Sunday, August 29, 2010 Beauty in Scraps of Metal  Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the sun continues to rise over evacuated homes and empty lots. New Orleans is still cleaning up debris. Yet one local artisan is building up beauty out of the destruction. Stefano Velaska is a survivor of both Katrina and the 1968 invasion of his native Czechoslovakia. At 18, he fled his country and ended up in Louisiana, where he discovered a passion for jewelry-making. After the hurricane hit, he found himself searching for "some way to somehow promote New Orleans." He stumbled upon the answer in the scraps of metal strewn across the city. Today, you can find him in the covered French Market of the New Orleans French Quarter, crafting the city's endurance into an art form: jewelry from the storm. "It is a small piece of New Orleans, a small piece of history," Velaska remarks. Read More >>
back to top  Saturday, August 28, 2010 The Miracle Birth  After giving birth to premature twins, Kate Ogg was informed that one of them didn't make it. Devastated, she held her limp 2-pound infant against her bare chest. For two hours, the mother and her husband said their goodbyes, cradling and hugging their son as if he were alive. Two hours later, the newborn began moving and gasping. Ogg instinctively fed her son a few drops of breast milk and soon his gasps turned into real breaths. "A short time later he opened his eyes. It was a miracle," the mother recounts. Now five months later, the radiant parents are highlighting the virtues of skin-on-skin care for sick babies, a technique known as 'Kangaroo Care' for the way Kangaroos hold their young in the pouch. Read More >>
back to top Friday, August 27, 2010 Rappin' to Be the Change  How do you tell the story of one powerful man who moved a nation to independence, marched 241 miles (388 km) in a symbolic act of freedom, and brought violent conflicts to a screeching halt through fasting? How do you express the complexity of this shy and timid young man who grew into a fiercely gentle leader and pioneer of nonviolence? If you're MC Yogi, you rap about it. With smooth rhythm and lucid lyrics, he explains Gandhi's message to "be the change you wish to see in the world" and spins a tale that would warm anyone's heart. Read More >>
back to top Thursday, August 26, 2010 Tenzin Palmo: Cave in the Snow  At the age of 20, Venerable Master Tenzin Palmo left her home in London to pursue her spiritual path. She eventually became one of the first Westerners to be ordained as a Tibetan Buddhist nun. In 1976, seeking more seclusion and better conditions for practice, she found a cave in the Himalayan Valley of Lahaul, where she lived for 12 years, the last three in strict retreat. Now the founder of Dongyu Gatsal Ling Nunnery, she is a soft, lucid and powerful voice offering females greater opportunities for spiritual growth. "She's important because she's absorbed the great teachings of Tibetan Buddhism and communicates them through a Western mind," remarks Christopher Sohnly. Read More >>
back to top Wednesday, August 25, 2010 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 permit, [laughs] but that didn't prevent me from doing it. Not to make a big thing about the physicality of it. It's only a little over a mile. It's not that big a deal. Well, it might be for some seventy-five-year-olds. But with the Brooklyn Bridge I said, forget about the permits. I'm just doing it. If I get arrested, I'll just get a lot more publicity. But basically, there are bridges to cross, bridges to burn, bridges to build, bridges over troubled waters, bridges to nowhere-our whole life is based on kinds of bridges isn't it? Read More >>
back to top Tuesday, August 24, 2010 8 Ways to Keep Cool in Summer  The torrid summer of 2010 will cap off the hottest decade ever recorded on our planet. In efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions, people across the globe are stepping up and cooling down, AC-free. "The key is to focus on people-cooling, not building-cooling," states author Steven Cox. "Your body is constantly converting chemical energy from food into heat... But filling a home with chilled, still, dry air around the clock is only one of the many ways by which we can help our bodies maintain their thermal balance." With this in mind, he offers eight tips to stay cool while keeping the planet healthy. They include: keeping air circulating, getting wet, staying near plants, bringing in night air, and reserving sedentary activities for the hottest part of the day. Read More >>
back to top Monday, August 23, 2010 The Power of Trust  Many of us have conflicted responses when we are approached by a homeless person asking for change. Sometimes, we feel compelled to give. Other times, we are skeptical, or in a hurry. But for one woman in New York City, the power of trust in a fellow human being trumps all uncertainty. When recently approached by homeless Jay Valentine outside a restaurant one evening, Merrie Harris found herself with no spare change and a big heart. "Can I trust you?" she asked. "I'm honest, yes," he replied. And true to his word, Valentine went to a nearby store, bought about 25 dollars worth of basic food and toiletries, and returned the credit card to Harris. "I wasn't tempted at all," says Brooklyn native. "She trusted me, and I didn't want to violate that trust. I would never do that." Read More >>
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Santosh Thorat, a young father of five, was grateful to have picked up an extra day's work. That morning, he left his home, which he shared with 17 others in an East Mumbai slum, to help a bulldozing crew ward off protesters as they demolished a nearby slum. "That day when I went to work, I thought, 'I don't want to do this,'" Thorat recalls. Three days later, Thorat's bosses demolished his home. Lucky for Mumbai's slums, Thorat was not one to just sit there and obey the status quo. "If all they want is to make Mumbai slum free and tidy... then instead of spending money on demolishing they should have given them money for restoration," Thorat proposed. Today, that's just what the government of India is doing. And Thorat has become a leader in the movement, rebuilding and revitalizing his own 3,000-household slum. [ 
Todd Braver emerges from a tent nestled against the canyon wall with a slight tan. For the first time in three days in the wilderness, Braver is not wearing his watch. It is the kind of change many vacationers notice in themselves as they unwind and lose track of time. But for Braver and his companions, these moments lead to an important question: What is happening to our brains? A psychology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Braver was one of five neuroscientists who spent a week in remote southern Utah, rafting the San Juan River, camping on the soft banks and hiking the tributary canyons. It was a primitive trip with a sophisticated goal: to understand how heavy use of digital devices and other technology changes how we think and behave, and how a retreat into nature might reverse those effects. [ 
There are certain kinds of creative, off beat ideas that are simply obvious when you hear them. Tarak Shah and Sabina Nieto came up with one. With the economic downturn, every office building in the country probably has unrecognized resources: vacant cubicles. No doubt many are utilized as storage spaces for disabled copy machines, extra office supplies and the like, but here's an inspired possibility: how about the vacant cubicle as art gallery? Now after you read that last sentence, didn't you immediately smile? [ 
When we look back on our lives, sometimes the smallest gesture can have enormous effects. For George Hill, one man's act has made all the difference. Today, Hill works with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and studies computer information systems at Cal State University. But things weren't always so smooth. After leaving the Marines, Hill found himself homeless and addicted to drugs and alcohol. One day, Hill was sitting on a bag of his belongings when a homeless man approached him. He recalls, "His hands were black... he had rags tied to his feet. And his hair was matted in two big, nasty dreads." The stranger reached into his pocket and offered Hill all that he had: one dollar, in coins. "Here, man. I feel sorry for you." That was all it took. [ 
She had so much. A two-bedroom apartment. Two cars. Enough wedding china to serve two dozen people. Yet Tammy Strobel wasn't happy. Working as a project manager with an investment management firm in Davis, California, and making about 40K a year, she was, as she put it, caught in the "work-spend treadmill." So one day she stepped off. Inspired by books and blogs about living simply, Strobel and her husband began downsizing and donating their things. Clothing, a television, and even cars disappeared. Now, three years later, the two live happily, modestly, and debt-free on Strobel's 24K annual salary. Working less, she has time to be outdoors and volunteer. [ 
Until recently, Tony Schwartz accepted the myth that the potential to excel is predetermined by our genes- that some people are born with special talents while others aren't. Lately though, his work with dozens of executives reveals that it's possible to build any given skill or capacity in the same systematic way we build a muscle: push past your comfort zone, and then rest. Talent, then, may actually be a simple reflection of how hard we're willing to work. Encouraging us to take ownership of our desired talents, he explains, "If you want to be really good at something, it's going to involve relentlessly pushing past your comfort zone, along with frustration, struggle, setbacks and failures." To help us, Schwartz offers six keys to achieving excellence: Pursuing what you love, practicing intensely, taking regular breaks, and doing the hardest work first. [ 
