The Gangster Gardener of LA
South Central Los Angeles is a food desert - an area filled with liquor stores, fast food chains and vacant lots. Tired of driving 45 minutes to buy food that is not chemically treated, Ron Finley decided to turn some of those unused plots, starting with the patch in front of his house, into a food forest. With obesity rates 5X higher in South Central than in Beverly Hills, a neighborhood only 8 t... posted on May 02 2013, 5,971 reads

Stay A Lover of Little Things
"No matter what big cities you go off to and big opportunities you are graced with, always take time to acknowledge the little things. Never give up on the things that make you smile, because smiling is one of the most important things we can do in this world. Find time to just wander. With No Direction. No Plan. No Time Restrictions. Look for beauty everywhere you go. The ladybugs on the windowsi... posted on May 01 2013, 57,230 reads

Books of Ice
Did you ever think that comets were more than interstellar rocks and dust, that they might contain amino acids and nucleotides that build living things? Today, many scientists think that perhaps that's the way life began on Earth 4 billion years ago. Imagine the spinning arms of the galaxy casting comets over the planet, protolife smacking onto the broken lava plains, like seeds of ice, until basi... posted on Apr 30 2013, 3,488 reads

Seva Cafe: Serving Generosity on a Platter
Siddharth Sthalekar quit a lucrative job to explore alternatives to the premise of accumulation. He and his wife Lahar journeyed across India and soon woke up to the beauty of the gift economy -- a system where goods and services are extended unconditionally and without any formal quid pro quo. Their experiences moved the couple to join "Seva Cafe" -- a restaurant powered by generosity rather than... posted on Apr 29 2013, 30,945 reads

Reviving the Neapolitan Tradition of Suspended Coffee
"Tough economic times and growing poverty in much of Europe are reviving a humble tradition that began some one-hundred years ago in the Italian city of Naples. It's called caffe sospeso --- "suspended coffee": A customer pays in advance for a person who cannot afford a cup of coffee...The barista would keep a log, and when someone popped his head in the doorway of the cafe and asked, "Is there an... posted on Apr 28 2013, 7,416 reads

Owner of the World's Friendliest Restaurant
"As anyone who's ever made a habit of eating out can tell you, restaurant service can be unpredictable, unnerving and off-putting. The food can be late. Servers can be rude and management can sometimes seem indifferent to your complaints and needs. This isn't the case at Tim's Place in Albuquerque, N.M., where every meal is accompanied by a hug from owner Tim Harris, who has Down syndrome.At Tim's... posted on Apr 27 2013, 6,007 reads

The Revolutionary Cardboard Bicycle
"Izhar Gafni smiles and shakes his head in wonder when asked about the whirlwind of events that have taken place since news of his revolutionary cardboard bicycle first made international headlines..."It's all happened so fast, and we did not expect it at all," exclaims Mr. Gafni, a heavyset man who displays all the qualities of an archetypal inventor -- a rapid, if somewhat erratic thought proces... posted on Apr 26 2013, 8,169 reads

Guiding Rage into Power
San Quentin is one of the nation's most notorious maximum security prisons. But it is also known for an unusual inmate rehabilitation program. Insight-Out's Guiding Rage Into Power (GRIP) Program offers an in-depth journey into the participants' ability to understand and transform violent behavior, track and manage strong impulses, and replace these behaviors with an attitude of emotional intellig... posted on Apr 25 2013, 4,103 reads

Givers vs. Takers: The Truth About Who Gets Ahead
"A colleague asks you for feedback on a report. A LinkedIn connection requests an introduction to one of your key contacts. A recent graduate would like an informational interview. New research from Wharton management professor Adam Grant reveals that how you respond to these requests may be a decisive indicator of where you will end up on the ladder of professional success. Grant recently spoke w... posted on Apr 24 2013, 46,275 reads

The Beauty of Wabi Sabi
In The Beauty of Wabi Sabi, Author Leonard Koren writes about the history of wabi-sabi, a Japanese aesthetic of anything that is imperfect, impermanent, or incomplete, which is, of course, the antithesis of the Classical Western idea of beauty as something perfect, enduring, and/or monumental. Rather, its attraction resides in the inconspicuous and overlooked details, in what is hidden, and tentat... posted on Apr 23 2013, 30,540 reads