The combination of a strong energy mandate passed by the former Governor Jon Corzine, and a generous carbon offset program has made New Jersey a shining example as the nation’s second largest producer of solar power, behind California.
Solar panels have sprung up on utility poles, vacant lots, farmland and university campuses, and atop rooftops across the state. Recently approved legislation calls for opening access to old landfills.
How do you determine where in the world is the best place to live the good life?
International Living magazine ranked 194 countries in nine different categories — cost of living, culture/leisure, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, safety, and climate — to come up with some answers.
For the fifth year in a row, France takes first in the annual Quality of Life Index. “No surprise,” says the editors. “Its tiresome bureaucracy and high taxes are outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of life, including the world’s best health care, and ‘bon vivant’ lifestyle.”
How do you determine where in the world is the best place to live the good life?
International Living magazine ranked 194 countries in nine different categories — cost of living, culture/leisure, economy, environment, freedom, health, infrastructure, safety, and climate — to come up with some answers.
For the fifth year in a row, France takes first in the annual Quality of Life Index. “No surprise,” says the editors. “Its tiresome bureaucracy and high taxes are outweighed by an unsurpassable quality of life, including the world’s best health care, and ‘bon vivant’ lifestyle.”
A Connecticut high school headmaster has reversed her decision to ban a student from the prom after he broke school rules by hanging his prospective date’s invitation at the school entrance in big cardboard letters.
Outraged students and parents at the school started a Facebook page to urge school officials to let James Tate and his prom date attend the dance.
Tate even appeared on talk shows like Jimmy Kimmel and Good Morning America and phone calls to the school came from people around the world.
(WATCH the video below from AP – or READ the story in the Hartford Courant)
A Connecticut high school headmaster has reversed her decision to ban a student from the prom after he broke school rules by hanging his prospective date’s invitation at the school entrance in big cardboard letters.
Outraged students and parents at the school started a Facebook page to urge school officials to let James Tate and his prom date attend the dance.
Four years ago, a Southern California teen with a 4.0 GPA who loved sports and theater was forced to adapt to life in a wheelchair after he got behind the wheel while drunk and crashed into a tree.
Over the weekend, with mechanical braces and motorized joints directed by a computer brain, he triumphantly walked across the stage at commencement — a moment that reflected more than just the achievement of a four-year college degree.
WATCH the video (advertisement at the top) or READ the story at ABC News…
Alison Slavin, 41, and Sam Davies, 43, have been best friends for 16 years.
The lookalike pair, who both have blonde hair, two children, careers in childcare and live in Bristol, England, could be mistaken for sisters.
As they should be.
The best friends recently discovered that they share the same father.
Michael Brosowski moved to Vietnam to teach English at the national university, but the students that inspired him to change his life were those he met outside the classroom — the impoverished youth living on the streets, performing odd jobs to earn money for their own survival.
Since 2004, Brosowski’s Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation has helped more than 350 Vietnamese youngsters get off the streets and into school and safe shelter — and has provided more than 2,500 children with education, health, housing, career and legal assistance.
(WATCH the CNN Heroes profile below, or read the story at CNN)
A Vietnamese family faced certain death trying to escape communist rule in a crowded fishing boat that was taking on water as a storm approached.
If not for the kindness of an American captain aboard the USS Morton, who knows the importance of making an exception, their daughter would never have been born, and would not be graduating this month from George Washington University law school.
(READ the inspiring story in the Washington Post)
(Family photo)
Country superstar Kenny Chesney is turning his May 25th tour stop in Tuscaloosa, Ala., into a benefit concert, with his management and booking agents also donating their fees to the tornado-ravaged town.
Knowing that empowerment comes with the ability to read, journalist Swagat Thorat launched India’s only newspaper for the blind.
Now, thanks to Thorat — who is not blind himself — 24,000 blind individuals can read the news twice a month.
Initially inspired to learn braille by the story of Helen Keller, Thorat has since taught the skill to about 138 sighted people. He has also produced acclaimed plays featuring blind artists.
(READ the story in Yahoo News- Canada)
A Japanese lingerie maker Wednesday unveiled a line of “Support Japan” clothing that carries messages of encouragement from overseas as the country struggles to recover from a devastating quake and tsunami.
The white, bustier-style garment and matching skirt by Triumph are covered with 54 messages from 36 different countries received in the aftermath of the disaster, each accompanied by a tiny flag of the nation that sent it.
(READ the full story in Reuters)
This is the story of a romance that began with a typo. In 2007, Rachel Salazar was living in Bangkok, Thailand, and Ruben Salazar was in Waco, Texas. Their email addresses were nearly identical.
Ruben received an email sent to the wrong person and forwarded it adding his own little message. “Something to the effect of ‘Hi, Rachel, it seems as if this message came to me instead of you. I’m in Waco, Texas, U.S.A. Have a great day. P.S. How’s the weather there in Bangkok?'”
Loyola University Medical Center is a very giving place to work — so much so that within the past year, seven female employees donated their kidneys as part of the center’s Pay-It-Forward Kidney Transplant Program.
This may be the first time in history so many employees of a company have donated kidneys to complete strangers.
While it’s long been known that a little sunshine can spread happiness, researchers in New Zealand have found that it can also save the lives of pneumonia patients.
Vitamin D, which is absorbed through the skin and produced with exposure to sunlight, was discovered to be a major factor in the survival rate of pneumonia patients.
The future of fundraising may conjure visions of Star Wars.
Tim Pryde, a 21-year-old product-design student at the University of Dundee, in Scotland, built a small robot that travels through public spaces, relying on coin donations for charity into a slot on its back to keep moving. And, it works.
Mr. Pryde says he got the idea by watching the often-negative attitudes people had toward street fund raisers who make face-to-face solicitations in busy pedestrian areas.
(WATCH the video below, and READ the article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
The future of fundraising may conjure visions of Star Wars.
Tim Pryde, a 21-year-old product-design student at the University of Dundee, in Scotland, built a small robot that travels through public spaces, relying on coin donations for charity into a slot on its back to keep moving. And, it works.
Mr. Pryde says he got the idea by watching the often-negative attitudes people had toward street fund raisers who make face-to-face solicitations in busy pedestrian areas.
(WATCH the video below, and READ the article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy)
A promising discovery has been made that could one day help in the fight against cystic fibrosis — and the researcher behind it is just 16 years old.
Toronto high school student Marshall Zhang took first place this week at a national science contest for developing what could become a new drug cocktail to treat patients with CF.
(WATCH the video and READ the story at CTV News)
Stanford students took seriously their homework assignment in 2007: Devise an app. Get people to use it. Repeat.
The students ended up getting millions of users for free apps that they designed to run on Facebook. And, as advertising rolled in, some of those students started making far more money than their professors.
The B.C. government will offer smokers who want to quit a free 12-week supply of either nicotine gum or patches, or a free prescription for smoking-cessation drugs, Premier Christy Clark announced Monday.
Though it will cost $15 million, the province argues that by reducing the number of people who smoke, they will not only prevent or delay diseases like heart attacks and cancer, but also avoid the millions of dollars in costs to their health-care system.
