The UK has generated a record amount of energy from renewable sources in the second quarter of 2013, a full 15.5% of its total production – a jump of 5.8% compared to the same period last year. –Department of Energy And Climate Change
Switzerland to Launch ‘Janitor’ Satellite to Collect Pieces of Space Junk
Space junk is an ongoing problem for the world’s space administrations as decades worth of satellite launches and space missions have filled the Earth’s orbit with trash such as fuel tanks, lost tools and parts of derelict satellites.
In order to combat this growing hazard and to avoid potentially devastating collisions, the Swiss Space Center has announced CleanSpace One, a project to develop and build the first installment of satellites designed specifically to clean up space debris.
(READ the full story from Inhabitat)
Panicked Fawn Plucked From River in First Save for Rookie Wildlife Officer
An officer in training for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission saved his first life while on patrol last week.
Officer Keith Baber spotted a fawn swimming in circles, obviously in distress. With his partner steering the boat, the trainee was able to reach out and lift the exhausted deer from the water.
They brought it to safety on the river bank where they assumed the mother had been waiting. A very steep embankment on that side of the river likely gave the fawn trouble as it tried to gather a foothold.
The incident was celebrated on the Commission’s Facebook Page as Officer Baber’s first rescue. He is still in his field training period, having graduated from the FWC academy in August. He was patrolling with Officer Guy, his current Field Training Officer, on the Apalachicola River when they came across the deer.
Mom Crafts Superhero Capes for Ailing Kids Nationwide
One mother is giving more than 1,700 sick children a reason to smile. Robyn Rosenberger crafts capes to give children with terminal illnesses a chance to feel special – to feel like superheroes.
“She doesn’t just deliver capes, she bolsters children,” one child’s mother told TODAY. “It’s Robyn that turns them into superheroes.”
(WATCH the video below from NBC News)
Exercise Good As Or Better Than Heart Pills
Exercise can be as good as medication for people with conditions such as heart disease, a study has found.
The British Medical Journal report compared hundreds of trials involving nearly 340,000 patients and found exercise rivalliing some heart drugs and outperforming stroke medicine in preventing death.
“Moderate physical activity, for example, can reduce the risk of stroke by up to 27%.”
(READ the story in the BBC)
Thanks to Andrew N. for submitting the link!
Little Girl Donates $1000 to Buy Bulletproof Vest for Police Dog
Instead of birthday presents on her tenth birthday, Allison Henry asked for donations to a special project.
She wanted to raise a thousand dollars to buy a bulletproof vest for a four-legged K-9 officer named Ryker.
The Holyoke Police Department in Massachusetts thanked Allison for her successful fundraising effort during a special ceremony last week.
No More Robocalls for Many in the US
20,000 people complain to the Federal Trade Commission every month about robocalls, those annoying and persistent automated phone calls that are actually illegal but, until now, never-ending.
The FTC announced a contest last year offering $50,000 to anyone who could come up with a way to stop the calls. Today one of the co-winners, Aaron Foss, who is a software programmer, launched his new service called Nomorobo. Best of all? It’s free.
Ingenious 19-year-old Develops Plan to Clean up Oceans in 5 Years
Worried about the tiny fragments of plastic covering beaches and polluting food chains, 19-year-old Boyan Slat created the Ocean Array Plan, an ingenious project that could remove 7,250,000 tons of plastic from the world’s oceans in just five years.
With his concept called Marine Litter Extraction, Boyan Slat proposes a radical clean-up solution, for which he won the Best Technical Design award 2012 at the TU Delft University in the Netherlands, where he is a first-year Aerospace Engineering student.
Indigenous Canadian Living on Street Donates Big Settlement Check to Youth Center
In Canada, the past sins were finally accounted for recently, when the government paid restitution to those aboriginal Canadians who were forced into Residential Schools in the twentieth century.
One man in the Northwest Territories took his compensation, and inspired a community.
Charles Delorme, known by many in the Yellowknife area as “Charlie,” who has spent most of 40 years on the streets, donated the money from his residential school settlement to the SideDoor Youth Centre, which offers programs for at-risk youth and provides overnight shelter for teens.
(READ the story and VIEW the photo of Charlie, from the CBC News)
Thanks to Brenda Gelean, who said the story brought tears to her eyes, for submitting the link!
Pianist Born With Shortened Fingers Proves Experts Wrong
When Egyptian-born pianist Wael Farouk was 3 years old, his parents noticed that he was unable to grip objects, make a fist or straighten his fingers.
Doctors confirmed that the ligaments in Farouk’s tiny hands were shorter than normal, preventing him from full mobility. They suggested that Farouk exercise his hands regularly, so, on the boy’s third birthday, his father bought him a toy piano.
His parents saw very quickly that despite his hands, or perhaps because of them, Farouk and the piano developed a bond. But Farouk’s hands were also the reason the Cairo Conservatory of music almost denied his application to study piano there.
Only one teacher on the admissions panel advocated for Farouk. The rest of the panel ultimately conceded, giving him a trial period of three months, during which he was to complete two years of course work to prove his competency.
With the aid of his father’s strict military guidance, not only did Farouk complete the work, he excelled. Since then his father has been, in many ways, the inspiration for Farouk’s strict practice regimen.
“We all have our challenges. It’s your own decision whether you’ll let them stop you or whether you’ll let them provoke success out of you.”
Farouk has been studying in the United States since he accepted his first Fulbright Scholarship to The Catholic University of America in 2003. Now Farouk is at the Mason Gross School at Rutgers preparing for an upcoming Carnegie Hall concert that will include works by Sergei Rachmaninoff.
The New York Concert Review has called Farouk “a formidable and magnificent pianist,” for his command of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3, a piece that many believed the pianist never would be able to accomplish with his own two hands.
(WATCH the video below by Cameron Bowman – READ full article from Rutgers.edu)
Photo credit: Rutgers
Crowd of Helpers Show Up for Dying Soldier on Moving Day
A terminally ill soldier received more help than he could have imagined on moving day, as 100 soldiers, retirees, and civilians showed up to help the family move into a smaller residence over the weekend.
After a friend posted a request for help on an Army-related Facebook page, soldiers from units across Fort Bragg reported for duty at the Petrie home Saturday in Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Cars filled the streets in an overwhelming response for Chief Warrant Officer 5 Charles Petrie, who has honorably served the United States Army for almost 30 years.
“The support has been amazing,” said his wife, Terri Petrie. “It’s just a blessing. This year has been hard, and to have complete strangers help… to see the outpouring is amazing.”
“I don’t know how he reacted when everyone showed up, but you can tell he really appreciated it,” said Kendra Hartwick, wife of an Air Force retiree and member of the North Carolina Patriot Guard Riders. “I think about how blessed we are and how honored we are to help him out right now. Whenever we see a need, we try and help out.”
“My daughter texted me ‘Dad’s all choked up,’” said Terri.
Through all of the obstacles Petrie has faced in the last year, his attitude remains positive as he prepares his family for what is ahead, according a feature story on a military website, BlackAnthem.com.
(Additional Source: Fayetteville Observer)
Warren Buffett Invites Good Deed Dairy Queen Teen to Shareholders Meeting
A Minnesota teen’s act of kindness for a blind customer has prompted an outpouring of praise, including from billionaire Warren Buffett, who has invited the teen to his company shareholder’s meeting next year.
Joey Prusak, 19, gave $20 from his own pocket to a blind customer who dropped a twenty dollar bill that was snatched by a woman who refused to return it.
Since the story hit the internet, people have offered the young man jobs and even given him money for college.
He also got a special phone call from billionaire Warren Buffett, whose company owns Dairy Queen, requesting that Prusak attend the Berkshire Hathaway shareholders meeting in May, so that he can meet him.
(READ the story at Yahoo.com)
Thanks to a Wrong Turn, Woman Accidentally Wins a Marathon
Meredith Fitzmaurice never dreamed she’d win Sunday’s “Run for Heroes” marathon in Ontario.
Especially because the Belle River, Ont., runner planned to run the half-marathon and not the full 26.2-mile race. But a wrong turn sent her onto the marathon course.
Suddenly she realized that she had been running far longer than normal, and was actually about to finish first for the race.
(READ the story in the Daily Mail)
Photo by Peter Farlow – Flickr-CC
TV Viewers Help Marine with Vandalized Car in Big Way
On Monday, the news on channel 2 in Houston featured a story about a former Marine whose car was senselessly vandalized, and now a viewer has stepped up to help.
“We’ll make this baby look beautiful for you again,” said Nick Tajian, the owner of Mason Road Collision Auto Center, who was overcome with emotion when he saw Hector Cortez’s story on Local 2.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story in KPRC Houston)
Thanks to Pete Loshigian for submitting the link on our Facebook Page!
IKEA Donates $81 Million to Children in India and UNICEF
Five million infants and five million mothers in India will receive better access to health, nutrition, water and sanitation service thanks to an $80 million contribution from the IKEA Foundation to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The contribution will boost health and education programs in marginalized communities in ten states, the United Nations announced this week.
Recycled Plastic Bags Might Have Medical Use
Researchers at the University of Adelaide have found a way to recycle non-biodegradable bags into a material with such tiny particles they can only be seen under a microscope.
Professor Dusan Losic from the School of Chemical Engineering says the carbon nanotubes had valuable properties.
“They are hundreds of times stronger than steel, they have excellent electrical properties,” he said.
(READ the full story from ABC Australia)
NYC Air Quality Cleanest in Decades
New York City’s air quality has reached the cleanest levels in more than 50 years thanks in part to sustainability programs initiated by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“New York has the cleanest air now of any major American city,” he announced at a news conference Thursday.
Since 2008, the levels of sulfur dioxide in the air have dropped by 69 percent and since 2007 the level of soot pollution has dropped by 23 percent. The largest contributor to the reductions is the city’s Clean Heat program, which phased out use of the most heavily polluting heating oils in New York City.
Obama Speaks to President of Iran in First Talk Since 1979
President Barack Obama and new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by telephone on Friday, the highest-level contact between the two countries in three decades and a sign that they are serious about reaching a pact on Tehran’s nuclear program.
The call is the culmination of a dramatic shift in tone between Iran and the United States, which cut diplomatic relations with Iran in 1979.
Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister expressed the hope on Wednesday that a meeting with the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany this week will kick-start negotiations to resolve the decade-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program. (Read that story from Reuters, here)
(READ the full story from Reuters)
Climber Finds and Turns In Jewels Lost in Alpine Air Crash 50 Years Ago
A French climber scaling a glacier off Mont Blanc stumbled across a treasure trove of emeralds, rubies and sapphires that had been buried for decades following a plane crash.
When the honest young hiker realized the jewels — estimated to be worth a quarter million dollars — belonged to someone who died on the glacier, he “turned in the haul to local police.”
(READ the AFP story via NDTV.com)
Thanks to Art Perez for submitting the link on our Facebook Page!
Photo by Elena Gurzhiy-Flickr-cc
Toronto Cop Reunites Little Boy With Teddy Bear Using Twitter
A Toronto police officer must remember what it’s like being five-years-old because he took the time to tweet a photo of a stuffed toy animal lost at the airport hoping to find the owner.
Known for his social media presence, Staff Sgt. Chris Boddy’s photo of the stuffed dog was re-tweeted hundreds of times.
People used the hashtag #FindMyOwner until it resulted in a happy reunion for the boy.
(WATCH the video from Toronto CityNews below)