Tech Boys

What if there was a pill you could take that would cut the amount of distress you’re feeling in half? Would you want it? This inspiring thought leader delivers a prescription that will help each of us live brighter, more fulfilling lives. This medicine is available to all of us! Parents deliver it in whispers to their children before bed, new friendships are forged over them, and everybody is creating their own—even you. And it’s totally free! As old as human existence, it has proven time and time again to be what we’re built on. In her fantastic TED Talk , Laurel Braitman, the founder of Medicine & the Muse at Stanford Medical School, sets the scene for how she and her colleagues have saved thousands of lives—and she’s not even one of the doctors. No, this writer is using our innate power of storytelling to save the lives of the people saving ours. And the results have been astounding; she’s even got the science to back it up! Source: skeeze // Pixabay Bringing Human...

There’s hardly anything more iconic than the great American road trip. Every family seems to have stories of packing everyone in the car, in a seatbelt-free era, and driving across the country to visit family and friends. From 1936-1964 an equally iconic, and often life-saving, travel guide became a staple of cross country travel. This is the story of the Green Book:  a symbol of community, culture, and history that doesn’t make its way into the average history lesson! Sometimes, it’s easy to let the not so distant past start to feel like a faraway history.  Remember a time before we could get information in an instant? When directions were found on folded up maps, and creating a community of strangers didn’t involve our phones? Pausing to discover more about our not so distant history can be an important reminder of what’s possible for our futures! So, let’s go on a little historical tour, together, shall we? Source: Pixabay What’s the Green Book? In the 1950s and 60s,...

Neither a broken neck nor an aging body has stopped the oldest female BMX racer in the United States from opening the door of possibility for thousands! In her quest to enjoy her life, 70-year-old Miss Kittie shows us all how sticking to our dreams can not only help us stay happy and healthy but help our communities do the same. In what started as an act to prove a point to her son 1 , Kittie Weston-Knauer A.K.A. “Miss Kittie”, has been zipping around dirt tracks on two wheels, collecting medals, and creating a path forward for generations of women and girls to follow since she was 40 years old. By the end of this piece, she’ll have you thinking about what you love to do with a whole new appreciation! Source: BMX Action Photography // Kittie Weston-Knauer “As long as I can keep those two wheels on the ground, I’m going to be on that track.” — Miss Kittie When you find what you love, why stop? Finding things in life that make our heart soar can be a process of trial...

Around the globe, colonies of tiny, sugar pooping, clone producing insects are tucking into their favorite treat. Though they only grow to about an eighth of an inch, these powerhouses nearly wiped out the wine industry in the mid-1800s 1 , and continue to be the curse of gardeners, today! But for all of their destructive power, aphids are some of nature’s weirdest creatures. And if you give them a chance, you may find a soft spot for these walking jelly beans of the natural world. Walking jelly beans? Clone babies? What is up with aphids? That’s a great question. And the answer will have you turning over leaves in your own backyard in hopes of seeing one of these colonies face to face to get a better appreciation for these tiny weirdos. Source: Pixabay Some Aphid Basics There are over 4000 species in the aphid family. Most are tiny and unassuming, but when they get together, they can be incredibly destructive to the plants they call home. They are like the mosquitoes of the pl...

When Tom Nash , now one of Australia’s top DJ’s and an incredible thought leader, was relearning all of the day-to-day actions of life after having his arms and legs amputated, something dawned on him that changed the trajectory of his life. In one of the best TED Talks we’ve seen recently, he shares that moment of inspiration with us and hands us the keys to unlocking our own greatest strengths! So, what’s the first step in doing this? It starts in an unlikely place: getting comfortable with our weaknesses. How could this be the place to start? Ah, well that’s the secret Tom spills. Source: Pixabay “My attitude is that if you push me towards something that you think is a weakness, then I will turn that perceived weakness into a strength.” ―  Michael Jordan Think about it, there’s something that you struggle with. Maybe it’s an inability to stop talking, draw a straight line , speak publicly, or send that email you’ve reread a thousand times. Whatever it is, it’s frustrat...

What if you could help half of all impoverished blind people see once again by figuring out how to make a procedure cost go from $200 to just $3? With at least 51% of the world’s blindness caused by cataracts 1 , this thought leader’s innovation has already changed millions of lives and the power to change millions more. Growing up in a small village in northern Nepal, Dr. Sanduk Ruit lost his brothers and sisters to diseases that could have been cured by modern medicine. So now, he has dedicated his life to being a doctor to the poor, serving almost 1 million people, and personally performing over 130,000 surgeries to restore people’s vision in some of Nepals most rural villages! This story of an amazing modern thought leader shows just how far we will go to take care of one another. You don’t want to miss this touching tale! Source: Pixabay When the dust clears. First thing first, what’s a cataract? I wasn’t totally sure, so I looked it up. A cataract is when the lens, the ...

Look up into the night sky and you may be wowed by the sweeping arm of the milky way or a shooting star but in all that inky blackness, dappled by pinpoints of light, there are remarkably beautiful events unfolding beyond our sights! And we get to see them, all thanks to an amazing piece of human innovation. Orbiting our planet, outside of the cocoon of our atmosphere, is an object that can peer, unadulterated, out into the depths of space, capturing the light from billions of radiant stars, galaxies to give us never before seen images of our universe. Swirling clouds of gas, massive stars at the beginning and end of their lives, cosmic collisions of galaxies, we’ve seen them all! Since 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope has been helping us get a clearer picture of the great unknown. But the real wonder is in how! Source: NASA On 1-2 April Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 captured Arp 274 (also known as NGC 5679). Arp 274 is a system of three galaxies that appear to be pa...

Sitting in kitchen cabinets and on counters around the world, shakers of delicious spices are primed and ready, packed with superpowers. Superpowers? Oh yeah—these packets of flavor, from salt to saffron, do more than just make your food taste better: they very well may be the reason you’re here today! Take a look at the cuisines of the world and you’ll notice something interesting. Cultures that live closer to the equator tend to use more spices in their traditional cuisine, while those who live further away tend to prefer their dishes a little blander. The warmer it is, it seems, the spicier (or full of spice) the food is. It’s a bit curious, right? So why is this? Is there something we’re missing in the wide world of wonderful food culture? Do spices have some kind of superpower in warm climates? Well, if you were cooking for your friends and family back before the days of refrigeration in warm equatorial climates, it may have seemed that way! How? Well, keep reading! Sourc...