Month: February 2012

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You Can’t Recreate the Future Unless You Visualize the Future You Want

The 12 Most Hopeful Trends to Build On in 2012

Today, people ranging from Ben Bernake, chair of the Federal Reserve, to filmmaker Michael Moore are expressing sympathy for the Occupy Movement and concern for those losing homes, retirement savings, access to health care, and hope of ever finding a job.

This uprising is the biggest reason for hope in 2012. The following are 12 ways the Occupy Movement and other major trends of 2011 offer a foundation for a transformative 2012.

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Fill the Sacred Temple of Your Imagination up With Redemption for a Change

Stories of animal rescues

From the Canadian teacher who rescued stray dogs from Afghanistan to the Australian hospital workers who nursed nearly 100 baby fruit bats, poignant stories of animal rescue can be found all over the world.

These rescuers are exemplars of the human spirit — people for whom kindness has conquered apathy, who’ve chosen selflessness over selfishness.

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Maybe the Good News Is As Worthy of Reporting As the Other Kind

A follow-up on some of 2011’s good news stories

Call it the feel-good flavor of the day. One story of bravery, kindness or generosity can take the world by storm, but in this 24/7 news cycle, most heroes only get five minutes of fame.

What happens when the cameras stop rolling? What does a brush with fame do to a good person? Is it possible that it makes their lives, dare we say, better? We decided to find out.

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What if 2012 Is About the Opposite of Apocalypse?

This Changes Everything

How the 99% woke up: a book about how the Occupy movement is shifting the way people view themselves and the world, the kind of society they believe is possible, and their own involvement in creating a society that works for the 99% rather than just the 1%.

The Occupy movement, as it has come to be called, named the source of the crises of our time: Wall Street banks, big corporations, and others among the 1% are claiming the world’s wealth for themselves at the expense of the 99% and having their way with our governments. This is a truth that political insiders and the media had avoided, even while the assets of the top 1% reached levels not seen since the 1920s. But now that this genie is out of the bottle, it can’t easily be put back in

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Smart People Are Working Behind the Scenes to Help Us All

High School Student Devises Possible Cure for Cancer

Born to Chinese immigrants, 17-year-old Angela Zhang of Cupertino, California is a typical American teenager. She’s really into shoes and is just learning how to drive.

But there is one thing that separates her from every other student at Monta Vista High School, something she first shared with her chemistry teacher, Kavita Gupta.

It’s a research paper Angela wrote in her spare time — and it is advanced, to say the least. Gupta says all she knows is its recipe — for curing cancer.

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Nature Can Cure Some of the Excesses of Technology

Camelina-based jet fuel reduces carbon emissions from jets by about 80
percent

The first transatlantic flight powered by biofuel landed Saturday at Paris-Le Bourget Airport after a seven hour flight from New Jersey.

One-quarter of the fuel used to carry the Gulfstream G450 jet across the Atlantic Ocean was biofuel derived from camelina. A 50/50 blend of camelina-based Honeywell Green Jet Fuel and petroleum-based jet fuel powered one of the plane’s two Rolls-Royce engines.

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The Problems That Come from Shrinking Crime

Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals

The Dutch justice ministry has announced it will close eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty.

During the 1990s the Netherlands faced a shortage of prison cells, but a decline in crime has since led to overcapacity in the prison system. The country now has capacity for 14,000 prisoners but only 12,000 detainees…The overcapacity is a result of the declining crime rate, which the ministry’s research department expects to continue for some time.