A gang of burglars who cased out a pet shop had hatched a simple plan – but they didn’t count on one maverick parrot.
When they broke in, the feathers flew and it was their blood left on the walls. The raiders spotted Jack in his cage and foolishly tried to make off with him — their biggest mistake.
(READ the story in the UK’s Metro)
To fulfill a 3-book contract for his publisher before taking office in January 2009, President Barack Obama finished writing a children’s book, an illustrated tribute to 13 American leaders.
Unveiled this week, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters, has already rocketed into the top of the Amazon.com charts, two months before its scheduled release.
The proportion of women in sub-Saharan Africa who died because of pregnancy fell by more than a quarter between 1990 and 2008, according to estimates released yesterday.
Twenty years ago, the region’s maternal mortality ratio was 870 deaths per 100,000 live births, the worst rate of any region in the world.
But, in 2008, it was 640, according to data published jointly by the World Health Organization, UN Children’s Fund (UNFPA), the UN Population Fund and the World Bank.
Globally, the ratio fell by 34 percent, from 400 to 260, states the report, noting that this represented an annual decline of 2.3 percent.
“There was a 26 percent reduction in maternal death rates in sub-Saharan Africa and this data is encouraging,” Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of UNFPA, told IRIN.
There are increasing efforts in countries to train more midwives, provide family planning, and strengthen hospitals and health centres to provide care to pregnant women.
“We welcome and are thrilled by the decline, which shows that interventions are working,” Obaid said. But we need to do more.”
Data were collected in 172 countries. 63 provided complete information from civil registration systems and good attribution of causes of death for the estimates. The total estimate worldwide is less than half the reduction needed to achieve the fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG), which concerns maternal health. (IRIN News)
We love stealth art campaigns here at the Good News Network, like PARK(ing) spots created in San Francisco, and soon to be in DC, the traffic cone art, and the ultimate artist bandit who added a helpful route number to a California freeway sign.
This summer, John Morse created “Roadside Haiku,” an installation of nearly 500 ‘bandit signs’ throughout the city of Atlanta, each offering one of ten different haiku. Though at a glance they look like typical signs offering weight loss, quick money, debt counseling, etc., upon closer inspection the 17-syllable haiku reveals poetic perspectives on the urban condition, easily consumed during the brief seconds of a traffic stop.
Jonny Hawkins is a fulltime cartoonist from Sherwood, Michigan, where he lives with his wife and three kids. See the collection of Good News Giggles on Jonny’s GNN author page. His work has appeared in over 400 publications and in his own books and line of cartoon-a-day calendars.
His recently released title, The Awesome Book of Dog Humor
Indian nanny Sandra Samuels, who risked her life to save an Israeli toddler from the clutches of terrorists during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, has been granted an honorary citizenship by the Israeli government for her act of bravery.
Amidst gunfire, she found the child standing next to the bodies of his parents. She brought the two-year-old, Moshe Holtzberg, back to Israel after the attacks and has been caring for him ever since.
At an emotional ceremony at the Interior Ministry in Jerusalem on Monday, a visibly moved Samuel proudly accepted her new Israeli identification card.
(READ the story in Hindustan Times and another, w/ photo, in the BBC)
The U.S. Senate launched new legislation aimed at jumpstarting the struggling economy and creating jobs by giving small businesses easier access to credit.
The 61-37 vote yesterday cleared the way for final Senate passage of the aid package, which includes a $30 billion lending fund and about $12 billion in tax relief for small businesses.
The longstanding logjam over the legislation ended thanks to Republican Senators George LeMieux (Fla.) and George Voinovich (Ohio), who said he voted for the incentives because the economy was “really hurting.”
Drug violence is spiraling in Mexico, which is celebrating the nation’s bicentennial this week. But now, a group of business leaders and media companies has launched a new program to try to lift the nation’s spirits and highlight Mexicans who are doing good works.
It’s been accompanied by an advertising campaign featuring Javier Aguirre, who coached the national soccer team during the World Cup, and the Mexican actress Salma Hayek.
Paraphrasing U.S. President John F. Kennedy, Hayek says in one of the TV spots, “Ask not what Mexico can do for you, but what you can do for Mexico.”
(READ the story in Southern California Public Radio)
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Monday it was establishing a $100 million fund for victims of a huge gas pipeline explosion that left at least four people dead and destroyed 37 homes.
The money was intended to help victims meet their day-to-day needs and would be provided with no strings attached, said Chris Johns, president of PG&E.
The company previously gave the city of San Bruno $3 million to help cover its expenses related to the blast, Johns said.
(READ the AP story at NPR)
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a way to concentrate solar energy so that each photovoltaic cell produces 100 times the power of a conventional solar panel, which could have major implications for homeowners hoping to save money while helping the environment.
Using carbon nanotubes (hollow tubes of carbon atoms), MIT chemical engineers can now funnel solar energy into antennas that capture and focus light energy, potentially allowing for much smaller and more powerful solar arrays.
“Instead of having your whole roof be a photovoltaic cell, you could have little spots that were tiny photovoltaic cells, with antennas that would drive photons into them,” says Michael Strano, the Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering and leader of the research team.
There is some good news when it comes to the battle against global hunger. The United Nations today lowered its estimate of the number of hungry people world wide by nearly 10 percent, a drop of 98 million.
The lower number is a result of the stronger economic growth expected this year in developing countries and a drop in food prices that has occurred since the spike in 2008, according to the UN’s World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization.
(Continue reading in the Des Moines Register)
Hiker Sarah Shourd is free after spending more than a year in an Iranian prison. Released after health conditions arose and in part as a gesture of thanks during Ramadan, the American is en route to Oman, to meet her mother.
Shourd, and two male hiking companions were detained on the border between Iran and Iraq in July, 2009, arrested and charged with spying.
(READ the story in the BBC)
The U.S. government posted a smaller budget deficit in August compared with the same month last year, helped by rising tax receipts.
The $90.5 billion deficit for August was 13 percent lower than the gap last year, when the Bush Administration posted a deficit of $103.6 billion in August 2009.
The economic recovery has helped generate more tax revenue for the Treasury, according to a report from the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, which forecasts the budget deficit will amount to 9.1 percent of gross domestic product this year, only exceeded in the past 65 years by 2009’s 9.9 percent.
(READ the full article in Bloomberg.com)
A retail sales jump in August — by the largest amount in five months — suggests the spring downturn was temporary and not the start of another recession.
The Commerce Department says retail sales rose 0.4 percent last month — 0.6 percent, if auto sales are excluded.
That’s double the amount economists had expected and follows a 0.3 percent rise in July.
The advance was the latest indication that the economy is regaining its footing.
(READ the full AP story)
Amalaki, a simple fruit from India, has been a superstar of eastern medicine for thousands of years.
Unknown in the west, the fruit has a historical place of honor in the ancient Indian healing system known as Ayurveda, which describes this fruit as very important for cell revitalization, immune system function and overall vitality.
Grown at the base of the Himalayan Mountains, Amalaki, (Emblica officinalis, also known as Amla in Hindi, or Indian gooseberry), is revered in India and considered sacred throughout Hinduism. Modern research reveals the ancient knowledge and traditions regarding Amalaki have a basis in fact.
Research studies available from the National Institute of Health indicate the green fruit, which is between the size of a grape and a golf ball, shows efficacy in all the following areas:
How can a single fruit effect so many different parts of our health? The answer may be in the unique phytochemical signature of this amazing fruit. Ancient herbalists might say “it’s good for everything.” Science now has a term for the plant compounds that yield multiple health benefits. These herbal remedies are now known as Adaptagens.
Adaptagens are plant compounds from a single plant that effect whole body systems. Herbalists in the past called them “Tonics”.
If you have a health concern, you can find an Adaptagen to address it. Scientific research has now been conducted on Amalaki and other Adaptagens, including Cordeceps, Holy Basil, Ginseng, Licorice, Maca, Reshi, and Rhodiola– research that gained momentum in Russia during the cold war era.
Preliminary research on Amalaki demonstrated antiviral and antimicrobial properties; showed potential efficacy against laboratory models of disease, such as cancer, age-related renal disease, and diabetes, along with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis.*
Amalaki, a simple fruit from India now has modern research that supports its ancient history of healing.
Scientific information regarding health claims can be found at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a website hosted by the the National Institutes of Health. (Search “amla’ or “Embicla officinalis”) *Also, see Wikipedia for research footnotes.
Jim Herren is an internet researcher providing information on raw foods, products, articles and ideas for a transformational life of Brilliance and Joy, at Rawfoodwisdom.blogspot.com
Amalaki, a simple fruit from India, has been a superstar of eastern medicine for thousands of years.
Unknown in the west, the fruit has a historical place of honor in the ancient Indian healing system known as Ayurveda, which describes this fruit as very important for cell revitalization, immune system function and overall vitality.
Grown at the base of the Himalayan Mountains, Amalaki, (Emblica officinalis, also known as Amla in Hindi, or Indian gooseberry), is revered in India and considered sacred throughout Hinduism. Modern research reveals the ancient knowledge and traditions regarding Amalaki have a basis in fact.
NOAA government scientists studying the BP disaster are reporting the best possible outcome: Microbes are consuming the oil in the Gulf without depleting the oxygen in the water and creating “dead zones” where fish cannot survive.
Outside scientists said this so far vindicates the difficult and much-debated decision by BP and the government to use massive amounts of chemical dispersants deep underwater to break up the oil before it reached the surface.
Larry McKinney, director of a Gulf of Mexico research center at Texas A&M University in Corpus Christi, said the new federal data showed that it was a “nearly perfect” outcome.
(READ the AP story in WTOP News)
Britain’s wind farms hit record power output levels last week on Monday and at its peak period was generating the same amount of electricity as almost four nuclear power stations, according to energy network operator National Grid.
(READ the story in Reuters)
After years of trying to dodge the fame Olympic success brought her, an Aboriginal athlete who carried the torch that opened the Sydney Games in 2000 and won the 400-meter gold to fulfill her nation’s expectations, decided to use her celebrity to help educate the Aboriginal children from northeastern Australia, where her mother was born.
As the name and face of the Catherine Freeman Foundation, a charity devoted to helping to educate Aboriginal children from Palm Island in northeastern Australia, she has no problem conveying the challenge she now confronts. “It is a national disgrace,” she said.
(READ her story in the New York Times)
From the Mayo Clinic comes this new video demonstrating an easier way to do CPR on adults that promises a three-times-normal survival rate for victims of heart failure…
