Sunday, March 6, 2011 From the Streets to Opportunity and Confidence  Nguyen Duc Canh says he used to stay at Vietnam's only "1,000-star hotel." Translation: He grew up under a bridge. Abandoned by his parents in Hanoi, Canh sold chewing gum to tourists. Eventually, he ran into KOTO, or "Know One, Teach One." A 2-year program in Vietnam and Cambodia, KOTO trains former street kids to cook, wait tables and speak English. It "taught me life skills and gave me a house and family," he reflects. The menus at these highly successful training restaurants also reflect research and enterprise. Lister, the chef who designed KOTO's first menu, took a 2-month eating tour of Vietnam. Auer and his Phnom Penh staff scoured the Cambodian countryside on motorbikes for provincial recipes. And on top of that, eating at the training restaurant is an easy way to sample local dishes while supporting a good cause. Read More >>
back to top  Saturday, March 5, 2011 Like Water From a Hummingbird  On a trip to Japan, Wangari Maathai learned the story of the hummingbird in the forest fire. While other animals run in fear or hang their heads in despair, the hummingbird flies above the fire time and again, releasing a few drops of water from its tiny beak. "Why do you bother?" the animals shout. "I'm doing the best that I can," the hummingbird replies. For Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient responsible for more than 11 billion trees being planted worldwide, this story reveals the impact of principle-based decisions. Through all her work, from being the first Central African woman to earn a PhD to spearheading an environmental movement, Maathai concludes that it's our values, not set goals or objects, that motivate us. "I saw that if people have values, they can sustain what they are doing." Read More >>
back to top Friday, March 4, 2011 A Town Lines Up to Save An Unknown Man  Howard Snitzer clutched his chest and crumpled on a freezing sidewalk. He wasn't breathing. He had no pulse. If he didn't get help soon, he would die. For the next 96 minutes, more than two dozen local towns folks, first responders, took turns performing CPR on the fallen man. Their teamwork saved Snitzer's life, in what may be one of the longest, successful out-of-hospital resuscitations ever. What's even more striking is that his saviors comprise roughly 3 percent of the town's population! A little weak from the heart attack, Snitzer smiles, "I'm a chef. I told them I'd be fattening them up every chance I get." Read More >>
back to top Thursday, March 3, 2011 What Lies Beneath  In 2000, the Census of Marine Life embarked on a 10-year mission to deepen our knowledge of the ocean. The study involved 2,700 scientists, 80 countries, 600 institutions, 500 expeditions and a staggering 9,000 days at sea. On top of recording tens of millions of individual marine organisms and their locations, it also identifies important climate changes. Among the discoveries of 6,000 potentially new species is a species of shrimp thought to have gone extinct 50 million years ago! Read More >>
back to top Wednesday, March 2, 2011 Pizza Delivery Saves the Day  Every day for the past three years, 82-year-old Jean Wilson has ordered a large pepperoni pizza and two diet cokes from the local pizza shop. One day, she took a particularly hard fall in her house that left her unable to get up. After her regular order failed to surface for three days, delivery driver Susan Guy took it upon herself to check on her, an act that saved Wilson's life! Read More >>
back to top Tuesday, March 1, 2011 Beauty and Science: A Conversation with Ed Johnson  As this distinguished molecular biologist says, "the ultimate decision of whether or not a piece of data is going to get used is completely subjective! To put it analytically, you look at your piece of data and you decide whether or not you think it looks pretty." He continues, "Scientists devote not just a great deal of energy in thinking about their problem, but devote a great deal of personal emotion. We get involved. I love to recall the words from a lecture Vladimir Nabokov used to give on Tolstoy. He used to say "Tolstoy wrote with the precision of the artist and the passion of the scientist." Inevitably some person would say, "Sir, didn't you get those reversed?" But, of course, he didn't. Johnson goes on to talk about beauty and consciousness in the context of today's practice of science... Read More >>
back to top Monday, February 28, 2011 Shhh! Quiet People at Work  Justice Clarence Thomas has not spoken during a Supreme Court argument in five years. In the past 40 years, no other member has been totally silent through a whole term-- not to mention, five terms. Loud People, of course, get all the attention. But if we take a look around, we'll notice that quiet people are everywhere. Quiet People are different from loners or introverts or recluses. And quietness is not the same as shyness. As one psychology professor notes, "There are people who wish to talk, but are too timid to do so" and there are those who "simply choose not to say much." Read More >>
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A few homeless people in London are now working as tour guides, offering others a view of the city from their perspective. Organized by a grassroots group called Sock Mob, the tours have both practical appeal as well as existential, "challenging your view of what it means to be a person living in London." "The best thing is the human touch," said one tour recipient. "Within seconds, you forget the guide is homeless. You'll chat, laugh, talk about books, dreams, colours. So comforting after years of cold guides who know their speech by heart, have synchronised their jokes. Here it is all about talking, exchanging thoughts." [ 
"If you ask any solar engineer in the world, 'Can anyone make, install and maintain solar power in a village?' they say it's technically impossible. And if I say a grandmother is making it who is illiterate, he can't believe it, it's beyond his comprehension," says Sanjit "Bunker" Roy. A social entrepreneur and founder of the Barefoot College, Roy has been championing a bottom-up approach to education and empowering rural poor since 1972. Turning grandmothers into solar engineers is one of his favorite pastimes. [ 
John Cleese, a humorous and wise personality, discusses how to unleash the creativity that every individual possesses. Among his witty and insightful points include shifting activities when we get stuck, staying clear of distractions, and carving out space and time away from the daily to-do list to just explore. Ultimately, he notes, tapping into our unconscious mind may be the key to unraveling its true power and magic. [ 
NASA's Kepler space telescope has uncovered six new planets huddled around a sunlike star--odd worlds that astronomers have dubbed mini-Neptunes. Five of the new planets are closer to their parent star than Mercury is to the sun. The sixth world lies farther out, within a region that would fit inside the orbit of Venus. "This is the most closely packed known planetary system," said study co-author Jonathan Fortney, an astronomer with the University of California, Santa Cruz. These groundbreaking findings hold enormous potential for understanding the greater patterns of our own infinite existence. [ 
Whenever Linda goes out with her 7-year-old granddaughter, they play a contest: "Who Can Make the Most People Smile?" Over time, Linda subconsciously started tuning into the kindness around her. One day, while she was in line at the drug store, a young woman with a sick, crying baby was asked to come back in 2 hours; a tear trickled down her cheek, when suddenly, an older fellow sitting on the side came over and said that he had to wait for his prescription, so if she wanted, he would be happy to deliver her prescription to her... What started out as just a fun way to pass the time took off into a surprising chain of compassion! [ 
A pause in a busy day, meditation can be like the eye of a storm. For centuries, there's been no logic to it. Yet more and more, researchers are beginning to map its effects on the brain. In a recent study, a team led by Harvard-affiliated researchers become the first to document meditation-produced changes over time in the brain's gray matter. Their conclusion? Participating in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program appears to make measurable changes in brain regions associated with memory, sense of self, empathy, and stress. Research fellow Britta Holzel remarks, "It is fascinating to see the brain's plasticity and that, by practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain and can increase our well-being and quality of life." [ 
