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More Billionaires Pledge to Give Away Half Their Wealth

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May 12, 2013

Nine more wealthy families and individuals have pledged to give at least half of their fortunes to charity as part of a giving campaign by two of the world’s richest men, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.

Some of the big names joining The Giving Pledge, which was launched in 2010, include real estate magnate and Miami Dolphin team owner Stephen Ross, Sara Blakely, the founder of SPANX, and Britain’s Lord Ashcroft.

This brings the total number of signers of The Giving Pledge to 114. The group includes CNN founder Ted Turner, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sir Richard Branson, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Hollywood director George Lucas. See the full list at GivingPledge.org.

(READ the news story from Reuters)

‘Super Mom’ Goes Beyond Adopting Foster Kids

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May 11, 2013

Valerie Crabbe foster mom - Being Beautiful Foundation

Valerie Crabbe already had three children when she married a man who also happened to have three kids.

But the vivacious Pennsylvania ‘Brady Bunch’ didn’t stop there.

Valerie was moved to adopt two girls in foster care creating a blended family of 10, with members who are black, Hispanic and white — all feeling loved and engaged with the world.

Landfill Site Becomes Nature Reserve

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May 11, 2013

landfill-heap-plastic

A huge landfill site in Essex, containing waste from six London boroughs, has been transformed into a 120-acre nature reserve.

The Thurrock Thameside Nature Park at Mucking, which now lies on top of 50 years of waste, has been restored to grasslands, woodland, ponds and reedbeds.

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17-Year-Old Builds App to Prevent TV Spoilers on Twitter

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May 11, 2013

iPhone 5 Apple photo

Setting out to find a solution to the problem of accidentally reading spoilers of your favorite TV shows, 17-year-old Jen Lamere created the Twivo app, a mobile solution that acts as a Tivo for tweets.

The app took home the top prize at the TVnext hack event in Boston, where she was the only female participating, according to Mashable.com.

Twivo puts a block on tweets with keywords relevant to any show during certain periods of tim, so you don’t have to stay away from Twitter while waiting to get to watch the final episode of The Office.

Woman Answers Wrong Number Saves Life of Elderly Man 1000 Miles Away

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May 11, 2013

phone-keypad

Saving a life sometimes could take something as simple as a call back.

Just ask Thomas Buck, an 84-year-old from Pennsylvania whose life was saved by a complete stranger more than 1,000 miles away – who called him back.

The stranger is Ashley Yasick, a 27-year-old banker in Delray Beach who checked her messages Monday, only to find a voicemail from a distressed Buck asking for help.

(READ the story from the Sun-Sentinel)

Thanks to Billy Amon for submitting the link.

Cheers Erupt as Spire Placed Atop One World Trade Center (WATCH)

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May 10, 2013

Manhatten Trade Center spire erected-NBC

A crane lifted the last of a 408-foot tall spire on top of One World Trade Center this morning, a capstone to an emotional 12-year effort to replace the twin towers destroyed by terrorists.

The 18-piece silver spire will top out the tower at a symbolic 1,776 feet, a nod to the year America signed the Declaration of Independence.

The New York office building is just north of the original towers, now the hallowed ground known as Ground Zero.

American Ship Delivers Wheat to Feed One Million Syrians

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May 10, 2013

ship delivers US grain to WFP

A U.S. ship carrying enough wheat to feed more than one million people for four months was delivered for distribution to the Syrian people. The United Nations World Food Program received the contribution, worth more than $19 million, on April 21 in Beirut, Lebanon. The ship’s cargo gave the WFP the ability to add flour to the monthly food basket of more than one million people.

The 25,000 metric tons of wheat is being distributed in 50-lb bags (25 kg) of flour to people in areas where there are severe shortages of bread, especially in the rural parts of the country.

UK Contribution Provides Syrians With Lifeline of Food

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May 10, 2013

Refugee children From Syria-WFPphoto

Amid mounting concern about the deepening suffering caused by conflict in Syria, the United Nations World Food Program last week welcomed a generous contribution from the Government of the United Kingdom of $43 million (£28.3 mil) to help provide much-needed food assistance to thousands of Syrians both inside and outside their country.

The donation will supply food rations to displaced families in Syria itself, as well as to half a million refugees in neighboring countries.

Woman Rescued From Rubble of Bangladesh Factory After 16 Days

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May 10, 2013

survivor pulled from rubble

Cheers erupted among workers today when a woman was pulled alive from the ruins of an eight-story factory in Bangladesh — more than 16 days after it collapsed. She said later that she “never dreamed I’d see the daylight again.”

Reshma Begum, a seamstress who is married with a young son, was found trapped in the basement mosque of the building after about 391 hours in the rubble.

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Critically Ill Maryland Teen Gets Classmate’s Heart After Miraculous Match

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May 10, 2013

teens heart goes to friend WJLA

Although a teen was killed in a hit-and-run crash, his heart is now giving his ailing friend a chance to live.

When Kyle Wilkerson heard the good news, that doctors had a heart for the Maryland teenager, he had a suspicion. The 15-year-old looked up at the cardiologist and asked, “Is it Skylar’s heart?”

Gas Pump Camera Ambushes Couple Whose Singing Lands Them on the Tonight Show

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May 9, 2013

singing at the gas pump-Tonight Show

Would you sing a song for a man speaking from a gas pump?

Will did — and his impromptu performance so impressed the Tonight Show pranksters behind the stunt that he ended up entertaining millions in an NBC studio.

In the middle of a suburban gas station, without any accompaniment, the bartender belted out Bon Jovi’s Livin’ on a Prayer while his wife howled with laughter.

Not only that, when asked for a duet by the man in the gas pump, his wife, dressed in baggy sweatpants and bandana, got out of the car and sang a pitch perfect “Sweet Dreams” by the Eurythmics.

The two-way camera mounted in the gas pump, along with cameras surrounding the car videotaped the whole scene as Will and Monifa Sims were prompted to sing more.

Jay Leno was so impressed that he invited the pair on his show. He said it was rare to see a couple so happy together. They sang with the Tonight Show band and led the entire audience, including Jay, in a rowdy clap-fest.

This just confirms that it might pay off to step out of your comfort zone, if prompted…

(WATCH the fantastic video below)

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87 Percent of Tech Startups Plan to Hire in 2013

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May 9, 2013

photo of businessmen by Michael Connors via Morguefile

If you know anyone looking for a job, you might want to tell them to go see a start-up. Eighty seven percent of technology startups plan to hire new employees this year, according to an interactive report by Silicon Valley Bank, which serves high growth tech companies across the United States.

In the US, that number is 14 percent higher than four years ago, when SVB’s annual Startup Outlook was first conducted.

Young Millennials Spur Capitalism with a Conscience

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May 9, 2013

Size of Wales Dan Mitchell

It’s capitalism with a conscience. Nordstrom recently opened a test store where all profits go to charity. Starbucks has three coffee shops where a big chunk of the money made helps the needy.

For decades, this kind of corporate kindness was the exception, but in the past few years, dozens of America’s biggest brands have embraced social generosity as an unusually effective way to sell themselves to consumers, employees, even stockholders.

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Made in America Label Stages Comeback at Stores

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May 9, 2013

Made in USA-Lands End

When Roger Simmermaker went shopping for clothes at a Florida mall in the mid-1990s, he wanted to buy American, but to his frustration, he couldn’t find anything made in the U.S.A.

It motivated him to write “How Americans Can Buy American: The Power of Consumer Patriotism” – a guide to finding products manufactured in the United States, which were a scarce commodity at the time. Nearly 20 years later, he has seen a big change.

The pendulum has swung back toward a wider choice of American-made products — often without a higher price tag.

(READ the story in Reuters)

Baseball Star Moved to Give Shirt off his Back to Terminally Ill Fan (WATCH)

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May 8, 2013

baseball player Kemp gives shirt-iPhone

After a three-year battle with cancer, Joshua Jones may be living his final days.

A group of family and friends pooled their money to buy four front-row seats so he could see his beloved Dodgers one last time.

Dodger player Matt Kemp had promised to sign an autograph after the game, but instead was moved to do more, including give the shirt off his back — and his shoes.

Johnson and Johnson Removes Toxic Chemicals From Baby Products

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May 8, 2013

baby in bathtub by AanitaPeppers via Morguefile

Johnson & Johnson executives were handed 30,000 signatures from consumers in February who, instead of complaining, were praising the company.

As one of the world’s largest producers of personal care products, it had followed through on an August pledge to remove toxic chemicals from its baby products — and by doing so, signaled a change in corporate America.

“Smart companies that are marketing to children are in a footrace to phase out chemicals of concern,” said Scott Faber of the Environmental Working Group, an environmental group that presented the signatures to the corporation.

Biggest North American Trout Once Thought Extinct Returns to Ancient Pyramid Lake

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May 8, 2013

trout cutthroat Nevada FWS photo

What’s unfolding in Nevada is a fish story about the one that didn’t get away, a tale of loss, discovery and restoration that reaches from Utah across the Great Basin to Pyramid Lake and up a river into the snow-clad Sierra Nevada around Lake Tahoe.

The largest inland trout in North America, the salmon-sized cutthroat, went from near extinction to stunning recovery in a rare comeback orchestrated by a decades-long odyssey of biological risk and scientific discovery made possible by the commitment of a fisheries biologist laboring in one of the most remote corners of the West.

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Russian People Caught on Dash Cams Doing Good Deeds (WATCH)

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May 8, 2013

duck crossing Russian dashcam

Russians – like people everywhere – are good, often helping strangers without any notice. Russian vehicles are required to have dashboard cameras due to the high rate of insurance fraud there. But the cameras have captured something else – the high rate of humanitarian goodness.

Obviously people like watching this type of good news. This video, showing 18 separate displays of helpfulness, has received 2.4 million views on the original YouTube page alone.

Boy Who Lost his Feet But Not his Spirit Inspires Brother to Run for Boston Amputees

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May 7, 2013

amputee playing football-MikeysRunCharity

On July 22, 2008, Harris’s little brother Michael was rushed to the emergency room with a serious bacterial infection. His condition quickly worsened –- septic shock, a coma, and oxygen deprivation to his four limbs — resulting in quadriplegic amputation.

The two both played sports.

“I’ve even won some awards, but that’s nothing in comparison to my brother. He wins the cake for being awesome.”

Despite losing his hands, and having prosthetic devices where his feet once were, he still competes.

“He doesn’t let anything stop him,” says Harris.

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