Brazil has reduced the number of its citizens living in extreme poverty by 89% in the last 10 years through the Bolsa Família income support program, with 70% of recipients being the working poor who now buy products and bolster the economy.
Pastor Brings Grace to Gangland
What would make a man pack up his wife and seven children and move from a safe Arizona suburb to one of the deadliest neighborhoods in Los Angeles County? For Pastor Todd Grant, 49, it was a strong sense of calling.
Today, seven years later, Powerhouse Church in Watts is bringing healing to a hurting community through numerous free programs including a dental clinic, mobile crisis pregnancy unit, job placement, counseling, tutoring, and an onsite medical clinic, which opened up the same week in 2007 that the nearby Martin Luther King Jr. Hospital closed its doors.
Dirty for Decades, US Diesel Tractors, Bulldozers Greened
Dark clouds of soot and gases spewed by tractors, bulldozers, and backhoes are becoming a thing of the past under new federal standards that have forced cleaner diesel engines this year.
In the wake of trucks and buses already modernized by higher U.S. standards, engines and fuel used by farm and construction equipment are next on America’s green agenda. More and more dealers are building their inventory to have equipment like this.
They are producing cleaner emissions: lower-sulfur diesel fuel, particle-trapping filters, and more efficient engines with fuel-injection software, recirculated exhaust systems, or catalysts that prevent pollutants from forming.
(READ the story from Environmental Health News)
Photo by Jürgen Guerito – CC Flickr
Deodorant Made in Canadian Kitchen Gets Worldwide Sales
Margaux Traboulsee never intended for her homemade deodorant to become a full-blown business. Traboulsee and her husband Josh were simply trying to find a chemical-free deodorant. When they couldn’t find an effective product, they made one themselves.
Traboulsee says the original recipe was simple: some coconut oil, baking soda and essential oils. The ingredients have since evolved into a mixture that the Traboulsee’s friends and relatives couldn’t get enough of.
‘The Best Deodorant in the World‘ was born.
Scrap Dealer Finds Missing $20 Million Faberge Egg
When a scrap metal dealer from U.S. Midwest bought a golden ornament at a junk market, it never crossed his mind that he was the owner of a $20 million Faberge egg hailing from the court of imperial Russia.
The 3-inch golden egg was spirited out of St Petersburg after the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution and then disappeared for decades in the United States.
An unidentified man in the United States spotted the egg while searching for scrap gold and purchased it for $14,000, hoping to make a fast buck by selling it to the melting pot.
This is the photo from the auction house in London, where, after a man in sneakers wondered in with this priceless antique, the antiques dealer was shocked.
“He couldn’t talk. He knew it was real.”
(READ the story in the Washington Post)
Final Goodbye: Giraffe Gives Dying Zoo Worker a Kiss (Photo)
A bed-ridden employee of the Rotterdam Zoo who was dying of cancer asked Netherland’s Ambulance Wish Foundation to help him visit the animals one last time. The touching goodbye offered by one giraffe, and caught on camera, is warming hearts worldwide.
Mario has cleaned the cages at Rotterdam’s Diergaarde Blijdorp zoo for 25 years. When the ambulance workers wheeled his bed into the giraffe enclosure, the 54-year-old man had a sweet visit with the animals he loved.
This lovely photo was posted on Facebook by Stichting Ambulance Wens Nederland
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RELATED: Wild Animals Gather Inexplicably to Mourn the Death of The Elephant Whisperer
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7-11 Clerk Fired for Giving Coffee to Homeless Man, Gets Better Offer
In a striking example of poetic justice, a Massachusetts teenager who says she was fired from 7-Eleven for giving a cup of coffee to a homeless man has landed a new job within days—at a homeless-services organization.
“My lesson learned is that good deeds pay off,” Ava Lins, 19, tells Yahoo. “Do what you believe is the right thing, and stand up for what you believe in. Only good things will come of it.”
(READ the story from Yahoo News)
Facebook photo by Ava
Thanks to Joe Holistic-Joe for submitting the link on our Facebook Page!
RELATED: Teen Seen Walking Miles in the Snow to Get a Job Lands Another at 2x the Pay
Walmart Doubles Down on Hydrogen Fuel Cells
Walmart is dramatically increasing its investment in hydrogen fuel cells to get away from dirtier battery and fueling options, giving a boost to high-profile supplier Plug Power.
The world’s biggest retailer has ordered another 1,738 of them, almost 40% of Plug Power’s total existing installed base of about 4,500 units and representing the company’s single biggest order ever.
Hydrogen fuel cells are one of the cleanest technologies available, along some types of solar power, because their use creates zero emissions, unlike some electric motors that rely on a power plant already emitting greenhouse gases.
(READ the article from Forbes)
U.S. Saves Pakistani Lives With Training for Electricity Linemen
The United States government is helping to save the lives of thousands of linemen who work for Pakistan’s electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) through a worker safety training program.
“Historically in Pakistan, over 100 experienced linemen lose their lives and the same numbers of linemen are severely disabled every year,” said Michael Curtis, Director of USAID’s Energy Office.
To help save lives and improve safety, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) developed training programs for DISCO linemen, staff, and senior management. The sessions were designed to instill a culture of safety and by so doing reduce deaths, which represent an irreplaceable loss to families and also cause significant losses to the power grid.
After Global Effort, Bone Marrow Donor Found for Baby Mateo
His family’s desperate call for a donor has been answered, and the 10-month-old Spanish infant suffering from juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia will undergo an operation in April expected to cure his disease.
He had a 1 percent chance of finding a donor until a worldwide campaign started last August to find donors for Mateo Schell and other leukemia patients around the world succeeded in finally turning up a bone marrow donor to save the baby’s life.
(READ the article from Yahoo.ca)
Thanks to Craig Withers for submitting the link!
Guy Wins $45K On Game Show With World’s Best Guess
All the Wheel of Fortune player knew was that the answer was a ‘thing’, it was three words of varying length and started with an “NE”.
Incredibly, Emil, who the host Pat Sajak called a very good puzzle solver, pulled the answer out of nowhere.
Sajak was so amazed, he became suspicious and playfully pretended to search him for hidden devices.
Digital Artist Creates Magical Worlds For Seriously Ill Kids
A Canadian photographer is taking the wildest dreams of sick children and turning them into reality.
Since May of 2012 Shawn Van Daele has devoted his skills as a digital artist to a mission of mercy, creating gorgeous whimsical worlds for youngsters who are overcoming heart transplants and chemotherapy.
To start, the 37-year-old asks for drawings from the child that represent their biggest passion – from dinosaurs to castles, from pirates to fairies. Then he produces a dreamscape in which they are the main character.
“It’s really doing wonders for all the kids involved in the project,” Van Daele told the Good News Network. “It’s warming a ton of hearts.”
It’s called Drawing Hope, and starting in May 2014, Van Daele will be doing one ‘magical photo’ each month.
Van Daele wants to collect the artwork, the children’s stories and original drawings, under the common theme that “anything is possible,” for an inspirational storybook to be distributed to clinics, hospitals and therapy centres across Ontario, Canada, and elsewhere.
You can follow his imaginitive generosity play out on Facebook.
(SEE more photos below, and WATCH the video of a boy’s Thomas the Tank Engine dream coming true)
New Hyundai Car Runs on Free Fuel From LA’s Sewage
A new car from Hyundai runs on a fuel that has a truly endless supply: human waste.
Hydrogen created from sewage at a waste treatment plant in Orange County, California, will power fuel cells in the Hyundai Tuscon, available for leasing later this spring in a limited area around Los Angeles.
The new technology can make hydrogen cheaply by processing solid waste and feeding it to microbes that turn it into methane. The fuel will be pumped to local stations, making it possible for Hyundai to put its car on the streets.
The Korean automaker will start leasing the H2 compact utility vehicle for $499 a month ($2,999 down) for 36 months, including free hydrogen refueling and Maintenance. The company says it has had a surprising number of people express an interest in the vehicle.
(READ the story from Fast CoExist)
Dubai Metro Stations Will Double as Art Museums
The Dubai Metro stations are being turned into art museums to display artworks and creations from different themes and cultures, by order of the city’s royal sheikh.
“We want to reach everyone through arts,” said Sheikh Mohammed. “We want creativity to reach every individual in the society (and) to inspire and communicate with every employee on his way to work, every student on his way to pursuing education and every tourist visiting Dubai.
The BBC reports it’s not only the stations that are getting a make-over: “The driverless trains will also be decorated inside and out to reflect the project.”
(READ full story with photos from Emirates247.com)
Father Pushes His Musically Gifted Son’s Wheelchair In The University Of Louisville’s Marching Band.
The inspiring story of a father and son who wouldn’t give into labels of disability just because the boy was born without eyes.
Patrick Henry Hughes is blind but plays in the University of Louisville pep band thanks to the lengths his father will go to help his son.
(WATCH the video above)
Good Samaritan Hands Out Food to Stranded Highway Drivers
Following a series of crashes that shut down one of the busiest highways in America last Wednesday, Monroeville residents John and Sharon Ambrose gathered as much food as they could, and John delivered it to motorists who had been stranded for hours on the Ohio Turnpike.
Pulling a makeshift sled made from a wheelbarrow, he trudged through the snow pulling a case-and-a-half of water, bananas, sandwiches, applesauce, snacks, and even some diapers, on a mission to find motorists in need.
“It was such a good experience,” he told the Norwalk Reflector. “It was just a really good experience.”
(READ the story, w/ more photos, from the Norwalk Reflector)
Ambrose family photo – Thanks to Alyssa Loveless for submitting the link!
New Study Shows Social Groups Alleviate Depression
Building a strong connection to a social group helps clinically depressed patients recover and helps prevent relapse, according to a new study.
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) Senior Fellow Alexander Haslam and his colleagues at the University of Queensland conducted two studies of patients diagnosed with depression or anxiety. The patients either joined a community group with activities such as sewing, yoga, sports and art, or partook in group therapy at a psychiatric hospital.
In both cases, patients responding to survey questions who did not identify strongly with the social group had about a 50 percent likelihood of continued depression a month later. But of those who developed a stronger connection to the group and who came to see its members as ‘us’ rather than ‘them,’ less than a third still met the criteria for clinical depression after that time. Many patients said the group made them feel supported because everyone was “in it together.”
Mattress on Moving Day Catches Toddler in 3-Story Fall
If Konrad Lightner and his wife, Jennifer had not been stuck in an elevator for 30 minutes earlier in the day, they would not have been at exactly the right place to rescue a child who fell from a third-story window.
It was moving day for the Burbank, California couple, when they were exiting the apartment carrying another load — this time, the box spring mattress to their bed.
They saw a toddler dangling from something like a television cable and placed the mattress under the window just before he fell.
Konrad guided the boy to fall on the mattress instead of the pavement. Paramedics who were called to the scene said it saved the boy’s life.
(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from KGO San Francisco)
File Flickr photo-CC by Drift Words – Thanks to Jim Kelly for sending the link!
Military Wife Drops 105 Pounds Surprises Husband at Airport (WATCH)
Misty Shaffer of North Carolina has been struggling with her weight all of her life.
Misty and her husband Larry — an Army specialist — were married five and a half years ago (Oct 2008) and stated dating in high school. In all that time, Larry has never said a word about Misty’s weight. In fact, he had never even seen Misty — who is a petite 5.5 feet tall — weigh less than 200 pounds! (Close your eyes and think about that for a moment.)
In 2012, Larry was deployed to Afghanistan, and Misty decided she wanted to get into shape. It wasn’t easy and she had relapses, but by the time Larry returned in the spring of 2013, Misty had reduced from size 22-24 to size 6 — and she has stayed thin since them.
“There’s no way that’s my wife that I left a year ago,” he thought when he first saw her, and recounted later for CNN.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from CNN)
Thanks to Harley Hahn for submitting the story!
Percentage of Californians Walking, Biking, or Using Transit Doubles Since 2000
The percentage of California residents walking, biking, or using public transportation has more than doubled since 2000 — from 11 percent to 23 percent for the typical daily household trips.
(CA DOT survey)