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7-Month-Old Babies Can ‘Read Minds’
 Babies as young as 7 months old may be able to take into account the thoughts and beliefs of other people, a younger age than previously demonstrated. 7-month-olds have little experience with conversation, which has long been thought to play a key role in acquiring this capacity. As a result, this study is thought to be significant in building new theories about how this capacity develops. In the study, a Smurf-like character watches a ball roll through a number of scenes. Infants looked longer at those scenes where the character left too soon to see the ball’s final position. Because babies are thought to look longer at unexpected situations or events, the researchers interpret this to mean that they were surprised at the unexpected outcome because of processing the character’s viewpoint, not just their own. Despite some controversy about study design, if the results are confirmed by future studies, this would indicate that infants are sensitive to social information and to what others see. Read More >>
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Visit the MET From Your Desk
 Google has taken its 360-degree Street View cameras into some of the most famous and acclaimed galleries, opening the world’s art collection to the internet. From the Tate Britain in London to the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, you can now browse 385 rooms in 17 galleries, and see more than 1,000 works by 486 artists. Zoom in close enough, and you can see individual brushstrokes, hairline cracks in the canvas and microscopic details that are almost invisible to the naked eye. Read More >>
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How Meditation May Change the Brain
 “Over the holidays, my husband went on a silent meditation retreat. He said the experience was so transformational that he has committed to meditating for two hours daily, one hour in the morning and one in the evening. He’s running an experiment to determine whether and how meditation actually improves the quality of his life,” one NY Times contributor writes. Scientists say that meditators like her husband may be benefiting from changes in their brains. The researchers report that those who meditated for about 30 minutes a day for eight weeks had measurable changes in gray-matter density in parts of the brain associated with memory, sense of self, empathy and stress. Read More >>
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Baby Reunited with Doctor Who Saved Her
 In her thoughts and prayers over the past year, Nadine Devilme has thanked God countless times for saving her baby after Haiti’s earthquake. She’s also wanted to thank the doctor who treated Jenny Alexis after the 2-month-old spent four days alone, crushed in the rubble with nothing to drink. There was one problem: Devilme never knew the doctor’s name, never knew exactly whom to thank for treating her daughter’s fractured skull and crushed chest and then arranging for her to be airlifted to a hospital in Miami. Meanwhile, the physician who saved Jenny has spent the past year wondering how the baby was doing… Read More >>
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Southern Masked Weaver
 They call it home. The delicate orb that sits on the tree branch, a woven tangle of grass and twigs all strategically placed. It’s small and inconspicuous enough that you’d probably miss it walking by. Luckily, one photographer didn’t. “It was a priceless opportunity to watch these amazing builders constructing their homes from the very beginning till the end, from the first framework made of a few grass leaves till the very last stalk…” Read More >>
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Removing Stigma One Idli At A Time
 A small idli shop in south Tamil Nadu, India, is the talk of the town. At daybreak, people crowd around to buy idlis and dosas from two women who are HIV positive. Despite the stigma of HIV/AIDS in their town, the customers are aware of their condition and continue to patronize their shop. With community support, Vijayarani and Sumathy have overcome the devastating news, “look as healthy as any woman in our village and we have a successful business.” Read More >>
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Generous Vegetable Seller
 After the morning hustle, a lone lamp shines on a vegetable stall. With head bowed, Chen Shu-Chu is the first to arrive in the market and the last to leave. She earns marginal profits. Yet, her frugality has allowed her to donate NT$10 million (about 350,000 US $) towards various charitable causes, including schools, orphanages and poor children. The generosity of a woman with such a humble income has placed her under international spotlight, named an outstanding philanthropist by Forbes and among 2010’s top 100 most influential people by Time Magazine. Despite all the attention, she reminds us, “I have done nothing extraordinary. Everyone who wants to can do it. There are many other charitable people; we just don’t know about them.” Chen adds, “I don’t place great importance on money. When I donate to help others, I feel at peace, I’m happy, and I can sleep well at night.” Read More >>
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In This Issue
Also This Week
Wisdom Reading
iJourney.org excerpts of wise words: Believers in Small Graces, by Kent Nerbern
Inspiring Video
KarmaTube.org video with be-the-change actions: The Power of Vulnerability
Kindness Story
HelpOthers.org story submitted by readers: Coffee, Diners and Smile Cards
Community
 
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Jim Tracy, a cross-country coach at San Francisco’s University High School, was recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease and now walks with difficulty using braces on his legs and his back. But that doesn’t stop him from coaching. And inspiring. At the state meet this year, star runner Holland Reynolds collapsed near the finish line. Despite all odds, she finished the race, crawling on hand and knees in celebration of her coach. “Her body was tired, but she was mentally all there,” the official describes. 
Parents want their kids and teens to care about others – whether at school, in their community, or in need a continent away. The good news is that children “are sort of hard-wired” to want to help others, says Michael Ungar, author of “The We Generation: Raising Socially Responsible Kids.” “They want to take on responsibility.” From a second grade environmentalist to a 21-year-old peacemaker, here are profiles of five young people changing the world. 
Shopping can be exhausting, whether or not it’s the holiday season. Enjoying a meal of pizza and Coke in the food court one afternoon, mall shoppers were also served an unsuspecting and generous reminder of life’s spontaneous miracles. 
Two University of Manchester scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for their pioneering research on graphene, a one-atom-thick film of carbon whose strength, flexibility and electrical conductivity have opened up new horizons for pure physics research as well as high-tech applications. Graphene is one of the strongest, lightest and most conductive materials known to humankind. It’s also 97.3 percent transparent, but looks really cool under powerful microscopes. 
Jim Stanicki is at a party, where he’s having a great time with his family and friends. But when it’s time to go, he says he has to go, and his intention is to go well. Stanicki says it is his life that is the party. After being diagnosed with bronchoalveolar cancer almost four years ago, he has shared the highs and lows of his journey with friends online through Inspire.com, a health and wellness social network. Stanicki, who describes himself as an ordinary man, has turned to helping others. “You’re living burden-free, and that’s a real gift if you’re able to look at it in that way,” he said. “I try to tell people that this can really make life delightful.” 
When we hear the word “innovation,” we often think of new technologies or silver bullet solutions – like hydrogen fuel cells or a cure for cancer. But some of the greatest advances come from taking old ideas or technologies and making them accessible to millions of people who are under-served. One off-the-grid electricity company based in Bihar is doing just that. With an innovative solution to the 1.5 billion people living without electricity, Husk Power Systems is turning rice husks into electricity that is reliable, eco-friendly, and affordable for families who can spend only $2 a month for power. 
During a two-week period of “self-chosen exile”, Vinod Sreedhar made a radical commitment to himself: no more price tags on his work. Everything would be offered as a gift, and he would accept whatever came back his way. After the initial “noble high” of this major life decision subsided, questions rushed in. How will I make a living now? Am I setting myself up to be taken advantage of? After nearly three years of living a full-on “gift-economy” life, Vinod looks back and reflects on what motivated the decision, how he dealt with various offerings of gratitude for his work — from little or nothing to very generous — and one key element essential for this to work: unconditional trust. 
Sangha of Auspicious Companions 