What We Read This Week

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Here’s what caught our eye this week!

AGRICULTURE

Why Farms Want Cold Winters

There’s an old Bob Dylan line: “He not busy being born is busy dying.” It’s one to keep in mind when looking at farms in winter, at the brown fields, skeletal orchards, and vineyards waiting for a shot of green. Despite appearances, winter… Read full article

From Grist

SUCCESS

Success in 7 Short Steps

People who succeed in their jobs and in life are typically blessed with a special blend of four qualities: efficacy (self-confidence), resilience, hope and optimism. This mental confection, which scientists call psychological capital, reflects… Read full article

From Scientific American

EQUALITY

Protestors at Apple Stores Demand ‘Ethical’ Products

In an effort to protest the working conditions in the Chinese factories that make Apple products, demonstrators delivered a petition to six different Apple stores in four different countries. The petition, which asks… Read full article

From The Two-Way: NPR’s News Blog

SPIRITUALITY

Hugging is in. But what’s wrong with a handshake?

The first time I remember being hugged was when I was 18. I had just returned to Vancouver from three months hitchhiking from Britain to Greece and back again. I arrived home to Vancouver at 4 a.m. My mother and uncle, who lived with us, showed up to greet me. My uncle suddenly gave me a big hug. I think I liked it… Read full article

From The Search: The Vancouver Sun Staff Blog

MENTAL HEALTH

Mindcheck Builds Community Around Mental Health Awareness

Former Vancouver Canuck, Rick Rypien, struggled against depression for years, and sadly passed away in August 2011. The NHLer was touted as a “a quiet hero” who “confided in those he knew best of his plans to support others and help alleviate the stigma associated with mental illness by… Read full article

From The Daily Gumboot

COMMUNITY

Where Am I? The Middle-Class Crisis of Place

Craig Bartholomew, a philosophy professor at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario, has been at work on a curious topic. “When people ask what I’m working on, and I say, ‘place,’ I get a blank stare,” Bartholomew says. But examples help. “The home is a place, the city is a place… Read full article

From Christianity Today

EQUALITY

A People’s History of Robin Hood

In the late 1950s, a handful of peaceniks protested mandatory ROTC on a major U.S. university campus by carrying signs and wearing green buttons. Back when The Adventures of Robin Hood was a giant hit on television, most everybody knew that green was Robin Hood’s color and that Robin could not… Read full article

From Yes!