Miscellaneous
The power of the people
Some change happens very quickly. Occasionally the thing that has been accepted for generations disappears very quickly. I’m too young to remember the women’s struggle to vote, but as I look back at the history of the vote, it seems that once it really began, it happened right away. I’m not Read More...
Searching for better health
In the Western world we live longer and are healthier than any of our ancestors. True or false? Aboriginal people living in indigenous cultures still hidden from the Western world are the healthiest people on the planet. True or false? Interestingly, both statements are true. We do live Read More...
Go Middle East
Food that’s good for you may be all the rage, but finding a healthy sandwich can be a challenge. “Healthy” often turns out to mean something closer to “less unhealthy.” Fancy cheese trumps cheap meat. Roast turkey beats fried chicken. Two limp lettuce leaves are better than none at all. Read More...
Designing for the developing world
On a table in an Amsterdam café lies a little black box no larger than a pack of cigarettes. It looks like an MP3 player; it has a wire connected to two earbuds. Fernando de Oliveira Gil, a 31-year-old computer engineering student from São Paulo, holds the device up to a blue Brazilian Read More...
Lessons from Somethingism
Times of great change are also fearful times. People feel uncertain, at sea. Many feel they have little or no control over their lives. And that makes some of them angry Spirituality is the answer. Some say we have reached the end of “the grand narrative”: Not only is Christianity passé, but Read More...
Drip, drip
In January, the city of Concord, Massachusetts, banned the single-use plastic water bottle. Here’s a tip for the pioneers in Concord and all of you who don’t like how many resources are used to make that water bottle you trash so soon after you buy it: Replace it with this fancy bottle called Read More...
Signs of life
Some things in life appear to be of trivial importance. You casually walk past them without paying attention. A handpainted sign on the storefront of a Boston tattoo shop seems to be that kind of thing. It simply reads, “Greater Boston’s first and finest.” Who would have guessed that Read More...
We feel good
Bert Jacobs keeps a letter in his pocket that he often takes out when giving motivational talks to groups of people. The founder and chief executive optimist of Life is good got it from 10-year-old twin brothers Scotty and Charlie. Scotty’s leg was amputated at birth, and Charlie is blind. The Read More...
Micro: No small thing
For years, Jackson Kahiga lived in insecurity. The small farmer in the Kenyan countryside was at the mercy of his dependence on rain. When there was enough of it, things were fine, but he had to stay prepared for a lack of precipitation and the ensuing bad harvests. Farmers with plenty of land Read More...
Who’s afraid of inequality?
It is widely believed that excessive economic inequality is a profound social problem. Although this new egalitarianism often appears radical, it is, on the contrary, profoundly regressive. Contemporary critics of inequality accuse the super-rich of putting unbearable strain on the fabric of Read More...