On this Week: August 24th 2009

With Twitter, RSS feeds and good ol’ email, you could make a whole job out of reading the inspiring, creative (and sometimes depressing) stories and analysis online. But until you become Chief Poke-around-the-Internet Officer, we decided to offer you a few of our favorites.

While we’re media-agnostic and aspire to let no great article, photo or video go un-read, un-seen or un-heard… we can’t be everywhere. So, in return, we hope you can dish out some of your digs as well.

What’s on tap:

We tried to resist, but when Good posted this article on the environmental and personal health benefits of the four-day work-week, we didn’t have a choice. TGIT! TGIThursday

The streets of NYC or SF pretty much give themselves away…yup, definitely manmade.  In this photodoc on Matador Network, while the amazing landscapes are clearly not manmade, their presence on this blue (& green) planet seems questionable. (Morgen, you’ll have to check on number seven for us next week.) Photo Essay: The Most Alien Landscapes on Earth

“What is a Moment? … When cause is killed, and effect is born? @wnycradiolab” A video:  Moments

No review of the week could call itself a review without a tribute to the late Ted Kennedy. After 46 years of service as a Massachusetts Senator, he has lived a life of service that, regardless of political leanings, is honorable and vastly inspiring. Senator Kennedy

“Girls are as good as boys,” this quote from a man whose wife, after receiving a microloan, is now a successful business owner employing (read: supporting) thirty families in Lahore. This is an epic, statistic-filled story from Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn about why women’s rights are the cause of our time. Huge! The Women’s Crusade

And for the locals:

Hey New Yorkers…would you pay $.03 more per ride on the subway (the city’s most electricity-hungry consumer) if you could help transition it to alternative energy? Steal This Idea: Wind Powered Subways

In the SF Bay Area, this weekend is brimming with activity. We’ll be getting some urban gardening and farming lessons at the Eat Real Fest in Oakland Eat Real Fest. While others soak up the sun fog in Golden Gate Park at the second annual green music fest Outside Lands