BP has ordered 32 centrifuge machines from Kevin Costner’s Ocean Therapy Solutions to be deployed in the Gulf clean-up effort.
Upon delivery, the machines, tested by BP and found to be highly efficient, will clean 6 million gallons of water per day, separating the oil for commercial reuse.
Costner, who was on Capitol Hill testifying before congress on Wednesday, spent more than $24 million of his own money to develop the machines and said manufacturing is being ramped up for the new demand.
After reading about a woman who motivates commuters via chalkboard messages, a Good News Network subscriber, Eleanor Melograna, wanted to step in to help. She felt compassion for the woman, Penny Proudfoot, who said she had recently ruined her camera, and with it, her creative outlet for expression.
As a result, Eleanor thought to herself, “I’ve got a Canon Rebel camera that I was going to sell on e-Bay, but I’d love for her to have it, if she wants it.” It wouldn’t replace the one given to her by her father, but it might give her the chance to reignite her passion.
So, she tracked down Penny Proudfoot’s phone number on the internet, and called her. Penny broke into tears when she heard the stranger say she wanted to give her the camera.
“She couldn’t believe it,” Eleanor wrote in an email to GNN. “I packed it up and mailed it, and am so happy it went to a good home.”
Penny called to say she had received it and was so appreciative. The emotions experienced by both women were “worth so much more than any money” the generous donor could have made by selling the camera on e-Bay.
“Thank you for connecting us and making this good-feeling opportunity happen for both of us,” Eleanor concluded. “It’s so worth the subscription I pay each month for the Good News Network.”
Kalamazoo Central High School beat out more than 1,000 applicants to win the “Race to the Top High School Commencement Challenge” and the honor of having President Obama deliver the school’s graduation speech, which took place on Monday night.
As an urban school in Michigan, K-Central had big gaps in their graduation rates. Crime-related stories seemed to grab as many headlines as those about learning achievements and sports victories.
But in recent years, the academic improvement in Kalamazoo has been dramatic. For one thing, since 2006, 91 percent of K-Central graduates have gone to college for at least one semester. Key to that achievement has been an innovative program called the Kalamazoo Promise, which pledges scholarship money to graduating students from anonymous donors. The number of students at K-Central taking Advanced Placement courses sky-rocketed, with triple-digit increases among minority students
This spring, the president himself pickied K-Central to win the School Commencement Challenge from among six finalists, which included two magnet schools, two charter schools, and a suburban public school.
In the winning video, senior Cara Cunliffe said, “We accept any student at K-Central, whether they’re right out of jail, have a low income. It doesn’t matter. The other schools in the competition accept minorities, but they don’t accept everyone like K-Central does.”
(READ more about the winning school and Kalamazoo’s Promise in this story from the CS Monitor)
President Obama told the graduating seniors: “Understand that your success in life won’t be determined just by what’s given to you, or what happens to you, but by what you do with all that’s given to you; what you do with all that happens to you; how hard you try; how far you push yourself; how high you’re willing to reach. True excellence only comes with perseverance.”
“This wasn’t something I really understood when I was back your age,” he continued. “As my mother put it, I had a tendency sometimes to act a bit casual about my future. Sometimes I was rebellious. Sometimes I partied a little too much.”
“But after a few years, after I was living solely on my own and I realized that living solely for my own entertainment wasn’t so entertaining anymore, that it wasn’t particularly satisfying anymore, that I didn’t seem to be making much of a ripple in the world, I started to change my tune. I realized that by refusing to apply myself, there was nothing I could point to that I was proud of that would last. “
“Meaningful achievement, lasting success — it doesn’t happen in an instant. It’s usually about daily effort, the large choices and the small choices that you make that add up over time.”
“So, today, you all have a rare and valuable chance to pursue your own passions, chase your own dreams without incurring a mountain of debt. What an incredible gift. So you’ve got no excuse for giving anything less than your best effort… That’s my second piece of advice, very simple: Don’t make excuses. Take responsibility not just for your successes; take responsibility where you fall short as well.”
Kelsey Socha wrote in an essay, My Graduation Day with President Obama, on the White House Blog, “President Obama surprised us and arrived in our holding room a few hours before schedule, it was surreal, not only for the chance to hear the President speak but to have him mere inches away from us in a private setting. It was more than anyone could have dreamed of.”
“The honor went far beyond the President simply coming to our graduation or even shaking our hands. It was the fact that he made the experience wholly about us, using no political campaigns or agendas, that made it a truly special ceremony.
(WATCH the video of Obama’s speech to graduates, or READ the inspiring speech here)
A Notre Dame professor and his son have determined the fastest way to win at Monopoly. The game that many families leave on the shelf because it takes too long, really only requires four turns and nine rolls of the dice to win.
Here’s what has to happen, according to an interview on NPR with sociology professor Daniel J. Myers:
“One player moves around the board very quickly, to buy Boardwalk and Park Place, and places houses on them. And the other one ends up drawing a Chance card that sends them to Boardwalk, and they don’t have enough money to pay the rent with three houses, and the game is over.”
However, the statistical odds of winning by using this exact sequence are very long: more than 250 trillion to one!
Here’s how to play the fastest theoretical game:
A Notre Dame professor and his son have determined the fastest way to win at Monopoly. The game that many families leave on the shelf because it takes too long, really only requires four turns and nine rolls of the dice to win.
Here’s what has to happen, according to an interview on NPR with sociology professor Daniel J. Myers:
“One player moves around the board very quickly, to buy Boardwalk and Park Place, and places houses on them. And the other one ends up drawing a Chance card that sends them to Boardwalk, and they don’t have enough money to pay the rent with three houses, and the game is over.”
However, the statistical odds of winning by using this exact sequence are very long: more than 250 trillion to one!
Here’s how to play the fastest theoretical game:
The Dr Pepper Snapple Group announced it will recycle 80 percent of its solid waste, improve energy efficiency and water usage by ten percent, and conserve more than 60 million pounds of PET plastic through package reengineering and increased use of post-consumer recycled material.
The improvements were laid out in the company’s first corporate social responsibility report, which outlines five-year goals for improving environmental and social performance across the company’s operations.
They will also replace 60,000 vending machines and coolers with Energy Star equipment that is rated 30% more energy efficient and result in $7.6 million in electricity cost savings for customers.
(READ the story in EnvironmentalLeader.com)
Jews: want to fight anti-Semitism? Muslims: want to challenge islamophobia? There’s an easy way to do it: have coffee with one another.
Last week, the rabbi and imam of Duke University, did just that. Amidst the tension between Muslims and Jews caused by the violence off the coast of Israel and Gaza, their regular coffee date felt like a political act.
They typically steer their discussion away from politics not because they feel uneasy on that turf; they know that they disagree on many core issues surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian controversy and are quite comfortable with that. They are careful because they know that when political discourse becomes the dominant mode — or the only mode — of interaction something essential may be lost: empathy.
(READ more of the column in the Washington Post)
It was a call Sheila Zachar won’t soon forget. Her friend, James Beavers, a homeless veteran living at an abandoned car wash in East Memphis, Tenn., had just rescued a German shepherd from a 6-ft. pit of oil, and desperately needed Zachar’s help getting her out of the disturbing—and messy—situation.
Earlier, Beavers had noticed a truck speeding away from the car wash, followed by the sound of a dog in distress. He couldn’t pinpoint where the wails were coming from, but as the whimpering continued, he kept up the search.
Tony Fowler, a milkman with a daily route that takes him 100 miles through 25 towns in Leicestershire, is being hailed a hero by the Queen of England for having contributed to the capture of a string of criminals. Throughout his 20-year career his watchful eye and quick response has foiled burglaries, stopped drug deals and blocked car thieves trying to escape by positioning his milk truck in their path.
Tony keeps an eye on people’s homes when they are still asleep or away on holiday and has even rescued an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s from a fire. He also aligns himself with good causes, raising money for charity and passing out leaflets.
Mr Fowler will collect the MBE from the Queen at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace today. He was also a Local Champion winner of the Pride of Britain Award in 2008.
The MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) is awarded to UK citizens who are dedicated in their field and set an example for others.
Fowler insisted on wearing a suit jacket decorated like a cow, even though the Palace officials asked that he reconsider. See the photos of occasion in the Daily Mail.
“My wife Anne is not pleased about me going as a cow but I just want to do something different. Milkmen and women are very quiet people usually, except for me,” he told the British press.
(READ the story at Mirror.co.uk – His FULL BIO is featured in the Pride of Britain Awards)
Tony Fowler, a milkman with a daily route that takes him 100 miles through 25 towns in Leicestershire, is being hailed a hero by the Queen of England for having contributed to the capture of a string of criminals. Throughout his 20-year career his watchful eye and quick response has foiled burglaries, stopped drug deals and blocked car thieves trying to escape by positioning his milk truck in their path.
Tony keeps an eye on people’s homes when they are still asleep or away on holiday and has even rescued an elderly woman with Alzheimer’s from a fire. He also aligns himself with good causes, raising money for charity and passing out leaflets.
Mr Fowler will collect the MBE from the Queen at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace today. He was also a Local Champion winner of the Pride of Britain Award in 2008.
Under its towering glass atrium, a shopping mall in Cleveland is alive with fresh food still on the vine — cucumbers, lettuce and herbs are growing, with strawberries and tomatoes on the way.
In the former Galleria at Erieview mall, a project called Gardens Under Glass is taking root, one of many Cleveland-based projects that are part of a grand plan to transform malls into greenhouses.
A new farmers market in the mall is growing in popularity, but “the grander plan calls for the entire mall to become a retail ecovillage: vegetarian restaurants, health food stores, garden supply outlets, more farmers’ stalls and shops selling recycled goods.“
(READ the story at Grist.com)
One of the areas hardest hit by the BP oil spill is Louisiana’s southernmost Parish located along the 70 miles of Mississippi river that empties into the Gulf of Mexico.
But the residents have something in their arsenal to help keep the oil out of their prized marshlands: Billy Nungesser. The parish president is a newcomer to politics who isn’t afraid to take on BP or the Coast Guard to save the livelihood of his home.
From an emergency management center, he recently ordered his staff to ignore BP and put parish equipment out in the water to suck up the oil: “I should have told them to get the hell out of the way two weeks ago, but we are putting [this] equipment and we’re putting the skimmers in the water. I don’t give a s – – – what anybody says.”
(READ the story from National Public Radio) …Thanks, also, to Roxana for submitting this New York Times article about the same story!
Job openings jumped in April to the highest level in 16 months, a sign that hiring by private employers is healthy.
The number of jobs advertised rose to 3.1 million from 2.8 million in March, the Labor Department said Tuesday. That’s the most openings since December 2008.
Private employers, rather than the government, accounted for the entire net gain.
(READ more in the AP story via NPR)
For the fourth year in a row, about a third of honeybee hives in the United States died off during the past winter, succumbing to Colony Collapse Disorder.
So when beekeeper Keith Roberts comes across a thriving nest of feral bees, his company views it as an opportunity to replenish the dwindling populations of commercial honeybees.
The city of Santa Monica is currently re-evaluating its longstanding policy of exterminating swarms of bees and a law prohibiting the keeping of bees within city limits may be overturned.
Local advocates have urged the city to capture the swarms, re-house them in temporary hives on city land, and then transport them to agricultural areas in California where the bees are needed by farmers to pollinate crops.
“They’re extremely healthy bees, strong producers and obviously very resistant to the varroa mites and the pathogens that are wiping out our bees across the country,” says Mr Roberts. “These bees might very well hold the key to healthier bees in the general.”
(READ MORE of the story from the BBC)
Before the 21 year-old even stepped on a major league pitcher’s mound, he was being called the greatest pitcher in the history of baseball. No one could have expected him to live up to the pre-game hype, but he did.
On the mound for the Washington Nationals last night, Steven Strasburg pitched 14 strikeouts with no walks — something no player in history has ever done in a major league debut.
His fastball was clocked at 100 mph and his crazy curve ball dropped in an avalanche that stumped the Pittsburgh Pirates and sealed his first win, 5-2.
The famed Washington sports columnist Tom Boswell wrote: “The return of baseball here five years ago was the most emotionally charged night the sport has provided us so far in the new ‘Nats’ era. But this town has never had one game, one packed-house party, one continuous night-long celebration of possibility, one obliterate-all-expectations career launch that could even remotely approach the electric future that Strasburg’s 5-2 victory instantly foretold.”
(READ his column in the Washington Post)
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation pledged $1.5 billion on Monday in a joint push with the United Nations to improve the health of women and children.
“That is in addition to grants that we already make in vaccines, diarrhea, malaria,” Melinda Gates told reporters.
The UN is launching a lobbying effort to get governments and other non-profit groups on board.
The money will fund a comprehensive approach to help women deliver babies safely and plan healthy families with access to contraception, while incorporating current vaccination and nutrition programs.
(READ more from Reuters)
Saddened by what she imagined the oil spill was doing to wildlife near her family’s summer home on the Gulf coast, an 11-year-old began creating pictures of birds to raise money for rescue operations, and claims to have raised $60,000 so far.
After learning about Olivia Bouler’s campaign, America Online donated $25,000 to the Audubon Society in her name and also created a gallery of her artwork.
The fifth-grader decided to send a bird illustration to anyone who donates to The Audubon Society, The Sierra Club, The Weeks Bay Foundation, The Mobile Bay Estuary Program or The National Wildlife Fund, with a limit of 500 originals offered.
Her mother started a Facebook group called “Save the Gulf: Olivia’s Bird Illustrations,” which now has more than 5,000 fans.
(WATCH video below, or read more from the story at AL.com)
Saddened by what she imagined the oil spill was doing to wildlife near her family’s summer home on the Gulf coast, an 11-year-old began creating pictures of birds to raise money for rescue operations. Since then, totals have climbed into the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
After learning about Olivia Bouler’s campaign, America Online donated $25,000 to the Audubon Society in her name and also created a gallery of her artwork.
The fifth-grader decided to send a bird illustration to anyone who donates to The Audubon Society, The Sierra Club, The Weeks Bay Foundation, The Mobile Bay Estuary Program or The National Wildlife Fund.
Her mother started a Facebook group called “Save the Gulf: Olivia’s Bird Illustrations,” which eventually collected more than 28,000 fans.
(WATCH video below, or read more from the story at AL.com)
Sewage-eating microbes are major appreciators of Mozart, according to one pioneering waste treatment plant in Germany which has taken to playing the Austrian composer’s music on an expensive stereo for the microorganisms that break down sewage — and it found that it greatly increased their speed and efficiency, and could save the plant thousands of dollars a year.
(READ the article at TreeHugger.com)
This video of a wolf-like cry soothing a baby evokes something mystical from deep within our collective history. Quite magical in its effect, too.
Posted on YouTube more than a year ago, a Good News reader from Alaska named, wwwoolf (not making that up), finally sent the link to me yesterday. Enjoy.
(Does anyone know to what exact species this animal belongs?)
