Former Cambodian Boy Soldier Defuses His Past
He's the little guy trying to make his country safe, according to photo displays at tourist museums. His method is simple. Aki Ra walks from landmine to landmine, defusing bombs not unlike those he had activated as a child soldier during the rise of the Khmer Rouge. In Cambodia, where 300 people a year are still injured by mines set over 3 decades ago, Ra has devoted his life to disarming them. Re... posted on Apr 18, 1486 reads

Global Oneness Project
Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee discovered the power of "oneness" in jazz music. An accomplished bass player who was performing and teaching jazz by his mid-20s, he recalls with reverence those rare moments when an ensemble melds into something special that transcends the skills of the individual players. For the past five years, Mr. Vaughan-Lee has put that concept of "oneness" into practice on a larger sc... posted on Mar 8, 2367 reads

Science Says: Kindness is Contagious!
In findings sure to gladden the heart of anyone who's ever wondered whether tiny acts of kindness have larger consequences, researchers have shown that generosity is contagious. Goodness spurs goodness, they found: A single act can influence dozens more. In a game where selfishness made more sense than cooperation, acts of giving were "tripled over the course of the experiment by other subjects w... posted on Mar 12, 4136 reads

How Innovation Happens
Ever wonder how Michael Dell came up with the idea to create his own computer company? Or how Pierre Omidyar dreamed up the online marketplace eBay? Or how Jeff Bezos came up with the bold moves needed to develop Amazon.com into one of America's most successful companies? "I always thought creativity was genetic -- that some people have it, some people don't," Jeff Dyer said. But that was before... posted on Mar 10, 8300 reads

Cancelling School Due to Good Weather
The principal of Bellingham Christian School canceled classes at the private school today because it's too nice out. "Good morning students, parents and staff. Yes, It's a Sun Day! Wahooo," Sampson wrote on a page on the school's Web site. The page also features a picture of him giving a thumbs-up from the seat of his year-old Suzuki 450 motorcycle. "That's right, school is CANCELLED today due t... posted on Mar 28, 2746 reads

Flow Funding of a Rockefeller
Born into wealth, Marion Rockefeller Weber has been a philanthropist since age 21, deciding which worthy causes to support among the many that would come her way. "The table would be like this," she says lifting both hands shoulder high to indicate the stacks of proposals piled high on her living room table. It wasn't a pleasant process for her, so she took a one-year sabbatical, a time of self-r... posted on Apr 6, 4313 reads

Celebrating Earth Day in Tough Times
What does Earth Day during the recession mean for Corbyn Hightower's family of five? Fixing, not tossing. Pedaling, not driving. Growing, not buying. Corbyn reflects, "Our needs are modest, our overhead has been lowered, and life has become about simple, sustainable pleasures." Even the four-year-old is turning the soil!... posted on Apr 23, 3230 reads

Man Sheds 365 Pounds Through Yoga
Last year, he started riding his bike for the first time since 1985. "I feel amazing. I feel like a child released on a playground," Larry says with a smile, his health and happiness clearly restored. How did he do it? "Yoga," he claims, along with the power of a positive attitude. ... posted on Apr 25, 4552 reads

Grannies for Social Change
On May 7th and 8th, five hundred grandmothers from across sub-Saharan Africa will gather in Swaziland. The purpose? To raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic sweeping their continent. Currently, these grandmothers are caring for scores of grandchildren who have been orphaned by AIDS. At this first International Grandmother's Gathering in Africa, they hope to take steps towards creating a hopeful fut... posted on May 6, 1796 reads

Clean Hands, Clear Mind
How many times have you heard the expression - maybe you've used it yourself: I'm going to wash my hands of something. Could there be more to the metaphor than meets the eye? Could washing your hands have some tangible effect on your thoughts? A study out recently in the journal Science suggests that the answer is yes, that hand washing can actually change your thinking. The author of the study, M... posted on May 27, 5147 reads

Climbing Mount Everest
Standing at 26,028 feet (8,847 meters) above sea level, 13-year-old Jordan Romero became the youngest person to summit Mount Everest on Saturday. Before starting out, the determined young boy from Big Bear, California said he wanted to climb Everest to inspire more young people to get outdoors. "Obese children are the future of America, the way things are going," he said on April 9 in Kathmandu. "... posted on May 23, 2107 reads

Money Giveth, Money Taketh Away
The idea that money does not buy happiness has been around for centuries, but now scientists have shown for the first time that even the thought of money reduces satisfaction in the simple pleasures of life. In two experiments, conducted by scientists at the University of Liege in Belgium, the subject's "savoring" ability -- the feeling of positive emotions such as contentment, gratitude, joy, awe... posted on May 31, 4875 reads

The Benefits of Single-Tasking
Doing several things at once is a trick we play on ourselves, thinking we're getting more done. In reality, our productivity goes down by as much as 40%. We don't actually multitask. We switch-task, rapidly shifting from one thing to another, interrupting ourselves unproductively, and losing time in the process. In this article, a Harvard Business Review blogger Peter Bregman writes about his one-... posted on Jun 17, 11313 reads

No Money? No Problem!
When people say, "Time is money," they usually don't mean it literally. But Maria Villacresses does. When the economy put a hitch in her wedding plans, she used "time dollars" on everything from a wedding-day makeover to an elaborate seven-layer cake. In a time bank, members get credit for services they provide to other members, from cooking to housekeeping to care rides to home repair. For each h... posted on Jun 26, 2943 reads

Most Valuable Helper
Would you know it if you lived in the midst of a giant? A local newspaper described real-life giant Manute Bol thus: "He symbolizes an unfortunate side of our sports obsession and how we measure the worth of those who play. The best athletes get the love, most times regardless of what they do away from sport. Bol, doing the work of a saint, is largely ignored." Once the tallest player in the NBA, ... posted on Jun 27, 1898 reads

Meditation Boosts Focus
These days, it seems nearly impossible to pay attention to one thing for a long time. A new study indicates that meditation helps people focus because it enables them to discern small differences between the things they see. The research was inspired by work of Buddhist monks, who spend years training in meditation. "You wonder if the mental skills, the calmness, the peace that they express, if th... posted on Jul 30, 4828 reads

The Business of Giving
Billionaire Paul Allen has taken his friend Bill Gates up on his challenge to publicly pledge the majority of his wealth to philanthropy. In honor of the 20th anniversary of his Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, which has given 3,000 grants to various nonprofits, Allan plans to leave the majority of his $13 billion estate to philanthropy to continue the work of his foundation and fund scientific re... posted on Jul 18, 1413 reads

Entrepreneur of Small Things
Jay Shafer lives in an 8-by-12 foot house. He built it from scratch. With no prior carpentry knowledge or experience. "I'm sure there are people out there who think I'm crazy for living so small, but living in this little house has allowed me to totally reinvent my life," he says. With a desire to "escape the rat race," the former grocery-store clerk's intentions were simple: focus on the things h... posted on Jul 22, 9201 reads

From Untouchable to Businesswoman
Plenty of people visiting Times Square traveled a long way to reach New York, but it's safe to say that few covered anything like the distances Kakuben Lalabhai Parmar had. This is not just a matter of mileage, although it's certainly a hike from Madhutra, a rural village in India's western state of Gujarat, to 42nd Street. At a deeper cultural level, her journey embodies a half-century of global ... posted on Jul 26, 3588 reads

Secret Agent of Kindness
For the past year, Laura Miller has been living a double life of sorts: administrative assistant by day, secret agent of kindness by night. The 32-year-old only recently revealed herself as the woman behind "Secret Agent L," a giver of random acts of kindness that has been brightening the days of unsuspecting Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania residents since July 2009. What started with a friend's request ... posted on Aug 10, 5754 reads

Ice Cream Truck of the Digital Age
Ice cream: the sweet taste of summer. It's the cool reward of a job well done, a game well-played, or a tasty excuse to prolong a classic first date. While the song of the ice cream truck has the power to bring forth a lot of smiles, one company has taken this to a whole new level with their latest invention: the world's first smile-activated ice cream vending machine. Using cutting-edge technolog... posted on Aug 13, 4156 reads

The Two-Rupee Miracle
On the dusty streets of Pushkar, India, a few men stop for a smoke. When an old woman asks for a rupee to buy lunch, they promptly refuse and walk away. Eyes on their backs, the woman observes, "These young men will burn more than a rupee for their bad habit, but will never give a rupee to a hungry person." With her words echoing in his ears, one man returns to offer her two rupees. An hour later,... posted on Aug 17, 6083 reads

Live Life as an Experiment
It was an experiment. Peter Bregman was returning an item to a store. The item was well within the return period, but there would be a 20 percent restocking fee. Having recently decided to live life as an experiment, Bregman decided to see if he could tap into the store manager's compassion to waive the fee. In the grand scheme of things, it was a small act. Yet in the process of experimenting, th... posted on Aug 19, 7431 reads

Bridges to Cross: Interview with Michael Grbich
As I was nearing my 75th birthday I was wondering, what can I do to celebrate this? I heard about this woman who tap-danced across a bridge, and I thought, this is what I'll do! So I pursued getting a permit. That was a very complicated process. You wouldn't think you'd have to have a permit to dance across the Golden Gate Bridge. There was a lot of bureaucracy involved, an insurance policy, a per... posted on Aug 25, 3644 reads

Why Racism is Bad For Your Health
When we think about the victims of racism, we typically think of the immediate targets of racial prejudice: Those who have suffered at the hand of discrimination and oppression. But new research has identified another, unlikely group of victims: the racists themselves. This article from the Greater Good magazine explains how we can build healthier, racially diverse interactions. ... posted on Sep 30, 8645 reads

Compassion Across Cubicles
Deb Lejeune had been working in the Foote Hospital billing office in Jackson, Michigan for only five months before she needed to take extensive unpaid leave to care for her husband, who had just received a kidney transplant. When her co-workers learned of her situation, they chipped in to help cover everything from transportation costs to house payments. "I couldn't have gotten through without the... posted on Oct 18, 2491 reads

Portraits of Compassion
In the exhibit hall of Washington D.C.'s U.S. State Department, there's a new art exhibit that paints foreign relations in a whole new light. The subjects are orphan children from Thailand. Ben Schumaker calls this "The Memory Project." What began in a spare bedroom at Shumaker's parent's house is now a full time venture that has delivered about 25,000 portraits to orphans in 31 different countrie... posted on Sep 15, 2533 reads

Beyond the Paycheck
Feeling stressed or overwhelmed? That may be a good thing. In several recent studies, social scientists have zeroed in on why paychecks alone can't explain the link between work and well-being. The findings suggest that, although people often yield to idleness, deep down they seek excuses to stay busy, because busyness is happiness. Even trivial tasks make us far happier than no tasks at all. In o... posted on Oct 14, 4086 reads

The Happy Planet Index
Statistician Nic Marks asks why we measure a nation's success by its productivity -- instead of by the happiness and well-being of its people. With this new meaning of progress, he introduces the Happy Planet Index, which tracks national well-being against resource use (because a happy life doesn't have to cost the earth). Which countries rank highest in the HPI? You might be surprised.... posted on Sep 24, 5823 reads

A Call for Another Way of Living / Godfrey Reggio:
A gem from the man behind the film, Koyaanisqatsi: "To be is to fly the flag of one's own shadow. That's what I try to tell students who are graduating, 'Don't let your diploma be your death certificate.' It's endemic for all of us to get caught into mass ways of living, yet we have the gift of life. There is no limitation on that other than the real power of limit, and limits give us power. It's ... posted on Oct 8, 7976 reads

Not Enough Time? Try Doing Nothing
I thought I took my bike on a ride through New York City's Central Park. But really? My bike took me on one. My experience changed many times as external forces determined my mood. Happiness anticipating a great ride, frustration imagining it would be ruined by the race, relief when it wasn't, fear when people ran in front of me, fear again, followed by guilt and self-criticism, when my distractio... posted on Oct 19, 6853 reads

Is Pure Altriusm Possible?
All around us we see evidence of human beings sacrificing themselves and doing good for others. Still, doubting altruism is easy. It's undeniable that people sometimes act in a way that benefits others, but it may seem that they always get something in return - at the very least, the "warm glow" of having their desire to help fulfilled. Biological altruism attempts to explain how unselfish behavi... posted on Nov 2, 2214 reads

The Mystery Muffin Giver
What would it be this morning- a warm Blueberry Lemon? Banana Nut? Cranberry Orange? Oatmeal Raisin? There is always a warm muffin or two tucked into a white napkin and placed next to the morning newspaper, waiting for me once I open my front door. Who is the Mystery Muffin Giver? I try to wake up early to see if I can catch him or her in the act. So far, I've been unsuccessful. But no matter wha... posted on Oct 26, 3751 reads

Random Acts of Kindness Across the Country
At New York City's Ground Zero Visitor's Center, one anonymous individual drops $10,000 cash in the donation box for the 9/11 memorial. A couple in Kansas City pledges to give $25,000 to Salvation Army, an organization that housed and helped them when they had nowhere to go. On his fifth birthday, Matthew didn't want any gifts. Instead, he told his friends to make a donation to charity, raising $2... posted on Nov 27, 4114 reads

The Art of Motivating Employees
Could a simple five-minute interaction with another person dramatically increase your weekly productivity? In some employment environments, the answer is yes, according to Wharton management professor Adam Grant. Grant has devoted significant chunks of his professional career to examining what motivates workers in settings that range from call centers and mail-order pharmacies to swimming pool lif... posted on Dec 9, 17917 reads

James George: On Waking Up to Life
International diplomat, author and visionary environmentalist James George was just about to get married at the age of 86. At an age when most people are on the way out, James George is fully engaged in the urgent task of waking people up. "You see, Consciousness is permeating human beings to the degree that it can, but we're not receptive. We're not allowing that penetration. Our fixed ideas, our... posted on Nov 29, 2735 reads

Inspirational Graduation Speech by Autistic Student
Of all the students at Smithfield High School, Eric Duquette may have been least likely to speak on graduation day. Diagnosed with autism at birth, he didn't learn how to speak until the age of five. Doctors told his parents that he'd probably end up in an institution. In a way, they right. Eric excelled to the point of getting accepted into every college he applied to. With parents who taught him... posted on Nov 11, 11774 reads

Be Selfish, Be Generous
As we consider all the things we are grateful for on this Thanksgiving Day, we also reflect on how we can turn that gratitude in action. What does it mean to be generous? Why do we feel inspired to give? And what can we share with the world? What follows is a five-minute video montage of CharityFocus volunteers reflecting on how being truly selfish leaves us with no choice but to be generous.... posted on Nov 25, 5021 reads

Facebook Takes a Look at Friendship
With 500 million users, Facebook has grown as big as the population of the European Union. With so much potential data, Paul Butler, an intern at Facebook, decided to map out at least one aspect: the locality of friendship. "I was interested in seeing how geography and political borders affected where people lived relative to their friends," he explains. The result is a stunning map of the world, ... posted on Dec 21, 5915 reads

5 Ways Giving is Good for You
As the spirit of giving wraps up this last week of 2010, here's some food for thought: Research suggests generosity is good for you. New studies attest that giving benefits not only the recipients but also the givers' health and happiness, while bringing strength to entire communities. Of course, you don't have to shop to reap the rewards of giving, the same benefits can come from donating to char... posted on Dec 27, 5114 reads

Quadruple Amputee Swims Across English Channel
Philippe Croizon lived a rather normal life with his family until a severe electric shock accident led to the amputation of all four of his limbs. Undeterred by his handicap, Philippe decided to swim the English Channel and eventually went on to become the first quadruple amputee to achieve the feat. Watch how Philippe prepared himself for this remarkable challenge!... posted on Feb 21, 3750 reads

Can Science Create Heroes?
Can modern science help us to create heroes? That's the lofty question behind the Heroic Imagination Project, a new nonprofit started by Phil Zimbardo, a psychologist at Stanford University. Heroism isn't supposed to be a teachable trait. We assume that people like Gandhi or Rosa Parks or the 9/11 hero Todd Beamer have some intangible quality that the rest of us lack. When we get scared and selfis... posted on Jan 7, 4602 reads

Homeless Man with 'Golden Voice'
Ted Williams was homeless, but with a golden voice. A chance YouTube video changed everything. Williams story became a viral sensation on January 4, with the original YouTube clip reaching more than four million views in 24 hours. He was found by a dispatch reporter on the side of the road, using his incredible voice to collect money on the street, holding a cardboard sign that asks motorists for ... posted on Jan 6, 8446 reads

An Academic Sparks Giving to Charity
Toby Orb is a researcher at Oxford University who lives off little more than 300 pounds a month. Yet he's inspiring a movement of charity-giving that's even more impressive than Zuckerberg, Gates, and Buffett. In the past year, Ord has given more than a third of his earnings to charities working in the poorest countries. Why? For Ord, the question is: why not? "If you only have a certain amount of... posted on Jan 25, 4127 reads

Children Show They Can Make a Difference
Parents want their kids and teens to care about others - whether at school, in their community, or in need a continent away. The good news is that children "are sort of hard-wired" to want to help others, says Michael Ungar, author of "The We Generation: Raising Socially Responsible Kids." "They want to take on responsibility." From a second grade environmentalist to a 21-year-old peacemaker, here... posted on Feb 5, 4810 reads

A Neighbor's Kind Act
They lived across the street from each other for years, but didn't know each other well. James Bronson was a fixture in Adams Morgan, a retired barber who'd been greeting passerby from his front stoop for more than 3 decades. John O'Leary was 25 years younger, a sound engineer who'd bought his six-bedroom townhouse just as the neighborhood was beginning to gentrify. Not the likeliest of roommates.... posted on Feb 17, 6106 reads

Over Ten Thousand People Attend His Funeral
Government officials shut down the streets. As everyone silently stood in line to pay the final respects, the magic of Ishwar-kaka was evident -- the richest men in the country stood next to human-waste scavengers next to powerful politicians next to reknowned Gandhians next to vegetable sellers next to his next-door neighbors next to kids who had merely read about him. A humble man who built ov... posted on Feb 15, 14635 reads

Mind vs. Machine
In the race to build computers that can think like humans, the proving ground is the Turing Test-an annual battle between the world's most advanced artificial-intelligence programs and ordinary people. The objective? To find out whether a computer can act "more human" than a person. In his own quest to beat the machines, the author discovers that the march of technology isn't just changing how we ... posted on Feb 14, 2961 reads

The 3 A's of Awesome
It's the little things in life. The waitress who notices your empty glass, and refills it without asking. Grabbing hold of a tissue, right before a sudden sneeze. The sound of snow falling. Freshly laundered clothes... An observer of life's smiling snapshots, Neil Pasricha reveals 3 secrets (all starting with A) to leading a life that's truly awesome.... posted on Feb 16, 23887 reads

Seaweeds May Be Earth's First Plants
A trove of seaweed-like fossils unearthed in southern China may be some of the oldest plants ever discovered. Until now the earliest definitive evidence of complex creatures resembling modern organisms was about 580 million years old. This new series of fossils predates those by anywhere from 20 million to 56 million years. "It's not the oldest multicellular life," remarks a co-author of the study... posted on Mar 13, 1534 reads