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Dozens of People Rally Together to Rescue Elephant Trapped in 20-Foot Well—Watch Them Do It Using a Massive Crane

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Good News Network
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This is the heartwarming moment that dozens of Indian rescuers rallied together to use a crane in order to save an elephant trapped at the bottom of a 20-foot well.

The massive rescue effort took place last week close to the Panagar army camp in Jalpaiguri, Western Bengal, after the elephant strayed out of the Bishnupur jungle and into the well.

Army officials realized the elephant was trapped inside the well after hearing a noise coming from deep inside.

SWNS

After they found the distressed pachyderm, the military officers threw in some food for the creature and called the Burdwan Forest Department for help.

Video footage of the delicate rescue operation shows how the team used a crane to hoist the huge animal out of the well and onto the back of a truck so it could be taken to an examining room for evaluation of any injuries.

The elephant was kept under close supervision for a few days before it was successfully released back into the wild.

(WATCH the video below)

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Bedridden for 11 Years, Man Proves the Experts Wrong By Inventing a Surgery to Cure Himself

By
Jennifer Zolper
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Doug Lindsay had just entered his senior year at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri when he came home from his first day of class only to be plunged into a real-life “final project” that took him 13 years to finish.

The assignment: to find the origin and cure for a mysterious condition that had plagued the bodies of his family for generations, and now was targeting his own.

He was only 21 that day when the room began to spin around him and he collapsed onto the dining room table in 1999.

As a biology major, Lindsay had seen himself becoming a biochemistry professor—or maybe even a writer for “The Simpsons.” He was a former high school track athlete, and he was poised to finish the year and earn his degree.

RELATED: After 68% of Patients Were Cured of PTSD in Phase-2 Trials Clinics May Soon Offer MDMA Therapy

However, Doug admitted to always wondering if the debilitating condition that sidelined his mother and aunt in their early adult years would eventually affect him, too. “When I called my mom that night to tell her I needed to drop out (of college), we both knew,” he told CNN.

His mother had gotten weaker until she couldn’t pick him up when he was just 18 months old. By the time her son was four, she couldn’t walk. She lived on for decades, but she was too frail to do much beyond submitting to years of tests that never confirmed any condition.

As his ability to stand and walk worsened, he realized that physicians and specialists were no more enlightened than when they’d tested his mother and aunt (who was also sidelined by the mystery condition). When one puzzled doctor finally told Doug that he should see a psychiatrist, he knew he would have to unravel the family “curse” on his own.

LOOK: Girl Born With Backwards Legs Walks for the First Time Thanks to Strangers Funding ‘Miracle’ Surgery

He worked through the clues in his living room from the hospital bed where he stayed 22 hours a day. He began by pouring over medical books he’d collected, and then recalled a 2,200-page endocrinology textbook he’d picked up next to a trashcan on campus. At the time, he was hoping it would hold the secret to what was wrong with his mother. As he read through the book a second time, a passage captured his attention and gave him an idea.

Doug’s mother suspected her weakness was related to her thyroid somehow, but this book suggested adrenal gland problems can share the same symptoms with thyroid issues. He then formed a bold hypothesis—that there existed an entire class of diseases of the nervous system still undiscovered by medicine.

He knew he needed to find a courageous doctor interested in pursuing new discoveries. He found that partner in Dr. H. Cecil Coghlan, a medical professor at the University of Alabama–Birmingham.

MORE: Paralyzed Patients Regain the Use of Their Hands Thanks to Breakthrough Nerve Surgery in Australia

Coghlan thought the young student might be onto something—so he helped Doug begin an IV protocol of noradrenalin to counter any excessive adrenalin his glands might be producing. The drug, usually prescribed to critically ill patients to raise blood pressure, worked enough to get him walking again for short periods around the house—and he was hooked up to the bag of liquid continually for six years.

But why was his body producing so much adrenaline in the first place? Dr. Coghlan proposed an adrenal tumor might be the culprit, but three scans all came up negative. Undeterred, Doug pored through the literature and came to believe that something else could be acting like a tumor, causing his glands to misbehave.

CONTINUE READING ON PAGE 2

Since Community College Started Printing Their Own Textbooks, Students Have Saved Over $2.5 Million

By
McKinley Corbley
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When a team of educators in Oregon became sick and tired of their students being charged heaps of cash for college textbooks, they began making their own—and it has collectively saved their students more than $2.5 million.

Since Chemeketa Community College began writing and printing their own academic materials in 2015, they have collectively published 33 textbooks, all of which cost less than $40 apiece.

The Chemeketa Press textbooks are created as a collaboration between the college’s teachers and students through a rigorous revision process in order to ensure that the text covers all the necessary information while still being easy to understand and devoid of common “academic jargon”. Once completed, teachers can then use the textbook as an examples of their published writing—and pupils can benefit from comprehensive course material that has been co-edited by students for students.

Cheaper textbooks also mean that students are more likely to actually buy them for their classes, which makes the coursework easier for the teachers to teach. Furthermore, Chemeketa Press has helped to curb college dropout rates as well.

RELATED: Watch Billionaire Tell College Grads He Will Pay Off All $40 Million of Their Collective Student Loan Debt

Chemeketa Press managing editor Brian Mosher told the Salem Reporter that when students are daunted by the costs of expensive college textbooks, they tend to take fewer classes per semester—and the longer it takes students to get their degrees, the less likely they are to finish their college education.

“No book should be $300 unless it is rare or out of print or signed by Charles Dickens,” Mosher told the news outlet. “There’s no morality behind it.”

In addition to Chemeketa Press being the only community college printing service in Oregon, it is quite possibly the only one in the United States. Though most of their services are funded through college grants, they hope to eventually be entirely financed by textbook sales.

That’s why the college is now recruiting teachers and professors from other schools to use the textbooks in their coursework. [Editor’s Note: The article at Salem Reporter is producing an error currently.]

Be Sure And Share The Good News With Your Friends On Social Media — File photo by Wohnai, CC

‘Someday’ is not a day of the week. – Sam Horn

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: ‘Someday’ is not a day of the week. – Sam Horn

Image: by Ares Nguyen, Creative Commons License, cropped

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

 

More Than 40% of Millennials Have Changed Their Diets Because It’s Better for the Environment

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Good News Network
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A new survey of American millennials found that their relationship to food is more unique than that of previous generations, as almost 6 in 10 of them (57%) currently subscribe to a special diet.

For those who follow a special diet, 44% do so because it’s better for the environment, while 37% say it’s more ethical.

Commissioned by vegetarian and plant-based food producer Sweet Earth Foods and conducted by OnePoll, the survey of 2,000 millennials looked at the trends and spends for millennial diets, examining their tastes and must-haves when it comes to food.

Millennials reportedly devote about a month and a half per year to food—the equivalent of 1,140 hours—time spent meal-prepping and cooking to eating out, according to the participants.

RELATED: Apples, Tea, and Moderation—The 3 Ingredients for a Long Life

Results also found that millennials spend $2,242 at the grocery store and $1,672 dining out over the course of a year—averaging $187 and $139 per month, respectively—and they also try an average of 46 new foods.

Millennials reported making 17 tweaks or changes to their diet per year, with the top changes found to be eating healthier foods (46%), avoiding sugar/carbs (41%) and focusing more on plant-based foods (36%).

That’s in addition to one-third (34%) of participants who have cut down on their meat consumption.

A YEAR IN FOOD FOR MILLENNIALS INCLUDES…
• $2,242 spent at the grocery store and $1,672 spent at restaurants (eating out, delivery, etc.)
• 17 tweaks or changes to their diet
• 183 hours purchasing food, 238 hours prepping and planning meals, 326 hours cooking, 160 hours deciding where to eat and 233 hours eating food
• 46 new foods tried and 47 photos posted on social media
• 90 meals out (with friends or a date), 53 frozen meals, 41 dinner parties

A year in food for millennials also includes 41 dinner parties and eating out 90 times—split evenly between friends and with dates.

Still, not all millennials are choosing to eat out. Some are held back from eating out more often because of a lack of time (37%) or because of a lack of money (37%), while 42% of millennials report eating healthier when they cook for themselves.

MORE: It’s Amusing the Ways Each Generation Defines ‘Adulting’ – Top 20 Things That Make You an Adult

Three-quarters (74%) of those on a special diet find it more difficult to eat at restaurants—and 59% of respondents feel like there’s judgment to ordering and buying foods that subscribe to a special diet.

When millennials prepare meals at home, they find food inspiration from a variety of sources, with their friends (49%), parents (46%) and cookbooks (44%) in the top three—beating out more modern methods of finding recommendations, such as social media.

CHANGES MILLENNIALS HAVE MADE TO THEIR DIETS IN THE PAST YEAR
1. Tried to eat healthier foods 46%
2. Avoided sugar/carbs 41%
3. Focused more on plant-based foods 36%
4. Had alcohol-free weeks or months 34%
5. Cut down on meat consumption 34%

Additionally, when it comes to what they eat, millennials’ top priorities are cost (48%), having it be full of nutrients (46%) and no artificial additives in their food (40%).

This is followed by organic food (39%) and having it be plant-based (37%).

“Finding delicious plant-based food should be easy and affordable,” said Kelly Swette, CEO and Co-Founder of Sweet Earth. “Bonus points if it’s easy to prepare and good for the environment. We know millennials are smart and health-conscious and we think their changing tastes reflect our mission of sustaining the land and a healthy body, and cultivating a curious mind and palate.”

REASONS TO FOLLOW A SPECIAL DIET
1. Healthier for my body 67%
2. Working to lose weight 53%
3. Concerns about health problems/illnesses 48%
4. Better for the environment/more sustainable 44%
5. More ethical 37%

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When Sick 3-Year-old is Quarantined, People Begin Showing Up at His Window to Entertain Him

By
McKinley Corbley
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A little boy whose doctors confined him to his bedroom for three months has learned that ‘All the world IS a stage”—just outside his window.

LISTEN to the inspiring story told on the radio by our GNN founder in the Good News Guru podcast below (subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, or for Android on Podbean), or READ the full story below…

An energetic 3-year-old named Quinn Waters was under doctor’s orders to stay away from people. His body’s immune system was temporarily wiped out because of a life-saving stem cell treatment to kill his cancer. Even a common cold could create a medical emergency, so poor Quinn had to stay in his room, quarantined from even his family.

While the boy is steadily recovering, there has been one thing the family could do to ease his solitude—they would show up to play with him through the window.

Then, the neighbors heard about his predicament and began appearing on the front lawn, too.

RELATED: Watch Town Surprise Boy Who is Allergic to Sunlight by Turning ‘Nighttime into Daytime’

At first, it was just smiling and waving to the boy but soon they began showing up with impromptu entertainment!

The toddler eyes grew wide watched folk dancing, acoustic concerts, and makeshift circus shows. They even organized a dog parade. Hundreds of people rallied to keep the boy occupied.

He was even surprised by some members of the Irish punk band from Boston, The Dropkick Murphys, who arrived at his window to sing some of their most famous songs.

RELATED: How Nasty Note From a Neighbor Inspired a Community to Show the Best in Humanity

Quinn, instead of looking at a Windows computer all day, is getting a daily jolt of happiness from the real world—loving neighbors keeping him company during the pain of solitude through a pane of glass.

“It’s the positive energy from all these people that we believe has gotten him through his sickness, you know,” Quinn’s father tearfully told CBS News. “You can never repay this.”

(WATCH the emotional news story from Steve Hartman below… BUT, NOTE for viewers outside the USA: Click here to see the video at CBS News website)

 

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These Israelis Are Forging Peace on the Beach, Bringing Palestinians to the Ocean for Their Very First Visits

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Good News Network
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This determined group of Israeli volunteers has been forging bonds of friendship and peace with their Palestinian neighbors—and they have been doing it with a little help from the ocean.

For the last four years, Robby Berman has been rallying his fellow Israelis to bring Palestinian families to the beach.

Despite how these Palestinians live only an hour away from the seaside, most of them have never even seen the ocean because they are unable to travel across the Israeli military border without a permit.

LOOK: When Fire Leaves 500 Muslims Without Place of Worship, Synagogue Opens Their Doors

That’s why Berman recruits Israeli volunteers to cross the border, pick up the families in their villages, and bring them back to the beach for a day of fun which many of them will never forget.

Rabbi Jonathan Feldman, who is one of the volunteers for the initiative, says that he believes it is his religious duty to facilitate these connections in order to encourage peaceful connections between the two religious groups.

“I think Jewish values are to reach out to other people and have peace with our neighbors—and that’s what we’re striving for,” he told VOA News in the video below. “We say prayers for peace many times every day and the first peace we need is with our neighbors.”

(WATCH the heartwarming news coverage below)

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Not Only Does This New Clothing Charge Your Phone, It Can Protect You From Viruses and Bacteria

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Good News Network
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Photo by Purdue University

A new addition to your wardrobe may soon help you turn on the lights and music—all while also keeping you dry, clean, and safe from the latest virus that’s going around.

That’s because Purdue University researchers have developed a new fabric innovation that allows wearers to control electronic devices through their clothing.

“It is the first time there is a technique capable to transform any existing cloth item or textile into a self-powered e-textile containing sensors, music players, or simple illumination displays using simple embroidery without the need for expensive fabrication processes requiring complex steps or expensive equipment,” said Ramses Martinez, an assistant professor in the School of Industrial Engineering.

The technology is featured in Advanced Functional Materials.

LOOK: Autism-Friendly Clothing Ditches Zips, Buttons, and Tags—And It Offers GPS

“For the first time, it is possible to fabricate textiles that can protect you from rain, stains, and bacteria while they harvest the energy of the user to power textile-based electronics,” Martinez added. “These self-powered e-textiles also constitute an important advancement in the development of wearable machine-human interfaces, which now can be washed many times in a conventional washing machine without apparent degradation.

The clothing is waterproof, breathable, anti-bacterial, and self-powered. Its technology is based on omniphobic triboelectric nanogeneragtors (RF-TENGs) which use simple embroidery and fluorinated molecules to embed small electronic components and turn a piece of clothing into a mechanism for powering devices.

The Purdue team says the RF-TENG technology is like having a wearable remote control that also keeps odors, rain, stains, and bacteria away from the user.

RELATED: After Wildly Successful Crowdfunding, You Can Now Order Bike Helmets That Look Like Regular Hats

“While fashion has evolved significantly during the last centuries and has easily adopted recently developed high-performance materials, there are very few examples of clothes on the market that interact with the user,” Martinez said. “Having an interface with a machine that we are constantly wearing sounds like the most convenient approach for a seamless communication with machines and the Internet of Things.”

The technology is being patented through the Purdue Research Foundation Office of Technology Commercialization. The researchers are looking for partners to test and commercialize their technology.

Reprinted from Purdue University

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Jeopardy Host Alex Trebek is Back After Announcing He is ‘On the Mend’ From Stage-IV Cancer Diagnosis

By
McKinley Corbley
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Trivia fans are rejoicing since Alex Trebek, the iconic host of the Jeopardy! television game show, announced that he is “on the mend” after finishing with his chemotherapy treatments.

In an official Jeopardy! video that was released earlier this week, the 79-year-old entertainer says that he returned to the show in order to host its upcoming 36th season.

They began filming the new season on July 22nd, Trebek’s birthday, and it is due to premier on public cable channels on September 9th.

The announcement comes just five months after he told the public about his stage-four pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

RELATED: Alan Alda Announces Parkinson’s Diagnosis, But He Wants to Use It to Inspire People

“I’ve gone through a lot of chemotherapy and thankfully that is now over,” said Trebek in the video. “I’m on the mend and that’s all I can hope for right now.”

Though game show officials have declined to discuss further details about Trebek’s health, he told People back in May that he was having a “mind-bogglingly” positive response to his chemo treatments and he was “near remission”.

“The doctors said they hadn’t seen this kind of positive result in their memory,” mused Trebek. “Some of the tumors have already shrunk by more than 50%.”

(WATCH the announcement video below)

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“Fashion you can buy, but style you possess…It’s about self expression and, above all, attitude.” – Iris Apfel

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Fashion you can buy, but style you possess…It’s about self expression and, above all, attitude.” – Iris Apfel (fashion icon)

Photo: by GWC, Copyright 2019

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

 

Watch a Soothing Montage of Inspiring Quotes to Uplift Your Day—or Help You Sleep—NEW From GNN

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Good News Network
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Watching this is like a meditation!

This video was submitted by GNN super-fan Robert Davis. He assembled over 100 inspiring quotes and beautiful images taken from the Good News Network homepage / Quote of the Day feature—and he narrated them all with soothing music in the background.

The reason? He made the video in honor of GNN’s 22nd anniversary this week—yes, we’ve been delivering positive news since 1997!

Thank you so much, Robert… ‘May good bless!’

(Featured photo by Moody Fotografi, CC license)

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After Neighbors Ran to Save a Man’s Life, He Put Up a Sign to Thank Them for the Happy Ending

By
McKinley Corbley
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After neighbors rallied together to save the life of an unidentified man earlier this month, he used a sign to thank everyone for coming to his rescue.

Alphonso and Deborah Williams were just two of the community members who were startled by the sound of a car collision on their street as they were watching television at their home in southeast Washington DC.

As they ran to their door to investigate the sound of the noise, they found an unconscious man sitting behind the wheel of a car that had crashed into a number of parked vehicles.

By the time they rushed to his side, he was barely responsive—and as more people joined them at the scene of the crash, he stopped breathing and started turning blue.

RELATED: Foot Doctor Saves Passenger’s Life by Following His Instincts and Ignoring Orders From the Ground

After they dialed 911, the neighbors then took turns performing CPR on the man while Deborah brought them water to stay hydrated in the heat.

An ambulance eventually arrived and whisked the man off to the hospital. Fearing the worst, Deborah told The Washington Post that she and the other Good Samaritans worried that the man wasn’t going to survive. “Everybody was out there, we were all concerned,” she said.

One week after the incident took place, however, a sign appeared in the neighborhood. It read: “Good Samaritans of Potomac Ave — you saved my life!

“I passed out from a heart attack while driving near here,” it continued. “My doctor said your quick, immediate, steady CPR action saved me. Today, I am recovering back home. Forever grateful, Joe.”

Police declined to identify Joe following the accident, but the neighbors say that they are simply happy to know that the incident had a happy ending—and they’re grateful to know that they live in a community where people are ready to help at a moment’s notice.

Alphonso told The Post: “When there’s an accident, they will always pull together.”

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Mom Overwhelmed With Gratitude When Hotel Manager Befriends Autistic Boy Wanting to Show Off His Card Tricks

By
McKinley Corbley
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A Pennsylvania hotel manager is being praised for going above and beyond the call of duty to befriend a boy with autism.

Back in March, Megan Haas and her 13-year-old son Colin had been staying at the Hampton Inn in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. The hotel’s manager, Khalif Hill, had been managing the front desk when he looked up to see Colin staring at him intently.

After they exchanged greetings, Colin asked if he could show Hill a card trick, to which he accepted.

LOOK: When Boy With Autism Was Overwhelmed By First Day of School, Kind Classmate Soothed Him

The two then spent 30 minutes showing each other magic tricks. The very next evening, Colin returned to the front desk only to be enthusiastically welcomed by Hill once more, eager to share more card tricks with the boy.

Little did Hill know, Colin uses magic tricks as a coping mechanism for his autism. Not only that, Ms. Haas says that the boy has missed having male influences in his life since he lost his father several years ago—which is why Haas was so touched by Hill’s kindness.

“It was such a small gesture but it meant SO much to Colin and I both,” Haas told Good News Network.

In a Facebook post that has since been shared thousands of times, Haas described the encounter with Hill, saying: “He allowed Colin to hang out at the desk with him for what felt like forever, watching Colin do card tricks and then showing Colin some tricks that he knew as well.

“He paused when he needed to, when the phone rang or a customer came in, (in the pic he is on the phone, the person he was speaking to had him on hold), but he never once made Colin feel like he was a nuisance or a burden.”

RELATED: Mom Rains Praise On Airplane Passenger for Showing Compassion Towards Her Autistic Son Flying Solo

This is not the first time that Hill has been a positive role model for autism awareness, either.

“Kahlief was actually helping to put together an event at the Applebee’s by the hotel a few weeks after this encounter,” Haas told GNN. “It was a pancake breakfast to raise money for autism awareness, so I took Colin back out to go to the event and they got to spend a little more time together and show more card tricks.”

Hilton Hotels later recognized their employee for his good deed, but no one is more grateful for the exchange than Haas.

“I love and live for feel good moments like this,” she wrote. “It is so easy to be kind, yet seems to be such a rare occurrence these days.”

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‘All my pain disappears’: South Korean Seniors Are Finding Healing in New Nightclub for the Elderly

By
McKinley Corbley
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Girls aren’t the only ones who just want to have fun; dozens of elderly men and women in South Korea are raving about the health benefits of their new day-time disco club.

The dance parties in Seoul are the first events of their kind to be funded by the government in order to combat senior loneliness, isolation, and dementia.

South Korea currently has the fastest aging population of any developed nation in the world. According to a 2016 census, roughly 14% of the country’s population was made up of citizens over the age of 65, amounting to 6.8 million people.

LOOK: Senior Who Was Given Weeks to Live is Thriving After Baby Girl Gives Her Something to Live For

As the world becomes increasingly aware of the dangerous health risks of loneliness, communities and countries have tried everything from pairing aging nuns with millennials to enlisting the help of mailmen to check up on senior homeowners. One popular UK supermarket chain even launched a “talking tables” initiative for lonely strangers to chat with each other.

This is not the first time that nightclubs have been used to combat senior loneliness—and based on the testimonials from the elderly attendees, it’s not hard to see why.

One South Korean gentleman told BBC in the interview below: “I have a bad back and legs but when the music comes on, my body is immersed in it and all my pain disappears. I’m full of energy for two or three days after this.

“No lie!” he added with a laugh. “I’ve even kicked my drugs and supplements!”

(WATCH the daytime discos in action in the BBC video below) – Photo by BBC

We Can Dance If We Want To, But Be Sure And Share The Good News With Your Friends On Social Media…

Teacher’s Powerful Exercise of ‘Leaving Emotional Baggage at the Door’ Has Totally Changed Her Classroom

By
McKinley Corbley
-

This Oklahoma teacher is being praised for teaching her students a powerful emotional lesson that they will not soon forget.

Karen Loewe has been teaching seventh and eighth grade students for 22 years, but her most recent day in class was apparently the most impactful day of her educational career.

For her sixth day of classes at Collinsville Middle School, she decided to try a new exercise in empathy with her students called “The Baggage Activity”.

Upon establishing that her classroom was a safe space for expression and respect, she asked what emotional baggage meant to her students. She then asked them to write about some emotional baggage of their own—and since they were not required to put their names on the paper, they could describe their issues as freely as they wanted without being identified.

LOOK: ‘Turn your mess up into a dress up’ – Teacher Goes Viral for Proudly Turning Student Doodles into a Dress

The youngsters were then asked to take turns reading what their classmates wrote, and all of them were given the opportunity to identify themselves as the person responsible for the writing.

“I’m here to tell you, I have never been so moved to tears as what these kids opened up and about and shared with the class,” Loewe wrote in a Facebook post. “Things like suicide, parents in prison, drugs in their family, being left by their parents, death, cancer, losing pets … and on and on.

“The kids who read the papers would cry because what they were reading was tough. The person who shared (if they chose to tell us it was them) would cry sometimes too. It was an emotionally draining day, but I firmly believe my kids will judge a little less, love a little more, and forgive a little faster.”

WATCH: Video of Teacher Goes Viral After He’s Admired For Putting Young Student’s Hair in a Ponytail

Since writing about her exercise on social media, her post has been shared more than 500,000 times; teachers from all over the world have reached out to her about implementing similar activities in their own classrooms; and her students have apparently been “so much more respectful” of each other.

“They don’t interrupt or talk down to each other,” she told TODAY. “They’re not rude. It’s completely, completely changed how they treat each other … I wish I would have done this years ago. It’s been so good.”

Furthermore, Loewe made sure to keep all the paper confessions in a plastic bag so that her students won’t soon forget their exercise in empathy.

“This bag hangs by my door to remind them that we all have baggage,” Loewe concluded in her Facebook post. “We will leave it at the door. As they left, I told them they are not alone, they are loved, and we have each other’s back.”

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“Life is the flower for which love is the honey.” – Victor Hugo

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Good News Network
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Quote of the Day: “Life is the flower for which love is the honey.” – Victor Hugo

Photo: by Little Kits, CC license, cropped, via Flickr

With a new inspirational quote every day, atop the perfect photo—collected and archived on our Quotes page—why not bookmark GNN.org for a daily uplift?

 

Homeless Man Offered a Job After Expressing His Gratitude Toward Jogger Who Gave Him Shoes Off His Feet

By
McKinley Corbley
-

This homeless man has been given a new lease on life thanks to a simple act of kindness from an anonymous jogger in New York City.

30-year-old Joe Arroyo had been sitting on a sidewalk in Lower Manhattan earlier this month with a cardboard sign explaining how he was homeless, hungry, and wearing broken shoes.

When a passing jogger noticed Arroyo’s sign and the holes in his shoes, the man stopped, took off his shoes and socks, handed them to Arroyo, and walked away barefoot.

Needless to say, Arroyo was shocked.

MORE: Stranger’s Kindness Towards Anxious Senior on Airplane Leaves Witnesses Wiping Away ‘Happy Tears’

“I never thought somebody would come out and take their shoes off and just give them to me,” Arroyo told WABC. “[He said] ‘I’ve been blessed my whole life, God has been very nice to me, I feel like I should bless you too’ and he took off his shoes and gave them to me.

“I wanted to hug the guy but a homeless man hugging someone out here is not normal,” he added.

A woman who had been seated in a nearby taxi cab was stopped at a red light when the exchange took place. When she happened to look over and see the man taking off his shoes, she took out her phone to take a video.

RELATED: Homeless Dad Receives Flood of Support After Woman Tried to Facebook Shame Him for Sleeping in McDonalds

She later uploaded the video to Twitter where it has since been viewed almost 100,000 times. Not only that, it prompted local reporters to interview Arroyo about the shoes.

Arroyo used the news coverage as an opportunity to express his bottomless gratitude for the unidentified man and ask viewers for a job.

As fate would have it, a local entrepreneur saw the interview and contacted reporters so he could offer Arroyo a job.

(WATCH the emotional news coverage below)

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Children Memorialized in Nature After Hospice Translates Their Names into Birdsongs for Wild Birds to Mimic

By
McKinley Corbley
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A Welsh hospice has been honoring their deceased young patients in a powerful, one-of-a-kind way.

The Tŷ Hafan hospice center in the Vale of Glamorgan has been translating the names of children into birdsong so the calls can be played through the speakers in the medical center’s memorial garden.

To create the birdsongs, sound engineer Justin Wiggan translates the children’s names into Morse code. He then works with hospital staffers to select a bird which best represents the deceased child so he can sample its unique chirp and use its sounds to spell out the name in Morse code.

As the birdsongs are played in the hospital’s memorial garden, each name is followed by one second of silence for every year of the child’s life.

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What makes the hospital’s “Birdsong Project” so unique is that birds can hear the names being played in the garden and mimic them in the wild, thus immortalizing a child’s memory in nature.

“In terms of inspiration for the project, the care team wanted more of a unique way of remembering the children who pass away,” Tŷ Hafan spokesperson Dani Harries told Good News Network. “Before Birdsong, the names would be read out at an annual memorial service held at the hospice, and although this was lovely, it was very long and was only going to take longer.

“That was when we teamed up with Justin Wiggan on a soundscape project to explore the possibility of a more innovative way to honor the children with a personal and special touch.”

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Wiggan and the hospice team have already translated the names of more than 300 children who have died at the facility, and they don’t plan on stopping their emotional tributes any time soon.

“Now, the bereaved parents can pop into the hospice memorial garden, sit down and just listen to the birdsong which is played all year round, and listen out for the song that represents their child,” says Harries. “And the thought that this song could be mimicked by birds in the wild means that the child’s name really could live on forever.”

Pauline Harvey, whose 10-year-old daughter Abigail was one of the children memorialized by the project, described the initiative as a “humbling, breathtaking” experience.

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“I stood in the Memorial Garden gazebo listening as the individual birdsongs came from different areas of the garden,” she wrote in a blog post. “All the songs were very different from each other, unique and beautiful. And a surprising thing happened—it felt as though the emotional downpour lifted and the sun came out from behind the clouds (the actual real rain continued unabated, the weather was horrific and clearly had no sense of occasion).

“I felt overwhelming warmth and comfort. I was no longer waiting to hear Abigail’s name, that didn’t seem to matter anymore. She was part of the chorus, she was part of every birdsong, the silences celebrated each individual short life, but it felt like all the children were together in the song of each bird.

“Abigail is not alone,” she concluded. “She is with friends and they are joyfully singing.”

(LISTEN to the 2018 BBC interview on the project below)

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Dad Has Been Using His Town’s Roadside Message Board to Make Thousands of People Laugh

By
McKinley Corbley
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When Vince Rozmiarek first started volunteering as the official manager of his community’s roadside message board six years ago, he probably didn’t think that it would make him internationally famous.

Rozmiarek—who lives in the tiny town of Indian Hills, Colorado with a population of about 1,000 people—says that he took on the job in 2013 because he had been left with an abundance of time on his hands after all three of his kids had grown up and left home.

 

 

Initially, he took his job very seriously and only used the highway sign to display relevant messages to the community.

On April Fool’s Day, however, he decided to have a little fun by using the message board to make a joke about the neighboring town. After that, he couldn’t resist sharing more of his dad jokes with the community.

 

 

Using his stash of joke books, the 56-year-old dad starting using the message board to leave amusing quips and puns for the neighbors, such as “I looked up the definition of opaque; it wasn’t very clear” and “I periodically make bad science puns.”

“Obviously, I’m a man with time on my hands,” he told The Washington Post. “My three kids are all grown, and people could use something to smile about. So, why not, I thought.”

Despite his enduring career as the community jokester, Rozmiarek says that he has never posted a pun more than once and he has never used a joke that someone else has taken credit for.

 

 

He also says that he tries to avoid making political or offensive jokes so he doesn’t alienate any of his readers.

Up until 2015, Indian Hill residents were the only ones privy to his jokes—but then one of his neighbors felt inspired to create a Facebook page so he could share his jokes with the world.

 

 

“I wanted him to be able to post his … signs for everyone to enjoy,” she told The Post. “Vince’s puns are absolutely brilliant. He’ll text me now and then with new ones and I just die laughing.”

Since creating the Indian Hills Community Sign Facebook page, the photos of Rozmiarek’s signs have racked up more than 84,000 followers from 54 countries.

 

Multiply The Laughs By Sharing These Amusing Jokes With Your Friends On Social Media…

‘First of its Kind’ Zero-Emission Geothermal Energy System in Canada May Soon Be in Your Town

By
McKinley Corbley
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Photo by Eavor Technologies Inc.

A new geothermal energy project is now being piloted in Canada—and experts say that it could be a “game-changer” for clean energy.

The Eavor Loop is a scalable closed-loop system that could soon allow us to generate consistent, unlimited electricity from the heat emanating from the Earth’s core.

The system works like a radiator. The Eavor Loop consists of two wells that are drilled about 2 miles deep (3.5 kilometers) and 3 miles apart (5 kilometers) with several connecting pipes between the two. The wells then circulate proprietary fluid through the loop in order to absorb the Earth’s heat and use it to make electricity.

The closed-loop design means that—unlike other geothermal projects—the system requires no fracking or water; it generates zero greenhouse gas emissions; it doesn’t run the risk of polluting nearby water sources; and unlike wind or solar power, it does not depend on external elements to generate electricity.

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“It’s just a much more benign system and it’s something that you can implement across 80% of the world instead of 5% of the world like traditional geothermal,” Eavor Technologies CEO and President John Redfern told CBC News.

“You can put it almost anywhere. It’s not like a windmill or solar panel … almost everything’s underground so you can literally put it in someone’s backyard.”

Photo by Eavor Technologies Inc.

Eavor Technologies recently began construction on a new $10 million testing facility in Alberta. With the first-of-its-kind pilot project expected to conclude by the end of the year, government representatives have helped to fund the project with the hopes that it will provide new jobs for regional oil and gas workers who may want to transition into the green energy sector.

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“Projects like [this facility] advance new technologies and can create highly skilled jobs. They show how investing in innovation reduces GHG emissions while growing the economy,” said Laura Kilcrease of Alberta Innovates (AI), a provincially-funded corporation that contributed $1 million to the project.

“Projects like this are possible because of the experience and unique approaches in energy services, drilling and technology development that are found in Alberta,” she added.

After testing is finished, Eavor will be working to launch a dozen more commercial facilities around the world. According to Global News, one commercial facility is estimated to generated roughly 4 megawatts of energy.

(LISTEN to the radio interview with John Redfern below)

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