Seeking to assure federal regulators that it has learned the lessons of the Deepwater Horizon blowout and spill last year, BP said Friday that it would adopt stricter new voluntary standards for any future drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico.
The company, which has already pledged some $40 billion in compensation for the accident, said it was prepared to go beyond new federal safety and environmental standards that apply to all companies operating in the gulf.
Hidden cameras have revealed the existence of a surprisingly healthy population of rare snow leopards living in the mountainous reaches of northeastern Afghanistan, according to a new study.
The discovery gives hope to the world’s most elusive big cat, which calls home to some of the world’s tallest mountains.
The Wildlife Conservation Society used camera traps to document the presence of snow leopards at 16 different locations across a wide landscape. The images represent the first such records of snow leopards in Afghanistan.
“This is a wonderful discovery – it shows that there is real hope for snow leopards in Afghanistan,” said Peter Zahler, WCS Deputy Director for Asia Programs.
Hidden cameras have revealed the existence of a surprisingly healthy population of rare snow leopards living in the mountainous reaches of northeastern Afghanistan, according to a new study.
The discovery gives hope to the world’s most elusive big cat, which calls home to some of the world’s tallest mountains.
The Wildlife Conservation Society used camera traps to document the presence of snow leopards at 16 different locations across a wide landscape. The images represent the first such records of snow leopards in Afghanistan.
“This is a wonderful discovery – it shows that there is real hope for snow leopards in Afghanistan,” said Peter Zahler, WCS Deputy Director for Asia Programs.
If only charitable giving was as easy as buying a Coke at a vending machine. Well, now it is—at least in Japan.
A Coca-Cola bottling company in Japan and the country’s Red Cross have joined together to enable people to make donations by putting money into a vending machine.
With the proceeds going toward tsunami relief, the bottling company plans to establish 100 vending machines throughout Japan.
Last year, vending machines were installed on subway platforms in Brazil to help raise money for people who live on the streets.
(READ the story in the Philanthropy Journal)
The Bornean rainbow toad, has not been seen since 1924. It was one of the world’s top 10 most wanted lost amphibians.
For the first time ever, this amphibian species has been photographed, after not being spotted for 87 years.
In fact, scientists had only seen drawings of the small, mysterious and long-legged toad, sketched on long ago expeditions.
With nearly one in three American children obese or overweight, 19 U.S. restaurant chains, including Burger King and IHOP, are backing an industry effort to serve and promote healthier meals for children.
As part of the effort, Burger King this month will make sliced apples and fat-free milk or juice the default choices for its kids’ meals. French fries and soda will remain on the menu but customers will have to request them.
A week ago, Christian Lopez had a job, but significant student loan debt. Then fate (he retrieved Derek Jeter’s 3,000th hit) and choice (he simply returned the ball to the Yankees shortstop) changed all that.
Lopez, 23, was lauded for his honor and ridiculed for his refusal to consider selling the ball. On Wednesday afternoon, the story took a new turn at a crowded Times Square sports store, where two of Mr. Lopez’s admirers pledged him at least $50,000 in financial support — donations that came amid revelations of Mr. Lopez’s financial challenges.
You probably know already that you should recycle your old mobile phones, for a bunch of environmental reasons — keeping the toxic materials out of our groundwater and conserving the rare metals that are expensive and energy-intensive to mine.
But those phones stored in the back of your drawers or cupboards are actually worth cash money to you. Some phones can net you a few hundred bucks. Even older models can fetch $20 or so.
Yesterday at the White House, Sergeant Leroy Petry was celebrated as the second living Medal of Honor recipient to have earned the award for service during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
While on a high-risk daytime mission in Afghanistan in 2008, Sergeant Petry, an Army Ranger, and two of his comrades were injured by enemy fire. Despite his wounds, Petry continued to lead his soldiers, dragging one to cover. When an enemy grenade landed near him and his comrades, Sergeant Petry moved toward the grenade and picked it up to throw it back – saving the lives of his fellow Rangers. As he cocked his arm to lob the live grenade away, it exploded. Petry lost his hand, but did not give up the fight. He tied a tourniquet around his own bleeding arm and continued to direct the operation, working to ensure the safety of his comrades until the end of the mission.
I have learned that no matter how far down you fall you can still find good in your life.
After experiencing three stokes, cancer surgery, addiction problems, bankruptcy, and homelessness, I can tell you that the key to a good life is to know yourself, be yourself and love yourself.
I have had three strokes, four heart attacks and two car accidents that I was unscratched in while the cars were demolished. I have a pace-maker defibulator implant to keep me from having heart failure again. I have died twice and come back to life. I was missed by two inches in a drive by shooting. I was robbed twice. (A third time, I talked the robber out of $5.00.) I was in between the police and drug dealers when shooting broke out.
I have gone from earning a good income to homeless, three different times. I have lived in the suburbs and the inner city — living in the roughest neighborhoods in Detroit. But I was happiest when I was homeless.
I went from being with the rich to being with the poor. Presently, most of my friends are addicts, former addicts, street people — society’s invisible ones. When you are poor you know who your friends are. I once had the street name The Crazy Old White Man. Now those in the streets call me Mr. Lee.
I’ll never forget the time, after I had cancer surgery on the right side of my head, when I went into the drug store, bald on the right side, with long hair on the left. My face was red and swollen. It was 2 days after Christmas. I saw a little girl with her mother. The both smiled and said hello to me, even though I made the Frankenstein monster look handsome.
I looked into the mother’s eyes and saw her inner beauty. I said, ”You are the most beautiful woman I have seen all year.”
She said, “You are the most handsome man I have seen all year.”
On the way home, a homeless man came up to me and said, “Mr. Lee, I want your to know that while you were in the hospital those of us in the street were praying for you and that no matter where you are in the streets, we have your back.”
To me those two events not only made my day but they also made my life valuable.
Life is what you make of it. With your mind you can control physical and mental pain. You can control your addictions. You can make sad times lead to happy times.
After the third time I went broke, I realized that God wanted me to stay down and help the lost souls to find themselves and their way back up. I have helped some. I listen to them and advise them. I show that I care about them and am there for them.
I have been in contact with many people in prison. I have seen that, in spite of the system, there are many bad people who are now good people and could help others find their way.
In my life I have found that everyone has good and bad in them. Like the old cartoons, we all have the angel and devil fighting for control. I have never met a person in whom I could not find the good.
You determine your destiny. You determine your happiness.
Again I say Know yourself, be yourself and love yourself. That is the key to being clean and sober. That is the key to happiness.
Lee Gaylord is the creator of an audio book, Words of Wisdom From the Crazy Old White Man From the Hood
I have learned that no matter how far down you fall you can still find good in your life.
After experiencing three stokes, cancer surgery, addiction problems, bankruptcy, and homelessness, I can tell you that the key to a good life is to know yourself, be yourself and love yourself.
I have had three strokes, four heart attacks and two car accidents that I was unscratched in while the cars were demolished. I have a pace-maker defibulator implant to keep me from having heart failure again. I have died twice and come back to life. I was missed by two inches in a drive by shooting. I was robbed twice. (A third time, I talked the robber out of $5.00.) I was in between the police and drug dealers when shooting broke out.
Plastic bottles jammed through circular holes in the metal rooftops of a Manila slum neighborhood bring light into dim and dreary shanties, thanks to a project called A Liter of Light.
The 1-liter bottles, which contain bleach and water, are placed snugly into the hole, utilizing the simplest of technologies to brighten communities without electricity.
Designed and developed by students from MIT, the Solar Bottle Bulbs reflect sunlight and disperse it throughout the room beneath.
The bottle inserted halfway through the hole emits light equivalent to a 55-watt electric bulb as the water inside refracts the exterior light.
According to statistics from the National Electrification Commission in 2009, 3 million households still remain powerless in the outskirts of the Philippine capitol.
More than 10,000 of the bottle lights have been installed across metropolitan Manila and the nearby province of Laguna in the last three months through the efforts of low income communities, local governments and 200 volunteers.
With the island nation dependent on fossil fuel and coal for most of its energy needs, the Philippines government is making a push for renewable energy, the Reuters news agency reports.
“Unlike a hole in which the light will travel in a straight line, the water will refract it to go vertical, horizontal, 360 degrees of 55 watts to 60 watts of clear light, almost ten months of the year,” Diaz said.
Donate to help the MyShelter Foundation to light up a million homes nationwide by 2012, using the innovative solar bottle bulb.
(READ the report from Reuters, or WATCH the video from Manila below…)
Plastic bottles jammed through circular holes in the metal rooftops of a Manila slum neighborhood bring light into dim and dreary shanties, thanks to a project called A Liter of Light.
The 1-liter bottles, which contain bleach and water, are placed snugly into the hole, utilizing the simplest of technologies to brighten communities without electricity.
Designed and developed by students from MIT, the Solar Bottle Bulbs reflect sunlight and disperse it throughout the room beneath.
The bottle inserted halfway through the hole emits light equivalent to a 55-watt electric bulb as the water inside refracts the exterior light.
Judges of the Eye Remember photography contest in Canada had no idea Tara Miller had any vision problem whatsoever, let alone having only 10 percent vision in one eye.
The blind commercial photographer from Winnipeg won the nationwide contest, which anyone could enter, with her stunning landscape, entitled “Fortuitous Twilight.”
“I will never forget how my 12 year old son was there to help me capture this image,” said Miller, who began to lose her vision to glaucoma in childhood.
She takes photos by using what little sight she has to plan and frame the shot. Once shooting is complete, she hooks her camera up to a large 27-inch monitor and blows the image up to 200 percent so she can see the results.
“I found my “inner peace” when I took up photography again using the technology of the digital age. I want urge other people not to give up on what you are passionate about.”
As winner of the contest launched by the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB), Miller and a guest will be heading to Quebec City, Quebec, later this year for a free weekend hotel stay and an opportunity to explore and photograph the historic city.
“People with vision loss can do the same things as sighted people, but just in a different way,” says Miller.
Supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Pfizer, CNIB’s Eye Remember photo contest is designed to educate Canadians about the importance of detecting glaucoma early in life and to remember to be proactive about their vision health.
Glaucoma, which usually progresses slowly and painlessly, is the second most common case of irreversible vision loss in seniors and affects more than 250,000 Canadians.
Judges of the Eye Remember photography contest in Canada had no idea Tara Miller had any vision problem whatsoever, let alone having only 10 percent vision in one eye.
The blind commercial photographer from Winnipeg won the nationwide contest, which anyone could enter, with her stunning landscape, entitled “Fortuitous Twilight.”
“I will never forget how my 12 year old son was there to help me capture this image,” said Miller, who began to lose her vision to glaucoma in childhood.
Susanne Janson’s life was shattered in 2004 when her two young daughters were killed in the tsunami that ravaged Southeast Asia. She found solace and healing by starting a new life in Thailand, where she has provided daily care to more than 100 children in need, as a way to turn disaster into hope.
“They had suffered so much more than I suffered. Here, you had people that lost children, homes, everything, and they were strong. So I think that affected me, and their kindness to me was such that I wanted to give something back.”
(WATCH the video below, or read the story from CNN)
Move over Miley, and make way for mom.
An encouraging new survey has found that mothers are regarded as the top female role models in the lives of six in 10 Canadian girls. Furthermore, most of these young people, aged 10 to 17, were unlikely to identify other types of women they hoped to emulate — pop stars or others.
The Dalai Lama’s idea of getting past pain to find compassion could work in the Middle East.
In Washington, DC last week, speaking on the west lawn of the Capitol, his Holiness suggested that the enemy could be your best teacher, if you are willing to make the effort to look at things from another perspective: The main idea he stressed was the beginning of world peace at an individual level, with each one finding inner peace by feeling compassion.
He said, compassion gives one confidence. But in the Middle East, it seems, leaders stay away from compassion for fear of losing confidence.
The Dalai Lama’s idea of getting past pain to find compassion could work in the Middle East.
In Washington, DC last week, speaking on the west lawn of the Capitol, his Holiness suggested that the enemy could be your best teacher, if you are willing to make the effort to look at things from another perspective: The main idea he stressed was the beginning of world peace at an individual level, with each one finding inner peace by feeling compassion.
He said, compassion gives one confidence. But in the Middle East, it seems, leaders stay away from compassion for fear of losing confidence.
For centuries, herds of Arabian oryx roamed the Arabian Peninsula. But by 1972, the last wild oryx was reportedly killed by hunters in the Persian Gulf nation of Oman — leaving only a few animals in captivity.
What happened next was an unprecedented effort by American zoos in San Diego and Phoenix to save the oryx through captive breeding. The animals were then released into the wild or protected reserves.
