If you ever wondered what true exhaustion feels like, or claustrophobia, or utter loneliness for human companionship, Katie Spotz can enlighten you. And if you wonder whether these things can indeed be overcome, then this young endurance athlete can answer that too. Among many other feats to her credit, she's rowing across the Atlantic Ocean. Alone.

As endurance is her strong suit, she's run 150 miles across the Mojave Desert and biked 3,300 miles across the US (averaging 85 miles per day). Not to mention an impressive swim-the full 325 mile length of the Allegheny River. Then there was the Half-Iron Man, and that 62-mile marathon too.   Read more...

Windows, which lend aesthetic beauty and natural light and warmth to interior spaces, could now capture the power of the sun instead of merely relay it with Smart Energy Glass. Peer +, an innovative Dutch company, recently developed an organic-based glass coating called Smart Energy Glass. Windows made with this glass are transformed into solar energy collectors.

Smart Energy Glass can come in an array of colors and be used on three different modes: dark, privacy and bright. Privacy mode generates the most energy, and bright the least. Whichever setting the windows are on, the energy captured can either be used immediately or fed back into a power grid, adding to a building's energy efficiency and sustainability.   Read more...

Socially-conscious ice cream fanatics around the country (and world) are jumping for joy - and so are more than 24,000 farmers from around the globe.

So what's all the hoopla about?   Read more...

In March of 2007 a unique festival took place, on the occasion of Bulgaria joining the European Union. For ten days, musicians from all countries alongside the Danube, played concerts and spontaneous jam sessions aboard the MS Sofia, sailing upstream from Vidin in Bulgaria to Passau in Germany.

In just two weeks, on March 20th, the second edition of this floating musical event will start, again with a stellar cast of musicians, including wedding band grandmasters Ivo Papasov and Ferus Mustafov, kaval virtuoso Theodosii Spassov, singers Marta Sebestyen and Svetlana Spajic, bagpipers Carlos Nuñez and Elisabeth Vatn, oud player Haig Yazdjian and many many others. I am deeply honored to be part of this wonderful event once again, and will keep you updated via this blog.   Read more...

I am proud to introduce The Mile Club Challenge. It is a motivational program in which you challenge yourself to go 100, 200, 300, 400, or 500 miles in 100 days using almost any mode of exercise. You can walk, jog, run, or hike on a treadmill or outside. You can use cardio exercise equipment such as elliptical trainers, steppers, rowers, etc. You can swim. You can ride an exercise bike or a real bike (you get 1 mile of credit for every 3 miles you ride). You even get 2 miles of credit for each cardio class you attend. Miles are logged on our site and those who achieve their goal will receive a Mile Club Challenge shirt.

The Mile Club Challenge is great for individuals and has proven to be an excellent component of corporate wellness programs. All of the details are at www.mileclubchallenge.com.   Read more...

"The Chinese invasion was not just a bad thing, because it helped bring Tibetan buddhism to the rest of the world," as the Dalai Lama likes to say. By the same token, it was the war in former Yugoslavia that helped spread the music of its peoples far accross its borders. Before those tragic events very few people outside Bosnia knew about sevdah, the Bosnian equivalent of Portugese fado and Greek rebetika.

The revival started shortly after the war when some musicians of pre-war fame joined hands to form the band Mostar Sevdah Reunion. It was around that same time that a young singer named Amira first made her appearance on the international scene. Her debut album Rosa, recorded under the supervision of producer Dragi Sestic, was somewhat overshadowed by the glorious comeback of Ljiljana Buttler, who teamed up with Mostar Sevdah Reunion for the occasion. But Amira is back with no less than two new CD's: one with accordionist Merima Kljuco and a live-in-concert recording with her regular band. Amira's speciality is sevdalinka, the most wistful form of sevdah. Deeply moving stuff!   Read more...

It is admirable and rare to commit yourself to a service project that may never be completed in your lifetime. In an inspiring stroke of luck, I was able to meet this caliber of visionaries in Hungary through an organization called Friends of Szádvár.

The original Hungarian members of this organization met in 2006 in a chat room for castle enthusiasts. It wasn’t long before one castle-lover issued a call to action, urging the group to utilize their passion for good. This inkling bloomed into Friends of Szádvár, a group committed to restoring the 12th-century Castle Szádvár, located in Hungary’s Aggtelek National Park near the Slovakian border. Multiple times a year, the volunteers from all different walks of life - including a youth group each summer - join together for “Castle-saving weekends.” During these times, the group clears out the undergrowth surrounding the castle and slowly transforms the abandoned area into a tourist attraction - a time-intensive endeavor some volunteers acknowledge they will never see complete, yet they are enthused to contribute what they can.   Read more...

As both an avid runner and a woman whose default state is buried deep in the trenches of my own head, I’m beginning to understand the amazing benefits of horseback riding. For the last month, I’ve been taking classes at Leap of Faith Farms in Walnut Creek, CA, and today’s lesson was a bit of a breakthrough for me.

For years, running has been my escape from myself. The physical exertion has given me space to pull my psyche out of its internal cave and back into the world. Athletes call this “The Zone,” but it goes beyond that. Running has been a form of meditation for me. It has been my primary method of wrenching my stubborn consciousness into the present moment and silencing the chatter of my mind. Recently, however, I have begun to experience the same effects with horseback riding. My first lesson was enjoyable but rather clumsy. I didn’t know how to communicate with Metro, the beautiful brown and black horse who obliges me to ride him, and he kept abruptly stopping. He wouldn’t go where I wanted him to. His turns were obtuse and imprecise. None of this, of course, was Metro’s fault. Nor was it mine. I simply couldn’t speak his language.   Read more...

The Unreasonable Institute's first Finalist Marketplace is now online, giving donors the chance to put their money where their passions are and vote for inspiring social entrepreneurs who are vying to become Unreasonable Fellows. From a project aimed at ending Pakistani honor killings by economically empowering women to a nonprofit toilet paper company that supports water sanitation projects in the developing world, 42 stirring ventures are all explained in the Marketplace. The first 25 activists that can raise $6,500, the cost to attend the Institute, will join the inaugural class of Unreasonable Fellows.

Based in Boulder, Colorado, the Unreasonable Institute is a social-change incubator that was founded by a group of visionary young leaders. Their mission is to attract international social entrepreneurs and hone their skills in a 10-week intensive, interactive program where they connect with other driver peers, network with angel donors and are given the skills and background to ensure the success of their ventures. To become an Unreasonable Fellow, applicants must have an idea of how to improve the world that is sustainable, will scale beyond its original country within three years and reach the needs of 1 million people.   Read more...

Are you ready for stillness? How could you not be when your essential nature is stillness!

We spend so much of our life in the foreground of reality; we become fixated on its expression, we lose ourselves in its expression. We imagine that life is all about thinking something, having something, doing something and being something; when in fact all thinking, having, doing and being are organized by the background itself.   Read more...