Nearly 25 years after the Exxon Valdez oil spill injured wildlife off the coast of Alaska, a new report issued today by the U.S. Geological Survey indicates that sea otters have returned to pre-spill numbers within the most heavily oiled areas of Prince William Sound.
Sea Otters Finally Recover After Exxon Valdez Spill
Boy With Cancer Gets Secret Gifts for Over a Year
In the last 14 months, more than a dozen mystery packages have arrived for a 6-year-old boy diagnosed with cancer and, often, for his three siblings and parents. They frequently appeared after Dylan’s “really bad days” and tough chemotherapy treatments, said Laurie Full, his mom, who blogs about their experiences.
Packages would show up outside their Illinois home, sometimes arriving when the family was inside the house, but never with any trace of the source’s identity, other than the signature “Dylan’s Secret Pal.”
(READ the story in the Chicago Tribune)
Thanks to Sarah Jean for submitting the link on our Facebook Page! – File photo by Sun Star
A Poet Wore Plastic Bags On the Street Until Kind Stranger Hears His Dream
He lived on the same San Paulo street corner for 18 years. The black plastic bags wrapped around him and long tangled hair and beard protected him from the elements. Atop a small stool, this 75-year-old man could be seen every day, hunched over and writing.
Though homeless for 34 years, Raimundo (Portuguese for Raymond) was very well-read and loved to read.
In April 2011, he was befriended by a young woman named Shalla Monteiro, who was impressed by his poetry and wanted to help him realize his dream of publishing a book of his “mini-pages,” as he calls them.
She created a Facebook Page to feature the writings of Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho, who signed every poem with a nickname he gave himself, The Conditioned.
Neither could have dreamed the happy outcome of what happened next when a special someone saw the Faceboook photo.
(MUST SEE this AMAZING video below, from Facebook Stories)
Hundreds of Cards From Strangers for World War II Vet’s 90th Birthday
Harold Krueger’s wife was planning a 90th birthday party for her husband on February 21, but passed away a month before the big day.
The World War II veteran, who lives in the tiny town of Wishek, North Dakota, was having a hard time with the loss because the couple’s relationship of 63 years had been so close.
Now, hundreds of strangers from around the country are providing happy relief and a new activity, since Harold’s daughter asked her friends on Facebook to send birthday cards.
The Facebook post was shared more than 650 times and resulted in more than 1,000 letters and cards arriving from 48 states, dozens at a time, every morning.
“It’s fun to read what the little kids say,” he said, referring to large envelopes sent by teachers containing letters from children. “‘Cause what they say is from the heart.”
(READ the story from KFYR-TV)
Elephants Give Helping Hugs to Others in Need: Study
Elephants are known to be highly social and intelligent. Now there is evidence that they engage in something like a group hug when another elephant is in distress — similar to apes, wolves, some birds and dolphins.
When one elephant was disturbed, Dr. Plotnik said, other elephants — bystanders — gathered around. They made chirping sounds and touched the distressed elephant with their trunk.
‘People’ Adopts Ban on Paparazzi Photos of Celeb Kids
Inspired in part by Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell’s call for a boycott of magazines that publish paparazzi pictures of celebrity children, People mag editor Jess Cagle has agreed to stop using the photos.
“Of course, we still run a lot of sanctioned photos — like exclusive baby pictures taken with the cooperation of celebrity parents, and photos of stars posing with their kids at events (like a red carpet) where they’re expecting and willing to be photographed,” Cagle, who took over People in January, said in an Editor’s Letter. “But we have no interest in running kids’ photos taken under duress…”
(READ the story from UPI)
Photo credit: SynergyByDesign – CC license
All the Pets Who’ve Tried to Squeeze into Really Small Spaces
If you took all the hilarious moments that cats jumped into tiny boxes and and bags and placed them end to end, you would get a laugh fest of epic proportions, like the one below.
Even the dogs are funny in this music video by HuffPost Comedy.
WaterWheel Rolls Out Solution to Ease Heavy Load
A U.S. based group called Wello has reinvented the wheel to help families in the developing world who don’t have easy access to water.
Many people, including children, are spending a quarter to half of every day, hauling water on their heads. But, instead of carrying the heavy load, the Wello water wheel provides a way for anyone to easily transport 50 liters by rolling it.
US Obesity Rate for Young Children Plummets 43% in a Decade
Federal health authorities on Tuesday reported a 43 percent drop in the obesity rate among 2- to 5-year-old children over the past decade, the first broad decline in an epidemic that often leads to lifelong struggles with weight and higher risks for cancer, heart disease and stroke.
The New York Times called it the first clear evidence that America’s youngest children have turned a corner in the obesity epidemic.
One big reason is the decline in sugary beverages from the daily diets of children.
(READ the story in the New York Times)
Photo by artist in doing nothing-Flickr-CC
Couple Stumbles Upon $10 million in Buried Old Coins
During the California gold rush of the 1800’s, what did people do with their treasure when banks were rare, and sometimes untrustworthy? They buried it.
Now a middle-aged couple has staked a claim to part of the state’s legendary gold treasure after walking the dog on their rural property in Northern California and noticing a buried can jutting out of the ground near a tree.
Using a stick, they were able to dislodge the can and decided to carry it back to their house. The can was unusually heavy, but nothing could have prepared them for what they would find when they pried the lid open: mixed in with dirt and stones, they found a stash of $20 gold pieces—a literal pot of gold.
Despite being buried for over a hundred years, many of the coins were preserved in pristine condition; some being finer than anything seen to date.
Kagin’s, Inc. has expertly cleaned, filed, and numbered the coins, calling the collection the “Saddle Ridge Hoard”. Highlights of the cache include at least fourteen of the finest known specimens, including an 1866-S No Motto Double Eagle valued at close to $1 million.
The Saddle Ridge Treasure of U.S. gold coins will soon be available for sale at Kaginsinc.com and on Amazon.
Surfing Dog Grants Wish For Teen With Brain Cancer (Video)
Thanks to a surfing dog named Ricochet, a sick boy was able to feel like a normal kid again. Caleb lost the feeling in his lower body last July just weeks after he was diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer.
The certified therapy dog famous for her surfing skills, joined the Make-A-Wish Foundation to fulfill Caleb Acosta’s request for a day in the waves with the four-legged star.
“It was life-changing,” Caleb’s mom, Cathy Acosta, told Good Morning America.
College Student Shocked by the Food the Cafeteria Threw Away Decides to Do Something
Ben Simon, a senior at the University of Maryland happened to be in the cafeteria around closing time and saw the amount of food being dumped in the trash. He asked if he and his friends could donate the leftovers, and they said, “Sure.” That was his first food delivery, in September 2011.
“And ever since then, it was like, ‘What if this was at every college?'” Simon recalls.
Thus began the Food Recovery Network, which has diverted 271,000 meals to churches and shelters that feed hungry people.
Today college students across the nation have signed up and mobilized to address hunger issues in “the most commonsense way possible” — saving leftover food that would otherwise be thrown away.
(WATCH the video below)
Arizona Parks Program Helps Homeless Veterans Become Rangers
Working as an Arizona State Park Ranger isn’t just a job for Army veteran Carlos Garcia, it’s a second chance.
Under a program the state launched in partnership with a host of public and private agencies to put homeless veterans to work, he is earning $12 an hour and living in a FEMA trailer. He is taking part in the Arizona Action Plan to End Homelessness Among Veterans, and he said it has changed his life.
Postcards Sent With ‘Love From Hawaii’ To Strangers Around The World
Everyone can use a little encouragement. How about getting an uplifting postcard from a stranger in Hawaii?
That is the beautiful premise of an art project out of Canada called, Love From Hawaii.
Artist Jeff Hamada offered “free encouragement” to the viewers of his popular art blog, Booooooom.com. All they had to do was to post in the comments section why they needed to be encouraged and Jeff took the requests — along with a package of beautiful postcards — to an annual retreat for fellow artists in the Aloha State.
Hamada then shot photos of each of the postcard authors as they held up their cards destined to cheer up a stranger half a world away.
Originally he brought 100 postcards and promised to fulfill as many comments, but more than 200 people posted their mailing address and were eager to receive some love from Hawaii, so Hamada was going to try to get each one all sent.
The project grew out of a Twitter experiment a couple years ago where the artist asked his followers who needed free encouragement. After he saw the tweets, he picked one and asked his followers to sent uplifting messages.
Visit Booooooom.com to see a full gallery of postcard portraits.
Police Track Down Man Whose Stolen Camera Held Priceless Pics of Late Wife
Thanks to extraordinary measures by the Santa Ana police, a local man has been reunited with his stolen camera and the priceless photos of his young wife who passed away at age 30.
The detectives found items that were stolen by the same man who stole a computer with a tracking device. Among the pawn shop receipts was one for a camera. When Detective Jerry Verdugo looked closely at the photos, he recognized a picture of a wall and a tree that jogged a memory from the location of a home where another break-in occurred — where Dave Lacey lives and the camera was taken.
(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from ABC)
Jim Kelly submitted the link for this story
To Curb Conflict, Colorado School Replaces Punishment with Conversation
At Hinkley High School in Aurora, Colorado, when students create problems or experience conflict, instead of getting suspended, they get together to talk, using a “talking circle”, or as they refer to it at Hinkley, a restorative circle.
The results are promising.
Amtrak Gives Free Rides to Writers Who Want to Work on Trains
It all started with an innocent comment by writer Alexander Chee, when he said in an interview that he likes to work while riding on trains. “I wish Amtrak had residencies for writers.”
Afterward, a New York City-based writer, Jessica Gross, tweeted to Amtrak asking when such a residency could become real.
According to TheWire.com, “Though such lofty fantasies often die unrealized, by the grace of some transportation-and-prose-loving god, Amtrak actually responded to Gross on Twitter, and liked the idea.”
Indian Train Stops to Help Baby Elephant Stuck in Ditch
A baby elephant in India became trapped after slipping on a muddy railway embankment, but thanks to a passing train, the animal was pulled out of the hole and got a snack while waiting to be rescued.
Passengers on a moving train saw the young calf in distress and convinced the train’s engineer to stop. They gave it food before a rescue ensued.
(READ the story, w/ more photos, in the Metro.co.uk)
File photo credit: niel schubert
An Amazing Village Designed Just For People With Dementia
In the Netherlands, a radical idea is being tested: Self-contained “villages” where people with dementia shop, cook, and live together—safely.
In the small town of Weesp, in Holland a dementia-focused living center called De Hogeweyk, aka Dementiavillage, is serving as a model for the rest of the world.
The secure compound contains apartments and buildings, closed to the outside world with gates and security fences. But, inside, it is its own self-contained village: Restaurants, cafes, a supermarket, gardens, a pedestrian boulevard, and more.
(READ the story, w/ photos, at Gizmodo)
Photo credit: Hans Erkelens/CC
8-year-old Raises Money for Guatemala Schools
Eight-year-old Marissa Alterio’s appeal in front of the congregation of the Fairfield Presbyterian Church affected one parishioner so much that he walked up to her and emptied his wallet, handing the young girl $85.
“It was all the money in his wallet,” said Marissa, who has since gone on to collect close to $1,000 to help buy school supplies later this month for the students of two schools in her grandmother’s native land of Guatemala.
(READ the story in the Daily Republic)