Our actions affect other people.

I was reminded of this in reading a recent Reuters news article about how newly elected US President Obama is helping Japanese people learn English.

"The Speeches of Barack Obama" is a textbook--a textbook, mind you!--that compiles all of Obama's speeches from his 2004 Democratic National Convention speech to his victory speech when he secured the Democratic nomination this past year. It is written in English with corresponding Japanese translations, and comes with a CD presumably so that readers can perfect their pronunciation.

Scientists have recently discovered one of the largest single-celled organisms in the seafloor of the Bahamas. Why should you care? Because it's providing new insights into evolutionary history.

The creature is called Gromia sphaerica, a distant relative of the amoeba. It is only one cell and yet it's the size of a grape. It looks like a mud-covered blob or, as the researchers termed it, a "doo-doo ball." They move by rolling about on the ocean floor.

"It's only a game". Or is it? The discussion of the line between virtual and real has reopened now that a British couple is filing for divorce because of possible cyber-adultery.

Amy Taylor and Dave Pollard are both players of the virtual world aptly named "Second Life", a virtual game world where people can create avatars and do day-to-day activities like hanging out with friends and attending concerts. She is 28. He is 40. Both are disabled. They met in a chat room in 2003 and were married in 2005, first in a lavish, tropical ceremony in "Second Life" itself and then in a registry office.

Although this story took place at the University of Illinois, it could conceivably have occurred at any college campus. A sex offender carrying a three-inch folding knife was recently arrested at 2:30 in the morning in the university's undergraduate library. The scary part? He may have been living there for a few days behind movable bookshelves.

We've heard about GPS capabilities being placed in devices like cell phones. But now they're being placed in perhaps the unlikeliest of places: lingerie!

Brazilian lingerie designer Lucia Iorio has created a new line of lingeire called "Find Me If You Can" that comes equpped with a GPS device. The design features a lace bodice, a bikini bottom and faux pearl collar, with the bulky rectangular GPS device held in place on the right side of the waist. Give someone the password to the device, and they can track your movements.

If you could make your DNA available to the world, would you? Would you want to know what is inside of yo or would you be concerned about what might happen?

The British Columbian newspaper The Province recently published an article on

Lillian Doerksen, a Canadian missionary to India who passed away on October 9.

It's a fascinating piece. Doerksen spent over half her life raising orphaned girls and opening schools in Maharashtra for the deaf. She is described as Prakash Moushi ("Auntie of Light") and the "Protestant Mother Teresa" (although I have found that title ascribed to a few other figures). She met important figures such as Billy Graham, and Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, and even had a three-minute private audience with the Dalai Lama.

When we think of making the world a better place, we often think of large-scale accomplishments, for instance, donating millions of dollars to research or helping end hunger in third-world countries. And while those are absolutely important, we shouldn't forget to recognize the small-scale accomplishments--the ideas that make our lives easier and more trouble-free.

It's in that spirit that this blog post honors Google engineer Jon Perlow, who has created a feature called Mail Goggles for GMail users. It is intended to prevent people from "drunk emailing", or sending embarrassing emails while under the influence of alcohol.

In the midst of the distressing news this past week, Good Magazine recently published an inspiring video article about someone who has made the world a better place.

The story concerns Manuel de Arriba Ares, a retired gym teacher in the village of Valdespino de Somoza in the city of Leon, Spain. Ares has built an "ecological gym" for the village--an outdoor gym that uses no electricity and that is made entirely from recycled materials!

Occasionally I get mad at the press for misleading headlines. This time, though, they got it right. The headline as seen on CNN.com reads:

"Experts 'solve' mystery of Stonehenge." Note the quotation marks around the word solve. They add much clarity.