Surgeons in Oxford have used a gene therapy technique to improve the vision of six patients who would otherwise have gone blind.
The operation involved inserting a gene into the eye, a treatment that revived light-detecting cells.
The doctors involved believe that the treatment could in time be used to treat common forms of blindness.
(READ the story – or watch the video –watch the video – from the BBC)
The unique design of a woodpecker and the cycling crash where he landed on his head has led Londoner Anirudha Surabhi to come up with a more effective design for a bike helmet.
The woodpecker pecks at about ten times per second and every time it pecks it sustains the same amount of force as us crashing at 50 miles per hour,” says Surabhi. “It’s the only bird in the world where the skull and the beak are completely disjointed, and there’s a soft corrugated cartilage in the middle that absorbs all the impact.”
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Recovery is about exposing and healing the darker sides of being human. And honing the skills necessary for sustained recovery from addiction reveals a life-enhancing recipe that can benefit everyone. From the darkness come exquisite, profound gifts.
Freeset organic cotton bags are at the heart of a business set up to abolish the enslaving trade of prostitution for India’s poorest women and girls.
In 1999, New Zealanders Kerry and Annie Hilton left their country with their four children to work with the poor in Calcutta. When they moved into their new house, they discovered that in the evening the neighborhood turned into a sex-trafficing district. As they started to get to know their neighbors, ideas began forming about creating a business that could employ the woman and restore their self-esteem.
Each bag tells a story of one woman’s journey to freedom. She used to stand with 6,000 other prostitutes in North Calcutta. She didn’t choose her profession; it chose her because of her poverty.
She still lives in the same area, but instead of selling her body she creates Freeset Bags.
The Vatican plans to auction off one of Pope Francis’ two Harley-Davidson motorcycles and donate the proceeds to a soup kitchen that feeds the homeless in Rome.
The Dyna Super Glide is signed “Francisco” and was a gift from the Milwaukee manufacturer during a June 2013 event where he blessed a thundering parade of bikers in Rome at an event to mark the iconic company’s 110th anniversary.
Four stray kittens were discovered hungry and covered in fleas in the Great Meadow Correctional Facility in upstate New York. A loving staff came together to buy food and inmates crafted a kitty condo in the facility’s carpentry shop.
On weekends, the convicts pitch in to help care for the mewing babies.
According to VetStreet.com, the kittens have each been given names associated with the prison: Doc (an abbreviation for the Department of Correctional Services), Comstock (for prison’s location), Annie (for Fort Ann) and Meadow (for Great Meadow).
(READ more at VetStreet)
Already there is a heartwarming story out of the Olympic games in Sochi, even though they haven’t started.
Identical twin sisters Lanny and Tracy Barnes have competed together in biathlon careers that have spanned 15 years. Their shooting and cross-country skiing earned each of them spots on the US Olympic team in the 2006 Italy games. But this year, luck dealt Lanny a brutal blow as she fell ill and missed the qualifying races that could have earned her the fifth spot on the five-person team.
Tracy, 31, competed well and earned a spot, but this week said she was declining the opportunity to compete in Sochi — so that Lanny could take her place.
“It just was one of those moments that I think changed my life forever,’’ Lanny told TODAY Thursday.
“She’s having a great year, and I think when you care enough about someone you’re willing to make that kind of sacrifice,’’ Tracy told TODAY.
(WATCH the video below or READ the full story from TODAY)
UPDATE: Although Tracy honestly believed that Lanny had a better shot at a medal than she did, her sister finished poorly, in 64th place. But Tracy’s Olympic spirit inspired the world.
“World sea piracy fell for a third straight year in 2013, as Somali pirates were curbed by international naval patrols and improved ship vigilance.” (AP)
A 13-year-old boy, Easton Gamoke, scored a full-court shot for his Minnesota basketball team in the last second of the game, bringing his team to victory last weekend.
Not only that, when he returned home, Gamoke re-created it on his first try — another full-court shot for a Minneapolis news team to the amazement of everyone in the gym.
(WATCH the shots below, or READ the story at KRON)
The 86th Academy Awards will be a celebration of movie heroes, the producers announced this week. The theme for the March 2 live broadcast, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, will honor big-screen real-life heroes, like “Gandhi” and “Erin Brockovich,” as well as super heroes and animated heroes, both past and present.
“We wanted to unify the show with an entertaining and emotional theme,” said Craig Zadan and Neil Meron. “People around the world go to the movies to be inspired by the characters they see on the screen.”
To coincide with the Oscar night theme, the Academy will present an ode to movie heroes in the lobby of its Beverly Hills headquarters. The exhibition, on display beginning tomorrow through March 5, will feature still photographs and posters from 70 titles spanning nine decades, as well as video montages with excerpts from classic and contemporary films.
Also included will be literary heroes, like Atticus Finch in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. The character Finch (pictured above) as portrayed by Gregory Peck in the 1962 film adaptation, was voted by the American Film Institute to be the greatest hero in American film.
The number of homicides in the United States’ biggest cities continue to hit record lows again in 2013 with murder rates dropping to levels not seen in nearly a half century.
Los Angeles, the second-biggest U.S. city, reported this week that murders and other serious crimes dipped to more than 40-year lows in 2013. Total violent crime was down in the city 12 percent over the previous year.
Officials credit a citywide focus on prevention and intervention.
Crime rates in other US cities, such as Philadelphia, New York, and even Chicago, have also fallen to record lows, according to TIME magazine.
(READ the Reuters story from KFGO)
Clubfoot affects one in every thousand newborns, causing their feet to turn inwards, making it look like they’re walking on their ankles. Treatment can correct the condition in most cases, but post-operative physical therapy involves years of wearing an ugly, uncomfortable, and expensive “orthopedic brace” that consists of a pair of clumsy shoes separated by a steel shank with a $300-700 price tag.
Fortunately, a pair of Stanford students have invented a cheap, attractive — even fun — way to treat “clubfoot” in children, that will work well in developing countries and in the U.S., but costs just $20. It’s called Miracle Feet.
– WATCH the video below…
– READ the full story in WIRED
The eve of the fourth anniversary of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Sean Penn’s friends came out to support his Haitian relief organization’s 3rd annual Help Haiti Home gala. Stars like Goldie Hawn, Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Penn’s new girlfriend, Charlize Theron, helped him raise six million dollars in a single evening.
Since Penn’s charity, J/P Haitian Relief Organization, began managing two tent camps which housed 60,000 people displaced by the quake, it has provided support for every family to be relocated, and built earthquake-resistant housing for hundreds. The group also provides health and education services.
The J/P HRO Engineering and Construction team continues to demolish and clear debris today and has already removed 1.3 million tons of rubble. The team’s new strategy is to teach the people how to build safely, according to a report in Variety.
To top off the party in Beverly Hills, Bono performed with U2, after not having played together in four years.
For more information go to: www.jphro.org, follow the group on Twitter, add J/P HRO to your Google+ circles, and find them on Facebook.
A video-blogger who was stopped by a stranger from jumping into a river six years ago has launched a campaign to find the man who saved his life.
Jonny Benjamin, 26, was on a ledge of London’s Waterloo Bridge in January 2008 after being diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, when the man intervened.
Now as an ambassador of the Rethink Mental Illness UK charity he has helped many.
“The empathy, belief and determination that passerby showed me, gave me hope.”
(READ the full story at the BBC – HEAR Jonny’s appeal below)
“When the world tells you “no”, you have two options: You can roll over and quit — or you can trust your power.”
Through adversity, pro football running back Derrick Coleman trusted his inner strength. Although he is deaf, the Seattle Seahawks player never let anything stand in his way, on his road to the NFL.
The first deaf offensive player in the NFL, Coleman is featured in a new Duracell advertisement that talks about trusting the power within.
Coleman caught a touchdown pass in a nationally televised Monday Night Football game on December 2nd.
WATCH the video below…
Aaron D’Errico always wanted to play soccer like his superstar dad, who led the USA Men’s National soccer team, but since birth his leg muscles have been damaged by disease. His determination to overcome, however, blossomed within his imagination where he visualized his victories through a comic soccer superhero named “Ammon”.
His comic hero, Ammon, is a medical student with cerebral palsy (cp) who secretly dreams of being a soccer star -– like his father –- but during his search for a cure, he gains superpowers through a blend of science and spirit. The powers are enhanced through each positive action he takes, both on and off the field.
D’Errico himself has become an inspiring hero to many, including Marvel comics icon Stan Lee, and he may become a mentor to an aspiring artist thanks to his online contest offering $2,000 to the winning illustrator.
Queensland scientists say baby corals are blooming again on the Great Barrier Reef, both in some of the shallows and also deeper areas, say scientists, which demonstrates the ability to bounce back after multiple impacts. (ABC)
Firefighter Sean P. Coyle is being hailed globally as a hero — from Alaska to Ghana and all over the Internet — for rescuing a Siberian husky who fell through the ice in Boston Harbor last week.
A life is a life, whether it’s four-legged or two-legged, according to the humble public servant from South Boston’s Ladder 19 — who’s been flooded with emails, texts and phone calls since photos of Sylvie’s rescue spread.
“We look at the pets like citizens,” he told the Boston Herald, which first published the photos last Thursday.
-READ today’s update from the Boston Herald
–LOOK at the Original Facebook post below
An older man named Lee had just lost his wife of 43 years but instead of crying in his entree, he looked around the restaurant on his first night dining out alone and became inspired by a young couple in love.
He paid for their meal, scribbling a touching note on a napkin…
For the first time in two millennia, wild horses are once again galloping free in Spain, countering what happened when the Romans moved there and domesticated the animals.
Four-dozen Retuerta horses have been released into the wild in western Spain over the past two years as part of a project by Rewilding Europe.
The Retuerta horse or Caballo de las retuertas is a rare breed of horse indigenous to Spain’s Andalusia region, said to closely resemble the ancient Iberian horses that populated Spain before being domesticated.
(Listen to the story or READ it at NPR News)
