Inspired by the growing “micro-home” movement, Christopher and Malissa Tack constructed this 140-square-foot house on top of a flatbed trailer almost entirely from natural wood. With no construction experience, the couple says they used resources they found online to build an eco-friendly, easily portable home for about $20,000. You can check out this gallery to see up-close pictures of the surprisingly roomy interior … Discuss

Writer Greg Karber does not like the business ethics of Abercrombie & Fitch. He was outraged by comments made by company CEO Mike Jeffries in which he admitted that his store’s clothes are meant for “cool kids”—not those uncool, unattractive ones (like ones that wear a size extra-large). Karber also thinks it’s pretty lame that the company would rather burn unused clothes rather than donate them to charity because, according to one district manager, “Abercrombie and Fitch doesn't want to create the image that just anybody, poor people, can wear their clothing.”

Now, Karber has decided to help “rebrand” the retailer, by launching the #FitchTheHomeless campaign. He went to local thrift stores, bought all of the Abercrombie & Fitch clothes he could find and headed to Skid Row, where he gave the clothes to homeless people. He’s now encouraging others to do the same—find Abercrombie & Fitch clothing, give it to the needy and Tweet about it with the hashtag. His goal? To make Abercrombie & Fitch “The World’s No. 1 Brand of Homeless Apparel” … Discuss

Carolyn Miles, the CEO of Save the Children, has written this startling column for CNN that looks at America’s relatively low ranking on the organization’s State of the World’s Mothers Index. Despite being 10th in the world for per capita income, the U.S. is 30th on the Mother’s Index. Why so low? According to the piece, the primary factor is a low survival rate for mothers and babies. Here are some stats from Save the Children:

When it comes to a woman's lifetime risk of dying in pregnancy or childbirth, we do better than only five other developed countries: Albania, Latvia, Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. American women are 10 times more likely to die eventually from pregnancy-related causes than women in Estonia, Greece or Singapore … In the United States, 11,300 babies a year die on the day they are born. That's more than in the rest of the industrialized world combined.

The organization is currently trying to identify the reasons behind the low survival rate, but have observed several contributing factors: obesity, high rates of elective cesarean section deliveries and age can all play a role. But, they’ve also found that survival rates are lowest in economically poor communities and are asking lawmakers to create a National Commission on Children to address the challenges facing mothers who live in poverty … Discuss

As part of a new initiative to create clothes that are more environmentally and economically sustainable, the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development have teamed with Nike and NASA to ask innovators to help them revolutionize the garment industry. And some of they’re goals seem pretty ambitious—they to want create fabrics that can “self-heal.” The overall mission of “LAUNCH System Challenge 2013” though seems a bit more grounded. By seeking out new innovations and technologies, they hope to “transform the system of fabrics to one that advances equitable global economic growth, drives human prosperity and replenishes the planet's resources.” Along with trying to think of ways to make clothes more durable and more recyclable, one of the projects goals is to also create “innovative business models that are sustainable and equitable” for workers around the world … Discuss