Australian scientists studying the ocean have found that coral is more resilient than first thought, and has the ability to deal with increasing temperature. – ABC News
Zach Hodskins, One-handed Basketball Player, Gets Shot On College Team
Georgia teenager Zach Hodskins was told he’d never play college basketball, but now he’s earned a spot on one of the nation’s top teams, the University of Florida. The 17-year-old was born without the lower half of his left arm.
“I just see myself as another player that’s worked hard to reach his goals,” said Hodskins.
He “loves” to flip stereotypes of his disability around.
Boy, 15, Goes to Church to Plead for Adoption, Please Love Me – Thousands Respond
A heartbreaking story ran in the Tampa Bay Times on October 8 about a brave boy, 15, who stood up in front of a church during Sunday services to ask someone to love him.
The orphan had been raised in foster care and lived in a group home for boys where the bathroom remained locked and surveillance cameras recorded everything.
The Times reporter wrote, “Davion always longed for a family. His caseworker took him to picnics, put his portrait in the Heart Gallery. But he had thrown chairs, blown his grades, pushed people away.”
But when he learned his birth mother had died in June along with her long rap sheet of convictions, everything changed. The boy with four names – the last thing his parents ever gave him — Davion Navar Henry Only, realized now that he would never have a loving family if he didn’t abandon his anger.
His case worker, who had believed in him and arranged for him to speak at the church told the Times, “He decided he wanted to control his behavior and show everyone who he could be.” All summer, he worked on dropping his defenses. He lost weight and earned A’s in school.
“I’ll take anyone — old or young, dad or mom, black, white, purple. I don’t care. And I would be really appreciative. The best I could be.”
Since the story with its poignant photos was published, more than 10,000 families have come forward to adopt Davion. Others wanted to mentor the boy, send him gift cards, contribute to his college fund. He was on the Today show and The View for which he flew in a plane for the first time to New York City.
The latest story from the Tampa newspaper says Davion could be in a new home by Christmas.
And the best part, according to the boy, is he has raised so much awareness for boys in his situation that “The Davion effect” will more than likely find forever families for some of the other boys waiting in foster care across America.
(WATCH the ABC video below or READ the update from the Tampa Bay Times)
Norway Village Basks in Winter Sun for the First Time Using Giant Mirrors
Residents of a remote village nestled in a steeply sided valley in southern Norway are enjoying winter sunlight for the first time ever thanks to giant mirrors.
The tall mountains that surround the village of Rjukan are high enough to deprive its 3,500 inhabitants of direct sunlight for six months a year.
That was before a century-old idea was brought to life: to install mirrors on a 400-metre (437-yard) high peak to deflect sun rays towards the central square.
(READ the AFP story from RawStory)
Photoa via VisitRjukan Facebook – Thanks to everyone who sent the link!
Startups Try To Reroute Food Waste To The Hungry
A pair of brothers in Washington DC are working toward becoming the air traffic controllers of food, trying to redirect discarded food from dumpsters to hunger relief groups.
Startups like Food Cowboy, founded by Richard and Roger Gordon, see wasted food as a business opportunity.
Some, like CropMobster, are using Craigslist or Twitter so that people who have crops or surplus they can’t use, can post the availability to others who can divert it to better use.
(READ the story from NPR News)
Thanks to Joel Arellano for submitting the link on our Facebook Page!
Photo credit: Transition Sarasota’s Suncoast Gleaning Project-CC
Canadian Man Invents Boat for Wheelchair Canoeing
Jon Pimlott is blessed with a wife, two beautiful kids, a job and a healthy body ready for life. He’s also got the persistence of a blood hound.
Since 2009, under the spell of an inventor’s frenzy, he has labored to give people with limited mobility the freedom to be able to float on the surface of Canada’s blue-green lakes.
The spark of the idea came to him while rowing at Diver Lake Park in Nanaimo, British Columbia in May 2009. He had seen the men in wheelchairs casting their lines from the accessible fishing dock. ‘Too bad they couldn’t be out bobbing in a canoe or rowing their way around the calm waters’. Then, a vision came to him: All at once he knew he could build it and it would work.
I gasp and look to the sky in amazement. I know it will work even before testing my theory.
Since then he has constructed prototype after prototype, inspired by the thought of wounded warriors and even grandfathers in their last weeks of cancer rolled out on a gurney to fish with their grandchild one last time aboard a canoe pontoon, a portable dock.
“Imagine giving your dad a boat trip, a fishing pole, sitting him under an umbrella,” he swooned.
His first design was simple (and still his favorite). Take any two canoes and lay five 12-foot planks fastened together as a breakaway 5-piece dock. The wheelchairs can be rolled onto the platform (even from a shoreline) and paddlers in the canoe are stationed on each of the four corners rowing the vessel. The chair bound passenger sits atop — with a spouse, a child or a loyal dog — feeling exactly as if atop a 10×12 foot floating dock. Other models use three canoes and a trolling motor to power the makeshift catamaran.
Canoeing For All
To Jon’s knowledge no one has ever built anything like this before. “I guess simplicity sometimes gets overlooked,” he told the Good News Network.
“It’s been amazing putting a fishing rod into the hands of someone who hasn’t been on the water in 10 or 12 years,” said Pimlott, who dreams of giving water access to people of modest means across Canada.
Another basic prototype for getting wheelchairs on the water uses a rowboat. Pimlott calls it the Chairower and it uses a short interior ramp descending into the hull: “Just roll on, and cast off.” To develop the craft, which should easily pass national safety regulations, Jon needed to make modifications to raise the oar height using extenders.
Releasing my grasp on the transom, I watch my friend, Bert Abbott, row for the first time in 30 years. I search for words to describe the moment. I do not know if I will find them.
To find testers to help with the project, he contacted a resource group called Access Nanaimo. Now he has a whole team of testers, some with cerebral palsy, some quadriplegic. Many he calls friends now, including Paul Winkler.
“The rowboat is definitely one of my favorites, for the independence and freedom it offers.” said Winkler in a telephone interview. “It was so surprising how perfectly engineered it was,” he explained. “I could row the boat unassisted.”
Winkler, now 40, was 32 when he became paralyzed from the chest down in a diving accident and lost some of his hand function. Enjoying nature has been difficult for him while living in a wheelchair because hills are such an obstacle. Since meeting Jon he has been able to catch his first fish in eight years, saying, “It was amazing.”
Pimlott has experimented with different blade sizes to come up with optimal ease of use for his new friend.
“It’s so fluid and amazing the way the oars are balanced,” testified Winkler. “Once I lift them out of the water, I can shift them ahead and let them fall into the water and it completes the stroke for me.”
“Rowing that boat, it was as if I had no injuries.”
The Future
Whether offering the Canoe Catamaran or the Chairower, Pimlott’s goal is to be able to rent or sell the vessels, or create a non-profit organization to donate them. “It’s untapped,” Pimlott says of the future. “I’m considering a crowd funding campaign to pay for the next Chairower.”
With every hour of work the inventor has devoted, visions of his friends keep him going. The college buddy who lost his mobility after a mountain biking accident; Norm Hemstreet, his first volunteer, who eagerly testing each new development. Norm now “contributes in spirit only”, after his death in 2010. His estate left Jon a thousand dollars to fuel his passion for helping others. . . This project is for them.
As the second person ever to test Pimlott’s inventions, Paul Winkler insists there is no stopping this man.
“He’s already met so many challenges. He’s come up against fines, financial burdens, family restrictions – things that the average person would give in to,” Winkler said with admiration. “He’s not that guy.”
“He’s doin’ it, and his gas tank is full.”
Equally important, his supporters have gas tanks to match.
– WATCH the beautiful video below
SHARE This on Social Media So That Others Can Row!
A 140-Acre Forest Is About to Materialize in the Middle of Detroit
After nearly five years of planning, a large-scale attempt to turn a big chunk of Detroit blight into an urban forest is now underway. The purchase of more than 1,500 vacant city-owned lots on the city’s lower east side – a total of more than 140 acres – got final approval from Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder earlier in October.
A wealthy resident, John Hantz, has committed in phase 1 to clearing 50 derelict structures, cleaning up years of trash and overgrown brush, planting 15,000 trees, and maintaining regular mowing. Future plans include a farm growing local food.
2600 Strangers Comfort Dying Man With #SkyBluePink Photos
More than 2,600 people from around the world may have helped prolong the life of a dying Nebraska father by sending photos, notes and postcards all colored with sky-blue pink.
His son, a digital brand manager with Red Bull, started an online campaign for people to post sunsets and skies using Twitter or Instagram to help fill his father’s room with his favorite scenes. They printed out the photos at home and covered the wall of his bedroom.
63-year-old Brian Curtis was given six months to live by his cancer doctors in spring of 2012, but instead got to spend 15 more months among his loving family.
His son Brandon thanked all the people who wrote songs and tagged their photos with #skybluepink.
“You made it wonderful and surrounded him with love that he always refereed to as “better than medicine.” It brought so much happiness and smiles.”
(VISIT the Tumblr site, BrianSkyBluePink, or READ the story in Mashable)
Thanks to Craig Withers for submitting the story idea!
Mystery Teens in Ringo Starr Photograph Reunite for Redo
Remember that old song, Photograph, by Ringo Star?
Well, “all he had was a photograph,” but Ringo Starr wanted to know: Who were the teens in this picture he took in 1964 while in New York City?
49 years later, he began the search by asking in USA Today to help find these fans. They grew “old and gray” but the former New Jersey teens have reunited to become part of Beatles history.
Ralph Lauren Uses Rescue Dogs in Fashion Spread
For the first time, Ralph Lauren is featuring shelter dogs in its fashion advertising, showing off its line of fall accessories alongside adorable rescue dogs. The beautiful ad campaign not only wants to sell handbags and gloves, it is also designed to promote the adoption of shelter dogs.
A miniature dachshund named Roxy, was one of ten dogs participating in “The Dog Walk” campaign, a collaboration with the ASPCA that kicked off on Oct. 15.
The charming pups were plucked from shelters and featured in a short film, set on city streets. Though the brand has never shied away from including dogs in print ads in the past, this is the first time the company has let rescue dogs take center stage in a fashion show alongside their human model counterparts.
Haiti Factory Cuts Malnutrition and Poverty at the Same Time
A crew of Haitian workers clad in white lab coats, rubber-soled boots, safety goggles, and hair nets pass through a corridor and into a sterile production area that’s lined with hulking stainless steel devices, one of which looks like a giant KitchenAid Mixer. At 8:30 a.m., the machinery starts whirring and roaring. Before long, the distinct aroma of crushed peanuts hangs in the air.
From the outside, the two-story white building looks like a standard warehouse you’d see on the outskirts of any American city. But located in Haiti’s Central Plateau, the Nourimanba Production Facility is a state-of-the art operation that’s helping tackle one of the country’s most pressing challenges—malnutrition. It also uses only locally grown peanuts, making it a reliable market for local farmers to sell their yields.
In Haiti, malnutrition is the leading cause of death among children 5 years old and younger. And it’s not just children who are affected—pregnant women and teenagers also experience the disastrous consequences of poor nutrition.
Within a few months of officially opening this year, the facility has already created more than two dozen jobs and churned out more than 6,000 kilograms of the lifesaving treatment.
“This center will have a major impact on the community—a lot of people are working here, and new industries help develop communities,” says Myrlene Arthus, production supervisor at the facility. “I love what I do because I am working for children that are sick. The product I make is helping save children’s lives.”
RELATED: June 2013: New hospital in Haiti, fully powered by solar energy, solves the problem of how to provide modern health care amid intermittent power shortages. (Tags – Partners In Health, Haiti)
Steller Sea Lions Rebound Off Endangered List
A five year plan to shore up dwindling populations of eastern Steller sea lions, the threatened species that roams from Alaska to California, has succeeded. NOAA Fisheries announced last week it will be delisting the animal as a threatened species, having exceeded its goal for annual population growth by more than thirty percent.
As marine predators that forage on a variety of fish, squid, and other species, Steller sea lions are a vital component of North Pacific Ocean ecosystems. Their recovery is a testament to the value and success of the Endangered Species Act in ensuring the health of marine ecosystems for future generations.
Kindness Spreads as More Schools Vote for Special Kids at Homecoming
In Tucson, Arizona, the idea is spreading to elect special teens into the Homecoming Courts at school dances.
Mountain View High School followed in the footsteps of Canyon Del Oro High School which voted for a senior named Kevin for homecoming king.
In the report below, Lani was only nominated, but on Saturday, Mountain View students watched as Lani Fuentes-Cordova was selected as the Homecoming Queen for 2013.
Grumpy Guy at Gas Pump Starts Singing With Strangers (WATCH)
All he wanted to do was go home after a long flight and “be grumpy about the price of gas.” But, when asked by an announcer in the gas pump monitor if he wanted to sing Karaoke, he belted out Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing!”
This video joins another great “Pumpcast” video from the Tonight Show with Jay Leno that featured a married couple talked into singing Bon Jovi. In fact, the couple suddenly appears next the grumpy guy’s car as “backup singers,” ready to support his urge to sing.
How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of Geniuses
The current educational system in the US was constructed almost two centuries ago to meet the needs of the industrial age. Now that our society and economy have evolved beyond that era, our schools must also be reinvented.
We can see what the future looks like in places like Mexico where one teacher fueled his low-income students to rise to the top of the nation by letting go of the reigns of teaching, to allow for child-led natural learning.
Or we can look to Finland, where they adopted this new philosophy nationwide—with outsize results.
Everyone in This Sailor’s Family Surprised by Homecoming
An Indiana member of the military surprised everyone in his family by coming home almost a month early from serving overseas. He also got a surprise of his own, after arriving back to the house he’d left eight months earlier.
Navy Lieutenant, Pete Sharrai, a big fan of Good News Network, submitted this story because it features an officer who worked for him while deployed in Bahrain.
His orders were cut by a month and, instead of telling his family he was coming home early, he opted to surprise them.
Hiker Hero Finds Wounded Pitbull, Carries Him Down the Mountain
No one knows exactly how long the 2-year-old pit bull had been left to die alone in the Arizona mountains.
This photo taken by Andi Davis, the hiker who found him, shows the dog half standing, half collapsed, his head resting on the rocks.
Davis had walked about a half mile uphill last Friday, October 18, along a deserted trail in Phoenix when she found the dog, suffering from bullet wounds.
She hesitated for a moment before approaching the pit bull, Nelson said. But when he lifted his head as she reached for her water bottle, Davis put her apprehension aside, gave him a drink and then lifted the 47-pound dog into her arms. Then, she began walking.
(READ the story, w/ photo of new family, from WHO-TV)
Main Street Comeback: How Independent Stores are Thriving
Despite behemoths like Starbucks and Amazon, the number of independent bookstores, coffeeshops, and other businesses is growing.
At the annual Business Alliance for Local Living Economies conference, where more than 600 high-energy people strategized about the transition to a more localized, Main Street economy, I learned that independent retailers are thriving.
One surprising comeback, even in the age of the behemoth Amazon, is independent bookstores.
(READ the story from Yes Magazine)
Photo credit: Flickr user, MorBCN – CC (cropped)
College Basketball Player Surprised With Full Scholarship (w/ Video)
Northwestern guard James Montgomery’s reward for making a good impression on his new head coach was more than he ever expected.
Coach Chris Collins announced to the team before practice on Thursday that he was awarding the 6-foot-4 player with a scholarship.
(WATCH the spontaneous video or READ the story from Yahoo Sports)
A Plan to Turn Every Lightbulb Into an Ultra-fast Alternative to Wi-Fi
Current wireless networks have a problem: The more popular they become, the slower they are. Researchers at Fudan University in Shanghai have just become the latest to demonstrate a technology that transmits data as light instead of radio waves, which gets around the congestion issue and could be ten times faster than traditional Wi-Fi.
Using Li-Fi, a standard proposed just two years ago, LED bulbs can be altered to transmit data around ten times as fast the fastest Wi-Fi networks.
(READ the full story at Quartz)