Jennifer Ferris was crowned Ms. New York World International 2011, but throughout her early life, and into her 20’s, constant depression made her days unbearable.
“I often felt helpless, hopeless and extremely sad,” she wrote in an online article. “No one truly understood just how overwhelmed and very alone I was feeling.”
Her personal triumph over depression and constant bullying in school has inspired her to help others to achieve happier, healthier lives despite their challenges.
A man jumped into an out-of-control Jeep as it drifted across lanes of traffic on a bustling parkway and steered the vehicle safely into a guardrail after its driver suffered a seizure, authorities said.
In Georgia Thursday, the Jeep was weaving through fast-moving traffic and had slowed dangerously before the good Samaritan came to the rescue.
(READ the AP story at Yahoo)
An experimental, made-in-Ottawa virus that attacks tumors has been shown to be a safe and potentially useful drug against hard-to-treat cancers, justifying further trials in more patients.
Early results even raise the possibility that the treatment could actually prevent the spread of tumours — a long-desired goal in the hunt for better cancer therapies.
As a social studies teacher in a Boston public high school for 14 years, Stephen Banno has developed a curriculum called the “Love Course,” that present “ancient cultural wisdoms coupled with the latest discoveries in modern science to address issues concerning love in our contemporary lives.”
The class focuses on personal happiness, good relationships, how to flourish with others, friendship, marriage, the love of the environment, altruism, agapic love, and “random acts of kindness.”
Students have reported that in small ways, they have transformed themselves, their friends, and the school around them.
(READ the story from Ode magazine)
Ten years ago, if you wanted to download some music, you either had to do it illegally or use low-quality streaming services from rival record companies that prohibited burning to disc and downloads.
What happened? Steve Jobs happened, mainly.
The design team at Apple came up with the iPod, and Jobs persuaded the music companies – which wouldn’t license their songs to bigger names like Microsoft – to go with him because, he said, Apple was tiny (which it was, at the time, a few percent of the PC market).
Today, 10 years after the start of production, the two millionth MINI was driven off the production line at Plant Oxford by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Of the two million, more than 1.5 million MINIs have been exported to customers in more than 90 countries around the world from Australia to Venezuela.
Less than two months ago, from a humble, but well-equipped studio in the West Bank city of Bethlehem, two young television anchors presented the first broadcast of a new nightly newscast that could prove to be significant for Palestinian civil society.
As the first independent Palestinian media organization, Ma’an News Agency has already been publishing news in Arabic and English since 2005 on its website. The benefits of their new satellite television program are quickly becoming apparent.
As Palestinians are moving forward with institution-building and law enforcement, a greater need for transparency in government can only be fulfilled by the presence of a free and independent media. Along with the free flow of information, the freedom to voice opinions and criticisms are essential for civic participation.
In 2006, Michelle Khine, PhD arrived at the University of California’s brand-new Merced campus eager to establish her first lab. She was experimenting with tiny liquid-filled channels in hopes of devising chip-based diagnostic tests. The trouble was, the specialized equipment she needed to make microfluidic chips cost more than $100,000 — money that wasn’t immediately available.
An impatient person, she began racking her brain for a quick-and-dirty way to make microfluidic devices. Khine then remembered her favorite childhood toy: Shrinky Dinks, large sheets of thin plastic that can be colored with paint or ink and then shrunk in a hot oven. “I thought if I could print out the [designs] at a certain resolution and then make them shrink, I could make channels the right size for microfluidics,” she says.
And voilà: a finished microfluidic device that cost less than a fast-food meal.
After the earthquake in Haiti destroyed much of the country’s higher-education infrastructure, the University of the People decided to set up three computer centers there, inviting English-speaking students from nearby tent cities to come and study for free.
Shai Reshef, the Israeli entrepreneur who spent $1 million to create the tuition-free university two years ago, enlisted hundreds of volunteer professors — more, he said, than he has been able to use — to teach 10-week online courses to 1,000 students from more than 100 countries.
Sometimes, corporations actually bring their know-how and human capital to bear on a problem, instead of just giving money to a cause. The global pharmaceutical company Abbott is a shining example, working to combat severe malnutrition in Haiti by manufacturing peanut products.
Abbot is on the ground in the struggling country joining with Partners to build a factory to make hunger-quenching peanut paste, a high-protein, high-calorie fortified food.
The wayward emperor penguin that was found on a New Zealand beach June 20, far from his Antarctic feeding grounds and moved to the zoo after he became ill from eating sand that he likely mistook for snow, has regained weight and is on his way back to the wild.
He is headed south aboard a New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research vessel. On the way, Happy Feet will be released from the ship, approximately four days out to sea, at about 51 degrees south – within the penguin’s natural habitat.
“It has been an amazing journey caring for him over the past nine weeks and we have been overwhelmed by the amazing level of interest and support from around New Zealand and the world,” Dr Lisa Argilla, Manager of Veterinary Science at Wellington Zoo told the media.
The wayward emperor penguin that was found on a New Zealand beach June 20, far from his Antarctic feeding grounds and moved to the zoo after he became ill from eating sand that he likely mistook for snow, has regained weight and is on his way back to the wild.
He is headed south aboard a New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research vessel. On the way, Happy Feet will be released from the ship, approximately four days out to sea, at about 51 degrees south – within the penguin’s natural habitat.
“It has been an amazing journey caring for him over the past nine weeks and we have been overwhelmed by the amazing level of interest and support from around New Zealand and the world,” Dr Lisa Argilla, Manager of Veterinary Science at Wellington Zoo told the media.
Some people give back to their community. Then there’s Fresno County School Superintendent Larry Powell, who’s giving up $800,000 — his own salary for the next three years — in hopes his act of generosity will help restore faith in the government he once taught students to respect.
He started his career as a high school civics teacher and has made anti-bullying his mission. He oversees 195,000 students in 325 California schools.
(READ the AP story at MSNBC)
On the streets, ‘it is virtually impossible’ for patients to manage wounds and medications. Recuperative centers are on the rise, thanks to healthcare reform and new procedures spurred by a dumping scandal.
Opened 10 months ago by the nonprofit Illumination Foundation, the Recuperative Care Center has 20 motel beds where homeless patients with acute illnesses or injuries recover after being released from local hospitals. Nurses help homeless patients change bandages, take medication and recover from surgeries.
When one of China’s most popular Internet portals started offering Open University–style lectures in English last October, eager Chinese netizens flocked to subjects that surprised most observers.
Instead of marketing, computer or robotics courses, two contemplative courses — one on happiness, the other on justice — trumped all others.
“The generation that came of age during China’s economic miracle now wants to engage with big questions — about moral responsibility, about justice and injustice, about the meaning of the good life.”
(READ the story from Time magazine)
Coastal areas in the path of Hurricane Irene were mostly spared from major damage overnight and many residents awoke to catch glimpses of blue skies.
New York City averted hurricane force winds when Irene made landfall early Sunday in Coney Island and Brooklyn, and was downgraded to a Tropical Storm. The storm’s movement sped up during the night and did not cause the widespread damage in major population areas that was feared.
Here’s a roundup of some of the good news:
Coastal areas in the path of Hurricane Irene were mostly spared from major damage overnight and many residents awoke to catch glimpses of blue skies.
New York City averted hurricane force winds when Irene made landfall early Sunday in Coney Island and Brooklyn, and was downgraded to a Tropical Storm. The storm’s movement sped up during the night and did not cause the widespread damage in major population areas that was feared.
Here’s a roundup of some of the good news:
While everyone watches Hurricane Irene’s next move along the eastern seaboard, hundreds of people from around the US are organizing relief efforts.
Toledo-area volunteers, including Gary Betway, “one of the most experienced disaster responders in the nation,” packed up Friday and headed to areas that are expected to be hardest hit. Gary will stay in New York City for at least three weeks, says the Red Cross.
The help is arriving not only from geographically diverse regions, but also from diverse religious communities. A Muslim relief agency now stands ready to deploy in the emergency response.
Days ahead of the storm, Islamic Relief USA set up a training for its many volunteers supervised by certified staffers from the Red Cross at its offices in Alexandria, Virginia.
The agency’s new Disaster Assistance Response Team, launched in May, has already deployed to American catastrophes. Last spring, dozens of Islamic Relief USA volunteers joined the cleanup effort following devastating tornadoes which leveled whole neighborhoods in Alabama.
“We always receive an overwhelming response from the community in times like these,” said Adnan Ansari, Vice President of Programs. “People want to help in any way, whether by volunteering to provide crisis care, conduct damage assessment or serve the residents in shelters, or through their checkbooks.”
Red Cross volunteer, Deb Lancaster, of Las Vegas, left for Cape Cod Friday morning.
“We’re making sure emergency shelters are prepped and fully staffed, and are fully equipped with generators and supplies,” she told TV station KTNV.
Dozens of shelters are being prepared all along the path of the hurricane. People can find open Red Cross shelters by viewing an interactive Google map at www.redcross.org
“The Red Cross is moving volunteers, vehicles and supplies, getting ready for a response effort that spans nearly the entire East Coast,” said Gail McGovern, president and CEO of the American Red Cross.
“While we’re getting ready at the Red Cross, we want everyone in the storm’s path to get ready as well by getting a disaster kit, making a family emergency plan, and listening to local officials regarding evacuations.”
While everyone watches Hurricane Irene’s next move along the eastern seaboard, hundreds of people from around the US are helping organize relief efforts.
Toledo-area volunteers, including Gary Betway, “one of the most experienced disaster responders in the nation,” packed up Friday and headed to areas that are expected to be hardest hit. Gary will stay in New York City for at least three weeks, says the Red Cross.
The help is arriving not only from geographically diverse regions, but also from diverse religious communities. A Muslim relief agency now stands ready to deploy in the emergency response.
After a deadly cancer diagnosis, he dedicated his life to helping hundreds of kids from Haiti’s slums.
Five years ago, Patrice Millet learned he was in the advanced stages of a rare bone cancer. A stem cell transplant was his only hope for survival.
After nine months of treatment and recovery, the businessman from Haiti was told his cancer was in remission. Millet returned home determined to start living the life he’d always wanted: helping children from Haiti’s poorest slums have a brighter future.
Millet sold his construction supply business and started a program that uses soccer to help children stay out of trouble and learn valuable life skills.
(WATCH the video below, or read the story at CNN Heroes)
