Sunday, June 13, 2010 Sixth-Grade Philanthropists  On a bike trip across Europe and Asia, Mike Church came across Ujjwall Bhat, a Nepali man whose dream was to start a school in his rural village. Inspired by his vision, Church returned to his hometown in Maryland and contacted friends and local charities to help fund Bhat's dream. Three years later, the Mikey Medium English School opened its doors in Bauniyan, Kailali Nepal. Though located in rural Nepal, the school's education has international ripples. As part of a service-learning project, the sixth graders of Central Middle School in Anne Arundel County, Maryland raised nearly 4,000 dollars to help fund the school. "When we saw pictures of where they lived and how they lived, it made me think a little more about how lucky we are to have all the things that we have," said 12-year-old Alexis Corcoran. Read More >>
back to top  Saturday, June 12, 2010 Bystanders Who Care  "It was pure adrenaline, I didn't think about it. I knew if the car stayed on him, he was going to die." And just like that, a life was saved. Off-duty Wayland Police Officer Tyler Castagno was in his truck in traffic when he saw a cyclist go by. Suddenly a car ahead turned to the right to enter a driveway, knocking the cyclist over and pulling him under the car. While his fiancee called 911, Castagno tried to lift the car from on top of the cyclist, and succeeded after some other bystanders joined the Herculean effort.... Read More >>
back to top Friday, June 11, 2010 Story of the Brick  When a piece of art consisting of a porcelain brick arrived on the desk of key government officials during what is now known as the "California Water Wars" nobody knew it would change the course of environmental history. Years later, one of those officials, then head of California's Resource Agency, recounted how a gift of artwork moved his heart, and rippled out to move the hearts of the people of California. Ultimately the landmark legal case to protect the Sierra's Mono Lake prevailed and set important precedent for protection of natural resources. But how many people know the behind-the-scenes story of the brick that turned the tides when hope could not be found? Behold, the power of art! Read More >>
back to top Thursday, June 10, 2010 More Wrinkles, More Smiles  Happiness increases with age, surveys say! A recent Gallup poll asked 340,000 people across the United States questions ranging from age and gender, health, personal finances, emotions, and general well-being. They found that negative emotions like worry and sadness drop off after age 50, about the same time happiness sets in. Overall, the trends show that young adults start out feeling pretty good, transition into the twists and turns of adult life, and come out happy and satisfied as they grow into old age. So the next time you discover a new wrinkle or grey hair, celebrate! Maybe ignorance isn't so blissful after all. Read More >>
back to top Wednesday, June 9, 2010 The 12-year-old Headmistress  As an infant, Bharti Kumari was abandoned at a railway station in Bihar, one of India's poorest states. Now, at 12 years-old, she is the head teacher at a school in Kusmbhara, her adopted village. Under the shade of a mango tree every morning and evening, she teaches Hindi, English, and math to 50 village children who would otherwise receive no education. In between, she attends a state school in Akhodhi Gola, a two mile walk away. Dressed proudly in her school uniform, she passes on the knowledge gleaned from her lessons to her fellow village children, aged 4-10. What motivates her? The answer is simple: "This is what I love doing," she smiles. Read More >>
back to top Tuesday, June 8, 2010 As Good as New  As many great companies do, this one started in a dorm room. Yet the light-bulb idea that emerged from these tight living quarters was... collecting trash? TerraCycle, founded by Tom Szaky, is a company that "upcycles" waste into affordable, eco-friendly products ranging from worm-waste fertilizer to messenger bags and school supplies. A company that has mobilized over 10 million people to collect trash, diverted over 1.9 billion units of waste from landfills, boasted a revenue of $7.5 million, and donated $1 billion to schools and nonprofits, Terracycle's road to success was a result of hard work, persistence, and the courage to take risks. A college drop-out with nothing but a firm belief in his vision, Szasky recalls, "In those early days, no one returned my phone calls. I would literally be laughed at when I tried to call retailers to sell them my fertilizer." But today, nothing is impossible. Szaky resolves, "I hope in five years from now there will be a TerraCycle upcycling bin in every school, church, and retail location in America!" Read More >>
back to top Monday, June 7, 2010 Monday is the New Sunday  During the school year, Mondays in Peach County are for trips to grandma's house and hanging out at the neighborhood community center. Don't bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights are off. The rural Georgian community is one of more than 120 school districts across the country where students attend school for just four days a week, a cost-saving tactic gaining popularity among cash-strapped districts struggling to make ends meet. "It was that or lay off 39 teachers the week before school started," said Superintendent Susan Clark. The results? Test scores went up. So did attendance. And the graduation rate will be more than 80 percent for the first time in years. "Teachers tell me they're more focused because they've had time to prepare. They don't have kids sleeping in class on Tuesday." Clark explains. "Everything has taken on a laser-light focus." Read More >>
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Every minute we breathe, the rise and fall of our lungs produces almost 1 watt of energy. Now, new technology can absorb our energy to generate electricity! Small devices fitted with piezoelectric (PE) crystals, are being installed under sidewalks, roads, sports stadiums and railways to recycle the energy produced by our daily actions! In the world of energy-harvesting, all vibrations are good vibrations. From sports fans cheering in the bleachers to commuters pounding the sidewalk pavement, micro-movements on any surface are being converted into clean energy! [ 
Don Ritchie lives across the street from the most famous suicide spot in Australia: A cliff know as "The Gap." Every week there, one person will leap to their death. While most people would move from such a foreboding place, Ritchie and his wife Moya view their life there as a blessing: "I think, 'Isn't it wonderful that we live here and can help people?'" Throughout their residence of almost 50 years, the Ritchies have saved an estimated 160 people from suicide. How do they do it? It's simple, really. Every morning, Ritchie wakes up and looks out the window for anyone standing alone too close to the precipice. If he sees someone who looks ready to jump, he walks over and strikes up a conversation. "I'm offering them an alternative, really," he says. "I always act in a friendly manner. I smile." And for a humble 84 year-old man battling cancer, Ritchie sure knows the value of being alive. [ 
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-week experiment with single-tasking, where he committed to deeply engaging with whatever was in front of him. He shares six lessons from his experience.... [ 
A pawnshop flute. That's how Marvin Sanders makes art out of uncertainty. From living on the streets to graduating college with a degree in music, Sanders recalls his incredible journey. And how it all started at a gas station: "I was in Denver, Colorado working at a gas station. Those were the days people would pull up and someone would walk out and pump your gas and wipe the windshield. I was working there in 1971-71 and, strangely, my mother--I was talking with her over the phone--she asked, "What do you want for Christmas?" [laughs]I mean, I'm twenty years old! I said, off the top of my head, "How about a flute?" She bought me a pawnshop flute. I visited her for Christmas and she gave it to me. Half the keys didn't even work, but I didn't know the difference. I took it back to Denver with me. I was working ten hours a day, six days a week then. But you know, at nineteen, twenty years old, you have all kinds of energy. I had a natural aptitude for it. I enjoyed playing it. That's how I started." [ 
When hotel housekeeper Jeanne Mydil stumbled upon $6,000 left behind in a room she was cleaning, she immediately brought it to her supervisor. Little did she know, her honest act of kindness would explode exponentially! It turns out that the money had been fundraised by a missionary group on their way to assist in Haiti earthquake relief. After word spread of Mydil's good deed, the phones at Miami International Airport Hotel went haywire: everyone wanted to give her money. One anonymous individual insisted on donating $6,000! "It's a spiritual law of the universe," said the anonymous donor, "The way you receive is by sharing, and just like gravity, it affects everyone the same way." The humble and grateful housekeeper, who earns a little over minimum wage, plans to use the donations to pay off money she borrowed to bury her husband, who died suddenly on May 23 from diabetes complications. She will also send a portion to her sister, whose husband died in the Haiti earthquake on January 12. [ 
Why do some people seem to always encounter good fortune while others are constantly bombarded with a slew of bad days? Decades ago, psychologist Richard Wiseman set out to investigate luck. He found that although unlucky people have almost no insight into the real causes of their good and bad luck, their thoughts and behavior are responsible for much of their fortune. What differentiates the lucky and the unlucky? How are lucky people able to encounter chance opportunities everywhere they go? According to Wiseman, lucky people generate good fortune via four basic principles: They are skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophesies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good. It seems luck may not be so much something that happens to you, but rather a result of how you focus your attention. [ 
