The Good News Network is an extremely important initiative. I recommend that each person makes it a habit to visit the website at least once a day. Positive information benefits us emotionally, physically, and mentally. It can contribute in a meaningful way to a happier and healthier life.– Tal Ben-Shahar, Harvard University psychology professor
In a courageous journey of personal transformation, fueled by friendship and the ability to trust after so many years, a man is able to lose 400 pounds. He is now best friends with his trainer, fitness correspondent for Good Morning Arizona, Chris Powell. (Video, photos and story at ABC News)
The French and Indians have produced a new car that is powered by compressed air. Not only is it good for the environment, it’s good for your pocketbook, traveling 200 km on a tank of compressed air costing 1.5 Euro per fill-up.
Looking back and choosing the top good news stories of the year was a happy exercise and I’ve concluded that 2007 was a good year!
10) U.S. Cancer Death Rates Continue to Fall for Men, Women and Children – Thanks to advances in treatment, fewer U.S. cancer patients are dying. Death rate are dropping,
nearly across the board, more than 2 percent per year from 2002 through 2004, for lung, prostate and colorectal cancers in men, as well as for breast and colon cancer in women. The declines recorded nearly doubled the rate of the preceding decade, according to the federal health agencies and the American Cancer Society. Cancer deaths among kids and teens in the U.S. have also become rarer, decreasing by 1.7% per year from 1990 to 2004.
Many of the more than 2 million Iraqi refugees now in Jordan and Syria are hoping to build new lives elsewhere. For young artists forced to flee Iraq, talent is one way out. Invitations from Europe are the prize: an opportunity to perform and, hopefully, find a new life. (Story and audio at NPR)
People who drink moderately, exercise, quit smoking and eat five servings of fruit and vegetables each day live on average 14 years longer than people who adopt none of these behaviors, researchers said on Tuesday. Thanks to Elen M. for the link!
Farmers in Nebraska and the Dakotas have worked with the USDA to plant switchgrass and measure the native plant’s ability to deliver Ethanol more efficiently than corn. The results are dramatic. Switchgrass delivers 540 percent of the energy used to produce it, compared with just roughly 25 percent returned by traditional corn-based ethanol.
Endangered northern Amur (Siberian) tigers have received a boost to their protection through the creation of a new national park in the Russian Far East. The Russian Government signed a decree declaring the new Aniyuiskii national park in December, making it the third established in the Khabarovsk province this year, lessening the extreme pressures on the tigers from uncontrolled logging, construction and wildfires.
In advance of President Bush’s anticipated visit to the country later this month, Kenneth Ballen, president of Terror Free Tomorrow, a public opinion organization, shares the results of a surprising new survey of Saudi public opinion. (Christian Science Monitor )
Ford Motor Company is introducing a new engine technology called EcoBoost that will deliver up to 20 percent better fuel economy on half a million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles annually in North America — for a range of vehicles from small cars to large trucks — during the next five years.
An attempt to stab the president of the Maldives was thwarted Tuesday when a 15-year-old boy scout grabbed a knife from the would-be attacker.
Heisman trophy winner Tim Tebow is not only a college football hero who is strong in the classroom, he is humble and respectful and spends his summers in the Philippines helping the underprivileged. Fox Sports has the story of this homeschooled young man who is the only college player ever to run for 20 touchdowns and throw for 20 touchdowns in the same season. Thanks to Jim G. for sending the tip and helping to bring more sports stories to the GNN-i!
Endangered manatee deaths in Florida waters dropped by 24 percent in 2007, says the state’s Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. (Reuters News)
Fascinating facts and amazing lore are exposed in the weekly BBC Magazine column, “10 Things we didn’t know last week.” Here are my ten favorite of the year’s top 100:
3. Adding milk to tea negates the health-giving effects of a hot brew.
17. Two cups of spearmint tea a day is thought to control excessive hair growth for women.
19. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hosts a daily radio phone-in show
27. Drinking, drug-taking teenagers are in the decline. (GNN story on that US trend here)
31. There is mobile phone reception from the summit of Mount Everest.
42. Nearly seven out of 10 (69%) of adults are still in touch with at least one childhood friend.
46. Peanuts can be made into diamonds.
53. Renowned atheist Professor Richard Dawkins likes singing Christmas carols.
66. Gun ownership per person in Finland is the third highest in the world.
86. There is a monastery in every village in Burma.
Already considered one of the best countries for raising children, Sweden aims to better its record by offering even more classes to help mums and dads improve their parenting skills.
“Many national museums in France, including the venerable Louvre in Paris, will be offering free admission in the coming months. 18 museums will be participating in an experiment to get the public to experience high culture, the country’s Culture Ministry announced.”
KICKING IT is an intimate film that chronicles the lives of seven homeless athletes who achieve goals on the football field while overcoming poverty and addiction, and further representing their countries on the way to the Homeless World Cup in Cape Town.
The film portrays the seven on a once in a lifetime journey alongside homeless athletes from 48 nations. The players come from war torn Afghanistan, the slums of Kenya, the drug rehab clinics of Dublin, Ireland, the streets of Charlotte, North Carolina, the overflowing public shelters of Madrid, Spain, and the shadow culture of the illegal rural immigrants to the big city of St. Petersburg, Russia.
KICKING IT is directed by Susan Koch and produced by Ted Leonsis, AOL vice chairman emeritus.
“That the inspirational story of the 2006 Homeless World Cup will be shown first at Sundance is a fitting testimony to the courage, determination and spirit of the players, said Kat Byles, Media Director, Homeless World Cup. “It is milestone achievement for the Homeless World Cup and one we hope will demonstrate the power of football to change lives to an even bigger audience around the world.”
AOL Vice Chairman Emeritus Ted Leonsis, whose first documentary Nanking won one of the major awards at the 2007 Sundance Festival, said of Kicking It, “Films can bring people together, and amplify passion. We are thrilled to help spotlight these compelling individuals – and to show sports’ powerful ability to give hope, focus and balance to us all.”
“Can commercial fishermen make more money by fishing less? They can, according to a study published in the journal Science — with one condition. They must be in a cooperative fishery, like those operating in New Zealand and Australia, where individual fishermen own a share of the total harvest, rather than competing in a race to catch the most fish.
“In a study of nearly 3,000 healthy adults, researchers found that those who reported upbeat moods had lower levels of cortisol—a ‘stress’ hormone that, when chronically elevated, may contribute to high blood pressure, abdominal obesity and dampened immune function, among other problems.”
(OP-ED) I heard my first political speech of the ’08 presidential race on the car radio today. Four years ago I was so intensely invested in who won the presidency that I flew to Iowa and stood in sub-zero temperatures to volunteer for the Dean for America campaign.
Dean’s enthusiastic “screaming” into a crowded hall (filled with deafening noise) where we, his most fervent fans, were gathered (after having just lost Iowa), caused him to lose in other states and the campaign that once fed my political heart, caused it to break.
Oddly, because it was four years later nearly to the very day, I found myself glued to the radio listening to a political speech — after having stayed as far away from the primaries as I could get, so as not to have my heart broken again.
