What can a guy do with 4,000 CDs? Help someone heal with music therapy.
That’s what happened Tuesday when a former national music buyer for the now-defunct retailer A&B Sound, Vancouver’s Brian Thompson, packed up his massive collection spanning 23 years of music from 1990 and sent it to Vancouver General Hospital where a music therapist will use them in her work.
Described as a cross between a house cat and a teddy bear, scientists announced the identification of a new mammal species, the olinguito.
In the raccoon family, Bassaricyon neblina is the first mammalian carnivore species to be added in the Americas in 35 years, scientists at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington said.
The 2-pound olinguito (oh-lin-GHEE-toe), with its large eyes and woolly orange-brown fur, is native to the cloud forests of Colombia and Ecuador.
Paul Williams was rushing to catch a bus home after ending work at a California Wal-Mart when he made a startling discovery in the parking lot: a wallet containing $4,000 in cash and a $1,000 check – with no ID.
Meanwhile, wallet owner Lynn Andries had discovered what she’d lost while shopping in a rush. “I was sick to my stomach,” says Andries, adding she didn’t think there was a point to returning to the store to see if it had been turned in but was talked into it by her sister.
A 12-year-old North Carolina boy on vacation with his family found a 5.16-carat diamond at Arkansas’ Crater of Diamonds State Park, the only diamond-producing site in the world open to the public.
Michael Detlaff didn’t even have to mine for the “honey brown diamond”. He found it simply by searching on the surface of the ground and noticing a pebble that looked different.
“It is thrilling any time a child finds a diamond here at Crater of Diamonds State Park,” said a park employee.
Among all the fantastical superhero figures parading at this year’s Comic-Con was an elegant and modest man who has earned the moniker “hero” in real life.
John Lewis began life as the son of sharecroppers on a farm in rural Alabama.
He went on to speak alongside Martin Luther King Jr. at the March on Washington and become a U.S. congressman.
His incredible life story is now a graphic autobiography entitled “March
Two Phoenix police officers will be held forever in the heart of a young Latina girl who went home on her first day of school much richer than when she’d left.
Officer Ben Carro was assigned to help with traffic control on August 5, the first day of school for Loma Linda Elementary, when he saw a young girl walking alone toward to the school who appeared to be crying. A school aid asked the child, name Leslie Gonzales, what was wrong.
One of the largest airports in the world, O’Hare International takes its responsibility toward the environment seriously.
Acres of green roofs have been installed to reduce storm water runoff and cool the air. The airport even hosts 1 million bees living in 28 beehives that produce honey and help replenish declining bee populations.
Now a barnyard band of goats, sheep, llamas and wild burros is munching its way through a steep embankment overgrown with tall grass.
(READ the story in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune)
The recession that has dragged down the eurozone since 2011 came to an end in the second quarter of this year as 17 EU countries saw the total output of goods and services increase by 0.3 percent.
“We’re finally starting to see a bigger growth curve in Spain, and the strong growth in Italy has been a surprise,” said the owner of a travel company that is doubling it’s workforce because Europeans are spending again.
Young Greeks are combating the euro crisis by setting up self-help initiatives to provide free medical care, repair street lighting and monitor public spending. A new, unprecedented communal spirit is emerging to tackle the hardship of cutbacks and reforms.
With no more money to feed government corruption, things have started changing in Greece — and people are doing more than just complain and strike.
A bride-to-be who was packing her car for her wedding, went back inside for another load and came out to find her wedding dress had been stolen.
Sobbing and raging, she called 911 to report the theft.
Candice, the dispatcher who answered the call near Kent, Washington, sent an officer to the scene.
She also wanted to offer her dress as a loaner to the bride — and miraculously, it fit.
(READ the story in the News Tribune)
This past January, UPS Driver Gavin Crowsley was making a delivery on his Indiana route when he spotted a large-breed, emaciated dog with no food, no water, no shelter, and tied to a short chain.
“I could see every bone in his body,” said Crowsley. “He was just lying on the ground. I knew if that dog didn’t die from starvation, he was going to die from the weather. I just couldn’t leave him there.”
The dog made a complete recovery and is now living with a loving family.
Crowsley subsequently went on to raise money for other dogs in need of rescue through a Facebook Page called Phoenix Fighters.
(Source: Life With Dogs TV)
What’s cuter than a chihuahua performing the “Downward Dog”? A chihuahua has such a special connection with his owner that he’s able to repeat his yoga workout perfectly in sync on the floor next to him.
On the YouTube channel, Vitalyzd TV, a comedy prankster named Vitaly wanted to show he was essentially a good guy with a heart, so he found a homeless street person and gave him an extreme makeover, buying him a new wardrobe and treating him to a steak dinner at a restaurant.
Watching the man’s joyful reaction to being showered with gifts is neither comedy nor pranking, but it is a lot of fun.
Watch the video below…
From straws to chip bags, mangoes to popsicles, this guy shares ten great tips for making life easier and more stylish in the summer.
Do you want to know a natural way to get rid of fruit flies or ants, this video by ‘The King of Random’ can show you the way.
One of the best suggestions is a way to safeguard your valuables on the beach while you are in the water or playing ball. Take an empty shampoo container and pop off the top. Make a slit big enough to fit your money, iPhone and keys, then push the top back on to conceal the slit. Very cool.
(WATCH the video below)
SHARE the knowledge…
Using a poignant video to make a point, the WaterIsLife charity brought a four-year-old African child on an incredible journey, fulfilling everything on his would-be bucket list. From kicking downfield in a professional football stadium, to seeing the ocean, to flying in a plane and taking a bubble batch.
The Kenyan child, living in an area where clean water is scarce, has a one-in-five chance of dying before his fifth birthday.
By creating the moving video, the charity hopes to expand its donation base and help more children like Nikaitole to live a long, full life.
(WATCH the video below and learn more at WATER is LIFE)
Tampa Bay attorney Mindy Miller wants to show others how easy it is to help people who need it. In her community, she asks parents for donations and school backpacks and asks their kids to help fill 100 packs for needy families.
Throwing a party is how she gets people involved.
“If everyone does a little… we can accomplish a goal that we might not have if it was just ourselves,” she told Bay News 9.
This is the fifth year Miller has organized the event, which has raised enough for 450 backpacks that have brought excitement for school to 450 children.
– WATCH the video online here
– READ the story at BayNews9
Disaster struck Haitian eco-preneur Duquesne Fednard only a week after his workers were trained and ready to start production: his new stove-making factory was destroyed in the 2010 earthquake that killed thousands of Haitians.
He wanted to quit, but his employees refused to let him walk away.
Instead, production was moved into two tents and, despite having no roof, the company employs 35 people. To date, 33,000 clean fuel-efficient stoves, called the Eco Recho, have been sold.
Joe Markovitch often takes his border collie to Stanley Park in Vancouver, Canada, where he loves to fetch big sticks in the harbor. But on Thursday the 12 year-old dog chased a stick that turned out to be a little too big.
“Because he grabbed it at one end, the current wouldn’t allow him to turn,” Markovitch told Global News, “so he just kept swimming out to sea.”
I live with someone who’s difficult: strong-willed, obstinate, opinionated and even argumentative at times. You know the type: they want what they want, and they fuss with you if they don’t get their way. No, I’m not talking about my mate. I’m talking about myself.
For years I denied that this part of me existed. That just made it impossible to deal with the selfish behaviors that would rear their ugly head. Then, after shamefully acknowledging that I could be self-centered, I tried to stamp out that part of me. Failing in that effort, I began to ruminate on those times when I was painfully aware that I had misfired.
I’m a psychologist, yet I was willfully recalling moments that made me feel badly about myself. I got so good at self-recrimination that I could easily recollect unpleasant incidents from 40 years ago. I’m supposed to know better than to behave like that.
Nowadays, I really do know better. No, I still do things that I regret. I’ve just learned to accept the fact that I can be self-absorbed at times. The diagnostic label for people like me is “being human.” We are all hardwired to think about our own needs first, that’s our evolutionary programming.
That fact makes me, like billions of other people, an imperfect person. Sadly, it can never change. What can change is my ability to be much more accepting of myself. Not of my behavior, but of myself. I am much more than the sum of everything that I have done wrong in my life.
Accepting myself actually makes it much easier to change my behavior, I’ve discovered. Self-acceptance permits me to acknowledge, however begrudgingly, the parts of me that can contribute to creating painful experiences. It also allows me to own the extraordinarily good parts of me that are able to produce some meaningful moments of love, caring, and triumph in my quest to help others transform their lives.
I have been blessed with some exceptional strengths: intelligence, compassion and gratitude to name a few. Yes, I can say that out loud as well. That’s how it works, you see. You get to feel good about yourself sometimes. In fact, a lot of the time.
When you’re struggling with your weaknesses, you can’t see your positive qualities. But self-acceptance opens the door to all of who you are as a human being. And when you’re aware of the great attributes you possess, you can harness them to help you make your life work well.
No one can always do things right, but we can always figure out how to make things right. When stressful situations strike, especially when we’ve had a string of them occur and we’re low on energy, we automatically lapse into fight, flight or freeze reactions. That doesn’t justify our bad behavior, but it does explain the biological basis for it. These moments inform us that we need to take a time out and replenish our resilience resources.
Step away from the stress when you feel yourself misfiring. The first rule regarding what to do when you find yourself standing in a hole is to put your shovel down. Walk away, take a time out, or simply ask for time to think about how to handle the problem. Give yourself time to think about what strengths you could deploy.
There’s an old Cherokee tale about a chief who’s telling his grandson about a fight that’s going on inside himself. He said it’s between 2 wolves. One is evil: anger, envy, sorrow, regret, fear, worry, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego. The other is good: joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.
The grandson thinks about the story for a minute and then asks, “Which wolf wins?”
The chief simply replied, “The one I feed.”
Dr. Tom Muha is a psychologist practicing in Annapolis. Previous articles can be found at www.achievinghappiness.com. To contact him, call 443-454-7274 or email [email protected].
