Positive Anger Management: More Bruce Banner Than Hulk

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Mar 6, 2015

When anger rears it’s ugly head it can affect our judgement and thinking. In a state of numbed fury we can say unreasonable and irrational words, often to the people closest to us, giving way to guilt and regret once our initial dalliance with the Hulk has subsided.

Anger is a completely normal human emotion that we all experience, but it can frequently lock us up in a vicious circle, filled with pessimistic thoughts and a destructive mindset that can often make the situation worse, inhibiting our path back to feelings of happiness, calmness and contentment.

What if anger could instead be an effective expression of who we are, our passion and our convictions ?

Soon after Nelson Mandela walked away from twenty-seven years in jail, Bill Clinton asked, “Surely, you must have felt some anger?” Mandela agreed that, yes, alongside the joy of being free, he had also felt great anger. “But,” he said, “I valued my freedom more, and I knew that if I expressed my anger I would still be a prisoner.”

Negative vs. Positive Anger

Most people perceive anger as a strictly negative emotion, but that all depends on our perspective. It isn’t actually good or bad. It’s innate and perfectly normal as a human being to feel angry when you are wronged, mistreated, or hurt. The feeling isn’t the problem, but it’s how we react and perceive it that can cause so much harm to both mind and body.

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Expressing a moderate level of anger can actually be good for us in a number of ways. One benefit of expressing your anger is that it allows others to immediately know how you really feel.

In recent studies, experts were able to prove that expressing anger helps angry people to solve problems and communicate with other more effectively.

Positive Anger For Positive Energy & Achieving Your Goals

Moderate expression of anger can also be a source of undertaking ideas, a proverbial kick up the backside that can lead us to use our time and harness our emotions in a more effective and constructive manner. It’s highly unlikely that activists, intent on changing government policy or with good intentions on human rights go about their day filled with sunshine and rainbows. Their passion, and anger is used to try and have a positive influence on the world.

Anger management should therefore be perceived as an asset, a tool to develop in order to fulfill and achieve some of life’s goals. Why try to get rid of anger when it can actually be such a stimulating tool? When you’ve understood and accepted your anger and you’re ready to use it to make a real change, a wealth of opportunities can open up to you.

If your body is a car, then anger can become the carburetor of the engine, controlling the flow of emotions to help you perform at your best, driving you on with focus and a gas tank full of personal resolve……just without the harmful lead.

Mastering the art of anger management is great and the payoff can be a huge. Turning negative emotions into positivity without the shouting, screaming, blaming and feelings of guilt often associated with “an episode.” Once it’s been harnessed you can improve relationships and your own self-esteem.

Meditation & Anger Management

Anger isn’t just a mental state of mind, it triggers a cascade of reactions without our bodies, an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and levels of stress hormones such as adrenaline, noradrenaline, and cortisol flow through the body. While normal in intermittent and small doses, protracted exposure can lead to a number of health concerns and issues.

Diana Adile Kirschner, a Philadelphia-area clinical psychologist and co author of the book Comprehensive Family Therapy advises her clients to learn meditation and has seen firsthand how helpful it can be. “Not only is meditation an absolutely marvelous de-stresser, it helps people better relate to one another” she says. “I can tell when clients are following through with meditation. For instance, I had a couple who consistently bickered. After they started meditating, they came less angry, more self-reflective and more loving”.

Meditation can be an effective way to control anger for a variety of reasons. When our hormonal system has been exposed to such excessive levels of damaging hormones, meditation plays a regulating role and rebalances our body in order to access a state that is more favorable for us:

It equalizes the stress hormone (Cortisol) and boost the “feel good hormone” (Serotonin) in order to positively influence your mood and state of mind.
It calms the nervous system down to a level that we cannot even achieve while asleep, allowing us to better integrate new targeted behavioral patterns.
It significantly lowers anger and animosity towards others and towards ourselves, enhancing a clearer perception of our environment. It helps us develop compassionate feelings which leads to better and healthier interpersonal relationships.
It lowers blood pressure and heart rate significantly, helping us deal much better with future situations where our anger could be challenged again.
Meditation allows us to perceive “threats” in a more rational way.
It makes us feel more inclined to look beyond the hurt and frustration, giving us a more rational and balanced perspective

There are different ways one can practice daily meditation:

– Vedic meditation is a mantra based meditation, where you continually repeat a chosen word or phrase quietly in your own mind. It is a simple, natural, effortless technique practiced 20 minutes twice each day while sitting comfortably with the eyes closed.

– Mindfulness is the practice that involves learning to experience the present moment as it really is, in order to develop the ability to step away from habitual, often unconscious emotional and physiological reactions to everyday events. Focusing on the breath while sitting quietly is an excellent form of meditation.

– Yoga and martial arts, such as Tai Chi and Qi Gong, can be other techniques to achieve a meditative state. These methods are all about harmonizing the body with the mind and breath through the means of various breathing techniques in order to reach inner peace and develop an overall better health.

Anger can be a poison for your own health and for your surroundings if it isn’t used constructively. Meditation can give you the tools that allow mastery of your own mind, free of stress and all of its ugly derivatives. It eventually gives you access to your inner-self and personal insights. It represents the opportunity to understand your anger, and thus is the keystone of any successful anger management therapy.

The dawn of a positive change in your life can start when you access the inner Bruce Banner more often than his nemesis, The Hulk. So seek solutions, find one that works, and aspire to more a serene lifestyle, free from the ugly green monster.

Photo credits: (top) Niels Linneberg (center) Marie Boucaut

Facebook Pals Collect 200 Tons of Food for Flood Victims in Malaysia

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Mar 6, 2015

Seven friends in Malaysia who are not formally organized in any way have managed to collect more than 200 tons of donations for the flood victims in Terengganu, Kelantan and Pahang, receiving overwhelming support, even from a guy with a helicopter to transport the goods.

Six of them have full-time jobs, mostly in the service sector, while one is a full-time homemaker. Ahamad Emran, Fadly Daud, Hafiz Kamal, Hayati Ismail, Sarah Lee, Syarifah Athirah Al Tirmidhi and Syed Azmi Alhabshi have organized 30 community events in the last year by relying solely on support gathered through social media.

(READ the full story in Malaysia’s The Star)

Story tip from Michelyne Hibbert Callan

Teens Today Are Actually Good – 7 Positive Trends Prove It

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Kristy Cooper

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Mar 5, 2015

Have teens gotten a bad rap in recent years? They are typically characterized as self-involved, reckless, and only interested in “sharing” on their phones, but the youth of today, in reality, are actually behaving more virtuously than they have in a long time.

Statistics tell an optimistic story. From smoking and drug use to unwanted pregnancies and abortions, the trends today show most teenagers making good choices. They are even volunteering in their communities more than ever before.

Smoking has become uncool. According to national CDC statistics, cigarette smoking among high school students is at the lowest level in 22 years. The rate was cut almost in half, leaving just 15.7 percent of teens smoking in 2013.

Drunk driving is far less common. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey has revealed that at half as many high school students say they got behind the wheel drunk in 2011 compared to 1991.

Drug abuse is down. Recreational use of prescription pain relievers continue a three year decline, part of an overall two-decade trend. The number of high school kids using was 33% lower than a decade ago, according to a recently released national survey, Monitoring the Future. The survey noted that marijuana use remained stable, even with the increase of states allowing recreational use.

Unwanted Pregnancy and Abortion has plummeted. Teen pregnancy has declined almost continuously for more than two decades, plummeting from 61 to 26 births per thousand girls, according to federal health statistics. Also, the rate of abortions among women under 20 has fallen since it peaked in the early 1990s, according to 2014 research by the nonprofit Guttmacher Institute.

Kids are hanging in there until graduation. Efforts to keep teens in school are paying off. The National Center for Educational Statistics reported the high school dropout rate has decreased from 12 percent in 1990 to 7 percent in 2012.

Today’s teens regularly volunteer more. A higher number of teens in twelfth-grade are volunteering at least once per month. The proportion rose from 24 percent in 1991 to 37 percent in 2012, according to Child Trends. The nonprofit research center that tracks youth trends says it is an encouraging trend, “Teens who volunteer are more likely to have positive academic, psychological, and occupational well-being.”

Armed with these positive trends, the next time you hear complaints about “today’s youth” you can inject the conversation with a few rays of hope.

Want to see an honorable teen in action? WATCH the video below about a girl who saved a baby in a Wal-mart store:

Share the Good News! (Photo credit: Rachel Sian via CC license)

Retired Nurse Uses Her Pension to Feed Thousands in Hometown

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Mar 5, 2015

69 year-old Charolotte Tidwell has been working six days a week, and even using her own pension money, to feed 7,000 people a month in her hometown of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The town has suffered from businesses closing, layoffs at the chicken factory, and low wages, and Tidwell serves a half million meals a year to families and the elderly.

The retired nurse grew up in poverty and learned from her mother how to serve others in a “compassionate and respectful way.”

(WATCH the video above or READ the story from NBC News)

Story tip from Steve G.

Adam Levine Meets Boy w/ Down Syndrome Backstage, Gets Down on Floor

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Mar 5, 2015

Maroon 5’s lead singer Adam Levine showed his humanity last week after he made a dream come true for a little boy with Down syndrome. Not only that, the celebrity laid down on the floor next to him after the boy curled up, seemingly overwhelmed to meet his idol.

10-year-old Christopher Warner knows all the lyrics to his favorite Maroon 5 songs. His Adam Levine artwork and enthusiastic singing was recorded in a video by his special education teachers. With mom’s okay, they posted the video on YouTube to let the pop star know about his “#1 fan.

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It went viral with 1.7 million views, and attracted the attention of local media, in particular, radio station Hot 99.5. Chris’s teachers reached out to The Kane Show hosts who pulled some strings with the record company and arranged for Chris and his mom to meet the band at a concert near Washington, DC.

After enjoying the VIP seats for the performance, they went backstage to meet with the radio folks and the band. It became all too much for the boy, who suddenly curled up behind his mom on the floor before any photos could be taken with his heroes.

But Levine knew exactly how to handle the situation. Rather than coaxing Chris to do something he didn’t want to, the band all laid down on the floor around him for the group photo (below).

Christopher was so overwhelmed he had a panic attack so @adamlevine @maroon5 @internjohnradio laid down to take a pic pic.twitter.com/lGP5SIeZNX
— Kane (@Kaneshow) March 3, 2015

(WATCH the video of Chris below)

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Ringling Bros. Circus Is Eliminating Elephant Acts

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Mar 5, 2015

Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey announced plans today to drop elephants from their traveling circus tours. The 145-year-old circus institution will relocate the 13 elephants currently on tour to the company’s 200-acre Center for Elephant Conservation in Florida by 2018. There, they will join the rest of the Ringling Bros. herd of more than 40 elephants.

The circus has run into a web of legal challenges since cities, like Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina began banning elephant shows and practices from their municipalities.

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The Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation is home to the largest herd of Asian elephants and the most successful breeding program for this endangered species in the Western Hemisphere, according to the company, with 26 births in its 20year history.

The Center has loaned or donated elephants to eight zoos, and will continue to support the Smithsonian Institution’s research lab working to find a cure for diseases that impact juvenile elephants.

The circus will continue to tour with other animal performers, including tigers, lions, horses, dogs and camels.

Photo credit: (top) hbp_pix via CC license; (bottom) Nic. B.

The Simple Power of a CEO’s Kindness: a True Story

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Mar 5, 2015

My client acquired a large company and I went along for his initial meetings with his new employees.

In the afternoon he planned a company-wide address. That morning we met for several hours with top executives. (Talk about emotions on full display: ego, anxiety, obsequiousness, defensiveness, fear, excitement… when the new sheriff comes to town all the icy-cool corporate masks quickly come off.)

The meeting ended at noon and when we walked out fifteen minutes later he noticed a big buffet set up on the other side of the atrium. There were plenty of people standing around in white coats and black slacks but no one in line or sitting at tables.

“What’s that for?” he asked a person walking past.

“The company arranged a meal for after your meeting,” she said. “A local restaurant closed for the day to come here.” She paused. “I think the chef and her staff were really excited about it,” she said, her voice trailing off at the end.

“Has anyone eaten?” he asked.

“Um, I don’t think so,” she said.

He stood looking a few moments. Even from a distance it was evident the catering staff was confused and disappointed.

“Come on,” he said to me. “We’re eating.”

And we did.

But he did more than just eat. He spent a few minutes talking to every — every — member of the staff. Many already knew who he was and while initially hesitant they quickly warmed up to him.

And why wouldn’t they? He complimented the food. He complimented the service. He joked and laughed. And when we had finished eating he said, “We can’t let great food go to waste!” and borrowed two white coats so we could serve them. Then he made the rounds of the tables and happily leaned into all the selfies.

When we finally left, he waved and smiled.

They smiled bigger.

Sure, it took a lot of his time. Sure, it took him off point and off focus and off schedule.

Sure, they loved him for it.

I already knew the answer but as we got in the car I still asked. “I know your schedule,” I said. “You didn’t have time to stop to eat. Besides, no one else did, so no one would have noticed.”

“I felt bad for them,” he said. “They tried hard to do a good job and everyone blew them off. How bad must that feel? So it was the least I could do.

“Maybe my staff thought they were too busy,” he continued. “Or maybe they thought they were too important. But clearly they were too self-absorbed to notice they were hurting other people’s feelings.”

He thought for a few seconds. “And maybe they’re the wrong people for the job, ” he said.**

Much of the time we want famous people to be so humble they don’t recognize there’s a fuss, or a special buzz surrounding, or that people are excited to see them. We want them to be oblivious to their fame or importance. (After all, if they’re too aware… that means they’re too full of themselves.)

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But what we should really want is for famous or notable people to recognize that in the eyes of others, they are special — and that other people might want something from them, even if that something is the simple recognition that what they do matters.

Because it does.

Picture a CEO walking into a building for an important meeting. Maybe he says hello to the receptionist. (Maybe.) Otherwise he only has time for the people at his level. It’s like no one else exists; they’re just unseen cogs in a giant machine.

Unfortunately, at times, we all do the same thing. We talk to the people we’re supposed to talk to. We recognize the people we’re supposed to recognize. We mesh with the cogs in the machine we’re expected to mesh with, but there are many other important cogs.

So go out of your way to smile to everyone. Or to nod. Or to introduce yourself.

And when someone does something to help you, even in the smallest way and even if it’s their job to do so, go out of your way to say thanks. Make it your mission to recognize the people behind the tasks: the people that support, that assist, and that make everything possible.

Even though most of us aren’t famous or notable, by recognizing people — especially those who have been conditioned not to expect to be recognized — we add a little extra meaning and dignity to their lives.

And that’s the best reason to go off point, off focus, and off task.

Although, when you think about it, you really aren’t taking yourself away from an important task. You’re just shifting to an equally important task: showing people they matter — especially to you.

** Six months later only three of the original 22 remained.

Jeff Haden is a ghostwriter, speaker, LinkedIn Influencer, and contributing editor for Inc. He’s written more than 50 nonfiction books, including six No. 1 Amazon Business and Investing books. He offers personal and professional tips and advice in his own book, TransForm: Dramatically Improve Your Career, Business, Relationships, and Life: One Simple Step at a Time. Follow @jeff_haden on Twitter

Reprinted with Permission / Photo credits: (top) reynermedia (center) beate.firlinger (lower) NYCArthur

Thousands of Women Protest for Peace in Jerusalem Today

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Mar 4, 2015

Thousands of women joined a grassroots organization called Women Wage Peace and marched on the Israeli Knesset today, chanting and carrying signs urging a peace agreement with the Palestinians. They listened to “alternative” speeches that decried the message of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to a joint session of Congress.

The group, which formed last year after the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas, includes Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians, secular and religious women alike.

“We’ve suffered through enough wars,” said Irit Keinan in one speech. “Two weeks ahead of the elections, we’ve heard no word on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

One of the rally coordinators, Lily Weisberger, told the Jerusalem Post that the women, who arrived on dozens of chartered buses from as far as Sderot and the Golan Heights, are exasperated by the ongoing conflict.

“We want to bring peace,” she said. “We are tired of war; we are tired of despair.”

Women Wage Peace organizes through a Facebook page that has more than 10,000 likes. (They also host a Page in English)

(WATCH the video below from i24news, or READ the story – scroll down – in the Jerusalem Post)

Photo credit: Women Wage Peace

McDonald’s Announces Move Toward Antibiotic-Free Chicken

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Mar 4, 2015

McDonald’s said today that it would begin sourcing its chicken from suppliers that do not pump antibiotics into their birds.

“Because the fast-food chain is one of the largest buyers of chicken in the United States, the move is likely to have a major impact on the way poultry is raised,” reports the New York Times.

The company said the antibiotic-free chicken will be phased in over two years.

(READ the story in the New York Times)

Photo credit: Chad Ivan (CC license)

After Jumping From Golden Gate Bridge Man Says Sea Lion Saved Him

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Mar 4, 2015

A man who took a suicide leap off the Golden Gate Bridge told an audience at a mental health conference in Australia how he survived the normally deadly fall after a sea lion pushed him to the surface and kept him afloat until the Coast Guard arrived.

“I really thought it was a shark and I was panicking,” Kevin Hines told the AFP.

“I remember floating atop the water and this thing just bumping me, bumping me up.”

Now 33 years old and a mental health advocate, Hines said he spoke to a man who had been on the bridge that day and had seen that it was not a shark but a sea lion.

(READ the AFP story in the UK Telegraph)

Photo credit: jeroen020, via CC on flickr

When Kids Can’t See the Chalkboard – Eye Doctor Donates 100,000 Glasses

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Kristy Cooper

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Mar 4, 2015

Inspired by a Navajo teen’s joy when he got his first pair of glasses, Joseph Carbone took a leap of faith by quitting his optician business to start Eye Care 4 Kids.

“If the child can’t see the chalkboard, they can’t succeed,” says Carbone. Since 2001, the nonprofit organization has given clear sight to more than 100,000 children in Utah and Nevada. Every day his mobile clinic brings free eye exams and optical equipment to under-served families right where they live.

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This year the organization’s reach has extended even further thanks to Cecil Swyers, a biomedical engineer whose company manufactures diagnostic machines for eye clinics. Carbone gave Swyers an Eye Care 4 Kids mobile unit to help students at his alma mater, Alta E. Butler Elementary in Phoenix, Arizona.

The school’s assistant principal Cindy Alonso said the visit was especially great because a lot of their families don’t even have transportation. Swyers plans to visit additional schools and Native American reservations with the goal of helping more than 1,000 kids weekly.

Carbone’s big dream is to help a million children see. With his “sights” set on providing services to kids internationally, this vision may soon come true.

(WATCH the video below from of KSTU)

Mounting Research Shows Deadly Peanut Allergies Are Preventable — And Even Reversible

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Mar 4, 2015

Children who once risked death every time their body came in contact with a tiny speck of peanut butter are now eating 8-12 peanuts a day as part of a pioneering desensitization program, while other research is showing how to prevent peanut allergies in the first place.

Mercy Medical Group doctors Rubina Inamdar and Binita Mandal in Sacramento, California have treated 30 children with increased doses of peanut powder over a period of months that produced an increased immunity to the once-deadly food.

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Also used by doctors in Dallas and elsewhere, the treatment, called “oral immunotherapy,” is now part of a clinical trial at Stanford University led by immunologist Dr. Kari Nadeau. (See the CBS video below)

The number of children diagnosed with peanut allergies has more than quadrupled in the U.S. in the past 17 years. Other allergic conditions are also skyrocketing.

One explanation is that too much sanitation in the home and school has led to a decrease in the body’s ability to tolerate certain foods, pollens or other things in our environment. It’s called the hygiene hypothesis. It states that excessive cleanliness interrupts the normal development of the immune system, and this change leads to an increase in allergies. Families in non-Western countries living in rural environments have a much lower allergic disorder rate.

Additionally, the delayed introduction of foods, the practice of keeping certain foods away from infants and young children, may be associated with higher rates of food allergy.

A landmark study in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that many, if not most, peanut allergies can be prevented by feeding young children (4-6 month old) peanut butter rather than avoiding such foods.

The results of the controlled trial are striking — overall, the prevalence of peanut allergy in the peanut-avoidance group was 17.2% as compared with 3.2% in the consumption group.

The randomized trial, named Learning Early about Peanut Allergy (LEAP), clearly indicates that the early introduction of peanut dramatically decreases the risk of development of peanut allergy by approximately 70 to 80%.

Questions still exist, but “because the results of this trial are so compelling, and the problem of the increasing prevalence of peanut allergy so alarming, new guidelines should be forthcoming very soon,” according to an editorial in the Journal on February 26.

(WATCH the videos below from CBS and AP)

SHARE the news with your Friends! – Photo by deegolden, via CC

91-Year-Old Lands Her Dream Job as a Designer in Silicon Valley

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Mar 3, 2015

It took almost 80 years, but Barbara Beskind has defied the stereotypes of aging and is finally working in her dream job, as a designer at one of Silicon Valley’s biggest firms.

Since she was ten, she always wanted to be an inventor, but in high school was told that girls couldn’t get into engineering schools. Now, at 91-years old, she works for IDEO part-time as a design consultant specializing in products primarily for the elderly.

“Every Thursday, I feel thirty years younger,” she told NBC Today correspondent, Jenna Bush Hager.

Her retirement community provides the perfect testing ground for her ideas. She built an ingenious support device for one neighbor that helps her get up from the couch. She invented a device that uses a magnifying glass with a modified clip board so she can read the newspaper.

“Two years ago, she read about the Silicon Valley design firm IDEO and decided to apply for a job at the firm, which is famous for designing the first mouse for Apple,” reports Bush Hager.

This is her fifth career, having served in the Army and as an occupational therapist, but by far, this is her best job yet.

(WATCH the video above or READ the story, w/ photos, from TODAY)

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Teens Make Kansas Principal Cry With a Positive Prank at School

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Mar 3, 2015

signs of encouragement-Riverside-Schools-photo

Principal Sherman Padgett was on the lookout for senior pranks last week, so he was reluctant to grant the request of one student to hold a bucket in the hallway. Little did he know they were planning a positive prank for their hardworking administrator.

“No way,” the principal from North High in Witchita, Kansas told her. “I’m not holding your bucket. … You’re going to put fish eyes in it or something.”

So, Emily Jones left it on his desk — an old black pail splattered with paint.

When he finally succumbed to her pleas, he brought the bucket into the hallway between classes while he normally monitored the bustle of students.

Kansas City Police Officers Stop for Basketball Game With Kids (WATCH)

Suddenly a student dropped a note in the bucket. Then another dropped a note. After the bell rang he went back to his desk and began reading the many touching messages of thanks from his pupils.

“I love you, Mr. Padgett,” one of the notes said. “High school has been wonderful with you as my principal.”

Padget read them all and cried.

(WATCH the video above from KWCH or READ the story in the Witchita Eagle)

North's senior prank had a twist. They gave principal Sherman Padgett a bucket and dropped thank you notes into it. pic.twitter.com/cnM9vLnHyx
— WichitaPublicSchools (@WichitaUSD259) March 2, 2015

Story tip from Amy Birk

Do Animals Have Compassion? These Five Certainly Seem to…

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Kristy Cooper

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Mar 3, 2015

Random acts of kindness aren’t only limited to human beings. In fact, animals should get way more credit for their surprising displays of love, generosity and sacrifice. More similar to humans than previously assumed, animals have been caught on camera doing all sorts of good deeds.

Check out our top five favorite videos showing the compassion of our awesome furry and feathered friends. (Click the headlines to read more…)

1. Turtle repays rescuer with a hug!

2. Wild gorillas recognize little girl after she’s grown up

3. Tortoise gets a friend back on his feet

4. Dolphins protect swimmer from great white shark (Read the story first)

5. Monkey saves electrocuted friend – WOW!

SHARE this with your Animal Loving Friends!

Wyoming Startup Builds 3-Story Vertical Farm to Employ People With Disabilities

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Mar 3, 2015

Jackson, Wyoming, is an unlikely place for urban farming: At an altitude over a mile high, with snow lasting into May, the growing season is sometimes only a couple of months long.

But the town is about to become home to one of the first vertical farms in the world, reports Fast CoExist. A startup called Vertical Harvest recently broke ground on a three-story, 13,500 sq ft hydroponics greenhouse that will be providing fresh micro-greens and tomatoes to the Jackson community.

Equal to 5 acres of traditional agriculture, the produce will be grown on revolving carrousels and 95% of its produce has already been sold under pre-purchase agreements with area restaurants and local grocery stores.

And, perhaps best of all, their mission includes an employment and training program for individuals with developmental disabilities to help them achieve happiness, success, and independence.

(WATCH the video below or READ the story from Fast Coexist)

Story tip from Joel Arellano – Illustration from Vertical Harvest

Panda Population Grows by 16% As China’s Preservation Efforts Pay Off

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Mar 2, 2015

The number of giant pandas in the wild increased by 268 over the last decade, bringing the worldwide population to 1,864 — a 16.8% rise compared to the last panda survey in 2003.

The new survey conducted by the government of China also revealed a widening range for the iconic creatures in the only three provinces where they are found on Earth. According to the report, the geographic range of pandas in Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces has expanded by 11.8% since 2003.

“This significant conservation achievement is a testament to the Chinese government,” said Xiaohai Liu, executive director of programs for WWF-China. “A lot of good work is being done around wild giant panda conservation, and the government has done well to integrate these efforts and partner with conservation organizations including WWF.”

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Thanks to policies like the Natural Forest Protection Project which banned logging in some natural forests, there are currently 67 panda nature reserves in China, an increase of 27 since the last report, which explains much of the panda success story. In 2000, the government’s Grain for Green program also began replanting forests or grasslands on steep agricultural fields, which also decreased water and soil erosion.

WWF supports the government’s work by establishing panda nature reserves and a conservation network that integrates those reserves with forests farms and corridors of bamboo which allow pandas to find more food and meet new breeding mates.

Traditional threats to pandas such as poaching appear to be declining, but large-scale disturbances including mining, hydro-power, tourism and infrastructure construction were referenced as concerns in the government panda survey for the first time.

Giant panda conservation efforts benefit many other rare species of animals and plants in the southwest China biodiversity hotspot. The giant panda’s habitat is a protective umbrella for endangered species such as the takin, golden monkey, red panda, and crested ibis. Forests within the giant panda’s habitat feature major water conservation areas that flow to the densely populated Yangtze River Basin.

The census, conducted by the State Forestry Administration of China, began in 2011 with financial and technical support from WWF.

(SOURCE: WWF – Photo by Bernard DE WETTER / WWF)

Lady Gaga and Fiancé Plunge into Icy Lake, Help Raise $1M for Special Olympics

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Mar 2, 2015

Lady Gaga and her fiancé, Taylor Kinney, joined actor Vince Vaughn and other celebrities in the Chicago Polar Plunge Sunday, an annual charity event for the local chapter of Special Olympics.

More than 4,500 others braved the waters of Lake Michigan, which measured an icy 33 degrees, to raise $1.1 million dollars for the charity— the most in the event’s history.

“It’s fantastic,” Vaughn told reporters afterward.

Gaga, who went under from head to toe, emerged proclaiming, “It was awesome.” She later posted on Facebook, “Feels so good to do things for a good cause like the Special Olympics. It’s great donate money, but also great to donate a gesture of love for those who deserve to be showered with it.”

Post by Chicago Polar Plunge- Benefiting Special Olympics Chicago.

A polar plunge in Virginia Beach in February also raised more than $1.1 million for that state’s Special Olympics.

Special Olympics Virginia president Rick Jeffrey said 4,781 chill seekers in that seaside city helped the group hit the one million dollar mark for the fifth year in a row.

“Our athletes face a number of foes and opponents each day but none is more pervasive than low expectations,” said Jeffrey on their website. “The community’s support of events like the Polar Plunge Winter Fest shows a commitment to celebrating what our athletes and communities can achieve when we play and live unified.”

(WATCH the video from TODAY or READ the story in the Chicago Tribune)

Unconscious Skydiver in Free Fall Rescued During Seizure (Dramatic Video)

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Mar 2, 2015

A skydiving instructor had only seconds to catch up with an unconscious student jumper and deploy his parachute for him while he was having a seizure mid- free fall.

Christopher Jones called it, “possibly the scariest moment of my life,” and now the Internet is experiencing the nail-biting 30 seconds on YouTube, recorded on a helmet-mounted camera.

Three months ago while jumping during an Accelerated Free Fall training program Jones suffered a seizure at 9000 feet before he had opened his parachute.

”I then spend the next 30 seconds in free fall unconscious,” wrote the 22 year old from Perth who uploaded the video to YouTube on Sunday.

Thankfully, at around 4000 feet, his jumpmaster, Sheldon McFarlane, managed to catch up to him in the air and pull his ripcord. His conscious returned and he land safely back on the ground.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation said the training academy’s questionnaire specifically asked whether participants had illnesses or conditions such as epilepsy.

“(Christopher’s) treating specialist wrote a letter specifically saying he was fit for skydiving,” the academy told ABC. “Obviously he wasn’t. That was the end of his skydiving career.”

(WATCH the video READ the story from the ABC)

Story tip from Kim Campbell – Photo via YouTube

Wedding Gift to My Daughter and Her New Husband? Love and Letting Go

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By

lynn Lowin

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Mar 2, 2015

A wedding is always good news. I never knew why until my daughter became a bride.

Yes, I am the mother of the bride. And, I am learning to let go.

Because my daughter is stressed, I want to soothe her exactly the way I did when she was a small child, but that role is no longer exclusively mine. She usually knows how to soothe herself, or can turn to the man she is about to marry. My job is to continue to love her and to extend that love to him, her husband-to-be. Can I do that? Can I gracefully step aside? I will because I love her.

Brides are all about love. First, is the love between the new couple and what they will create together. They are the hope for the future. But there is also what I call surrounding love — the love of parents, the love of members of the family, and the love of all the friends, old and young, who come to celebrate the marriage of this bride and groom. Traditionally, parents “give away” their daughter. The father or the mother and father walk with the bride down the aisle and hand her over to the groom. They “give her away” and then step aside.

Years ago I attended a wedding where the father of the bride stood still, his hand tightly clutching his daughter’s arm. The groom waited patiently, but nothing happened. Finally, across the aisle, his wife called out, “Charlie, let go.”

In her bridal dress and veil, my daughter will walk down the aisle to meet the man she loves. I will step back and that will be my gift to her.

File photo by Robby Mueller (CC license)