriarch of the First Ladies family, who has fallen in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve on October 10, 2003. Grace will soon push Eleanor back to her feet, though the ailing elephant's resurgence will be short-lived. Elephants show compassionate behavior to others in distress, even to elephants not ... posted on Oct 9, 3010 reads

New York, Melting Shot
New York City may not be the center of the world, but NYChildren, a new photo series, is beguiling proof that the Big Apple sits at the world's crossroads. With 192 countries out there, the project aims to capture an image of a child from each. The caveat? All the children must now live in New York. When it started, the project, headed by photographer Danny Goldfield, was about the pictures. Now D... posted on Oct 19, 1520 reads

The Wisdom of Crowdsourcing
Remember when outsourcing was the buzzword? Well, the new concept is “crowdsourcing:” everyday people using their spare cycles to create content, solve problems, even do corporate R & D. Just as distributed computing projects like UC Berkeley’s SETI@home have tapped the unused processing power of millions of individual computers, so distributed labor networks are using the Internet to levera... posted on Nov 14, 1545 reads

Top Scientists Forecast Future
What will be the biggest breakthrough of the next 50 years? As part of their 50th anniversary celebrations, the New Scientist magazine asked over 70 of the world's most brilliant scientists for their ideas. In coming decades will we: discover that we are not alone in the universe? Unravel the physiological basis for consciousness? Routinely have false memories implanted in our minds? Begin to ev... posted on Nov 22, 2341 reads

The Challenges of Everyday Ethics
From our friendships to our jobs to our conduct in public, seemingly small decisions often pose tough ethical dilemmas, says Joshua Halberstam, author of "Everyday Ethics: Inspired Solutions to Moral Dilemmas". In his words, "While the usual moral evaluations of societies tend to focus on such broad issues as crime, economic equity, and foreign policy, just as important to consider is the moral he... posted on Dec 20, 2734 reads

Teen Returns $24,000 Found in Theater
Imagine stumbling upon $24,000 in cash. What would you do with the money? The untraceable wad of $100 bills, rubber-banded together inside a zippered bank pouch, tumbled unnoticed from the purse of RoseMarie Limoncelli, a business owner, as she sat in a theater with her 8 year-old daughter. On the way home, she realized what had happened. "My heart stopped," she said. "My whole body was shaking." ... posted on Dec 21, 1818 reads

Research Backs Happiness as a Process
While books on happiness abound, very little research has been done on how people become happier. In fact, many researchers have considered that quest to be futile. But recent long-term studies have revealed that the happiness thermostat is more malleable than the popular theory maintained. One easy way that sounds almost trite but has actually been shown to work? Every night, think of three good ... posted on Dec 22, 2970 reads

Inspiring Story Behind Teach For America
Wendy Kopp proposed starting a sort of Peace Corps for teachers in 1989 -- a program that would recruit fellow Ivy Leaguers to teach for two years in the nation's toughest schools, and got a surprising response: "My dear Ms. Kopp, you are quite evidently deranged." Today, Teach for America, as Kopp's program came to be known, is one of the most respected initiatives in American education. This Jun... posted on Dec 29, 2311 reads

Transforming an Ailing School
Betsy Rogers is no ordinary teacher. After being named National Teacher of the Year in 2003, she switched to Brighton School –- one of Alabama’s poorest schools, with the longest run on the county's school-improvement list. Most Brighton teachers have fewer than five years of experience, and at the end of the 2004-05 school year, the school had failed to meet the state's testing goals for seve... posted on Jan 7, 2393 reads

Shared Shopping Sabbatical
Last year, 10 environmentally conscious friends wondered what it would be like to go a year without buying anything new. Twelve months later, the results from their experiment are in. While broken vacuum cleaners and malfunctioning cell phones posed challenges, the group says their shopping sabbatical was so liberating that some have resolved to do it again! The pledge they named The Compact soon ... posted on Jan 11, 3223 reads

Happiness 101
A positive-psychology class called the Science of Well-Being -— essentially a class in how to make yourself happier -— at George Mason University in Virginia is a challenge for positive psychologists. It is one of the 15 unhappiest campuses in America, at least per The Princeton Review. The class is taught by Todd Kashdan, a 32-year-old psychology professor whose area of research is "curiosity... posted on Feb 1, 3761 reads

The Big Impact of Small Interactions
According to Nobel Prize-winning scientist Daniel Kahneman, we experience approximately 20,000 individual moments in a waking day. Each "moment" lasts a few seconds. If you consider any strong memory -- positive or negative -- you'll notice that the imagery in your mind is actually defined by your recollection of a precise point in time. And rarely does a neutral encounter stay in your mind -- the... posted on Feb 22, 3183 reads

The Science of Sleep and Learning
When practicing a musical piece, a gymnastics move, or any other activity that depends on effortless, virtually automatic execution, here's some memory-enhancing advice: If you snooze, you cruise. That, at least, is the implication of two studies in which people who practiced certain tasks performed them better on ensuing trials if they were first allowed to get some sleep. Moreover, one investiga... posted on Feb 28, 2795 reads

Why We Laugh
Laughter, a topic that has baffled philosophers for 2,000 years, is finally yielding to science. Researchers have now traced the evolution of laughter back to an unexpected discovery: laughter has little to do with humor. It’s an instinctual survival tool for social animals, not an intellectual response to wit. In other words, it’s not about getting the joke; it’s about getting along. Resear... posted on Mar 15, 5169 reads

Running A Marathon On Crutches
For most of his career, cameraman Angus Macfadyen enjoyed a fast-paced lifestyle, dashing off to exotic countries or war-torn locations to film. His life changed abruptly when a severe accident forced him into a plaster cast for four months. During that period Angus made an unusual decision: he decided to run a marathon -– on crutches. Marathon officials gave him the green signal, and his grueli... posted on Mar 22, 3346 reads

Billionaire Opens Home To Homeless
Dorie-Ann Kahale and her five daughters moved from a homeless shelter to a mansion last Thursday, courtesy of a Japanese real estate mogul who is handing over eight of his multimillion-dollar homes to low-income Native Hawaiian families. Tears spilled down Kahale's cheeks, as she accepted from billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto, the key to a white, columned house. Kawamoto, whose own eyes started welli... posted on Mar 25, 1808 reads

The World Map of Happiness
Adrian White, an analytic social psychologist at Leicester University's School of Psychology, produced the first ever 'world map of happiness' with Denmark, Switzerland, Austria taking the top three spots. "There is increasing political interest in using measures of happiness as a national indicator in conjunction with measures of wealth," he added. A recent BBC survey found that 81% of the pop... posted on Oct 23, 5397 reads

Violin Virtuoso Goes Incognito
He emerges from the Washington Metro and positions himself against a bare wall. Joshua Bell is one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made. A onetime child prodigy, 39-year-old Bell usually plays for standing-room-only audiences so respectful of his artistry that they stifle their coughs until... posted on Apr 11, 3728 reads

The Poetry of Peace
Ten years ago every school around the world was invited to submit two lines of poetry about peace to the United Nations. Once collected, the lines were collated together into one long Peace Poem. Poems came in from 38 countries around the world. Says Kofi Annan in his preface, "In their wisdom, the children whose intermingled voices gave birth to the Peace Poem know that peace is far more than the... posted on Apr 25, 4227 reads

Seven Simple Health Habits
Lester Breslow, popularly referred to as "Mr. Public Health", is the outspoken visionary whose research played a significant role in asserting that simple lifestyle changes could drastically improve overall health. His landmark studies in Alameda county following the health habits of 7,000 people for 35 years resulted in the 'Seven Secrets': a list of daily health habits that proved strong indicat... posted on Apr 26, 7210 reads

Shared World, Shared Words
The inspiring Arab-American poet, Naomi Shihab Nye, wrapped a poem around an unexpected experience of both distress and kindness that she encountered at an airport in Albuquerque. She sent it off to exactly two friends, who passed it on to friends, who passed it on to friends. At a recent reading of the poem, Nye ended the evening remarking that this spontaneous series of people passing the poem o... posted on May 3, 0 reads

Insights From a Blind Pilot
As a child, Miles Hilton-Barber wanted to be a pilot -- not an uncommon ambition among the young. But his is no ordinary story. When his plane touched down recently in Sydney, he became the first blind man to fly half-way around the world. His hope is to raise $1.2 million for Seeing is Believing, an organization that restores sight in developing countries. "When I went blind, they said you’d n... posted on May 2, 2428 reads

A Basketall Superstar's Turning Point
NBA All-Star Kevin Johnson never forgot the inner-city Sacramento neighborhood where he grew up. In 1989, he returned to his hometown to launch a nonprofit afterschool program that is now his full-time passion. Why? His freshman year at University of California, Berkeley, when a professor asked how many people knew what "euphemism" meant, 31 out of 32 students raised their hands. Johnson wasn't on... posted on May 5, 1875 reads

A Prisoner's Last Request
53-year-old Philip Workman's final request before his execution in Nashville, Tennessee touched thousands of people. He requested that his final meal be a vegetarian pizza donated to any homeless person located near Riverbend Maximum Security Institution. When Prison officials refused, saying that they do not donate to charities, a deeply moved public joined hands to fulfill the request. Homeless ... posted on May 11, 2438 reads

Music As A Tool For Learning
Plenty of elementary schools teach music, but how many require students to attend a 45-minute music class every day, to take half-hour violin lessons twice a week, and to practice every night? How many organize the entire educational experience around music? There's a waiting list of more than 600 for a spot in the Conservatory Lab Charter School, an elementary school for mostly low-income Boston ... posted on Jun 2, 1773 reads

Dogs Think More Than We Know
Dog owners have long maintained that their pooches have a lot more going on between their furry ears than scientists acknowledge. Now, new research is adding to the growing evidence that man's best friend thinks a lot more than many humans have believed. The provocative new experiment indicated that dogs can do something that previously only humans, including infants, have been shown capable of do... posted on Jun 10, 3184 reads

A Little Boy Says 'Thank You'
Told he needed a tonsil operation at the age of three, Ben Grocock was terrified. So terrified, he insisted he would never speak again if the surgery went ahead. His parents brushed off his threat (he was three, after all) and the operation took place. But when Ben awoke, he stuck to what became his final word. For the next ten years he retreated into a world of silence. Until now. At 13, Ben has ... posted on Jun 23, 2281 reads

Bamboo Bicycles: A New Way To Pedal
Ten years ago, Luna the dog was gnawing on a piece of bamboo growing behind Craig Calfee's bicycle shop in California. Luna was adept at crushing wooden sticks with her powerful jaws. But the best she could manage with the hard, round stalks of bamboo was a tooth mark or two. Calfee wondered: If bamboo was strong enough to withstand Luna, why couldn't it be a bicycle frame? Calfee since has built ... posted on Jul 1, 2498 reads

What Makes You Eat More?
What makes you eat more food even when you are not hungry? In a compelling photo series, Time Magazine gives us seven answers to that question. Time of day for instance, is one of them. "Through routine, we condition our bodies to expect breakfast, lunch and dinner at the same time each day, says Randy Seeley, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati." Part of the reason you're hu... posted on Oct 8, 6150 reads

Bubble Wrap & An Inventive Teen
Grayson Rosenberger's mother lost both her legs in an auto accident when she was a teenager. Both his parents now work with prosthetic patients in Africa. The 15-year-old from Nashville found a way to join their effort when he was recognized as the grand prize winner in a Bubble Wrap Competition for Young Inventors. Rosenberger was able to turn a basic artificial leg into a more realistic one usin... posted on Jul 28, 1623 reads

The Compliment Machine
When walking along 14th Street NW, you might be surprised to hear a chime followed by a reassuring voice: "People are drawn to your positive energy,” or, “You’re a star in the face of the sky.” A small sign explains, "The Compliment Machine." This red-and-white striped sidewalk contraption plays a series of one hundred unique compliments for pedestrians through the day. It was designed by ... posted on Jul 26, 2292 reads

The Rose Man
In Lake Placid, Florida, the local superhero is an 85-year-old retiree known simply as "The Rose Man." The Rose Man -- a.k.a. Willard Campbell -- started using his petal power 20 years ago: "The idea hit me -- Well, if I've got excess roses, why don't I take 'em and give 'em to the patients in the hospital?" Today, he not only brings free, weekly roses to just about every business in town, he bri... posted on Aug 7, 2839 reads

CEOs Turn to Meditation
The crowd of Harvard Business School alums who gathered at their reunion to hear networking expert Keith Ferrazzi speak earlier this summer might have expected to pick up strategies on how to work a room, remember people's names, or identify mentors. But tactical skills, it turns out, aren't what turned Ferrazzi into a bestselling author or sought-after speaker. Instead Ferrazzi let his fellow alu... posted on Aug 13, 2809 reads

Message in a Wallet
"Many years ago, when I was in high school and working weekends to pay for the extras that my folks couldn't really afford (like a school ring, class trip, etc.), I lost my wallet.' So begins this real-life short story about a long-ago episode that held a lifelong lesson in its hands.... posted on Aug 25, 3849 reads

Ten Amazing Women You've Never Heard Of
There are plenty of women in the news, and while some are good role models, many aren't. So where are the role models? Sure, there are high profile heavyweights but what about the women who have blazed trails or championed causes who don't get daily headlines? There are thousands of them out there, yet their names don't often make the nightly newscasts or get mentioned in dinner party conversation... posted on Sep 5, 6107 reads

A Village Transformed By Light
In Gudda, a village with very little, residents are literally beaming. Just two years ago, villagers had never seen light after dark, unless it came from the moon. Then, solar light arrived and changed everything. There are no real roads that lead to this tiny village in Rajasthan that houses about 100 families. There is no electricity -- power lines don't extend out here. Water is scarce, too. T... posted on Sep 7, 1814 reads

Language: A Window to Human Nature
In "The Stuff of Thought," celebrated Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker sets out to explain how language reveals our inner nature. Terming us "verbivores, a species that lives on words," Pinker argues that our verbivorous, highly biased perception of reality differs radically from the findings of science yet allows us to thrive in a complex universe. The meanings of words matter profoundly, for w... posted on Sep 17, 2517 reads

Bangladesh's Floating Clinic
She'd always known that most of her 147 million fellow Bangladeshis lived in poverty. But when Runa Khan travelled through the country, she understood for the first time just how hard life could be. Back home, she cried for days. "There was so much misery, there," she remembers. "I couldn’t walk away from this problem." Khan, 48, resolved to find ways to help residents of northern Bangladesh get... posted on Sep 27, 2043 reads

Secrets of a Successful Relationship
The division of household labor is one of the most frequent sources of conflict in romantic relationships. But according to researchers Jess Alberts and Angela Trethewey, a successful relationship doesn't just depend on how partners divide their household chores, but on how they each express gratitude for the work the other one puts in. This article from The Greater Good Magazine shares more, incl... posted on Nov 7, 5362 reads

Strangest Sights on Earth
Ever since Google first let people scour the planet from the comfort of their computers through the Google Earth software program, fans have been on a virtual scavenger hunt from the North Pole to the South Pole looking for anything interesting, unusual, or unexplained. From shipwrecks to crop circles, from ads big enough to be read from space to a giant pink bunny nearly the size of a football fi... posted on Oct 28, 5998 reads

Six-year-old Piano Prodigy
Emily Bear is hardly typical for her age. Emily was two years old when she simply sat down at a piano and started playing rhythm patterns she had overheard. "I have so much music in my heart that it just falls out," Emily said.... posted on Dec 2, 3132 reads

6-Month-Olds Show Social Intelligence
Babies are good judges of character long before they learn to speak, according to a new study at Yale University. Infants as young as six months preferred characters which helped rather than hindered others in a simple puppet show. "This is the very first experiment in anywhere near this age that shows babies develop preferences for individuals based on their actions," says Karen Wynn at Yale, who... posted on Dec 4, 2428 reads