Sunday, January 2, 2011 Social Ties Boost Survival by 50 Percent  The benefit of friends, family and even colleagues turns out to be just as good for long-term survival as giving up a 15-cigarette-a-day smoking habit. Despite this hyperconnected era, social isolation is on the rise. More people than not report feeling that they don't have a single person they can confide in - a percentage up threefold from 20 years ago. In fact, the decades of research that Julianne Holt-Lunstad and her colleagues at Brigham Young University examined showed that social support and survival operate on a continuum: "The greater the extent of the relationships, the lower the [mortality] risk." Their studies also conclude that complex social networks can increase survival rates by 91 percent! Read More >>
back to top  Saturday, January 1, 2011 Top Ten Kindness Stories for the New Year  An unexpected display of love at an airport, a ten-year-old returns 200 lost dollars to a stranger, a homeless man helps a single mother smile on a bad day, an orphaned dog finds strength from one small gesture of compassion... These humble stories are a reminder of the power of kindness to transform a moment, a day, a person or lifetime. Start the new year off with some down-to-earth inspiration from these ten lessons of generosity. Read More >>
back to top Friday, December 31, 2010 New Kind of New Year's Resolution  "I'm not going to shrink my hips or grow five inches in 2011. I didn't in 2010, 2009, or 2008, despite my penchant for making New Year's resolutions that defy common sense and human physiology. The only thing more depressing than a personal pledge unmet is one so unrealistic it couldn't be kept even if plastic surgery was free," Philadelphia Inquirer's Monica Yant Kinney writes. That's why this year, she is following Chaz Howard's lead to turn New Year's resolutions inside out. "What if," Chaz asks, "we made resolutions that were about serving and caring for others?" Read More >>
back to top Thursday, December 30, 2010 How to Change the World While Traveling  In 1989, while touring India, Marc Gold found himself "thunderstruck" when he realized he could save a woman from a deadly ear infection by paying the $1 for her antibiotics. "I thought you had to be wealthy to do such things," he recalls. Since then, Gold has trekked through Asia, handing out money to the needy in amounts as little as 50 cents and rarely exceeding $500. In Vietnam, a small donation was enough for a widow to buy a sewing machine and start a business. In Indonesia, a fisherman fixed his boat and returned to self-sufficiency. Compared with global aid organizations, Gold's budget is tiny. But he has touched over 50,000 lives. Read More >>
back to top Wednesday, December 29, 2010 Kids on Love  A group of adults posed this question to a group of 4 to 8 year-olds: "What does love mean?" The answers were broader and deeper than anyone could have imagined. One 6-year old wrote, "If you want to learn to love better, you should start with a friend who you hate." Read More >>
back to top Tuesday, December 28, 2010 How Consumers Power Innovation  In many fields, the user is often the innovator. In the space of scientific instruments, 77 percent of the innovation comes from end users. Yet we generally believe the opposite: that users satisfy their own, personal needs while manufacturers dominate innovation. As a result, our understanding of intellectual property tends to protect manufacturers, not users: firms are likely to patent their (internal, otherwise invisible) innovations and not share them, while individuals working in similar spaces usually don't seek patent production and often share their processes. This may reveal basic biases in how individuals and firms behave. MIT Professor Eric von Hippel notes that it's counterintuitive that we expect manufacturers to innovate - we should expect them to manufacture efficiently, but perhaps to look to their users for design innovation. Read More >>
back to top Monday, December 27, 2010 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 charities or volunteering time to a good cause. UC Berkeley's Greater Good Science Center offers up 5 ways giving is good for you. Read More >>
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In still or slowly-moving waters there is one easy way to collect light: a plant can float its leaves upon the surface. No plant does this on a more spectacular scale than the giant Amazon water-lily. First surfacing as a simple bud, within a few hours, it bursts open and starts to spread. Expanding at the rate of half a square yard in a single day, the leaf grows until it is six feet across and stays afloat with special air-spaces within. On the underside, it glows a rich purple color. [ 
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 selfish, these brave souls find a way to act, to speak out, to help others in need. That's why they're heroes. Zimbardo rejects this view. "We've been saddled for too long with this mystical view of heroism," he says. "A hero is just an ordinary person who does something extraordinary. I believe we can use science to teach people how to do that." [ 
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 help and says, "I'm an ex-radio announcer who has fallen on hard times." [ 
An experienced teacher and a small class in kindergarten can set a person up for life. At least according to a large-scale study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The bureau study, conducted by a team of economists, draws on data from Project STAR, one of the most widely studied education experiments in the United States. The project spans 11,600 students and their teachers in kindergarten through third grade across 79 schools. What's unique is that, while numerous studies have shown the benefits of intensive preschool programs, this study is the first to link a better classroom environment in the earliest grades to success in adulthood. The study shows compelling proof of how kindergarten affects your salary, your chances of going to college and owning a home, and even your retirement savings. [ 
On a plane bound for O'Hare International Airport, Elsie Clark felt weak, scared and utterly alone -- until she spotted a pair of shiny leather shoes across the aisle. What happened to the 79-year-old Canadian over the next 12 hours-- being embraced by a good Samaritan, escorted through O'Hare in a wheelchair and welcomed to a swanky high-rise for dinner overlooking Lake Michigan-- saved her from a traumatic stranding in Chicago. It also proved that, even in tough times, people can surprise each other with kindness. [ 
To the beat of Aretha Franklin, and with pizza-laden paper plates poised precariously on their laps, families sit in the crowd at the assembly hall of Horace Mann Middle School. They are waiting. They look slightly anxious. It's not graduation day- though it is something akin. The seventh and eighth graders here are at a pivotal time in their young lives, when school dropout problems can begin, experts say. Recognizing the threat, these families are participating in Spark, a program that aims to boost graduation rates of at-risk youth through one-on-one job apprenticeships. Earlier this school year, the students met their apprentices in what co-founder Chris Balme calls "a beautiful and amazingly awkward moment." [ 
