You’ve heard of solar power. How about tree power?
Researchers following upon an MIT study last year that discovered a measurable current inside trees have created a gadget that harnesses that power for electricity.
The University of Washington team sought to further academic research in the field of tree power by building circuits to run off that energy. They successfully ran a custom circuit solely off tree power.
You’ve heard of solar power. How about tree power?
Researchers following upon an MIT study last year that discovered a measurable current inside trees have created a gadget that harnesses that power for electricity.
The University of Washington team sought to further academic research in the field of tree power by building circuits to run off that energy. They successfully ran a custom circuit solely off tree power.
The Philippine government and communist rebels will declare a seven-day cease-fire when they resume negotiations aimed at ending one of Asia’s longest-running insurgencies.
The peace talks, to be brokered by Norway next week, will be the first formal negotiations since talks collapsed six years ago and the first time in 25 years that the rebels have agreed to a cease-fire while negotiations are being held.
(READ the AP article in Boston.com)
Speaking at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan Thursday, the President proposed a new national wireless initiative in a city where high-speed internet services have served as a model for the what the future of America could look like.
His plan would expand wireless coverage to 98% of Americans, while reducing the deficit by nearly $10 billion by making more government spectrum available. (Video below)
Speaking at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan Thursday, the President proposed a new national wireless initiative in a city where high-speed internet services have served as a model for the what the future of America could look like.
His plan would expand wireless coverage to 98% of Americans, while reducing the deficit by nearly $10 billion by making more government spectrum available. (Video below)
For many couples, Valentine’s Day will be spent exchanging chocolates and going out to expensive, candlelit dinners. But the romantic holiday holds little appeal to George and Catherine Guiles, who have been married for 73 years.
They have learned to see every day together as special.
Derek Stettler collected some words of wisdom from 40 films, weaving them into a virtual advice column using video as the medium.
“In creating this video, I wanted to focus on a few key themes, while featuring as many films as I could,” he wrote on YouTube.
“Reel Wisdom” features an array of film genres, from action/adventure and sci-fi, to drama and animation, in order to show how all types of movies have something important to say.
“There are a lot of Star Wars lines, I know,” he admitted. “Mainly because I grew up watching Star Wars, and I love all the great lessons found in the series.”
If you know of a film clip that should have been used, send Derek a message on his YouTube channel and maybe he’ll include them in Reel Wisdom: Part 2.
WATCH the video below… film list follows
The films used, in order of appearance:
Pirates of Silicon Valley
Swimming with Sharks
The Matrix
Star Trek (2009)
Ghost Rider
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Iron Giant
Lions for Lambs
The Shawshank Redemption
The Matrix Revolutions
Dead Poet’s Society
Gladiator
Troy
The Matrix Reloaded
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
The Bucket List
The Lion King
Forrest Gump
Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
Ferris Beuler’s Day Off
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ratatouille
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Catch Me If You Can
Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Batman Begins
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Hitch
Phenomenon
The Pursuit of Happyness
The Men Who Stare at Goats
Bicentennial Man
The Incredibles
Under the Tuscan Sun
Kung Fu Panda
K-Pax
Quantum of Solace
SHARE the Wisdom with Your Friends and Followers…
Massive celebrations erupted in Egypt today after 82-year-old Hosni Mubarak officially stepped down as president of the largest Arab country in the world.
After 18 days of mass demonstrations, the people of Egypt succeeded in ousting Mubarak, who has used martial law to stay in power for 30 years.
On a day when few people need to work because Friday is a day of prayer, streets are filled with jubilant Egyptians seeking a new democratic governement.
Omar Suleiman, speaking on state television, said Mubarak had decided to give up “the office of the president of the republic” and said the Supreme Council of the armed forces would “run the affairs of the country.”
Mubarak left Cairo for the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Skeikh.
(READ more at MSNBC.com)
It seems preposterous now that a telecast like the first Super Bowl — aired by two major networks — could have disappeared, but in a bizarre confluence of events, neither network preserved the tape, and copies of the event have long been sought as the “Holy Grail” of sports memorabilia.
All that survived of the broadcast is sideline footage shot by NFL Films and roughly 30 seconds of footage — until now.
The long search is over, ending with a titilating discovery. A 94-minute tape recorded on bulky two-inch video was delivered to the Paley Center for Media in New York after being stored in a Pennsylvania attic for nearly 38 years.
Deep inside an overcrowded prison with a reputation for mayhem, former killers and robbers gather regularly in a small room. Eyes closed, they sit silently with their thoughts and consciences.
The prison outside Birmingham has become the model for a meditation program that officials say helps inmates learn the self control and social skills they never got in the outside world.
“It works. We see a difference in the men and in the prison. It’s calmer,” he said of the course that about 10 percent of the prison’s inmates have completed.
(READ the AP story in the Washington Post)
Across the state of Missouri, dog rescue programs set up by the state’s Department of Corrections are thriving in prisons, creating a more humane inmate population while getting shelter dogs ready for adoption.
The dogs have a remarkable impact on the offenders training them. Their behavior improves, with the built-in incentive to maintain good conduct records so they continue training the dogs. Offenders not directly involved in the program are also softening, with staff morale enhanced by the presence of the dogs.
As the program evolved, the idea of removing from shelters the dogs that were deaf, and thus hard to adopt, and teaching them sign language, has led to dogs being delivered to a school for deaf children.
Across the state of Missouri, dog rescue programs set up by the state’s Department of Corrections are thriving in prisons, creating a more humane inmate population while getting shelter dogs ready for adoption.
The dogs have a remarkable impact on the offenders training them. Their behavior improves, with the built-in incentive to maintain good conduct records so they continue training the dogs. Offenders not directly involved in the program are also softening, with staff morale enhanced by the presence of the dogs.
As the program evolved, the idea of removing from shelters the dogs that were deaf, and thus hard to adopt, and teaching them sign language, has led to dogs being delivered to a school for deaf children.
A young freshman college baseball player was facing a life of declining health until his coach stepped up to the plate and donated a kidney.
Just after Kevin arrived at Wake Forest University the disease struck, requiring hours of dialysis every day. Time was running out quickly and none of his family members were a match as donors.
That’s when Tom Walter, his coach, offered to be tested and the pair scored: a perfect match.
WATCH the video from NBC News below… or read the story from AP, via NBC.
Some women with early-stage breast cancer may be cured without the need to remove multiple lymph nodes, which has been the standard practice, researchers reported Tuesday.
The new study found that people with early-stage breast cancer that has spread to a nearby lymph node fared just as well after treatment without the removal of additional lymph nodes in the armpit area.
(READ the LA Times story, on BaltimoreSun.com)
A “gritty granny” armed only with her handbag fought off six robbers who were smashing windows in a jewelry store on a busy UK street.
Amateur video filmed by a passerby shows the courageous senior citizen swinging her purse with a ferocity seemingly brought on by her shock at the thugs’ mid-day audacity.
WATCH the video below, or read the story at the NY Post…
A “gritty granny” armed only with her handbag fought off six robbers who were smashing windows in a jewelry store on a busy UK street.
Amateur video filmed by a passerby shows the courageous senior citizen swinging her purse with a ferocity seemingly brought on by her shock at the thugs’ mid-day audacity.
WATCH the video below, or read the story at the NY Post…
Facing 7 or 8 years on the organ donor waiting list, an ailing Massachusetts mom, having exhausted all possibilities for kidney matches with blood relatives, found her miracle organ match in her grown adopted son from El Salvador.
“Our family learned that my mom and I were a perfect match — for both blood and tissue,” donor Jonathan S. Swartz told the Good News Network. “I want people out in the world to know that miracles do happen!”
It has been more than a year since the surgeries and the transplant has turned out beautifully for mom and son. But, Jonathan wasn’t always so healthy.
When his parents filed for adoption, El Salvador was in the midst of civil war. Money sent by the future parents to care for the infant in the months before his departure, was not spent on his food and health care, but instead, confiscated and used for weapons within the insurgency.
Finally in May of 1980, the malnourished and sickly five month-old baby was transferred to the loving arms of his American parents.
“My Mom was constantly taking me to doctors’ appointments for things varying from ear infections to strep throat — I even needed to be hospitalized for asthma,” said Swartz. “My mom would spend the day at the hospital with me and my dad would come to the hospital at every night, sitting in my hospital room while I slept.”
Later, Lauren Swartz contracted diabetes and her health steadily deteriorated over 25 years until her kidneys were ravaged. Although Jonathan immediately volunteered to be a donor, his parents didn’t want their son to go through the invasive procedure. But when all else failed, the two were tested for a possible match. Against all odds, these two, from differing backgrounds and bloodlines, aligned perfectly.
The ever-grateful adopted son said he likes to tell this story to everyone, “To give them hope, if nothing else.”
Facing 7 or 8 years on the organ donor waiting list, an ailing Massachusetts mom, having exhausted all possibilities for kidney matches with blood relatives, found her miracle organ match in her grown adopted son from El Salvador.
“Our family learned that my mom and I were a perfect match — for both blood and tissue,” donor Jonathan S. Swartz told the Good News Network. “I want people out in the world to know that miracles do happen!”
Good news from the largest estuary in the United States:
The Chesapeake Bay’s beleaguered oyster population spawned a bumper crop of babies last year, Maryland officials announced Monday, and there are signs that the diseases that have ravaged the bay’s bivalves for more than two decades might have loosened their stranglehold.
A year ago, an earthquake in southern Chile devastated towns, flattening fire stations and equipment that could have been used in the rescue efforts.
An Illinois pastor, who was in the locality working at the time, wanted to help the fire departments rebuild and to ensure they were better prepared to help in the event of another catastrophe.
He mobilized 10 Chicago-area firefighters who next week will pack their bags and travel to the South American country to train about 100 firefighters, bringing along discarded but usable firefighting gear.
(READ the story in the Chicago Tribune)
