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America's Nicest Homeless Shelter![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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$15 Music Video![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Freedom Writers![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Doctor Inspires Service To Ethiopia![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Miracle Worker for the Children![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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What Babies Know & We Don't![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Teenage Hero of Dhaka's Slums![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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A Symphony Conductor Gives Back![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Education By Design![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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The Clothesline Makes A Comeback![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Time To Be A Witness![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Argentina Shoe Drop![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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A Father Teaches Non-Violence![](images/quickread.gif) "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
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Bill Clinton & My Commitment![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Wired For Leadership?![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Secrets of the Very Very Old![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Art as Attention to Living![](images/quickread.gif) "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
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Dying Homeless Man's Lesson in Humanity![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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My Vision of a Compassion Future![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Reading Reinvented![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Top 10 Celebrity Scientists![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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The Story of Stuff![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Competing for Change![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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10 Ways We Get the Odds Wrong![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Science Reinvented![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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The Power of Mindsight![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Garden Variety Revolution![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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From Good to Great![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Kids for Peace![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Playing Doctor: Interview with Patch Adams![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Designs on the Future![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Germany's Very Unusual Traffic Solution![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Easing Childrens' Hospital Fears![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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A Story of Five Million Steps![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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The 112 Year-Old Artist![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Hockey Hero With A Big Heart![](images/quickread.gif) "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
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Why I Blog![](images/quickread.gif) "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
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The Balance Needed To Lead Change![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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The Psychology of New Year's Resolutions![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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How We Think About Risk![](images/quickread.gif) 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
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Life (Mostly) Off the Grid![](images/quickread.gif) They live on one-fifth of an acre in Pasadena, Calif., a block away from a multilane highway. On this tiny sliver of land, they manage to be mostly self-sufficient. Jules Dervaes, 60, and three of his adult children harvest 6,000 pounds and more than 350 separate varieties of fruits, vegetables and edible flowers annually. They brew the biodiesel fuel that powers the family car. Solar panels on t... posted on Jan 30, 4958 reads
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Sixty-five Roses: A Sister's Memoir![](images/quickread.gif) Heather Summerhayes Cariou's sister Pam was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at the age of four and given only a short time to live. "Sixtyfive Roses" is the way Pam pronounced the disease that altered the lives of her siblings and parents, who in turn helped alter the community's response to the disease by founding the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Heather's book "Sixty-five Roses" offers a ... posted on Feb 14, 2820 reads
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Creating Knowledge More Consciously![](images/quickread.gif) The coauthor of 'Managing Flow: A Process Theory of the Knowledge-Based Firm', Tokyo-based business scholar Ikujiro Nonaka strives to help organizations create knowledge more consciously, drawing on Western and Eastern philosophic traditions. Nonaka summarizes and extends a body of work that could change the prevailing view of knowledge management to that of an enabler of in-depth learning. "Compa... posted on Feb 17, 3267 reads
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Trading Guns for Nail Polish![](images/quickread.gif) In the most dangerous neighborhood of Guayaquil -- Ecuador's largest and most crime-ridden city -- a dozen youths are busy working in the Paz Urbana Print Shop. By the entrance, a young man designs a T-shirt logo with graffiti paint. In the back, amid the hip-hop music and paint fumes, tattooed young men with baggy pants and baseball caps compile an order of worksheets for schools. The print shop ... posted on Feb 21, 3351 reads
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CEO of the People![](images/quickread.gif) There's a lot of resentment these days against executive compensation and all the perks taken by corporate heads. Maybe there's something to be learned from the boss of Japan Airlines, Haruka Nishimatsu, who takes the bus to work. Nishimatsu knocked down his office walls so people can walk up and talk to him, and he works from a desk with an old-fashioned wooden in-and-out box. Got an idea? Tell h... posted on Feb 25, 4668 reads
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Australian Slumdog Millionaires![](images/quickread.gif) Mark and Cathy Delaney don't need to see the hit movie Slumdog Millionaire. The Australian couple experience slum life in India every day. For the last 13 years they have lived in the shanty towns of the Indian capital, New Delhi, raising their children and sharing their lives with the locals. Their two sons, Tom, 12, and Oscar, 7, were born in India and have lived most of their lives in slums. ... posted on Mar 6, 9588 reads
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How Thoughts Change our Brains![](images/quickread.gif) In the 90's, neuroscientists overthrew the dogma that the adult brain can't change. To the contrary, its structure and activity can morph in response to experience, an ability called neuroplasticity. The discovery has led to promising new treatments for many, including stroke patients. But the brain changes discovered reflected input from the outside world. The Dalai Lama wondered, could it work t... posted on Mar 10, 8077 reads
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Why Stress is Not Always Bad![](images/quickread.gif) Is stress always bad? It can be, but it can be good for you, too. Certainly, much can be done to unlearn stressful behaviors and gain both perspective and balance. But according to this Newsweek article, people (including scientists) fail to see the full picture. The other view is that the stress response -- the body's hormonal reaction to danger, uncertainty or change -- evolved to help us surviv... posted on Mar 15, 4565 reads
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NBA Player turned Farmer-Activist![](images/quickread.gif) At 6 feet 7 inches tall and 280 pounds, Will Allen is a former NBA basketball player with the biceps of an NFL lineman. The son of an illiterate laborer, Allen is now a farmer-activist, and founder of Growing Power, a nonprofit farm in the middle of Milwaukee that raises fresh produce for under-served populations with high rates of obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Allen has been a leading figu... posted on Mar 22, 2539 reads
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Questioning Self-Discipline![](images/quickread.gif) If there is one character trait whose benefits are endorsed by traditional and progressive educators alike, it may well be self-discipline. Just about everyone wants students to override their unconstructive impulses, resist temptation, and do what needs to be done. The only question is how best to accomplish this. Author and scholar Alfie Kohn further explores what he sees as the troubling theory... posted on Oct 27, 6309 reads
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