The Man Who Single-handedly Carved A Road Through a Mountain to Help His Village

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Mar 21, 2015

For years, he was called a madman for toiling away on the rocks. But Dashrath Manjhi was not crazy. His quest to break a path through a small mountain to benefit the entire village is now legendary because he carved an entire road with hand tools, working for 22 years.

Manjhi started off his extraordinary task in 1960, after his wife was injured while trekking up the side of one of the rocky footpaths. To reach the nearest hospital, he had to travel around the mountains, some 70 kilometers.

The laborer from Gehlour Hills in Bihar, India wanted his people to have easier access to doctors, schools, and opportunity. Armed with only a sledge hammer, chisel, and crowbar, he single-handedly began carving a road through the 300-foot mountain that isolated his village from the nearest town.

“People told Manjhi that he wouldn’t be able to do it,” said Dahu Manjhi, the man’s nephew, “that he is a poor man who just needs to earn and eat.”

He sold the family’s three goats to buy the hammer and chisels and worked every day on the project to make it successful. After plowing fields for others in the morning, he would work on his road all evening and throughout the night.

He toiled from 1960 to 1982, having developed his own technique. He burned firewood on the rocks, then sprinkled water on the heated surface which cracked the boulders making it possible to reduce them to rubble.

Finally, the road was completed. With sides 25 feet high, the road is 30 feet wide and 360 feet in length. Because of his singular dedication, the distance to public services was reduced from 70km to just one.

It has been over three decades since the “Mountain Man,” as he was called, completed the road. The feat brought the Gehlour man international acclaim. After he died of cancer in 2007, Bihar’s Chief Minister gave him a State funeral. Though many believe he deserved it, he never received the Bharat Ratna, the nation’s highest civilian honor that recognizes “exceptional service” in the community.

“Now the whole society is worshiping him,” said Dahu, “but only after he died.”

Dashrath Manjhis family-youttube — Dashrath Manjhi’s descendants

Though his descendants now have easier access to hospitals and the outside world, people of his village still live in poverty. Carrying on the Mountain Man’s broader vision for economic progress, Manjhi’s lifelong friend has committed to opening a trade school in the village, setting up the Dashrath Manjhi Welfare Trust to inspire the youth and offer meaningful education to change their lives for the better. You can help.

Milaap.org, the micro-loan organization featured on GNN, with their solar light project, has successfully raised the funds that the 82-year-old social worker, Ram Charit Prasad needed, through contributions in honor of Milaap.

“I did what I could through my limited means,” said Ram Charit, “but only with the support of people like you can we take it forward, and break through the mountain.”

(WATCH the beautiful video below to experience the road leading out of Manjhi’s village)

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Be Inspired—How 5 Everyday People’s Acts of Kindness Changed 100s of Lives

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Good News Network

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Mar 21, 2015

“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve,” Martin Luther King, Jr. said. “You don’t have to have a college degree to serve… You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”

And, often it’s the simple things that we do in our everyday lives that make the biggest impact on others.

Here are five stories that illustrate how the smallest things can make a world of difference.

A principal, at the school where he worked as a custodian, noticed Gabe Sonnier’s innate intelligence and told him, “You should be grading papers, rather than picking them up,” which changed his life.
A stranger riding in the cab driven by Ricardeau Scutt’s father, offered to introduce the young man to a restaurant owner he knew stepping in to help when hearing of Scutt’s immensely difficult job search. Scutt now runs his own restaurant.
Doctors heard about their young cancer patient’s love of football and came up with a solution, to the family’s delight.
Jim Abbott, the professional baseball player born with only one hand, has a third grade teacher to thank for his inspiration to excel, despite his perceived disability.
A Swedish schoolteacher Hilde Back paid $15 per month to sponsor a young child’s education. That child wound up attending Harvard and creating a nonprofit to pay for the education of other Kenyan children.

(READ the FULL story on Brad Aronson’s Blog) / Photo credit: Dominique Cappronnier (CC)

Painting for Peace in Ferguson

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Carrie Z

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Mar 20, 2015

The small community of Ferguson, Missouri has been in the headlines worldwide in the past six months. While most of the headlines have depicted scenes of unrest and riots, many positive things have been going on in Ferguson — stories the national headlines missed.

One of those things happened on a sunny, unseasonably warm day last fall, over Thanksgiving weekend, when hundreds of people of all ages and from all walks of life gathered in the Ferguson, Missouri community armed with paint brushes.

A woman who grew up in Ferguson and still lives in the St. Louis area witnessed the art outreach and turned it into a children’s book that inspires hope, healing and unity. What’s even better is that all proceeds from the book will benefit programs for youth in the area, as well as small business recovery in the same affected c0unty.

“They drew pictures of Peace, of Hope and of Light, that show Love’s even stronger, than the darkest of nights” says one of the child-friendly verses written by author Carol Swartout Klein that fill the 48-page book called, “Painting for Peace in Ferguson.”

The vivid images in the book tell the true story of hundreds of artists and residents of all ages who came together and used the simplest of tools — a paintbrush — to decorate the plywood covered broken windows on block after block of boarded up businesses. The dozens of damaged businesses were located across several miles in Ferguson, Dellwood and South Grand in St. Louis city. The book contains 140 images of art and mentions more than 300 artists and volunteers who participated in the Paint for Peace St. Louis effort.

The book, published on February 21 by Layla Dog Press, was produced using all-local suppliers from St. Louis. It will be available at local St. Louis book retailers and online at Amazon.com. The hardback book will retail for $25.95 and paperback editions cost $15.95 through the website.

Klein went back to her childhood neighborhood just days after the destructive fires and riots to see how she could help. She witnessed hundreds of people of all ages and races spontaneously giving up their Thanksgiving weekend to support their community, which was still reeling and in shock. She was so moved by the selfless spirit of the volunteers and the compelling artwork that she wanted to do her part as well. Her idea was to capture the positive moment of hope and community healing by putting pen to paper. Painting for Peace in Ferguson is the result.

“It occurred to me,” said Klein of watching the news of the destruction, “that if adults were having a hard time processing and talking about the events in Ferguson, then how are children coping?”

Remembering the Mr. Rogers quote that reminds children to ’look for the helpers when scary things happen,’ Klein thought a children’s book that told the compelling story of all the neighbors who came together to help each other might give children and their parents a way to begin talking about many of the issues raised by the unrest in Ferguson.

Centered on a child-friendly poem penned by Klein, the book does not go into the specifics of what caused the unrest, but rather focuses on the way the community came together to begin the healing process through the Paint for Peace effort. “Painting for Peace in Ferguson” shares the basic idea that anyone, at any age has a talent that they can contribute to help others, even when things seem to be at their worst.

“We designed this book to be a tool for parents and teachers to begin conversations,” explained Klein. “Over the Thanksgiving weekend, and for weeks afterwards, it was so inspiring to see people young and old, black and white come together to transform boarded up windows from something intimidating to children into something so positive. We did not go into detail because we felt it was important for parents to be able to talk about what happened in Ferguson in a way that was age appropriate for their child and that reflects each family’s perspective.”

The Painting for Peace in Ferguson website also includes additional resources for parents and teachers to help them talk about the issues raised in Ferguson as well as suggestions for ways to volunteer.

“The real essence of the book is empowerment,” noted Klein, “and that if we all do what we can to make our community a better place, amazing things like artwork can spring up in a matter of days, which changed the outlook and spirit of an entire town.”

Funds from the sale of the book will be deposited with the Greater St. Louis Community Foundation a 501(c)(3) organization. Donations made to that fund above and beyond the price of the book are tax-deductible.

SHARE the story (below) / Photos via Painting for Peace Book Facebook Page (bottom artwork by Ryan Archer)

On His First Date, Youth Pulls Man From Explosive Car (Video)

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Mar 20, 2015

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For 30 Years Nanny Had “Thorn” in Her Heart for ‘Lost’ Boy, Facebook Reunites Them

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Good News Network

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Mar 20, 2015

A woman from Logrono, Spain posted an emotional plea online in hopes of locating the now-grown boy she once cared for as a nanny 3o years ago.

“It is a great thorn that I carry in my heart…but still, in spite of the years, I still have the hope of embracing again,” she wrote in Spanish on a Facebook post February 20.

56,000 people shared the heart-wrenching post by 57-year-old Yeny Zaera, who said she was looking for a man named Francisco Javier Gimenez Diaz.

She initially met Diaz when he was two years old, serving as his nanny for four years. Zaera wrote that Diaz and his three siblings were neglected by their parents. They were often malnourished and beaten, so she tried to adopt them. However, authorities said no because she was a single woman in her twenties with only a part-time job. The children were eventually adopted by different families in various regions, but Zaera never forgot about him, and even hired a detective.

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Not even he was able to reunite the pair, but the overwhelming response on Facebook succeeded and led to a reunion with the man known today as Francisco Javier Juarez Martin.

“Thirty years without him and finally I am going to get that hug that I dreamed and dreamed of, that seemed impossible,” she wrote excitedly the day before they were to meet in Aredo, the town where he lived, about an hour from her house.

According to Spanish news reports, Diaz managed to remain in contact with his sister, who reached out to him upon discovering the Facebook post. He immediately contacted Zaera.

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“It’s impossible to say thank you to each and everyone of you, so from here I send my appreciation to all those who commented and who are still sharing,” Zaera posted after the touching reunion.

“The feelings, sometimes you cannot explain and today is one of them. It is impossible to describe the feeling of the embrace of a body, to touch a face, take a hand that you spend so much time dreaming to find,” she posted on Facebook before ending with, “Thank you, thank you, thank you a thousand times.”

Photo Credit: Yeny Zaera – Facebook / Story tip from Tonya Brown Wright

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Legacy of Selfless Chinese Principal Who Helped 10,000 Kids Go to College Comes to an End

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Kristy Cooper

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Mar 20, 2015

Thousands of grateful admirers showed up—some traveling across oceans—to mourn the passing of a high school principal who helped more than 10,000 underprivileged students escape poverty and attend college.

Funeral wreaths were sold out in the mountainous region of China’s Du’an Guangxi Province, as thousands took to the streets Sunday in remembrance of the educator affectionately known as “Principal Dad.”

For 37 years, Mo Zhengao, 59, relentlessly sought donations from businesses and individuals, collecting more than 30 million yuan (nearly $5 million) to benefit 18,000 students. Last year alone, 200 young adults received up to $64 in monthly donations to pay their college living expenses.

Employees Donate From Paychecks for 6 Months to Help Family They Never Met

The Du’an Senior High School in Hechi is renowned in the region for sending students to elite schools in China, even though 40% of the students are impoverished.

Alumni rushed back from big cities such as Beijing and Shanghai to attend the funeral after Mo died of an illness. College students from universities as far away as Harvard sent their condolences, according to Chinese newspapers.

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“Even if the (university) already waives tuition, the textbook expenses, dormitory expenses, as well as monthly living expenses, still add up to approximately 4000 yuan every year,” said the high school’s financial aid director Wei Xifeng. “Many impoverished families are unable to bear such a heavy financial burden.”

Xifeng recalled Mo’s dedication to keeping the young adults in school, “Every time a student drops out of school to return home, the principal would personally or have the teacher go to the student’s home, and bring them back.”

A champion of fighting truancy, Mo was often quoted saying, “No matter what, first come back to school, and I’ll figure a way.”

(READ the full story, w/ photos, from ChinaSmack)

Heroic Dog Buries Her Nine Puppies to Save Them from Fire (WATCH)

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Terry Turner

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Mar 20, 2015

With no way to outrun a raging wildfire, a dog dug a deep hole to hide her nine puppies from the smoke and flames. Then she buried herself under a metal container to ride out the blaze.

The wildfire near Valparaiso, Chile, had burned for days, driving thousands from their homes. Video shows firefighters battling walls of bright orange and yellow flame sweeping up hills and across a countryside covered in dry brush.

As firefighters brought the flames under control, local residents began telling them about seeing a dog leading a litter of small puppies away from the fire. It set off a frantic search leading to the hole were the puppies, just two weeks old, were buried.

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Fire workers spent almost an hour retrieving the pups from the deep hole. And in the end, all nine were pulled to safety — healthy and uninjured in the fire.

At the same time, rescuers dug and coaxed the mother out of her shelter to reunite her with her pups.

The story of the heroic dog and her puppies has become a bright spot in Chile’s hot, dry fire season.

The dog has a new name, “Blackey,” and the family of strays now has a long list of people clamoring to give them new homes.

(WATCH the videos below) Photo credit: Chile’s Megavision

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Here Comes The Sun: Skyscrapers Can Erase Their Shadows

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Kristy Cooper

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Mar 19, 2015

Skyscrapers can be impressive feats of architecture, but they often cast gloomy shadows in public spaces. Now, one of the greenest architecture firms in the United States has devised a way to make the darkness go away.

Inspired to rid London of its overshadowing problem, especially when 230 new towers are planned for London in the near future, NBBJ has created the world’s first algorithm to make a building lose it’s shadow.

The “No Shadow Tower” design calls for two high rise buildings working in conjunction to redirect sunlight and reduce shadows at their base. (Watch the animation below)

NBBJ’s mathematical algorithm traces the sun’s angles while the orb moves across the sky. Basically, the sunlight reflected by one tower fills in the shadow of the other, creating a 60% reduction in shade.

“These towers can be developed anywhere in the world: the algorithm can adapt the form to any site,” wrote NBBJ designer Christian Coop on Wednesday. “More importantly, No Shadow Towers would benefit their surrounding communities as much as the people who live and work in them.”

Residents in one town in Norway are basking in the winter sun where, historically, there had been only dim daylight. In a victory over the oppressive mountain shadows, the town installed a giant mirror on the mountaintop to send sunshine beaming into the town square below.

(WATCH the company video below)

Photo Credit: NBBJ Released Image

Hero Water Taxi Captain Jumps Into Action to Save Man

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Good News Network

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Mar 19, 2015

A dramatic video recorded by a passenger captures the tense moments when a water taxi captain helps save an unconscious man from the Charleston Harbor.

Responding to an emergency call, the South Carolina captain, Matt Balasso, spotted three men struggling in the water. One of the men had fallen overboard in a medical emergency and the two others were working hard to keep him afloat without sinking.

The crew needed the help of strong passengers to pull the big man onto the pontoon boat’s deck.

The video, shot by a passenger ordered to stay in the stern, was posted by the company, Charleston Water Taxi, on their Facebook page.

(WATCH the video or READ the story from KAIT-8 TV)

Photo credit: Vicki Schroeder/YouTube

The Most Fun Use of Foreign Pocket Change in Airports to Aid a Charity

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Terry Turner

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Mar 19, 2015

Ever step off a plane and realize you have a pocket full of foreign change?

The Swedish Red Cross and airport operator, Swedavia, have come up with an idea to take care of those spare coins while supporting a good cause — and letting travelers have a little fun while waiting for buses or baggage.

They’ve turned the vintage arcade games, Ms. Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Galaga, into donation boxes at two airports, Stockholm Arlanda and Göteborg Landvetter. Visitors waiting at baggage claim areas can use their spare quarters and euros to set a new high score. People waiting for a flight can try to top that score while getting rid of unspent krona.

You can use whatever coins you have and every cent, euro, or yen goes straight to the Swedish Red Cross, which had traditional donation boxes in the airports for years.

Red Cross spokesman Morgan Olofsson told Euronews the idea of adding retro arcade games to the mix is “a fun new way to also reward people who make a donation – a win-win, so to speak.”

Well, “win-win” until someone beats your high score.

(WATCH the video below, or READ more at Euronews)

Power Cables a Thing of the Past? How About Solar Energy Beamed From Space?

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Kristy Cooper

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Mar 19, 2015

Annoyed with power lines that can be knocked over by trees, rain and wind? The Japanese might get rid of them for good, now that they’ve discovered how to deliver energy by wireless transmission.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, in cooperation with a Japanese government nonprofit foundation, announced they have successfully tested wireless power transmission using microwaves and lasers.

It is the core of their 6-year-old “Space Solar Power System” project, which seeks to use a satellite in low-earth orbit equipped with solar panels to generate power and transmit it to earth.

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During the ground test, MIH scientists sent 10 kilowatts (kW) of power, or enough to power 10 laptop computers, from a transmitting unit via microwaves. A small receiver 500 meters away captured the energy and powered a LED light.

Scientists say this is a major milestone for wireless power transmission. Although a small amount of energy was used, the demonstration proved it could be done. They also successfully tested “radio emission technology,” which ensured the microwave beam reached the target receiver with pinpoint accuracy.

Typically, we depend on power cables to transmit electricity from one place to another. This technology allows the transmission of power to locations where cable installation has been difficult or dangerous. Once fully achieved, the energy-poor country aims to transmit over unprecedented distances, sending solar energy from a stationary satellite.

Meanwhile, everyday applications, such as charging electric vehicles, are on the five-year plan.

MIH scientists are excited this discovery will possibly lead to a “renewable, inexhaustible source that will eventually solve the world’s environmental and energy issues”. However, NASA has been investigating the possibilities of a space-based solar system for several decades, and estimate the cost of electricity supplied from an orbiting solar array to be too expensive to be commercially viable.

Photo (bottom) by Claudio Schwartz – (CC)

Town Closes Road for Two Months to Help This Wee Endangered Species

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Good News Network

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Mar 19, 2015

For the fourth time, a city in Canada has decided to help out some slow amphibians by closing a road for two months during their migration period.

Jefferson salamanders live in forests along both sides of the road in Kitchener, where declining populations are protected by Ontario’s Endangered Species Act.

But every spring, they used to get squashed crossing Stauffer Drive to get to the temporary ponds formed one one side by melting snow.

(READ the story in the CBC)

Photo: spotted salamander by Dave Huth (CC)

Police Rescue Four Parakeets From Plastic Bag

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Good News Network

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Mar 18, 2015

Costa Rican locals in Guanacaste alerted police that a trafficker was selling parakeets out of a tightly closed plastic bag on Saturday.

“Police arrested the man and saved the chatty green birds before any suffocated,” reported The Tico Times March 16.

When the tropical birds were safe in police custody — on an officer’s desk — this photo was taken. Wildlife officials currently are caring for the birds and plan to release them back into the wild.

(Source: The Tico Times)

Watch Radical New 3-D Printer Create Mini Eiffel Tower From A Gooey Pool

By

Terry Turner

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Mar 18, 2015

Watching a 3-D printer crank out its product, layer upon layer, can be like watching paint dry.

But a radical new process promises 3-D printing speeds 25 to 100 times faster — and it’s more like watching a creature emerge from primordial ooze.

Carbon3D has rolled out a process it calls “Continuous Liquid Interface Production” — or CLIP. The company announced the new process with both a TED Talk and paper published in the journal Science this week.

“We think that popular 3-D printing is actually misnamed — it’s really just 2-D printing over and over again,” Joseph DeSimone, a chemistry professor in North Carolina, and one of Carbon3D’s co-founders, told the Washington Post.

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That’s because Current 3-D printing methods slowly build objects layer-by-layer. Not only does that take forever, it also means the finished object is going to have structural weaknesses built in — the layers can slip and slide against each other.

CLIP creates a solid object. It uses light and oxygen to turn a mechanical printing process into a photochemical one. This new process fires bursts of light and oxygen through a tiny window — only microns across — the size of two or human cells.

The light hardens resin, the oxygen keeps it from hardening. A careful, high-speed balance between when the printer uses light and when it uses oxygen allows it to craft intricately detailed objects. On top of that, the finished objects are all in one piece, not simply stacked layers that could result in tiny sharp edges.

And, as the company video shows, the finished object appear to rise out of a pool of goo.

(WATCH the video, showing the creation of a mini Eiffel Tower, below)

SHARE the Story (below) / Photo credit: Carbon3D

Lifeguards in Chile Use Drones to Help Swimmers

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Good News Network

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Mar 18, 2015

Another example of a drone being used as a lifesaver—rather than a killer— is being tested on the beaches of Algarrobo in Chile.

Like the RTS Labs drone that was tested on beaches in Iran last fall (in this video on GNN), this one can speed toward a potential drowning victim, reaching them faster with a life preserver than a swimmer could.

The drones are controlled from the beach and outfitted with a float, camera, microphone, and speaker and intended for operation by lifeguards.

(WATCH the AP video below)

Photo via YouTube / Story tip from Mike McGinley

Life-sized Thomas the Tank Engine Chugs Into Fans’ Hearts (Video)

By

Kristy Cooper

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Mar 18, 2015

Japan is known for its high-speed bullet trains and old-fashioned locomotives, which still tug at our hearts. But, nothing compares to the attention this life-sized Thomas the Tank Engine has received since last summer.

The happy-faced blue locomotive has been a huge hit, with children and adults riding the fully-working version of Thomas through the stunning mountains and resorts of Shizuoka Prefecture.

In order to maintain interest in steam trains and beef up tourism, owners of the Oigawa Railway worked with the Sony Creative Products distribution company to make an identical version of the beloved children’s character, complete with his trademark white smoke and whistle. (Watch the video and read more below)

Well known for having unusual and vintage locomotives, Oigawa built the Thomas replica over the shell of a C11-227 steam locomotive. Another steam engine was used to create Thomas’ Japanese buddy Hiro.

Spokesman Tsuguto Nishi told the Daily Mail, “I am not surprised Thomas and his friends are also present here, after all, they come from the island of Sodor, and Japan is an island, as well, with beautiful countryside.”

Making his debut in 1946, Thomas was the most popular character in the U.K.-based railway series books by the Reverend Wilbert Awdry and his son Christopher.

British television producer Britt Allcroft saw the books in 1979 and soon created the stop-animation phenomenon called, Thomas & Friends. Voiced by the Beatles’ Ringo Starr and comedian George Carlin, the children’s show became a worldwide hit.

Thomas and his pals remain extremely popular, with theme parks in Japan and Europe, and a brand new “Thomas Land” opening this summer in the United States. Backers are hopeful that the newest version, located in Edaville, Massachssetts, will become a national attraction with an attendance of over 1 million yearly.

SHARE the story (below) – Photo credit: Ruptly/YouTube

What This Inspiring Store Clerk Gave a Stranger Now Hangs on Her Wall

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Good News Network

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Mar 18, 2015

Heather Hogeboon wants the whole world to know about a good deed—an inspiring act of kindness by a young shop clerk at Spencer’s, who bought a gift for a stranger in his store.

Fighting the good fight against breast cancer for nine years, Heather wears pink a lot. The 43-year-old is now dealing with the version that is called stage four, metastasized.

She was feeling very cheeky on Saturday—out on the town in Plattsburgh, New York with friends who surprised her in a limo and took her to dinner. They even decided to have some fun at a Spencer’s Gifts store. (Anyone who’s been to a Spencer’s shop might have turned a shade of pink themselves, after seeing the gag gifts and Playboy decor in their 600 stores.)

The zumba dancer was being her “usual fun self” when a manager came over and said an employee had asked if he could buy her a pink bandana. “Of course,” she said, and headed over to meet Austin.

“This young man opened his wallet and paid for this hot pink bandana for me,” she recalled.

But, that wasn’t the end of it...

Six Photos That Will Restore Your Faith in Humanity – and Cops

She was impressed and happy, but it wasn’t until after she asked a friend to snap a photo, and arrived back home, that something dropped out of the folded scarf and left her speechless.

Austin had slipped a note inside and it read (with a smiley face drawing):

Keep fighting the good fight. You’re an inspiration, Austin

“This note (and bandana) means so much to me that I tacked it to the wall next to my bed,” she said speaking with the Good News Network by telephone. “And, for a young person to do this . . .”

Because she is a big fan of “paying it forward, and paying it back,” she made three phone calls, climbing the chain of command at Spencer’s to try to get Austin officially acknowledged for his good deed.

After talking with the regional manager of New York, she called the corporate headquarters.

“That lady said she has never heard of anything like this before, (and) she is going to see that he receives an employee recognition badge and a Spencer’s gift card.”

Heather, who is also a published poet, intends to send the young gentleman a thank-you note and a copy of the photo so he can remember the moment.

She told GNN, “I wanted this story to go viral, to show other young people what they can do with their compassion —It helps others.”

“He is an inspiration to me!”

Tiny Library in Dr. Who Box Restored for Neighbors by Random Kindness

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Good News Network

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Mar 17, 2015

A mini library shaped like the blue police call box of Doctor Who fame began serving free stories and smiles last summer in a Saskatoon neighborhood. But the pay-it-forward library attracted its own criminal activity (the non-fiction sort) when on New Year’s Eve vandals struck and destroyed it.

Sarah Cochrane and her husband had converted a cupboard into the whimsical community library and mounted it on their Westmount neighborhood fence, where adults and kids would freely borrow and donate books.

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“It’s been fantastic,” Cochran told CBC news. “There’s a lot of kids that come and they’ll sit underneath the library and pull books out and they’ll be reading right underneath the library.”

When local woodworker Dave Balderstone heard about the vandalism, he was so angry that he decided to rebuild the mini TARDIS for free.

The new library was unveiled on Sunday afternoon at Cochran’s home and the BBC television network, creator of the Doctor Who series, donated several books to the project after hearing about the story.

WATCH the video below. (READ more from the CBC)

SHARE the story with friends (below) / Story tip from Murray Lindsay

Be a Firefighter at the NYC Fire Museum, For Kids & Adults of All Ages

By

Lawrence Kreger

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Mar 17, 2015

Like a lot of other kids, I wanted to be a firefighter when I grew up (among other things).

I think I realized along the way that firefighting, while exciting, is also very stressful and dangerous and not everyone is cut out for it, to say the least. But the allure of it has always remained with me.

The NYC Fire Museum on Spring Street is a cheerful and interactive place with retired firemen as guides and a lot of cool exhibits. You can see old fire engines, helmets, and the like, and there is a special demonstration for kids on fire safety and what to do in a smoky situation.

They also encourage you to put on firefighter gear and swing a wooden axe! (I posted it on Facebook and, of course, my friends got a big kick out of it, too.) Retired fireman John took my picture (above) and also shot a short video clip of me (below).

The museum is celebrating the 150-year anniversary of the NY Fire Department this year. They also have a lecture series there.

T he Museum is located at 278 Spring Street in Soho in Manhattan— an interesting neighborhood and accessible by subway, especially the C train which stops next door. Admission is inexpensive.

It is not a really big place, but lots of fun. They also host children’s parties. I think the adults there are having as much, if not more, fun than the kids.

My video of the visit is below:

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Watch This Eagle-Cam Nose Dive From the World’s Tallest Building

By

Kristy Cooper

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Mar 17, 2015

Darshan, the imperial eagle, had quite a view to accompany his record-breaking flight from the world’s tallest building last Saturday.

With a small Sony Action Mini camera strapped to his back, Darshan dove 2,700 feet from the top of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, to his handler on the ground.

Broadcast live by the BBC, the flight from a bird’s-eye-view was organized by the group, Freedom Conservation to raise awareness for endangered birds of prey. The organization says it’s the highest-ever recorded bird flight from a man-made structure.

“The eagle is a signal that things can change. It was once endangered, but after conservation programs it is not so endangered,” the group’s director, Ronald Menzel told the BBC.

Freedom Conservation has also recorded birds soaring from other landmarks with breathtaking views, including St. Paul’s Cathedral in London and the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

The French falconer, Jacques-Olivier Travers, also known as the Man Who Flies With Eagles, called the bird’s descent “perfect.”

(WATCH the bird’s-eye view below, or READ more from BBC News)

SHARE this Eagle Experience with your Friends (below) / Photos from Freedom Conservation