Ten thousand empty plates were lined up in rows on the Champ de Mars next to the Eiffel Tower in Paris today to mark the United Nations’ World Food Day.
French NGO Action Against Hunger set up the display to draw attention to the 10,000 children who die each day of malnutrition.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has launched an online anti-hunger petition, which the FAO has dubbed the “1 billion hungry project.”
Mobile phones can improve the livelihoods of the poorest people in developing countries, a United Nations report released on Thursday said.
Mobile phone subscriptions will reach five billion this year (nearly one for each person on the planet), spawning a wealth of micro-enterprises, offering work to people with little education and few resources — like selling airtime on the streets and refurbishing handsets.
(READ the Reuters story at Yahoo News)
The media has been clamoring to talk to Chad and Barbie Soper of Rockford, Michigan because their third child was born on 10/10/10.
Not so very uncommon, until you find out the new mother also gave birth on 9/9/09 and 8/8/08.
Lottery numbers for life?
(READ the story, or watch the video, from the Today show)
The world may have been waiting to catch a glimpse of Luis Urzua, the last miner to emerge from a collapsed Chilean mine to a hero’s welcome, but to the trapped men, the real hero was Manuel Gonzalez, the first brave rescuer to venture down into the hell hole.
Gonzalez, a rescue expert with state copper company Codelco, served as guinea pig, riding the special Phoenix II capsule down to the shelter where he was promptly mobbed by the miners, elated over their first outside human contact in 10 weeks.
(READ the story from AFP via Sydney Morning Herald)
Sisters in Knoxville, Tenn. began a service more than a quarter century ago catering to people with “the five H’s”, helping local residents who are homeless, hungry, helpless, hopeless or homebound.
Opening the kitchen in 1986, they served 200 meals. Today, they offer 2,000 homecooked meals each week.
WATCH the Making A Difference video below… or at MSNBC…
Sisters in Knoxville, Tenn. began a service more than a quarter century ago catering to people with “the five H’s”, helping local residents who are homeless, hungry, helpless, hopeless or homebound.
Opening the kitchen in 1986, they served 200 meals. Today, they offer 2,000 homecooked meals each week.
WATCH the Making A Difference video below… or at MSNBC…
A Philadelphia man is leading the charge to reclaim an 86-acre city park that had become overgrown with weeds and trash while becoming a haven for crime.
His love for the park stems from family outings as a child and led to an army of volunteers building a new playground, raising money for ball fields and galvanizing a community spirit that reaches beyond the children.
WATCH the Making a Difference video below, or at MSNBC’s website...
Teen Canadian superstar singer Justin Bieber will be honored this month along with three other young entertainers for their generous charitable work.
The rapper Bow Wow, actor David Henrie, singer/actor Victoria Justice and teen actor Shailene Woodley join Bieber as honorees at Variety’s fourth annual Power of Youth gala on Oct. 24.
The four young entertainers were chosen to receive Variety’s Power of Youth Philanthropy Award because of significant contributions they’ve made, especially to these philanthropic causes: Pencils of Promise (Bieber), Education Through Music — Los Angeles (Bow Wow), LA’s BEST (Henrie), Girl Up (Justice) and All It Takes… (Woodley).
With the guest list of actors and recording artists, all under 25, the event taking place at Paramount Studios, will also feature families and children who have been helped by the honorees’ charitable causes.
The event’s annual online fund-raising auction will kick off Oct. 19 with bid items ranging from lunch with “Twilight” star Kellan Lutz to a five-night stay at the Four Seasons Resort, Maui.
Separately, there will be an online donation widget where fans can enter to win four tickets to the invite-only event featuring Justin Bieber and 750 other notable stars.
(Source: Variety.com)
Photo credit: Daniel Ogren Photography
The rapper T.I. convinced a suicidal man not to leap from a 22-story building in Atlanta Wednesday.
The star was on his way to a video shoot, just listening to his car radio, when he heard news of the jumper.
He drove over to the location, met with police and recorded a heartfelt video message which cops then played for the man on the roof.
The 30 year-old rappers message? Things will get better. Don’t give up.
The suicidal man came down and talked in the lobby with T.I., who says he plans to keep in touch offering friendly encouragement.
“It summoned my heart, my spirit. I said to myself … I gotta help,” T.I. told TMZ.
(READ more in the Province.com)
Monarch butterflies appear to use medicinal plants to treat their offspring for disease, research by biologists at Emory University shows. Their findings were published online Oct. 6 in the journal Ecology Letters.
“We have shown that some species of milkweed, the larva’s food plants, can reduce parasite infection in the monarchs,” says Jaap de Roode, the evolutionary biologist who led the study. “And we have also found that infected female butterflies prefer to lay their eggs on plants that will make their offspring less sick, suggesting that monarchs have evolved the ability to medicate their offspring.”
In light of recent celebrity breakups, like the 11 year marriage of Courteney Cox and David Arquette, it is good to hear about star couples still happily married.
Before Paul Newman died, he and Joanne Woodward celebrated 50 years together as one of the most famous Hollywood couples.
Take a look at this slideshow featuring a few of the happy couples still married, and read their secrets to maintaining wedded bliss.
(READ the story at Redbook.com)
A woman whose home was destroyed by a fire last month won $80,000 in the Kentucky Lottery a few weeks later.
At first, she panicked, believing the ticket had been destroyed by the fire.
“I was ready to jump in car and go search through the rubble until it hit me that the ticket could be at my parent’s house,” she said.
(READ the story at liveleak)
Through its focus on the fuel supply that powers healthy brain function, a transformative study has uncovered both the key cause and an immediate treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers reported their discovery last week that brain cells in Parkinson’s patients shut down the energy-producing capacity of the mitochondria, resulting in a devastating shortage for cells that normally consume 20 percent of the body’s energy.
The findings indicate that boosting the mitochondria with current FDA approved drugs early on may prevent or delay the onset of Parkinson’s.
Through its focus on the fuel supply that powers healthy brain function, a transformative study has uncovered both the key cause and an immediate treatment for Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers reported their discovery last week that brain cells in Parkinson’s patients shut down the energy-producing capacity of the mitochondria, resulting in a devastating shortage for cells that normally consume 20 percent of the body’s energy.
The findings indicate that boosting the mitochondria with current FDA approved drugs early on may prevent or delay the onset of Parkinson’s.
One by one, rescuers in Chile are freeing 33 miners who have been trapped more than a half-kilometer underground since early August.
So far, 16 miners have been raised to freedom in the unprecedented and complex rescue operation in northern Chile.
The men are emerging from the rescue capsule to the cheers of the rescuers, officials and family members. Some quietly knelt in prayer before being taken away on gurneys for immediate medical examinations. They were trapped underground for 69 days — more than anyone on record.
Gardens have been named the hottest trend in restaurants this year as more chefs involved with the ‘eat local food’ movement decide to grow their own tomatoes, herbs and other produce.
A third of the 2,000 chefs surveyed by the National Restaurant Association named gardens the top trend. It costs restaurants less to grow their own produce than to buy it elsewhere and have it shipped. It also gives them more control over quality.
Equally positive trends like sustainable seafood, locally sourced foods, smaller portions and gluten-free options round out the top five interests for chefs this year.
(READ more from AP story, via WTOP and Slashfood.com)
Jeff Hart was drilling water wells for the U.S. Army’s forward operating bases in Afghanistan when he got the call to fly to Chile.
He spent the next 33 days on his feet, operating the drill that finally provided a way out Saturday for 33 trapped miners.
He describes what it was like to finally break through.
The miners are due to be lifted out, one by one, beginning tonight.
READ the AP story here,
Jeff Hart was drilling water wells for the U.S. Army’s forward operating bases in Afghanistan when he got the call to fly to Chile.
He spent the next 33 days on his feet, operating the drill that finally provided a way out Saturday for 33 trapped miners.
He describes what it was like to finally break through.
The miners are due to be lifted out, one by one, beginning tonight.
READ the AP story here, or WATCH interview below from ABC (with a 30-second ad)
We think that healthier food is always more expensive, but now we can drop that misconception and be free of excuses keeping us from a healthier diet.
A new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition reveals that switching to healthy foods can actually cut your grocery bill.
Start by swapping red meat for grains and beans. Beans are cheap and packed with folate, iron, and protein—and bonus!—they can drop your risk for cardiovascular disease by 25 percent if eaten in lieu of meat, says the study.
(READ the story at TakePart.com)
It’s beena tough week in the news for gay teens. Reports of relentless bullying and suicide have made many wonder what can be done.
Hollywood is stepping up to use the power of celebrity to tell kids who feel isolated and under siege that things really do get better.
Also, a surprising number of encouraging signs are also coming from the television industry that indicate gay teens are going to be okay.
