Posted in Articles & Essays, tagged alternative medicine, generosity, health care on November 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
For impoverished women with cancer, there’s a special clinic that provides alternative medicine for free.
To a poverty-stricken woman living with cancer, the thought of a free massage or acupuncture treatment to soothe her chronic pain and emotional fatigue may seem like a far-flung pipe dream.
Yet even in these hard times, angels live among us.
Posted in Articles & Essays, tagged future, optimism on November 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
7 Best-Case Scenarios for the Future of Humanity
Most science fictional and futurist visions of the future tend towards the negative — and for good reason. Our environment is a mess, we have a nasty tendency to misuse technologies, and we’re becoming increasingly capable of destroying ourselves. But civilizational demise is by no means guaranteed. Should we find a way to manage the risks and avoid dystopic outcomes, our far future looks astonishingly bright. Here are seven best-case scenarios for the future of humanity.
Posted in Images, tagged beauty, sunrise on November 28, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Articles & Essays, tagged cuban missle crisis, vasilli arkhipov on November 21, 2012 | 1 Comment »
50 years ago, at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, second-in-command Vasilli Arkhipov of the Soviet submarine B-59 refused to agree with his Captain’s order to launch nuclear torpedoes against US warships and setting off what might well have been a terminal superpower nuclear war.
Posted in Articles & Essays, tagged alternative energy, germany on November 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Germany exports more energy than ever. The surplus is due to the massive development of renewable energies.
Germany exported the equivalent of the output of two large power stations – 12.3 terawatt hours – during the first three quarters of the year, according to a preliminary report from the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW), seen by the business weekly Manager Magazin.
By comparison, Germany had to import more than it exported over the first three quarters of last year, when the balance was -0.2 terawatt hours. But that was the exception during recent years – since 2006, Germany has consistently exported well over five terawatt hours more than it has imported.
Posted in Articles & Essays, tagged occupy, sandy on November 21, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
The Occupy movement evolves, showing all of us rabble-rousing progressives how to build a mass movement and transform the way the political process works: Start at the grassroots by helping people in need.
There is a sense of camaraderie reminiscent of Zuccotti, as young people plan the day’s activities. Donations come in by the truckload and are sorted in the basement, which looks like a clearinghouse for every household product imaginable, from canned soup and dog food to duvet covers.
“This is young people making history,” said Mark Naison, a professor at Fordham University who has been studying Occupy Wall Street. “Young people who are refusing to let people suffer without putting themselves on the line to do something about it.”
Posted in Articles & Essays, tagged africa, alternative energy on November 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Teenage girls from Africa invented a new kind of generator.
How’s this for an innovative startup: four African girls — the eldest of which is just fifteen years old — have worked together to invent a generator that’s powered by urine. The group presented their creation at this year’s Maker Faire Africa, and it’s so freaking brilliant it makes me want travel back in time and punch 15-year-old me right in the solar plexus.
Posted in Music, tagged annie lennox, blessings on November 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
“A Thousand Beautiful Things,” by Annie Lennox
Posted in Images, tagged beauty, rainbow on November 14, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Articles & Essays, tagged denmark, renewable energy, solar on November 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Denmark Reaches 2020 Goal for Solar. Only 8 Years Early.
Continuing a pattern: Countries, states, businesses, and cities that begin seriously implementing renewable energy meet with greater success, sooner, at less cost, than even the most optimistic proponents would have imagined.
Posted in Articles & Essays, tagged fgm, united nations on November 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
U.N is set to ban horrific practice
On Monday, [Khady] Koita, a leading figure in the campaign against female genital mutilation (FGM), will join other high-profile activists at the United Nations to drum up support for a global ban on a practice forced on millions of children every year.
"FGM is horrific, brutal, degrading and indefensible," said Koita, who was born in Senegal and now lives in Brussels. "My big hope is that one day no girl will have to go through what I have been through."
Posted in Images, tagged beauty, microscope on November 7, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
