Iran’s supreme leader today ordered an investigation into allegations of election fraud, marking a stunning turnaround by the country’s most powerful figure and offering hope to opposition forces who have waged street clashes to protest the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran Supreme Leader Orders Probe of Election Results
1000 Fresh Produce Carts Deployed to Poor NYC Neighborhoods
In a new citywide effort to encourage street vendors to bring fresh vegetables and fruit to low-income neighborhoods, New York City has approved 1,000 new mobile food carts for neighborhoods in the five boroughs that have long been isolated from traditional supermarkets, grocery stores and farmers’ markets offering fresh produce at reasonable prices.
So far, 200 of the carts are now on the streets, though it will take a while to determine whether there is enough demand to keep all the vendors in business.
Mental Illness and Creativity: A Potential Link?
Many creative people suffer from mental illness. Some, however, are unable to produce due to the severity of their disorder. Are the two traits linked?
A Mental Health Minute by Cristina Frick
A wealth of research suggests that mood disorders are linked to increased creativity. Creative people have a higher rate of bipolar disorder and depression than the general population, and one study found that children of parents with bipolar disorder scored higher on creativity tests than those whose parents did not have the illness. Creative types also have more personality traits in common with those who have a mental illness than with less creative individuals.
Researchers Get Drinking Water From Air Humidity
Scientists in Stuttgart have found a way of obtaining drinking water from air humidity. The system is based on solar collectors, making it an entirely energy independent source of water — productive even in the desert.
Demonstration models are being constructed of various sizes to serve both the individual family and large community. (Read more in Science Daily)
RELATED from GNN:
Turning Air into Water? Gadget Does Just That
Planting Flowers Helps Stamp Out City Crime
When a Tokyo neighborhood watch group found that there were fewer burglaries in buildings on flower-lined streets, one city official in decided to kick off Operation Flower and asked volunteers to plant seeds on side streets and in front of their homes.
The efforts, which also include added security cameras and volunteer patrols, have paid off, with the number of burglaries falling to 390 in 2008, down almost 80 percent from 2002.
A Hopeful and Tolerant New Generation
Two years of research on the attitudes, values and behavior of Canada’s teens uncovered hopeful trends:
For instance, today’s teens have more “close friends” than any previous generation but they can be continents away; they consider it wrong to park in a spot reserved for the disabled; they have a better relationship with their parents; and they’re not nearly as sex-crazy as people think. Most teens engage in sex about as often as seniors. Fifty-six per cent say they never engage in sex.
(Read more in the Toronto Star)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
Former Foes Congo, Rwanda Agree to Share Energy
Former foes Congo and Rwanda have agreed to a joint project to produce 200 megawatts of power from methane gas reservoirs in the lake on their shared border, a senior Congolese power official said on Friday.
The joint power generation deal is the latest sign of improved relations between Rwanda and the much larger Democratic Republic of Congo, who have fought wars, largely over mineral resources in Congo’s east, during the last 15 years. (Continue reading at Reuters)
Alaska’s Rat Island Finally Rat-Free After 229 Years
Alaska’s Rat Island is finally rat-free, 229 years after a Japanese shipwreck spilled rampaging rodents onto the remote Aleutian island, decimating the local bird population.
Now there are signs that several species of birds, including Aleutian cackling geese, ptarmigan, peregrine falcons and black oystercatchers, are starting to nest again on the 10-square-mile (26-sq-km) island.
(Continue reading Reuters report via Yahoo)
Photo credit: Alaska Fish and Wildlife Service
Largest Solar Plant In the US Rises in New Mexico Desert
In a corner of the New Mexico desert, the largest solar plant in the United States, the Suntower, will provide power to some 74,000 homes when it opens in 2011.
The 92 megawatt solar thermal plant will look like a giant sea of mirrors surrounding large towers that will house the steam created to push the turbines.
Video from Business Center TV may take a moment to load…
Manicurist Sells House, Car to Build School
When Washington manicurist Lidia Schaefer returned to her native village in Ethiopia, she was troubled by what she saw: children walking three hours each way to attend classes held not in a school, but under a tree.
After learning in 1998 that one of the girls she’d met — Medhine — had been attacked and killed by a hyena after falling behind other children during the long trek home from school, Schaefer knew she had to act.
She began setting aside a third of her salary and all of her tips, and later sold her house and car, to raise enough money to build a school for the village.
Encourage Gratitude in Your Young
An important but seldom-taught lesson is the value of gratitude. In a culture like ours, where the norm is always to want more, it’s important to encourage children — especially teens — to think about being thankful and to feel fortunate for what they already have. When they do, they often get a boost of happiness and optimism. So do adults, claim researchers.
(Read more by Tom McMahon in Contra Costa Times)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
Dow Turns Positive for 2009
Dow industrials are in positive territory for 2009 for the first time since January, ending Friday above its 2008 close of 8,776.39.
Markets have rallied for three months straight, since bottoming March 9. In that time, the Dow has gained just over 34%, the S&P 500 40% and the Nasdaq 47%, as of Friday’s close. Bets that the pace of the recession is waning have helped fuel the advance.
NY Conductor Delivers Baby on the Train
A New York City transit conductor says she went to catch a train and caught a baby instead. Bretta Sykes helped a woman who went into labor in a subway train at a lower Manhattan station.
Watch her tell the story of what happened… (Video may take a moment to load.)
Obama Writes Note for Girl Missing School
President Obama turned on the charm at an event in Wisconsin when an audience member told the president that his daughter was missing school to come hear him speak about healthcare reform. He asked if she needed a note for the teacher, and then obliged, writing, “She’s with me.”
Video may take a moment to load…
World’s Largest Firefighting Aircraft Ready for Service
As fire season approaches, Oregon-based Evergreen International Aviation demonstrated its new 747 Supertanker, billed as the world’s largest and fastest firefighting aircraft.
Vdeo below may take a moment to load…
Putin: Russia will Abandon Nukes if Others do
The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says the country could get rid of its nuclear weapons if other nuclear powers are ready to abandon them too.
“What do we need nuclear arms for?” Putin said during talks with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
U.S. Military Using Alternative Medicine, Yoga
Yoga is one of the newest ‘secret weapons’ in the US Armed Forces for soldiers suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Bird Rediscovered After 80 Years
Beck’s petrel, a small seabird relative of albatrosses and shearwaters, was rediscovered in 2007 by Israeli ornithologist Hadoram Shirihai in a group of Pacific islands near Papua New Guinea. There hadn’t been a confirmed sighting of the bird since 1929. Read more in Wikipedia. – June 11, 2009
Man on a Mission: Giving an Ambulance to Every Afghan City
When Kevin Paicos was serving as a medic in Afghanistan he was shocked to learn that in a city the size of Orlando, there were no ambulances — locals had never heard of them.
He called his fire chief back home in Ashburnham, Mass., to help. They found an old ambulance, fixed it up and pushed it through the Army’s red tape, delivering it to the people of Farah.
“These people are wonderful, wonderful people,” says Paicos, who is now back in America recruiting volunteers to find and service more ambulances to send overseas. “They’ve been at war for three decades; they deserve a break.”
RELATED GNN STORY: Hearts Open to Donate Fire Equipment a World Away
10 Banks to Repay $68B in Bailout Money- With Interest
Ten of the nation’s largest banks are set to return more than 34 percent of the TARP bail-out loans including $1.8 billion in interest.
The financial institutions, J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Capital One, American Express and Morgan-Stanley among them, will pay back $68 billion of the $199 billion in taxpayer money, beginning as early as next week.
The decision is a milestone for the Obama administration’s financial rescue plan, reflecting new confidence that some large banks have returned to stable profitability.
(Read More in the Washington Post)
