Dozens of children got a big surprise when window washers dressed as Spider-Man descended on the outside of All Children’s Hospital in Florida on Thursday.
The workers from Clearwater’s High Rise Window Cleaners made several trips from the top of the building to the ground, washing windows and waving at patients.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story at Tampa Bay Times)
NOTE: The Tampa Bay video may be having technical difficulties.
Dozens of children got a big surprise when window washers dressed as Spider-Man descended on the outside of All Children’s Hospital in Florida on Thursday.
The workers from Clearwater’s High Rise Window Cleaners made several trips from the top of the building to the ground, washing windows and waving at patients.
It is a long way from the grimy, poverty-stricken streets of Afghanistan to the red carpets of Hollywood — but 14-year-old Fawad Mohammadi is on his way.
The teenager, who sells chewing gum and maps from the curbside in Kabul, was an actor in “Buzkashi Boys,” a film nominated Thursday for an Oscar.
A collector of vintage photography equipment got an extra bonus when he picked up a French camera at an antique store: never-before-seen images circa World War I France.
Anton Orlov details the story of the lucky find on his blog the Photo Palace, where all of the eight photos from the Jumelle Belllieni stereoscopic camera can be seen.
A janitor at a Florida airport found an iPad – with $13,000 stuffed in its case – and turned it in. Then, after getting a $60 reward, he gave that away to two people he knows at the airport who are in need.
But the honesty and kindness paid off for the father of four, Patrick Morgan, when he was honored in a ceremony by his company, Sunshine Cleaning Systems, and presented with a check for $625.00.
A couple who wished to remain anonymous purchased a minivan from Dick Hannah Toyota in Washington last week to donate to Portland Police Officer Paul Meyer and family after seeing news reports about Meyer’s paralysis from an accident.
“A man contacted our dealership last week and told us he and his wife would like to purchase a Toyota Sienna minivan,” wrote Brian Sanders, the car dealership’s General Manager. “They are paying cash for it, but they’ll never sit behind the wheel.”
“He and his wife are not wealthy,” continued Sanders on the company’s Facebook Page. “They were both in the military and recently received a modest inheritance.”
They decided to gift the new vehicle to the police officer who was permanently paralyzed from the waist down when a tree snapped and fell on him during an ATV training accident last November.
“This short story has taken me 3 hours to write already. I honestly don’t know what to say. How amazing and inspiring are these people? While this couple is asking that their names not be shared, the story of their amazing generosity needs to be.”
(READ more from Oregon Live)
Kickstarter, the crowd-funding site that pairs indie-minded inventors, filmmakers and entrepreneurs with online investors, fully funded more than 18,000 projects in 2012.
The website’s year-end analysis shows that more than 2.2 million people pledged a total of nearly $320 million.
17 projects raised more than $1 million each, including Amanda Palmer, the Boston musician who raised nearly $1.2 million to record an album, which debuted in Billboard’s Top Ten in 2012. She promised deluxe extras for those pledging $25 and more.
The Connecticut Parent Teacher Association reached out to fellow PTA members across the country, requesting handmade “Snowflakes for Sandy Hook” to create a “winter wonderland” at the new school the kids moved into.
Now on day 25, and the entire lobby of the state association is stuffed floor to ceiling. The office is crammed end to end with boxes of every size.
Originally, they thought they’d get a few boxes, mostly from Connecticut, but now it’s even spreading globally — with snowflakes mailed from children and parents from 50 countries.
(WATCH the video or READ the story from CBS’s Steve Hartman)
On Australia’s Middle Island, after the population of Little Penguins dropped to fewer than 10 birds, the city council was desperate for a solution.
That’s when David Williams, an environmental science student working part-time at a free-range egg farm, suggested placing Maremma sheepdogs — the same dogs his employer used to guard the chickens — as protection for the birds against their greatest predator, the red fox.
And it worked.
A baby in Kenya needed life-saving heart surgery, but it would cost $23,000 and the family couldn’t afford it.
Enter a 5-year old Canadian boy from Waterloo who heard the story and marched to his bedroom to empty his piggy bank.
After seeing their boy Cameron’s heartfelt gesture, the parents decided that maybe they could help him inspire friends, family and strangers to kick in the extra funds needed to reach the goal.
So they set up a Facebook group, Help Cam Help Baby Brave, where the boy posted videos and stories to raise the final $5,000 needed for the baby.
The Saudi king has granted women seats on the country’s top advisory council for the first time.
Saudi Arabia’s official news agency said Friday that King Abdullah issued a royal decree granting women seats on the 150-member Shura Council.
(From an AP story in the Washington Post, the link to which was since broken)
The Brighton Implant Clinic recently began offering free dental treatment to patients who have exceptional circumstances and are unable to afford treatment. Of the dozens treated, David Bryant who works with blind war veterans, is perhaps the most inspiring.
Several of his colleagues entered his name into a contest on Facebook that offered to the winner a brand new set of teeth, a treatment that normally costs between $10,000-$24,000 (£6500-£15,000).
Inundated with entries from potential patients telling their stories, the UK dentists agreed that Mr. Bryant’s caught their eye.
He works with the charity Blind Veterans UK, teaching creative skills like painting, drawing, sculpture and woodworking. Although he is a much loved character around the shop, friends and family say David suffered from low self-esteem due to his appearance. His great personality was often shadowed by a lack of confidence.
“The transformation was quite incredible,” Dr. Silva told the Good News Network. “He is such a kind person, it was great to give him something in return.”
Colleagues were thrilled when Bryant won the contest, describing him as a selfless man who is always working hard to help others and putting their needs ahead of his own.
The treatment consisted of extractions and “all-on-4” implants. Bryant arrived early for the procedure and left in the afternoon with a full upper arch of shiny new pearly whites. He said pain was minimal and his recovery was quick. Most importantly, the results were amazing. When he arrived for his follow up appointment the difference was immediately noticeable – even in the way he carried himself.
“It was really an amazing feeling to see someone appreciate your work that much,” said Dr. Silva. “Especially when you learn that his daughter had never seen him with teeth before.”
“Now David can eat an apple or a steak and best of all he can smile with confidence.”
WATCH the wonderful transformation in the video below…
The Brighton Implant Clinic recently began offering free dental treatment to patients who have exceptional circumstances and are unable to afford treatment. Of the dozens treated, David Bryant who works with blind war veterans, is perhaps the most inspiring.
Several of his colleagues entered his name into a contest on Facebook that offered to the winner a brand new set of teeth, a treatment that normally costs between $10,000-$24,000 (£6500-£15,000).
Inundated with entries from potential patients telling their stories, the UK dentists agreed that Mr. Bryant’s caught their eye.
Holistic-thinking people are always looking for a home remedy to any problem, so during this flu season we might want to stock our kitchens with the foods and beverages that boost immunity and fight the flu.
Epicurious magazine consulted John La Puma, M.D., the author of Chef MD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine, for advice about what to eat and what to stock up on.
Two 7-year-old boys in south Milwaukee overheard another boy saying he received no gifts for Christmas.
“He didn’t have a Christmas tree,” was one of the boy’s explanation for Santa not bringing anything.
After school the two talked about it and decided what they would do.
It was no surprise that the period films Lincoln and Les Miserables figured prominantly in the list of Oscar nominations released this morning, with both male and female co-stars receiving nods. Lincoln received the most nominations with 12, including best film and best director, for Steven Spielberg. The shipwreck story “Life of Pi” surprisingly ran second with 11 nominations, including Best Film and Best Director for Ang Lee.
Emma Stone and Seth MacFarlane will host the 85th Academy Awards on February 24. The Golden Globes show, which opens the award season this Sunday, will be hosted by the comedy duo of Tina Fey and Amy Pollard.
Here is the full list of Oscar nominations for 11 categories of interest…
An 11-year-old boy, who had died in his mother’s back seat on the way to the hospital after an asthma attack, was revived on the side of the road after several minutes during which a hair transplant doctor did not give up on resuscitation efforts.
Strangers prayed alongside the man who had just gassed up his porsche and heard the mother screaming in agony nearby.
“I was terrified,” said the 32-year-old Dr. Amir Yazdan, who had never actually done chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth breathing – except on dummies in medical school.
(READ the dramatic rescue story in the OC Register)
The largest largest group of Franciscan friars in the United States is offering the faithful a new way to pray in the digital age by accepting prayer requests via text messages.
The Friars of Holy Name Province, who staff 40 parishes and have colleges, soup kitchens and food centers along the eastern seaboard are among a few religious groups offering this type of digital service.
Most people might see cockroaches as good-for-nothing pests, but this germ-ridden insect could be an indirect source of new antibiotics for humans. Researchers have discovered the guts of a cockroach to be super-sanitized.
Cockroaches host the larvae of a parasitic type of wasp, which spend their formative days eating the bacteria-laden body of the cockroach from the inside out. It turns out, the wasp larva secretes chemicals that sanitize the decidedly unsanitary guts of the cockroach.
These germ-killing chemicals could eventually be developed for human uses.
For the developing larvae, “the cockroach is the only food source and the cradle,” says biologist Gudrun Herzner at the University of Regensburg in Germany.
It’s a cradle that needs a good cleaning, because cockroaches spend time in some very unsanitary places, from trash heaps to public toilets, where you’ll find a cornucopia of bacteria, fungi and viruses that can make you, and the emerald wasp larva, sick.
As the wasp larva munches its way through the microbe-laden body of the cockroach, it produces generous amounts of a clear liquid.
Herzner and her colleagues found this liquid to contain a blend of antimicrobial substances, according to their study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“The larvae seem to disperse this secretion thoroughly inside the cockroach, and in this way sanitize their cockroach hosts,” Herzner says.
One of the chemicals fights the germs that cause tuberculosis; another has a broad range of activity against bacteria, fungi, and viruses such as hepatitis C.
Herzner says it is the first time researchers have found insects using this chemical against microbes.
But it’s probably not the last insect antimicrobial discovery.
Most antibiotics that doctors use have been discovered among microbes living in the soil, but if researchers turn to the insect world, microbiologist Julian Davies, at the University of British Columbia, says, “You can have a potentially new source of antibiotics. People have been looking at this. Nothing’s come out of it yet, but they’re certainly looking at it.”
Antimicrobials have been discovered everywhere from frog skin to panda blood, but none of them have made it to the medicine cabinet yet.
Davies says it can be hard to isolate useful quantities of the active chemicals in these sources, and they may be difficult chemicals to produce in the lab.
Plus, Davies says, “It’s fine to find an antibiotic, but half of them are toxic.”
Scientists are working to overcome these hurdles.
Davies says these chemicals may be more than just microbe killers. He points to the emerging field of research on microbe-to-microbe chemical communication.
“And you can ask the question, ‘Are they killing each other, or are they talking to each other?’”
But, with antibiotic-resistant infections a growing threat worldwide, killing the microbes is scientists’ current priority.
(Originally published in VOA News)
Google Inc., the world’s largest Internet-search company, plans to offer free wireless Internet access in parts of New York City, creating the largest public outdoor network in the city.
The Wi-Fi network, which doesn’t require a password, was available starting yesterday, said Google, which has offices in the Chelsea neighborhood.
