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“Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.” – Will Smith, 50 years-old today

Quote of the Day: “Being realistic is the most commonly traveled road to mediocrity.” – Will Smith, 50 years-old today

Image: by Sandy Brown Jensen, CC license

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

New Study Shows That Weight Loss Can Be Boosted Fivefold Thanks to Novel Mental Imagery Technique

If you’re trying to shave off some of those extra pounds, this new study shows that visualization may be a huge contributor to successful weight loss.

Overweight people who used a new motivational intervention called Functional Imagery Training (FIT) lost an average of five times more weight than those using talking therapy alone.

In addition, users of FIT lost 1.6 more inches (4.3cm) around their waist circumference in six months – and continued to lose weight after the intervention had finished.

The research involved 141 participants, who were allocated either to FIT or Motivational Interviewing (MI) – a technique that sees a counsellor support someone to develop, highlight and verbalize their need or motivation for change, and their reasons for wanting to change.

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FIT goes one step further than MI, as it makes use of multi-sensory imagery to explore these changes by teaching clients how to elicit and practice motivational imagery themselves. Everyday behaviors and optional app support are used to cue imagery practice until it becomes a cognitive habit.

Maximum contact time was four hours of individual consultation, and neither group received any additional dietary advice or information.

“It’s fantastic that people lost significantly more weight on this intervention, as, unlike most studies, it provided no diet/physical activity advice or education. People were completely free in their choices and supported in what they wanted to do, not what a regimen prescribed,” said Dr. Linda Solbrig, the researcher who led the study from the School of Psychology.

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The study showed how – after six months – people who used the FIT intervention lost an average of 9 pounds (4.11kg), compared with an average of 1.6 pounds (0.74kg) among the MI group.

After 12 months – six months after the intervention had finished – the FIT group continued to lose weight, with an average of 14.2 pounds (6.44kg) lost compared with 1.48 pounds (0.67kg) in the MI group.

Dr. Solbrig continued: “Most people agree that in order to lose weight, you need to eat less and exercise more, but in many cases, people simply aren’t motivated enough to heed this advice – however much they might agree with it. So FIT comes in with the key aim of encouraging someone to come up with their own imagery of what change might look and feel like to them, how it might be achieved and kept up, even when challenges arise.

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“We started with taking people through an exercise about a lemon. We asked them to imagine seeing it, touching it, juicing it, drinking the juice and juice accidentally squirting in their eye, to emphasize how emotional and tight to our physical sensations imagery is. From there we are able to encourage them to fully imagine and embrace their own goals. Not just ‘imagine how good it would be to lose weight’ but, for example, ‘what would losing weight enable you to do that you can’t do now? What would that look / sound / smell like?’, and encourage them to use all of their senses.

“As well as being delighted by the success of the study in the short term, there are very few studies that document weight loss past the end of treatment, so to see that people continued to lose weight despite not having any support shows the sustainability and effectiveness of this intervention.”

Trisha Bradbury was one of the participants allocated to the FIT study, and she explains: “I lost my mum at 60, and being 59 myself with a variety of health problems, my motivation was to be there for my daughter. I kept thinking about wearing the dress I’d bought for my daughter’s graduation, and on days I really didn’t feel like exercising, kept picturing how I’d feel.

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“I’ve gone from 14 stone to 12 stone 2 (196 to 170 pounds) and have managed to lower the dosage I need for my blood pressure tablets. I’d still like to lose a touch more, but I’m so delighted with the mind-set shift.”

Professor Jackie Andrade, Professor in Psychology at the University of Plymouth, is one of the co-creators of FIT, and she explains: “FIT is based on two decades of research showing that mental imagery is more strongly emotionally charged than other types of thought. It uses imagery to strengthen people’s motivation and confidence to achieve their goals, and teaches people how to do this for themselves, so they can stay motivated even when faced with challenges.

“We were very excited to see that our intervention achieved exactly what we had hoped for and that it helped our participants achieve their goals and most importantly to maintain them.”

Reprinted from the University of Plymouth

Be Sure And Pass On The Positive News To Your Friends…

Man Helps Repair Washed Out Road, Discovers It Leads to the Man Who Saved His Life

Following the severe weather conditions of Hurricane Florence, this rural community was left stranded by a damaged road in rural Virginia.

Although dozens of volunteers stepped forward to help fix the road, one man in particular found a greater meaning in his mission: he was helping to repay the police officer who saved his life 18 years ago.

Bill Ford and his neighbors were trapped in their Amelia County homes after the floodwaters forged a 10-foot drop in the private road running through their neighborhood.

Ordinarily, it would have cost them roughly $10,000 to fix themselves – but after broadcasting their dilemma through local news outlets and social media, a team of contractors and engineers offered to fix the road themselves.

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The team of helpers was organized by Winston Marsden, a Lynchburg business owner who felt inclined to help after he saw a post about the road on social media. He coordinated the effort through several phone calls with Ford – but when they finally met in person, they realized that they had met each other before.

Ford is the former deputy of the Amelia County Sheriff’s Department. Back in 2000, he answered a call about a young man who had fallen into a icy creek from his ATV. With an internal temperature of just 75º Fahrenheit, Ford immediately rushed the man to the hospital where he was saved.

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That man was Marsden – and now, 18 years later, he is grateful to be repaying the debt to his savior.

“I made him a promise way back when, that I was going to do something for him, to pay him back, and this is it,” Marsden told WWBT.

Pave The Way For Positivity And Share The Good News With Your FriendsPhoto by WTVR

In Historic First, Scientists Have Landed Rovers On an Asteroid and They’re Transmitting Photos

Scientists have just made history by landing the world’s first unmanned drones on an asteroid.

On September 21st, researchers from Japanese space agency JAXA successfully deployed and landed two rovers on the surface of the Ryugu asteroid.

The two robots are now transmitting pictures and information of their surroundings as “the world’s first man-made object to explore movement on an asteroid’s surface.”

The robots, named Rover-1A and Rover-1B are both collectively known as Minerva-II1.

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The first image that was transmitted by Rover-1A depicts its dizzying deployment from the Hayabusa2 spacecraft rotating. In the bottom left corner of the image, you can see the surface of the Ryugu asteroid.

The second photo that was released by JAXA shows Rover-1B’s immediate deployment from the spacecraft.

The third photo was taken while Rover-1A was hopping around the surface of the 1-kilometer-wide space rock.

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Scientists believe that asteroids contain a treasure trove of information about the solar system’s evolution and history. The two drones will be collecting samples and data from above and below the surface of Ryugu until their scheduled return to Earth in 2020.

“I cannot find words to express how happy I am that we were able to realize mobile exploration on the surface of an asteroid,” said Yuichi Tsuda, Hayabusa2 project manager. “I am proud that Hayabusa2 was able to contribute to the creation of this technology for a new method of space exploration by surface movement on small bodies.”

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Takashi Kubota, spokesperson for the Hayabusa2 project, added: “The good news made me so happy.

“The image taken by MINERVA-II1 during a hop allowed me to relax as a dream of many years came true. I felt awed by what we had achieved in Japan. This is just a real charm of deep space exploration.”

This News Is Out-Of-This-World: So Be Sure And Share It With Your FriendsPhotos by JAXA

Community is Overjoyed to Pitch in and Care For New Local Celebrity: The Island’s Only Duck

What walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and splashes around like a duck? Well, for residents on the small island of Niue, the answer to that question is a duck – but they may not have been able to answer that before last month.

A recent settler to the island, Trevor the duck has been causing a stir in the local community; because Niue has never had a duck before.

No one knows how he could have gotten there, either. Theories range from him flying all the way from New Zealand to stowing away aboard a luxury yacht!

Regardless of the “how”, the intrepid mallard, who is named after Trevor Mallard, the speaker of New Zealand’s House of Representatives, has already made a home for himself in a small puddle by the airport. Locals visit him every day to bring him peas, corn, rice, and sometimes a former New Zealand commissioner comes by to feed him bok choy. Tourists even stop by to take pictures with the feathery celebrity.

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Felicity Bollen, the chief executive officer of Niue Tourism, told the ABCs Pacific Beat: “We pride ourselves on being a funny, quirky little island and he fits with the quirkiness, so he’s a perfect fit from a marketing perspective for our country.”

Even the local fire department is involved in welcoming their new neighbor; they’re in charge of refilling his puddle when it gets low.

Bollen went on to tell The Guardian that interest in Trevor stems from the lack of land animals and birds in Niue. “We have whales and dolphins, we have a lot of things in the water, but not land animals… so for a duck to be wandering around the island, that’s why it’s so interesting.”

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The island residents are debating the merit of getting a companion duck for Trevor so he doesn’t get lonely – but for now, Niue is more than happy to provide all the food and love that a community could provide a wandering fowl.

If you want to find out more about Trevor the duck, you can check out his official Facebook page.

If This Story Floats Your Boat, Be Sure And Share With Your FriendsPhoto by Trevor the Duck Facebook

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” – William James

Quote of the Day: “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.” – William James

Photo: by Jeff Hitchcock, CC license

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Sign Encouraging ‘Silly Walks’ at Road Crossing Leads to Hilarious Video of Pedestrians

In Ojre, Norway, pedestrians crossing the street have been encouraged—by an official-looking street sign—to show off their best silly walk.

The art installation was an homage to Monty Python and its co-founder, the tall, lanky John Cleese.

Reidar Johannes Søby from the Kreativiteket art group told local broadcaster NRK that it was just for fun. “There’s no deep thought behind it,” he said.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, the bureaucrats at the Norwegian Public Roads Administration didn’t find it amusing at all. They said the signs should be taken down.

However, the Mayor of Marker Municipality, Kjersti Nythe Nilsen, apparently does have a sense of humor—and a little rebel inside her.

“I think the signs should be allowed. They are not any nuisance and are very similar to normal pedestrian crossing signs. In fact, no one has noticed that we have changed them, after all, they have been there a couple of months,” she said.

She said that despite the threat from the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, she has no plans to remove the signs and feels she must resort to a little civil disobedience.

The idea also spread to Ottawa, Canada—and we think a Silly Walks sign is just the remedy for boring commutes the world over.

Share This Glorious Idea in Your Hometown!

Caring Ambulance Workers Take Detour to Grant Dying Man’s Simple Ice Cream Wish

Thanks to the attention and kindness of two Australian ambulance workers, a dying man was able to have the last meal he most desired.

After 17 years of fighting pancreatic cancer, Ron McCartney was set to be taken into palliative care earlier this month.

His wife Sharon, however, needed to call for a medical escort after her husband’s sickness took a bad turn. While the Queensland paramedics conducted an evaluation in the ambulance, they discovered that the 72-year-old had not been eating for several days.

The two paramedics, identified only as Kate and Hanna, asked the senior: “If you could eat anything… what would it be?” He replied, “A caramel sundae.”

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The medics then detoured from their route, so they could buy McCartney the sweet treat before arriving at the hospital.

After Sharon expressed her appreciation for the gesture, the pair posted a photo of McCartney with his sundae.

Kate and Hanna said they were “humbled” by the note of gratitude which “underlines an often-unseen aspect of patient care; the caring.”

“Sharon’s message emphasized the enjoyment Ron received from such a simple action and thanked paramedics for the swift and high level of care and compassion shown to him on both this occasion, and their previous interactions over the last few months as well,” wrote the ambulance service.

 

Shortly after the ambulance ride, McCartney’s daughter Danielle Smith commented on the photo to express her own appreciation for the compassion shown to her father before he passed away.

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“Dad enjoyed this so much and [it] was the last thing he was able to eat by himself,” wrote Smith. “Mum and I cannot thank QAS enough for all the help and compassion you have all given towards us.”

The story is a perfect example of how important kindness can be, even if it’s as simple as ice cream.

Be Sure And Share This Sweet Story Of Compassion With Your FriendsPhoto by Queensland Ambulance Service

When Hospitals Can’t Afford Equipment, Doctor Uses Discarded Shampoo Bottles to Cut Mortality by 75 Percent

A Bangladeshi doctor has identified an unlikely savior for hundreds of thousands of babies: discarded shampoo bottles.

Back in 1996, Dr. Mohammod Chisti was working his first shift as a medical intern when he witnessed three children die as a result of pneumonia. Though the event broke his heart, it motivated him to come up with a solution for the high rates of pneumonia-related child mortalities – and the result is nothing short of extraordinary.

Pneumonia is a dangerous infection that causes the lungs to become swollen and filled with fluid, making it hard to breathe. Ordinarily, the condition can be treated with a ventilator that helps the patient to breathe – but since the average ventilator costs about $15,000, many hospitals in developing countries can’t afford the proper equipment.

The infection was listed as the number one cause of mortality in children under age five in developing countries, at the time—and Bangladesh contributed the majority of those fatalities since malnourished children are particularly vulnerable to the condition.

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While Chisti was studying in Australia, however, he was introduced to a different kind of ventilator that employed bubble-CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure). The machine employs a tube that feeds a child’s exhaled breath into a vat of water, which creates bubbles that pressurize and feed back into the patient’s lung. This helps to improve a patient’s lung capacity so they can overcome the infection.

Unfortunately, these ventilators cost about $6,000, which is still too costly for poorer nations.

Then one day, Chisti noticed a discarded shampoo bottle that happened to be filled with bubbles. It reminded him of the ventilator he had seen in Australia and he became inspired to use the bottle as the basis for a cheaper design.

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He tested his makeshift shampoo bottle ventilator on several patients and was stunned to find that they recovered almost overnight.

Chisti and his research team at the the Dhaka Hospital of the International Center for Diarrhoeal Disease Research then conducted a randomized 2-year study and published the result in The Lancet.

His ingenious ventilator cut pneumonia-related infant deaths by 75%.

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This is roughly the same mortality rate achieved at more affluent hospitals using conventional ventilators – except his shampoo bottle rig only costs about $1.25, meaning that his hospital has spent 90% less money on pneumonia treatment.

Since the bottle also uses oxygen far more efficiently, his hospital went from spending $30,000 on oxygen every year to just $6,000.

Chisti’s device is currently being tested in Ethiopian hospitals, and the good doctor hopes his invention will start being used by medical facilities around the world.

(WATCH the BBC video below)

Be Sure And Pass On The Incredible Story To Your FriendsPhoto by BBC News

Watch Ailing Senior’s Emotional Reaction to Daughter and Granddaughter Singing in His Bed

There is nothing quite like music to bring a family together – which is why this video of Kayla Hartman singing for her grandfather is being watched millions of times.

As a means of cheering her ailing father, Hartman and her daughter sang a heartwarming rendition of “Grandpa” by The Judds.

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The performance was caught on video, and based on the emotional reactions of the family members, it’s not hard to see why it’s being shared so widely.

“Being able too get this video is absolutely amazing,” says Hartman. “I break down in the middle but he loves every minute of it!”

(WATCH the video below)

Be Sure And Share This Sweet Clip With Your Friends On Social MediaPhoto by Elizabeth Swanger via Storyful

Architects Build Stunning Hotel Into the Walls of an Abandoned Rock Quarry

Adventurers and travel junkies have another quirky destination to visit during their next world tour.

The Deep Pit Hotel, which is being called the world’s first “underground” hotel, opens next month as a swanky new Intercontinental resort that has been built inside an abandoned quarry southwest of Shanghai, China.

The hotel has 18 floors, two of which are submerged in an aquarium. Every room on the other 16 floors is equipped with its own balcony that looks out over the strange landscape.

The facility was also built with sustainability in mind. The hotel’s structure was mainly kept within the walls of the quarry to minimize environmental impact. Additionally, the hotel will be drawing on geothermal and solar energy for power.

As a means of serving adrenaline junkie visitors, the hotel will also offer bungee jumping and rock climbing from the top of the quarry.

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Over the course of the last decade, the “Intercontinental Shimao Wonderland” has required over 5,000 workers from the British design firm Atkins to finish the building.

Now, the hotel is expected to open to the public this October.

Tell Your Friends About The Groovy Getaway by Sharing the News To Social MediaPhotos by Intercontinental

“Tough times test your valor, persistence, and ability to make decisions. They force you to fight for your dreams.” – Paulo Coelho

Quote of the Day: “Tough times test your valor, persistence, and ability to make decisions. They force you to fight for your dreams.” – Paulo Coelho

Photo: by Jonathan Gross, CC license

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

‘Look what the cat dragged in’: Police Praise Cat for Cleaning Up Streets By Bringing Home Bag of Drugs

Typical house cats might surprise their humans with dead birds or mice – but this feline’s owner was shocked when he found what his cat dragged into his home earlier this week.

A British resident of Bristol woke up on Monday morning to find that his furry companion had discovered a plastic bag full of Class A substances during the night.

The cat apparently did its civic duty by bringing the bag back to the house and stashing it in its bed for the owner to find the following day.

Though he was stunned by the discovery, the owner immediately called the Ashley Police Team.

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The officers later posted a photo of the bag to Twitter with praise for the feline crime fighter.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” authorities tweeted alongside the photo. “Great result in St Paul’s when a resident’s cat brought this in during the night! The owner got a bit of a shock but called us straight away!”

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The Avon and Somerset Police Department jokingly remarked on the photo, saying: “Forget police dogs, we should start training up cats.”

Law enforcement officials are still unsure as to where the bag had come from, but they’re simply happy that the cat and owner are safe. On top of that, they’re glad that the drugs were not allowed to be used for more cat-astrophic purposes on the streets.

Be Sure And Share The Pawesome Story With Your FriendsPhoto of drugs: ASPolice Ashley; cat: public domain, Foter.com

New Battery Gobbles Up Carbon Dioxide Before It Ever Reaches the Atmosphere

Credit: TVA Cumberland Power Plant, CC license

Lithium-based battery could make use of greenhouse gas before it ever gets into the atmosphere.

Written by David L. Chandler, MIT News

A new type of battery developed by researchers at MIT could be made partly from carbon dioxide captured from power plants.

Currently, power plants equipped with carbon capture systems generally use up to 30 percent of the electricity they generate just to power the capture, release, and storage of carbon dioxide. Anything that can reduce the cost of that capture process, or that can result in an end product that has value, could significantly change the economics of such systems, the researchers say.

Rather than attempting to convert carbon dioxide to specialized chemicals using metal catalysts, which is currently highly challenging, this battery could continuously convert carbon dioxide into a solid mineral carbonate as it discharges.

The new battery formulation could open up new avenues for tailoring electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion reactions, which may ultimately help reduce the emission of the greenhouse gas to the atmosphere.

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The battery is made from lithium metal, carbon, and an electrolyte that the researchers designed. The findings are described today in the journal Joule, in a paper by assistant professor of mechanical engineering Betar Gallant, doctoral student Aliza Khurram, and postdoc Mingfu He.

“Carbon dioxide is not very reactive,” Gallant explains, so “trying to find new reaction pathways is important.” Generally, the only way to get carbon dioxide to exhibit significant activity under electrochemical conditions is with large energy inputs in the form of high voltages, which can be an expensive and inefficient process. Ideally, the gas would undergo reactions that produce something worthwhile, such as a useful chemical or a fuel. However, efforts at electrochemical conversion, usually conducted in water, remain hindered by high energy inputs and poor selectivity of the chemicals produced.

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Gallant and her co-workers, whose expertise has to do with nonaqueous (not water-based) electrochemical reactions such as those that underlie lithium-based batteries, looked into whether carbon-dioxide-capture chemistry could be put to use to make carbon-dioxide-loaded electrolytes — one of the three essential parts of a battery — where the captured gas could then be used during the discharge of the battery to provide a power output.

This approach is different from releasing the carbon dioxide back to the gas phase for long-term storage, as is now used in carbon capture and sequestration.

Instead, this team developed a new approach that could potentially be used right in the power plant waste stream to make material for one of the main components of a battery.

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While interest has grown recently in the development of lithium-carbon-dioxide batteries, which use the gas as a reactant during discharge, the low reactivity of carbon dioxide has typically required the use of metal catalysts. Not only are these expensive, but their function remains poorly understood, and reactions are difficult to control.

By incorporating the gas in a liquid state, however, Gallant and her co-workers found a way to achieve electrochemical carbon dioxide conversion using only a carbon electrode. The key is to pre-activate the carbon dioxide by incorporating it into an amine solution.

“What we’ve shown for the first time is that this technique activates the carbon dioxide for more facile electrochemistry,” Gallant says. “These two chemistries — aqueous amines and nonaqueous battery electrolytes — are not normally used together, but we found that their combination imparts new and interesting behaviors that can increase the discharge voltage and allow for sustained conversion of carbon dioxide.”

They showed through a series of experiments that this approach does work, and can produce a lithium-carbon dioxide battery with voltage and capacity that are competitive with that of state-of-the-art lithium-gas batteries. Moreover, the amine acts as a molecular promoter that is not consumed in the reaction.

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Carbon capture is widely considered essential to meeting worldwide goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but there are not yet proven, long-term ways of disposing of or using all the resulting carbon dioxide. Underground geological disposal is still the leading contender, but this approach remains somewhat unproven and may be limited in how much it can accommodate. It also requires extra energy for drilling and pumping.

The researchers are also investigating the possibility of developing a continuous-operation version of the process, which would use a steady stream of carbon dioxide under pressure with the amine material, rather than a preloaded supply the material, thus allowing it to deliver a steady power output as long as the battery is supplied with carbon dioxide

Ultimately, they hope to make this into an integrated system that will carry out both the capture of carbon dioxide from a power plant’s emissions stream, and its conversion into a material that could then be used in batteries.

Reprinted with permission from MIT News – Photo by TVA Cumberland Power Plant, CC license

Power Up With Positivity And Share The Breakthrough With Your Friends

Man Has Spent Years Giving Antique Brooches to Strangers Who ‘Look Like They Need a Sparkle’

This 71-year-old man has made an unusual nickname for himself out of his favorite weekend past time: giving away brooches to strangers.

Myron Boyer, also known as “The Bling Fairy”, has spent the last 6 years habitually giving away sparkly pins and antique brooches to unsuspecting passerby around Portland, Oregon.

He typically goes to the Hollywood Farmers Market with a dozen pins attached to his shirt so he can give them all away, but he has reportedly gifted the jewelry to people across the city as well.

According to a recent interview he did with The Oregonian, he says that he simply enjoys giving the pins to anyone who seems like they “need a little sparkle” – and while giving brooches to strangers may seem like an unusual gesture, Boyer’s sparkling personality generally convinces people that he’s not up to anything dubious.

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“I talk to everybody,” Boyer told the Portland reporter. “I just can’t help myself.”

Boyer started his gift-giving routine after his friend Bob Lamberson passed away from complications with a leukemia treatment. Since Lamberson was a larger-than-life theater buff, he adored rhinestones and sparkle – so Boyer was sure to bring him plenty of costume jewelry while he was undergoing treatment.

After Lamberson died in 2012, Boyer gave the pins to the nurses who helped care for his friend – and he has continued to give them away ever since.

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Though he gets some discounts from the antique store at which he buys much of the jewelry, he says that he has spent thousands of dollars of his own money on the gifts.

“Putting one smile a day on someone’s face is making the world better,” he told The Oregonian, “and that’s basically where it’s at.”

(WATCH the video below)

Be Sure And Pass On This Sweet Story To Your FriendsImage by The Oregonian via YouTube

U.S. Marines Rush in to Save Seniors Stuck in Burning Building, All 190 Residents Are Successfully Rescued

When a fire broke out inside a Washington D.C. nursing home earlier this week, these elderly residents were fortunate to share their neighborhood with the U.S. Marines.

The Arthur Capper Senior Apartments facility is located just 200 yards away from a Marine outpost in the downtown area.

Upon seeing the smoke and flames, several dozen Marines rushed onto the scene and heard firefighters saying that there were still people stuck inside the burning building—so the soldiers immediately jumped into action.

Many of them entered the burning building so they could help evacuate the residents. Others returned with extra medical equipment and wheelchairs from their outpost so they could care for the elderly until family members arrived. Other Marines helped to treat the seniors after they were evacuated.

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“It was a pretty bad fire, especially on the top floor. Some paralyzed, immobile people in there,” Capt. Trey Gregory told CBS News. “We actually just picked people up as best we possibly could and then had the wheelchairs at the exit and then put them right into the wheelchair.”

In all, 100 Marines joined in on the rescue mission. Thanks to everyone’s quick response, all 190 residents were successfully evacuated from the building with only 6 seniors being sent to the hospital for further treatment.

(WATCH the video below)

Be Sure And Share The Incredible Story Of Heroism With Your FriendsPhoto by CBS News

“Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breath more; Talk less, say more.” – Swedish Proverb

Quote of the Day: “Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breath more; Talk less, say more.” – Swedish Proverb

Photo: kiwi fruit detail by Travis Hightower, CC license

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

Kids Aim to Tally One Billion Acts of Peace in Just 10 Days–Let’s All Join Them! (Podcast)

Find out how a simple hashtag can help a bunch of kids tally one BILLION acts of peace in ten days—with #DoItForPeace. Hear The Good News Guru tell the inspiring story (from the September 21, 2018 Ellen K. Morning Show on KOST-103.5 radio in Los Angeles).

READ More at Good News Network

Girls Collect Over 20,000 Snack Wrappers and Mail Them Back to Manufacturers to Curb Plastic Use

In a bid to curb plastic packaging, students are mailing wasteful snack wrappers back to the manufacturers with demands for more sustainable packaging.

At the suggestion of their city council, dozens of school girls from the Subbiah Vidyalayam Girls Higher Secondary School in Thoothukudi, India collected 20,244 snack wrappers over the course of two weeks.

The students then mailed the wrappers back to the respective companies with a letter reading: “We are happy with the taste and quality of your products, but unhappy with the plastic packaging. We want to ensure a safe environment for our future generations and minimize our plastic footprint.

“We have decided to collect used plastic wrappers of your products and send them to you for safe disposal,” they added. “Please help us savor your products without guilt, by introducing eco-friendly packaging.”

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Since national legislation states that snack companies are responsible for the disposal of their own packaging, the city council is reportedly demanding that these snack companies create an action plan to tackle their waste problem within the next two months.

According to Times of India, city council commissioner Alby John Varghese says that the initiative was a “grand success” and they intend to “extend the practice to other corporation and private schools” in the future.

Clean Up Negativity By Sharing The Good News To Social MediaRepresentative photo by Waste Warriors Corbett Facebook

Today is Peace Day – and Jude Law is Asking You to Join In

A global initiative is showing just how much of a difference one person—and one day—can make in the world.

Today is the 19th anniversary of Peace One Day, the organization created by Jeremy Gilley, the British filmmaker and mastermind behind the unanimous United Nations decision to adopt this day—September 21—as the first-ever annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence, now known as Peace Day.

World Peace Day isn’t only about hashtags, either – the initiative became the catalyst for stopping the fighting in Afghanistan for a single day so that humanitarian services could be provided throughout the country.

RELATEDKids to Ignite One Billion Acts of Peace in Just 10 Days, Starting Now (Let’s All Join Them)

In 2007, with the help of Gilley’s longtime pal Jude Law, ceasefire agreements were signed by all parties, including The Taliban, so that 10,000 healthcare workers could vaccinate 1.4 million children.

Gilley’s collaboration with Law is featured in a new video, telling the fantastic story of what this group has accomplished.

Jeremy has joined Good News Network, Kids for Peace, and TaTaTu, to promote our #DoItForPeace initiative to get one billion people to do an act of peace over ten days.

(WATCH the video below)

Get Your Friends To Do It For Peace Too: Share The News To Social Media Photo by Peace One Day