Iceland's open prisons, Kvíabryggja and another, offer a unique perspective on rehabilitation. With minimal security and a focus on communal living, these facilities prioritize...
Most people have been taught that the fastest path to economic growth runs through the wealthy -- give investors more money, and prosperity will eventually trickle down to...
Something strange happens to companies after they win. They stop trying to earn your loyalty and start finding ways to make your loyalty irrelevant. The pattern is everywhere...
Artificial lights disrupt the migratory patterns of billions of birds each year, leading to fatal consequences. New research shows that even ground-level lights can significantly...
In an age where trust and faith are increasingly tested, it is vital to recognize the duality of human nature. While the media often highlights violence and negativity, there are...
Across the 2026 Democratic primaries, something the party establishment did not plan for is happening in plain sight. A 29-year-old attorney knocks off a 30-year incumbent in...
A heat wave does not just make you sweaty and miserable. It turns the landscape into a loaded gun, dries out every blade of grass until it crinkles like paper, and then pulls the...
A strait 33 kilometers wide at its narrowest point carries roughly 20% of the world's seaborne oil and LNG — and when it closes, the bill doesn't get sent to the generals who...
Europe is baking under another record-breaking heat wave, and this one arrived right on the heels of temperatures in May that had no business existing. Meanwhile, Asia...
The curious thing about a democratic system is that it contains the seeds of its own demise. Freedom is not something guaranteed by any parchment or promise. It is earned by each generation which must jealously protect it from threats, not only from outside, but from within a nation.
Much happened that was hopeful this year — a new pope focused on inequality, successful minimum wage campaigns spread across the country, and the number of states allowing gay marriage doubled. We look at seeds sown this year that could make 2014 transformational...
With proper care and respect, Earth can provide a high quality of life for all people in perpetuity. Yet we devastate productive lands and waters for a quick profit, a few temporary jobs, or a one-time resource fix. For a surprisingly long time, we humans have successfully maintained the illusion that we are outside of, superior to, and not subject to the rules of nature...
Progressive organizations commonly focus on protesting and demanding corrective action to lessen the harms and injustices of a failed economic system. Changing the system is far more difficult and takes far more time, but it is what we must ultimately do.
After surviving near financial meltdown, devastating oil spills, and enormous bank bailouts, we're finally beginning to understand the deep connection between our economic and our political lives. To bring about real change, we'll need some powerful tools...
As national media outlets announced the failure of Washington state’s Initiative 522 — a measure that would require labeling of foods containing genetically engineered ingredients — those advocating for the measure paused. The race was...
The grid — even the proposed “smart” grid — is anything but smart, but is prone to failure, storms, and outages. We need to move to a paradigm where energy is generated where it is used. Once the device is in place, it would be free. Impoverished areas and peoples should have such systems heavily subsidized or gifted to them...
Growing up in the 1950s, Judy Wicks shunned the stereotypes of how girls should behave and longed to play baseball with the boys. When she became a businesswoman and entrepreneur, she recognized that her feminine desire to nurture was an asset in bringing collaboration to business and creating a more caring economy...
Infographics on the distribution of wealth in America, highlighting both the inequality and the difference between our perception of inequality and the actual numbers. The reality is often not what we think it is.
A lot of community education involves unlearning what we've learned in the school system, things that undermine our faith in our own ability to think for ourselves, undermine the development of our unique abilities, undermine our ability to be happy...
by the Women of the World. This is a time for collaboration at a global level as never before required. We can and must join together as women to take action with common but differentiated responsibilities for achieving sustainability. We must act now for ourselves, for future generations, for all living things on Mother Earth...
Psychologist Daniel Goleman has written a fascinating piece for today’s New York Times about social status and empathy. It seems that the richer and more powerful a person is, the less empathy he or she is likely to have for people who are lower in status:
Buy land, advised Mark Twain, because, as the punch line goes, they ain’t making any more of it. Fast forward to 2013 and that advice, as a look at prices for farmland shows, seems as prescient as ever. As any farmer will readily tell you, the agriculture business has had a tough run. Agriculture was once an economic mainstay. Turn back the clock to 1950 and the sector employed nearly a fifth of Canada’s work force.
In his complaints against the wing of the Republican Party that engineered the present government shutdown, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid derided his opponents as “Tea Party anarchists.” It’s hard to decide who should be more annoyed — the Tea Party or the anarchists.
If we really believe that doom is a viable expression of the endgame, wouldn’t we try to resolve some of this thanatos by“wresting control of our lives” from an inherently sick society? Wouldn’t we want to resolve remnants of cognitive dissonance by making our day-to-day behaviors more congruent with our “talk”?
One of my first memories of taking an environmental stance was in the late 60s. I was about ten years old, and I refused to ride in my dad's Opal that was burning some serious motor oil. I do not remember why I was so concerned about the gray-blue smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe, but...
Soon after the very earliest reporting on Ed Snowden's leaked documents about PRISM, the folks from Datacoup put together the very amusing GETPRSM website, which looks very much like the announcement of a new social network, but (the joke is) it's really the NSA scooping up all our data and making the connections. It's pretty funny. Except, of course, when you find out that it's real.
Most of us heat our home one of three ways: with traditional furnaces using natural gas, electricity or oil. So what options do you have? Basically two: you can rely on less (or in some places, no) heat or cooling, by increasing your insulation, or you can use some other energy source to generate the resources you need to heat and cool yourself...
If Initiative 522 succeeds, it could push manufacturers nationwide to begin labeling foods that contain genetically modified organisms. After California failed to pass Proposition 37 — a bill that would have required labeling of food containing genetically modified organisms, or GMOs — last November...
Almost all of the medical research with psychedelic drugs to date has been focused on curing diseases and treating illnesses. Little attention has been paid to the reported ability of these remarkable substances to increase human potential, and even less attention has been paid to their reputed ability to significantly enhance all aspects of human pleasure...
The journey of Odysseus in Homer's 'The Odyssey' offers profound insights into healing...
Fostering a legacy of joy empowers individuals to inspire authentic self-expression in...
Junk emotions like anxiety, anger, and jealousy can hinder personal well-being and...
Awareness meditation shifts focus from traditional breath techniques to observing...
The exploration of precognitive dreaming reveals a profound interconnectedness within...
Negative moods can linger and affect overall well-being, but identifying their triggers...
A rare celestial formation is quietly reshaping the foundations of everything we know —...
You don't need a week in silence at a mountain retreat to feel spiritually alive again....