A rare and valuable William Shakespeare First Folio from 1623 has been discovered in a provincial town in France.
The book – one of only 230 believed to still exist – had lain undisturbed in the library at Saint-Omer for 200 years.
A Medieval literature expert was searching the archives, according to the Guardian, when he stumbled across the battered book in September.
(READ the full story from the Guardian)
Story tip – Mike McGinley
San Francisco-based artist Hannah Rothstein has created a brilliant photo series that imagines how famous artists would plate their Thanksgiving dishes, using turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberries and green beans to illustrate.
Above is how Van Gogh might play with his food. Mondrian’s and Jackson Pollock’s are shown below. Also featured are Rothko, Warhol, and more…
(SEE all her photos at hrothstein.com)
Story tip – Mike McGinley
It’s not all chaos and violence in Ferguson. There are scores of good people hitting the streets to help repair and rebuild after Monday’s riots… and NFL Hall of Fame athlete Aeneas Williams is one.
He told TMZ Hollywood Sports that people from all walks of life, all races, all religions were joining him as he helped board up windows and clean up the small business owners who were hit.
Elsewhere, reporter Ryan Reilly took these photos of crews out at the crack of dawn cleaning the streets and sidewalks:
Cleaning up on South Florissant #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/Pp9DfYUr9r
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) November 25, 2014Terrence Williams, 23, has been out here cleaning up since 7 a.m. #Ferguson pic.twitter.com/JIrDTjq65z
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) November 25, 2014One restaurant owner thought her business would be one of the worst hit in the rioting because it is located next to the police department, but she learned later that a group of loyal customers had linked arms through the night to prevent any serious damage.
By the time the owners, Cathy and Jerome Jenkins, arrived the next morning, supporters were already cleaning up the glass from a single broken window.
“It represents what people don’t know about Ferguson,” said Jerome.
“The people who were doing looting, they weren’t protesters,” added Cathy. “They were criminals.”
(WATCH the interviews with Cathy and Aeneas Williams below)
During the Christmas season of 2000, a young Filipino girl received a gift-filled shoebox and she couldn’t have imagined that one day she would actually meet the 7-year-old boy from Idaho who packed the box in a small town 7000 miles away.
Furthermore, she never dreamed that she would marry the American boy, all grown up 14 years later.
In November, 2014, Joana and her new husband Tyrel Wolfe dropped off their own homemade gift shoeboxes at Samaritan’s Purse headquarters in North Carolina, where Operation Christmas Child is run. Coming full circle, they told their remarkable story to the nonprofit group that had started it all.
Joana received the shoebox at a vacation bible school in Quezon City, a suburb of Manila. Included in the box was a small photo of a little boy in a cowboy shirt holding a lariat. The boy had included his name and address.
She wanted to write to him and describe how the box had impacted her, but when Joana mailed the young blonde boy a letter, he never received it.
Eleven years later Joana decided to use Facebook to see if she could find the boy who packed her box: “I still wanted to thank the person who gave me the box that had meant so much to me.”
She searched for Tyrel Wolfe. Numerous options appeared, but one name popped up from Idaho. The boy in the photo was dressed in cowboy-type attire with a rustic mountain background. She had never been to the United States, but she knew that Idaho had mountains. Was this ‘Tyrel Wolfe’ the one? She clicked on the link and submitted a friend request.
In the rural community of Midvale (pop. 160), Tyrel was intrigued by a message from “a random girl in the Philippines.”
Thus began their Facebook friendship and an exchange of letters and pictures over the next year. The more they corresponded, the more things Tyrel and Joana found they had in common. They were both passionate about music—albeit different styles—and both sing and play at least one musical instrument. And Joana had always dreamed of a quiet life in the country.
WATCH: Man Builds Tiny House for Homeless Woman Sleeping in the Dirt
Despite the 15-hour time difference, they set aside moments in the morning and again at night for daily Facebook visits. But if their relationship was to progress, they needed to see each other in person.
In June 2013, after saving up money for a plane ticket and receiving cautionary blessings from his parents, Tyrel flew to Manila. He had been on overseas Christian missions before, but had never been to Asia—and had never traveled alone.
“Once I saw his face, an amazing feeling came over me,” Joana said. “I was so happy I cried.”
Tyrel stayed for 10 days and got to know Joana in her hometown. Prior to the trip, they had agreed not to officially date until Tyrel had asked her father’s permission in person. Midway through his visit he gathered the courage to ask the protective pastor, and Joana’s father gave his approval without hesitation.
“I wanted to spend every moment I could with Joana while I was there, because once I left I didn’t know what would happen next,” Tyrel said. “All I knew was Joana was the one.”
Tyrel returned to Idaho fully determined to go back to the Philippines. He accepted extra hours at work as a trails- and bridge-builder at state parks, saving every dollar he could in order to visit Joana during the holiday season. This time he stayed for a month.
At last he was ready to pop the big question. Speaking in the Tagalog language, he asked her dad for permission to marry the girl of his dreams.
The couple held an engagement party in the Philippines and obtained a fiancée visa for Joana.
On October 5 they got married in an outdoor ceremony on Tyrel’s parents’ 400-acre cattle ranch and Tyrel wore a barong, the traditional embroidered shirt worn by Filipino grooms.
Tyrel’s mom came up with the idea of asking invited guests to bring gift-filled shoeboxes for donation. “Operation Christmas Child is what brought Joana and me together, so we wanted to somehow make the project a part of our celebration,” Tyrel recalled.
Joana loved the idea and included “Pack a Shoebox” brochures with every wedding invitation. Some guests brought boxes; others gave a donation.
Rather than leaving the shoeboxes at one of the many Samaritan’s Purse drop-off location in Idaho, the Wolfes agreed it would be more meaningful if they delivered the boxes to the Christian aid group’s headquarters, bringing their own shoebox–journey full circle.
Now six weeks into married life, Tyrel and Joana are looking forward to their first Christmas together in the United States. They have started a tradition that they hope to continue every year for the rest of their lives—packing shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child.
“And when we start having children, we want to involve them in packing boxes too,” said a smiling Tyrel as he held his wife’s hand. “I remember as a little boy, I was so excited to know the toys and other items I put in the box would bring joy to another child somewhere else in the world.
“I just didn’t know the joy it would bring back to me one day.”
Google is throwing its money, brain power and technology into developing adaptive equipment for people with essential tremors and Parkinson’s disease.
In September they bought a company, first funded by the National of Institutes of Health, that has revolutionized the humble spoon.
Hundreds of algorithms are used in a new way to give the Liftware spoons the ability to allow to eat without spilling, reports the AP. “The technology senses how a hand is shaking and makes instant adjustments to stay balanced.”
The four scientists and engineers who started Lift Labs explained, “Seeing our own friends and family suffering has motivated us to create Lift Labs and focus on improving overall quality of life and independence.”
The Liftware Stabilizer with battery charger and soup spoon attachment costs around $200, which the company says averages to 27¢ per meal over the first year. “After that it’s paid for.”
Liftware sells their products on Amazon, here.
(WATCH the video about Liftware below, or READ more in the AP story via SFGate.com)
SHARE the Good News Using the Buttons Below! – Story tip – Mike McGinley
Trista Hopkins, a U.S. Army veteran in Dallas who was raising two daughters in a dilapidated home with holes in the roof and no running water, now has a renovated home with new furnishings — just in time for Thanksgiving.
Thanks to Rebuilding Together of Greater Dallas, Dwell With Dignity, and many volunteers — including R.O.T.C. students from the Cary Middle School where she works as a cafeteria server — the home that once was barely livable, is now a beautiful tribute to her service.
Trista’s aunt nominated her at Rebuilding Together, which handed over the keys to the remodeled home in a ceremony yesterday. She plans to marry her fiance at the home next week.
– WATCH the big reveal below in 2 videos
– READ the story with before and after photos at WFAA
SHARE the Joy with the Buttons Below – Photos via Facebook
It all started with a meatball.
During the 430-mile Adventure Racing World Championship in Ecuador, Swedish teammates were chowing down, trying to refuel for the next ordeal: a muddy 20-mile trek through the Amazon rainforest.
“Mikael Lindnord, the captain of Team Peak Performance, tossed part of his lunch to a thin, scruffy street dog begging for food at his feet — and inadvertently enlisted a fifth team member,” reports PRI.
Then, when they were about to start the last leg, a kayak race down the river, and leave Arthur behind, he dove into the water, desperately doggie-paddling to keep up. Despite the danger for them and the dog, Lindnord grabbed Arthur and pulled him onto his kayak.
In a very happy ending, the dog is now in Sweden, adopted by the team’s captain.
(READ the story or LISTEN to an interview on Public Radio’s The World)
Story tip from Mari-Anna Reiljan-Dillon
Chad Houser is about to open a restaurant that takes kids released from jail and teaches them to play with knives and fire, sparking a passion and a purpose for their new lives.
Bolstered by $1 million in crowdfunding and traditional donations, the Dallas chef is set to open his Café Momentum downtown in December, with a staff composed mainly of boys and young men who previously served time at a detention facility for nonviolent juvenile offenders.
The cafe’s tag line is: Eat, Drink, Save Lives.
– WATCH the inspiring video below
– READ the story from CS Monitor’s Making A Difference
Featured Photo by Santon J. Stephens via Cafe Momentum
Comedian and former Tonight Show host Jay Leno said his favorite part of doing USO shows overseas for the troops was meeting some of the soldiers one-on-one.
He decided that although young soldiers back from war have numerous services that help them with their every day needs, they don’t often receive the luxuries that Jay gets to enjoy.
He decided to compile a list of names of wounded warriors, place them in a barrel and draw a winner.
Cpl. Ethan Laberge, who is suffering from pain sustained in a roadside bomb injury in Afghanistan, met Jay at a local garage and was asked if he wanted to go for a ride in a hot new car, the 2015 Dodge Hellcat.
Leno, 64 let him drive the red beauty on country roads outside his Army base of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. They stopped for barbecue and talked about cars, one of the comedian’s favorite topics.
When they arrived back to base, Leberge gave an instant review of the Hellcat, “That was awesome … I wouldn’t mind having one of these.”
“It’s yours,” Leno said handing Leberge the keys. “America loves you. Thank you buddy.”
I wanted to let Good News Network viewers know that I am trying to maintain a ban on auto-playing video ads sitewide. Nothing annoys me more than having sudden blaring sound coming from my speakers when I hadn’t clicked on anything to cause it.
I fired a small ad agency recently after they could not keep these obnoxious ads away from our ad space. On November 4, I hired a new bigger agency that reported they do not allow such ads.
However, we need your help to keep the website ‘auto-play’ free by alerting us IF YOU EVER experience this on our website. Please use the Comments form below if you are logged-in. Or, type your message here on the Contact Us form (You can find “Contact Us” link at the bottom of any GNN page).
PLEASE try to note who the advertiser was — meaning, which product or service — and tell us which browser and device you were using.
(I sometimes hear a video ad play, but I think it is a Google ad following me around, because I only hear it in Chrome. What’s your experience been if you use Chrome?)
THANK YOU!
P.S. If you were wondering, we use the advertising funds to pay for the IT services needed to maintain the site and improve it — and to pay my modest salary.
– Geri Weis-Corbley, Founder, Managing Editor
If we could turn back the clock psychologically, could we also turn it back physically?
Ellen Langer’s 35 years of experiments have shown that mental attitudes can reverse some of the physical declines of old age.
The innovative research by this Harvard psychology professor has shown that people can heal themselves “if there is a psychological “prime” — something that triggers the body to take curative measures all by itself,” as the New York Times put it in a recent article.
The small number of elderly men who participated “became suppler, showed greater manual dexterity and sat taller — just as Langer had guessed.” Even at 80 years old, their hearing and sight improved.
That study, along with important works by other researchers, has shown Langer that “the magic lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to cultural cues.”
In Counterclockwise, Langer describes ways to reorient our attitudes and language in order to achieve better health and points out the ways in which our belief in physical limits constrains us.
In one study, hotel maids who believed they did “no exercise” with their daily routines were educated to understand that their job provided specific health benefits. Later, when the housekeepers were given a follow-up exam, their physical bodies had markedly improved.
She has recently completed tests on diabetes patients that showed their glucose levels were influenced by mental cues.
Next, she wants to test her ‘mind-body unity theory’ on women with cancerous stage four tumors.
(WATCH the video below from CBS, or READ more from the NY Times)
Photo by Katinka Bille (CC license)
This short film shows how kindness can ripple through the generations, starting with a simple gesture in a grocery store.
The video was made by the Asian website, Viddsee.com, which is known for tear-jerking clips shared on their Youtube channel.
(WATCH it and SHARE with buttons below)
Submitted by Kevin Ryan
A 40-seat airport shuttle bus in Britain is making headlines for running on human sewage and food waste.
The Bath Bus Company’s Bio-Bus hits the road next week moving passengers between Bristol to Bath while cutting its emissions by 30 percent with the use of biomethane gas instead of diesel fuel.
The odorless gas is produced at a sewage treatment plant in Avonmouth run by GENeco, a subsidiary of Wessex Water, reports the BBC.
In the US, the Sanitation District of Los Angeles is converting its trucks to use biogas being processed as its landfills. It also sells the alternative fuel to anyone with a compressed natural gas vehicle in Carson and Puente Hills. Learn more about related services in California, from the California NGV Coalition.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story at the BBC)
Photo by GENeco /Wessex Water
“Honestly, if he had both hands, he might just be a typical good athlete,” said Riley Quinn’s father. “Not having that hand just made him work that much harder and made his passion burn that much deeper.”
Sports fed that passion and Quinn played all of them: kickball, football, basketball, baseball (as a pitcher), soccer, tennis and golf. The two-handed world obviously had an advantage, but soaking in such a notion would only prove poisonous.
“The idea that I am handicapped has never entered my mind,” Quinn, the straight-A student wrote on his college essay. “Instead, I use what others may call a physical disability as my driving force and motivation to excel at everything I do.”
(WATCH the video below from Cal Hi Sports or READ the story from the San Francisco Chronicle)
Story tip from Mike McGinley – Photo via YouTube by Cal Hi Sports
SHARE this story and Inspire Others…
The Bobby Bones Show, a nationally-syndicated radio morning show, has sparked a movement that reminds people to be joyful in honor of a co-host’s mother, who recently died of cancer.
Since her diagnosis two years ago, Amy’s mother, Judy, wanted to choose only joy, and fill her life with purpose. Especially with the reach of her daughter’s radio audience, she found that purpose, spreading joy to people everywhere.
With Judy as the inspiration, the country music radio hosts, who are musicians themselves, started a campaign called “Pimpin’ Joy.” Hundreds of thousands of listeners have been “pimpin’ joy” through random acts of kindness, good deeds and donations – all inspired by Judy. (Watch the delightful video below.)
After her mom died in October, Amy and Bobby Bones raised more than $150,000 in her honor and gave the check last week to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, where no child is denied treatment based on their family’s ability to pay.
After raising money for country music artist Jason Aldean’s favorite breast cancer cause, The Bobby Bones Show teamed up with him to perform a benefit concert for St. Jude which raised another $60K for the organization.
The radio show’s hosts also tour the nation performing benefit concerts for animal charities, with proceeds from these shows totaling $500,000, so far.
For Amy’s charity, 30 Abes, the Bobby Bones Show helped break the world record for number of hunger-relief meals packaged in one hour by gathering 2000 volunteers in the Nashville Auditorium last year, to feed children in Haiti.
(WATCH the delightful “Pimpin’ Joy video with Judy, below)
SHARE the story and “Pimp Some Joy for Judy”
At a packed arena in Canada, where NHL hockey teams were set to battle on the ice, the Toronto Maple Leafs were hosting an American team from Nashville.
During the opening ceremony, the singer’s microphone failed during the US national anthem and the music suddenly stopped.
The Canadians, in a heartwarming moment, began singing the words, and cheered as they finished up the song.
“I’m sharing this story because I want Americans to know that Canadians love them,” writes JKC, who submitted the video to the Good News Network.
“Americans are like our older brother: sometimes we poke fun, and we don’t always have the same interests, but we would stand up for them in a heartbeat, and want their lives to be great.”
(WATCH the video above uploaded by ‘bagabus’ to YouTube)
A boy from Coventry, England has become the youngest Microsoft Certified Professional in the world after passing the exam when he was just five years old.
Ayan Qureshi’s father is an IT consultant who introduced his son to computers when he was three years old, reports the BBC. They boy played with old computers, so he could understand hard drives and motherboards.
“I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he’d remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information,” he explained.
(READ the story from the BBC)
This is an amazing update to the October story about the magician who made headlines when he ripped up a homeless veteran’s sign and turned it into money — big money.
After he met the veteran, who always holds a SMILE sign to inspire passersby, Rob Anderson set up a fund so his fans on YouTube could donate to the smiling homeless vet. He raised $40,000, but the ever-humble Alan McCracken only wanted a portion of it, so he could move from Las Vegas to California, where, according to Rob, his is now living happily.
The beautiful family of Gulf War veteran Johnny Hicks was presented with rent for one year, money for food, furniture and new car, thanks to the humble Alan McCracken and generous strangers who donated to a veteran in need.
(WATCH the video below – and grab a tissue)
SHARE This Story and MULTIPLY the Good!
It all started with an idea to throw the greatest Halloween Party ever. But it would become an opportunity to give back in a big way.
Two months before the holiday, Katrina and I began working tirelessly to turn our home into the coolest, most frightening Halloween-themed house in the entire neighborhood.
While we succeeded in drawing a large crowd and creating memorable moments, we also were able to transform the fun event into a benefit that would feed the hungry.
So what we did we do? We decided to collect money from our guests, friends and family, and social networks, to contribute to a local food bank.
The moral of this experience is simple; there doesn’t need to be a reason to give back. What started as a reason to get friends and family together, turned into an opportunity to raise money for a greater cause, an organization in need.
So how will you give back in the biggest or smallest of ways, especially as the Holiday Season rapidly approaches?
A train company has started a campaign to help reunite children with their lost teddy bears.
First Great Western is using posters and a website that shows ‘mugshots’ of all the toys that have been left on trains in the south of England.
(READ the story at the BBC)
Story tip from Teresa