Happiness & Success
Achieving Happiness Through Acceptance of Life
The quest for happiness often leads to frustration, as many fail to realize that the...
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- Written by: Jay Walljasper, On The Commons
The ideas below are from the Great Neighborhood Book, a collaboration between OTC Senior Fellow Jay Walljasper and Project for Public Spaces. Walljasper is a Minneapolis-based speaker and consultant about how to strengthen communities.
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- Written by: Nigel Paul, Lancaster University
The one fact about plants that most people probably remember from school is that they use sunlight to make their own food. That process, photosynthesis, means that plants are dependent on sunlight.
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- Written by: Janice Peters
Mowgli arrived at Best Friends Animal Society in Utah after being rejected by two shelters. On my day for volunteering, I saw the eight-month-old malamute sitting off by himself, and I walked over to the fence to talk to him. When those mahogany eyes looked deep into my heart and touched my soul, I fell in love.
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- Written by: InnerSelf Staff
The idea that we can't feed ourselves with sustainable means is scoffed at by many. Without oil, pesticides, and GMOs we will certainly starve we are told by an establishment that sometimes seems without conscience.
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- Written by: Kenneth Grattan, City University London
We live in a world where time is all important. Nanoseconds mark the difference between success or failure to make an electronic transaction and where we are continuously reminded of “the time”: of being early or late, of having missed an appointment or arriving “before time”. In today’s world, time now governs our life.
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- Written by: InnerSelf Staff
These herbs aren't just for cooking—here's how you can use them to treat ailments from asthma to anxiety.
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- Written by: Alessandro Ossola, University of Melbourne and Matthew Burns, University of Melbourne
Urban flooding represents the most common yet severe environmental threat to cities and towns worldwide. Future changes in rainfall extremes are likely to increase this threat, even in areas that could become drier.
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- Written by: Sarah Love McCoy
If we as humans can feel more beauty in ourselves, in our homes, in our environment, how much that can change our very experience of life itself. If we see and experience more beauty in the world then we can't help but being touched and moved by it.
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- Written by: Angie Hunt, Iowa State University
A sustainable film made from a byproduct of kombucha tea could be a new material for clothing, shoes, or handbags.
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- Written by: Gloria Wendroff
About six months after Morris first appeared at Lauren’s door, he started to appear at my door instead. All my life I’d had a cat phobia. Cats terrified me so much that I had recurrent nightmares about a cat jumping from a tall staircase and landing on the back of my neck.
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- Written by: Ruth Wilson, On The Commons
Ancient Athens shows what to do. Rome shows what not to do. Two questions to ask: What are cities for? Who owns them?
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- Written by: Rebecca Whittle, Lecturer, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University
With more people than ever living in cities, how do we reconcile our need for fresh fruit and vegetables with the challenges of life in an urban environment where the time and space for gardening are limited?
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- Written by: Jes Andersen-U. Copenhagen
Tests show a new air-cleaning system easily removed the rotten egg smells of pig farming and wastewater treatment.
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- Written by: Myron Zalucki, Professor School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland
Cockroaches are a very ancient group of insects. They have been around virtually unchanged in general appearance since the Carboniferous period, more than 300 million years ago. Technically speaking they are in the Order Blattodea (the same level of classification as, for instance, all butterflies and moths).
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- Written by: Federico Calboli, Marie Curie research fellow in genetics, University of Helsinki
A German shepherd with a sloping back that was awarded best of breed brought the dog show Crufts in for this year’s annual bout of criticism. Viewers took to social media to accuse the owner of animal cruelty by suggesting that its unusual shape meant the dog must suffer health problems brought on by inbreeding – something the owner denied.
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- Written by: Frank Hailer, Lecturer in Evolutionary Biology, Cardiff University
Dog owners might disagree, but as far as evolutionary biologists are concerned, all dogs are just dogs. It may seem odd that Canis (lupus) familiaris extends from rabbit-sized Chihuahuas to Great Danes which can be almost the size of a small pony, whereas seemingly much smaller differences place many animals into separate species or sub-species.
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- Written by: Lauren C. Ponisio, University of California, Berkeley
Some farmers have turned to less chemically-intensive techniques to reduce the negative impact of agriculture, such as organic farming, which has been shown to outperform conventional farming by many standards of environmental sustainability. The question is whether we can meet the demand for food, which is predicted to rise substantially in the next 50 years.
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- Written by: Michael Taylor, Lecturer, School of the Environment, Flinders University
Home alone? Hardly. Our homes are positively swarming with creatures of all kinds. In our new series, we’ll be profiling the “hidden housemates” that live with us.
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- Written by: Stephen White, Research Director: Grids and Energy Efficient Systems, CSIRO
Homebuyers respond well to green features such as solar panels, rather than stats and figures. If you’ve ever bought a home you’ll know the feeling of deciphering real estate advertising spin. But those advertisements traditionally don’t tell you about how much
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- Written by: Jacqueline Boyd, Lecturer in Animal Science, Nottingham Trent University
For most of us, commuting is a task to be endured. Busy, noisy and often cramped, the world’s underground transport systems are places that we humans tolerate as a matter of necessity. But not so for Moscow’s “metro dogs”.
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- Written by: Rhitu Chatterjee, The World
On a hilly slope in São Paulo City, a group of sixth graders is busy at work. They’re armed with seeds, soil and a range of gardening tools. Upside-down soda bottles, filled with water, outline a series of rectangular garden plots.
