The rate of teen pregnancies in Canada dropped 36.9 percent between 1996 and 2006, according to research released today by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada. Teen pregnancies also dropped 25 percent in the U.S.A. during the same period, and 4.75 per cent in England and Wales.
The researchers postulate that declining trends in teen pregnancy rates likely reflect increasing levels of effective contraceptive use and exposure to higher quality sexual health education.
An Omaha man decided to take on the pothole problem himself. Now he’s a neighborhood hero.
Dennis Swanson said he’s not angry about the city’s response to the potholes left behind by the extraordinary winter weather. He said he just wanted to do something about them.
“I know the city is pretty well buried, so I wanted to pitch in and help out,” said Swanson.
A 15-month-old boy escaped with just a few cuts and bruises on Wednesday after a train struck his stroller, which rolled onto the tracks when his grandmother looked away for just a moment.
Driver Steve Ryan, was being praised for slamming on the emergency brakes, then pulling the baby from under the train. He said it was a miracle the baby was alive.
I am writing to let you know about a life-affirming income opportunity that is just now taking off — and I have jumped aboard!
(Sorry, but, this opportunity is only available to residents of Canada, U.S. and Mexico.)
Though some of you have jobs you love — yoga instructor, life coach, entrepreneur, teacher — most of these, not even the noble business I’ve built, the Good News Network, could sustain itself if I were to lose my good health, become disabled, or get sued for millions of dollars.
We could all benefit from additional thousands of dollars each month in income that never goes away even if crisis should strike, however, the real beauty of the brand new venture I’ve joined is that involvement not only promises extra income, but also improved health and freedom from fear.
There are two men — giants in their fields of business and health — who have joined forces, determined to create a billion dollar brand, while sharing the opportunity with the rest of us. (Theirs is a rising tide of good fortune. Imagine if you had bought hundreds of shares of Apple, Inc. 15 years ago!)
From Apple to Volkswagen, these top global companies have built their reputations on trust and admiration. What is the secret to earning customer esteem that spans the world? And which companies are best at doing it?
Reputation Institute, a global private consulting firm based in New York, surveyed customers around the world to uncover 28 companies that have earned such merit.
Companies at the top of the list all had one thing in common: innovation. These top ten firms — four of which are American and three are German — excel at innovation:
Eight-year-old Jonathan Krouse of Pennsylvania was able to donate $8,500 to the Alzheimer’s Association from proceeds he raised from the sale of a comic book that he created.
After he started making comics in his art class at school, he thought it would be a great idea to use his creation to help his grandmom and others like her by raising money for the Alzheimer’s.
London has opened its first exercise playground for older people, with specially designed fitness equipment to help the capital’s aging baby boomers stay fit.
Organizers say people lined up at central London’s Hyde Park beginning early Wednesday to use the equipment, which includes a sit-up bench, a cross-trainer and a stationary bicycle.
Thousands of volunteers have been working in Nashville since floods devastated the city three weeks ago. College and high school students especially have given up leisurely weekends to become Good Samaritans simply trying to ease a stranger’s pain.
Schools in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Minneapolis and Seattle will receive solar panel arrays paid for by the Walmart Foundation.
The grant for $1.2 million will pay for solar installations on 20 schools as part of the National Energy Education Development Project (NEED), it was announced yesterday.
Not only will the schools save money on energy, the Walmart Solar School program will teach the next generation about the benefits of using renewable energy.
Three weeks ago in Nepal, 1,000 villagers gathered to mark a momentous day in the history of Room To Read, a charity that builds children’s libraries around the developing world. They celebrated the opening of the group’s 10,000th library.
John Wood, founder and executive chairman, launched Room to Read 10 years ago after a trek through Nepal where he visited several local schools. He was amazed by the warmth and enthusiasm of the students and teachers, but also saddened by the shocking lack of resources. Driven to help, John quit his senior executive position with Microsoft and built a global team to work with rural villages in furthering the educating of young people.
Wood wrote on his blog, “This achievement was not just an achievement for me but it was an achievement for all of us -– for our staff that has worked tirelessly over these past ten years to enable us to reach this point, and for our partners who have helped us to create a global movement to bring change to the world through education.”
Room To Read boasts an astonishing average of 6 library openings every day in the developing world -– that’s 3,000 kids every day who gain access to a well-stocked library with the tools they need to further their education.
Since 2000, the team has supplied more than seven million books to more than four million children in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Zambia. The non-profit organization has also built 1,000 schools, particularly empowering girls with increased access to high-quality educational opportunities – including 10,000 girls this year who are attending school on scholarship.
“Marrying the best business practices John and I learned from the private sector with those from the nonprofit sector has allowed us to scale to the degree that we have with maximum efficiency and quality,” said Erin Ganju, Room to Read Co-Founder and CEO.
WATCH the Room To Read Video below, Celebrating its 10,000th library:
Three weeks ago in Nepal, 1,000 villagers gathered to mark a momentous day in the history of Room To Read, a charity that builds children’s libraries around the developing world. They celebrated the opening of the group’s 10,000th library.
John Wood, founder and executive chairman, launched Room to Read 10 years ago after a trek through Nepal where he visited several local schools. He was amazed by the warmth and enthusiasm of the students and teachers, but also saddened by the shocking lack of resources. Driven to help, John quit his senior executive position with Microsoft and built a global team to work with rural villages in furthering the educating of young people.
The Inner City 100 ranks the fastest-growing inner-city businesses in the U.S., a Who’s Who of companies located in downtrodden urban areas that are prospering, despite the recent recession.
The annual roundup is compiled by the Boston-based not-for-profit Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, founded in 1994 by Harvard Business School competitiveness guru Michael Porter.
The goal is to show that not only can companies thrive in the inner city, but there are also competitive advantages to locating there. Over the past 12 years, winners have created 71,000 new jobs and employed 40,000 inner-city residents.
Porter notes that the Inner City 100 dealt nimbly with the effects of the recession and is prepared for the recovery. That may be why 85 percent of the companies on the list expected revenue to increase in 2009-10, with more than a quarter predicting upwards of 30 percent, about double from the previous year’s expectations.
(READ the storyin Business Week:Watch videos of CEO profiles and see the Top 100 list there…
You would think the lack of jobs would mean more burglaries or strong-arm robberies as some people turned to crime to get money. But that just hasn’t been the case.
For the third straight year, crime rates fell in 2009, according to data released today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The preliminary numbers indicate the national violent crime rate fell 5.5. percent, while, the property crime rate fell by 4.9 percent.
In fact, all four categories of violent crime declined overall compared to 2008: robbery, down 8.1 percent; murder, down 7.2 percent; aggravated assault, down 4.2 percent; and forcible rape, fell 3.1 percent. Violent crime declined 4.0 percent in metropolitan counties and 3.0 percent in nonmetropolitan counties.
It may be time to go on a special type of vacation: a drug vacation.* A drug vacation is a time in which you reduce the doses or eliminate entirely whatever over-the-counter drug or drugs you are taking. A drug vacation may give you an opportunity to learn whether you really need to continue taking this drug or not. More important, this vacation will give your body an opportunity to manifest its everyday self-regulating and self-healing propensities without the crutch of a pharmaceutical agent inhibiting or suppressing its important work.
You may not even recognize it, but you may be addicted to one or more of the drugs in your medicine cabinet. You may have noticed but your body has become accustomed to these drugs, and you’ve probably have had to increase or change the dosage over time.
It may be time that you received an intervention, though this time, you should probably intervene on yourself rather than have anyone do it for or to you.
A New Jersey man produced such a bountiful harvest in his vegetable garden that the neighbors received their fill and his wife wouldn’t allow any more in the house. With 40 pounds of excess fresh produce that he didn’t want to waste, he brought it to the local food pantry and homeless shelter. [UPDATE: Link fixed below.]
When he was told that his produce was the only fresh food the pantry would serve all year, he decided to create an online directory that would connects gardeners nationwide with food pantries.
He realized that a Google search sometimes miss dozens of nearby food pantries locally, which might end up detering gardeners from donating.
AmpleHarvest.org fills that gap now, with information that could rescue fresh produce from a wasteful end and potentially save lives. Nearly 2,000 food pantries across the U.S. are now registered.
A 13-year-old American boy on Saturday became the youngest climber to conquer Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, a climbing website said.
Jordan Romero from Big Bear, California, scaled the 8,850 meter (29,035 feet) summit from the Tibetan side. The ascent has put Romero one step closer to reaching his goal of climbing the highest mountains on all seven continents.
A boy studying in a dilapidated school in Macedonia is the youngest Microsoft systems engineer in the world. He holds four Microsoft certificates and has written a 312-page book on Microsoft’s Windows 7. He’s 9 years old.
Marco Calasan speaks three languages and is learning a fourth and while English is not his mother tongue, his command of the language and vocabulary is mind-boggling. In finite detail he explains the ins and outs of computers and the curriculum he’s teaching his peers and adults. He even educates his own teachers.
Best of all, Marco is the complete opposite of arrogant. He’s humble, friendly and so very patient in explaining the computer jargon that flies over most people’s head.
The rate of teen pregnancies in Canada dropped 36.9 percent between 1996 and 2006, according to research released today by the Sex Information and Education Council of Canada. Teen pregnancies also dropped 25 percent in the U.S.A. during the same period, and 4.75 per cent in England and Wales. 
