Sijia became depressed in Yunnan Safari Park after a fellow panda had to be sent back to Sichuan.
To help lift her spirits, the staff members built an amusement park with parallel bars, monkey bars and a swing. They even installed a closed circuit TV so she could watch herself playing.
It seems to have helped.
Sijia’s pal came to the park for care following an earthquake.
(WATCH the video below or READ more from China’s ECNS)
Well, Drake may have just officially won himself the title of sweetest rapper ever.
He flew to Texas to surprise 15-year-old Kennedy Brown, who was forced to stop going to school because doctors discovered a brain tumor they say is terminal.
Students at her high school, Houston’s Carnegie Vanguard, matched the singer’s classiness by arranging an intimate prom dance for her — and a graduation ceremony — calling it “High School in a Day”.
To top it off they wanted to get her favorite singer to visit, so they started a Twitter campaign to get his attention. It worked.
(WATCH the video below or read the story at Huff Post)
The question might come up this month, as we celebrate the 450th anniversary of the Bard of Avon’s birth, “What’s so great about William Shakespeare anyway?
The answer is simple. Everything…
Robert Graves, writer of the superb historical novel “I, Claudius”, once said: “The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he REALLY is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good.”
It cannot be denied that he demands some effort. As a professional linguist and life-long devotee, I assure you that it only takes a few pages when reading, or a few minutes when watching, to get used to his old-fashioned style. And then a world of unique brilliance opens.
What could be more basic than “To be or not to be”? And yet it sums up one of the greatest quandaries of human existence.
After 450 years he is still one of the most quoted authors. Where else could you find a gem like this: “Death lies on her like an untimely frost upon the sweetest flower of all the field.”
His heroes are larger than life and yet thoroughly convincing. Most of us have known what it’s like to be so insanely in love as Romeo and Juliet, we have nearly all felt Lear’s unbearable grief at the loss of a loved one. Many have experienced the madness of Othello’s jealousy or pondered the afterlife like Hamlet. If we are honest we recognize ourselves again and again, the good and the bad, the sweet and the bitter. No other writer has such breadth and depth.
Very few great writers have his power of comedy as well as tragedy. His wordplay may be a bit too clever for some, but we can still laugh at plays like a Midsummer Night’s Dream or The Taming of the Shrew (political correctness aside). Falstaff is a genuinely funny, unforgettable character.
The greatest asset, to me, is his profound and sympathetic understanding of humanity. Lady Macbeth is one of the nastiest characters in world literature. And still he manages to make her pitiful, as she tries to wash imaginary blood from her hands. Macbeth’s brooding over life is without a doubt one of the best expressions of the dark, futile sides of existence. And yet, Macbeth, for all his failings, performs admirably at the end, and dies an honorable death.
Jan Bee Landman is a prize-winning author of horror, science fiction and mainstream stories. He has published in small magazines in the USA, Canada, Belgium and the Netherlands. A collection of his short stories was published in Dutch in 1994. He was also a teacher of English for 16 years. His work can be found at www.jlandman.nl
Photo: (top) The Globe theater in London, a reproduction of the actual theater in the round where the Bard’s plays were performed, and where he, himself, was a player.
[Editor’s note: Scholars are unsure of the Bard’s actual birthday, which is traditionally celebrated April 23, but they know he was baptized on April 26.]
Glow in the dark road markings have been unveiled on a stretch of highway in the Netherlands south east of Amsterdam.
The paint contains a “photo-luminizing” powder that charges up in the daytime and slowly releases a green glow at night, doing away with the need for streetlights — and all the energy they require.
Daan Roosegaarde’s inspiration came from the undersea world, and he has been working on several ideas for sustainable roads that he calls Smart Highways.
(WATCH the video below, or READ the current article in the BBC)
There are no lifeguards at Ocean Beach because there shouldn’t be any swimming in that churn of frigid fast-breaking waves that can pull you under so fast that nearby beachcombers would never know it happened.
The moment surfer Tony Barbero spotted a flash of red t-shirt and a boy floundering in the icy water, he knew the kid was in big trouble.
Barbero, a 17-year-old high school student and firefighter’s son, powered through the waves, grabbed the boy and pulled him up on his surfboard.
Afterward, he saw the boy’s uncle who was already face down in the surf.
(READ the story w/ photos in the San Francisco Chronicle)
Highlands College students who are studying construction technology have used their design wizardry to fashion a luminous new dream kitchen built especially for the disabled at the Silver Bow Developmental Disabilities Council in Butte, Montana.
“There’s no other place like it in Butte,” said Cassie Weightman, specialist with the Montana Independent Living Project.
(READ the story w/ photos in the Montana Standard)
After visiting Ethiopia and seeing for himself how women and children are forced to walk miles every day for water, an Italian designer and cofounder of Architecture And Vision, became determined to create a solution that would be simple, create local jobs, and provide clean water in any of these mountainous villages.
Named WarkaWater, for the traditional warka trees which are vanishing from the landscape there, towers made of bamboo and fabric were created to harvest potable water from the evening air.
The nine-meters tall towers use special fabric hanging inside capable of collecting water through the air via condensation. The lightweight structure is designed with parametric computing, but can be built with local skills and materials by the village inhabitants.
The towers, designed by Arturo Vittori’s VittoriLab, cost approximately $550 each, and can harvest 100 liters of water per day.
(WATCH the video below from the design studio, Architecture and Vision)
Megan Ford, whose stubborn leukemia is blasted every Friday with chemotherapy, jumped at the chance to receive a song made especially for her.
The organization called “Songs of Love” called upon five middle-aged musicians who volunteer to write songs for very sick children like the young girl from Des Moines, Iowa.
The songs serve as medicine for the children but also for the aging men who create the songs. The songs, written to make the kids feel “important”, incorporate special characteristics they have revealed about their favorite hobbies, people or places.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from the Des Moines Register)
Stanford University scientists have found a new, highly efficient way to produce liquid ethanol that doesn’t involve energy intensive food production, like corn-based fuel. This promising discovery involving carbon monoxide gas could provide an eco-friendly alternative to conventional ethanol production from crops, say the scientists.
“We have discovered the first metal catalyst that can produce appreciable amounts of ethanol from carbon monoxide at room temperature and pressure – a notoriously difficult electrochemical reaction,” said Matthew Kanan, an assistant professor of chemistry at Stanford and coauthor of the study.
Most ethanol today is produced at high-temperature fermentation facilities that chemically convert corn, sugarcane and other plants into liquid fuel. But growing crops for biofuel requires thousands of acres of land and vast quantities of fertilizer and water. In some parts of the United States, it takes more than 800 gallons of water to grow a bushel of corn, which, in turn, yields about 3 gallons of ethanol.
They call the process “oxide-derived” because a novel metallic electrode was produced from copper oxide.
For the process to be carbon neutral, scientists will have to find a new way to make carbon monoxide from renewable energy instead of fossil fuel, the primary source today. Kanan envisions taking carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere to produce carbon monoxide, which, in turn, would be fed to a copper catalyst to make liquid fuel. The CO2 that is released into the atmosphere during fuel combustion would be re-used to make more carbon monoxide and more fuel – a closed-loop, emissions-free process.
Their study results are published in the April 9 advanced online edition of the journal Nature.
(READ more the story at Stanford.edu)
According to Henry David Thoreau: “Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.”
A large number of psychologists dare to differ. According to them if you chase the pretty butterfly named happiness enough you might just get it to come and hop on your shoulder. Here are eight simple — and some of them, essential – steps to happiness:
1. Stop dwelling.
The past is precious because you can learn from your mistakes and learn from others’ mistakes.
The pain is just training; it doesn’t define you. Think about what went wrong but stop dwelling on it. Decide how you will make sure that, next time, it won’t happen again.
Choose to remember the good times. Choose to forget the pain and the tears. Only then can the heartaches heal.
2. Stop buying possession, start buying experiences.
Instead of buying that extravagant piece of diamond, why not go on a trip to a place that has always intrigued you?
No doubt buying things makes us feel better immediately, but at the end of the day it’s the experiences that count. They enrich our lives and make memories that remain for years.
3. Pay compliments.
Start paying compliments. If you like someone’s hairdo or their shoes or their smile, go ahead, tell them. Tell them you find them beautiful, with a smile. And the moment you do that, you will feel better about yourself. The idea behind this is when you know you can make someone feel better about themselves, you automatically feel good about yourself too.
Studies show this works.
4. Stop blaming, Foster forgiveness.
When you blame others for a mistake they did, you, yourself, carry half the burden of their faults on your shoulders.
If the loss is too great, forgiveness will take time. Know that holding onto grudges will only increase your pain.
5. Start a gratitude journal.
Maintain a gratitude diary. Write down all the things you are grateful for.
You saw a baby and she smiled at you at the coffee shop. It made you feel so good; write it down in your diary.
Doing this exercise can calm despair and promote happiness.
6. Do what you like. Live your dreams.
This is a very simple and easy thing to do, but we rarely we do it.
Do you like reading? Sit all day at home and read those books you love.
Do you like dancing but due to something or the other you never got a chance to take your dancing onto another level?
I say, do it right now. Go get yourself enrolled into a dance school or dance at parties for fun. Go and try your luck in a reality show. Do it! Curbing our desires for the sake of fitting in the society or under any other pressure is no good. Do what you really want to.
7. Learn something new.
Think of a subject, a country or a flower that you wish you knew more about and spend 20 minutes on the Internet reading about it. Or, if you prefer, go to a bookstore and buy a book on the subject. Pick a subject that is really close to your heart, not something that you think you ‘should’ know or ‘need to’ learn about.
8. Smile!
Indeed the simplest step to happiness.
Even if you don’t feel like it, fake it! Research shows that even a fake smile induces hormones that make you feel better instantly.
Learn to take these simple little conscious steps towards happiness and it will do wonders to your life.
A dog that disappeared during the 2007 wildfires in San Diego, California was finally reunited with his family who were thrilled to hear the news.
They had kept current their microchip data on the black lab, even after moving to Oklahoma.
The black lab named Buddy came running to the Hartmans as soon as they called his name.
(WATCH the story or read the news from Fox 5 San Diego)
The Dunkin’ Donuts, Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation just gave $1,000,000 to help put food in backpacks for poor children to take home from school throughout America.
The grant will support the Feeding America® initiative that provides hungry children with nutritious and easy-to-prepare food to take home on weekends and school vacations when other resources are not available. The grant will also support the School Pantry Program, which provides food to children and their families to take home from school.
The grant, announced on March 25 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, is the largest donation in The Foundation’s history, and will be distributed among Feeding America member food banks across the United States.
The Dunkin’ Donuts, Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation has partnered with Feeding America at the national level since 2007 and has donated more than $1,000,000 over the last seven years to support Feeding America and its local food banks. Additionally, over the past seven years, the DDBRCF has addressed the issue of hunger relief through both national and local efforts. Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins franchisees have led food drives in the communities they serve and have organized volunteer days at their local food banks to help fill backpacks with nutritious meals for children.
Feeding America is the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, with more than 200 member food banks serving all 50 states distributing 3 billion pounds of donated food and grocery products annually.
“With millions of children struggling everyday in America, the support of our partners in the fight against hunger has never been more critical,” said Maura Daly, Chief Communication and Development Officer at Feeding America. “We are extremely grateful to The Dunkin’ Donuts & Baskin-Robbins Community Foundation for their generous grant to help us distribute food to those who need it the most.”
A pioneering European Union survey into the impact of pests and diseases on honey bees in 2012 and 2013 found death rates were lower than feared, in part countering concerns about the collapse of colonies of the crop-pollinating insects.
“It’s the first major study of pests and diseases that affect honey bees. A lot of it seems very encouraging,” said a bee specialist in response to the study of 32,000 bee colonies across 17 EU member states.
(READ the story from Reuters)
A rising number of Australian teenagers are choosing not to drink alcohol, according to the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre.
Between 2001 and 2010 the number of teens aged 14 to 17 abstaining from alcohol rose from 33 percent to more than 50 percent, the research shows.
“There’s also a sense that the current generation is very focused on health and well-being and this is one step they’re taking to try and stay fitter and healthier, said the study’s author Dr Michael Livingston.
(READ the article from ABC.net.au)
Wal-Mart wants Americans, even those on a budget, to buy more organic food.
The retailer that leads U.S. stores in grocery sales said on Thursday it struck a deal to sell Wild Oats brand organic foods at non-organic prices.
The Wild Oats offers will include staples such as salsa, organic olive oil, canned black beans and tomato paste.
(READ the story from Reuters)
Britain got a double boost on Tuesday as its recovery from recession gathered momentum and the International Monetary Fund raised the country’s growth forecasts more than for any other major economy.
Factories expanded production far more quickly than expected in February, UK statistics office data showed. Separate surveys showed a strong first quarter for companies and a long-awaited pick-up in wages.
(READ the story from Reuters)
A female soldier who befriended a heroic bomb-hunting dog in Afghanistan tracked down her comrade and gave him a new home after he became too timid to serve on the front lines.
Angie McDonnell, 40, a reservist who served in war-torn Helmand province as a medic, became ‘best friends’ with four-year-old Vidar while the two were based at Camp Bastion.
(READ the story in the Daily Mail)
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the start of the Rwandan Genocide that claimed the lives of up to a million members of that country’s minority. The journey back from that insanity has not been an easy one, but coffee has played a key role in the creation of worthwhile livelihood for many of those remaining.
Inspired by Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s call for “trade – not aid”, Grace Hightower De Niro created the company Grace Hightower & Coffees of Rwanda.
Hightower wanted to establish a venture that could simultaneously empower Rwandans and help them restructure their economy. The passionate initiative is now responsible for creating livelihoods for over 500,000 coffee farmers in Rwanda.
Each bag of hand-picked and sorted coffee ($12.50 for 12 oz) goes directly toward sustaining a family for an entire year. As the redevelopment of the country continues, Grace Hightower & Coffees of Rwanda allows farmers the opportunity to market their unique products to the world.
Grace Hightower De Niro started the company in New York City offering a unique coffee line in 4 different blends. With every purchase, consumers are helping to support the future of the people in Rwanda, Africa.
(WATCH the video below)
Wow, it has been a long, winding road to get to the point where you can read this blog post from the new Good News Network website, version 4.0.
You’re looking at the fourth iteration of the website, which has evolved over nearly two decades. The first version I built alone in our spare room using Adobe software and a little html code that I taught myself from a book.
In 2012, version 3.0 started breaking down in numerous ways. Processes that had been automatic suddenly need daily updates by hand. So I started looking for developers who could update the software. Thousands were spent on hiring people in Minnesota, and then India, who were incapable of doing such a job. By last November, I felt so weary of the whole process because it was so daunting: We had 14,000 articles to migrate, along with 18,505 registered users, 4786 comments and thousands of photos to migrate to the new site.
With a persistence that I am known for, and a lot of faith, I started another round of interviews and by January I had assembled an amazingly competent team that would work together from four different parts of the globe: First and foremost, a Joomla expert in the UK, Robert Went, would work with a WordPress team in Dallas, Creative Cat Media, and a local freelancer, Anna Fischer who would handle my subscription tables, working with a husband-wife team of developers in Philadelphia who had the new membership plugin I needed.
I didn’t have the money to pay for all the hours of work that were needed. Thank GOODNESS my fans answered the call for donations which helped raise the last round of funding.
As I write this, I can hardly believe the day is finally here when we don’t have to do registrations manually and update subscription payments by hand.
It’s actually going to be FUN again, posting stories, multiplying the good, instead of being bogged down in frustrating IT dilemmas!
This site looks so great on a mobile phone that I expect we will be able to double our traffic by the end of a year.
Thanks for hanging in there, putting up with blank emails coming to your inbox, and all the other messed up processes that revealed the age of my web software, some of which was launched six years ago.
Let’s hope that major good fortune showers down upon our creative efforts at the Good News Network so in another six years I will be able to hire a project manager and not even worry about the Hows and Whys of software updates.
Always remember, in the words of Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, “You affect the world by what you browse.”
P.S. Leave us some feedback about the new site down below in the Comments. It is a work in progress.
Former president George W. Bush interviewed by his daughter, Jenna Bush Hager, on the TODAY show, revealed for the first time his portraits of fellow world leaders that went on public display last week.
Bush’s passion for painting grew out of an iPad app he was fooling around with after leaving the White House in 2009. He told Jenna he never imagined himself as an artist.
More than two dozen of his portraits, including one of their dog, along with world leaders like Tony Blair, Vladimir Putin and the Dalai Lama, will be part of an exhibit called The Art of Leadership: A President’s Personal Diplomacy at the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum.
“I hope they take it in the spirit in which these were painted in,” he told Jenna. “That was the spirit of friendship and that I admire them as leaders and was willing to give it a shot in terms of getting people to see how I felt about them.”
See also the painting he gave to Jay Leno on the air.
(SEE the paintings in the video below, or READ the story at TODAY)
