During his three years in Bollywood, Uttam Sanjel, 35, learned that the real heroes of our world are not famous movie stars.
He saw the dismal conditions of poor children in the streets around Kathmandu, and vowed to help them.
Armed with a good education, high ideals and the courage to match, Uttam created a new answer to the problem of child destitution: the construction of schools quickly and efficiently using bamboo. Bamboo is inexpensive (its use lowers the budget for construction by 60 percent), strong, earthquake-proof and easy to find.
Last week, amid news that senior military officials supported ending the policy of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, a National Guardsman was contacted by his commanding officer with an invitation to rejoin his unit. Months earlier, Dan Choi had been recommended for discharge after his announcement on television that he was gay.
Choi is back with his unit now to receive training on critical infantry skills for a possible upcoming deployment. “It’s Good to be back,” he wrote in an email.
A nonprofit in Chicago is improving the job outlook for people with Asperger’s and high-functioning autism. The company trains people in data entry and computer program testing — skills that come naturally to many with the disorder.
Brenda Weitzberg started the business because she felt frustrated with the lack of job resources for her 30-year-old son.
For his wife this Valentine’s Day, a farmer has created a half-mile wide arrow-pierced heart recognizable from the sky over southern Minnesota.
Following plans he jotted on scratch paper, Bruce Andersland drove his tractor and manure spreader across the white snow in the special shape for his wife, Beth.
For his wife this Valentine’s Day, a farmer has created a half-mile wide, arrow-pierced heart recognizable from the sky over southern Minnesota.
Following plans he jotted on scratch paper, Bruce Andersland drove his tractor and manure spreader across the white snow in the special shape for his wife, Beth.
Tapping into a niche market for organic cocoa, some Peruvian farmers have turned away from cocaine in favor of growing beans for high-end chocolate retailers in Europe and the US.
Life is calmer now for the farmers who, just a few short years ago, were dodging bullets and hiding from Peruvian soldiers and Colombian drug traffickers. (Continue reading the story in CS Monitor)
Photo: Preparing Coco Pods for Chocolate Production, by Antonio Martinez – USAID
In search of fulfillment, many workers are now ditching corporate jobs and turning to so-called “encore” careers in non-profit, education or health sectors, each motivated by a similar urge: to give something back.
“When I look at the personal rewards I get, that’s more important to me than money,” said Barbara Higbee, 57, who was a district manager for a Texas merchandising company and often put in 80-hour weeks.
Canada made its mark in the fight against diabetes a century ago with the discovery of insulin, and now, that country may be poised to change the face of diabetes again by creating insulin in a whole new way.
A group of pioneering Canadian scientists is working on a way to make a much cheaper form of insulin using an easily grown plant: the safflower.
Mother Nature blessed California grape growers with a bountiful harvest in 2009, a record yield that was up 37 percent over the previous year. The 4 million tons of crushed grapes will ensure consumers benefit from high-quality wines at bargain prices.
Here’s a low-cost solution to global warming and a host of other problems: chicken manure.
At Josh Frye’s poultry farm in West Virginia, the chicken waste is fed into a large, experimental incinerating machine. Out comes a charcoal-like substance known as “biochar” — which is not only an excellent fertilizer, but also helps keep carbon in the soil instead of letting it escape into the atmosphere, where it acts as a greenhouse gas.
Former vice president and environmental advocate Al Gore calls biochar “one of the most exciting new strategies” available to stop climate change. For Frye, it means that, before long, “the chicken poop could be worth more than the chickens themselves.”
An Argentine man became a hero when he pushed a stalled truck off the train tracks seconds before a train roars in. He had been waiting on a scooter behind the van.
Watch the surveillence film below, which has no audio or reporter narration (or via Reuters)
An Argentine man became a hero when he pushed a stalled truck off the train tracks seconds before a train roars in. He had been waiting on a scooter behind the van.
Watch the surveillence film below, which has no audio or reporter narration (or via Reuters)
Despite historic snow storms in the city this week, the White House held a special concert last night, In Performance at the White House: A Celebration of Music from the Civil Rights Movement, to honor Black History month.
Bob Dylan sang his 1964 anthem, The Times They Are a Changin’ for the first time in 30 years and Jennifer Hudson, Morgan Freeman and John Mellancamp were among the guests who gathered on stage with the President to sing the final song, Lift Every Voice. (Coincidentally, the song, The Times They Are a Changin’ was released on this day 46 years ago).
The First Lady invited 120 high school students from across the country to attend as special guests and take part in a workshop, “Music that Inspired the Movement”. Students learned about the continuing relevance of music from the Civil Rights Movement to today’s generation and its original impact in the 1960s.
The workshop was facilitated by Robert Santelli, the executive director of The GRAMMY Museum and legendary Motown singer Smokey Robinson with performances by John Legend, John Mellencamp, Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon and Toshi Reagon. Dr. Reagon was one of the original Freedom Singers in the 1960s, who traveled around the country carrying stories in song of local Civil Rights Movement campaigns to national audiences.
The event was televised as a PBS one-hour special on February 12. Check out the videos highlights below featuring Dylan, the Blind Boys of Alabama, and the finale, Lift Every Voice…
Venders were clearing debris from a marketplace when they discovered a man still alive after 27 days. Evan Muncie, 28, was selling rice when the quake hit. Doctors said the man had been left “emaciated” having lost 30lb during his four-week ordeal and is suffering from severe dehydration and malnutrition.
A career biologist-turned-fillmmaker thought a lot of people out there are doing great things for the environment, and wanted to capture them on film. Now she is hosting two ‘Feel-Good Environmental Film Series’ in Washington state later this month. “At a time when there is doom and gloom and the economy is bad, I am trying to present positive message.”
The restoration of Discovery Bay’s tidal channels, once buried and polluted by tons of old lumber mill sawdust and five collapsing mill buildings, is one of the stories being told. It culminated in 11 acres of cleaned-up salt marsh and estuary at the head of the bay.
More than 60 percent of all medicinal drugs are derived from the natural world.
Mycologist Paul Stamets is on a quest to prove that an endangered mushroom could cure smallpox, TB, and even bird flu. He believes that unlocking the secret may be as important to the future of human health as Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillium mold’s antibiotic properties more than 80 years ago.
That a homely, humble fungus could fight off virulent diseases like smallpox, e coli, and TB might seem odd, until one realizes that even though the animal kingdom branched off from the fungi kingdom around 650 million years ago, humans and fungi still have nearly half of their DNA in common and are susceptible to many of the same infections.
To many residents of this storm-battered city, the New Orleans Saints carried more than a trophy when they came home on Monday after winning the first Super Bowl in their 42-year history… “Our spirits are lifted,” reported Reuters.
Just four years after Hurricane Katrina decimated the city of New Orleans, the Saints rallied from a 10-point deficit to beat the favored Indianapolis Colts, 31-17, Sunday night in Super Bowl XLIV.
The game, played in Miami featured two of the NFL’s top offenses, but it was big plays from the Saints special teams and defense that turned the game around. Trailing 10-6, the Saints surprised the Colts when they began the second half with an on-side kick. New Orleans recovered the ball and drove for a touchdown.
During his three years in Bollywood, Uttam Sanjel, 35, learned that the real heroes of our world are not famous movie stars.
