Starting this month, every sale of a solar powered bedside lamp at IKEA will generate an additional lamp as a donation to a child in the developing world, enabling them to play, read, write or study at night, even without electricity.

The first shipments will be delivered by UNICEF to Pakistani refugees, helping children in camps for families who had to flee their homes in Balochistan and the North West Frontier province.

The IKEA lamp, called SUNNAN, was made especially sturdy for the developing world, designed to resist the wear and tear of difficult living situations and includes a battery capable of withstanding high temperatures. Just expose the solar panel to 9 hours of sun and get four hours of full light from the low-energy LED technology.

Is the economy still tanking? Not in Ocean City, Maryland where the beach resort enjoyed a marvelous May spike in tourism, including its biggest Memorial Day crowd since 1993.

“I think people are just ready to travel,” said resort spokeswoman Donna Abbott. “All the gloom and doom and the long cold winter. It was a pent-up demand to hit the road and hit the beach. It was just a spectacular weekend.”

(Continue reading at DelMarvaNow.com)

Photo courtesy of Sun Star 

US stocks rose sharply Monday to hit seven-month highs as investors took the General Motors bankruptcy filing in their stride and focused on encouraging economic data.

Stocks were further boosted by better than expected US manufacturing data suggesting the economy was bottoming out. Separate data showed that the income of Americans increased in April.

(Continue reading in Financial Times)

One of the world’s tallest buildings under construction in China — the Pearl River Tower — is being billed as the most energy efficient superskyscraper ever built.

With wind turbines, solar panels, ­sun-shields, smart lighting, water-cooled ceilings and state-of-the-art insulation, the 310-metre tower is designed to use half the energy of most buildings of its size and set a new global benchmark for self-sufficiency among the planet’s high rises.

(Continue reading in The Guardian)

The hospital needed a miracle as it faced a $20 million deficit. It looked like 600 layoffs were inevitable. And most of those would be the lowest-paid employees, people who needed their jobs the most. But when asked, all 6,300 employees were willing to pitch in to save the jobs of their co-workers. 

The 13 department heads took pay cuts that totaled $350,000. And doctors took out their checkbooks: The checks came in, some for $500, some $10,000 or $15,000. 401-K matching funds were turned down.

Now most of the cooks, janitors and cashiers have been rescued, thanks to the compassionate hospital CEO who wanted to do the right thing and the workers who agreed.

GNN reported months ago on this story, but this week, CBS news produced a follow-up with the latest news on Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. 

Read the story at CBS News, or watch the video below…
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(Photo, above, courtesy of Sun Star)