Some of Europe’s key animals have made a comeback over the past 50 years, a report suggests.
Conservationists say species such as bears, wolves, lynx, eagles and vultures have increased in numbers.
“People have this general picture of Europe that we’ve lost all our nature and our wildlife.”
(READ the story from the BBC)
To help more low-income families build home libraries and to encourage families to read together, Scholastic will donate 1 million books to a nonprofit that gives free books to children living in poverty.
The world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books announced the donation, which includes a large quantity of bilingual Spanish/English books, on Monday.
Reach Out and Read will give away the books to low-income families during office visits with their children’s doctors. Scholastic is a long-time supporter of the organization that distributes free books through pediatric professionals and hospital staff who educate the families about the importance of reading aloud.
The term flash mob generally denotes wildly spontaneous gatherings of people in public places to dance, sing or erupt into some sort of display of artistic behavior.
Yet Dawn Livera came up with the idea of using the pop-culture phenomenon to encourage kids to read books.
This summer in parks near Vancouver, a series of summer reading flash mobs was launched that had all the pizzazz of the real thing.
(READ the story in the Vancouver Sun)
Allyson Ahlstrom, 18, wanted to scrap the idea of struggling teen girls getting only handed-down clothes from the thrift store. She wanted to boost their self esteem by providing two brand-new head-to-toe outfits for any girl in need, so she started Threads for Teens two years ago in Santa Rosa, California.
This year she takes her clothing store on the road bringing hope and pride to girls in need across the country. Can you believe what this young woman has accomplished?
(WATCH the video below from NBC, or READ a GNN story with links to Allyson’s website)
In the past couple weeks, grocery shoppers in an Oregon town have found $100 bills stuffed into everyday food items, like eggs, cookies and candy bars, and inside shopping carts — all for the taking.
Shoppers and employees at the Fred Meyer store in Salem have found a total of $2,000.
Across town at the Wal-Mart, KGW reports that a man named Phil found 2 of the bills, and was especially grateful.
“My girlfriend is in the hospital with renal failure.” Phil said. “I’m driving to OHSU (in Portland) every day. So $20 bucks in gas each way, it’s comes at a very opportune time for me.”
(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from NWCN News)
SHARE the Wealth—Spread the News..
28-year-old Sarah Outen has become the first woman to row a boat solo from Japan to Alaska, arriving at a small town in the Aleutian Islands after an ordeal that included capsizing five times.
After the five month journey, the British adventurer enjoyed a hot bath, home-cooked meal and a “fabulous welcome” from the people of Adak.
“I have had some of the most intense and memorable months of my life out on the Pacific. It has been brilliant and brutal at the same time,” Outen said in a statement.
(READ the AP story in the Guardian)
A Thailand television commercial tells a moving story about a shopkeeper who gives to others without hope of return.
But his good deed is returned after years and saves the man’s life.
The three-minute film was made by TrueMove H, the cellular company.
The YouTube video, which has been viewed more than 11 million times, describes the company as believing “in the power of giving without expecting a return.”
The video starts with a young boy being caught stealing medicine from a shop across the street before a restaurant owner intervenes.
WATCH the inspiring film below…
Last year, while in first grade, Dylan Siegel’s best friend was diagnosed with a rare illness called glycogen storage disease type 1B, a rare liver disorder that doesn’t have a cure.
Dylan, six years old at the time, was determined to do something about that. To the surprise of his parents, he wrote a book.
“Chocolate Bar” the book has since exploded, with t-shirt sales and a website helping to raise money. The book costs $20 with all proceeds going toward finding a cure.
“Chocolate Bar” has now raised an incredible $400,000, to the delight of researchers studying the disease.
“He’s raised more money for this disease than all the medical foundations and all the grants combined,” said Dr. David Weinstein, who studies and treats patients with the disease at the University of Florida. “Ever.”
With the money, Weinstein already has hired new staff.
Donate at the website, www.chocolatebarbook.com.
(READ the story from ABC News or watch a video below, from NBC News in May, 2013)
Michael Trimble was born without arms, but is quite capable and independent. Still, he’s always wanted to own a bicycle since trying one as a child.
About a year ago, Mr. Trimble, 27, ordered online from REI a single-speed bicycle with a coaster brake and began to search for someone to customize it — but “no one wanted to touch it. … They told me that I am either a liability or that what I asked them to do could not be done.”
And then he met Michael Brown, the owner of Maestro Frameworks – maestroframeworks.com – on the North Side.
(WATCH the beautiful video below or READ the story from the Pittsburgh Gazette)
California legislators are working to give kids more control over their digital personas — and real-life futures — with a bill that would allow minors to permanently delete old web postings on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and similar social media networks.
The “eraser button,” or right-to-delete provision, is part of a unanimously-passed Senate Bill 568 that guarantees privacy rights for minors in California.
(READ the story from the CBC – More at NY Times)
What do you do when a wedding you’ve planned for months is suddenly cancelled? The Fowler Family of Atlanta didn’t let the four course meal and reception venue go to waste. They invited 200 of the city’s destitute to join them.
“Hosea Feed the Hungry” charity arranged for the homeless adults and families to dine with Carol and Willie Fowler and their daughter on Sunday at the posh wedding venue, Villa Christina.
The former bride-to-be Tamara Fowler enjoyed the evening and was delighted to see that others had the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful meal.
(READ the story from the NY Daily News – LISTEN to an interview at WBUR)
Just three weeks ago, an 18-year-old girl in Erie, Pennsylvania named Alyssa Josephine O’Neill wanted to go to Starbucks with her mom but she suddenly died from an epileptic seizure.
Alyssa never got to taste her first pumpkin spice latte but, after the deadly seizure, her parents decided to buy 40 of the sweet, warm drinks for strangers, paying it forward in loving memory — with her initials scribbled on the cup, #AJO.
As a result, some Starbucks employees joined in and a campaign was born. Using the same hashtag #AJO, people from as far away as Korea, Iceland and India are buying coffees for strangers, writing #AJO in loving memory.
A new investment fund structured by JPMorgan Chase and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will, for the first time, allow individual and institutional investors the opportunity to finance late-stage global health technologies that have the potential to save millions of lives in low-income countries.
With $94 million already committed by an international group of investors, the Global Health Investment Fund (GHIF) will invest in new drugs and vaccines, emerging diagnostic tools, and other applications that will help eliminate malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and infant mortality in low-income countries.
It might have been an average occurrence for Engine 5 of the Rochester Fire Department but for the wildly cheering crowd.
Emergency personnel ran across the road from the fire house after a man slammed his vehicle into a utility pole suffering a heart attack while driving.
When bystanders pulled him out of the car, 58-year-old Artie Frisbee looked purple and had stopped breathing.
As the trained crew went to work pumping on his chest, the crowd grew and began cheering for Artie to come back to life and for Engine 5 to pull out a big rescue.
“Engine five can do it!”
Neighborhood residents know the firehouse by name because the station is threatened by budget cuts. Artie Frisbee visited the firehouse a few days later, grateful the men were there to answer the urgent call for help.
The video was shared with permission of all parties and ended when an official asked him to stop recording.
(WATCH the video from Right This Minute – READ the story at YNN)
Cathy Lanier went from being a teenage mom on food stamps to being Washington D.C.’s first female chief of police.
Hers was one of the steadying voices that emerged in the wake of Monday’s mass shooting at the Navy Yard.
The tough-as-nails commander told NBC News that she readily gives out her cellphone number to anyone in the community who might need it.
(WATCH the video or READ the story from NBC)
Persistent prompting by an Auckland scientist has persuaded the shipping industry to rearrange its schedules, for a whale.
After a six-year campaign led by Dr Rochelle Constantine, of the University of Auckland’s school of biological sciences, the shipping industry this week agreed to reduce speeds and take other measures to improve the chances of vulnerable marine mammals surviving ship strikes, especially the resident population of Bryde’s whales.
The “transit protocol” devised with the Port of Auckland will cost shipping companies time and money – matters Constantine confesses she finds less important than survival of a whale.
(READ the story from the New Zealand Herald)
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Minerva Schools of KGI doesn’t yet have accreditation, a campus or even a full faculty roster, but it is offering something even Harvard can’t – four years of free tuition for its first year students.
The San Francisco-based Minerva Project, an ambitious effort to remake the higher education model, announced its tuition plan on Tuesday in hopes of attracting some of the world’s most talented and academically competitive students for the class that will enroll in the fall of 2014.
(READ the story from Reuters News)
Photo credit: Minerva founder Ben Nelson
In the U.S., about 40 percent of our food gets thrown out.
Doug Rauch, the former president of Trader Joe’s, is determined to repurpose the perfectly edible produce that ends up in the trash by cooking it, turning it into prepared meals and then selling it deeply discounted in a new type of store.
A young contributor who anonymously dropped off $10.03 at a Wisconsin police department after the anniversary of 9/11 has been identified as 11-year-old Max Siepert.
The sixth-grader said he learned about the Sept. 11 attacks in school and heard about all the good deeds that are done on that date. He had been collecting money since April and decided what to do with it.
Max’s grandfather, it turns out, was a Milwaukee police officer who was killed in the line of duty in 1974. Max rode his bike to the police station without his parents’ knowledge to give the money in his grandfather’s honor. He definitely didn’t expect any attention.
Taylor Swift fans flocked to her concert in St. Paul last weekend, but one first-grader from Mankato, Minn., got a personal meet-and-greet with her musical idol, thanks to the Kids Wish Network.
Madison Harbarth, who was born with a rare condition that caused her spine to stop growing in utero, was given a meaningful autograph that will inspire her for a lifetime. It read, “To Madison: You are beautiful and perfect. Love, Taylor.”
