Stephen Campbell’s grandmother was a wheelchair user. Over time, he noticed that she and other people in wheelchairs often back into things, causing both embarrassment and physical damage. Plus, if that person has a back injury, backing into something can be very painful.
Stephen asked, “If cars can have backup notification systems, why can’t wheelchairs?”
And the Virginia student and his teenage friends didn’t just ask the question. They went on to develop a device to help.
The high school entrepreneurs, who have started a company, are also planning to get these devices to people who can’t afford them.
When a transit cop saw a man jump a turnstile without paying a fare, he did what a cop has to do. After writing the man a ticket and hearing his story, however, the officer provided the one thing that would stem his need for law breaking: a job.
Officer Christopher D’Onofrio and his partner watched a young couple approach a train station on Staten Island in New York City. Even though his wife paid her fare, Sangeeth Wijesinghe jumped the turnstile.
D’Onofrio said the man kept apologizing, telling the officer he and his wife were unemployed and only had enough money for one fare.
“I had a soft spot for his story,” D’Onofrio told Staten Island Advance. “He sounded like a stand-up gentleman.”
D’Onofrio wanted to help, so he called a friend who manages a market near the train station. The officer talked his friend into hiring the young man, and after a few weeks of training, Wijesinghe is working 40 hours a week as a cashier — and often another 20 hours of overtime.
D’Onofrio says getting to know people in the neighborhood is what community policing is all about. And while Wijesinghe has a new job, D’Onofrio says he has a new friend.
Fast food restaurants are racing to embrace more natural ingredients on their menus.
Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are the latest chains to announce they’ll be eliminating artificial ingredients as early as July in an attempt to appeal to customers’ changing tastes for more natural products.
The decision follows similar announcements by McDonald’s, Subway and Panera to get rid of artificial ingredients and Chipotle’s announcement last month that it would stop using genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
Within the next two months, Taco Bell will start using real black pepper instead of what it calls “black pepper flavor” and get rid of the artificial dyes used in many of its dips, chips and cheeses. Pizza Hut will quit using artificial colors and flavors by the end of this year and plans to phase out some of its artificial preservatives by 2017.
Cabbie’s, a small town bar in Wisconsin, was just another one of your run-of-the-mill hotbeds for teenage shenanigans, tom foolery and good times.
This was, in large part, thanks to a loyal young customer base comprised of students from the nearby Northland College.
Cabbie’s owners, Ida and “Cabbie” Meyer, maintained a close relationship with these young regulars, ever since the bar first opened in 1953 and became a stomping ground for kids who loved ten cent beer and midnight fights.
The Meyers were well-known for being easygoing in the face of mischief and loved the kids for bringing life into their establishment. The kids loved them back, even after the bar burnt down in ’63.
After Ida’s death earlier this Spring, $200,000 was gifted to the college in her will. The couple never had any children of their own.
Though Cabbie’s is now the Stagecoach Inn, it will always be remembered as the watering hole that brought a young community together every cold Wisconsin night for beer, bread, and a friendly brawl.
(READ more at Philanthropy) –Story Tip from Ginnie Titterton
An Australian “bug drone” utilizes remote control technology as it buzzes over pest-infested crops, dropping insects like little paratroopers.
Michael Godfrey came up with the idea while looking for a better way to spread Californicus mites — which would eat harmful bugs — on cornfields as part of a summer scholarship project at the University of Queensland.
Dropping the mites from a drone turned out to be faster and cheaper than walking through corn rows and spreading them by hand, which is the traditional method.
The five-and-a-half pound, six-rotor drone with a converted seed spreader on the bottom to hold the mites can cover 12 acres in just 15 minutes. A small motor turns a wheel that releases the bugs while the drone soars over the cornstalks.
An infrared camera has been mounted on the drone so Godfrey, an agricultural science student, can compare fields he’s treated with those he hasn’t in order to measure just how well his “bug drone” is working.
“Remote sensing with precision agriculture is an interesting field, and it has opened my eyes to the career opportunities,” he said.
Students can study precision agriculture at The University of Queensland Gatton in a course run by Associate Professor Kim Bryceson who also manages the Agriculture and Remote Sensing Laboratory.
Share the Buzz with your friends… (Photo by University of Queensland)
Over the weekend, a little boy from Indianapolis got the surprise of a lifetime when he was secretly whisked away to meet and ride in the Indianapolis 500 parade with IndyCar Series driver Josef Newgarden.
Better still, when he returned home, he found that his bedroom has received a race car-themed makeover.
Five-year-old Josiah Ives was awestruck: his room had been outfitted with a race car bunk bed, bedding, rug, lamp and nightstand, autographed Josef Newgarden and IndyCar memorabilia, and freshly painted walls, all courtesy of Century 21 and organized by Easter Seals Crossroads in Indianapolis.
Josiah was diagnosed with Noonan syndrome, a genetic disorder that makes him small for his age and hampers speech. At 8 months-old he started critical early intervention services. After occupational and speech therapy from Crossroads his mother says he is now “thriving”.
Good customer service can lead to great tips — but this gratuity left restaurant staff stunned and speechless.
A regular customer at Blue 44 in Chevy Chase, Maryland finished eating dinner with a friend and asked for some gumbo to take with them. Head chef James Turner fixed them up with two quarts — and said there’d be no charge.
That’s when the diner left a $2,000 tip on his $93 bill, and specified the condition that it be split three ways: $1,000 to Turner and $500 each to bartender Laura Dally and owner Christofer Nardelli.
“I’m still shocked it happened,” Turner posted the next day on his Facebook page.
Although not as big a tip as the one earlier this month, left by an art mogul in his will for his two favorite waitresses, Dally says her $500 share will pay for one of her college classes this summer.
The big tipper wants to remain anonymous, but he’s likely to get the star treatment the next time he drops in for gumbo.
A five-time Argentinian surf champion, Matt Passeri, was set to go for another win, when suddenly he dove into the waves with an unexpected partner.
He chose to give up a chance for further glory. Instead, he offered Nicolas Gallegos, a man who had been dreaming of surfing since becoming paraplegic at age 18, the ride of a lifetime.
Nicolas longed to be a professional surfer, until an accident left him paralyzed. But on this day, he rode the waves with a man who thought it more important to fulfill someone else’s dream.
Passeri forfeited his place in the competition, but called it “the greatest victory” of his career.
(WATCH the video above by Reef) Story tip from Lynn Krumland
Most people know Neil Armstrong as one of Jay-Z’s former tour DJs and creator of the Dinner & A Mixtape series.
His friends know him as Neil, pet parent of Poh the Dog.
Sixteen years ago, Armstrong adopted Poh from the North Shore Animal League, and watched as the pup ate everything in sight, from 200 Euros to a roll of toilet paper.
“Despite his strange dining choices, I love him dearly and wouldn’t change a thing,” Armstrong said.
Two years ago, after Poh’s health took a turn for the worst, Armstrong and his girlfriend, Yuko, decided that Poh was going to be right beside them as they traveled the country for their respective jobs.
“I’ve always wanted to let him dip his paws in the Pacific Ocean,” Armstrong said.
Poh makes a friend in New Orleans.
So far, the pup has been everywhere from Phoenix to Las Vegas, San Francisco to North Carolina, and Washington, D.C., a journey that’s been well documented on Instagram.
“I’m hoping that by following along on Poh’s journey, people see how great having a pet can be,” said Armstrong. “There are lots of shelter pups out there looking for a chance to find a family of their own.”
Check out some more of the highlights below.
Poh considers taking a ride on the Wonder Wheel in Coney Island, New York.Poh takes a hike on Route 66 in Santa Monica, CaliforniaPoh gets a lift from Dad, Neil, in Sedona.Poh chills out with some new pals in Brooklyn, NY.Poh checks out Adidas headquarters in Portland, Oregon.Poh finds Zen at Peace Park in ArizonaHome is wherever I’m with mom and dad.
Needy families are taking home more nutritious food while farmers are taking home more money thanks to a program that doubles the buying power of people on food assistance.
Double Up Food Bucks allows SNAP benefits — formerly called “food stamps” — to be used at 150 farmers markets across Michigan, packing $40 worth of fresh fruits and vegetables into every $20 purchase.
Since the incentive program started in 2009, sales at Michigan farmers markets have more than quadrupled. And in just two Ypsilanti, Michigan farmers markets, SNAP purchases went from just $378 in all of 2006 — the first year they accepted SNAP payments — to $39,000 last year from SNAP and Double Up Food Bucks.
Two students at a Collinsville, Illinois school truly know how beloved they are thanks to a grand gesture made by their fellow classmates.
Instead of taking a field trip, as planned, to the St. Louis Science Center, the children voted to use the money to buy 2,400 books and donate them to hospitals where their friends are receiving chemotherapy.
When News Channel 5 told the science center how the kids chose to give up their trip, the CEO showed up with a surprise to honor the kids and their generosity.
(WATCH what happens in the video above from USA Today)
Morris the sheepdog seems to possess “an uncanny ability to know who is most in need of comfort,” according to directors at the Baker Funeral Chapel in Wetaskiwin, Canada.
[Editor’s Note: For Some reason the CBC video is not displaying as large as it should. Click on Full Screen in lower right corner to enlarge; then, ‘escape’ on your keyboard to resume browsing.]
For the people of a small village in the Netherlands, every day is Memorial Day for the thousands of American soldiers buried nearby.
For 70 years, the people of Margraten have personally cared for the graves of Americans killed in World War II – 8,300 of them – in a military cemetery outside the town.
Each one is adopted by a Dutch, Belgian or even German family who makes sure that the service member buried there is remembered. The thousands of families deliver flowers on their soldier’s birthday or date of death, and decorate the graves on Christmas and Memorial Day.
To this day, there is still a waiting list –100 families long – of grateful citizens eager to become memorial caretakers.
(WATCH the video below or READ the Memorial Day special at the Washington Post)
First he bought a farm to help abused animals. Now we find out that for the past three years, The Daily Show host has been quietly running a series of five-week “boot camps” to help veterans find work in television.
The series of workshops give veterans a crash course in TV production and a behind the scenes look at some of the less glamorous, but essential, parts of putting a show on the air.
Stewart deliberately kept the program off the radar in order to keep the workshops from being flooded by fans so he could focus on former military members who have a serious desire to work in the industry.
One vet named Nathan Witmer was surprised when he walked in for his first day of the workshop he’d signed up for and realized it was Stewart’s Comedy Central studio–he had no idea there was a connection. After attending Stewart’s workshop, Witmer went on to work for Fox News before returning to The Daily Show as an associate segment producer.
Stewart says the workshops shouldn’t be considered “charity”, but rather, an effort to tap a “wealth of experience” that will bring fresh voices and a veteran’s perspective to the television industry.
Because he is retiring, Stewart decided to go public with the program in hopes that others will keep the project going.
“Please steal our idea,” Stewart told the New York Times.
In 2013, a ban on Pitbulls was passed into law in Hazel Park, Michigan. Lovers of the breed could mount no serious challenges, until a heroic pup elicited an outpouring of support for lifting the ban.
Though her dog, Isis, stepped in to protect her during an attack by a violent boyfriend, Jaimie Kraczkowski was told that, on top of everything, she would have five days to get rid of her dog.
But she could never feel safe without her dog, ‘Ice,’ and so immediately started thinking about moving.
With the help of the Michigan’s Political Action Committee for Animals and 177,000 folks who signed a petition demanding the ban be lifted, the group was able to successfully lobby the city council to get the law repealed.
Now, “responsible ownership” is indeed allowed, providing the dogs are able to pass a behavioral assessment that confirms they aren’t a threat, and get all of their shots up to date.
Although today is Memorial Day in the U.S., a time to remember the fallen soldiers, we chose today to post an article that also shares a number of options for supporting the troops who made it out alive.
Here are some ways we can express our gratitude to the living veterans and remember the fallen.
Money was raised to fly him from the UK, put him up in a hotel, and give him the greatest party of his life–all because he was shamed online and a couple women in Los Angeles wanted to make things right.
Sean O’Brien, of London, was dubbed the “Dancing Man” in March after images of him dancing were posted online with a body-shaming comment and thousands rallied to support him on social media.
Thanks to the LA women, thousands donated money to throw a big bash in his honor (watch the video below). Even celebrities like Pharrell Williams got involved.
The GoFundMe page raised so much money, that tens of thousands of leftover dollars will be donated to anti-bullying campaigns in America.
The party at nightclub Avalon Saturday night gave O’Brien the chance to dance with hundreds of women, including Monica Lewinsky, who has been outspoken about cyber-bullying.
A jubilant O’Brien told the Daily Mail, “I’ve never danced so much, it’s been the best night of my life, unbelievable.”
(WATCH the video below from KCBS or READ the story, w/ photos, at the Daily Mail)
On a cold Friday in April a media company in New York City decided to inspire their harried workers with a little community service… but what to do?
One of the executives came up with the idea of giving every team member a hundred bucks and letting them decide how to use it. Since they produce videos anyway, Nylon.com sent a crew to follow the ten employees on their hundred-dollar quest.
Going into it, the workers felt rather stressed about taking time out of their day–everyone being under a deadline for the next issue–but the experience left them refreshed and re-energized.
“The feedback was tremendous and everyone was really excited about giving back to the community,” CEO Paul Greenberg told Good News Network. “They felt really, really good for a long time afterwards.”
The woman pictured above was given flowers on the street, and then says, “It’s my birthday!”
Watch them all hit the streets to give away their hundred bucks in the #100DollarChallenge video below.
Chances are huge that you’ll also feel ‘really, really good’ simply witnessing the generosity. Science has proven this to be a side-effect of kindness.
Two sets of proud parents from opposite ends of the world met for the first time this weekend to cheer on a graduating senior who picked up a second family while studying abroad.
Molly DiLeonardi, who studied in Cameroon last spring, used a bonus from her first job to fund her host parents’ trip to Pennsylvania for graduation day at Dickinson college.
The world’s largest oil exporting country is considering an end to the use of fossil fuels by the middle of the century.
Saudi Arabia’s oil minister, Ali al-Naimi, says the kingdom plans to become a “global power in solar and wind energy” with a goal of exporting electricity instead of oil as early as 2040.
“The statement represents a stunning admission by a nation whose wealth, power and outsize influence in the world are predicated on its vast reserves of crude oil,” reports the Financial Times.
Al-Naimi says he believes generating electricity through solar power will be even more economical than using cheap oil in coming years.
“In Saudi Arabia, we recognize that eventually, one of these days, we are not going to need fossil fuels. I don’t know when, in 2040, 2050 or thereafter.”
