Trespassing Snowmen
There is an elderly man who lives up the street from us. He has no one to shovel his driveway. he is a bit of a miser so most people aren't so inclined to help. One day, I don't know who did it, but someone used the snow on his driveway to make a whole bunch of smiling and waving snowmen on his lawn. As my son and I were walking by, I could hear him grumbling. "What's the problem?" I asked. He com... posted on Sep 17 2010, 4,539 reads

The Business of Giving
Recently divorced Mike Hannigan was in a grocery store looking for spaghetti sauce when he came across Newman's Own for the first time. Discovering that all the profits of the competitively priced brand were donated to charity made something to click for the office products company manager. "As a consumer I wasn't making any sacrifice," he says. "Use business as a tool to accomplish a community go... posted on Sep 16 2010, 3,281 reads

Portraits of Compassion
In the exhibit hall of Washington D.C.'s U.S. State Department, there's a new art exhibit that paints foreign relations in a whole new light. The subjects are orphan children from Thailand. Ben Schumaker calls this "The Memory Project." What began in a spare bedroom at Shumaker's parent's house is now a full time venture that has delivered about 25,000 portraits to orphans in 31 different countrie... posted on Sep 15 2010, 2,518 reads

Embracing Imperfection
Sometimes, things need to be just so. Most of the time though, good (not great) is good enough. This doesn't mean you are settling for second best or short-changing yourself. You're being realistic, because people are imperfect. At the Association of Psychological Science Convention this year, one of the most compelling studies came from Prem Fry, PhD, professor of psychology at Trinity Western Un... posted on Sep 14 2010, 6,338 reads

How To Be Alone
What can we learn about ourselves when we let go of our fear of loneliness? With this fun, quirky video, filmmaker Andrea Dorfman and poet/singer/songwriter Tanya Davis show us how to ease into loneliness- starting in easy places like the bathroom or coffee shop, turning off our cell phone security blankets, honoring the things we like to do by ourselves-as we learn to enjoy it and nurture ourselv... posted on Sep 13 2010, 8,552 reads

Knocking on Doors
As back-to-school season gets into full swing, Houston students who aren't back can expect an early morning knock on the door. It might be the mayor, the superintendent, or a group of volunteers showing up at the door, and they'll know exactly which credits a student needs and a variety of options for how to get them. "For too long a lot of these young people have felt no one cared about them," sa... posted on Sep 12 2010, 1,423 reads

9/11 Day of Service
September 11 is a loaded day. It marks the ninth anniversary of the World Trade Center bombings in New York City, the 103rd birthday of Gandhi's concept of Satyagraha ("clinging to truth" in Sanskrit), as well as 117 years after Swami Vivekenanda's stunning speech on interfaith dialogue at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago. This year, 9/11 also coincides with Eid al-Fitr, a Muslim holid... posted on Sep 11 2010, 1,774 reads

The Success of Failure
These days, it seems like new technologies are cropping up around every corner we turn. Hardly a month goes by without the announcement of some new and exciting media project or application. A new web tool or project may be exciting, but Christian Madera reminds us that for each new app or initiative that gets launched, there are probably dozens that failed, or never even fully began. And it is i... posted on Sep 10 2010, 2,560 reads

Technology that Empowers
In today's era of high technology and endless information, in a culture where cell phones, computers and the internet seem to infuse every corners of our lives, "79 percent of the people on our planet digitally are excluded," reveals Ashoka Fellow Rodrigo Baggio. Armed with the vision to empower low-income youth with computer skills, Baggio founded CDI: The Center for Digital Inclusion. Starting f... posted on Sep 09 2010, 2,465 reads

Boost Creativity with a Power Nap
If you see a co-worker catching 40 winks in her cubicle or a student dozing in the library, don't roll your eyes. New research from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that an hour's nap can dramatically boost and restore your brain power. Indeed, the findings suggest that a biphasic sleep schedule not only refreshes the mind, but can make you smarter. Conversely, the more hours we spend... posted on Sep 08 2010, 5,147 reads