From Me Generation to Re-Generation
Retirement years have long been marked by withdrawal, entitlement and the pursuit of leisure. But all that is changing now with a generation that's 60-and-still-raring-to-go. The emerging model embraces personal growth, giving back and continued employment. These hallmarks of the new retirement have the potential to reshape the economy and society to everyone's benefit. The challenge is not, as ma... posted on Oct 20, 1894 reads

Healing Through Acceptance of Pain
When he was 29, Steven Hayes had the first of a series of panic attacks. Today, at 57, he hasn't had a panic attack in a decade, and is a well-known psychologist and author of 27 books. "Get Out of Your Mind & Into Your Life", is his most recent work. Its first sentence is: "People suffer." But in a radical departure from traditional cognitive therapy, Hayes and other top researchers are focusing ... posted on Nov 7, 3624 reads

Trading In PhDs For Village Life
Dhirendra and Smita were both professors of engineering who traded in their classroom careers for a shovel and hoe. In 1983, the couple moved to a small tribal village in India and built a new house and lifestyle. No electricity, no vehicles, no running water. Instead they would work on farms, eat fresh, pesticide-free produce, drink their own cow's milk, and live with the rhythms of nature. Event... posted on Nov 2, 2300 reads

Oprah's Favorite Giveaway
Over the years, television's Oprah Winfrey has given away everything from cars and homes to cookies and sweaters on her show. But last week, she gave away a different sort of gift -- the gift of giving. Every member of Oprah's audience received $1,000 and a Sony DVD Handycam, with one catch: the more than 300 audience members were told they had to use the money for a good cause. "You're going to o... posted on Nov 6, 3683 reads

A Man Who Sees Beauty In Lepers
Born in a village in 1914, Baba Amte spent formative years with Gandhi, Tagore, and other luminaries, using those experiences to dive into a colorful odyssey -- to conquer his own fears and expand the notion of justice and peace through innovative experiments. Much of Baba Amte’s life has been dedicated to the care and rehabilitation of leprosy patients at a time when the disease was incurable. ... posted on Dec 2, 1611 reads

Creating A Web Of Giving
Thanks to San Francisco-based nonprofit Kiva.org, with just a few clicks of the mouse, most everyone can become a microfinancier. At Kiva.org, a schoolteacher in Kansas can partner with, say, an expert seamstress in countries like Kenya, Mexico and Ecuador to jump-start a tailor shop. And that's only the tip of the possibility iceberg. Founders Matthew and Jessica Flannery came up with the idea fo... posted on Feb 10, 2501 reads

Kids Worldwide Help Orphan Chimps
Orphaned chimpanzees in Africa will get a new place to rest their heads thanks to the remarkable efforts of hundreds of young people: Third graders in Los Angeles raised $430 selling hand-crafted necklaces; Youth at a zoo in Sweden raised $1,500; 8 year-old Brandon collected jars of "chimp change" totaling $319.26 from local students at Eastern Illinois University. All of them were members of Jane... posted on Dec 28, 3001 reads

The Impact of Gratitude
In an experimental comparison, people who kept gratitude journals on a weekly basis exercised more regularly, reported fewer physical symptoms, and were more optimistic about the upcoming week compared to those who recorded hassles or neutral life events. Psychologists Robert Emmons at the University of California at Davis, and Michael McCullough, at the University of Miami, foremost researchers o... posted on Jan 10, 4549 reads

MLK's Influence On You
Almost 40 years after his death, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his vision continue to provide hope and inspiration to the world. Marian Wright Edelman -- activist and winner of the Albert Schweitzer Prize for Humanitarianism -- offers reflections on her mentor's life and message based on their friendship. In this article, Edelman lends insight into King's definition of service, and encourage... posted on Jan 16, 1695 reads

Peru's Home of Miracles
When Alan and Marie Patton lost their son, Chandler, they decided to do something special in his memory: the couple moved from Colorado to an old hacienda in the Sacred Valley of Peru where they adopted 29 kids! Casa de Milagros (House of Miracles), as they named their house, is an extraordinary children's home near historic Machu Piccu, Peru. The home seeks to heal the mind, body and spirit of ma... posted on Jan 22, 3361 reads

America's Nicest Homeless Shelter
A space defined by its generosity, the Wellspring House near Boston is 350 years old -- and beautifully restored. "The floorboards are original, the fireplace is original, the central beams are original," says Nancy Schwoyer. "In some ways it is a bed and breakfast, isn't it? It's just that it's a bed and breakfast for homeless families." Schwoyer runs Wellspring -- easily America's nicest homeles... posted on Feb 3, 2106 reads

$15 Music Video
Popular singer Sarah McLachlan asked what her video budget could buy, and found the answer in unexpected places. The result was this unique video, highlighting with graphics and music the normal costs of producing a contemporary video and alternate ways that money could be spent. For instance, the hair and makeup expenses for a video shoot would cost about $5,000 for a day in Los Angeles. Or, that... posted on Feb 25, 4303 reads

Freedom Writers
Nothing could have prepared Erin Gruwell for her first day of teaching at Wilson High School in Long Beach, Calif. A recent college graduate, Erin landed her first job only to discover many of her students had been deemed "unteachable". As teenagers living in a racially divided urban community, they were already hardened by first-hand exposure to gang violence, juvenile detention, and drugs. Gruwe... posted on Mar 11, 2371 reads

Doctor Inspires Service To Ethiopia
The average life expectancy in Ethiopia is forty years; yet, the ratio of physicians to population remains 1:100,000. As a child growing up in a rural village in Ethiopia, Ingida Asfaw dreamed of becoming a doctor. Carrying his family's hopes and dreams, he traveled to the United States aboard a cargo ship in 1958, arriving at age 16 with little money and only a small suitcase. He attended college... posted on Apr 1, 2399 reads

Miracle Worker for the Children
Raised by a single mother on public assistance in a tough Brooklyn neighborhood, Dr. Gloria WilderBraithwaite grew up much like the children she treats today. And still Gloria worked her way through Howard University and Georgetown Medical School, fired by the desire to help others. For the past 14 years, she has been riding in a blue van bringing medical care where it is needed the most by people... posted on Apr 16, 3932 reads

What Babies Know & We Don't
Babies might seem a bit dim in their first six months of life, but researchers are getting smarter about what babies know, and the results are surprising. Soon after birth, infants are keen and sophisticated generalists, capable of seeing details in the world that are visible to some other animals but invisible to adults, older children and even slightly older infants. Here are just a few of the m... posted on May 31, 3790 reads

Teenage Hero of Dhaka's Slums
By age 18, Doly Akter's work in the slums of Bangladesh to help improve health and education has been widely praised, even earning her the chance to speak at the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Although born in an area with problems in health and education, Doly's mother saved hard and sent her daughter to school. Doly, in turn, starting serving the neighborhood. Two years ago, she an... posted on Jun 29, 3178 reads

A Symphony Conductor Gives Back
Meet Luis Szaran, a famous musician and social entrepreneur who has dedicated himself to helping redeem the lives of poor and neglected children through music. As the son of a Paraguayan farmer, and one of eight children, Szaran rose from humble beginnings to become the conductor of Paraguay's national symphony. With a lifelong passion for music and with a desire to give back, Szaran set up the So... posted on Aug 8, 3323 reads

Education By Design
Ten years ago, if an architect said he was designing a green school, most people would have assumed he had decided to paint the facade a pleasant shade of sage. But now it’s 2007, and "green schools" are part of a growing movement that is changing the environments in which students learn -- and has parents clamoring to get their children on waiting lists. This is the business of sustainable scho... posted on Aug 27, 1593 reads

The Clothesline Makes A Comeback
At last count, in 2005, there were 88 million dryers in the US. Annually, each dryer consumes 1,079 kilowatt hours of energy per household, creating 2,224 pounds of carbon-dioxide emissions. Concerned about global warming and her family's energy consumption, Michelle Baker wanted to hang her wash outside. She scoured stores for a clothesline durable enough to withstand Vermont winters and came bac... posted on Aug 30, 2871 reads

Time To Be A Witness
Two years into his retirement from the U.S. Forest Service, Jim Lockyer is still too busy painting and doing volunteer work to spend the kind of time he'd like on another favorite pastime: recording outdoor sights and sounds in his nature journal. So at journaling workshops in the Philadelphia area and beyond, the Delaware County artist and naturalist urges his students to do as he says, not as he... posted on Sep 6, 2212 reads

Argentina Shoe Drop
Blake Mycoskie wanted to get away from it all. After founding and running four businesses and losing by a sliver on The Amazing Race, he escaped last January to Argentina, where he learned to sail, dance the tango and play competitive polo. He also visited impoverished villages where few, if any, children had shoes. "I was sitting on a field on a farm one day, and I had an epiphany," says Mycoskie... posted on Sep 8, 2901 reads

A Father Teaches Non-Violence
"I was 16 years old and living with my parents 18 miles outside of Durban, South Africa, in the middle of the sugar plantations. We were deep in the country and had no neighbors, so my two sisters and I would always look forward to going to town to visit friends or go to the movies. One day, my father asked me to drive him to town for an all-day conference, and I jumped at the chance. Since I was ... posted on Sep 21, 4215 reads

Bill Clinton & My Commitment
Bill Clinton recently introduced MyCommitment.org, a new initiative which aims to provide all people with the resources to take action and make a real change in their communities and around the world. The website is inspired by the idea that as global citizens, we all have the unprecedented ability to help others achieve their dreams and realize a better future. Anyone -- regardless of age, incom... posted on Sep 30, 3650 reads

Wired For Leadership?
When participants in a trial at Arizona State University were asked to think about the future, levels of brain activity varied significantly between those considered visionaries and non-visionaries. Visionaries showed much higher levels of brain activity than non-visionaries in areas of the brain associated with visual processing and organization of information. The visionary leaders had more effi... posted on Oct 1, 2277 reads

Secrets of the Very Very Old
Any centenarian in the US today has lived to see eighteen presidents serve the United States through two World Wars, the civil rights and womens' liberation movements and the rise and eventual fall of Communism. If s/he worked on a farm, s/he saw the progression from horses to tractors, and a Model T tooted its way down the street. S/he is older than the Empire State Building, bubble gum and Micke... posted on Oct 9, 4480 reads

Art as Attention to Living
"works & conversations," a unique gift-economy art magazine that showcases a series of profound and deeply personal interviews with artists from all walks of life, talks with former museum photographer Nick Hlobeczy. Editor Richard Whittaker’s shared exploration with Hlobeczy pushes and redefines the boundaries of art, bringing it seamlessly into an attention to living. Among other things, the t... posted on Oct 13, 2340 reads

Dying Homeless Man's Lesson in Humanity
A homeless man with a few months left to live and his caregivers have formed an unusual bond. Patrick Conway, with virtually nothing to his name turned out to have a lot to offer others. And in return, Conway, who'd always hated hospitals,is beginning to understand how love and compassion can enter a man's life in unforeseen ways. Dr. Melissa Mattison calls Conway "a breath of fresh air...There he... posted on Nov 2, 3345 reads

My Vision of a Compassion Future
Last week, the Dalai Lama received the highest civilian award in the United States -- the Congressional Gold Medal -- with recognition by the President and members of both the Republican and Democratic party members. As the spiritual leader of the Tibetan Buddhists, the Dalai Lama has been a courageous and steadfast voice of support for fundamental human rights, particularly the right to freedom ... posted on Oct 27, 1992 reads

Reading Reinvented
It is a more reliable storage device than a hard disk drive, and it sports a sleek user interface. (No instruction manual or "For Dummies" guide needed.) And, it is instant-on and requires no batteries. Many people think it is so perfect an invention that it can't be improved upon, and react with indignation at any implication to the contrary. "The book," says Jeff Bezos, 43, the CEO of Internet ... posted on Dec 3, 2869 reads

Top 10 Celebrity Scientists
They brought us black holes and great whites, gorillas and chimps, footprints and evolution ... and weren't shy about it. This website offers a rundown of 10 of history's greatest 'celebrity scientists' including Richard Feynman, Jane Goodall and Stephen Hawking, complete with snapshots of their contributions and insightful quotations from each.... posted on Dec 18, 4892 reads

The Story of Stuff
From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view. The Story of Stuff is a fast-paced, fact-filled video that looks at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. It intelligently exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and brings people ... posted on Dec 19, 4638 reads

Competing for Change
Everybody loves a contest, from highbrow tests of knowledge like "Jeopardy," to rollicking displays of artistic ambition like "American Idol". Now, Ashoka's Changemakers.net is tapping into the same sporting instinct to inspire people to think, connect, and help, using one of the Internet's signature movements: open sourcing. The group hosts online competitions in which contestants offer solutions... posted on Jan 15, 1667 reads

10 Ways We Get the Odds Wrong
These days, it seems like everything is risky, and worry itself is bad for your health. The more we learn, the less we seem to know -- and if anything makes us anxious, it's uncertainty. At the same time, we're living longer, healthier lives. So why does it feel like even the lettuce is out to get us? The human brain is exquisitely adapted to respond to risk -- faced with a precipice or a predator... posted on Feb 13, 6265 reads

Science Reinvented
The explosively growing World Wide Web has rapidly transformed retailing, publishing, personal communication and much more. Innovations have forced old-line institutions to adopt whole new ways of thinking, working and doing business. Science could be next. A small but growing number of researchers -- and not just the younger ones -- have begun to carry out their work via the wide-open blogs, wiki... posted on Mar 10, 2579 reads

The Power of Mindsight
Our childhood shapes our brain in many ways -- and so it determines our most basic ways of reacting to others, for better and for worse. According to UCLA psychiatrist Daniel Siegel, if parents consistently fail to acknowledge and discuss the connections between a child's behavior and her emotions, the child won't gain any insight into her own thoughts and feelings, nor will she appreciate other p... posted on Mar 11, 3484 reads

Garden Variety Revolution
Earthworms are the original recyclers. They eat garbage, shred plant residue, and then spread the broken-down matter as they burrow into the ground.The worms also mix and aerate the soil, improve its drainage, and provide channels for roots to take hold. With the help of a talented social entrepreneur, hard work, and good luck, earthworms are making history again at TerraCycle Inc. The eco-friendl... posted on Mar 28, 2491 reads

From Good to Great
Jim Collins, perhaps the most influential management expert alive today, has served as a teacher to senior executives and CEOs at more than a hundred corporations and non-profits worldwide. Collins' 2001 book, "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap ... and Others Don't," attained long-running positions. In 2005, Collins, a former Stanford University business school professor, wrote a 3... posted on Dec 30, 4055 reads

Kids for Peace
Hana Craft likes to sing, play the piano, and play sports at school. But at just 9 years old, she's also focused on making the world better. "Peace is important to me because when I grow up, I want my kids to live in a safe and kind world," she says. Hana is an original member of Kids for Peace, an organization cofounded by her mom, Jill McManigal, and a local teen who's passionate about promoting... posted on Apr 29, 2575 reads

Playing Doctor: Interview with Patch Adams
Patch Adams first became famous within medical circles, and then to the rest of the world, as a doctor in clown's clothing, a social activist who uses humor and his medical training to advocate for a more humane, affordable, and even playful health care system. Shortly after graduating from medical school in the early 1970s, he founded what would become the Gesundheit Institute, which started as a... posted on May 14, 3028 reads

Designs on the Future
An important player in the design world, Valerie Casey had been pitching new packaging and product-design strategies to corporate giants with less-than-stellar environmental resumes. Hesitant to even broach the topic of sustainability at the risk of scaring off her potential clients, and anguished at her own cowardice, she began, there on the plane, to write a "Kyoto Treaty" of design, a call to a... posted on Jun 26, 2055 reads

Germany's Very Unusual Traffic Solution
Like countless other communities, this west German town lived for years with a miserable traffic problem. Each day, thousands of cars and big trucks barreled along the two-lane main street, forcing pedestrians and cyclists to scamper for their lives. The usual remedies -- from safety crossings to speed traps -- did no good. So the citizens of Bohmte decided to take a big risk. Since September, the... posted on Jul 3, 3630 reads

Easing Childrens' Hospital Fears
It seems logical and reasonable, now, that in a children's hospital, it should be someone's job to make kids with serious illnesses less fearful and more comfortable as a boon to their treatment and recovery. But 44 years ago, when Myra Fox started working at Boston Children's Hospital, it was something new. "It was a whole different way of looking at the whole child, and not just the medical prob... posted on Jul 11, 2260 reads

A Story of Five Million Steps
In 1996, Terry Hitchcock ran from Minneapolis to Atlanta in 75 consecutive days, covering the equivalent of a marathon or more each day. He ran because he wanted to bring attention to all everyday heroes, because he wanted to make towns and cities and even the whole country aware that 35 million people struggle everyday with the extraordinary challenges of being part of a single-parent family. He ... posted on Jul 16, 2685 reads

The 112 Year-Old Artist
Frank Calloway spends his days turning visions from his youth into lively murals -- and at 112 years old, the images of his childhood are a window to another time. Drawn on sheets of butcher paper and sometimes stretching to more than 30 feet long, his scenes give a glimpse into the early 20th century. Calloway, diagnosed with schizophrenia, lived about half his life in state mental health centers... posted on Jul 29, 2636 reads

Hockey Hero With A Big Heart
"Our son is my newest "Hockey Hero." He plays goalie on his small hometown ice hockey team. One weekend on matchday, we arrived a bit late and quickly found our seats and settled in. As I looked around, I noticed we were sitting with a family who had a mentally and physically handicapped child. We could hear the exciement in his voice when he said, "Mom, look the goalie is going to get the puck... posted on Sep 18, 3348 reads

Why I Blog
"For centuries, writers have experimented with forms that evoke the imperfection of thought, the inconstancy of human affairs, and the chastening passage of time. But as blogging evolves as a literary form, it is generating a new and quintessentially postmodern idiom that's enabling writers to express themselves in ways that have never been seen or understood before. Its truths are provisional, an... posted on Nov 8, 2637 reads

The Balance Needed To Lead Change
One reason leading change is so difficult is the tension it sets up between managing business issues and managing people issues. Most managers are trained to deal with structural and operational issues, and they are evaluated on and rewarded for their ability to innovate and to deliver business results. But the pressures generated by major structural or operational change compel leaders to pay par... posted on Dec 21, 5972 reads

The Psychology of New Year's Resolutions
As we put the holidays behind us and dig out from underneath all of the wrapping paper, many of us turn to the New Year's celebration to engage in a ritual that any visiting alien might be puzzled by -- New Year's resolutions. Why do humans pick a single point in time each year to try and change certain things in their life -- behaviors, attitudes -- make resolutions about them, and then proceed t... posted on Jan 3, 6354 reads

How We Think About Risk
A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost? Almost everyone feels the temptation to answer "10 cents" because the sum $1.10 so neatly separates into $1 and 10 cents, and 10 cents seems the right price for a ball relative to a bat. In fact, more than half of a group of students at Princeton and at the University of Michigan gave precisely ... posted on Jan 7, 6097 reads