A Kent seaside town is today alive with color after volunteers painted its drab gray steps with hues of pink, yellow, lime and violet. A local community group, Ramsgate Town Team, was inspired by a story in the Good News Network about a Turkish man painting dozens of steps in his hometown.
After getting permission from the Thanet council, the team and its helpers worked together over a long weekend painting the Augusta Steps that lead down to their pristine beach.
Ramsgate Town Team Facebook Page
They gave each of the 120 steps a different hue, much like Mr. Huseyin Cetinel’s rainbow steps in Istanbul. Cetinel spent four days and $800 decorating a huge staircase in the town’s center.
His story was hugely popular on social media and inspired Turks to start a kind of color uprising across the country.
It spread to England too, as someone there saw the photo and story on the Good News Network .
”Inspired by your story of Istanbul’s Mr Huseyin Cetinel and his rainbow steps, we decided to inject some colour into a tired old set of stairs here,” wrote the Ramsgate Town Team on the Good News Network Facebook Page. “Hope you like them as much as we do and thanks for your ‘breath of fresh air’ page!”
To further advance electric vehicle technology and address the carbon crisis, Tesla Motors has opened all its patents to its competitors, saying it will not initiate lawsuits against any who use their technology in good faith.
Four kids doing a 5th grade school project on skin cancer leads to early detection for one the mother of one of the students.
“I think the kids finally realized that, wow, we really did make a difference, not just in our school, but that this was something more life and death” said Julie Curtis, the group’s teacher.
After discovering his father has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, Graham decided to help him fulfill his bucket list.
The newly-collaborating father and son are the subjects of a beautiful video created by I Like Giving, a non-profit created to inspire a generous world.
The website ilikegiving.com serves as a platform for unique storytelling and idea sharing.
Teddy Beat Clinic, 2013 — Children’s Medical Center in Dallas
Medical students in Giessen, Germany, hosted a “Teddy Clinic” last week, dolling out free care to stuffed animals suffering from a range of imaginary illnesses.
The clinic aimed to ease anxiety among children, an estimated 90 percent of whom have fears about hospitals and doctors, according to a 2009 study. It also gave med students the chance to work with kids and save the day by bringing their plush pals back from the brink.
Britain’s 2,300 urban rivers are the cleanest they’ve been in over two decades, according to a 21-year study that measured the presence of clean-river invertebrates – a yardstick for river health – which during the days of heavy industry and poor sewage treatment had declined considerably, but now appear to be making a comeback.
Although climate change has warmed British rivers by around 1-2 degrees Celsius(3-6 °F) over recent decades, the findings from Cardiff University suggest that improved pollution control has managed to offset its damaging effects on river ecosystems.
This indicates that society can prevent some undesirable climate change effects on the environment by improving habitat quality.
Dr Ian Vaughan and Professor Steve Ormerod from the School of Biosciences analyzed changes in the occurrence and spread of insects, snails and other mini-beasts from major rivers between 1991 and 2011.
The researchers then asked whether water quality, temperature, or river flow best explained the biological changes they observed. Overwhelmingly, these trends were explained by reductions in gross pollution rather than warming or changing flow caused by climate change.
Improving water quality has allowed some clean-water organisms from upland rivers to return to previously polluted lowland rivers, and may even explain some northwards movement previously attributed to climate-change.
The researchers believe these results to be very encouraging in showing how reductions in pollution can help offset climate change impacts.
Dr Ian Vaughan said: “Our analysis showed clearly that many British river invertebrates are sensitive to climate – for example; because they require good supplies of oxygen that decline as rivers warm up. However, it seems that efforts over the last 2-3 decades to clean up pollution from sewage and other sources have allowed many of these sensitive organisms to expand their range despite warming trends and several periods of drought.”
The LA skyline is very much a part of their school, so a class from LAUSD’s Olympic Primary Center created a video project that pays tribute to the city they hope one day to lead.
Mr. Avina’s class used props, costumes and choreographed dancing to croon an adorable cover of Petula Clark’s classic “Downtown.”
Not only did she raise three children of her own and adopt 14 others, Alena Strickland has fostered more than 200 children over the years, many of them struggling with mental, emotional and physical disabilities.
In Downey, where she lives southeast of Los Angeles, she has been loving children who had no one else. For that she was awarded $50,000 on Wednesday from “5-hour ENERGY Helps Amazing People.” (This award winner is not posted there, as of June 12)
In May 2014, this controversial anti-immigration flyer began circulated around Brampton, Ontario.
A member of the Facing History education organization in Ontario, teacher Lanny Cedrone, decided to bring the flyer into his class for a discussion.
He had just finished teaching about propaganda in his Grade 11 Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity course at at Louise Arbour Secondary School.
His students, some of them children of immigrants, were outraged that this kind of bigotry existed in their own community. They decided to take action and created their own flyer depicting the smiling faces of Brampton’s diversity. They wanted to show the world that their city is happy with the way it looks.
As many propaganda vehicles do, this flyer used a photo out of context to create a false impression. It used a picture of Sikhs protesting in India, which infuriated the students even more.
“The reality is, the original flyer has misrepresented our experience in our day-to-day lives in Brampton,” student Sonali Prasad, 17, told the Toronto Star.
She and her classmates live normally — and happily — with each other, as different races and cultures coming together. Thus, the main theme of their positive message is UNITY:
The students handed out their “counter-fliers” around Brampton and tweeted about the campaign using the hashtag #ConsiderThisBrampton. Find out more about the project in the Brampton Guardian.
Rewritten from a blog post at Facing History by Ben Gross
World-Cup 2010, Brazil vs Chile by Crystian Cruz (via Flickr with CC license)
World-Cup 2010, Brazil vs Chile by Crystian Cruz (via Flickr with CC license)
The FIFA World Cup begins today, and runs through July 13, with host country Brazil playing Croatia.
This is the 20th FIFA World Cup, an international men’s football tournament that takes place every four years. It is the second time that Brazil has hosted the competition, the last one being in 1950.
Beginning in June 2011, national teams from 31 countries advanced through qualification matches. This month and next, a total of 64 matches are to be played in 12 cities across Brazil in either new or redeveloped stadiums, with the tournament beginning on a group stage.
For the first time at a World Cup Finals, the matches will use goal-line technology, according to Wikipedia.
A special orthodontist is giving thousands of dollars worth of time and service to bring life-changing smiles to children from low-income families.
He has been a major benefactor of the nonprofit program, Smiles Change Lives, headquartered in Kansas City. The group was concerned by a backlog of local applicants — children whose families couldn’t afford dental work.
“It got to the point of there being a two+ year waiting list for children to receive treatment,” said Brooke Vinson, Director of Program Services.
DDS professionals, like Dr. Burleson and his colleagues at Burleson Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry in nearby Raymore, usually volunteered to take a few patients each year.
“Dr. B. wanted to further his investment in the Kansas City community,” said Vinson. “He told us to ‘send them all.'”
Last October, he came up with his own initiative: Share a Smile. For every new patient that starting treatment at the Raymore office, he would treat a Smiles patient for free. As a result, Burleson will be treating an unprecedented152 kids in 2014, eliminating the two year wait.
For his service since 2006, the group recently honored Dr. Burleson with The Distinguished Service Award.
Smiles Change Lives works with over 750 volunteer orthodontists across the United States and Canada. With Dr. B’s help, more than 6,000 children have been treated since 1997. Nine individuals were honored this year as remarkable ambassadors for the SCL mission of providing access to orthodontic care for children in need. Learn more at: www.smileschangelives.org
A young girl has invented a spill proof cup for her grandfather whose unsteady hands were causing him to spill drinks.
Lily Born of Chicago began imaging solutions a few years ago dreaming of ways to help him cope better with Parkinson’s. Then, she had an idea to attach legs onto his tumbler to prevent it from spilling. The Kangaroo Cup was born.
The first ceramic version proved too breakable and uncomfortable to hold so Lilly and her parents went back to the drawing board. This week they have successfully raised money with an online Kickstarter campaign to fund the improvements.
The new cups made with moldable prototyping plastic are stackable, unbreakable, and microwave & dishwasher safe. Still tip-resistant, the new three-legged design has an elevated base reducing the need for a coaster, and is made with BPA-free plastic.
The campaign is essentially pre-selling the 9-ounce cups — for instance, a set of four for $25. They already have raised $37,000 with still 26 days to go.
“Just because you’re a kid, doesn’t mean you can’t do big and great things’, the pre-teen designer says.
A high school golfer in Grayling, Michigan has overcome terrible tragedy and brain injury to qualify for the state finals where he played last weekend in memory of two fallen friends.
Within a single year Jake Hinkle, after being in a coma from an April 2013 car crash, has persevered in the game he loves so much to become the sole player in the finals to represent the school that lost both its golf coach and a player on that fateful road trip. The accident also left four other members of the Grayling golf team severely injured.
“Our goal for him last May was that he would wake up in the morning and know what city he was in, or that maybe he could hop 25 feet with a walker,” said Jody Hinkle of her son’s state-tournament trip. “That was one year ago.”
Not only did all five boys recover from shattered bones and broken hearts to get back in the game, their team play in the district tournament stunned just about everybody. Jake’s play qualified him to complete in the finals and carry the Grayling banner.
8.4 million dollars have been raised so far in the Salad Bars to Schools initiative.
Since its launch in 2010, the partnership has granted 3,456 salad bars to 1,097 school districts nationwide.
It was founded by Food Family Farming Foundation, National Fruit and Vegetable Alliance, United Fresh Produce Association Foundation, and Whole Foods Market as part of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move campaign.
40 cyclists will ride up the scenic California coast from Carmel to Lost Angeles in an October fundraiser called The Tour de Fresh. Each Tour de Fresh rider hopes to raise enough money to place one salad bar in a school for — $3,000 for the cost of the bar and accompanying utensils.
Fresh Summer Fruit by Sal Falko (via Flickr with CC license)
On Saturday, a police officer in Carver, Massachusetts arrived on the scene to see a vehicle completely submerged in eight feet of water.
The driver, Debra Titus, and her dog were able to escape the Toyota truck on their own, but said there was still one dog that hadn’t emerged.
Officer David Harriman, an avid dog lover, quickly removed his gun belt, gave it to his partner, and dove into the murky water. He then managed to open the door and enter the vehicle and retrieve the dog, which was in good health but a little frightened.
A photo of the rescue, posted on the Carver Police Department Facebook page has gotten a thumbs-up from more than 50,000 people, with seven thousand sharing the story with their friends.
Attaining success in life, Jim Carrey told students in his recent commencement address at a university in Iowa, is about “letting the universe know what you want, and working toward it, while letting go of how it comes to pass.”
“Your job is not to figure out how it’s going to happen for you, but to open the door in your head, and when the door opens in real life, just walk through it.”
“Don’t worry if you miss your cue, because there’s always doors opening. They keep opening.”
”I’m just making a conscious choice to perceive challenges as something beneficial, so that I can deal with them in the most productive way.”
The Maharishi University of Management, in Fairfield, Iowa granted degrees to 285 students (from 54 countries) in the arts, sciences, humanities, and business. The private university featuring Consciousness-Based Education includes a Transcendental Meditation program and organic vegetarian meals.
Some critics of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new requirements for power plants argue that forcing emissions reduction will curtail economic growth. But the recent experience of states that already cap carbon emissions reveals that emissions and economic growth are no longer tightly tied together.
The nine states that joined the Northeastern cap-and-trade program and instituted a carbon cap in 2009 — Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont — have substantially reduced their carbon emissions in recent years. At the same time, those states have had stronger economic growth than the rest of the country.
The E.P.A.’s requirement will likely spur other states to think about joining such a cap-and-trade program, which allows companies to buy and sell emissions permits from each other.
Tripp, 11, backs himself into his scooter after his march to the mound – by Allison Profeta
Recently, at her son’s Little League game, Allison Profeta was lucky enough to witness an extraordinary moment. She documented the event in Staunton, Virginia with photos and wrote about it on her blog. Here is an edited excerpt:
My son plays on a team with a 10-year-old boy named Baxter. Baxter’s brother, Tripp, was born with a form of dwarfism known as SED. He is still recovering from a series of major surgeries — one to stabilize his neck, and two for reconstructing each hip. The 11-year-old was in a full body cast for months but now used an electric scooter to move.
To mark the last baseball game of his brother’s season, Tripp was asked to throw out the first pitch. This would require him to get out of the scooter and walk more than 35 feet (10m) to the pitcher’s mound using a walker.
The coach talked to the tiny boy, letting him know what was required. He was to walk from the sideline to the pitcher’s mound, then throw out the first pitch, and walk all the way back.
Tripp’s mom was hesitant. She was unsure that he would have the strength after that long walk to take one hand off of his walker long enough to throw the pitch. Tripp piped up with a confident “I’ll do it!” so his mom stepped back.
This short walk that most of us do without thinking twice, was visibly arduous for Tripp. His walker got stuck in the dirt more than once. He never asked for help. He never faltered.
Photo by Allison Profeta
On the pitcher’s mound, the coach patiently and confidently treated Tripp as equal to all the other ballplayers who’d ever needed encouragement before throwing. His brother handed him the ball, and then ran to home plate as the team’s catcher. The boys on the team all stood in a line with their hats in their hands and the crowd held their breath. They all watched as Tripp became the hero of Staunton in one pitch.
The frail but determined boy returned across the infield with his walker and backed himself into his scooter.
