From Vacant Lots to Urban Gardens
A berry garden now sits at the center of Richmond, CA, an area known for its high crime rate. Once a month, Latino and African American families -- often people who live just a few blocks from each other but rarely had a chance to meet in the past -- gather at the garden and have a barbecue. The garden is the work of Urban Tilth, one of the dozen or so groups at the center of Richmond's urban gard... posted on Jul 20 2011, 9,063 reads

How He Crossed the Finish Line
In 1992, Derek Redmond was running the race of his life -- the 400-meter dash at the Summer Olympics. In the previous Olympics, he was forced to withdraw 10 minutes before the race due to an Achilles injury but now he was he was ready and heavily favored to medal. His father was in the stands cheering. The race began and 175 meters into it, he pulled his hamstring muscle and collapsed on the groun... posted on Jul 19 2011, 7,283 reads

Fostering Virtue
"How can we foster more virtue in our societies?" A question sparked for researcher Kentaro Toyama by a one-time interaction with a rickshaw driver in India. This reflective piece goes on to propose ideas for fostering virtue in three areas: Education, Measurement, and Mentoring. And of course, the question "How can I foster more virtue in myself?" comes up as well. There we're left with the intr... posted on Jul 18 2011, 12,654 reads

29 Lessons From Travelling the World
"Eight years. That's 416 weeks, or almost 3,000 days. This is the amount of time that I have not had a fixed home; moving to a new country, culture and language every few months and taking absolutely everything I own with me. In 2003, on the week of my 21st birthday, I left Ireland for good. I had graduated university a few days before, and knew that I'd only be coming back "home" for visits. But ... posted on Jul 17 2011, 62,510 reads

The Beauty in Each Grain of Sand
When you take a moonlit stroll on the beach, how often do you think about the tiny grains of sand creeping in between your toes? From above, sand seems like a bunch of tiny brown rocks, perhaps peppered with occasional shells or beach miscellany. But sand has a far more fascinating story to tell. Composed of the remnants of volcanic explosions, eroded mountains, dead organisms, and even degraded m... posted on Jul 16 2011, 9,079 reads

Global Trends in Social Good
There is a rising consciousness to do good in a world recovering from recession and facing global challenges. But what does social good mean? Traditionally, it is a good or service that benefits the largest number of people in the largest possible way. As more and more organizations and individuals wake up to the groundswell of social good, the realm is expanding. Many innovations are emerging, wh... posted on Jul 15 2011, 4,313 reads

Reading, Writing and Revelation
Whenever the stabbing pain in her knee becomes unbearable, 17-year-old Mackenzie Bearup picks up a book and starts to read. While previous treatments -- painkillers, physiotherapy, acupuncture, hyperbaric oxygen therapy -- have failed, a self-prescribed reading cure works. "So far, books have been my only medicine," Bearup says. Reading and healing have an age-old association. In ancient Egypt, li... posted on Jul 14 2011, 7,147 reads

9 Interviews with Creative Visionaries
"I love a good interview. To me, there's nothing so useful for demystifying the creative process as hearing an artist or entrepreneur speak from a very personal perspective about how, and why, they do what they do. This weekend, I combed through my archive of epic and inspiring interviews and came up with this shortlist. Straight talk from Ernest Hemingway, Dieter Rams, Patti Smith, Steve Jobs, An... posted on Jul 13 2011, 14,871 reads

A Creative Use of Plastic Bottles
When former Peace Corps volunteer Laura Kutner was asked to help find funding to finish constructing two classrooms in the elementary school where she worked in Guatemala, she decided to use -- or rather reuse -- a common piece of trash. Kutner used what was known in environment-friendly circles as "eco-blocks" -- plastic bottles stuffed with inorganic trash -- and encased them in chicken wire. On... posted on Jul 12 2011, 12,879 reads

Impossible: Breaking the Four-Minute Mile
In 1954, England's Roger Bannister ran the first sub-four-minute mile. Today, of course, the it is routine among the top runners, but until Sir Roger (knighted in 1975) accomplished it, it was considered beyond the realm of human possibility -- like climbing Mount Everest or walking on the moon. Bannister though, being a medical student at Oxford at the time, recognized it more of a global, psycho... posted on Jul 11 2011, 3,440 reads