Quote of the Day: “Once you discover that your pain is your purpose, a curse becomes a blessing.” – JD Messinger
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LISTEN to this Good News Guru story broadcast on radio with Ellen and Geri on KOST-103.5 (And, subscribe to our new podcast on iTunes or for Androids: on Podbean) — or Read the story below…
It’s been three months since a sheriff deputy’s act of kindness launched a 67-year-old homeless man into international headlines. Thanks to a chain of events that followed, the man who thought he was “alone in the world” recently was introduced to the family he never knew he had.
Michael Myers had been panhandling on the roadside back in November when Deputy Jacob Swalwell spotted him from his cruiser and pulled over to remind the homeless man that standing alongside a highway was illegal.
Instead of issuing a citation, however, Swalwell struck up a conversation with the man.
“When Swalwell asked Michael for his identification, he said he did not have one. This is often an excuse we hear from people who have warrants or are lying about their name,” said the police department on Facebook. “[But] when people are truthful and sincere, we often take notice. That’s what Swalwell felt when he began to talk to Michael.”
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In order to get approved for a Californian identification card, Myers had to show two government-issued forms of identification or proof of residency. His lack of any documentation had been a big reason why Myers had never been able to get a job or bank account, or government assistance.
The officer spent the next month jumping through bureaucratic hoops to acquire an ID for his new acquaintance. When he finally succeeded in tracking down the 67-year-old’s birth certificate and getting the necessary documents for a state ID, Myers’s story was picked up by dozens of news outlets.
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More importantly, a private investigator named Mark Askins heard about the homeless man’s story and felt spurred to help.
Askins volunteers for Miracle Messages – an organization that reunites homeless people with their long lost families.
The detective learned that Myers had grown up adopted, and had always felt excluded from the family because his adoptive mother so favored his biological siblings. Eventually, his siblings disowned him, and after their parents and some childhood friends passed away, he became resigned to live a life of loneliness and solitude.
Back in 2016, Judy Bryden was suffering from a persistent cold. Upon going to the doctor’s office and getting some X-rays, however, she was devastated to learn that she had lung cancer.
The woman from Regina, Saskatchewan endured chemotherapy and five rounds of chemotherapy, but to no avail. The treatments failed to stop the progression of her cancer and her doctors gave her one year to live.
But Bryden was determined to fight back.
“When they told me I had a year to live, I said I was going to prove them wrong,” Bryden told CTV Regina in a video. “I didn’t know how, but I was going to prove them wrong.”
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Her husband Lorne was researching the disease online when he read about a Cuban vaccine called Cimavax, another breakthrough in the immunotherapy revolution, which was shown to be successful in treating lung cancer.
Judy applied for the treatment through CubaHeal – an organization that helps to orchestrate trips for medical purposes in Cuba. Once her application was accepted, she traveled to the Caribbean country to get the CIMAvax.
One year and several vaccinations later, Bryden’s cancer is now in remission.
The vaccine, which costs between $3,600–$6,000 for a year’s supply, is currently not available in Canada because the company responsible for the treatment has not submitted an application for approval in the North American country.
But despite having to pay costs of the treatment and overseas flight to Havana, Bryden says that the vaccine and all of its expenses have been “well worth it”.
Spread The Great News to Your Friends (Photos by Pamela Bryden)
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Weddings are usually emotional affairs, but this little boy’s reaction to his mom walking down the aisle is melting everyone’s hearts.
When 6-year-old Bryson Suber’s parents, Tearra and Bryant, were getting married back in September 2016, the youngster couldn’t help but break down in tears.
Photographer Paul Woo says that he noticed Bryson’s emotion as his mom was walking down the aisle and he could not resist snapping a photo.
“I was solo shooting this wedding and this moment was difficult because I was secretly bawling behind the camera and had to prioritize this moment over the bride coming down the aisle,” Woo told Metro. “Yes, I got both photos, but I knew this moment was THE moment.”
The photo is so touching, it has already been shared across the internet thousands of times this week.
Woo says that the photo series is only now garnering so much popularity because he recently entered it into a photography contest.
Judging by the internet’s reaction to the photos, we think that Woo has a pretty ‘good shot’ at winning.
Click To Share The Emotional Photos With Your Friends – Photos by Paul Woo
Quote of the Day: “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
Photo: by NEC, CC
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?
There is nothing more calming then observing the wonders of nature – especially if it is in ultra-high definition drone footage.
Israeli videographer Ran Rosenzweig created a gorgeous video montage of his travels through Iceland.
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The clips show everything from lava fields and tiny villages to wild waterfalls and black sand beaches.
The 40-year-old artist traveler told Caters News Agency that “he still has difficulty believing” that these places actually exist.
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“This is one of the best destinations I’ve ever visited,” he added.
(WATCH the breathtaking footage below)
Click To Share The Video With Your Friends
Not many people would give up the opportunity to win the $1 million Mega Millions lottery jackpot – but a gas station clerk in Salina, Kansas did just that.
When an unnamed cashier found a lottery ticket on the floor of the gas station, he checked to see if the slip had the owner’s name written on it.
He was flabbergasted to see that the ticket contained the winning numbers worth $1 million. The drama further intensified when they saw the ticket was unsigned, meaning that anyone could claim it as their own.
Instead of claiming the ticket for himself, the clerk called the store listed on the slip to see if they could find the original buyer.
“My brother went in to check my tickets. He apparently dropped the unsigned Mega Millions ticket, and then we left to go back home,” the winner told the Kansas lottery.
“We had already been home for about an hour, and then went out and ran another errand. As we passed the store, the owner’s son pulled out behind us and flagged us down. He explained what happened and handed me the ticket, and I just couldn’t believe it!”
The clerk decided his good deed should remain anonymous, but, if you’re out there reading this, we want ‘Well done!’
Click To Share The Inspiring Story With Your Friends (Photo by Sam Saunders, CC)
Quote of the Day: “Don’t be pushed by your problems; be led by your dreams.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
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?
There have been at least a dozen devastating hurricanes that have wreaked havoc in the last decade – but there may be hope on the horizon for a solution.
These Norwegian scientists believe that they may be able to use existing technologies to stop hurricanes in their tracks.
Hurricanes are only able to form when the temperature of the ocean’s surface reaches 26.5° Celsius (79.7º Fahrenheit). If humans could cool off the temperature of the sea whenever a hurricane was brewing, they could theoretically stop the storm from forming.
“Climate change is causing sea surface temperatures to increase”, says Grim Eidnes, the senior research scientist at SINTEF Ocean. “The critical temperature threshold at which evaporation is sufficient to promote the development of hurricanes is 26.5°C. In the case of hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in the period August to September 2017, sea surface temperatures were measured at 32°C.”
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While there have been a few creative ideas on how to cool down ocean temperatures – such as towing Arctic glaciers into tropical waters – the researchers at SINTEF want to use technology native to their home country.
SINTEF, which is the largest independent research organization in Scandinavia, published an article this week about how we could use “bubble curtains” to prevent storms from forming.
A bubble curtain is a flurry of air bubbles that are released from pipes planted in the ocean. If planted in tropical waters, the bubbles would be released in deeper waters so that by the time they reached the surface, they would be cold enough to sufficiently lower the temperature of the shallower waters.
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“Our initial investigations show that the pipes must be located at between 100 and 150 meters depth in order to extract water that is cold enough” says Eidnes. “By bringing this water to the surface using the bubble curtains, the surface temperature will fall to below 26.5°C, thus cutting off the hurricane’s energy supply.”
“This method will allow us quite simply to prevent hurricanes from achieving life-threatening intensities,” he added.
For years, Norway has been using bubble curtains to prevent ice from forming in their fjords – and SINTEF researchers believe that bubble curtains will work the exact same way for hurricanes.
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“During Norwegian winters, sea surface water is colder than at depth, so by lifting warmer water to the surface using bubble curtains, we can prevent the fjords from icing up”, he says.
Last spring, the bubble curtain project was granted funding from Innovation Norway in order to carry out preliminary studies. The researchers now hope that if the studies prove successful, they can be successfully implemented in high-risk areas of the ocean.
Blow Your Friends Away With The Good News: Click To Share
This man was ready to return to his home in Cleveland with his newborn daughter in hand – but unexpected circumstances left the two stranded in Phoenix, Arizona.
Thankfully, there was a kind stranger who was ready to help.
Rubin Swift had first flown from Ohio to Arizona so he could pick up Ru-Andria, his 4-day-old daughter of who he had just received custody.
In preparation for the journey home, Swift called Frontier airlines to see if his daughter would be allowed on the plane. The representative said that he just needed to bring her birth certificate and a doctor’s note from Banner University Medical Center stating that she was cleared to fly.
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When the proud new father arrived at the airport, however, the airline would not allow him on the flight because infants had to be at least 7 days old.
Swift did not have any money left to spend on a hotel for two days, and the airline said that a refund for the tickets would take several days to process. So with nowhere else to turn, he called Joy Ringhofer for help.
Ringhofer is a volunteer for the hospital’s NICU. As fate would have it, she had been taking care of Ru-Andria when Swift showed up and the two instantly “made a connection”.
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When Swift called her from the airport and explained his situation, Ringhofer invited the father-daughter dup to stay at her home.
“She opened up her door and it never was an issue,” Swift told KPHO. “My color was never an issue. She loves my baby. She held her. My baby was with her all night. Who does that?”
“I had such a strong feeling that I needed to do this for him. I know he was a kind and safe man to have in my home and he has been a perfect gentleman,” says Ringhofer.
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Swift says that – after forming a bond with the older woman – Ringhofer has become an honorary grandma to his newborn daughter.
“He promised to come back and visit me, and let me see her again,” she said. “I’m looking forward to that.”
Fly This Sweet Story To Your Friends: Click To Share
Judah Tyreman prides himself on his rock and mineral museum.
The teen has spent the last two years mowing lawns, selling jewelry, and performing other odd jobs so he could run the Sesula Mineral and Gem Museum in Radisson. All of the money that Judah earned, he would use to buy more specimens, pay rent for the building, and keep the museum open to the public.
So you can understand how upset the 13-year-old was when he arrived at the museum last Sunday and found that someone had robbed the place.
Though many of Judah’s most valuable pieces were kept safe in the back, the thief had taken the museum’s donation jar, a piece of rare ocean jasper worth about $3,000, and several other treasured minerals.
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But Judah did not have to grieve for very long – once news of the robbery was shared on social media, emails, donations, and offers of assistance started pouring in from all over the world.
The Royal Saskatchewan Museum volunteered to donate all of their duplicates to Judah’s museum. Other geologists are offering to send treasures from their own collections. Judah’s GoFundMe campaign also managed to raise $7,000 in a single day – and people are still donating.
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Judah, who has been “overwhelmed” by the amount of compassion he has received, says that he now plans on making the museum even better than before. Not only that, but the generous teen says that he wants to donate 10% of his sales and fundraiser money to an unfunded orphanage in Africa.
“I’m going to use it to get replacement pieces and hopefully use it to one day buy the building,” Judah told the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. “[So] I think something good came out of something bad.”
Click To Share The Inspiring Story With Your Friends (Photo by the Tyreman family)
In a groundbreaking show of international conservation, three South American countries have all signed a landmark agreement to preserve the Pantanal.
The Pantanal is a 42-million acre stretch of wetlands that harbors over 4,700 plant and animal species. The land is also an essential source of valuable resources for humans living in proximity to the Pantanal, which include residents of Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay.
That’s why the trio of nations signed the Declaration for the Conservation, Integrated and Sustainable Development of the Pantanal this week.
The agreement means that all three countries will share the responsibility of protecting, preserving, and ensuring safe development of the Pantanal during the coming decades.
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The World Wildlife Fund, who assisted in orchestrating the pledge, applauded the historic agreement.
“By signing the Declaration … Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay recognize their shared responsibility to steward this vital resource,” says the organization. “Together they’re ensuring that development of this beautiful and essential wetland is balanced with the needs of the environment and people.”
Grow Some Positivity: Click To Share The News With Your Friends (Photo by Andre Dib / WWF)
While most people celebrate their birthdays by receiving gifts, this humble ice cream man celebrates his own birthday by giving things away instead.
So when it was his 72nd birthday yesterday, Jimmy Teng gave away 1,000 free ice cream servings to the people of Kallang, Singapore.
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Affectionately called “Uncle Jimmy” by the locals, Teng has made a tradition out of giving away ice cream on his birthday. This is the third year in a row that he has handed out sweet treats on his special day – and he doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon, even if it may cost him a few hundred dollars.
“I’m so happy,” he told The New Paper in Mandarin. “I wouldn’t be this happy if I won the lottery!”
Happy birthday uncle. Not all heroes wear capes pic.twitter.com/MTt7OReE4r
— han (@hinamasayafrhn) March 22, 2018
Click To Share The Sweet Story With Your Friends – OR, [icopyright_one_buton_toolbar]
Michael was a panhandling homeless man who thought he was all alone in the world. Then, a deputy’s random act of kindness led him to a loving family he never knew he had. Hear the remarkable tale told by The Good News Guru (from March 23 Ellen K. Morning Show on KOST radio). READ more and see the video on GNN….
Quote of the Day: “The finest gift you can give anyone is encouragement. If everyone received the encouragement they need to grow, the genius in most everyone would blossom.” – Sidney Madwed
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?
While most people tend to picture robots in a modern environment, this intrepid four-wheeled robot traveled to India so it could help families in remote villages.
Dr. Amol Deshmukh, a computer scientist at the University of Glasgow, wanted to study how technology could help low-income villagers living in the rural countryside. After visiting the village of Ayyampathy in southern India last November, Deshmukh and his team sent “Husky” the robot to help the villagers with the daily task of water-gathering.
Since more than half of the Indian population is without tap water or plumbing, citizens will often spend hours hiking across treacherous terrain so they can collect water from a well.
Husky, on the other hand, is a remote-controlled social robot that specializes in carrying large amounts of water across varied terrain.
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With the help of eleven village volunteers, Husky was able to carry three 20-liter jugs of water from the well back to the village. The robot emitted a male-sounding synthetic voice to thank the villagers for their help and tell them where to put the water. It even reminded them to wash their hands before their next meal.
In addition to studying how technology could help the village, the researchers wanted to see how villagers from remote areas would interact with such a foreign object – and their findings were quite favorable.
Deshmukh said: “Most of the research carried out to date on human-robot interactions are carried out in lab environments in urban settings, with people who have developed some conception of what robots are and how they work by seeing depictions of them in TV and film.
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“We wanted to see how people from considerably more remote rural populations would view robots, which have a lot of labour-saving potential. Robot helpers are also ideally-placed to help those population reach the UN’s sustainable development goals of bridging the digital divide and opening up beneficial technology to people around the world, so it’s vital to explore how they are likely to be perceived in the developing world.”
Deshmukh added: “After several days of using the Husky, we surveyed each of the participants about their perceptions of the robot and how helpful they found it.
“Every one of them said the robot made their lives easier, and they unanimously reported that they enjoyed working with the robot. Interestingly, they were also unanimous on the robot being ‘alive’, despite being aware that it was being controlled remotely.
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“We also asked if they thought the robot had a gender. More than a third of participants perceived it as ‘female’ although it communicated with a male-sounding voice and had no other gender-coded features, primarily because water-carrying is done mainly by women in their village.
“It’s clear that labour-saving devices like these bring real benefits to remote communities, and we’re keen to do more work in the future with our partners in India to explore these issues in more depth.”
Pass On The Positivity: Click To Share With Your Friends (Photo by Dr. Amol Deshmukh / University of Glasgow)
Two police officers are being hailed as heroes after they stopped to check up on a parked motorist and ended up saving a choking 2-month old baby in the process.
Police officers Ryan Sidders and Alex Oklander of Shaker Heights, Ohio were driving through town earlier this week when they saw what they thought to be a disabled car.
When they approached the vehicle, they saw that the driver, 26-year-old Tamika Pruitte, was in distress because her daughter Tyra was choking on her milk.
According to the young mother, Tyra is a preemie who has a birth defect that makes her throw up her milk.
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Sidders’s bodycam footage then shows Oklander pulling the infant out of her car seat, holding her at an angle, and patting her back to free up the infant’s airways.
As the concerned mother watches over the unfolding events, Oklander finally manages to get the baby breathing again. Sidders listens for breathing and then confirms that Tyra is okay.
WATCH: Cop Who “Can’t Swim” Dives Into Freezing Waters to Save Drowning Man
The Shaker Heights Police Department later posted footage of the event to their Facebook page.
“Officer Oklander never expected that stopping to help a disabled motorist would require a life-saving effort,” said the department. “Way to go, officers!”
(WATCH the harrowing video below)
Stave Off Negativity: Click To Share The Story With Your Friends
Everyone’s favorite neighbor is finally returning to the screen once more.
Academy Award-winning documentarian Morgan Neville is making a movie about public television star Fred Rogers from “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood”.
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Rogers spent his show teaching kids how to love each other and overcome different emotional challenges.
The show was so popular, it is still beloved by adults today despite it going off-air in 2001.
The film, which is called Won’t You Be My Neighbor?, will be released into select theaters on June 8th.
(WATCH the video below)
Click To Share With Your Own Neighbors And Friends
Quote of the Day: “When we choose not to focus on what is missing from our lives, but are grateful for the abundance that’s present, illusion falls away and we experience Heaven on earth.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach
Photo: by TexasEagle, CC
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?
