Instead of choosing to spend the holidays relaxing at home, British adventurist Maria Leijerstam, a 35 year-old former management consultant, just broke two world records by becoming the first person to cycle to the South Pole in record time.
Leijerstam, who battled freezing Antarctic temperatures and whiteouts, beat out two male rivals on the grueling 500 mile, which took just 10 days.
(READ the full story with photos, at Inhabitat)
Even if you don’t personally buy or own stocks, it is likely that someone in your family has a retirement or pension plan that has earned a lot of money in 2013 now that the global recession is behind us and stocks are at all-time highs.
The stock market wrapped up its best year since 1997, showering investors with an almost 30% gain in a record-breaking run that might finally have convinced investors scared off by the 2008 financial crisis that stocks remain a viable investment alternative.
(READ the full story from USA Today)
New York City had fewer murders in 2013 than any year in its recorded history, according to a statement from the mayor’s office, which announced a 20 percent drop from even last year’s record low.
The less-than-a-murder-a-day rate is a dramatic change from 2001, when there were 641 murders in New York City, and from 1991, when the murder rate skyrocketed to a record-high 2,245.
(READ the story from Huffington Post)
The holidays can be stressful. For many, it’s a time that challenges their sense of self-worth. One Portland billboard offers an important reminder: “You are enough.”
The third in a series of monthly positive messages on Portland billboards, the bright yellow placard proclaims, “You are enough,” and can be seen on Glisan and 27th Ave.
At the age of four, some boys love super heroes. Some love football. Some love everything. Mycal Bickings of Levittown, Pennsylvania has only one passion — trash trucks — and your heart will melt when you see the relationship he has with the trash collectors who come to his home every Thursday. His father made a video in honor of the boy’s “Buddies” because the town hired a new waste company and last week’s was the last garbage pickup at Mycal’s house.
It started two years ago when Mycal started waiting by the window on the scheduled trash day. Trashmen Derrick Hill and Camay Ulysse began noticing the little boy and waving. His mother was so touched that she wrote a note to Republic Services, praising the two employees for their excellent work and caring attitude.
On their last day of pick-up, the workers in their bright yellow vests allowed the boy to throw some of the trash into the back of the truck and lifted him up to start the compactor machine, while his parents shot some video.
After high fives and hugs — the twirling around kind of hugs — the two drove away waving to the youngster clinging to his toy trash truck in the driveway. Even though they won’t be picking up the Bickings’ trash, Hill and Ulysse promised to return to see their ‘buddy’.
(WATCH the video below from Mycal’s dad)
SHARE this story below…
I bet Jaxxyn Wood’s parents are glad Santa brought their 12-year-old son a new video game for Christmas.
He was enthralled in one of the game’s “important mission” at 3:30 in the morning when he smelled foul smoke coming from the kitchen. If he hadn’t been awake, the nine people sleeping upstairs might have been trapped by a raging fire, because there were no smoke detectors in the house.
Because household appliances are more energy efficient than ever, Americans’ electricity use is at the lowest level its been in a decade. Power usage declined in 2013 for the third year in a row, to 10,819 kilowatt-hours per household — the lowest level since 2001. (AP)
Saying goodbye to 2013 feels bittersweet. When we remember the crime and tragedies of the year, we tend to forget all the good things. Here, then, to help you remember the good, and restore your faith in people and institutions, we give you our annual Top Ten Good News of 2013.
Counting down from #10…
Last year, while in first grade, Dylan Siegel’s best friend was diagnosed with a rare liver disorder that doesn’t have a cure. Dylan, six years old at the time, was determined to do something about that. He wrote a book, “Chocolate Bar,” and it has already raised $400,000 to help find a cure, much to the delight of scientists researching the rare glycogen storage disease type 1B. (See the story here.)
Educated consumers have driven huge corporations in 2013 to remove hazardous chemicals from cosmetics, household cleaners and personal care products. In February, Johnson & Johnson executives were handed 30,000 signatures from consumers who, instead of complaining, were praising the company for being one of the world’s largest producers of such products to make good on a pledge to remove toxic chemicals from its baby products. In September Wal-Mart announced that it will require suppliers to disclose and eventually phase out nearly 10 toxins from such products. Similarly, Procter & Gamble cited consumer preferences as the reason it will eliminate hormone-like phthalates and the antibacterial triclosan, which is a known endocrine disruptor, from all its products.
For more than 30 years, Albert Lexie took two buses from his home in Monessen, Pennsylvania traveling to his part-time job to shine shoes. Since 1981, until he retired this month, he donated all his tips — more than $200,000 — to the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
(See the story here.)
7) Perseverance Personified: Diana Nyad Completes Historic Cuba to Florida SwimAfter trying and failing five times in 35 years, Diane Nyad finally achieved her lifelong ambition of swimming from Cuba to Florida without a shark cage. The 64-year-old endurance swimmer, through sheer force of will, made it to Key West, Florida swimming in open ocean for 53 hours, 100 miles from Havana. (See the story here.)
“Avrey Walker is cancer free! A total remission!” her father announced in April. Avrey was the seventh child with an aggressive form of leukemia to receive an experimental therapy at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and the second whose response has resulted in a complete recovery. Thanks to a novel cell therapy her immune cells were reprogrammed to rapidly destroy targets in the cancer cells they would otherwise overlook. Using a similar technique at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center this Spring, five adults with a type of blood cancer called acute lymphoblastic leukemia were in remission following treatment with genetically engineered immune cells from their own blood. One person’s tumors disappeared in just eight days. A further 11 people have been treated, almost all of them with the same outcome. Several trials for other cancers are also showing the same promise.
After twice conducting four days of continuous measurement on a controversial energy unit, a group of independent scientists reportedly confirmed the existence of unexplained energy production via a process formerly known as “cold fusion” but now named LENR for Low-Energy Nuclear Reaction. In simple terms, the E-Cat devices (Energy Catalyzers) are similar to nuclear reactors but without any radioactivity or hazardous waste, and according to a top NASA scientist, could literally solve our twin problems of climate and energy.
4) Pay It Forward Phenomenon GrowsA trend was gaining strength this year throughout Canada and the US, as generous patrons from coffee and sandwich shop drive-throughs spread anonymous kindness to fellow restaurant-goers by bankrolling other people’s meals– paying their orders before they even get to the window. One store counted 55 drivers in a row paying for another, instead of just taking the free breakfast. In July, the pay-it-forward trend took a marvelous twist when a copycat customer in three different Canadian cities handed over around $900 to pay for coffee and snacks. Another branch of this same phenomenon is the Suspended Coffee movement started in Europe and resurging across the globe with strangers paying for a cup of coffee that anyone can later claim. (See the trend reported here.)
Three times in 2013, homeless men amazed the rest of us when they went beyond what would be expected of people living on the street, returning valuable belongings to their owners. Some onlookers were so touched by their integrity they created online fundraisers that collected more than one hundred thousand dollars — first, for Billy Ray Harris in Missouri who returned a diamond wedding ring, and for a Boston man who found a backpack with $42K inside. Each time, the heartwarming generosity of strangers matched the unexpected honesty of the homeless man. In November, an Atlanta homeless man made the effort to search four different hotels hoping to return a lost wallet he found in a dumpster. He received a five-night stay in the owner’s hotel plus a handsome reward. Even better, thanks to news reports, he and Billy Ray were reunited with grateful family members who hadn’t seen them in years. (See more examples of how honesty pays, here.)
He was named TIME’s Man of the Year and has gained millions of fans for the Catholic church, which had been battered by sex abuse scandals in recent years. The new Pontiff replaced Pope Benedict who wore fancy shoes and chose to live in luxury until his surprising resignation in March. Pope Francis, in contrast, has shown humility in his role as church leader and called for dedicated service toward the weakest among us. He has ramped up the Vatican office charged with bringing direct solace to the poor and suffering — even sometimes accompanying his chief alms-giver onto the streets of Rome at night. The world was touched by photos taken in November when he stopped to pray and lay his hands on a severely disfigured man whose skin was covered in painful tumors. To celebrate Easter, Pope Francis continued what has been a ritual for him as a cardinal and archbishop in Argentina, but something no other papal leader before had done. He disregarded church tradition and washed the feet, not of famous priests, but of two young girls — a Serbian Muslim and Italian Catholic, along with ten other young inmates at a nearby juvenile detention center. It was the first time a pope included females in the Easter rite. His no-frills spontaneous style, coupled with his focus on mercy and modesty has changed the face of Christianity in the new millennium to one that answers the question, “What would Jesus do?”
And, the #1 best good news story of the year….
The Pakistani girl who campaigned for the rights of all children to get an education, and for her activism was shot in the head by Taliban militants in October 2012, celebrated her 16th birthday by delivering a defiant speech at the United Nations. Speaking to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the 500 youth and dignitaries gathered in July, Malala Yousafzai said that the gunmen could not silence her because knowledge and education are more powerful than their bullets.
Ms. Yousafzai was featured on the April cover of TIME magazine as one of “The 100 Most Influential People in the World”. She was the winner of Pakistan’s first National Youth Peace Prize and was nominated for the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize — the youngest person and first girl ever considered for the honor. She showed us the meaning of courage as she healed her own wounds and vowed to continue trying to heal her nation’s illiteracy.
Now, let’s raise a glass to hail the best for 2014: May good bless us all!
While most of us want the nicest clothes or the biggest TV for the holidays, there are a lot of people who just need the basics like food and clothing.
So says ‘The Random Altruist’ on his YouTube channel.
This year, instead of shopping for people who already have a lot… the anonymous man decided to spend his money shopping for people who don’t have much at all.
He shot the entire episode with Google Glass and says he intends to do more random acts of altruism, and sharing them on YouTube.
WATCH the video below…
A defense contractor better known for building jet fighters and lethal missiles says it has found a way to slash the amount of energy needed to remove salt from seawater, potentially making it vastly cheaper to produce clean water at a time when scarcity has become a global security issue.
The development could spare underdeveloped countries from having to build exotic, expensive pumping stations.
(READ the Reuters story from NBC)
In just over a decade the United States will need 130,000 more doctors than medical schools are producing. So says the Association of American Medical Colleges, which warns of a doctor shortage that will drive up wait times, shorten office visits and make it harder for Americans to access the care they need.
There are good reasons to be skeptical of these predictions.
For one thing, technology and the methods of treating illness are changing quickly. Today, more patients can be cared for in subacute settings rather than in hospitals. And new technologies are turning the treatment of many medical conditions into less resource-intensive endeavors, requiring fewer doctors to manage each episode of illness.
(READ the Op/Ed from the New York Times)
President Richard Nixon signed into law, 40 years ago on December 28, the strengthened Endangered Species Act after Congress realized that without further protection from human actions, many of our nation’s plants and animals would become extinct.
The bipartisan 1973 legislation is credited with saving hundreds of species from extinction, including the bald eagle, America’s national bird, which increased from 416 pairs in 1963 to 9,789 pairs. 30 additional species have fully recovered thanks to the landmark law, including the Steller sea lion, the American alligator, brown pelican, and Virginia northern flying squirrel.
Remember we reported last week about the Las Vegas cabbie who returned $300,000 in cash left in his car? His boss had rewarded his honesty by naming him Driver of the Year and giving him $1,000 and a dinner for two at a restaurant.
Now, CNN reports that the gambler who lost the cash has given him a $10,000 bonus.
His boss also gave him four paid days off.
I really appreciate it,” Gamboa said about the reward. “I wasn’t expecting anything from the people I help. I never expect anything from the people I do good for, but I really appreciate it — and that he appreciated what I’d done for him.”
(READ the story from CNN)
Are you stressed out a lot and don’t know what to do about it? Do you find yourself running at warp speed on a daily basis and your days seem to run from one into the next in a blur? Are you looking for simple, practical ways to reduce your stress?
You are not alone. According to the American Institute of Stress, 80% of workers feel stress on the job and nearly half say they need help in learning how to manage it. And, 42% say their co-workers need help. There are many other statistics on levels of stress whether on the job or in life in general, but the point is, there are methods each of us can put into practice to start to reduce our overall stress, improve our overall health, and just plain live more stress-free, healthy, and happy lives.
For many couples, living together in a 96-square-foot house would be a challenge. But for Chris Derrick and Betty Ybarra, it’s a Christmas miracle.
That’s because Derrick and Ybarra have spent the better part of a year braving Madison, Wisconsin’s often-harsh climate without a roof over their head.
They’ll spend this Christmas in their own home, thanks to more than 50 volunteers who spent the past year on an innovative and audacious plan to fight inequality in the state’s capital: build tiny homes for the homeless.
The group hopes to have ten tiny homes completed by the end of 2014, and are working on finding a place for them to stay, says WMTV.
(WATCH the video below from NBC-TV or READ the story at Popular Resistance)
Through ecotourism operations and an annual Prairie Chicken Festival, the Switzer Ranch realized the immense importance of acting to conserve the Sandhills of Nebraska and their native life.
The ranch, owned and operated since 1904, could not support future generations on the land, so the family had to get creative.
Needing to expand beyond the ranch’s traditional cow-calf operation, they added a business called Calamus Outfitters that offers canoeing, horseback riding and birdwatching expeditions in the stark and beautiful landscape.
Now Birdwatchers flocked to see native birds such as the greater prairie chicken and the sharp-tailed grouse in one of the country’s last intact grasslands.
(WATCH the beautiful video below, or READ the story from WWF)
One news station looks back at the community members who demonstrated an unselfish attitude to help others in 2013.
“That unselfish attitude is what makes southern Illinois a special place to live,” writes the WSIL news staff. “We look forward to telling you about more Unsung Heroes in 2014.”
(WATCH the video highlights of these stories below, or READ the stories from WSIL)
A teenager is saving his mother hundreds of pounds in grocery bills thanks to his savvy shopping techniques.
Jordon Cox, 16, from Brentwood in Essex, scours newspapers and magazines for coupons and vouchers that offer special deals on food and household products.
He told BBC Breakfast his mum Debbie is not allowed to shop alone because she would “impulse buy”.
(LEARN his secrets on this video from the BBC)
Beyoncé teamed up with the Make-A-Wish Foundation to make a cancer patient’s dream come true at a Las Vegas Concert.
Taylon Davis, 12, who has an inoperable brain tumor, wanted to sing and dance with the superstar.
Her dream came true, as seen in this video, as she dances and is serenaded by the singer, who chose the hit ‘Survivor’.
(WATCH the video below from Make-A-Wish)
In Michigan City, Indiana, a generous holiday donor wrapped a valuable gold bar with a dollar bill and slipped it unnoticed into a red kettle, to the delight of the bell-ringing volunteers of The Salvation Army.
Corinne Charleston discovered the gold bar while counting donations over the Christmas weekend, the News-Dispatch reports. The bar, valued at $1,200, was dropped into a Salvation Army kettle outside a local Walgreens.
(READ the story from the Huffington Post)
