What do you do when you’re 84 and own Canada’s most beautiful bookstore? And one that is thriving.
Sell it? You could. Close it? You could do that, too.
But if you’re Jim Munro, who for 50 years has run Munro’s Books in Victoria, B. C., you do something exceptional: you give the business to four of your staff.
(READ the story, w/ photo, from the Toronto Star)
Story tip from Colleen Eggertson – Photo from Munro’s Books Facebook Page
Apple this week signed a development agreement with the City of Claremont, which will allow it to build its third massive solar farm in North Carolina.
When finished, the 100-acre farm is expected to produce 17.5 megawatts at a development cost of $55 million.
(READ the full story from Inhabitat)
Photo from Apple shows its maiden solar farm in NC
What if you took a megaphone and a convertible, and drove around complimenting people on how good they looked, how erect they walked or how great their smile made you feel?
Blake Grigsby did it and made a video to show how happy it made people.
(WATCH the video above)
A hero cat saved its owners life by tapping on a next-door neighbour’s window when she collapsed at home.
Tomcat Slinky Malinki came to 48-year-old Janet Rawlinson’s rescue by tapping on the window of Mel and Stephen Sharp with his paw to raise the alarm.
(READ the story in the UK Mirror)
A teenager drowning off the Cornish Coast was saved after he used his phone to post an SOS message on Facebook. The 18-year-old’s dinghy capsized – but he managed to type a message on his phone before it got too wet.
The rescue crew was scrambled from Fowey and by the time the teenager was picked up a mile off shore, he had been treading water for two hours.
(READ the story in ITV.com)
Photo by Nekanaiz, CC license
For Marcellous McDonald trash collection is much more than helping keep the city clean. The former high school peer counselor who has been living on the streets for months is part of a new program that puts the homeless to work picking up litter and sweeping leaves in downtown San Jose five days a week.
In return, the program gives them access to a host of benefits including housing and job placement, food and even background checks.
(READ the story in the Mercury-News)
Photo credit: XAtsukex with CC license
It’s easy to forget how important they are to our food chain, so July 11th is Cow Appreciation Day.
Here are some great ways to say “Moo-chas Grasses” to bovines everywhere, from the folks at Fearrington Village, a resort and spa on a historic dairy farm in North Carolina.
– Have a glass of milk. Or better yet, make it a milk punch, a sweet, cold, elegant blend of dairy and liquor that dates back centuries, which is enjoying a revival these days.
– Visit a working farm and hug a cow. The striking appearance of these Belted Galloway cows (below) are reminiscent of an Oreo cookie. (Milk, please!) This breed of cow, which originated in Galloway, Scotland over a century ago, adorn many fields in the USA today.
– Donate a cow to end hunger for a family. Heifer International is famous for its program that lets you buy a cow and donate it to a family, helping lift them out of poverty: www.heifer.org
– Take a local cheese making class and learn the difference between cow, sheep and goat’s milk cheeses.
They get excited if given the chance to solve problems: When challenged to figure out how to open a door or get to food, their heartbeat increased, brainwaves showed excitement, and some even jump into the air.
Cows benefit from almost 360 degree vision, with the ability to see predators coming from any direction. They also have an excellent sense of smell and are able to detect odors up to 5 miles away. Their hearing is also beyond human capacity, with both low and high frequency sounds.
– You can win a two night stay at The Fearrington House Inn — home to Belted Galloway cows — by entering their Instagram photography contest. Details here.
Photo credits: (top) Dave A – CC license
For a decade, the Rychner family of Farmington, Minnesota had little interaction with the elderly man living next door. Once in a while they waved hello in passing.
But that changed last year when the family’s 3-year-old son, Emmett, struck up an unlikely friendship with 89-year-old Erling Kindem over a shared love of tomatoes and lawn tractors.
“Every time he saw me out there he would come running over,” laughs Erling, remembering those early visits from the boy next door who would ask, ‘Erling, got any ‘matoes?'”
They are together every day now it seems, exploring bugs, playing croquet, and even riding bikes.
Watch the beautiful story told by one of our favorite storytellers, Boyd Huppert.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from KARE-11 News)
Photo courtesy of Emmet’s family
Almost half of the US coastline from North Carolina to Mississippi has just been designated as critical habitat for threatened loggerhead sea turtles of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf coasts.
The federal agencies of NOAA and the Fish and Wildlife Service made their final ruling after a year of comment period, acting to declare 88 beaches as critical to the marine species’ survival. These beaches account for 48 percent of an estimated 1,531 miles of coastal shoreline used by loggerheads, which contain about 84 percent of their documented nests.
“Given the vital role loggerhead sea turtles play in maintaining the health of our oceans, rebuilding their populations is key as we work to ensure healthy and resilient oceans for generations to come,” said Eileen Sobeck, assistant administrator for fisheries at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“Coastal communities from North Carolina to Mississippi are also intrinsically tied to these shorelines and waters. By conserving the turtle and protecting its habitat, we are helping preserve not only this emblematic species, but also the way of life for millions of Americans,” said USFWS Director Dan Ashe.
Under the Endangered Species Act, critical habitat is defined as areas containing features essential to the conservation of a listed species. This designation will not create preserves or refuges or affect land ownership in the six states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. It only restricts human activities in situations where federal actions are involved, such as funding or issuing permits. In those cases, the federal agency concerned works with NOAA Fisheries or USFWS to “avoid, reduce or mitigate potential impacts to the species’ habitat”.
The loggerhead is the most common sea turtle in southeastern United States, nesting along the Atlantic Coast of Florida, South Carolina, Georgia and North Carolina and along the Gulf Coast. It is a long-lived, slow-growing species, vulnerable to various threats including loss of natural beaches, vessel strikes and fishing nets.
A program that provides contraceptives to low-income women contributed to a 40-percent drop in Colorado’s teen birth rate over five years, according to state officials.
Likewise, the teen abortion rate dropped by 35 percent from 2009 to 2012, in counties served by the Colorado Family Planning Initiative.
68 family planning clinics provide intrauterine devices (IUDs) or implants, which safely prevent the fertilization of eggs, to low income women around the state.
(READ the story from Vox or Colorado State officials)
Photo by Harbor Life – CC license
A group of Communist Party members in Shanghai have won recognition for their grassroots initiatives, which include a decade of weaving with waste. Discarded rubbish is turned into useful items for community residents thanks to the skillful hands of the “Green Housewives.”
“We are not necessarily wealthy, but many of us have plenty of time,” said Shang Yanhua, Party head of one residential community.
They sew together discarded packaging into aprons, hats, purses, slippers and whatever they can imagine. They also plant community gardens and green roofs.
Green Housewives is now a registered nongovernment organization that has won awards, sewing machines, and thousands of dollars to help with their work.
(READ the new story in Shanghai Daily – and this archived CNN feature story with photos)
A Saskatchewan portrait photographer captured stunning photos Saturday for a newly married couple in which a tornado could be seen in the background.
Colleen Niska shared the photographs on Facebook saying she’s “dreamed about a day like this.”
“Pretty sure this will only happen once in my lifetime!”
Let’s hope the images don’t portend a stormy marriage ahead. (Instead, it could symbolize their raging passion for life.)
See more photos by Colleen Niska on Facebook.
(WATCH the video below, or READ more, w/ photos, from the CBC)
UN Women, the United Nations organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women, announced yesterday it has tapped British actress Emma Watson as Goodwill Ambassador.
Known for playing the leading role of “Hermione Granger” in the Harry Potter saga, Watson has been involved with the promotion of girls’ education for several years, and previously visited Bangladesh and Zambia as part of her humanitarian efforts.
“Emma embodies the values of UN Women,” said Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
“Women’s rights are something so inextricably linked with who I am, so deeply personal and rooted in my life that I can’t imagine an opportunity more exciting” said Watson.
The role of the Goodwill Ambassador is to promote the empowerment of young women and to serve as an advocate for UN Women’s HeForShe campaign in fostering gender equality. That campaign is a solidarity movement which brings women and men together to fight against gender inequalities faced by women and girls globally.
“Being asked to serve as UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador, a chance to make a real difference, is not an opportunity that everyone is given and is one I have no intention of taking lightly,” Watson said.
Scoring in his fourth consecutive World Cup, Germany striker Miroslav Klose broke the tournament’s all-time record with his 16th goal during a semi-final win over Brazil yesterday.
A humble man, Klose, 36, is the best German striker of his generation whose tremendous sense of fair play has won him admirers in his homeland and in Italy where he plays for Lazio.
(READ the story from Reuters)
Photo: Klose in 2010 World Cup win against England (4-1) by seriouslysilly via CC, Flickr
Can password therapy really improve your life? Mauricio Estrella, an associate creative director in Shanghai, developed a unique way to create and remember passwords. He used a personal goal to create an affirmation and it became a password infused with the power of positive thinking. Here’s his story…
“How could she do something like this to me?” said the voice in my head, over and over.
It was 2011 and I was stuck in middle of a pretty bad depression due to my divorce.
Thankfully, I think I was smart enough (and had great people around me) so I managed my way out.
One day I walk into the office, and my computer screen showed me the following message:
“Your password has expired. Click ‘Change password’ to change your password.”
I read this dumb message in my mind with angry grandpa voice: The darn password has expired.
At my workplace, the Microsoft Exchange server is configured to ask thousands of employees around the planet to change their passwords. Every 30 days.
Here what’s annoying: The server forces us to use at least one UPPERCASE character, at least one lowercase alphabetic character, at least one symbol and at least one number. Oh, and the whole thing can’t be less than 8 characters. And I can’t use any of the same passwords I’ve used in the last 3 months.
I was furious that morning. A sizzling hot Tuesday, it was 9:40 a.m and I was late to work. I was still wearing my bike helmet and had forgotten to eat breakfast. I needed to get things done before a 10 a.m. meeting and changing passwords was going to be a huge waste of time.
As the input field with the pulsating cursor was waiting for me to type a password — something I’d use many times during every day — I remembered a tip I heard from my former boss.
And I decided: I’m gonna use a password to change my life.
It was obvious that I couldn’t focus on getting things done with my current lifestyle and mood. Of course, there were clear indicators of what I needed to do — or what I had to achieve — in order to regain control of my life, but we often don’t pay attention to these clues.
My password became the indicator. My password reminded me that I shouldn’t let myself be victim of my recent break up, and that I’m strong enough to do something about it.
My password became: “Forgive@h3r”
In my mind, I went with the mantra that I didn’t type a password. In my mind, I wrote “Forgive her” every day, for one month.
That simple action changed the way I looked at my ex wife. That constant reminder that I should forgive her led me to accept the way things happened at the end of my marriage, and embrace a new way of dealing with the depression that I was drowning into.
In the following days, my mood improved drastically. By the end of the second week, I noticed that this password became less powerful, and it started to lose its effect. A quick refresh of this ‘mantra’ helped me. I thought to myself “I forgive her” as I typed it, every time. The healing effect of it came back almost immediately.
One month later, my dear exchange server asked me again to renew my password. I thought about the next thing I had to get done.
My password became: Quit@smoking4ever
And guess what happened. I quit smoking overnight. This password was a painful one to type during that month, but doing it helped me to yell at myself in my mind, as I typed that statement. It motivated me to follow my monthly goal.
One month later, my password became: Save4trip@thailand …Guess where I went 3 months later. Thailand. With savings.
So, I learned that I can truly change my life if I play it right. I kept doing this repeatedly month after month, with great results.
Here are some of my passwords from the last 2 years, so you get an idea of how my life has changed, thanks to this method:
Forgive@her (to my ex-wife, who started it all.)
Quit@smoking4ever (It worked.)
Save4trip@thailand (It worked.)
Eat2times@day (It never worked, still fat.)
Sleep@before12 (It worked.)
Ask@her4date (It worked. I fell in love again.)
No@drinking2months (It worked. I feel better.)
Get@c4t! (It worked. I have a beautiful cat.)
Facetime2mom@sunday (It worked. I talk with my mom every week.)
And the one for last month:
Save4@ring (Yep. Life is gonna change again, soon.)
I still anxiously await each month so I can change my password into something that I need to get done.
This method has consistently worked for me for the last 2 years, and I have shared it with a few close friends and relatives. I didn’t think it was a breakthrough in tiny-habits but it did have a great impact in my life, so that’s why I’m sharing it with you. If you try it with the right mindset and attitude, maybe it could help change your life, too.
Oh, and remember: for added security, try to be a bit more complex with the words. Add symbols or numbers, or scramble a bit the beginning or the ending of your password string. S4f3ty_f1rst!
A commencement ceremony recently celebrated 39 high school students who beat the odds. All these teens thrived given free tuition from Girard College (a boarding school for kids and teens established in 1848 to serve orphans).
Most of the students are from areas of Philadelphia where it’s assumed that they won’t go to college. They’re from neighborhoods where less than 60% of the kids graduate high school and only a small fraction of those continue their education.
“98% of these amazing Girard students sitting in front of me are not only graduating, they’re going on to colleges like the University of Pennsylvania, Wesleyan and Howard,” wrote Brad Aronson on his blog.
(READ the story from BradAronson.com)
Frontier Airline Passengers flying from Washington, D.C. to Denver Monday arrived after midnight, five hours late, but most did not complain.
While they were waiting on a tarmac in Wyoming for stormy weather to clear in Denver, the captain ordered pizzas delivered to the plane.
Passenger Logan Marie Torres sent photos of the pizza party to news outlets showing 50 pies being passed among grateful passengers.
The engines had been off and the plane’s cabin was hot when the announcement came that pizza was on its way: “Ladies and gentleman, Frontier Airlines is known for being one of the cheapest airlines in the U.S., but your captain is not…”
(WATCH the video below, or read the story from KDVR.com)
Photo credit: Logan Marie Torres – Story Tip from Rick Adams
An elephant named Nzou, orphaned when poachers killed her parents for their ivory, has become the towering gentle giant among her adopted family, a herd of water buffalo.
For years Nzou eschewed the nearby elephant herd, preferring to stay with the buffalo.
Now, decades later, she is a protective matriarch watching over new births of calves in the herd and becoming distressed whenever separated from them.
Together they roam on a 10,000 acre game reserve in Zimbabwe, interacting with the area’s natural wildlife during the day, but protected from poachers at night.
Photo from the Imire Rhino and Wildlife Facebook Page
Story Tip from Leija Haabe
In downtown Benghazi, a dark and deserted park is now bustling with life. Fathers and mothers bring their children to play on the new playground and enjoy the safe space. With four schools in the surrounding area, teachers now bring their students to the park for physical education classes.
The project was implemented by Ayadina, a women-led civil society organization that seeks to support and engage youth in Benghazi. The park and other projects to spark positive change are supported by the USAID.
Ayadina also spearheaded campaigns to clean up Benghazi’s littered beachfront, raise awareness of the importance of environmental protection, and distribute information on the development of Libya’s new constitution.
Last September, the group led a series of beach cleanups at four locations with help from dozens of Boy Scouts. Local businesspeople donated 40 metal garbage bins that were placed along the shorefront. The campaign spread to the sea as four scuba divers volunteered to collect waste underwater.
“We have received a lot of positive feedback from community residents,” said Haneia Muftah Gamatti, chairperson of Ayadina. “I see the activity at the park and know that we have done something good that will contribute to improving Benghazi.”
Photo: Libya Transition Initiative
A young man with a YouTube channel wanted to reward people who were handing money to homeless people because, he says, “Thousands of people give everyday and it goes unnoticed.”
He made at least a few drivers smile after they stuck out their hand to give money. He turned the table on them, putting down his homeless sign and giving them each five dollars.
“These kind people could have kept their eyes forward and ignored me… Unlike like the hundreds that passed by, these few were giving,” wrote MAD BAM on his YouTube page. “I rewarded them for that.”
(WATCH the video at the top)
Story tip from Madeline Muñoz-Bustamante
