A heroic New Mexico man who alertly rescued a 6-year-old girl from the clutches of a kidnapper is proof no good deed goes unnoticed.
Cops and reporters are being bombarded with requests from people who want Antonio Diaz Chacon’s address so they can send him gift cards and cash.
Chacon, 24, who has two young daughters, is fielding requests from people who want to donate to a college savings fund for his girls.
(READ the story in the NY Daily News)
With solar panels spread over almost 400 acres (160 hectares), a solar power facility in Ukraine began producing power on Monday, aiming to power 20,000 houses with electricity.
Poised to become Europe’s largest solar station by the end of the year, the Crimea facility substitutes clean power for the traditional coal-fired plants, with their high carbon-emissions, as part of the government’s new green energy plan.
The idea of making school lunches better and healthier has not taken hold for many poor and struggling districts, but a city in Colorado is bucking the trend.
In the midsize city of Greeley, where 60 percent of its 19,500 students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, the district will make a great leap forward – and at the same time back to the way it was done a generation ago – in cooking meals from scratch.
A weeklong culinary boot camp is teaching cafeteria workers to relearn their cooking skills to prepare for mega-fresh delivery of, let’s say, 300 pans of lasagna when school starts next week.
Four years ago, in one of the Philippines’ largest dumpsites and home to 12,000 families, women searched through garbage for fabric scraps to weave into rugs.
Today, thanks to Reese Fernandez-Ruiz and other young Filipino professionals, the women of Payatas are now weaving fashionable handbags for top designers, using fabric remnants delivered directly from factories.
The local craftswomen no longer live in poverty and the Rags 2 Riches label, sewn into each item as RIIR, now has cachet and respect, which has changed how the women see themselves.
Four years ago, in one of the Philippines’ largest dumpsites and home to 12,000 families, women searched through garbage for fabric scraps to weave into rugs.
Today, thanks to Reese Fernandez-Ruiz and other young Filipino professionals, the women of Payatas are now weaving fashionable handbags for top designers, using fabric remnants delivered directly from factories.
The local craftswomen no longer live in poverty and the Rags 2 Riches label, sewn into each item as RIIR, now has cachet and respect, which has changed how the women see themselves.
Inventor Steve Katsaros perfected his solar design in June 2010, a simple bulb that charges up during the day and lights up the room at night.
He dubbed his company Nokero — short for “No Kerosene” and adopted a “social entrepreneurship,” model to get the bulb into the hands of people in the developing world.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has taken its revolutionary OpenCourseWare initiative, launched 10 years ago, to another level. Moving beyond the web, the new initiative extends higher education to anyone with a mobile phone.
The MIT Media Lab yesterday announced the creation of the MIT Center for Mobile Learning, with initial funding from Google, dedicated to transforming education and learning.
The Center, housed at the Media Lab, will focus on the design and study of specific mobile technologies and applications, that enable people to learn anywhere anytime with anyone. Research projects will explore location-aware learning applications, mobile sensing and data collection, augmented reality gaming, and other educational uses of mobile technologies.
The Center’s first activity will focus on the free (and soon-to-be open sourced) App Inventor for Android, a programming system that makes it easy for learners to create mobile apps for Android smart phones by visually fitting together puzzle piece-shaped “programming blocks” in a web browser.
“The Media Lab has always been about creativity – not only developing new technologies, but getting them out to the world in ways that positively impact people’s lives,” said Joichi Ito, who will take over as the Media Lab’s director next month. “Our new Center for Mobile Learning continues this tradition, empowering people everywhere to create, invent, and learn with their mobile devices.”
Three MIT professors will serve as co-directors of the Center: Hal Abelson, Class of 1922 Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; Eric Klopfer, Associate Professor of Science Education; and Mitchel Resnick, LEGO Papert Professor of Learning Research.
The Center’s three directors have a long history of collaboration on educational technology. Resnick, who heads the Media Lab’s academic Program in Media Arts and Sciences, is famous for his work on LEGO Mindstorms and Scratch, two of the world’s best known and most influential platforms for introducing young learners to programming. Klopfer is director of MIT’s Scheller Teacher Education Program, which trains MIT students to be secondary school science and math teachers. He is an expert on educational games and simulations and author of Augmented Learning: Research and Design of Mobile Educational Games. (MIT Press; 2008).
Hal Abelson, who proposed an idea that prompted the development of App Inventor during his sabbatical at Google in 2008 said, “For me, it’s a terrific experience of starting with an idea, finding visionary industry leaders willing to make it a reality, then bringing it back home to MIT so I can work on projects I love together with colleagues I admire.”
Simple yellow Post-it notes with the message “When not in use, turn off the juice,” pointedly left on classroom computers, printers and air-conditioners, have helped one public school district in New York save $350,000 annually on utility bills.
Energy consumption across New York City’s 1,245 school buildings is down roughly 11 percent since 2008, as motion detectors have been installed on classroom lights and unused refrigerators and freezers have been unplugged for the summer.
The money saved on energy is also being used to buy energy-efficient windows and boilers in one school district.
In the aftermath of the riots, a couple of noble London are injecting some guerrilla design into the cleanup process, and helping those who can’t rebuild.
Instead of allowing storefronts and homeowners to suffer, architecture school graduates Lee Wilshire and Nick Varney decided to launch Riot Rebuild, as a “post-riot urban intervention” to harness the power of volunteer construction workers, architects, interior designers, and other qualified builders to help those in need.
With suicide ranking third as the leading cause of death in American youth aged 15-24, a new prevention program tested in Ohio schools has proven it can help teens overcome depression and thoughts of killing themselves.
A just-released study shows that the 6000 students who have gone through the program are significantly less likely to report that they are considering suicide, planning suicide or have attempted suicide than before participating in the program.
A 14-year-old British boy born without a hand is getting his wish after writing to the boss of his favorite Formula One racing team, Ross Brawn, who had previously been a student at the boy’s school.
The high-tech bionic hand costs £30,000, and the boy’s family had nowhere near the money to purchase the advanced equipment. His “plucky letter” moved Mr. Brawn to action.
(READ the story, and watch video, from the BBC)
Gov. Mitch Daniels joined with officials to publicly grieve at a memorial service today on the site of the tragic Indiana State Fair stage collapse that killed five on Saturday. They also praised the reactions of hundreds of ordinary citizens and off-duty rescue workers who rushed to help the victims.
“We come today with hearts that are broken, but hearts that are full,” Daniels told the few hundred people gathered, his voice cracking.
“My heart is full for those who acted in courageous ways. … There was a hero every 10 feet on Saturday night. I cannot tell you how proud I am to be the employee of six-and-a-half million people like that.”
State Police Sgt. Dave Bursten said, “You had law enforcement, you had citizens, you had people jumping in to lift pieces of equipment off the injured.”
(READ more at ABC News)
Gov. Mitch Daniels joined with officials to publicly grieve at a memorial service today on the site of the tragic Indiana State Fair stage collapse that killed five on Saturday. They also praised the reactions of hundreds of ordinary citizens and off-duty rescue workers who rushed to help the victims.
“We come today with hearts that are broken, but hearts that are full,” Daniels told the few hundred people gathered, his voice cracking.
“My heart is full for those who acted in courageous ways. … There was a hero every 10 feet on Saturday night. I cannot tell you how proud I am to be the employee of six-and-a-half million people like that.”
Just outside of Rockport, Texas, stands an ancient Live Oak that for well over 1,000 years has offered a long, cool shadow to weary locals during hot summers — and now they’re returning the favor.
Soaring temperatures and dry conditions had some locals worried that the big oak may succumb to drought, so fire fighters brought their hoses and pumped a deluge of life-giving water on the majestic tree.
It took 11,000 gallons of water to simulate half an inch of rainfall.
Good news for a wolf is good news for a turkey. At least it is in Eastern North Carolina, where red wolves are making a comeback and helping other animal species along the way.
Wolves’ role in helping ground-nesting birds, like the quail is well known. Raccoons eat the birds’ eggs, and red wolves prey on raccoons. More wolves mean fewer raccoons and more quail and turkey.
A Dutch study has found that offshore wind turbines have “hardly any negative effects” on wildlife, and may even benefit animals living beneath the waves.
The evidence was based on studies of a large-scale wind farm off the Dutch coast in the North Sea.
Birds avoided the offshore wind turbines, while marine species, including mussels and crabs, found shelter and new habitats that actually contributed to increased biodiversity.
The new US ambassador to China, the first Chinese-American to take up the post, said Sunday that the two countries could solve many of the world’s problems if their governments work together more.
At a news briefing, Gary Locke said the two countries could provide global leadership and his priority was to promote understanding between the nations.
After decades of declining numbers, the world’s fastest creature is populating Britain’s cities once again.
The peregrine falcon, which can travel at speeds of 200mph, is returning to Britain’s cities in droves, with the highest number recorded in the capital for hundreds of years.
The regal bird of prey in the UK has increased more than fourfold since the 1960s when the population was devastated by the effects of toxic pesticides.
Illinois has joined the ranks of states that allow their public road projects to use an asphalt mix that includes recycled shingles.
Saying, “We can’t keep throwing things into landfills,” Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Friday that will help turn old roofing shingles into asphalt for new road surfaces on public projects around Illinois.
Like most green initiatives, environmental advantages are just some of the benefits. The ability to reduce costs is an attractive argument for further recycling. With asphalt being created mostly from petroleum, the price savings on raw materials alone is significant. The Missouri Department of Transportation reports approximately $20 million in savings in 2009 by using recycled shingles in their hot-mix.
Illinois has joined the ranks of states that allow their public road projects to use an asphalt mix that includes recycled shingles.
Saying, “We can’t keep throwing things into landfills,” Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation Friday that will help turn old roofing shingles into asphalt for new road surfaces on public projects around Illinois.
Like most green initiatives, environmental advantages are just some of the benefits. The ability to reduce costs is an attractive argument for further recycling. With asphalt being created mostly from petroleum, the price savings on raw materials alone is significant. The Missouri Department of Transportation reports approximately $20 million in savings in 2009 by using recycled shingles in their hot-mix.
