The city of Boulder, Colorado has won the right to take its power supply—and carbon emissions—away from corporate control and redirect it toward the sun.
The change for Boulder came in November when voters passed two ballot measures that allow the city to begin the process of forming its own municipal power utility to take advantage of the 300 days of annual sunshine.
The word ‘Hope’ engraved on wooden blocks is on display alongside food items in several Budgens grocery stores as an innovative way to raise money for charity.
Shoppers can place the blocks in their carts for the cashiers to collect £1 for each one scanned in support of local people affected by dementia.
The blocks are then returned to the shelf to be sold again to benefit the Alzheimer’s Society.
France is celebrating the life of Raymond Aubrac, one of its last great heroes of the resistance, whose bravery and exploits with his wife Lucie against the Gestapo became the stuff of legend and film.
Aubrac, who died at age 97 in a military hospital in Paris on Tuesday, was, along with his late wife, a leading figure in the underground fight against Nazi occupation.
For the third consecutive year, 100 percent of the graduating seniors from the Urban Prep Academy, the nation’s first all-boys public charter high school, have accomplished what some thought impossible – every single one of these 85 students has been accepted to a four-year college or university.
As of last week, the Englewood campus’s 2012 graduating students have been accepted to 128 different four-year colleges and universities, including: Bates College, Georgetown University, Morehouse College, Northwestern University, Syracuse University and the University of Virginia. In total, this year’s seniors have been awarded more than $3.5 million in scholarships and grants to date.
Also good news, a follow-up study of former graduates of the African-American student body shows they are staying in college beyond their first year at record rates: 83 percent of Urban Prep graduates persisted in college compared to only 71 percent for Chicago Public School alumni and 35 percent for African-American males nationally.
“I’m incredibly proud,” said Tim King, founder and CEO, Urban Prep Academies. “Critics didn’t believe that a bunch of boys in the hood could be boys doing good.”
Urban Prep is committed to the ongoing success of its alumni, and has allocated resources for supporting students once they graduate high school, with regular contact, mentoring and guidance.
Urban Prep Academies was founded in 2002 by Tim King and a group of African-American education, business and civic leaders who wanted to improve the educational opportunities available to urban boys.
(WATCH a video below from ABC-7 News or READ their story)
A few months ago, gaming company OMGPOP was about to go bust.
Its Facebook games weren’t performing and prospects were so bleak that CEO Dan Porter was forced to lay off the startup’s flash developers.
Then, they launched a mobile game called Draw Something, which changed everything.
Within weeks of its launch, Draw Something became the most popular iPhone/Facebook game out there with 35 million people playing.
The Amur leopard was thrown a lifeline yesterday with the establishment of a new national park in Russia, announced by the World Wildlife Fund, to help protect the world’s rarest wild cat.
Fewer than 40 Amur leopards are believed to exist in the wild. The majority of those currently reside in the new Land of the Leopard National Park in Russia’s Far East. The park includes about 60 percent of the remaining habitat and all of the breeding areas for the critically endangered cat.
The Amur leopard was thrown a lifeline yesterday with the establishment of a new national park in Russia, announced by the World Wildlife Fund, to help protect the world’s rarest wild cat.
Fewer than 40 Amur leopards are believed to exist in the wild. The majority of those currently reside in the new Land of the Leopard National Park in Russia’s Far East. The park includes about 60 percent of the remaining habitat and all of the breeding areas for the critically endangered cat.
The falling US teenage birth rate sunk to its lowest level since record-keeping began in 1940, according to a new government report. From 2007 to 2010 the rate fell another 9 percent and was seen among all racial and ethnic groups. (Since 1991, the overall teen rate has dropped by 44 percent.)
According to estimates, one-third of all money spent on US health care is devoted to unnecessary tests and procedures. In a proactive effort to help stem healthcare spending, nine medical associations have joined a campaign called Choosing Wisely, to educate doctors and patients to use more caution regarding certain procedures.
“More isn’t better,” is the conclusion of the specialty doctors leading the campaign.
Wireless carriers agreed to disable stolen smartphones after pressure from U.S. regulators and a police chief who told the industry “shame on you” for not helping to stem a spike in violent robberies.
It is hoped the agreement, announced yesterday, will eventually deter thieves by simply disabling mobile gear like ipads and iphones making it worthless after it is stolen.
Every day for three years, Xiang Yuncui carried her disabled granddaughter over mountain roads to a Chinese school 3 miles away (5km).
The young girl has cerebral palsy and can’t walk. So every morning the 57-year-old woman has carried her to school, waited for her there, and carried her home again — a grueling two hour trip each way.
(WATCH the video from ITN News)
Every day for the last three years, Xiang Yuncui has carried her disabled granddaughter over mountain roads to a Chinese school 3 miles away (5km).
The young girl has cerebral palsy and can’t walk. So every morning the 57-year-old woman has carried her to school, waited for her there, and carried her home again — a grueling two hour trip each way.
An elaborate Russian dance flash mob that broke out on a wintry public square to the song, Puttin’ on the Ritz, has tallied 4.6 million views on YouTube.
Some commenters think it’s a protest against Putin, while many of the Russian commenters say it’s pro-Putin. No details were provided by the producers when they uploaded the video on Feb. 26.
One thing is certain. It is fun for all who watched and danced to this 83-year-old song written by Russian-born American Jew, Irving Berlin.
A motley crew of diverse Arab, Persian and American comedians is making audiences laugh while unraveling stereotypes at the same time. With their own comedy brand, sold-out worldwide tours, films and television shows, Aron Kader, Maz Jobrani, Maysoon Zayid and Dean Obeidallah have built transnational bridges through humor.
Before 9/11, the comedians struggled in a cutthroat environment where club owners, agents and promoters didn’t see the potential of this new-fangled Middle Eastern comedy. But when the media spotlight turned to their countries of origins after 9/11, their work began to generate tremendous interest.
The exponential growth of their comedic output and audience— from the United States to the UAE— led to their global success, culminating in the formation of the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour in 2005, a satirical title alluding to the term former president George W. Bush used to describe the countries he believed supported terrorism. (Watch the video clip below)
Their material is based equally on the cultural whimsies and political dilemmas of the Middle East. In a Los Angeles interview I asked if their subject matter was a creative choice or if they felt obligated to be ambassadors of their heritage. Tehran-born, California-raised Maz Jobrani explained that they did not deliberately set out to deconstruct stereotypes about Arabs and Persians. “That’s not why I became a comedian. The moment you do material based on what’s expected, you give up your artistic voice.”
The comedians soon discovered that in difficult times, comedy is a persuasive tool for peace. Jobrani cited a specific example of a man who had a revelation after laughing at the Axis of Evil performances. “He emailed me to say he had hated Middle Easterners after September 11th and that he started to [change his] mind as time went by. He said that seeing the TV special helped in that process.”
During the peak of the Iraq war, however, there were times that Jobrani was heckled by audience members for criticizing the Bush administration. “I took that in stride, as I believed in what I was saying.” In his routine, he emphasises the realities of everyday life in Iran. “On TV they show us angry— burning flags. Just once I wish they would show us baking cookies, because in Iran we do have cookies.”
Dean Obeidallah, co-star of Comedy Central’s The Axis of Evil television special, is a Palestinian Italian from New Jersey who is currently producing a documentary about Arab American comedians, “The Muslims are Coming”. For him, comedy raises socio-political issues in impactful ways. Citing influences like talk show host Jon Stewart and African American comedians Richard Pryor and Chris Rock, he hopes his “comedy dispels some misconceptions Americans harbour about Arabs and Muslims.”
(WATCH a clip from the Axis of Evil Tour in 2005 – some rough language; may not be appropriate for children)
Collaboration with others led Obeidallah to form the Stand up for Peace Tour with Scott Blakeman, who says his Jewish faith compels him to speak out against stereotyping. At the same time, Obeidallah’s Arab Comedy Festival co-founder, Maysoon Zayid, is busy deconstructing myths about the “oppressed Muslim woman, the blood-thirsty Palestinian, and the poor pathetic cripple”. A Palestinian American comedian, she is also an activist for cerebral palsy— a condition she lives and laughs with.
Sarah Palin, Muammar Gaddafi, Iran’s Twitter revolt, Egypt’s uprising, racism, country music and cerebral palsy: no topic is taboo for these comedians as they easily straddle multiple cultures in their comedy routines. “Make it funny, give it levity, use humility so it’s easier to digest and discuss divisive political issues”, said Kader attesting to the ways Middle Eastern American comedians are debunking myths and transcending politics with humour.
This multicultural comedy is nascent but necessary in a world that is rapidly evolving in the way it communicates, entertains and informs.
Sadia Ashraf is a public relations, media, communications and fundraising specialist based in Los Angeles who writes about building bridges and philanthropy. (Originally published by the Common Ground News Service – Reprinted with permission)
WATCH More clips of their comedy on YouTube)
A motley crew of diverse Arab, Persian and American comedians is making audiences laugh while unraveling stereotypes at the same time. With their own comedy brand, sold-out worldwide tours, films and television shows, Aron Kader, Maz Jobrani, Maysoon Zayid and Dean Obeidallah have built transnational bridges through humor.
Before 9/11, the comedians struggled in a cutthroat environment where club owners, agents and promoters didn’t see the potential of this new-fangled Middle Eastern comedy. But when the media spotlight turned to their countries of origins after 9/11, their work began to generate tremendous interest.
A Sacramento mosque broke religious barriers today when, for the first time, it allowed a Christian congregation inside to hold Easter services.
The Christian Spiritual Life Center lost its lease one week ago, leaving its parishioners without a place to worship for Easter. That’s when Salam Community Center on College Oak Drive offered its mosque.
London’s homicide rate has fallen steadily over the last decade, dropping 47 percent since 2003. Figures from the Metropolitan Police showed 117 murders recorded in the capital last year, down from 222 in the year 2011.
The drop in London homicides is continuing, with even fewer committed in the last twelve months.
On the third floor of an old meat-packing plant is a humid hothouse filled with rows of greens and sprouts, even exotic white strawberries. Nearby, in large barrels swim dozens of tilapia, fish native to tropical regions.
“The Plant” is a leading example for urban vertical farming using old warehouses, where plants and fish are raised symbiotically, with a closed-loop system that uses all waste toward the production of food. Using “aquaponics”, the water containing fish excrement is used to feed and fertilize the plants, which then filters the water back to the fish through a series of pipes.
One-third of The Plant will hold aquaponic growing systems and the other two-thirds will incubate sustainable food businesses — such as a bakery, beer brewery and mushroom farm — by offering low rent, low energy costs, and a licensed shared kitchen. The Plant will create 125 jobs in Chicago’s economically distressed Back of the Yards neighborhood – but, remarkably, these jobs will require no fossil fuel use. Instead, The Plant will eventually divert over 10,000 tons of food waste from landfills each year to meet all of its heat and power needs.
Funded in part by $1.5 million in grant money from the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, The Plant will install an anaerobic digester and a combined heat and power system to operate completely off the grid. By 2015, the completely enclosed, odorless digester will consume 27 tons of food waste a day, including all of the waste produced in the facility and by neighboring food manufacturers. The digester will capture all of the methane from that waste, to provide heat and 400 kWh of electricity.
The Plant is operated under a what’s called a social enterprise model. This means there is a non-profit and for-profit side, but both are aimed at socially and environmentally responsible goals. For more information, visit their website: www.plantchicago.com
(WATCH the great video below, and Read a story about the founders at ABC News)
On the third floor of an old meat-packing plant is a humid hothouse filled with rows of greens and sprouts, even exotic white strawberries. Nearby, in large barrels swim dozens of tilapia, fish native to tropical regions.
“The Plant” is a leading example for urban vertical farming using old warehouses, where plants and fish are raised symbiotically, with a closed-loop system that uses all waste toward the production of food. Using “aquaponics”, the water containing fish excrement is used to feed and fertilize the plants, which then filters the water back to the fish through a series of pipes.
A 17-year-old has invented a mine-sweeping device that can detect land mines based on sound waves, similar to the way piano strings create vibrations in nearby guitars.
Both of Marian Bechtel’s parents are geologists involved with a project developing a holographic radar device for detecting land mines, but her own idea was inspired by her time spent at the piano.
She was rewarded with a $25,000 fellowship from the Davidson Institute for Talent Development for her innovative creation.
(READ the story in Fast CoExist)
