The Irish Republican Army-linked Sinn Fein party says one of its leaders, Martin McGuinness, will meet Queen Elizabeth II next week, a once-unthinkable symbol of progress toward peace in Northern Ireland.
McGuinness, a former IRA commander, is the current deputy first minister of Northern Ireland’s Catholic-Protestant power-sharing government.
We hate to promote websites that may be using other artists’ work without permission, especially unattributed photos, but this article has gone viral and wanted to pass along the link.
An online pop culture editor posted a collection of 20 sets of photos that illustrate heartwarming and inspiring events. (The mention of a reality TV star seemed out of place).
For instance, the photo shown here features a sign on the door of the Elite Dry Cleaner shop in Minneapolis, which has helped over 2,000 unemployed workers by offering them free dry cleaning when they are getting ready for an interview. Owner Don Chapman estimated the accumulated cost to be $32,000.
(View the 20 sets of photos HERE on Buzzfeed)
Moms and dads all over the world are serving banana splits for dinner in the sweetest of tributes to a dying child and the mother who’s determined to find the joy in his last days.
After Diane told friends that that their 21-month-old son, Ryan, was at the end of his life, everyone wanted to know what else they could do.
No more cards or gifts of flowers for Diane. She urged them to create a special memory with their own kids by serving banana splits for dinner.
A former bus driver, who in her senior years works as a bus monitor, sat patiently through ten minutes of relentless and brutal bullying by middle school kids on her route.
Now the video has gone viral and an online social media community has rallied together to support her and raise the money to send her on a vacation.
As is normal for the Reddit website, users were inspired to donate and within 24 hours the total surpassed $160,000, and soared higher every minute, as more people watched the video and sympathized with the blue-collar senior. Max Sidorov created the fundraising page and has provided all the contact details and updates that ensured the effort was not a scam. By the next day, the mainstream media was publicizing the story and the donations hit a whopping $600K.
The video of Karen Huff Klein, who works in the school district in Greece, N.Y. where the bullying students are “facing strong disciplinary actions”, reached the Reddit community yesterday, where there arose this post from a user named, razorsheldon:
“As awful as this was, there was a silver lining in not only the universal condemnation of the actions of these kids, but also in a call for support for this poor woman. She has been a widow for 17 years, has lived in the same town she grew up in and is about to have her 50th high school reunion in the same school district, and deserves so much better than the actions shown by those in this video. Let’s show her that there are still good people out there.”
Media attention locally has been swift and while one reporter was at Karen’s home, several flower deliveries were being sent.
While you may want to search out the original video documenting the ten-minute shower of hate she received — being called fat, sweaty, poor, and stupid, accented by so many curse words and f-bombs — the 68-year-old bus monitor kept extraordinarily calm and mostly unresponsive, except to give them advice : “If you don’t have anything good to say, you shouldn’t say anything.”
“I tried to ignore them,” she told a Democrat and Chronicle news producer. But she does hope the bullying students will learn a valuable lesson.
[UPDATE: The police have delivered written apologies from the four boys to Karen’s house. And, in a Pay-it-forward moment, someone created a fundraising page to thank MAX for making the magic happen for Karen.]
(WATCH the interview with the lovely Ms. Klein below – or read their story at the Dem and Chronicle)
A former bus driver, who in her senior years works as a bus monitor, sat patiently through ten minutes of relentless and brutal bullying by middle school kids on her route.
Now the video has gone viral and an online social media community has rallied together to support her and raise the money to send her on a vacation.
As is normal for the Reddit website, users were inspired to donate and within 24 hours the total surpassed $160,000, and soared higher every minute, as more people watched the video and sympathized with the blue-collar senior. Max Sidorov created the fundraising page and has provided all the contact details and updates that ensured the effort was not a scam. By the next day, the mainstream media was publicizing the story and the donations hit a whopping $600K.
The video of Karen Huff Klein, who works in the school district in Greece, N.Y. where the bullying students are “facing strong disciplinary actions”, reached the Reddit community yesterday, where there arose this post from a user named, razorsheldon:
Five years ago, Leo McCarthy lost his 14-year-old daughter, Mariah, when a drunken driver hit her and two of her friends as they walked down a sidewalk near her home.
But he refused to let her tragic death become just another statistic.
Knowing that the driver was 20 years old — not even old enough to drink legally — McCarthy made an unusual promise to the teenagers attending Mariah’s memorial service in Butte, Montana.
If they refrained from drinking until the legal age, he’d give them one thousand dollars.
In a state which is notorious for its drunk driving rates, Mr. McCarthy’s offer has inspired abstinence in more than 140 high schoolers who have taken “Mariah’s Challenge.”
(WATCH the video below, or read the CNN Hero story here)
Every day, battered women go to domestic violence shelters in this country. But sometimes, they don’t stay because they’re not allowed to keep their pets with them.
That’s what happened earlier this year at a shelter in Kansas City, until one victim and her heroic dog needed help. The dog helped save her from an attack.
“It really made us realize this was something we needed to do,” said officials at the Rose Brooks Center. “We needed to provide this opportunity for women to bring their pets.”
This week, 50,000 leaders in government, business and the environment gather for the Rio+20 Earth Summit UN conference. What is new this year is a one-day creative break-out session focused entirely on the future of plastics — how to use bio-waste instead of oil to make them, and how to get more of it recycled.
Called, Plasticity Rio ’12, the forum will showcase pioneering efforts related to plastic, including new initiatives in design, packaging, recovery, and reuse.
This week, 50,000 leaders in government, business and the environment gathered for the Rio+20 Earth Summit UN conference. What was new this year is a one-day creative break-out session focused entirely on the future of plastics — how to use bio-waste instead of oil to make them, and how to get more of it recycled.
Called, Plasticity Rio ’12, the forum will showcase pioneering efforts related to plastic, including new initiatives in design, packaging, recovery, and reuse.
With inspiration from a friend too lazy to take a shower and a few months of research on the Internet, South African university student Ludwick Marishane has won global recognition for an invention that takes the water out of bathing.
The 22-year-old invented a product called DryBath, a clear gel applied to skin that does the work of water and soap with wide application in the developing world where basic hygiene is lacking and hundreds of millions of people do not have regular access to water.
With inspiration from a friend too lazy to take a shower and a few months of research on the Internet, South African university student Ludwick Marishane has won global recognition for an invention that takes the water out of bathing.
The 22-year-old invented a product called DryBath, a clear gel applied to skin that does the work of water and soap with wide application in the developing world where basic hygiene is lacking and hundreds of millions of people do not have regular access to water.
At the end of the day Wednesday, the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention will pass to an African-American pastor for the first time.
The nation’s largest Protestant denomination voted Tuesday to elect the Rev. Fred Luter Jr. to lead them, an important step for a denomination that was formed on the wrong side of slavery having split with the Baptists over the issue and made a reputation of supporting segregation and racism during much of the 20th century.
Have you ever hesitated before diving into a pool, trying to remember if it’s been at least 30 minutes since you ate? Or not itched a mosquito bite for fear that scratching would only make it worse? Health and medical myths abound. It is time to debunk them.
The truth is, you should not lean your head back if you have a bloody nose, and poison ivy is not contagious from a rash on someone else’s body, no matter how oozy.
They thought cell phone service would be impossible, stranded on the remote Idaho mountain after their plane crashed.
But then the Brown family heard a voice echoing into the night: “You are the dancing queen, young and sweet, only seventeen…”
The ABBA ringtone meant that somehow the remote location had a glimmer of cell phone service.
“We were in the mountain areas pretty deep, and I’ve never had luck with a cell phone working in the mountain areas really at all,’’ said Mr. Brown, who is a firefighter.
After successfully calling 911, the family waited as National Guard rescuers battled six-foot snowdrifts, white-out conditions and steep slopes for nearly 15 hours before they could be rescued.
An app that creates a strobe light helped rescuers find the family.
(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from TODAY on NBC)
A mom racked up some good karma by recycling her son’s old computer — good karma that came in handy after she found out her son had stashed $300 inside the old PC.
12 year-old Max had just returned from Boy Scout camp and instantly noticed the central-processing unit of his old computer was gone. “He started screaming that his CPU was missing. That’s when we realized.”
He had saved more than $300 to go to camp next year, hiding it inside his old computer so his sister wouldn’t find it.
When they learned of the mishap, the facility that collects the used hardware from the New York landfill really wanted to solve the problem. “We were very happy with Max’s mom that she went the distance to recycle, so we wanted to go the distance to try to help out.”
But there were thousands of old computers to comb through.
(WATCH the video below, or READ the story from TODAY on NBC)
A regional manager at Starbucks in Fredericksburg, Virginia discovered that there were homeless people living in the woods behind the shopping malls, where they stay unnoticed. She decided to help, collecting hotel toiletries, socks, and money, and delivering them, along with other Starbucks employees, to the dozens of people encamped back there.
“For all the customers who come in to Starbucks and buy Ethiopian Fair Trade coffee or water to pay for village wells or mugs to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS, Kelly has provided a cause that’s a little closer to home,” reports the Washington Post.
A lawyer, who is a regular customer in the cafe, also donated his time creating a non-profit organization for the group to work under.
(READ the story in the Washington Post)
When PBS discovered video mash-up artist John D. Boswell on YouTube, they immediately hoped to collaborate. It turns out that Boswell is a huge Mister Rogers Neighborhood fan, and was thrilled to get the opportunity to pay tribute to the Public Television hero.
The video below uses an auto-tune method of transforming words into musical tones. This is the first in a planned series of PBS icons set to be remixed.
The “Automotivation” program began eight years ago after the founder of San Antonio-based Operation Comfort talked with a soldier in Brooke Army Medical Center’s burn ward.
Aaron Coates was so badly injured after a rocket-propelled grenade struck his fuel truck that the gear shift knob and steering wheel melted into his hands.
She said to Aaron, “What on earth can I do to make you use what hands you’ve got?” He replied, “If you put an engine block out there on that patio area I’d be working on it 24/7.”
Now, a cadre of war-wounded veterans are determined to rebuild lives through the assembly of unique vehicles.
(READ the story in the Houston Chronicle)
Despite complaints of traffic jams and overcrowded hospitals and schools, Viet Nam is considered the second happiest country in the world in terms of sustainable well-being — behind Costa Rica.
The ranking, called the Happy Planet Index, was compiled and released by the New Economics Foundation, a UK independent think tank that wanted to create an index that measured the sustainability of a country and the happiness of its people (summing up how efficient is their happiness).
In the tight Massachusetts Senate race, GOP incumbent Scott Brown and his Democratic challenger, Elizabeth Warren, have signed a deal to discourage third party groups from running television, radio and online ads in Massachusetts.
At this point, at least, their pleas seem to have been heard.
And the two are leading by example: Voters are not hearing any caustic negative advertising because each of the candidates is airing a variety of positive ads, instead.
