Instead of being put out to pasture, former race horses are embarking on second careers as members of mounted police units in places like Newark, N.J.
The police officers show a lot of love and care and respect for the quick-footed partners.
(Video below may take a moment to load, or view at the NewsRoom)
She is known as the “smart girl”. . . the girl who landed at Jefferson High School only 18 months ago. What her friends did not know is that she has been homeless for years.
But not anymore. Her plane left for Harvard the day after graduation.
As long as she can remember, Khadijah Williams has floated from shelters to motels to armories in Los Angeles with her mother. She has lived out of garbage bags among pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers. Every morning, she upheld her dignity, making sure she didn’t smell or look disheveled. And she held fast to the fact that her teachers marked her as gifted, when she was 9-years-old after scoring in the 99th percentile on a state exam.
(Read the inspiring story and see photos at the LA Times)
In a blatant act of defiance, a group of Mullahs took to the streets of Tehran, to protest election results that returned incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
This photo from GOOYA, showing Iranian clerics prominently participating in an anti-government protest, speaks volumes about the new face of Iran’s opposition movement — not just students like in 1999.
Whether these clerics voted for Ahmadinejad or one of the opposition candidates is unknown. What is important here, is the decision to march against the will of Iran’s supreme leader who called the results final and declared demonstrations illegal.
Some Mullahs and former presidents of Iran have also released statements denouncing the crackdown and election irregularities. Watch the CNN video below…
After avoiding B.C.’s coast for decades, blue whales are returning to the region to feed in the same areas where they were once hunted to near extinction.
Scientists hope recent sightings mean an increase in the population of the highly endangered whales, but the whales may have simply migrated north from California following the tiny shrimp on which they feed.
Actress Angelina Jolie commemorated World Refugee Day in Washington last week. She is the United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for refugees and has visited refugees in countries around the world rallying support for their cause.
She and her partner, actor Brad Pitt, donated $1 million Thursday to help more than two million Pakistanis displaced by fighting between the government and Taliban militants.
The Jolie-Pitt Foundation also donated $2 million in September to help children in Ethiopia stricken by disease.
Jolie tearfully thanked invited guests at the ceremony where an award was presented to a former refugee now helping others to survive upheaval. (Watch two videos below)
Deaths from cardiovascular ailments plunged a remarkable 30 percent in Canada over a 10-year period, a new study shows.
Experts credit the decline in deaths due to heart attack, heart failure and stroke to prevention campaigns, like blood pressure control as well as anti-smoking and cholesterol-lowering campaigns.
“We’re talking about success with the No. 1 killer in the country,” says Dr. Peter Liu, head of circulatory health at the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. “It shows that all our efforts are paying off.”
Therapy and psychiatric medications are the most common treatments for depression and anxiety. Many people, however, prefer alternative, more natural remedies. These can include lifestyle changes, herbal treatments, and alternative approaches not typically used in Western medicine, but practiced in other cultures for centuries. Clients reach for alternatives when Western medicine is unhelpful or they simply want a more natural approach. Especially for milder depression and anxiety, alternative remedies offer much hope.
Several days after receiving an iPod for her birthday, 14-year-old Sophie Frost, survived a terrifying lightning strike when the 300,000-volt surge travelled through the gadget’s wire, diverting it away from her vital organs.
She stopped under a tree with her boyfriend to get out of the rain. Their t-shirts and skin were singed from the strike.
Photo credit: fir0002/flagstaffotos
GNU free license
Aaron Shutway, an 8th grader at Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School launched into a front handspring, holding a basketball which he flung over the entire distance of the court hitting nothing but the net and sending the P.E. class into a frenzy.
The luckiest shot ever was caught on video.
A corner has been turned after decades of Northwest timber wars, thanks to a new focus on preventing wildfires and global warming, along with enhancing fish and wildlife habitat.
Environmentalists are welcoming the sound of chain saws helping to reduce fire danger and restore ecosystem balance, and they’re not alone.
The last sawmill standing in the area has adopted green certification because it makes sense for its struggling bottom line, and the local forest ranger has 10 years of work planned out covering 10,000 acres — including timber sales that will provide logs for the mill — without a single protest, appeal or lawsuit to stop them.
(Continue reading AP’s report at WTOPNews.com)
Photo credit: sealion in Sacramento
The Cuyahoga River was one of the most polluted rivers in the United States. The span from Cleveland to Akron was devoid of fish.
40 years ago today, the river caught fire and captured the attention of Time magazine, which described the Cuyahoga as the river that “oozes rather than flows.”
The infamous fire spurred a clean-up campaign and grassroots activism that resulted in a wave of federal legislation devoted to clean air, clean water, and natural resource protection.
Today, the Cuyahoga is home to more than 60 species of fish. Beavers, blue herons and bald eagles nest along the river’s banks.
Historical photo credit: Cleveland Press Collection at Cleveland State University Library
(Read more in a feature story by the New York Times)
“The first time Gene Roberts fell into the Cuyahoga River, he worried he might die. The year was 1963, and the river was still an open sewer for industrial waste. . . Recently, Mr. Roberts returned to the river and said, ‘It’s a miracle. The river has come back to life.'”
After a Los Angeles Times columnist wrote about Eddie Dotson — a 67-year-old man living in an elaborate shelter under a freeway overpass — two people wrote emails saying they had been looking for their father for years.
“I just received word of your story published in the LA Times about my father. My brother and I have been looking for him for over 12 years. This is the happiest day of my life!”
“Eddie Dotson is my father. . . . Thank you very much for speaking so kindly about him; he’s a great man!”
Experts are calling it the biggest levee-busting operation ever in North America, the muddy Ouachita River is being returned to its ancient floodplain.
The work will help prevent flooding naturally while re-creating wetlands rich in wildlife.
The work could serve as an example for other leveed areas in the Southeast and across the US.
(Read more from the New York Times)
NOTE: The photo in the Times article says it all with its caption…
Imagine a gigantic solar thermal power plant stretching across the Sahara Desert, sending huge quantities of energy across the Mediterranean to Europe — and emitting no CO2 in the process.
The Desertec is a $555 million (€400 billion) project which has been in the works for years. On Tuesday, a group of 20 companies, groups and governments revealed they would meet in mid-July to discuss the way forward. Should the venture ultimately become reality, it could cover up to 15 percent of Europe’s energy needs as well as provide power to North African countries.
Nissan Motor Co plans to launch production of electric vehicles and their batteries in Tennessee to tap U.S. low-interest loans for green vehicles.
The facility, in Smyrna, is capable of making 50,000 to 100,000 eco-friendly vehicles a year by 2012.
With an overall investment of at least a half billion dollars, Nissan will also construct a production facility for high-capacity lithium ion batteries at the Smyrna site with NEC Corp.
Indigenous groups in Peru have called off protests after two land laws which led to deadly fighting were revoked. Hailing victory, Amazonian Indian groups said it was an “historic day”.
“This is a historic day for indigenous people because it shows that our demands and our battles were just,” said Daysi Zapata, vice president of the Amazon Indian confederation that led the protests.
National gas reserves in the United States are much bigger than previously thought, according to a report released Thursday.
The Potential Gas Committee in Golden, Colorado, said that the estimated U.S. reserves are 35 percent higher than just two years ago, thanks to new technology that has allowed producers to drill for gas in shale rock.
With no funding except for art donated by authors and comic book artists, a website has raised more than $101,000 to restore the Cleveland house where young Jerry Seigel laid away at night and conceived of a man of steel, Superman.
Asking people to find their inner Supermen and help preserve the structure for posterity, author Brad Meltzer and his friend Mike San Giacomo called their friends, fellow comic book writers and artists and recruited Jerry Siegel’s wife and daughter to become honorary chairpersons for the new Siegel & Shuster Society.
The house in Cleveland where Superman was created, was rotting away, including the actual bedroom where young Jerry Siegel, a seventeen year old kid, stared at his bedroom ceiling on a rainy summer night and gave birth to the idea of Superman.
The house was structurally a great old house — painted bright red and blue — and owned by one of the kindest elderly couples in the world. But as the neighborhood sank, so did the house. As Brad recalls, “When you walked inside, you felt like your foot might go through the floor. The roof was flawed. The paint was a mess. When you looked up at the ceiling, you saw the exposed rafters overhead. Worst of all, the city of Cleveland refused to recognize the house as worth saving.” The current owner said, “They won’t even give us a plaque. Not even a plaque to say, ‘This is where Superman was created.’”
The original call for help on the website, www.ordinarypeoplechangetheworld.com read, “Will we succeed? That depends on you. If we want to repair the exterior, and fix the roof, and clear out the rotted wood, we have to raise the cash. Cleveland won’t pay. The big corporations won’t pay. They’re the ones who ignored it. But like the site says, I believe ordinary people change the world. I believe that we — the true fans — can do what Cleveland and everyone else couldn’t.”
Since raising the cash to renovate the house, the organizers decided to turn their efforts toward another cause. They are now collecting one dollar donations for City Year, a group that unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service, and gives them the skills and opportunities to change the world.
Watch the inspiring video that tells the story of a group of heroes coming together for a cause.
Brad Meltzer was doing research for his new suspense novel, The Book of Lies
(Note, some of the source material has been removed by the source)
E.C.O., Incorporated is marketing its first product, a green pizza box. The Green Box is innovative not for its 100% recycled material, but because the top of the box breaks down into convenient serving plates, eliminating the need for disposable plates and the bottom of the box converts easily into a handy storage container, eliminating the need for plastic wrap, foil or bags. The perforations and scores that create this functionality allow for easy disposal into a standard-sized trash or recycling bin.
Made from a standard pizza blank, the Green Box requires no additional material or major redesign and can therefore be produced at no additional manufacturing cost. The design company, Environmentally Conscious Organization, Incorporated,owns the utility patent on the Green Box, and is dedicated to improving more outmoded, outdated and wasteful food packaging. Check out the website at www.ecoincorporated.com and see the demonstration video below.
Teachers come in all species. Two of my greatest teachers were a pair of Labrador pups. They arrived in time to witness my prolonged and painful recovery from the loss of my 27-year marriage through divorce, and the deaths of my two previous labradors, Shadow and Licorice.
Six weeks before the new pups were conceived, I lost my animal soulmate, Shadow. His death left a gaping hole in my heart that I couldn’’t heal. Without his brother by my side, I simply would not have been able to cope. Licorice granted me another five months until I had to say good-bye again, but I needed every bit of it. As I sat on the vet’’s floor with hi’s gray head in my lap stroking him and crying, I thought about the two new brothers that were waiting to join me.
The pups arrived two weeks later. I was battered from two years of loss, grief, anger, fear and pain. Licorice’’s death was the crowning blow. I was devastated and in dire need of help. My new pups taught like University professors, yet, they were only babies. I named them Hana and Saba after my two favorite places on Earth. Shortly after I brought them home, I became dreadfully ill with flu-like symptoms and a horrific cough that lasted for weeks. My job of caring for and house-breaking new pups became infinitely more difficult.
Hana was excellent about doing what he needed to, but Saba, the one who loved leaping around in water, hated the rain. Each time I’’d don my rain gear and umbrella to accompany him outside, stubborn Saba would only sit by my feet under the umbrella. Of course, the trick was to outwait him, which is fine if you’re healthy and you have patience a’ plenty. I had neither.
After standing in the rain for too long, I picked Saba up, shouted angrily at him and stormed into the house. He looked at me with adoring eyes questioning my startling outburst. Instantly, I felt immense remorse and shame. At ten weeks old, Saba was too young to understand. Guilt overwhelmed me, and now I felt more emotionally pain than physical pain.
After about an hour of me thoroughly admonishing my Self, tiny Saba strolled over and plopped down on my foot. With his simple touch, tears flowed and all my self-loathing disappeared. Saba’’s lesson of forgiveness was so powerful. My heart melted with this Labrador teaching, this little creature who forgave my indiscretion so quickly. His gesture allowed me to let go of my guilt and shame and move out from the shroud of negativity that engulfed me. Animals are masters of living in the Now, and Saba’s instant forgiveness was perfect proof. If only people had the same degree of forgiveness that dogs possess, our world would be at peace.
I truly believe that others reflect what we most need to learn. Saba mirrored my need to forgive my Ex-husband and finally accept that our divorce was neither “right” nor “wrong,” it just was. The immediate release I felt when Saba forgave me was extraordinary. It took some time before I could truly emulate Saba, but I have achieved forgiveness, which has allowed me to release the last of my anger and resentment.
The healing that Hana and Saba gifted me with was immediately was truly astonishing. Their looks at me with adoring eyes melted my wounded heart. Their heads on my foot said, “”You’’re special, and we love you.”” My self-esteem soared for the first time in ages. My love for them was so intense that it almost hurt.
The healthier I got the more I began to enjoy my new puppies and learn their powerful lessons. While the chore of teaching new puppies the acceptable way to live with humans can be challenging, I needed it. From the first time I saw them I felt the smile return not only to my face, but deep in my heart and soul.
While I taught them to sit, stay, lie down, and avoid peeing in the house, they taught me profound lessons about my Self: how to trust again, how to love again without condition, how to stay in the present moment and make the most of it, how to live in joy, how to take life less seriously, and finally, how to forgive and let go.
Their presence in my life was in perfect timing to help me let go of whatever residual negativity I was clinging to. It is impossible to be unhappy around them. They look at life from one perspective only:– playing. The simplest thing becomes a toy. Their happiness, joyful exuberance, and life-loving, blissful nature provided powerful lessons for the woman who’’d misplaced those childlike traits. The obligations and responsibilities of life had buried them along with so much more.
Every day, these two dear souls teach me that I am worthy of being loved and that I am capable of loving. When they look at me with their soulful loving glances, they pierce any semblance of negativity within me. The unconditional love in their eyes is like a powerful laser straight into my heart. I knew these two special souls could help me regain my happiness, my joy, and my passion for life, all of which had been missing for too long. I couldn’’t have attracted more skilled teachers. They had big paws to fill following dear Shadow and Licorice, but they’’ve filled them admirably. Hana and Saba are living up to their names -– two of the most healing places on Earth!
Nancy A. Kaiser lives in the healing Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina surrounded by her family of dogs, cats and a horse. She is the author of Letting Go: An Ordinary Woman’s Extraordinary Journey of Healing & Transformation, about her recovery from trauma with the help of animals and nature. Nancy operates Just Ask Communications, a practice devoted to healing the human-animal bond through enhanced communication and understanding. Visit her at: www.NancyKaiserAnimalCommunicator.com
