Restaurant Ripples: Kindness in Action
A real-life story of an anonymous act of kindness starts simply: "So there we are sitting in our little booth, finishing up a, tasty meal. It dawns on us, it’s time. Who will it be? Who will it be? Hmmm…. them! Who? Them, the couple behind me over my left shoulder. All right, lets do it! Our waiter comes over and asks: Would you like to take the rest with you? 'Yes, we would. Could we have our... posted on Dec 5, 5092 reads

Kindness Among Kin in Somali Crisis
In the narrow streets that wind through Mogadishu, it is difficult to find even one encampment of displaced people or a family that has been turned away. This is particularly remarkable because after nearly a year of brutal urban war, an estimated 600,000 people -- more than half the Somali capital city's population -- have been driven into the countryside. The tired and hungry arrivals have been ... posted on Dec 15, 1521 reads

Secret Santa 2.0
Larry Stewart, Kansas City's original Secret Santa, anonymously wandered city streets doling out $100 bills to anyone who looked like they needed it. For about a quarter century, Stewart quietly gave out more than $1.3 million to people in laundromats, diners, and thrift stores, saying it was his way of giving back for all that he had received in his lifetime. Stewart died of cancer earlier this y... posted on Dec 24, 1396 reads

Saving Hearts in the Caribbean
"Fifty percent of people having heart attacks die within 24 hours without the proper medical treatment. Even if you are rich enough to own a plane, it may be too late," says Nigerian cardiologist Earnest Madu, CEO of the Heart Institute of the Caribbean (HIC), which is proving that it's possible to provide high-quality health care in a developing country like Jamaica. The hospital maintains a poli... posted on Jan 11, 1917 reads

A Friend in the Cubicle Next Door
How friendly are you with your co-workers? Although close relationships at work are sometimes discouraged, it turns out that employees who are friendly with each other are better able to cope with office stress. Researchers have long known that work stress can take a heavy toll on health. Studies have shown that stress at work increases the risk for depression, heart attack and other health worrie... posted on Jan 17, 3559 reads

The Healing Power of Dogs
Dogs have long had special standing in the medical world. Trained to see for the blind, hear for the deaf and move for the immobilized, dogs have become indispensable companions for people with disabilities. But dogs appear to be far more than four-legged health care workers. Over the years, data on the larger role dogs play in health has trickled out from various corners of the world. ... posted on Jan 25, 4730 reads

Bicycles in Zambia
World Bicycle Relief is a stunningly simple idea. It delivers tens of thousands of bicycles to the poorest people in the world. Why? Because simple transportation improves people’s lives more than you can imagine. All of a sudden, a child can get to school, a parent can find work, and a rural medical worker can reach eight families with AIDS. A journalist talks here of what the gift of a bicycl... posted on May 22, 2516 reads

Don't Just Stand There, Think!
When you read something confusing, or work a crossword puzzle, or try to remember where you put your keys, what do you do with your body? Do you sit? Do you stand? Do you do anything with your hands? Do you move your eyes in a particular pattern? How you answer questions like these, it turns out, may determine how long it will take for you to decipher what you're reading, solve your puzzle, or get... posted on Jan 22, 4869 reads

Exercise Really Does Make You Younger
People who exercise regularly are biologically younger -- by up to nine years -- than those who don't. This striking recent finding may explain why exercise reduces the risk of heart attacks, diabetes, cancer, and other degenerative diseases. It actually suggests that active adults have cells that are measurably "younger" than those of inactive ones. This Times online article shares more about the... posted on Feb 2, 5619 reads

J-Mac: A Shot of a Lifetime
Jason McElwain, an autistic high school basketball team member in Rochester, New York, served as the team manager and spirit coach for several years. On the final game of the season the coach let him put on a uniform with the rest of the team. What happened next you have to see to believe.... posted on Feb 4, 5372 reads

My Hour on the Streets of New York
"On Nov 11 of 2006, I made a deal with myself that I would give $1 to every homeless person who asked. Call it a moment of clarity or whatever, but I woke up from a rough night of partying and just felt like this model of taking wasn't working for me anymore." So begins this real-life story of one man's unique experiment in unconditional giving on the streets of NY.... posted on Feb 6, 4402 reads

An Unexpected Dinner Table Conversation
It's like an episode from the old TV show "The Millionaire," in which a man who never appeared onscreen — except for his hands — gave out shockingly large checks to people on the condition that the source of the money never be revealed. It was a script come to life for a couple named Alissa and Barry as they sat down at a cafe in Iowa last Thursday.... posted on Feb 9, 4081 reads

Slow Medicine
A group of culinary mavericks took a giant step backward down the evolutionary trail with the "slow food" movement. Now doctors are following suit, rejecting the assembly line of modern medical care for older, gentler options. For many of us, a big challenge is to decide what kind of medical care our parents should get. Dr. Dennis McCullough, a professor of medicine at Dartmouth College, shows in ... posted on Feb 28, 3064 reads

The Beauty of Planet Earth
An Emmy Award-winning BBC nature documentary, Planet Earth is the first high-definition video series to provide, in the words of its makers, a "definitive look at the diversity of our planet." The series' narrator, Sir David Attenborough, notes: "Planet Earth is more a celebration of our planet than a lament about the state of it. It shows what is still there. In some areas there is no doubt that ... posted on Mar 1, 2910 reads

Meet the Proverbial Scholar
Paremiology -- the study of proverbs, from the Greek "paroimia." I stumble across this curious word in my background research, but I haven't a clue what it really means until I meet Wolfgang Mieder from the University of Vermont. This animated gentleman has built up a worldwide reputation during his 30-plus years of reveling in the common phrases people use to persuade, humor, or moralize. But the... posted on Mar 6, 3346 reads

A Book Club for the Homeless
At a time when book-reading is declining and is especially low among poorer people, the book club at 2100 Lakeside seems ill-fated. But, while 1 in 4 people polled admitted to having read no books in 2006, homeless men here are reading two a month. The books are supplied by the Cleveland Public Library in partnership with Care Alliance, a health care provider for the homeless. Donna Kelly, an outr... posted on Mar 15, 2056 reads

The Day So Far
"It's a grey, blustery Wednesday morning here on the west of Scotland. A nothing much kind of day. The plan was, I would take the "weans" to school, walk out to the supermarket, pick up a few things, and then my day could begin.Well the walk to the supermarket takes you, literally, across the forecourt of a Fire Station. As I came up to it I heard sirens. Not fire sirens though." So begins this si... posted on Apr 4, 4101 reads

A Teacher's Lessons for Business Leaders
Ron Clark used to be an elementary school teacher in North Carolina -- but after watching a program about a New York City school that had a hard time attracting qualified teachers, he decided to head to New York with the goal of teaching in one of its toughest schools. Clark eventually landed a job doing just that -- in Harlem. He asked if he could teach a class of fifth-graders who had been perfo... posted on Apr 16, 7423 reads

World's Largest Group Hug
Thousands of students from 10 Canadian high schools think they may have squeezed into the Guinness Book of World Records with the world's biggest bear hug. Organizer Peter Lamothe, who works at St. Matthew Catholic High School, estimated that 12,000 students, teachers and parent volunteers took part in a gargantuan group embrace Friday as part of an effort to raise more than $150,000 for local no... posted on May 29, 3451 reads

7 Year Old Takes Six Bullets to Save Mother's Life
Seliethia Parker always saw her role as protector for her 7-year-old daughter, Alexis Goggins. But it was Alexis who ended up saving her mother's life by using her little body to shield her mom from a fusillade of bullets. Doctors told Parker that her heroic little daughter, who was shot six times, would never walk or talk again. But Alexis has surprised people with her gritty toughness. She's no... posted on May 28, 6028 reads

Doing Good, While Wearing Tuxedos!
"Two fools, one adventure, no idea." That was their tag line. Heath Buck and Doug Campbell barely knew one another when they decided to set out on what they dubbed a "crazy adventure of the charitable kind." For six months, the duo traveled from Hong Kong to London raising money for local causes they encountered along the way. The catch? They wore tuxedos the whole time.... posted on May 27, 3404 reads

Dance Like No One Is Watching
There are no weekend box office charts for online videos. But if there were, at the top of nearly every list right now might well be a four-and-a-half-minute video called "Dancing." In just a month since its online release, it has been viewed by more than ten million people. After 14 months of traveling in 42 countries, it's the story of a guy named Matt doing the gratitude dance with a cast of th... posted on Oct 3, 8338 reads

How To Live With Just 100 Things
Excess consumption is practically a modern-world religion. But as anyone with a filled-to-the-gills closet knows, the things we accumulate can become oppressive. With all this stuff piling up and never quite getting put away, we're no longer huddled masses yearning to breathe free; we're huddled masses yearning to free up space on a countertop. Which is why people are so intrigued by the 100 Thing... posted on Jun 11, 6785 reads

The Baseball Player With One Leg
Adam Bender is eight years old and loves to play baseball -- not unusual for boys his age. What is remarkable is the fact that he plays with just one leg. When he was a year old Adam lost his left leg to cancer, but his parents were determined not to let this stop him from living a regular life. "I was a little hesitant when we first brought him up here for baseball," admits his mother, "I thought... posted on Jun 19, 3859 reads

Peace on a Billboard
Seeing Peace: Artists Collaborate with the United Nations, is a visionary initiative that brings the imagination, through the presence of the artist, to the table of the General Assembly of the UN. The goal is to embed the creative process into the great global dialogues of the day. Former Secretary of Defense of the United States, Robert McNamara, commenting on wars of the 20th century, wrote: "... posted on Jun 23, 2550 reads

How to Stop Procrastinating
More than once during your ongoing game of dodge-the-guy-in-accounting, you have pondered the obvious: Why don't I just fill out the form already? Why is it that I still haven't turned in an expense report from months ago? You can take solace in the fact that you are, at least, not alone. "Everyone procrastinates," says Joseph Ferrari, a DePaul University psychology professor who has extensively r... posted on Jun 24, 5340 reads

First Woman To Walk Lost Arrow
Last July, nursing school graduate Libby Sauter became the first woman to successfully cross the Lost Arrow Spire Highline, located 2,890 feet high above the Yosemite Valley floor in Yosemite National Park. Considered by many who practice the art of balance sports to be a kind of Mecca, Lost Arrow Spire's height is equal to two Empire State buildings stacked on top of the other, plus 390 feet. It ... posted on Jun 28, 3581 reads

Are You The Favorite Person of Anybody?
A man stands on a sidewalk, waiting to ask passersby a single question: "Are you the favorite person of anybody?" Remarkably simple, yet profound its implications, this script, penned by indie phenom Miranda July, asks viewers to take an inward glance at their own lives. With subtle direction and wonderfully quirky performances, the film was also recently selected for YouTube's online screening.... posted on Jul 5, 4750 reads

Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious
Two years ago, when Malcolm Gladwell published his best-selling “Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking,” readers throughout the world were introduced to the ideas of Gerd Gigerenzer, a German social psychologist. known in social science circles for his breakthrough studies on the nature of intuitive thinking. Before his research, this was a topic often dismissed as crazed superstition.... posted on Jul 12, 5626 reads

Africa's Great Green Wall
Three years after it was first proposed, preparations for an African 'wall of trees' to slow down the southwards spread of the Sahara desert are finally getting underway. The 'Great Green Wall' will involve several stretches of trees from Mauritania in the west to Djibouti in the east, to protect the semi-arid savannah region of the Sahel -- and its agricultural land -- from desertification.... posted on Jul 14, 2648 reads

Saving the Sound of Silence
Hearing the chirp of a bird in the distance, I expect our unofficial park guide to identify another animal resident here in Olympic National Park, as he had earlier with the call of a Roosevelt elk. "An intruder," he whispers in a serious tone. As Hempton whips out a hand-held sound metre from his bike messenger bag, I realize it's not birdsong but the drone of an airplane in the far distance that... posted on Aug 5, 2161 reads

The Real Meaning of Security
"I see this word, hear this word, feel this word everywhere. Real security. Security check. Security watch. Security clearance. Why has all this focus on security made me feel so much more insecure? What does anyone mean when they speak of security? In fact, security is essentially elusive, impossible. We all die. We all get sick. We all get old. People leave us. People surprise us. People change ... posted on Nov 12, 4698 reads

Harry Potter and the Power of Imagination
"One of the greatest formative experiences of my life preceded Harry Potter, though it informed much of what I subsequently wrote in those books. This revelation came in the form of one of my earliest day jobs. Though I was sloping off to write stories during my lunch hours, I paid the rent in my early 20s by working in the research department at Amnesty International's headquarters in London." So... posted on Aug 7, 2890 reads

Seeing Human
"Seventy-five percent of pet owners consider their animal part of the family. Eighty percent of computer users curse out loud at uncooperative machines. Seventy percent of people who own a Roomba the much-hyped room-cleaning robot end up giving it a name. Most of us are apt to attach human characteristics to nonhuman objects and animals, a tendency known as anthropomorphism. New research now sugge... posted on Aug 17, 2881 reads

A 101-Year-Old's Literary Lifeline
Stephanie Sandleben, a yoga instructor, just finished Chapter 19 of Tina Brown's biography of Princess Diana. Sara Nolan, a graduate student, is 30 pages into a Rumer Godden novel. Mark Kalinowsky, a real estate broker, has long since stopped reading; he just comes to chat. These three disparate characters are part of a ragtag crew that drops in on 101-year-old Elizabeth Goodyear. A lifelong lover... posted on Aug 12, 2570 reads

Believing You're Right Even When You're Not
"What does it mean to be convinced?" Neurologist-turned-writer Robert Burton explores that question from the standpoint of modern biology which tells us, "despite how certainty feels, it is neither a conscious choice nor even a thought process. Certainty and similar states of "knowing what we know" arise out of primary brain mechanisms that, like love or anger, function independently of rationali... posted on Sep 9, 4400 reads

Play It Forward
Can a computer game inspire its players to do good deeds? A Montreal entrepreneur thinks so. Akoha.com takes the pay-it-forward idea of spreading acts of kindness and gives it a competitive edge: players vie over who is the most benevolent. Players on the website receive a pack of cards through the mail, each with a mission. These can be as simple as making someone smile to giving someone a book ... posted on Sep 12, 3137 reads

The Benefit of Tree-Lined Streets
Children who live in tree-lined streets have lower rates of asthma, a New York-based study suggests. Columbia University researchers found that asthma rates among children aged four and five fell by 25% for every extra 343 trees per square kilometer. They believe more trees may aid air quality or simply encourage children to play outside. This article from the BBC shares more.... posted on Sep 14, 2273 reads

A Daughter's First Words
A little girl who cannot walk or talk has used a machine to tell her mother for the first time: "I love you." Six-year-old Elke Wisbey, who was born brain-damaged, has been able to communicate with her family by using a high-tech gadget which tracks her eye movements. Readers of a local newspaper raised money to buy the specially-adapted machine for the family. The MyTobii Smartbox machine from Sw... posted on Nov 2, 1829 reads

A Daughter's First Words
A little girl who cannot walk or talk has used a machine to tell her mother for the first time: "I love you." Six-year-old Elke Wisbey, who was born brain-damaged, has been able to communicate with her family by using a high-tech gadget which tracks her eye movements. Readers of a local newspaper raised money to buy the specially-adapted machine for the family. The MyTobii Smartbox machine from Sw... posted on Nov 6, 4248 reads

37 Ways To Join The Gift Economy
"You don't have to participate in a local currency or service exchange to be part of the cooperative gift economy. Any time you do a favor for a family member, neighbor, colleague, or stranger you're part of it. Here are some ways you can spend time in the gift economy, where you'll find fun, freedom, and connection." So begins this inspiring list of starting places from Yes! magazine.... posted on Nov 21, 3465 reads

What Happy People Don't Do
Happy people spend a lot of time socializing, going to church and reading newspapers -- but they don't spend a lot of time watching television, a new study finds. That's what unhappy people do. Although people who describe themselves as happy enjoy watching television, it turns out to be the single activity they engage in less often than unhappy people, said John Robinson, a professor of sociolo... posted on Nov 23, 4929 reads

40,000 at a Farm in Colorado
As a thank you to customers, after being informed of raids in local churches where food was being stolen, two farm owners in Platteville, Colorado sent out an open invite to their community to help themselves to any of the harvest off their 600-acre farm! Joe and Chris Miller, the farm owners, were stunned when more than 40,000 people showed up. "'Overwhelmed' is putting it mildly," they said of... posted on Nov 26, 3157 reads

The Art of Creativity
Has this ever happened to you? You're out for a jog, completely relaxed, your mind a pleasant blank. Then all of a sudden the solution to a problem you've been mulling over for weeks pops into your head. You can't help but wonder why you didn't think of it before. In such moments you've made contact with the creative spirit, that elusive muse of good -- and sometimes great -- ideas. Yet it is more... posted on Dec 9, 5469 reads

The Biggest Neighborhood News Blog
A woman in Philadelphia hypes an upcoming public knitting day. A man in Karachi, Pakistan, laments power outages that have become the norm for the frustrated residents there. And a concerned citizen in Bangalore, India, critiques racy advertising that recently went up in the city. These posts-aggregated at Metblogs, the largest city-specific blog network in the world-provide little glimpses of lif... posted on Dec 17, 3867 reads

Kjerstin Erickson's Dream
She didn't have a business plan. She didn't have a revenue model. She didn't have connections. And she didn't have a penny. But as a 20 year-old, Kjerstin Erickson began dreaming the "audacious" idea of creating the largest library for a refugee camp in the world. Kjerstin now works among three refugee camps in Zambia, helping 60,000 refugees to build better lives. This is her story.... posted on Dec 19, 3473 reads

Disabled Guitarist Finds A New Sound
Imagine that your hands shook so badly that you couldn't lift a glass of water. That's what life is like for millions of Americans who suffer from essential tremor disorder. The condition is rarely fatal, but it can be devastating if you're a musician. Guitarist Richard Crandell found that out the hard way. Crandell was diagnosed six years ago with essential tremor disorder. An estimated 10 millio... posted on Jan 4, 3641 reads

What Will Change Everything?
Every year, John Brockman -- who runs the nonprofit Edge Foundation in New York -- asks a gaggle of forward-thinking people a provocative question. This is the Edge Annual Question for 2009: "What will change everything?" Writer David Bodanis suggests that some kind of massive technological failure would be game-changing. Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, says that reinventing indu... posted on Jan 6, 4688 reads

The Artist Who Paints Disappearing Rain Forests
There are lots of books out there that illustrate the irrevocable damage that we are doing to the rainforests - but this is one with a twist. The images in Rainforest: Light and Spirit are not photographs, but paintings by artist Harry Holcroft, who has travelled the world's rainforests for the past four years. This poignant photo series presents some of his work.... posted on Jan 10, 6690 reads

Dr. King's Definition of Service
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in his famous 1968 speech "The Drum Major Instinct, shared a stirringly powerful and timeless definition of service. Listen to his delivery of it in this two minute piece.... posted on Jan 19, 5642 reads