Last Friday the biggest snowstorm of the last decade hit the Tokyo area. Some of the worst off were drivers along the Chuo Expressway that runs through mountainous Yamanashi region into Tokyo.
39 inches of snow (100 cm) stopped cars and trucks in their tracks, enough that the driver of a bakery truck decided, since the delivery could not likely be completed by the sell-by date, he would give away all the pastries and breads to those stuck on the roadway.
He posted this on Twitter: “To anyone by the exit of the Otsuki Interchange: We have a full load of bread that is about to expire in the truck parked by the exit. We are handing it out to whoever wants it, so please come.”
Soon hungry motorists were flocking to the back of the truck.
A man in Minnesota saw a Facebook post about some deer stuck on the ice in the middle of a frozen lake.
The exhausted animals had been sprawled out there for a couple days, so James pretty much became a hero when he and his dad used their hovercraft vehicles to stage a rescue.
They shot video with a GoPro camera recording their unique life-saving antics atop icy Albert Lea Lake.
Unemployed, in debt and facing another year living on the streets in Hungary, László Andraschek spent his last remaining coins on a lottery ticket. Now the formerly homeless man has a choice of accommodation around the world after becoming one of Hungary’s biggest lottery winners, with a prize of about $2.8 million.
Now, the 55-year-old recovering alcoholic plans to use his winnings to establish a foundation for addicts and women abused by their husbands.
Bode Miller, who sat out all of last season recovering from knee surgery, hadn’t won an alpine race in more than two years and had bombed out last week in the downhill and super-combined, roared down the mountain at Sochi with reckless abandon, nearly losing control, risking all, just barely keeping it together enough to make it to the finish line.
It was the kind of aggressive style that had produced five previous Olympic medals, and on Sunday Miller’s sixth, a record for U.S. mens skiers.
The 36-year-old also became the oldest of any country’s alpine skiers to win an Olympic medal.
A children’s charity in Norway set up an experiment to see what people near a bus stop would do if there were a boy sitting alone on the bench shivering.
The heart-warming video of men taking off their coats for the boy — and women giving their gloves, scarves and hoodies — was posted on YouTube today along with a plea to help other children, especially the children of Syria.
In some Palestinian communities yoga is being introduced for the first time as a way to reduce stress and create a sense of connectedness.
Adults already active in youth and community development are undertaking the pioneering task of introducing yoga into the local culture.
“In Palestine, the continued stress is effecting individuals and community relationships in a way that is driving people apart,” said one trainee at the Olive Tree Yoga Foundation’s Teacher Training. “We believe that sharing the practice and the core principals of yoga can help reconnect people in a beautiful way.“
The Foundation, located in Beit Jala, just outside of Bethlehem, tries to overcome logistical challenges and restricted travel to gather as many as possible from this conflict zone, both men and women, to become certified teachers.
“Too often we tend to focus on what we don’t have, as opposed to what we do have,” according to one student whose life was changed dramatically after he was struck by a reckless driver. “I want people to understand that life is a gift.”
He’d like to wake up, walk outside, and gaze at the blue sky, get into his car, and drive to the gym. But now he’s blind and all he can see is blackness, and there will never be a car in his driveway.
Music has helped Gabe recover from the devastating accident, which occurred a year after graduating from Rutgers University. Playing guitar helped him remain positive enough that he started speaking to groups, inspiring them with his story.
“Time is something you can never get back,” he says. “So if you have an opportunity, or a door opens, walk through it.”
He has given more than 60 talks throughout the state to juvenile delinquents, and middle and high school students, and whenever he speaks during an assembly, you can hear a pin drop.
He tells the students who can’t wait to get behind the wheel that crashes such as the one that left him blind can be prevented. He refuses to call it an accident because that implies it wasn’t the result of reckless behavior.
“Even though I’m very aware of what’s been taken away, I also see it as an opportunity to help save lives and to empower people.”
Except for his guitar playing—a passion that has ignited him since he was six years old—everything was taken away in an instant by a teenager celebrating the last day of high school. But a door was opened. A new opportunity was presented that wouldn’t have been there before.
“Considering that in four and a half years so much has happened, who knows where this is going to go?” says Gabe.
The giant solar receiver installed on a wheat field here in California’s agricultural heartland slowly rotates to track the sun and capture its energy. The 377-foot array, however, does not generate electricity but instead creates heat used to desalinate water.
It is part of a project developed by a San Francisco area start-up called WaterFX that is tapping an abundant, if contaminated, resource in this parched region: the billions of gallons of water that lie just below the surface.
The modular, solar-thermal water system can treat and desalinate any water source, including drainage water. The technology not only restores the dirty salty water to pure H20, it recovers all the minerals, salts, and fertilizers for reuse.
This video is an homage to the stellar song by Pharrell Williams, called I’m HAPPY.
Shot on the streets of Belfast, in Northern Ireland, happy people dance to the catchy tune, including the staff at The Spaniard & Muriel’s cafe and bar, who funded the video.
Gabbie and Alice are second graders at the George J. Mitchell School in Waterville, Maine, a school that, based on the number of students receiving free or reduced lunch, is one of the poorest in the state.
Last year, the school, in an effort to prevent evening and weekend hunger among its students and their families, opened a no-questions-asked food pantry IN the school.
Best friends Gabbie and Alice, wanting to help, so they decided to hold a joint 8th birthday party, and ask for donations to the food pantry, instead of gifts.
They came from all walks of US life – Girl Scouts troops, National Guard units, financial planning offices – to spend three days packing food for thousands of hungry children they will never meet.
Two Million Meals, the brainchild of a Detroit-area pastor, resulted in 8,810 volunteers putting together 2.02 million meals to be shipped to El Salvador, Haiti and the Philippines.
The mixtures of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and 21 vitamins and minerals will provide one meal a day for a year to 5,560 children.
A Minnesota clothier spared no expense after a customer forgot his wedding pants in a changing room and flew off to get married in Costa Rica.
FedEx, UPS, and airline package services couldn’t help, so Judd Frost put his 32-year-old daughter on a plane to hand-deliver the $500 tan gabardine suit pants.
“I didn’t want them to try and find something else. He is really hard to fit. He’s a big kid,” said the businessman who opened Judd Frost Clothiers in 1994 along Lake Street in Wayzata, Minnesota.
As two female venture capitalists, Jennifer Fonstad and Theresia Gouw are a rare breed in Silicon Valley. As a team, they launched a firm this month with their own fortunes, based on the fact that diversity will boost investment returns at the new Aspect Ventures.
A number of research studies have shown that diversity isn’t just a socially important goal–it also makes financial sense. For example, one analysis of more than 20,000 venture-backed companies in the U.S. showed that successful startups had more women in top positions than failed startups. Another study showed that public companies with more women on the board have significantly better financial performance.
Jenny Baker was out last weekend in north-east London and met a “very sweet homeless man” named Michael. What started as an innocent meeting led to actions by Jenny and other generous strangers, that will completely change his life forever.
After the pair chatted awhile, she offered him money, but he wouldn’t take it. She bought him the next best thing — a ginger beer and a sandwich — and learned that he was 64 years old and had came to England with his mum for a better life.
“Unfortunately his mother passed away and he found himself homeless with no funds. He told me that all he wants more than anything in the world is to go back to Jamaica where he says he will be happy again and able to stay with family.”
With sudden resolve she promised Michael that in a year’s time he would be back in Jamaica because she would make it her “personal mission to make it happen.”
After the meeting, she posted the story on Facebook, with a hashtag, #getmichaelhome, and a link to a web page where people could make donations
”What makes it even more special,” Baker wrote as she told everyone the thrilling result, “it’s through the kindness and generosity of strangers… we raised £10,215 in 5 days!”
“I just want to thank you all so much on a personal level for all your kind and wonderful messages too. I am massively inspired by you.”
Baker has since talked to the Jamaican embassy, funneled some of the funds to his care in England, including renting a hostel room, buying meals and helping to prepare him for his new life.
An anonymous announcement in the New York PETS section of CraigsList shared a tale of redemption about an abused dog that was found in 2011 and has been recovering and thriving since being adopted through a rescue group. (We have messaged the author to ask their name but have not heard back yet.)
Three years ago on Feb 9th, you were evicted from apartment 13B at 20 Catherine Street and your old red pit bull was seized by animal control and taken to the kill shelter. She was really skinny and had bad skin infections, and had been bred A LOT. She’d even had a Caesarian, judging by the scar. They said at the kill shelter she was 12 years old. She also had a lopsided face and it looked like there were a few cigarette burns on her head/ears.
I figure you were having a pretty bad time of it, since you were being evicted. I hope things have gotten better for you in the intervening years. Although it’s unlikely you’ll ever see this note, I just wanted you to know that I have your dog and she is doing great.
A California seventh grader looking for a science project decided to tackle the issue of braille printers being too expensive for families with blind children or schools seeking to educate them.
Motivated to help the millions of visually impaired people living in developing countries worldwide, the boy’s bright idea for a prototype successfully slashed the cost of such a printer from $2,000 down to $355.
But perhaps the reason Shubham Banerjee has attracted so much attention is because he built the printer mainly using Legos.
For years, Tinney Davidson has nestled into a chair every morning in her sunny front window and waved to the high school teenagers as they walked to school — and she would resume her energetic waving in the afternoon, on their walk home, making them smile even on their worst days.
On Valentine’s Day, the 84 year-old woman in Comax, British Columbia received the surprise of her life when students escorted her to a school assembly organized with the sole goal of thanking her for her years of friendliness.
She received a rock star’s welcome, was given a big basket of homemade valentines, and watched a video up on a big screen showing teens expressing how much she meant to them.
“I just liked the look of the children,” said Tinney, explaining how it started in 2007 when she and her late-husband started waving to the kids.
“I love it,” she explained the team from Chek News. “And, they seem to love it also.”
______________________________________________
______________________________________________
(WATCH the inspiring video below from Chek News)
Thanks to Kendall Hanson for submitting the link on our Facebook Page!
A plant in Norway last week began converting household food waste into liquid biogas fuel to run the city’s 135 buses. As a result, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions will be reduced by some 10,000 tons each year, and particulate matter cut, too.
The biogas liquefaction plant was brought online February 12 by a Norwegian specialist in bio-waste treatment. The City of Oslo and EGE (its Waste-to-Energy Agency) are now producing biomethane from the food waste that will be used as liquid renewable fuel for the cleaner, green bus fleet.
A European footballer, Markus Rosenberg, must have grown to love the Birmingham area because before leaving as a consequence of his contract not being renewed, he gave everything in his home to a Northfield charity shop.
The 31-year-old striker spent two years at West Brom and despite his lack of success on the pitch, leaves a lasting impression on fans.
Last Friday the biggest snowstorm of the last decade hit the Tokyo area. Some of the worst off were drivers along the Chuo Expressway that runs through mountainous Yamanashi region into Tokyo.
