No matter how many times they failed in life, people like Lincoln, Einstein, Disney, Jobs, Edison and The Beatles, threw off the rejections and kept moving forward toward success.
If you are feeling like a failure, you may be the world’s next big success!
(WATCH the inspiring video below)
Image credit: Thinboyfatter (CC license on flicker)
Out of Florida comes another brilliant application of 3D-printing — this time to save the life of a young heart patient in what might have been her final days.
In a desperate attempt to fix Adanelie’s heart, a team of cardiovascular surgeons at Miami Children’s Hospital turn to 3D-printing to help pave the way for a successful operation.
Using the 3D model, the doctors were able to plan a unique surgery that had never been performed, utilizing parts from a donor heart.
Dr. Redmond Burke said, before seeing the 3D model he “couldn’t picture,” the operation.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from the Miami Herald)
Story tip from Kim Campbell
After participating in a prevention program at school, European teenagers were about half as likely to attempt suicide or to feel suicidal, according to a new study involving 11,000 students and published in The Lancet.
Reuters reports that the most successful program out of the three tested, called Youth Aware of Mental Health, targeted the students with lectures, role-playing exercises and education about mental health and suicide risk.
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Afterward, students likely “felt that the power of mastering their feelings, coping with stress and choosing solutions was in their hands and not decided or forced by adults,” said a Swedish psychiatry professor involved.
Suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people.
(READ more from Reuters Health)
The lost art of handwriting is one of the few ways we can uniquely express ourselves.
Today, January 23, is National Handwriting Day, honoring also the birthday of John Hancock, born in 1737, whose very name has come to mean “signature.”
As in, “Add your John Hancock, here.”
Hancock was President of the Second Continental Congress, the first Governor of Massachusetts, and the first person to sign the Declaration of Independence. His flowery signature was top and center, and the largest, by far, of any of the names signed on the revolutionary document.
The photo above shows the beautiful penmanship of a Good News Network contributor, Rose, who mailed a card, with a check, to our Post Office box.
Here’s hoping children and young adults continue devising their own signatures, so when, or if, they ever need to sign an important document, they can do so with the same flair and relish as John Hancock.
It’s highly unusual for a company to name an 83-year old as CEO, even one who has served as president since 1962. But, Tootsie Roll’s board of directors announced that Ellen Gordon would take the place of her CEO husband Melvin, who died this week at age 95.
Melvin and Ellen, who were married for 65 years, ran the Chicago candy maker together for decades after he became a director of her family’s publicly traded company in 1952.
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“Melvin’s life represented the very highest values in business, wisdom, generosity, and integrity,” Ms. Gordon said in a statement. “Tootsie Roll has seen great growth and success during his time as chairman.
The Chicago company’s founder, Leo Hirschfield, started a candy shop in 1896 and, according to Food Business News, named the half-caramel-half-chocolate penny candy after his five-year old daughter Clara, nicknamed “Tootsie.”
(READ more at WXII-TV12)
Photo credit: Brave Heart via CC on flickr / Story tip from Kelly Harrington
16-year-old Ashlynn Marracino wrote a long note to her father who died of a brain aneurysm on the side of a silver balloon and let it soar up to the heavens.
She described how she loved and missed him:
“I don’t like how I never had you in my life. It’s not fair. Show me a sign please. Anything to let me know you’re there. I miss you so much and I want you back.”
The next day the star-shaped balloon descended 435 miles away into a sandwich shop parking lot in Auburn, California.
More Synchronicity: Nativity’s Incredible Return to Son Decades After Mom’s Death
A customer took it inside to the owner and the two conspired to send the girl a care package, after seeing her full name on the balloon, and finding the girl on Facebook.
“I jumped on a Pay-it-Forward-Auburn page I follow on Facebook, and asked people to contribute.”
Soon, people around the country heard about it and began sending Ashlynn care packages and letters. Even author Mitch Albom joined the kindness train and wanted to send his inspiring book, The Five People You Meet in Heaven.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from TODAY)
Just one hour ago, the popular photography blog, Humans of New York, posted a plea to help fund field trips to Harvard for an inner city school, and this fundraiser has taken off like nothing we’ve seen.
6000 people have donated and it’s already blown past its goal of $100,000.
It all started after Brandon, the blog’s founder, posted a photo of a little boy from a neighborhood with the worst crime rate in the city of New York, Brownsville, Brooklyn.
When asked who was his hero, he named principal, Nadia Lopez at Mott Hall Bridges Academy. Ms. Lopez sets high expectation for him — and every other neighborhood sixth grader who comes to her school. She tells the African-American children that they are descended from the people who invented Math and Astronomy.
“This is a neighborhood that doesn’t necessarily expect much from our children, so at Mott Hall Bridges Academy we set our expectations very high. We don’t call the children ‘students,’ we call them ‘scholars.’ Our color is purple. Our scholars wear purple and so do our staff. Because purple is the color of royalty.”
“Since many of her scholars have never left New York, she wants them to know what it feels like to stand on the campus of one of the world’s top schools, and know that they belong,” he wrote on the fundraising page. “She thinks the experience will broaden their horizons and expand their idea of their own potential.”
“We estimate the cost of a trip, including transportation and lodging, will be about $30,000 (for the entire sixth grade class), so let’s really hit it out of the park for these kids.”
The HONY community is doing that — and much more. In the minutes it took me to write this story, another $10,000 was raised.
UPDATE: (Jan. 27) More than 29,000 donors have opened their wallets giving $873,765 in 5 days.
CHECK Out the fundraiser at Indiegogo / Photos courtesy of Humans of New York / Story tip from Lisa Kopf Malaniak
Let’s Help This Amazing School by Sharing with the Buttons below…
He watched the piles of feces go up the conveyer belt and drop into a large bin. A few minutes later, after a machine boiled and treated it, Bill Gates took a taste and proclaimed it, “Delicious.”
“The water tasted as good as any I’ve had out of a bottle,” wrote the billionaire on his blog. “And having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day. It’s that safe.”
The goal of this Gates Foundation-funded project is not to sell bottled water. It’s about sanitation, and affordable ways to get rid of the human waste that contaminates drinking water and kills some 700,000 children in the developing world every year.
The machine, called the Omniprocessor, was designed by the Janicki Bioenergy company, an engineering firm near Seattle. During processing, the self-powering machine produces water and electricity (plus a little ash), and runs at such a high temperature that there’s no nasty smell. And, it meets every emissions standard set by the U.S. government.
In the months leading up to a new pilot project in Senegal, Gates talked about the other benefits:
“Our goal is to make the processors cheap enough that entrepreneurs in low- and middle-income countries will want to invest in them and then start profitable waste-treatment businesses.”
What is better than a system that turns waste into a commodity?
(WATCH the video below – READ more at GatesNotes.com)
Norm Price has spent his money and time building, maintaining and spreading the word about a massive public skating rink on his northeast Calgary property.
Price created two ice rinks this winter — complete with hockey nets and places to simply stroll — because he thinks public skating is too expensive. For the third year in a row, he’s inviting the entire city to skate on his pond for free.
(READ the story, w/ photo, in the Calgary Herald)
File photo from Alaska by Doug Brown (CC) – Story tip from Diana Izz
Researchers have found a key that may unlock the secrets hidden in 300 papyrus scrolls from antiquity that survived the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in A.D. 79.
Previously, scholars and scientists tried to unroll the carbonized remains of texts from an ancient library unearthed in 1752, but had to abandoned the process because it resulted in too much destruction.
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Now, using a powerful 3D scan with X-ray-computed tomography, researchers in Naples, Italy, say that for the first time, they can read letters inside the scrolls — which were turned into black carbon masses by the volcano’s gases– without unrolling them.
The possibility of recovering vanished works of ancient Greek and Roman authors like Epicurus and his student Philodemus has historians giddy.
(READ the story from the New York Times)
I’ve got great news! Information that is known, yet not always remembered… You have a superpower! We all do…
Each of us: you, me, the bus driver, the florist, our children, teachers… everyone!
We are all blessed with the superpower of conscious choice.
What is this superpower’s kryptonite?? I think it’s our fears, insecurities, need for instant gratification, and playing the victim to our circumstances.
To be clear, we all get rained on. I know it’s said time and time again, but needs to be said now too: It’s not the cards we’ve been dealt, but how we play them that matters.
If we are NOT using this conscious choice to live out our hopes and dreams, then we are wasting our superpower and one of the greatest gifts we’ve been given.
You may be thinking, “That’s great Michelle, but HOW do I use the power of conscious choice to create my future?”
CHECK Out: The 10 Quickest Ways to Boost Your Happiness
First, let’s pull out the “Ploog Dictionary” and take a moment to define conscious choice as: choosing action in the present moment to create a desired outcome for the future.
For example, in your dream life you may see yourself with 6-pack abs and a perfectly rounded booty. Every single day you are presented with choices that will either create this as your reality or take you further away from it.
Like it or not, it’s the choices that you make throughout your daily life that determine whether you meet a goal or you don’t.
Think of it as the moment you are faced with the option between 5:30 yoga or 5:30 happy hour. One isn’t better or worse, but each take you a step closer to your chosen 6-pack.
Look at career, love, family, contribution, self-confidence and fulfillment. What are the assumed possible results when you choose between logging into Facebook or working on an item you have moved way to the side of your desktop.
ALSO: Here Are Six Keys to Changing Almost Anything
You can choose to send your significant other a love note or irritated text because they left a tissue out on the nightstand (or both!). You can choose between standing up for what’s right or hiding in silence.
You have been given a superpower. The superpower of conscious choice. As with all power, comes responsibility. Choose wisely and choose what’s in alignment with your desired goals.
What you focus on will create your future.
I hope this has inspired your day and will continue to inspire you throughout the week. Forward to a friend in need of a pep talk – you never know how you can ignite someone’s superpower into creating their dream life!
Thank you for reading!
Much Love and BIG smiles, Michelle Ploog
[email protected] / www.michelleploog.com / Twitter & Instagram: @michelleploog
13-year-old Austin McElravy was attending his first NFL game with his dad, but the die-hard Packers fans were surrounded during the championship final by some not-so-nice Seattle Seahawks fans — except for one.
After the last minute loss, the young Packers-lover was happy for the guy next to him, PJ Ledorze, who had befriended the family throughout the game. He congratulated him on the wild victory, and PJ suddenly pulled off his beloved Seahawks jersey and gave it to Austin.
The family took a photo and was very touched, but they never got PJ’s last name, and later wanted to thank him again. They contacted a local TV station that then posted the McElravy’s photo in an effort to locate the generous sportsman.
“Can you help us get in contact with this fan? We attended the game today and my son and I are die-hard Packers fans. At the game there was one fan (a 12) who was pretty vulgar to us and said some pretty rude things to me and my 13 year old son Austin. The whole game this guy in a Sherman Jersey was talking to us having a good time…offered to trade jerseys with us (but we did not want to give up our Green and Gold). At the end of the game my son congratulated him on a great game and PJ took off his Sherman Super Bowl Jersey and GAVE it to my son. We were moved to tears
…the 12’s showed what being a Seahawk fan is truly about.”
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After the publicity, PJ was found, and received hundreds of compliments on Facebook and Instagram for his sportsmanlike behavior. Now his generosity is being rewarded.
On Tuesday, the star player on Seattle’s team, Richard Sherman (the player whose jersey Ledorze had worn and given away), posted a big shout-out for the kind gesture.
“I appreciate what you did for for Austin. I’m going to send you a new signed Jersey and some gear from my store. I know you didn’t expect anything in return, but you deserve it.”
(WATCH the inspiring video below or READ the King-5 story here)
Story tip from Judy Ritchie
The Texas-based Prison Entrepreneurship Program (PEP) believes that helping inmates prepare to start their own businesses when they leave prison will reduce the likelihood that they will end up behind bars again. And the program’s statistics show it is working.
“PEP has graduated more than 1,100 students that have opened 165 businesses, at least two of which are grossing more than $1 million,” reports the AP. “Within 90 days of their release, nearly all had found jobs.”
The innovative program was founded in 2004 by former Wall Street professional Catherine Rohr, who noticed that inmates often have a lot in common with business owners. She began connecting top executives, entrepreneurs, and MBA students with convicted felons who want to redirect their energy toward legitimate goals. It made sense to help them start their own businesses because getting hired was a dim prospect while “ex-felon” remained on their job applications.
“We stand for the belief that there is tremendous talent behind bars and that our country will be better served by harnessing it,” said Pat Mcgee, a former inmate who is now PEP’s Prison Initiatives Manager. “PEP is not just a program; we are a revolution.”
Funded entirely through philanthropic grants and donations, the whole of American society is reaping the rewards. In 2013, Baylor University determined that PEP.org delivers a 340% ROI (return on investment) for every dollar donated.
(WATCH the video below or READ more from the Associated Press)
Rates of family-related physical assaults in Canada declined 14% from 2009 and 2013. (Statistics Canada)
A sixth-grade teacher in Bakersfield, California was so sad to see kids coming to school wearing old, torn clothes that she started a clothing bank for students.
That was three years ago, and after getting so many donations from the community, she now runs it, inside an old classroom, as a benefit for the entire community.
Mrs. Susan Holloway at McKee Middle School has donated countless hours of her time to the clothing bank, which has grown to accommodate the needs of more than 10,000 students in the Greenfield Union School District.
WATCH: Strangers, Friends Donate Sick Days to Calif. Teacher Battling Cancer
Holloway’s colleague said it might be inspirational for other teachers — or anyone else — to realize that they too can take an idea and create “something amazing from nothing”.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from KGET)
Story tip from Eric
Valentine’s Day is going to be extra special this year for 5000 people with special needs across the United States who will be attending glitzy prom dances paid for by the former NFL star quarterback, Tim Tebow.
The Tim Tebow Foundation is celebrating the foundation’s 5-year anniversary by creating Night to Shine dances in 50 different cities on February 13.
Each prom, happening simultaneously in participating churches, will include a red carpet entrance with paparazzi, limousine rides, hair and makeup stations, shoeshines, a dance floor, food and more. At least 100 adults and teens with special needs are expected to be in attendance at each church.
WATCH: ‘She Loves Life’: Teen with Cerebral Palsy Named Homecoming Queen
“The Tim Tebow Foundation has a great passion for people with special needs,” the group said on their website.
46 churches have been listed as participants, including Amazing Grace International Ministries in Nairobi, Kenya.
The Christian non-profit group is looking for local volunteers to help. Refer to the list online to find a church near you. If you know of someone who would be interested in attending a Night to Shine, contact the host church nearest you. If there is not a host church in your area, consider referring one in your city.
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In other Tim Tebow charity work, the former athlete opened the Tebow CURE Hospital in the Philippines last month, to serve the critical orthopedic needs of children unable to afford treatments.
The hospital, built in partnership with CURE International, is a five-story, 30 bed facility with 3 operating rooms specializing in pediatric orthopedic surgeries.
“I was born in the Philippines while my parents served as missionaries, and I have always had a great love and passion for the Filipino people,” said Tim Tebow, in a press release. “It is so exciting to be able to provide healing and care for these incredibly deserving children halfway around the world.”
Photo of Madi Holland via Tim Tebow Foundation FB Page
In the last eight years India has seen their tiger population increase more than 36 percent according to a new tiger census.
The Status of Tigers in India, 2014, published by the nation’s Tiger Conservation Authority, counted 2,226 wild tigers in 2014 — up from 1,411 in 2006.
Home to around 70% of the world’s tigers, the success in India can be largely attributed to better management and improved protection within tiger reserves and protected areas.
The Indian Minister for Environment and Forests, Prakash Javadekar, described the results as a “huge success story.”
“It is heartening that India’s tiger numbers are increasing,” said Javadekar. “This was not the situation a decade ago and I am proud that we have risen to the challenge and turned the situation around.”
CHECK Out: World Gorilla Population Rises Nine Percent in Two Years 
In the last four years, all tiger countries have been working to double global tiger numbers, a goal known as Tx2. This new result from India coupled with the increase from the last census in 2010, when the population grew to 1,706, demonstrates that even in densely populated and economically booming Asia, ambitious targets for species recovery can be achieved, said WWF in a press release.
This year Russia will carry out a full range Amur tiger survey and in February, a significant anti-poaching meeting, ‘Symposium: Towards Zero Poaching,’ will be hosted by the Nepalese government.
(Source: WWF / Photo credit: © Martin Harvey-WWF / Story tip from Christopher Stoneking)
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As a boy with autism, Dylan Johnson never was much interested in “normal” toys. Instead, he always had a passion for vacuum cleaners.
For his 14th birthday party, his mother Jodie wrote a letter to the Kirby Company, hoping to get a vacuum salesman to come and give a demonstration of Dylan’s all-time favorite machine.
She wrote: “He has always been obsessed with vacuum cleaners. His favorite is the Kirby. He spends hours every day watching videos on his tablet about different Kirby’s. When he isn’t watching videos about them, he is talking about them. I really would LOVE to get a demo done for him for his birthday. In fact, I am even getting him a cake made that looks like a Kirby vacuum. I am writing to you in hopes that you can get me in touch with a way to get him this demo. I want to be clear that I do not intend on purchasing a Kirby. I was hoping that I could pay a flat fee or thought that maybe if you have salesmen in training that needs to get in practice demos for training purposes. I do not want anything free, but as the mother of a special needs child, it is so hard to find things to make my son happy. I know that having this demo done would just be so awesome, and it would warm my heart to see him so excited to experience that.”
WTVR reported that not only did the company send the boy a Kirby t-shirt and hat, they arranged for salesman Al Archie to attend the party in Chesterfield, Virginia.
Archie, who has been selling the deluxe machines door-to-door for 25 years, said, “He knew more about the Kirby than I did.”
But there was one thing Dylan didn’t know. Archie had planned a surprise, and gave Dylan the expensive vacuum free of charge at the end of the demonstration, saying it was an “opportunity to give something back.”
The teen has been joyfully cleaning the carpets in every free moment since the party ended on Saturday.
(READ the full story w/ more family photos at WTVR)
Story tip from Kim Campbell
Two brothers with Duchenne muscular dystrophy have formed a special relationship with the Ohio State Buckeyes football team, one that resembles a loving family.
Jacob Jarvis, 14, and his younger brother Noah Studebaker, 7, each have the disease, the most common fatal childhood genetic disorder.
The siblings have been friends of the Ohio State coach, Urban Meyer, and the team, since July 2013, and regularly attend practices and sit in on coaching meetings.
“Our players love them,” said the coach whose team has given the game ball to the boys after big victories.
Check out: Softball Team Could Have Won 50-0, But Chose to Forfeit and Teach Opponents how to Improve
Describing their first encounter, Meyer said, “I saw an incredible spirit,” reports the Columbus Dispatch. “His eyes were just glistening, being in the stadium, on the field.”
The team members agree that they have benefited far more than the kids have, learning lessons of gratitude and always having a good attitude.
(WATCH the video below from Big Ten Network, The Journey – on Facebook)
Photo credit: Ohio State Athletic Dept
Although his vision for indoor food cultivation dates back many decades, a Japanese botanist, Shigeharu Shimamura, used the earthquake and tsunami disaster of 2011 as a catalyst to start a stunning new factory farm that produces 10,000 heads of high quality leafy lettuce per day with staggering efficiency.
The nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant occurred in an agricultural region of the small country and produced rampant food shortages. The Japanese government wanted to provide subsidies to spur development in Miyagi — a perfect opportunity to produce the farm of the future.
The facility run by Mirai uses towering rows of thin soil trays and exact measurements for temperature, humidity, light and darkness, to create 100 times more vegetables per square foot than traditional agriculture methods. The bacteria-free, pesticide-free environment cuts food waste by 30-40 percent compared to lettuce grown outdoors.
With such exacting standards crops are not the only thing 
being saved. Energy and, most importantly, water is being conserved, too. The growing method uses 40% less power and, through recycling in the closed system, 99% less water than outdoor fields. Other advantages include food safety and year-round availability, no matter the climate or weather.
Mirai has installed plant factories in 12 locations around Japan selling their varieties of lettuce to grocery stores and restaurants. They are now expanding into major cities where acreage is limited, like Hong Kong and in mainland China. A Russian location is also being planned following the success of two smaller farms in Mongolia where the climate is so severe vegetables can’t be grown outdoors for much of the year and they need to import from Europe, a great distance away.
As the world learns to deal with shortages of both water and food around the world, plant factory operations are becoming a great solution.
(WATCH the video below or READ a report presented at The University of Arizona)
