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Stem Cell Transplant Helps Athletic Student See Again
 Taylor Binns was nearly blind by the time he met Allan Slomovic this fall at Toronto Western Hospital. A rare, extremely painful disorder that damages stem cells in the cornea had blurred his vision. Sometimes it felt as if he was being stabbed in the eyes with a knife. But the fourth-year Queen’s University student is celebrating the gift of sight thanks to his kid sister, Tori, and a new stem cell transplant program started by Dr. Slomovic and his colleagues. Read More >>
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Giant Water Lily: Nature’s Hidden Designs
 In still or slowly-moving waters there is one easy way to collect light: a plant can float its leaves upon the surface. No plant does this on a more spectacular scale than the giant Amazon water-lily. First surfacing as a simple bud, within a few hours, it bursts open and starts to spread. Expanding at the rate of half a square yard in a single day, the leaf grows until it is six feet across and stays afloat with special air-spaces within. On the underside, it glows a rich purple color. Read More >>
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Can Science Create Heroes?
 Can modern science help us to create heroes? That’s the lofty question behind the Heroic Imagination Project, a new nonprofit started by Phil Zimbardo, a psychologist at Stanford University. Heroism isn’t supposed to be a teachable trait. We assume that people like Gandhi or Rosa Parks or the 9/11 hero Todd Beamer have some intangible quality that the rest of us lack. When we get scared and selfish, these brave souls find a way to act, to speak out, to help others in need. That’s why they’re heroes. Zimbardo rejects this view. “We’ve been saddled for too long with this mystical view of heroism,” he says. “A hero is just an ordinary person who does something extraordinary. I believe we can use science to teach people how to do that.” Read More >>
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Homeless Man with ‘Golden Voice’
 Ted Williams was homeless, but with a golden voice. A chance YouTube video changed everything. Williams story became a viral sensation on January 4, with the original YouTube clip reaching more than four million views in 24 hours. He was found by a dispatch reporter on the side of the road, using his incredible voice to collect money on the street, holding a cardboard sign that asks motorists for help and says, “I’m an ex-radio announcer who has fallen on hard times.” Read More >>
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Importance of Kindgergarten
 An experienced teacher and a small class in kindergarten can set a person up for life. At least according to a large-scale study by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The bureau study, conducted by a team of economists, draws on data from Project STAR, one of the most widely studied education experiments in the United States. The project spans 11,600 students and their teachers in kindergarten through third grade across 79 schools. What’s unique is that, while numerous studies have shown the benefits of intensive preschool programs, this study is the first to link a better classroom environment in the earliest grades to success in adulthood. The study shows compelling proof of how kindergarten affects your salary, your chances of going to college and owning a home, and even your retirement savings. Read More >>
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A Missed Flight & A Connection Found
 On a plane bound for O’Hare International Airport, Elsie Clark felt weak, scared and utterly alone — until she spotted a pair of shiny leather shoes across the aisle. What happened to the 79-year-old Canadian over the next 12 hours– being embraced by a good Samaritan, escorted through O’Hare in a wheelchair and welcomed to a swanky high-rise for dinner overlooking Lake Michigan– saved her from a traumatic stranding in Chicago. It also proved that, even in tough times, people can surprise each other with kindness. Read More >>
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Matching Kids and Mentors
 To the beat of Aretha Franklin, and with pizza-laden paper plates poised precariously on their laps, families sit in the crowd at the assembly hall of Horace Mann Middle School. They are waiting. They look slightly anxious. It’s not graduation day- though it is something akin. The seventh and eighth graders here are at a pivotal time in their young lives, when school dropout problems can begin, experts say. Recognizing the threat, these families are participating in Spark, a program that aims to boost graduation rates of at-risk youth through one-on-one job apprenticeships. Earlier this school year, the students met their apprentices in what co-founder Chris Balme calls “a beautiful and amazingly awkward moment.” Read More >>
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In This Issue
Also This Week
Wisdom Reading
iJourney.org excerpts of wise words: Instilling Discipline and Responsibility in our Lives, by Angeles Arrien
Inspiring Video
KarmaTube.org video with be-the-change actions: Unemployed Man is Hunger Lifeline for Many
Kindness Story
HelpOthers.org story submitted by readers: Top Ten Kindness Stories of 2010
Community
 
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For years, Dr. Val Curtis has been persuading people in the developing world to wash their hands habitually with soap. Meanwhile, researchers at Duke and Cornell universities were examining how often smokers quit while vacationing and how much people eat when their plates are deceptively large or small. Those and other studies revealed that as much as 45 percent of what we do every day is habitual- that is, performed almost without thinking in the same location or at the same time each day, usually because of subtle cues. Today, public health campaigns are being revamped to employ habit-formation characteristics, according to people involved in those efforts. [ 
Shyam Narayan Sharma is a bedraggled man noticeable for his garland of old shoes and for wearing sandals and clothes made out of torn jute bags. He has served time in jail after turning himself in for capital crimes. While in jail, Sharma had a personal transformation and “made 600 inmates literate.” Upon his release on bail, Dayasagar sold his double-story home to set up a tin shed private school for the poor called Nai Subah (New Morning) where some 60 children of the neighborhood now come for free education. [ 
Sangha of Auspicious Companions 