Month: April 2011

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Grow, Baby, Grow!

64,000 trees planted in 15 minutes

This past Thursday, over 64,000 trees were planted in 15 minutes, breaking the world record for the most trees planted simultaneously…The Independent reports that almost 7,000 people helped to plant saplings in the Philippines province of Camrines Sur. The planting was part of a government-backed program aiming to plant 12 million trees in the region’s logged forests. Forests in the Philippines are considered to be one of the ten most threatened forests in the world.

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Goodness Pays

Higher Job Performance Linked to People Who Are More Honest and Humble

This study shows that those who possess the combination of honesty and humility have better job performance. In fact, we found that humility and honesty not only correspond with job performance, but it predicted job performance above and beyond any of the other five personality traits like agreeableness and conscientiousness.

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Fight Back Against the Sober-Minded Oppressors

Funniest women on the planet?

In honor of International Women’s Day and the upcoming Women In Comedy Festival in Boston, we wanted to put together a list of some of our favorite female comedians. The only problem is we ran out of time to add the couple hundred more we wanted to include. So, we admit that this list is by no means complete. Nevertheless, we hope it puts a little bit of a damper on the notion that funny women are few and far between. As you click through, you’ll see some faces you recognize as well as, possibly, a lot that you don’t. But all are worthy of your immediate attention.

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Cast Your Lot With Those Who Imagine Redemption

2012: Time for a Change is Daniel Pinchbeck’s film. It presents an alternate view of the numinous transformations ahead.

Rather than breakdown and barbarism, 2012 will herald the birth of a regenerative planetary culture, where collaboration replaces competition, where exploration of psyche and spirit becomes the new cutting edge, replacing the sterile materialism that has pushed our world to the brink.”

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Expand Your Mind Every Day, Please

Pretty pictures from the edge of reality

From the icy Arctic to Africa’s dense jungles – and the mountain tops of Mongolia to the deep waters of the Pacific – the BBC series Human Planet has explored mankind’s incredible relationship with nature.

Accompanying the film crews was photographer Timothy Allen. His stunning still images captured unique glimpses of people living in the world’s most extreme environments. Take a look at some of them, and listen to him explain how he snapped the most arresting shots.

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I Dare You to Imagine How Life Might Improve

Fixing the free market. How co-ops — businesses in which the employees are also the owners of the company — merge economic growth with social goals.

Eufrecina De Jesus, ICDC’s founder and director, says the cooperative model—in which the employees are also the owners of a company—is the only solution for combining the power of business with the social goal of solidarity.

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There’s More Intelligence out There Than We Can Imagine

Elephants are as smart as dolphins and great apes

In a series of tests, the giant mammals learned to cooperate to solve a problem, researchers report in Monday’s edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Elephants are socially complex, explained lead researcher Joshua M. Plotnik.

“They help others in distress,” he said. “They seem in some ways emotionally attached to each other, so you would expect there would be some level of cooperation.”

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Another Outbreak of Enlightened Practices

West African farmers have succeeded in cutting the use of toxic pesticides, increasing yields and incomes and diversifying farming systems.

Working in small groups, called Farmer Field Schools, smallholders are developing and adopting ‘good agricultural practices’ through learning-by-doing and hands-on field experiments.

To grow healthy crops, IPPM promotes soil improvement and alternatives to chemical pesticides such as the use of beneficial insects, adapted varieties, natural pesticides and cropping practices. Marketing and food safety issues are also part of the training programme.