After Jennifer’s husband left for an eight-month deployment, their beloved 11-year-old dog was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor.
“We were devastated,” she wrote on YouTube. “Kermie was our first child, and we did not think Eric would ever get to see her again.”
But Kermie continued to surpass the vet’s estimate for survival and as his deployment drew to a close, hopes for a never-expected reunion began to seem possible.
If you missed our story in February, you need to meet Albert Lexie, 71. He is a shoeshine man. It is the only job he has ever had.
Despite his station in life, the man is a high-roller when it comes to philanthropy.
For more than thirty years, Albert has taken every dime of his tip money from shining shoes and donated it to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh – more than $200,659 and counting.
(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from ABC News)
UPDATE: Mr. Lexie has finally retired, working his final day on December 17, 2013 after donating $202,000. Read more at Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
The Greek yogurt boom in New York is being harnessed to make electricity.
More Greek yogurt production has meant more whey, a watery byproduct from the process. Yogurt makers commonly ship it back to farms for use as feed and fertilizer, but it’s also is being used to generate power in several places.
A Michigan infant is alive today because a neighbor, quick thinking Bill Hogenson, leapt into action.
“We heard one of the babysitters talking on the phone to 911 saying that the baby is purple and not breathing,” Hogenson told KSN News.
That’s when the man took off sprinting past the babysitter who yelled “she’s upstairs!”.
An Orange County woman’s plea for help was answered when honorable strangers returned her $23,000 wedding ring.
It all started when Racquel Cloutier, who was about to give birth, took off her wedding ring for safekeeping.
Her husband was unaware of the ring’s location and sold the box in a yard sale.
(WATCH the video below, or READ the story at KABC)
Philadelphia’s mural art project has changed the face of the city from grim and gloomy to colorful, cultural and spirited.
As a bonus, the kids who have joined the program to paint the run-down walls of urban buildings racked up a 100% record of graduating from high school.
The program has launched the careers of some artists who have returned to teach the craft to other kids.
While sailing off Newport Beach, California, James Gilkinson and his niece got the surprise of a lifetime when a sea lion cub jumped onto their boat.
The young mammal seemed tired but also became quite affectionate, rubbing against the captain and angling for pats on the head for an hour or more. When they neared the port the man just stood up and said, ‘It’s time,” and into the water it flopped.
A creative surgeon turned to a common household substance to block the bleeding in a newborn’s brain last Wednesday.
When the 3-week old baby was rushed to the hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, a team of doctors discovered an an aneurysm that was hemorrhaging — a diagnosis so rare that the tiny surgical tools necessary for the job were unavailable.
So the surgeons chose the next best thing to plug the bleeding — super glue.
13-year-old Nick LeGrande has always dreamed of throwing out the first pitch at an Oakland Athletics baseball game. Wednesday night, with a life-threatening illness and too sick to take the mound, Nick was granted his wish through the use of Android technology and the kindness of Google.
The cross-country pitch in Kansas City was made possible by a telerobotic pitching machine that received signals from Nick’s own pitching motion. Nick viewed a big screen that televised the field and the catcher who was waiting at the plate for the robotic toss.
When a new neighbor moved in and began writing messages on a chalkboard in his front window, life changed on Atlas Ave.
Aimed randomly at people using the sidewalk, his funny and inspiring messages about happiness, or finding a wife, have made Ayden Byle, 36, the toast of his Toronto neighborhood.
“It’s not too late to be a ROCK STAR!” is one of his folksy chalk-isms.
(WATCH the video or read the story from the Toronto Star)
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that human genes cannot be patented, a decision that could shape the future of medical and genetic research and have profound effects on pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
Simply because Myriad Genetics Inc. found the location of genes that were linked to breast and ovarian cancer, wrote Justice Clarence Thomas, doesn’t mean they should be able to claim patents on them.
“That discovery, by itself, does not render the BRCA genes . . . patent eligible.”
(READ the story in the Washington Post)
Every Thursday, this makes me cry.
After celebrity stylist Loius Licari scans the crowd outside the TODAY show at Rockefeller Plaza, he chooses two women who want — and sometimes desperately need — a makeover.
When the hosts, Kathie Lee and Hoda, finally unveil the women and their stylish new looks, friends and families always gasp in shock over the transformations. Many times, the new haircut literally strips decades from the women’s faces.
Jonathan Allen stunned the crowd after taking the stage in America’s Got Talent. His back story already brought tears to the eyes of a wider television viewing audience, but when he opened his mouth, he amazed the judges with a stunning rendition of Luciano Pavarotti‘s ”Time To Say Goodbye.”
He received a standing ovation from all four judges, with Howie Mandel commenting that he had earned a much bigger family after displaying his talent and heart.
Nobody expected to find Cutie alive, that much is certain.
But there the little, black-and-white dog was, trapped under the bow of the overturned boat she had been riding in four days earlier when it flipped in the upper Chena River and was swept downstream by the strong current.
Oprah Winfrey is donating $12 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture — the museum’s largest donation to date. In recognition, Winfrey’s name will be on a 350-seat theater in the museum, which is currently under construction and set to open in 2015.
“I am so proud of African American history and its contributions to our nation as a whole,” said Winfrey, who has been a member of the museum’s advisory council since 2004. “I am deeply appreciative of those who paved the path for me and all who follow in their footsteps.”
Remember the World’s Best Wedding Photo we saw last month that had dinosaurs in the background? Another creative wedding photographer, this time in Toronto, has borrowed the idea to serve up a Star Wars theme via Photoshop for the bride and groom.
“There was a shot floating around the internet last week of a bridal party being chased by a dinosaur,” wrote the photographer on their blog. “Because Leslie (and us) are huge Star Wars nerds! We couldn’t resist their bridal party getting chased by a squad of Imperial AT-AT Walkers!”
A fascination with unusual kangaroos has led an Australian couple on a 10-year journey in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea.
The two zoologists have spent the past decade trying to save the critically endangered species of tree kangaroo, which had been hunted almost to extinction by locals whose menus included the animals.
Their numbers dwindled to fewer than 500 before Jim and Jean Thomas arrived and set up the Tenkile Alliance, to involve 50 villages in the conservation effort.
(WATCH the video or read the story from ABC.au)
Many museums post their collections online, but the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has taken the unusual step of offering downloads of high-resolution images at no cost, encouraging the public to copy and transform its artworks into stationery, T-shirts, tattoos, plates or even toilet paper.
The museum, whose collection includes masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Mondrian and van Gogh, has already made images of 125,000 of its works available through Rijksstudio.
Many of the nation’s 440 military bases were established in what were once sparsely populated hinterlands.
Now, with urban sprawl pushing up against perimeter fences, the Defense Department has quietly joined with conservation organizations to become a major protector of wilderness and ranch lands.
The environmental protection initiative has created more than 260,000 acres of new sanctuaries — off limits to development in perpetuity — for some of the rarest plants and animals on earth.
(READ the story from the LA Times)
Every year storm-water run-off causes nearly 10 trillion gallons of polluted water to be dumped into America’s rivers and oceans. As cities across the country struggle to comply with federal regulations surrounding pollution, Philadelphia is emerging as a model of innovation in water management by opting for cost effective natural solutions that save its two rivers from excessive run-off.
Some of the more simple ideas put into practice include distributing free rain barrels to residents and planting strategically located rain gardens in parks, on curbsides and on rooftops. More expensive goals include resurfacing roads with porous materials.
