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, 8,550 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, 1,422 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, 1,773 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, 2,559 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, 2,464 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

Pasta for All
It all started when his mother came to visit from Italy. Before then, Bruno Serato, owner of an upscale restaurant in California, admits he had a pretty carefree life- hosting and hobnobbing with Orange Country's most rich and famous. At the time, Serato was on the board of the local Boys and Girls Club, and thought his mother would like to see it. During the visit, he informed her that the club s... posted on Sep 07 2010, 2,545 reads

Faith, the Two-Legged Dog
There are some things you have to see to believe, and Faith is one of those. She's a labrador-chow mix born without one front leg and another that was severely deformed and then removed. What's truly amazing about Faith is that, despite having only her two hind legs, she can still walk! In fact, she's lived almost her entire life on those two legs. Something of a celebrity, Faith appeared on Oprah... posted on Sep 06 2010, 7,475 reads

Two Brothers, Two Buckets, and World Hunger
Teenagers Grant and Max Buster are proposing a solution to world hunger that anyone can do. All you need are 2 buckets, a few square meters of ground or rooftop, sunlight, and a some water. Distraught by the hunger in the world, the Buster brothers spent their summer vacation designing this simple garden in a bucket. They placed two five gallon (20 liter) buckets set inside one another, to which t... posted on Sep 05 2010, 3,289 reads

Restorer of Slums
Santosh Thorat, a young father of five, was grateful to have picked up an extra day's work. That morning, he left his home, which he shared with 17 others in an East Mumbai slum, to help a bulldozing crew ward off protesters as they demolished a nearby slum. "That day when I went to work, I thought, 'I don't want to do this,'" Thorat recalls. Three days later, Thorat's bosses demolished his home. ... posted on Sep 04 2010, 3,256 reads