Forget strutting the runway with big hair and cheesy smiles. The Miss Landmine Angola competition leaves behind the superficiality and aims for promoting pride and beauty, despite imperfections. (The Guardian) Thanks, Guy!
Inner-City Single Father Raises Two Boys to Become Pro Football Players
"Darmone Jenkins, father of two pro football players, raised the two boys on his own in some very rough circumstances in inner-city Detroit, managed to go to college himself, and helped turn them into two of the best defensive linemen in the NFL." (Charlotte Observer) Steve G. sends the link, calling it "absolutely inspiring."
Delivery Companies Switch to Hybrid Vehicles
Coca-Cola this week introduced hybrid delivery trucks in New York City in a bid to save fuel and cut emissions… No more fumes and idling diesel engines while the trucks are unloading. (CS Monitor) Thanks to Steve G. for the link!
Best Tele-Seminar of the Year, Next Monday!
Editor’s Blog– Get ready and mark your calendars for a night that may change your financial future. (This isn’t hype.) If you are a U.S. homeowner, you must take a serious look at the program that I am calling the best good news story of 2007. Your mortgage company doesn’t want you to know about this — they’d rather collect thousands more from you in interest. Next Monday evening, December 10, I will present perhaps the most important Great Mentors tele-seminar of the year: Home Free! Pay Off Your Mortgage Years Earlier and Save Tons of Interest with No Extra Hardship. I want you to do three things…
Techie Teens Help Teachers With Computers, Create Culture of Respect
In a role reversal, U.S. students provide the tech support, creating a ‘culture of respect’ between teachers and teens. (CS Monitor) Thanks to Steve G. for the link.
7 Year-End Moves That Could Lower Your Tax Bill
Even though taxes for 2007 aren’t due until April 15, 2008, tax experts say now’s the time – before Jan. 1 – to make the financial moves that can lead to big savings on tax day. (CS Monitor) Thanks, Steve G., for the helpful link!
Wedding Band Saves Man’s Life
Steve G. sends this: "Another reason why married men live longer." Police said the shopkeeper’s wedding band deflected the bullet and saved his life during a robbery. (AP Wire) Thanks to Alton who also submitted this.
Obesity Rates Level Off – a Good Sign
After 25 years of successive increases, obesity rates in the United States have finally leveled off, said government health officials on Wednesday.
Field of Trash Becomes Fields of Dreams for Kids
A field full of weeds, kudzu and abandoned cars has become a fields of dreams for kids in a Decatur Boys and Girls club thanks to the Atlanta Landscaping and Turf Association which adopted the project and sent 100 volunteers to hunker down for four days with hoes and shovels. (Read the A-J Constitution story from their new Good Works section, which our own Steve. G. will be monitoring for the best stuff!)
The Street Samaritans of New Orleans
Post-Katrina volunteer medics on bicycles have created a new model of community health care in New Orleans. (Mother Jones)
World Pledges More Aid to Bangladesh Cyclone Victims
More and more countries have come forward to provide assistance to help Bangladesh conduct the relief and rescue operation, including the most recent, a pledge by India to rebuild ten villages destroyed in the storms.
Finally, Something Not Caused by Global Warming
While we should in no way downplay the environmental challenges we face today, we should also make sure that we recognize good news. In one case, clean air laws helped reduce pollution and acid rain, but they also created dissolved organic carbon, which was a situation that looked like more bad news at first, but turned out to be a small flame of hope.
Billion Tree Campaign Reaches One Billion Trees Planted in One Year
The goal of planting one billion trees around the world has been achieved in one year thanks to the United Nations and Nobel Peace Prize winner and Kenyan Green Belt Movement founder, Wangari Maathai. “I am elated beyond words at the global interest and action that was motivated by the Billion Tree Campaign. I knew we had it within us as a human family to rise up! We called you to action almost exactly a year ago and you responded beyond our dreams!”
A UN report said Wednesday that the billionth tree was probably planted in Ethiopia where close to 700 million trees have been planted alone. Half of all those who participated were private citizens or households planting one to three trees, according to UN Environment Program (UNEP), while another 13 percent were planted by the private sector.
A big boost came in Mexico where the government and local authorities-with support from the army and inspired by President Felipe Calderón-pledged and planted over 200 million trees. Several million more trees are expected to be planted by Guatemala, China and Spain.
The news comes as thousands of delegates across the world are ready to arrive on the Indonesian island of Bali for the next and most crucial round of global warming negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The Billion Tree Campaign was launched at UNEP headquarters in Nairobi last November in the garden of a staff member.
While not all numbers are in, UNEP said the top-ranking countries appear to be Ethiopia, over 700 million trees planted; Mexico, 217 million trees; Turkey, 150 million; Kenya, 100 million; Cuba, 96.5 million; Rwanda, 50 million; Republic of Korea, 43 million; Tunisia, 21 million; Morocco, 20 million; Myanmar, 20 million and Brazil, 16 million. The Green Belt Movement planted 4.7 million trees, double the number of trees it had initially pledged.
“There had been a few cynical smiles and shaking of heads when the Billion Tree Campaign was launched,” said Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General and UNEP Executive Director. “Some said it would never happen, but citizen after citizen, community after community and country after country, have proved the doubters wrong and demonstrated an abiding truth in 2007.”
Promising New HIV-AIDS Drug Approved in Canada
“A new HIV-AIDS drug, the first in a promising new class of medications, has been given approval for the Canadian market for treatment when viruses are resistant to other HIV drugs. AIDS expert Dr. Mark Wainberg says there is tremendous optimism about the drug in the community of HIV patients, doctors and researchers.” (Canadian Press)
Neil Young Turns Electric — With His Gas Guzzling Car
On a beautiful, crisp late fall afternoon, rock icon Neil Young took his 1959 Lincoln Continental for one last spin before a team of mechanics ripped out its gas-guzzling engine to make way for an electric motor.
Car buffs may think it’s sacrilege to tear apart an automotive classic, but Young wants it to have a new life as a fuel-efficient hybrid.
(READ the full story from CNN)
Car Salesman Gives Homeless and Ex-Cons New Lives
“Word of the good Samaritan car salesman started spreading through the homeless and prison communities, and the more people showed up at the Chevrolet dealership, the more Korry Holtzander did to change their lives for the better. Andy Garcia was living in his van with his wife and two little kids when Holtzander gave him a sales job and a month’s rent.”
(Read full text at CBSNews by Steve Hartman)
Ten Millionth Tree Planted in Congo’s Gorilla Habitat
The World Wildlife Fund is celebrating the ten millionth tree planted around crucial endangered mountain gorilla habitat in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The tree-planting project, launched in 1987 for the area surrounding Virunga National Park, has continued despite sporadic armed conflicts in the region. The goal is to reduce the shortage of firewood for neighboring communities, staving off illegal wood harvesting and charcoal production within the park, a major threat for the protected area.
Quarter Million People Fed Through Playing of Internet Game
You gotta try the new Internet game in which you choose the correct definition of a word — the words keep getting harder, which makes it really fun — and for every correct choice you make, a hungry person is fed. The website, FreeRice.com, donates 10 grains of rice to the UN World Food Program (WFP) every time you get one right. Today, brainy gamers are set to pass the 5 billion grain mark after just seven weeks of operations. That is enough to feed more than 250,000 people for one day!
Indonesia Plants 79 Million Trees in One Day
Indonesia, which is clear-cutting its rainforests faster than any other country, planted 79 million trees in one day Wednesday and aims to plant another 10 million seedlings tomorrow.
Measles Deaths In Africa Plummet by 91 Percent — UN
Deaths from measles in Africa have dropped by 91 per cent — from an estimated 396,000 to 36,000 — between 2000 and 2006, thus achieving the United Nations goal to cut measles deaths by 90 percent four years early, it was announced today.