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Katrina’s Piano Fund Replaces Instruments Lost in Flooding, Restores Musicians

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pianosI will not be the only one with tears running down my face after some of you read this story.

Katrina’s Piano Fund has delivered hundreds of replacement instruments — including more than 40 pianos — to regional New Orleans musicians who lost everything in the huricane.

Steve Burtchaell, a professional musician, mourned his family’s loss of a Steinway baby grand piano. He, like everybody else, had to put his instrument at the bottom of a mile-long list of priorities and realized it was probably never going to be replaced.

But after hearing of the Fund, Steve became the first applicant to request a piano. On April 21, two tractor trailers pulled up to the meeting hall of Corpus Christi Catholic Church on St. Bernard Avenue and Steve was given first choice of the 41 pianos delivered. “We had just one baby grand, donated by Jennifer Wydra of South Orange, NJ,” recalls one of the founders of the Fund. . .

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New Technology Turns Garbage Into Gold

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cwttrans

cwttrans(Reprint of a GNN story from 2003; in preparation for a followup article soon)

IMAGINE. . . Imagine a machine that can turn almost anything into oil. Imagine that it uses natural processes like heat and pressure, and produces no pollution. Imagine that waste from landfills, refuse from poultry factories, sludge from city sewage, or even infectious medical waste, are used to make the oil. Everybody says it sounds too good to be true. But now we have the science — and two factories — to prove it.

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Plastic Bio Bottle is Composted into Plant Food

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biodegradable water bottle

beluBelu Natural Mineral Water last week launched the UK’s first biodegradable and compostable plastic bottle. The revolutionary plastic bottle is made from corn instead of petroleum oil and can be commercially composted back into soil in 80 days.

“This can dramatically reduce the amount of rubbish going into landfills and gives everyone an easy way to help protect the environment,” said Mai Simonsen, one of the founding members of Belu.

The “Bio-bottle” is the latest good news from London-based Belu, a bottled water maker that contributes 100 percent of its net profits to clean water projects. Working with WaterAid, every bottle of water purchased in the UK provides someone in India or Africa with clean water for one month.

Belu was formed in response to a challenge by the UN’s Global Compact, for the business community to help solve global problems. . .

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Barbaro: More Inspiring Than If He’d Won Triple Crown

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Douglas Johnson
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Barbaro-AlexBrown-GNULast year, Afleet Alex made our hearts skip a beat and then leap for joy when he fell to his knees and then miraculously sprang back into action to win the Preakness. This year, Barbaro has touched our hearts after breaking his leg in the opening furlongs of the same race. And, perhaps because horses, like humans themselves, possess both majesty and fatal frailties, both Alex and Barbaro have made us want to believe in miracles. (It might be remembered that team Afleet Alex gave a percentage of his winnings to Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a charity that raises money to fight children’s cancer, further endearing him to all.)

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Food Rations Increase in Darfur Thanks to Recent Donations to UN

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Food rations that were recently reduced by half for more than 3 million people in Sudan will be increased to 84 per cent of minimum daily requirements from June to September in the war-torn Darfur region thanks to new donations to the United Nations World Food Programme emergency operation, but more aid is still needed.

At the beginning of May, the United States announced it would divert to Sudan food aid shipments valued at $46.2 million. Other donors, including Canada, the European Commission, Australia, Germany and Denmark, have also offered funds and pledges which, together with an announced Sudanese contribution of cereal, will enable WFP to raise the number of kilocalories per person per day in Darfur to 1,770 (the minimum daily requirement is 2,100 kilocalories).

One Man Creates Peace in African Country Torn by Ethnicity

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alexis

alexisGearing up for October elections, Côte d’Ivoire (the Ivory Coast) faces fear that a renewed eruption of violence between ethnic groups will destroy any progress towards political reconciliation. But in Trogui, a village once divided by ethnicity, one man has become a pivoting force away from violence and toward peaceful coexistence. Thanks to the training he received from the non-profit group, Search for Common Ground, he was able to create solidarity where there once was hostility.

While rival politicians in Côte d’Ivoire are set to meet tomorrow to work out plans for nationwide disarmament and a United Nations peacekeeping force has been deployed there for three years to assist the two sides in implementing a signed peace agreement from January 2003, the stark divisions of civil war, which began in 2002, still remain.

Search for Common Ground’s goal is to transform the way individuals, groups, and entire societies deal with conflict: moving away from violence and adversarial behavior to nonviolence and cooperative problem-solving.

In Cote d’Ivoire, Alex Zro Gomé is one person who has helped an entire community realize these goals. . . (story idea and link submitted by GNN volunteer Amber Tanner of Toronto)

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Chihuahua Adopts Baby Possums

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baby_possumA nursing Chihuahua with two new puppies has become a foster mom to five more babies — tiny possums that lost their mother. Now all seven are nursing and snuggling together. (Union Leader )

Oddly, a baby possum showed up on our doorstep yesterday during daylight hours — see photo — I think I may call animal rescue.

How a Chocolate Bar Saved a Mayan Community from Destruction

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Green-and-Blacks-chocolate bar

Green-and-Blacks-chocolate barWhen you see a product marked with the Fair Trade emblem, it means the farmers were paid top dollar for their goods. UK Green & Black Maya Gold – a chocolate bar, made with organic cacao from Belize, is the epitome of such a product – the first British one to carry it.

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Volunteers Help Rescue First Turtle Nest of Season

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stones turtleVolunteers and officials near Panama City Beach, Florida, have been helping sea turtle eggs survive so that baby turtles can safely hatch and return to the sea. An ordinance against too much light on the beach at night helps to prevent disorientation in egg-laying females.

One by one, Turtle Watch volunteers crated and relocated 104 translucent pink loggerhead turtle eggs on Friday in an effort to save the Panama City Beach area’s first marked nest of the season. "The nest was laid very close to the water below the tide line so it was relocated to higher elevation where it’s safer for the eggs…" (visit the Herald Today )

Healing the Wounds of War

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Read an inspiring story on the 60 Minutes Web site about soldiers who are living without limbs, but doing so while helping others to do the same. Melissa Stockwell’s story is an upbeat addition to my Memorial Day, and it also reminds everyone of the consequences of war. (The sentiment one WWII veteran expressed this morning on C-Span’s call-in show, implored the listener, "When are we going to find another way? War is only the killing of people. We need to stop doing it.")

Like many soldiers benefitting from life-saving armor these days, Melissa survived an explosion, but lost a leg:

Melissa is full of enthusiasm for her country, her life … and now, her new leg. Her prosthetic leg goes all the way up to her hip. Getting her new leg helped Melissa find a new calling: She is studying to be a prosthetist, to help other amputees. (cbs news)

U.S. Farm Manure Begins to Power Homes

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redbarnTurning manure into a source of electricity is a reality today. The manure from Lee Jensen’s cows can power about 600 homes in Wisconsin.

A machine mines the methane, or natural gas, from rotting manure and feeds it into a pipeline that connects to local power grids. Additionally, many byproducts benefit the farm. . . .

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Positivity Enriches Businesses with Profit

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A 2004 article by Gallop shows that negativity costs US businesses billions of dollars each year. Positivity, it turns out, not only enriches the individual but also raises productivity and competitiveness in companies. Bring a little Good News philosophy into your company and watch your fortunes improve:

Gallup polling has revealed that 99 out of 100 people say they want a more positive environment at work, and 9 out of 10 say they’re more productive when they’re around positive people. Employees who report receiving recognition and praise within the last seven days show increased productivity, get higher scores from customers, and have better safety records. . .

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Net Neutrality Victory in House Cmte

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The broad, nonpartisan movement for Internet freedom notched a victory on Thursday, when a bipartisan majority of the House Judiciary Committee advanced the Internet Freedom and Nondiscrimination Act of 2006 a bill that preserves the level playing field websites enjoy on the internet. 20 members of the Committee voted for the bill (14 Democrats and 6 Republicans), while 13 opposed it. (Save the Internet)

A May 18 article in GNN-i described the broad coalition that has formed (Former Foes Join Together) including gun owners and artists; Christian groups and MoveOn.org.

‘How I’ve longed to hold my miracle quads’

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A wife in England gave birth on March 23 to babies that were "monochorionic quads," an extremely rare occurrence meaning that four identical babies all shared the same placenta. A nice story about how the parents are caring for them and even they can’t tell the babies apart!!

The quadruplets — Ellie, Georgina, Holly and Jessica Carles — were conceived naturally at incredible odds… This week, the girls were allowed home — which meant their mother Julie, 37, could hold them all at once for the first time. (-Daily Mail with photo)

Pitt and Jolie Welcome Baby Girl

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Angelina Jolie gave birth to a baby girl, Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt in a hospital in Namibia, Africa. There is no word on the condition of mother and daughter, or father, Brad Pitt, but one piece of good news is, according to some reports, the parents have already sold the rights to the first baby pictures for $5.4 million dollars and will give all the money to charity.

UPDATE: May 30 – Following the birth of their daughter, Jolie and Pitt donated $300,000 to help other mothers to safely deliver babies in public hospitals around impoverished Namibia. The couple also pledged $15,000 for a school and community center in Swakopmund a place they’d visited. A doctor in the private hospital where Jolie delivered said the baby was healthy and mother too.

Photo: UNHCR

G is for Geek: Glitches in RSS Feeds and Links

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UPDATE: May 28 — Yesterday I wrote, "Our apologies go out to our RSS feed users…" Well, it turns out the software "bug" is not only infecting RSS feeds. Any link to the site is met with an error message, "You are not authorized to view this page"… So, we need to apologize to the whole world at large! The problem will be fixed as soon as possible. There are two work-arounds in the meantime: All the links work if you are logged in and additionally, ALL stories are viewable on the site itself (click on any page in the left menu to view the stories)
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Our apologies go out to our RSS feed users. Every time they click on links to headlines (if they are not logged in) they reach a dead end. Detailing the reasons for the problem is geek-talk, which I don’t speak fluently, but you know how when you upgrade one piece of software, it can make another piece of software stop working?. . .

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GOP Heavy Hitters Pressuring White House to Talk With Iran

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The LA Times features some good news in the stand-off with Iran:

Amid concern that the U.S. is drifting toward eventual confrontation with Iran, a growing number of influential statesmen, Republican senators and foreign policy experts are stepping up pressure on the Bush administration to consider doing what no U.S. administration has done in 27 years: talk directly with Iran.

760,000 people in 118 countries Walk to Eradicate Hunger

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walktheworldLast Sunday, more than 760,000 people took to the streets of more than 100 countries to walk five kilometres in support of Fight Hunger: Walk the World. All around the globe, in 420 locations people came out in force to deliver a message: child hunger has no place in this world and citizens working together can root it out.

The World Food Programme, its partners, and supporters, as well as war-displaced families and over 100,000 school children in sub-Saharan Africa alone, declared it is unacceptable that 18,000 children die of hunger every day on a planet that produces more than enough food for every inhabitant. (Walkers in London, photo by World Food Programme)

Funds raised will support two programs aimed at reducing child hunger: projects to help pregnant and lactating women and young children and school feeding projects. Last year, WFP provided school meals for 21.7 million children in 74 countries. . .

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CA Ruling in Favor of Bloggers as Journalists

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"The good news keeps on coming for blogger legal rights. Friday, a California Appeals Court ruled that Apple could not compel several bloggers and website operators to reveal their sources." (more in the Daily Kos)

The Electronic Frontier Foundation led the court battle for the citizen journalists and described the decision in a press release:

In their decision, the judges wrote: "We can think of no workable test or principle that would distinguish ‘legitimate’ from ‘illegitimate’ news. Any attempt by courts to draw such a distinction would imperil a fundamental purpose of the First Amendment, which is to identify the best, most important, and most valuable ideas not by any sociological or economic formula, rule of law, or process of government, but through the rough and tumble competition of the memetic marketplace."

A Hero to Iraqi Kids, American Soldier Inspired to Give Gifts

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From the Oregonian comes this Memorial Day tribute to an American soldier who gets a kick out of bringing gifts to the kids in Iraq. Anne Taylor of Lake Oswego writes this charming ode to her 25 year old grandson, Sgt. Joe Coon of the Oregon National Guard: iraqi_kids

Sometimes “Joe’s kids” get candy. Other times it may be toothbrushes and toothpaste, Beanie Babies, stuffed animals or hair ornaments. But Joe always has something for them from his stash of goodies, supplied by family and friends… Joe was so moved by the bare feet he saw in Iraq, he urged his friends to send shoes for the children. The result was 1,200 pairs of shoes and 300 pounds of clothing sent to Iraq in 54 large boxes, inundating the post office.

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