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Real family values
How suppressed emotions cut us off from loved ones and ourselves.
Photograph: David Servan-Schreiber
Tom had a successful career... in the mafia. He'd been a millionaire, able to have any woman he wanted, and rubbed ...
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Tom Vilsack
Tales of the credit crunch
Filmmaker Johan Kramer finds inspiration in the financial crisis.
Photograph: Wouter Westendorp
A Japanese woman walks two dogs along a winding path in a well-groomed park. The dogs sniff around the bushes as the woman walks ...
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A good kind of group think builds sustainable small businesses
Ernesto Sirolli taps into the collective genius of communities.
Sirolli says the businesses he’s helped build have an 80 percent success rate. Photograph: Sirolli Institute
If you happen to ride your bicycle to Ernesto ...
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Energy/Transportation
Open Medicine provides medical knowledge to the public
Palepu believes medical publishing should be free from corporate influence. Photograph: Eugene Lin
Anita Palepu was an associate editor at the Canadian Medical Association Journal in 2006 when the publisher fired two ...
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Green Living
Vitamin Angels combats malnutrition with nutritional supplements
How giving every child basic nutrition may provide a starting point for tackling Africa's other challenges.
At Alupe Hospital in Busia, Kenya, pregnant women take supplements to increase their chances of having healthy babies. ...
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Energy/Transportation
Two-wheel wonders: The bicycle enjoys a renaissance
No other form of travel can quite beat the joys of cycling.
A cyclist heads out early from Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park, Montana. Photograph: Wessel Kok
In western Montana in August, crickets leap from heat-radiating ...
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Time banks thrive in the midst of the recession
Autumn Rooney (left) and Lisa Gerstein take the saying “time is money” literally. Photograph: Kevin Scanlon
Even in the midst of the recession, Portland, Maine, has a bank that's generating an unusual amount of ...
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The Tao of arugula
How to get maximum flavor with minimum effort.
Photograph: Elbrich Fennema
To achieve a harmonious life, the Taoists propagated a curious recommendation: wu wei, or do by not doing. In our action-oriented society, not doing ...
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Armstrong's TED wish: A reminder of the golden rule
Karen Armstrong hopes to promote tolerance through compassion.
Armstrong launched her call for compassion in a 2008 TED speech. Photograph: Andrew Heavens/TED2008
In all her studies of religion, Karen Armstrong says one idea ...
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TED
The reason of faith
Religious scholar Karen Armstrong on how we lost the knack for religion—and why we need to get it back.
Religion isn’t easy, Armstrong says: “You
have to practice quite hard, like you do with any art form.” ...
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Environment
The cowboy couture of Kenya
The cowboy shirts created by Kimani (left) and Sullivan are made from secondhand clothing. Photograph: Hilary Cole
In 2007, Bartholomew Sullivan's cream-colored Stetson cowboy shirt was beginning to fade. The Vancouver ...
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Environment
Kenya
Teaching emotional intelligence
Roots of Empathy,
Mary Gordon,
The Experiment
After she became a kindergarten teacher 40 years ago, Mary Gordon learned there was only so much she could do in school. She started working with families caught in cycles of ...
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Gordon Brown
Simplifying supplements
A user’s guide to vitamins and minerals, from calcium to omega-3s.
“The consequence of not getting enough [micronutrients] is that your body cuts back on certain functions that affect long-term health. … When ...
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Environment
Great Elephant Poo Poo paper
Poo Poo Paper
Elephant dung is full of medium-grain fibers, an ideal raw material for the paper-making process. Luckily, the folks at the Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper Company aren’t squeamish, so this valuable ...
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Green Living
Recycling
Batter Blaster pancake mix
Batter Blaster
There’s something about food you spray from a can that’s hard to resist. But up until now, the only sprayable foods were artificial delights such as, Reddi Whip or Cheez Whiz. Not anymore. The ...
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Intelligent Optimist: Stephane Gue, co-founder of Proyecto Payaso
Stephane Gue
Co-founder, Proyecto Payaso
Quetzaltenango, Guatemala Photograph: Asociación Payasos Atz’anem K’oj
For almost 10 years, a clown troupe based in Guatemala has been performing shows about HIV ...
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Guatemala
World Laughter Day: Make fun, not war
World Laughter Day, Mumbai, India Photograph: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images
World Laughter Day , held annually on the first Sunday of May, is designed to instigate premeditated hilarity around the globe. According to ...
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Environment
India
Climate Change
Of laughter and land mines
The first rule of social investing—do no harm.
Photograph: Pak Fung Wong
Last year I visited a clinic for land mine victims in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, run by an extraordinary organization called Veterans International ...
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Richard Land
Cambodia
Migrate toward the merriment
Follow the laughter, wherever it leads.
Image: David Servan-Schreiber
Jerry Seinfeld‘s father sold neon signs and often took his son from one local store to the next. His father loved funny stories, and he never ...
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“Laughter can set people free”
Ron Jenkins, author of Subversive Laughter and other books on comedy, wanted to be a child psychiatrist before he decided to become a circus clown. Now a professor of theater at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, he argues that ...
How laughter meditation can bring you peace and joy
Want to get in touch with your inner giggler? Try Dhyan Sutorius’ laughing meditation.
Dhyan Sutorius Photograph: Pieter
de Swart
Laughing is a group activity. "It gives you a feeling of solidarity," Dhyan Sutorius had ...
Happiness is overrated
Sometimes, there are lies behind the laughter.
Illustration: Chris Sharp
What is happiness? This is a question that has not bothered me for a long time, precisely because I don’t know how to answer it. I am not the ...
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Green Living
The funny side of faith
Sometimes, a joke book is the best sacred scripture.
Laura Gentry calls the resurrection Christianity’s big joke on death, “the banana peel of the
christian faith.” Photograph: William F. Gentry II
Mullah ...
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Green Living
Mocking the news is hard work at satirical newspaper The Onion
Onion writer Todd Hanson, in a lighter moment. Photograph: Carol R. Hartsell
How do humor writers deal with the constant pressure of trying to be funny on deadline? "Mocking each other and having dangerous levels of ...
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Green Living
How laughter can keep you on your spiritual path
Known as the “hugging saint,” Amma might just as well be called the laughing saint. Photograph: Money Sharma/EPA/Corbis
A few years ago, I traveled throughout India looking for spiritual inspiration. Naturally, ...
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Environment
K Blows Top: Comedic travels with Khrushchev
K Blows Top,
Peter Carlson,
PublicAffairs
During his visit to the U.S. in 1959, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev addressed a room full of film stars. Khrushchev had already shown himself to be a prickly, but witty man. ...
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Try a little bubbly
Overcome your fear of failure in the kitchen with this ridiculous recipe.
Photograph: Pieter
de Swart
"Laughter kills fear," writes Umberto Eco in his novel The Name of the Rose , which probably explains why laughing is ...
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A funny thing happened on the way to the office
Laughing at work keeps workers—and workplaces—healthy.
Photograph: Corbis Photography
John Morreall, professor of religious studies at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, tells the story of a police ...
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Green Living
Does God have a sense of humor?
How laughter turned a trial attorney into a Baptist minister.
Photograph: susan sparks
After 10 years as a trial attorney in New York City, Susan Sparks was burned out. "I was so sapped of energy that I couldn’t do ...
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Clowns spark laughter among children living in distressed regions
Kibati refugee camp,
the Democratic Republic of Congo Photograph: Walter Aatrada/AFP/Getty Images
The word "clown" has gotten a bad rap, according to Moshe Cohen, founder of the U.S. branch of Clowns Without Borders . The ...
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Q&A;: Author Ralph Lerner explores how thinkers use humor to change society
Ralph Lerner
In his soon-to-be released Playing the Fool: Subversive Laughter in Troubled Times , Ralph Lerner, a professor emeritus at the University of Chicago, explores how thinkers like Francis Bacon and Benjamin ...
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In the beginning was the joke
Why cheerfulness is next to godliness.
John Lloyd
There’s a mysterious passage in the Bible, that goes like this: "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." This passage has the ...
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Comedians remind us not to take our spiritual practice too seriously
Swami Beyondananda Photograph: Steve Bhaerman
Swami Beyondananda has no followers. "He gets paranoid when he thinks he’s being followed," says comedian Steve Bhaerman. Bhaerman should know. He’s the swami. ...
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California
What makes the whoopee cushion so funny?
One man’s search for the laws of whoopee cushion acoustics.
Trevor Cox lounges on the world’s largest whoopee cushion. Photograph: University of Salford
After Trevor Cox, professor of acoustics at the University of ...
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Parallels between yoga and laughter
Yoga teacher Katchie Ananda likes to keep spirits up (and dogs down) in class. Photograph: Hilary Nichols
"Laughing is an exhale," says Leslie Howard, a yoga teacher in Berkeley, California. When students tense up with ...
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California
The business of making people laugh
Being funny for a living is very serious business. How much would you pay for a laugh?
Jon Stewart warms up the crowd before taping The Daily Show. Photograph: Scott Gries/Getty Images
What’s a laugh worth? You can get ...
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Environment
Comedy act brings better understanding to the Muslim world
Azhar Usman says his stand-up routine can help make Muslims better understood. Photograph: Wanakhavi Wakhisi
A Muslim, a Hindu and a Christian stand together on a stage... it sounds like the opening line of a joke, but ...
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Laughter and learning
The upside of looking on the lighter side of life.
Jos Houben Photograph: Alain de Chamberataud
For the past few years, I've been traveling the globe with a show called "The Art Of Laughter," a mock lecture in which I analyze ...
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Medicinal mirth: The health benefits of hilarity
Why a laugh a day keeps the doctor—and the cardiologist and the psychiatrist—away.
Laughter yoga students in Manhattan get into the spirit of things. Photograph: Jordan Hollender
The teacher gathers his laughter yoga students ...
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Weep no more with onion goggles
Onion goggles
Nothing ruins the pleasure of cooking and entertaining like the eye-scalding fumes of raw onions. Weep no more. Your eyes (and peace of mind) are safe behind a pair of stylish onion goggles from RSVP ...
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Mexico
We need to take responsibility for what we buy
Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence
and Social Intelligence , says we need to work on our collective relationship with the planet. In his new book, Ecological Intelligence , he argues we can do that in part by making smarter ...
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Green Living
Intelligent Optimist: Jamie Pritscher
Jamie Pritscher Photo: Jamie Pritscher
Jamie Pritscher always dreamed of starting her own company, one that would make a difference. She came up with That’s Caring , a website that offers "a greener way to give," with ...
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The weakest link in the chain is also the strongest
An aphorism by James Geary, author of The World in a Phrase and Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists.
A loose thread protruding from my favorite sweater. So this is what everything hangs by; this is what holds it all together. A ...
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Amazing Grass Organic Green Superfood
Photo: Amazing Grass
Yes, we’re supposed to eat our vegetables, but it’s not that easy to consume the USDA-recommended four and a half cups per day. Consider whole foods supplements, such as Organic Green ...
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Green Living
Organic Food
USDA
Reflections on turning 60
The art of finding your friends, and letting your friends find you.
Illustration: Chris Sharp
In a recent interview, I said that turning 60 is the same as turning 35 or 47: a birthday cake, blowing out the candles and so on. ...
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Green Living
Tony Blair is in search of solutions
To reduce CO2 emissions, “we must have the courage to share our knowledge” with China and India, Blair says. Photo: World Economic Forum/Andy Mettler
As far as Tony Blair is concerned, the economic crisis has ...
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China
CO2
India
A cure for salad allergy
The pleasures of gazpacho, Spain’s powerhouse summer soup.
Photo: Pieter de Swart
Lots of people have a nearly pathological aversion to raw vegetables, which is understandable given that most of us associate raw veggies with ...
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Environment
The Cure
Spain
The U.S. military's new medical frontline
Photographs: istockphoto.com/EchoArt (helmet); istockphoto.com/AlexStar (stones)
Is the U.S. military looking for enlightenment? Meditation, yoga, acupuncture and even pet ownership are all part of a research program funded ...
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Credit shouldn't cost this much
Taking action against predatory credit card practices.
Photo: Pak Fung Wong
People often say to me, "What’s next? What are you mad about?" Today, my answer is plastic cards. Credit cards and bank ATM cards were created ...
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Environment
Interview with Tom Szaky CEO of TerraCycle
Tom Szaky Photo: TerraCycle
TerraCycle co-founder and CEO Tom Szaky doesn’t believe in a conflict between environmental values and the bottom line. He built a profitable business based on new uses for garbage. ...
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