Miscellaneous
Thank you
Anne Kubitsky receives lots of postcards. Lots and lots of postcards. That’s not just because the artist and writer from Old Lyme, Connecticut, has so many friends. It’s because she invited others to show their gratitude by mailing it to her. When she launched the Look for the Good Project a Read More...
Occupy the theater
For almost two years now, 60 actors and theater technicians have been occupying Rome’s Teatro Valle. During that time, the site of Teatro Valle Occupato (“Occupy Teatro Valle”) has become the most visited theater in the city. Teatro Valle, built in 1726 between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona, Read More...
Out now: The Consciousness Issue
We need something new. The daily news makes the case for very different approaches and solutions. Whether it is the next storm of the century that some say is linked to our own behavior, the political stalemate in the U.S., the financial system that keeps failing most people or expensive Read More...
The legacy of the Occupy movement
Now that the tents are packed up and the banners put away, what’s left of Occupy? Are disillusionment and disappointment with a movement that undertook to change everything but did not achieve any real change all that remain? Laments about a lack of clear demands, a political agenda, Read More...
Simply being kind
Smile at a stranger, bring a treat to a co-worker or let someone else go in front of you in a line. As it turns out, these random acts of kindness could make you a happier person. A few years ago, Stanford University psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky asked students to carry out five weekly Read More...
The power of persistence
When Luchia Ghebreselasie arrived at the Literacy Council of Montgomery County in Rockville, Maryland, to enroll in an English program, the teachers knew it was going to be an uphill battle. It had only been a few years since Ghebreslasie and her family had been sponsored to immigrate to the Read More...
I know I’m conscious. But how? And why?
Recently at a remote beach in Mexico I was looking at the most beautiful stars filled night sky. The darkness was perfect and there were more stars than I had ever seen. Looking at the stars always overwhelms me. I know the theory of the Big Bang that tells me that the universe has been expanding Read More...
Innovation on the fringes
Kibera is the slum, the shantytown that—in the Western mind, at least—defines the grotesque poverty of the developing world. Rusting corrugated roofs sprawl to the horizon. More than 200,000 people live here on the outskirts of Nairobi, Kenya. Residents walk alongside open sewers and Read More...
Indias Love Commandos
Once upon a time, a couple fell in love in the village of Bulundshahr, Uttar Pradesh, India. She was from a rich family, he from a poor one. Both shared the same religion, Islam, and they wanted to spend their lives together. She knew her family wouldn’t agree to let her marry a man from such a Read More...
A theater for banned films
Thousands of artists live and work in the village of Songzhuang, just outside Beijing. In the middle of town, independent filmmakers show new features and documentaries at the Fanhall Center for the Arts. These productions are uncensored and unapproved by the government, so they can’t get into Read More...