Scientists announced yesterday that millions of dollars and years of effort in Europe have paid off in the search for the elusive particle called the Higgs boson. Dubbed the “God particle” in popular media, it is presumed to be at the heart of the Universe’s creation and key to the understanding of mass.
The discovery of a new sub-atomic particle, which was remarkably close to what researchers suspected the Higgs boson to be, was “a stunning triumph of both theory and experiment”.
Last week the New York Yankees’ biggest stars volunteered for their team’s Hope Week to benefit programs that help community residents most in need.
Senior citizens were treated to manicures given by the pro athletes who joked and listened as the old-timers told their tales. In another part of town, kids with special needs, like a boy with cerebral palsy, rode horses with their favorite Yankee players.
“The easy way is to give money, but it’s the giving of time that I think is cherished a little bit more,” said baseball great, Derek Jeter.
Four Great Falls teenagers have proved that while their age group might get a bad rap for being music-blaring, text-crazy, lazy individuals, they’re still capable of doing good in the world, reports the Tribune.
They found a wallet with $700 inside from a newly-cashed paycheck, money that the owner, an 18-year-old, needed to pay his rent.
Although the four teens, ages 13-14, imagined everything they could do with the money, in the end they decided to “do a good deed.”
Niagara Falls is the latest municipality to offer incentives for people to move there. And the city of 51,000 residents says even a small influx will make a big difference.
Applicants who are chosen will get up to $7,000 to pay back student loans, if they move to downtown Niagara Falls for two years.
After nearly 15 years of looking at the bright side as publisher of the Good News Network, I instinctively knew over the last 5 days that no matter how much hardship was thrown at me, it would only make things worse to complain. With each mishap or misfortune, celebration was warranted because inevitably “something good” showed up.
On Friday, my husband and I embarked upon that most detestable of all home improvement projects, re-painting a room. I dreaded the thought of this room in particular – my home office – because it contained more than a decade of assorted office supplies and piles of paper work stored in drawers, filing cabinets and cupboards. Even if I were to hire someone to do the painting, I’d still have to be the one to sort through all the stuff hidden in the 12×13 room with cedar closet.
As I thumbed through the documents — some going back to parenting and creative pursuits pre-dating the Good News Network– I was filled with appreciation, seeing proof of my years of dedication to our kids, family, friends, and the development of my own spiritual and artistic sensibilities.
After the contents of the room were finally emptied into another room, we purchased our paint. The sturdy walls of tongue-in-groove knotty-pine had been painted dull yellow, probably in the 1970’s. Primer would be needed to cover the accumulation of crayon, dirt and grime. Everyone liked the idea of dark brown paint, offset by a fresh white ceiling.
Paint experts from the hardware store recommended a blue/gray tinted primer to make easier the transition to brown. After we got home and began the work, the mishaps began. A partially filled paint tray tipped over from atop the ladder while I watched in horror from across the room. The paint soaked into the old dirty carpet, but a new rug had been ordered so no harm done.
I soon realized that I’d forgotten that our earlier plan was to use the ‘white’ primer on the ceiling, so we needed to return to the store, which slowed our progress. But with temperature outside registering nearly one hundred degrees with 100 percent humidity, I said out loud, “As long as our air conditioner continues working, we have nothing to worry about.”
That evening, our paint brushes soaking, with only fifteen percent of the painting done, a massive storm rampaged through Virginia, Maryland and three other states, ripping out trees and power lines. Three million people were plunged into darkness, marking the largest such black-out in history and the end of our air conditioning.
By the next day our house had become mighty hot and our toilets full. We live in a wooded neighborhood with a water supply derived from a well powered by electricity. I immediately saw the silver lining: The trees bring shade, so our home was fully 8-10 degrees cooler than suburban streets, and we live on a lake. We started hauling water up the hill for our bathrooms and kitchen.
By the second day our teens were scattering to friends’ homes that were unaffected by the outage. Having recognized an opportunity to use someone’s working toilet, I went into a house I’d never entered before, though I’d dropped my daughter there dozens of times. Its owner, Tamara, is a lovely lady, a mom my age whom I immediately liked upon meeting 13 years ago when our daughters bonded at preschool. That day was her birthday.
In her kitchen, friendliness and cheer bubbled over as the girls watched us chat. (I sneaked away to use her toilet, none the wiser as to how lucky I felt at the timing of our visit.) I visited for over an hour, meeting her longtime boyfriend and hearing excellent news about her rehabilitated, beloved son.
On our second full day of painting the room’s old-fashioned textured ceiling with its thousands of ridges running the full length of it, and the edges of all the walls, and every deep crevice in between each board that ran floor-to-ceiling, I began to realize that this was going to take a lot longer than originally planned. We couldn’t repeat this entire performance (layering2 brown coats over the first gray coat) in a room this hot, with only a toaster-oven size window for ventilation. Blue-gray suddenly became the perfect wall color. I laughed to myself, satisfied with the notion of “a more cheerful” appearance (than brown) for the new office, and an end to this tyranny of fumes. Funny, because I’d earlier voiced my wish for a comfortable seat in that office for relaxing with a book or document, and we had a big blue armchair in another room that would match nicely with the new wall color. My gratitude grew, unwilted by the heat.
At the end of a long day, so sweaty but unable to use our shower, we jumped into swim suits and dove into the warm lake. It’s something we rarely do anymore, now that our kids are grown. More gratitude, as the fresh smell of the lake entered my nostrils and my skin turned soft.
The next day, after finished the painting, erasing every trace of 1970’s yellow, I went for another swim, rubbing off the blue-gray flecks from my fingers. Tired of eating food just to keep them from spoiling, we went out to a fancy restaurant for dinner.
I thinnk the worst of the outage was not being able to update the Good News Network website from any local wifi café. My trusty laptop happened to be with the Apple Store for repair this month. By Monday, though, I’d begun to look at options for trying to get online and file some good news for the loyal subscribers.
I finally found a friend who was able to lend me her laptop. Not only was I able to let subscribers know why there’d been no good news posted, but that girlfriend, an avid camper, thought of lending us a battery-operated fan, which proved immensely helpful at night when we tried to sleep over the next few muggy nights. Donna lives nearby, but we never seem to take the time to just meet and enjoy each other’s company.
Today began — the sixth day without electricity and running water, with another delicious cup of coffee, made in a European press with boiling water from our propane camp stove. (I cooked a delicious pot roast on that stove last night using potatoes, carrots, beets and chuck roast.) I normally just have brewed coffee which is not nearly as rich.
Today is the 4th of July. I’m living like those men and women in the original thirteen colonies: Up at sunrise, carrying water, boiling water, writing on paper, eating fresh food, I am truly independent.
We should take seriously the pursuit of happiness. (It doesn’t just happen; you need to make it happen every day.) Experiences this week proved that if you look for the bright side, you will surely find it – even without internet, TV, running water or air conditioning.
On this Independence Day, we will party like it’s 1776!
[UPDATE: Just as we were cheering the huge fireworks display in the darkness above the lake — thanks to our kids, their friends and neighbors — we saw a sudden welcome sight: Our power came back on, which got the loudest cheer of all.]
After nearly 15 years of looking at the bright side as publisher of the Good News Network, I instinctively knew over the last 5 days that no matter how much hardship was thrown at me, it would only make things worse to complain. With each mishap or misfortune, celebration was warranted because inevitably “something good” showed up.
Oscar Pistorius will be competing in the London Olympics in his favorite event, the 400-meter relay, as the first amputee track athlete to compete at any games.
While his selection for the 4×400 relay team was expected, it was a surprise last-minute turnaround by South African sports officials Wednesday that gave the 25-year-old the chance to run at the Olympics.
A woman named Cheryl took to Twitter yesterday, hurting over the recent loss of her husband of 30 years. She asked a fellow Twitter junkie, pro football player Chad Ochocinco, for his prayers.
Chad, it turns out, is getting married today and decided to make arrangements for Cheryl to fly overseas for the soiree, in a super-kind gesture to cheer her up.
Eight-year-old Tyler Armstrong this week became the second youngest person ever to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro.
“I did it! I climbed to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro for my friends Hawken, Suhail and Wil and the other boys with Duchenne who can’t climb,” said the Yorba Linda, California boy. He and his team climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro June 25 through July 2 to raise awareness and funds to find a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Tyler wants to raise $19,341 – a dollar for every foot he climbed – for CureDuchenne.org, a nonprofit that funds research to find a cure for the devastating muscle disease that impacts one in 3,500 boys.
“It was cool to be on top of Mt. Kilimanjaro,” said Tyler. “It would be even cooler if they could find a cure for Duchenne. We need everyone’s help to find a cure. CureDuchenne needs money to help save boys’ lives.”
He is nearly halfway to his fundraising goal of helping to cure the most common and lethal form of muscular dystrophy. Duchenne impacts 300,000 boys worldwide, who are usually diagnosed by the age of 5, in a wheelchair by age 12 and mostly don’t survive their mid-20s.
Now that Tyler has set the record for the youngest climber to climb Mt. Whitney in a single day, and the second youngest climber ever to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tyler would like to next climb Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina Tyler’s climb was coordinated through CureDuchenne, as part of the fourth annual Climb to CureDuchenne. The funds raised for Climb to CureDuchenne support the most promising research projects aimed at treating and curing Duchenne.
“It was amazing to reach the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro led by a courageous young boy with a big heart,” said Paul Miller, co-founder of CureDuchenne and Duchenne parent who summited Mt. Kilimanjaro along with Tyler. “Tyler helped us reach new heights on the mountain just as we are reaching new heights in the research to find a cure for Duchenne.”
To learn more about Tyler and donate to help him reach his goal, visit TopWithTyler.com.
Eight-year-old Tyler Armstrong this week became the second youngest person ever to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro.
“I did it! I climbed to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro for my friends Hawken, Suhail and Wil and the other boys with Duchenne who can’t climb,” said the Yorba Linda, California boy. He and his team climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro June 25 through July 2 to raise awareness and funds to find a cure for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
Tyler wants to raise $19,341 – a dollar for every foot he climbed – for CureDuchenne.org, a nonprofit that funds research to find a cure for the devastating muscle disease that impacts one in 3,500 boys.
A $30-million philanthropic gift from an anonymous wealthy couple is allowing the City of Vancouver to reopen Taylor Manor as a home for street people with complex mental health issues.
The contribution of the elderly Vancouver couple will allow the home to operate completely independent of ongoing government support.
The city’s representative on housing and homeless issues, was nearly moved to tears by the donors’ largesse, saying they had been feeling so hopeless recently.
(READ the story in the Vancouver Sun)
Bethel, Alaska is a town so remote that it has a total of zero fast food restaurants. No Burger King. No McDonalds. No KFC chicken.
That’s why residents were thrilled when flyers circulated around town about a new Taco Bell arriving.
The joy, however, turned into disappointment. The flyers were a hoax — the result, police say, of a feud between two residents.
But all was not lost.
I’m Ba-ack!
Friday was the last time I uploaded on the Good News Network because of a storm that hit here on the East Coast. Not only are we on our fourth day with no power in my home and office, but my laptop has been in the repair shop so I couldn’t update the site from offsite, either.
Finallly, this morning went to use a laptop at a friend’s house– a Windows computer, unfortunately, so it is taking me longer with every keystroke and click.
Power is likely to be out until Thursday, but I hope to get a selection of good news up today and sporadically until my new laptop comes in the mail. (Macbook Pro, YAY!)
I hope you can forgive the interruption in service.
A miracle mum saved her baby daughter from being crushed to death when she outran a 32-tonne lorry – seconds before it demolished her home.
Jen Whitelam, 23, was halfway out of her front door with one-year-old Bella, when she spotted the out of control truck careering towards her.
The force of the crash demolished Jen’s two-bedroom home and crushed her Ford Focus car which was parked on the driveway.
In the 1960s Yoko Ono conceived that her “ultimate film” would be one that included the smiling face of every person in the world. Now, her idea has come to life as an app.
The iPhone app, #smilesfilm, allows people around the world to view and upload snapshots of smiling faces. Users can also look at recently uploaded snapshots geographically on a map or view them in a moving slideshow chronologically.
Yoko thanked the people who had previously sent photos for her film, saying, “It’s so beautiful. I just didn’t know that there are so many beautiful people on Earth, since I am reading the papers every day of murders, bombings, and major pollution.”
In the 1960s Yoko Ono conceived that her “ultimate film” would be one that included the smiling face of every person in the world. Now, her idea has come to life as an app.
The iPhone app, #smilesfilm, allows people around the world to view and upload snapshots of smiling faces. Users can also look at recently uploaded snapshots geographically on a map or view them in a moving slideshow chronologically.
Yoko thanked the people who had previously sent photos for her film, saying, “It’s so beautiful. I just didn’t know that there are so many beautiful people on Earth, since I am reading the papers every day of murders, bombings, and major pollution.”
On Sunday, Islamist Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood was declared Egypt’s first freely elected president in modern history.
He reached out Tuesday to Christians, women and secular revolutionaries to join his new Islamist-led government.
Two teens grabbed a brand new, beautiful BMX bike worth $400, leaving its owner, a 13-year-old boy, crying on the sidewalk. But when a passer-by stopped to see if he was okay, the boy’s luck began to change.
The man followed the thieves and called police, but the bike was not recovered.
The concerned man also told his employer about the incident. After hearing his story, All-Lifts Inc., an industrial rigging company in Albany, sent him out with money to purchase a new bike.
The new bike was delivered to the boy Tuesday afternoon.
(WATCH the video, or READ the story in the Times Union)
U.S. auto thefts likely fell for an eighth straight year in 2011 as security features made cars more difficult to steal, an insurance-industry group said.
According to preliminary data released today by the National Insurance Crime Bureau, thefts dropped 3.3 percent last year, to the lowest level since 1967.
A sudden gust of wind blew a baby stroller onto the tracks as a train rumbled into a Brooklyn station yesterday — but an unemployed Brooklyn man on his way to a job interview jumped off the platform and saved the tot from certain death, authorities and witnesses said.
“Right before the train came, I was able to pull up the stroller and myself, too,” said Delroy Simmonds, 30.
“He got the baby just in time,” a witness said.
He missed the job interview but after news of his heroics spread, he received numerous job offers and accepted one as a maintenance man at Kennedy Airport.
“It says a lot about his character that he would jump on the tracks to save a (child),” Guy Rodriguez, who hired Simmonds, told the NY Daily News.
(READ the original story in the NY Post – Also, updated story w/ job offering at NY Daily News)
