Although peaks in the trading markets are just moments in time, it is still a positive sign when we reach them, if only temporarily. This week we saw a congruence of high points from many corners of the world.
Starting in Southeast Asia, the Philippines and Indonesian stock markets hit their record high on Wednesday, while Thailand ended atop a 19-year peak, amid the improving global economic outlook.
Japan’s Nikkei climbed to a 52-month high on Wednesday.
Robbi Giuliano thinks ditching students’ desk chairs in favor of yoga balls is one of the best decisions she ever made in 11 years of teaching.
Replacing stationary seats with inflatable bouncers has raised productivity in her fifth-graders at Westtown-Thornbury Elementary School, helping students focus on lessons while improving their balance and core strength, she said.
The giant rubber spheres, also called stability balls, make the student work to stay balanced which increases blood flow, leading to more alertness.
(READ the AP story from TODAY)
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On Friday, Feb. 15, more than 1,500 members of the NBA family, including the NBA All-Stars, joined in service projects throughout Houston, including the renovation of 5 homes, repairs and improvements to the Foster Place Elementary basketball court, and much needed yardscaping.
In the video below, stars like Andre Drummond of the Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat’s Chris Bosh and LeBron James talk about the impact of giving back during the 2013 NBA Cares All-Star Day of Service.
Baltimore Ravens fan Matthew Jeffers has inspired head coach John Harbaugh and players like Bernard Pollard with a powerful email sent earlier in the season when the team was mostly losing.
Since birth, Matthew, a drama student, has been afflicted with short stature but says that overcoming failure is a choice that everyone can make.
In the last 15 months Isabelle and Katherine Adams have made life immeasurably better for villagers they’ve never met, in lands far away from their own home in Dallas.
The young sisters, ages 6 and 9, have raised a remarkable amount, $120,000 in total, for clean-water projects in Ethiopia and India, all through selling origami ornaments they create themselves, and by collecting matching funds for their cause.
In the last 15 months Isabelle and Katherine Adams have made life immeasurably better for villagers they’ve never met, in lands far away from their own home in Dallas.
The young sisters, ages 6 and 9, have raised a remarkable amount, $120,000 in total, for clean-water projects in Ethiopia and India, all through selling origami ornaments they create themselves, and by collecting matching funds for their cause.
The Original OKRA Charity Saloon in downtown Houston operates a lot like any other tavern — booze is purchased and poured, bartenders get paid and take home tips. But, the owners of this establishment give all their profits away.
Proceeds from OKRA’s are donated to a different Houston-based organization or social cause each month. With every drink purchased, bar patrons vote on which charity is chosen from among four new nominees each month.
The Original OKRA Charity Saloon in downtown Houston operates a lot like any other tavern — booze is purchased and poured, bartenders get paid and take home tips. But, the owners of this establishment give all their profits away.
Proceeds from OKRA’s are donated to a different Houston-based organization or social cause each month. With every drink purchased, bar patrons vote on which charity is chosen from among four new nominees each month.
A year ago, the ABC program “What Would You Do” set up scenarios where a young man and a young woman looked like they were stuck with a flat tire. They compared reactions by pedestrians, and the difference it made on bystanders if the one needing help was a woman or man.
Then, they switch it up and used a Muslim actor to play the stranded motorist. Hours went by and no one helped the man who was clad in the traditional scullcap of the Islamic faith.
But at last, an extraordinary young gentleman came along to help.
Provita Pharmaceutical is working on a project (with funding from the Gates Foundation) to use mosquitoes to help carry vaccines against the West Nile Virus.
The first goal: to genetically engineer mosquitoes so that they can produce and deliver a vaccine via their saliva. It’s a new twist on research being done elsewhere to breed sterile mosquitoes in malaria-infested areas.
And, everyone on the 15-plus person Provita team, from research and development workers to finance officers, is under the age of 18 and still in high school.
Looking at a warehouse full of outdated and discontinued door knobs, the folks at Union Hardware in Bethesda, Maryland wondered what they could possible do to put all those products to better use.
“We knew that their commercial viability was limited,” says David Van-Goghberg who works at the store. “Instead of sending them to the scrap yard, we decided to create something memorable.”
So, in 2011 the third-generation, family-owned and operated business began a project to bring to life Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpiece Starry Night using the distinctive tools of the hardware trade — door knobs, levers and plates.
Looking at a warehouse full of outdated and discontinued door knobs, the folks at Union Hardware in Bethesda, Maryland wondered what they could possible do to put all those products to better use.
“We knew that their commercial viability was limited,” says David Van-Goghberg who works at the store. “Instead of sending them to the scrap yard, we decided to create something memorable.”
So, in 2011 the third-generation, family-owned and operated business began a project to bring to life Vincent Van Gogh’s masterpiece Starry Night using the distinctive tools of the hardware trade — door knobs, levers and plates.
With improved awareness of diabetes and with newer medications, the number of people successfully managing their disease has spiked from just two percent a couple of decades ago to 19 percent in 2010.
New government research found that many more people were managing the three measurements of disease control, blood sugar, blood pressure and cholesterol levels.
People who have lost their sight due to retinitis pigmentosa could benefit from government approval this week for an implantable device that takes the place of damaged cells inside the eye.
The Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System is the first treatment for the inherited disorder. Working together, a set of futuristic glasses attached to a video camera and eye implant, have been approved by the FDA for restoring vision to some 100,000 people in the US afflicted with the disorder.
In a village in India’s poorest state, farmers are growing world record amounts of rice – with no GM, and no herbicide.
The innovation in rural Darveshpura has divided scientists but excited governments and development experts.
Tests on the soil show it is particularly rich in silicon but the reason for the “super yields” is entirely down to a method of growing crops called System of Root Intensification (SRI).
When great ape keepers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo were deciding how to add more variety and enrichment to their animals’ lives, they turned to Orangutan Outreach and a program that had seen great success in 12 other zoos around the world: Apps for Apes.
With the tap of a finger, keepers are introducing the Zoo’s six orangutans to iPads, which provide unique stimuli. They found that 36-year-old Bonnie likes to bang on the drums, 16-year-old Kyle prefers the piano and 25-year-old Iris is content to listen to the soothing sounds of the koi pond while watching animated fish splash.
At the Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., it is not uncommon for the crisp, clean, soothing sound of an acoustic guitar to echo down the hallway.
Patients, their families, and medical staff members alike light up when musicians come in to sing.
It’s all part of a six-city program called Musicians on Call, whose mission is to bring local musicians to the bedsides of patients too sick to leave their hospital beds.
By big city standards, Peter Breiter, 41, is an unusual banker. He left a bigger bank, where it was all “sell, sell, sell”, to settle in the tiny southern German village of Gammesfeld and write transaction slips by hand for its 500 inhabitants.
The job required him to work with an adding machine and typewriter, without computers.
Breiter, a keen mathematician, says taking up this job in 2008 was the best decision he ever made.
The number of homeowners installing solar panels leased from third parties is skyrocketing in the US, particularly in states that initiate incentive programs, like California’s “One Million Solar Roofs.”
This week comes news that third-party-owned solar transactions have pumped more than $938 million into California’s economy in 2012, a record-high annual amount equal to that of all the previous five years combined.
“We are seeing the most growth in low and median-income zip codes as companies like Sunrun continue to remove the barriers to (solar panel) access,” said the managing director of a digest for solar businesses, PV Solar Report.
The number of homeowners installing solar panels leased from third parties is skyrocketing in the US, particularly in states that initiate incentive programs, like California’s “One Million Solar Roofs.”
This week comes news that third-party-owned solar transactions have pumped more than $938 million into California’s economy in 2012, a record-high annual amount equal to that of all the previous five years combined.
“We are seeing the most growth in low and median-income zip codes as companies like Sunrun continue to remove the barriers to (solar panel) access,” said the managing director of a digest for solar businesses, PV Solar Report.
