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More Miracles in Japan
 Amid the silence, a baby cried out. And Japan met its tiniest miracle. Last week, soliders made their way to a pile of earthquake debris, gently cleared away the fallen items, and then they saw her: a 4-month-old baby in her pink woolen bear suit. Three days earlier, a tidal wave had literally swept her from her parents arms. Now a source of hope and renewed diligence among search crews, the baby rests snug among her overjoyed parents. Her incredible story is not the only one. Read More >>
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Museums Without Walls
 Walk through Philadelphia and you’ll see public art poised throughout the city. “Museum Without Walls: AUDIO” brings these sculptures to life with audio stories, told by people from all walks of life and somehow connected to the sculpture by knowledge, experience or affiliation. Nearly 100 “voices” at 35 stops explore 51 sculptures. These stories can be discovered while touring the city or sitting on your living room couch. Read More >>
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Football and Meditation with Running Back, Ricky Williams
 Picture one of the NFL’s most spellbinding figures sitting serenely in a room, meditating. Every Wednesday, Miami Dolphins running back Ricky Williams leads an open meditation session in a quiet college classroom where he’s working on his degree. Williams meditates every morning, before practices, and before he heads into the stadium on game day. “For me, [meditation] is like food. It’s spiritual food, and I need to be fed… I just go into the game very clear, with that balance between focus and relaxation.” And with that inner clarity, he can’t help but share with others: “The act of giving is a very healing thing.” Read More >>
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New Way to Watch your Blood Pressure
 Researchers have developed a device to measure pressure in the largest artery in the body. More accurate than the arm cuff, the technology works by a sensor in the watch recording the pulse wave of the artery, which is then fed into a computer together with a traditional blood pressure reading from a cuff. Scientists are then able to read the pressure close to the heart, from the aorta. Professor Bryan Williams from the University of Leicester says, “Unless we measure the pressure in the aorta we are not getting an appreciation of the risks or benefits of treatment. This device could change the way blood pressure has been monitored for more than a century.” Read More >>
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Human Spirit Rises to Meet Japan’s Tsunami
 Snapshots from Japan: A woman opens up her home and bathrooms to weary travelers walking hours home. A baker gives out free bread. Customers at the supermarket pick up fallen items and quietly stand in line to buy food. An old man at the evacuation shelter asks, “What’s going to happen now?” And a young high school boy nearby responds, “Don’t worry! When we grow up, we will promise to fix it back!” Among the tremendous ripples of Japan’s tsunami are some of the most strikingly powerful yet simple moments of human grace. Read More >>
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Costumed Crusaders Taking it to the Streets
 Crusaders costumed in tights, capes, cowls and other accoutrements are turning up with surprising regularity in American cities to fight what they consider their biggest enemy: public apathy. They call themselves Real Life Superheroes and, with names like Dark Guardian, Red Dragon, and Viper, they might be right at home on the pages of comic books. But unlike their ink-and-paper counterparts, they can’t fly, vanish into thin air or outrun a speeding locomotive. And they usually are armed with nothing more than good intentions. Maybe a camera and cell phone, too. They bring help to the homeless, raise money for charity, or just lend an ear so someone in trouble knows they care. Read More >>
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How to Deliver the Speech of Your Life
 Sweaty palms, trembling knees, that feeling of butterflies in the pit of your stomach. Whether you’re at a job interview, standing in front of a class, or keynoting a conference, speaking in public can be intimidating. In fact, statistics have shown that people fear it more than death. But is it really that bad? Dan Pallotta used to think so. After a few years of doing it more, something changed. He turned focus and intention away from himself and towards his audience. “And then it became fun. Because it was no longer about me.” Here are 13 powerful tips that he’s picked up over the years. Read More >>
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In This Issue
Also This Week
Wisdom Reading
iJourney.org excerpts of wise words: Practically Preposterous, by Pavithra Mehta
Inspiring Video
KarmaTube.org video with be-the-change actions: JR’s TED Wish: Turn the World Inside Out with Art
Kindness Story
HelpOthers.org story submitted by readers: A Tale of Two Tags
Community
 
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Do you treat yourself as well as you treat your friends and family? That simple question is the basis for a burgeoning new area of psychological research that looks at how kindly people view themselves. New research suggests that giving ourselves a break and accepting our imperfections may be the first step towards better health. Those who score high on tests of self-compassion have less depression and anxiety, and tend to be happier and more optimistic. [ 
We’re born to do it. A smile is one of the most basic, biologically uniform expressions of all humans. Paul Ekman, the world’s leading expert on facial expressions, discovered that smiles are cross-cultural and have the same meaning in different societies. 3-D ultrasound technology shows that developing babies appear to smile even in the womb. The mood-boosting power of a smile is unfathomable. Studies show that one smile can can provide the same level of brain stimulation as up to 2,000 chocolate bars. Yet, unlike lots of chocolate, lots of smiling can actually make you healthier. 🙂 [ 
“I’m 57,” Michael says. “Started at 26. And we’re just barreling along! If I have to work 7 days a week, I’ll do it.” Back when Michael and Bob started 30 years ago, there wasn’t much about urban agriculture around. Soon, City Farmer had hundreds of pages of original urban agriculture research online, before anyone else did. Today, City Farmer is now Canada’s Office of Urban Agriculture, and their website may hold more information about this subject than any other source in the world. [ 
The term “compassion” — typically reserved for the saintly or the sappy — has fallen out of touch with reality. Journalist Krista Tippett deconstructs the meaning of compassion as she traces the word through secular and spiritual icons like Mother Theresa, Gandhi, and Einstein, as well as everyday heroes like Matthew, a paraplegic yoga teacher. Through her stories, Tippett proposes a new, more attainable definition for the word in modern day: compassion as the latest technology. [ 
“It’s your trash, but it turns into value, it turns into lives saved really quickly.” Josh Nesbit says excitedly. Four years ago, Nesbit noticed that health workers in Malawi often lost important information during their strenuous trips to patients in isolated villages. Instead of walking for hours on end, doctors and patients could instantly text each other if they just had the right technology, he thought. With the help of the 500,000 cell phones found in trash cans each day, Nesbit set up a network that allowed health workers to turn paper records into text messages, saving time, resources, and lives. His small project has spread across 11 countries and helped 3.5 million patients. [ 
You may have heard it before. While we sleep, our brains replay and store the days events into our long-term memories. But it can’t keep everything. Of the deluge of information that pass through us each day, how do our minds “decide” what to keep and what to dump? Why can we replay the disagreement with a spouse or the promising job interview, but forget what we ate for breakfast or where we put that old sweater? A recent study says that the brain evaluates information based on future expectations. When we sleep, our subconscious sorts through our priorities and remember key points that will be useful in the future. [ 
