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India Unveils Ambitious Plan to Make Every Single Car Electric by 2030

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McKinley Corbley
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In a bid against the hazardous air pollution plaguing the country, the energy minister of India has just announced earlier this week that they will be making sure that every car in the nation will be electrically-powered by 2030.

The Indian government will be assisting the renewable automotive industry for the next two to three years, until the market stabilizes. Officials believe that electric cars will then become the more affordable option for consumers, as prices are driven down “by demand and not by subsidy”.

Though electric power stations can be powered by coal plants, studies show that electric cars are still drastically safer for the environment and the public’s health than petrol or diesel-fueled cars.

RELATED: All Cars Sold in Norway to be Electric by 2025

According to Sherry Boschert, author of Plug-in Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America, using hybrids and electric cars that draw power from a main grid would still dramatically reduce the amount of nitrogen oxide released into the air by 32% to 99%. Switching to low emission vehicles could also reduce CO2 emissions by as much as 17% to 71%, depending on the area.

The energy plan comes as a welcome follow-up to a similar initiative launched by India’s capital territory of Delhi, in which the city announced plans to ban all diesel-powered vehicles from the roads by 2025.

The campaign couldn’t come at a better time, either; according to a recent Greenpeace report, India’s air toxicity levels surpassed China in 2015, making it one of the most toxic nations in the world.

“We are going to introduce electric vehicles in a very big way. We are going to make electric vehicles self- sufficient like UJALA. The idea is that by 2030, not a single petrol or diesel car should be sold in the country,” said Power minister Piyush Goyal during the CII Annual Session 2017.

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Metallica Replaces Stolen Equipment of Tribute Band

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McKinley Corbley
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What started out as ONE unfortunate situation for a humble Metallica tribute band, turned into a shining example of kindness.

Blistered Earth, a four-piece cover band from Spokane, Washington, was playing a show in Portland, Oregon when their trailer full of musical gear was stolen.

All of their guitars, basses, amplifiers, pedals, and drum pieces were gone, leaving them unable to play any more shows.

RELATED: Bikers Stop to Help Stranded Motorcyclist Only to Find It’s ‘The Boss’

As attention was drawn to the situation by fans and local news outlets, the band caught the attention of the very musicians whom they were covering: Metallica.

The revered metal titans then decided to lend a hand.

“Sometimes when bad things happen, it really brings out the best in people,” wrote the band members on Facebook. “James and the rest of the guys in Metallica … have seen fit to replace our equipment.”

Though it’s unfortunate that their gear got stolen in the first place, it seems safe to say that nothing else matters for Blistered Earth except for their heroes pulling through when it mattered to them most.

The Bell Tolls For You To Share This Story With Your Friends (Photo by Whittlz, CC)

8 of the Best – and Latest – Innovations for Social Good

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Hunting poachers, detecting early autism spectrum disorders, and preventing pedestrian deaths – these are all examples of potentially life-changing innovations announced last week as finalists in the Wireless Innovation Project.

Each year, the competition created by Vodafone Americas Foundation awards $600,000 to three organizations that offer the highest potential to drive social good.

The eight finalists stem from non-profits, universities, and social entrepreneurs, but all have created solutions with a potential to make a difference for communities around the world and direct lasting social change.

RELATED: Student Invents Biodegradable Packaging From Seagrass That Washes Up on Beaches

“Each year we review incredible technologies and our 2017 finalists continue that pattern with projects across healthcare, wildlife preservation, augmented reality, childhood education, banking, and more,” said June Sugiyama, Director, Vodafone Americas Foundation. “The creative and innovative solutions presented this year show the potential ability of technology and connectivity to uniquely benefit communities worldwide.”

Since launching in 2009, the Wireless Innovation Project has awarded $4.9 million to scalable solutions which have directly impacted 40 million individual lives across more than 40 countries.

RELATED: Now You Can Speak 80 Languages at the Touch of a Button

From the eight finalists announced today, a panel of judges will select three winners, to be showcased during the Social Innovation Summit 2017 in Chicago, IL on June 6-8. The first place winner will be awarded $300,000, second place $200,000, and third place $100,000, paid over a period of three years, to continue developing their projects.

The Wireless Innovation Project’s 2017 Finalists:

EarlySee – A potentially revolutionary smartphone-based mobile application which can detect Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in children earlier, more efficiently, and at lower cost. Parents can administer this test within their own home, to recognize ASD as soon as possible, as some symptoms can occur as early as the first to second year. This ease of use can help identify the signs of autism earlier than current practices so appropriate service and supports can be put into place to provide the most successful outcomes for children with ASD.

SafetyAR – Roughly 135 children die daily due to pedestrian injuries- a tragic but preventable death. Safety AR leverages the power of smartphone-based augmented reality to create virtual environments to help children gain cognitive and perceptual abilities needed to develop safe pedestrian skills. Using the best of today’s technology, child pedestrians can learn how to navigate chaotic and dangerous traffic environments, potentially saving 50,000 children over the course of one year.

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Community Cellular– This project aims to bring cellular connectivity to the roughly 10 percent of the world’s population, or 800 million people, who live beyond the reach of a traditional mobile tower and are isolated from the rest of their country with no simple way to communicate. Mobile access will have positive social and economic impacts on these individuals. Through a new mobile phone technology that provides local coverage at a fraction of the cost of current mobile towers, CCN hopes to bridge the “last mile” connectivity issue.

DreamSave – An innovative mobile solution with the potential to help millions of unbanked members of informal savings groups around the world break the cycle of poverty. For the first time ever, people who have been invisible to the global economy will have direct access to a wide range of modern financial services, even if they live miles from the nearest bank. DreamSave will leverage mobile money integration, machine learning, behavioral science, and ground breaking new technology optimized for remote areas with limited internet access. By designing DreamSave as part of a broader digitally-connected community, users will also have access to a wide range of related services, unlocking their potential to create lasting social and economic change.

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ENVision – Between 30-50 percent of people in developing countries are working in the informal economy, not out of choice, but necessity. Low-literate and with little education, many are unable to distinguish between revenue and profit. ENVision is a simple open source offline mobile application that helps these workers understand their business performance without needing a computer. Utilizing a pictorial interface and real-time data visualization, informal workers can see their inventory levels, place orders, and calculate sales, which will ultimately improve their livelihoods.

Health-Aware Personal Assistant – Recent research has shown that mobile health applications tend to neglect several important user groups, such as users with low literacy, the elderly, or people with minor visual impairment. On the other hand, most personal assistant systems only search through the internet and bulk-feed the information. Health-Aware Personal Assistant personalizes the available health information based on the user’s mobile health data collected through mobile and wearable sensors. It also has a verbal component that interprets the data, allowing immediate, and easily digestible information for those groups commonly neglected by mobile health systems.

PathVis – A smartphone-based detection platform built to directly monitor and detect infectious diseases afflicting over 250 million people world-wide. This detection technology can provide data in less than 30 minutes- which can provide health organizations with real-time surveillance to decrease costs and increase efficiency in identifying outbreaks and preventing further spread of disease.

WIPER – A wireless anti-poaching collar for elephants and other animals across Africa that will automatically send the location of the animal to authorities when a gunshot is detected. WIPER can disrupt poaching and prevent irreparable damages to the environmental ecosystem through innovative ballistic shockwave detection, a tool that cannot be tricked by gun mufflers regularly used by poachers.

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They’ve Been Pen Pals for 42 Years; Watch Them Meet for First Time

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George Ghossn and Lori Gertz have been writing to each other using pen and paper for nearly a half century. Now each finally got the chance to embrace their longest-lasting friend.

Ghossn, from East Islip, New York, told ABC News that he and Gertz, who lives near San Diego began writing each other “when I was 15 and she was 12. We started writing through a chain letter. It said to send out five letters, and you were supposed to receive thousands back. I got four letters back … One was from Lori.”

The pen pals shared feelings and details about their lives in newsy notes mailed about once a month—and they’ve both kept all the handwritten letters.

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Since Lori was already going to be in New York taking her son to visit a university there, she thought it was time they both met.

“I love George. George is a staple in my life. My whole family knows George … It’s my longest relationship that I’ve had with anybody. It’s beautiful,” Gertz said.

(WATCH the touching video of the reunion below

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Ailing 130-Year-old Tree Adorned With Prayer Flags in Tribute Before Being Felled

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In a final tribute before chainsaws would cut this giant down due to poor health, gardeners adorned a 130-year-old Monterey cypress tree with Tibetan prayer flags.

The tree has stood on the the great lawn of the famous Lotusland gardens in Montecito, California for more than thirteen decades. With the announcement that the tree, which is breaking away from its support cables, had to be cut down, the garden staff lovingly strung the flags from the very top of the cypress, where brown, dead branches were signaling its end.

Now that the heavy rains have cleared along the Central Coast, the tree is finally scheduled to be felled at the end of May. In its place, a small Monterey cypress, grown from the seed of the current tree, will be planted anew.

RELATED: Ireland is Creating the Largest Grove of Redwoods Outside of California

School children wrote words of remembrance on the individual prayer flags, and the public was invited to leave their own notes of gratitude on a table at its base.

Named one of the 10 Best Gardens in the World by The Telegraph, Lotusland is a public garden operated by a private nonprofit organization on 37 acres (15 ha) at the historic estate of Madame Ganna Walska.

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The gardens at Lotusland, including a Japanese garden that contains an extensive collection of antique ishidoro stone lanterns, were created over a four decade period by the eccentric opera singer who owned the property as a private residence from 1941 until her death in 1984.

Monterey cypress trees grow best in their native habitat along the cold, foggy shoreline further north up California’s Central Coast—and can live to be 200 years old. The specimen at Lotusland had endure a much warmer climate in the hills, three miles inland.

MORE: America Has More Trees Now Than It Had a Century Ago

Lotusland is located on Cold Springs Road in Montecito, 108 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, and open Wed-Sat. Due to its location in a residential neighborhood, advance reservations for tours are required for all visitors.

Make Your Own Tribute to this Magnificent Tree: Click to Share! –Or,  (Photos by Geri Weis-Corbley and LotusLand video via FB)

Facebook Provides Valuable Safety Net for the Bereaved, Study Finds

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Neuroscientists have long noted that if certain brain cells are destroyed by, say, a stroke, new circuits may be laid in another location to compensate, essentially rewiring the brain.

One expert in computational social science, wanted to know if social networks responded similarly after the death of a close mutual friend.

In new research published on Monday, Northeastern’s William R. Hobbs found that friends on Facebook did provide new avenues of communication, pointing to a strength of social networks—providing resilience.

Hobbs, who led the study, collaborated with Facebook data scientist Moira Burke. The researchers found that close friends of the deceased immediately increased their interactions with one another by 30 percent, peaking in volume.

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The interactions faded a bit in the following months and ultimately stabilized at the same volume of interaction as before, but this insight into how social networks adapt to significant losses could lead to new ways to help people with the grieving process.

“Most people don’t have very many friends, so when we lose one, that leaves a hole in our networks as well as in our lives,” says Hobbs, a Professor of Political Science and Computer and Information Science.

He then wondered: Would a social network unravel with a central member gone? If it recovered, how might it heal?

WATCH: Mom Brought To Tears When Wild Bird Comforts Her at Son’s Grave

“We expected to see a spike in interactions among close friends immediately after the loss, corresponding with the acute grieving period,” says Hobbs. “What surprised us was that the stronger ties continued for years. People made up for the loss of interacting with the friend who had died by increasing interactions with one another.”

Hobbs came to the study from a crisis of his own. After college, he lived and worked in China studying local governments. But when he entered graduate school at the University of California, San Diego, his father was dying. “So I switched to American politics, then to studying chronic illnesses, and then moving into the effect of deaths on others,” he says.

That switch led to this first large-scale investigation of recovery and resilience after a death in social networks.

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Using sophisticated data counters and computer analysis, the researchers compared monthly interactions–wall posts, comments, and photo tags – of approximately 15,000 Facebook networks that had experienced the death of a friend with monthly interactions of approximately 30,000 similar Facebook networks that had not.

The first group comprised more than 770,000 people, the latter more than 2 million. They learned about the deaths from California state vital records, and characterized “close friends” as those who had interacted with the person who died before the study began. To maintain the users’ privacy, the data was aggregated and “de-identified” – that is, all elements that associated the data with the individual were removed.

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“The response was different from what other researchers have found regarding natural disasters or other kinds of trauma— a spike in communications that disappears quickly afterward,” says Hobbs.

In particular, the researchers found that networks comprising young adults, ages 18 to 24, showed the strongest recovery. They were not only more likely to recover than others, their interaction levels also stayed elevated – higher than before the loss. Networks experiencing suicides, on the other hand, showed the least amount of recovery. Further research is necessary to understand why, says Hobbs.

“We didn’t study the subjective experience of loss, or how people feel,” cautions Hobbs. “We looked at recovery only in terms of connectivity.”

What they show is that online social networks appear to function as a safety net. “They do so quickly, and the effect persists,” he says. “There are so few studies on the effect of the death of a friend on a network. This is a big step forward.”

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Serious Violence in England and Wales Plummets in Recent Years

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The Number of people injured in serious violence dropped by 10% in 2016 compared to 2015, according to a national report studying England and Wales published by Cardiff University.

“Since 2010, we have identified a decline of 40% in people needing treatment in emergency departments after violence,” said lead author of the study and Director of the Violence Research Group at the university, Professor Jonathan Shepherd.

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The study is produced from a scientific sample of 152 emergency room departments, minor injury units, and walk-in centers in the two countries. All are certified members of the National Violence Surveillance Network (NVSN), which has published an annual report for the past 16 years.

“The substantial year-on-year decline in serious violence for both men and women is welcome news for citizens and communities across England and Wales. Moreover, costs imposed on health services and the criminal justice system by violence have been substantially reduced along with burdens on stretched emergency departments.”

WATCH: Quick-Thinking Jeweler Stops Thief by Locking Her Inside Vault

Overall, an estimated 188,803 people attended EDs in England and Wales for treatment following violence in 2016, 21,437 fewer than in 2015.

Whilst the study does not examine the reasons for the steady decline in serious violence, the report cites a number of possible reasons, including better detection and reporting of serious violence, better targeted policing, improved sharing of data by emergency departments, and local inter-agency collaboration to tackle violence on the streets and in licensed premises.

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Family of 6 Boys Donates Combined 17 Feet Of Hair After Friend’s Death

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This gorgeous family had some pretty glorious locks – but they were only growing them out so they could donate them to charity.

In honor of a family friend who lost their life to cancer, Phoebe Kannisto and her six sons spent a couple years growing out their hair.

RELATED: Biology Professor Donates Beard to Help Clean Up Oil Spills, You Can Too

The resulting mop tops were all sheared off at a barber shop earlier this week and donated to Locks of Love.

It had been two years since the boys had visited a barber – and they say they plan on growing out their hair for another donation again sometime in the future.

Perhaps next time, their 3-year-old sister will have the strands to be able to join them in the campaign.

(WATCH the video below)

 

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Victim’s Family Buys Airfare for Loved Ones of Inmate About to be Executed

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The man who is responsible for the deaths of three people has been forgiven by the family of one of the victims. Their compassion was not enough to grant clemency for the prisoner, who was on death row in Arkansas, but, as a gesture of kindness, they flew his family out to see him one last time.

38-year-old Kenneth Williams who was first jailed in 1998, and later convicted of murder and manslaughter, was to be executed for his crimes last week.

Michael Greenwood’s wife Stacy and his daughter Kayla had already, years earlier, forgiven Williams for his actions. But they recently found out that the prisoner had a daughter named Jasmine – whom he had not seen in 17 years – and a granddaughter he had never met. In a final gesture of empathy, the Greenwoods decided to buy airline tickets from Washington to Arkansas so the pair could see Williams before he was executed on Thursday.

RELATED: Thieves Return Blind Man’s Guide Dog with Note Asking, ‘Please forgive us’

Jasmine and her daughter arrived in Little Rock the day before his death sentence would be carried out—and the Greenwoods were waiting for them at the airport, ready to take them to the prison.

Though the Greenwoods were not allowed inside the facility to visit Williams, they wrote out a note that was delivered to the inmate.

“I told him we forgive him and where I stood on it,” Kayla told News-Leader. “[Jasmine] said that when the warden read the email to him, he broke out in tears.”

CHECK OUT: Man Who Shot Up Mosque Goes Back For Forgiveness, Finds Hugs Waiting

The Greenwood family had pushed for William’s clemency, but family members of another victim, Cecil Boren, resisted, insisting on the death penalty, according to AP. After Wednesday’s reunion, however, it was clear that the Greenwoods still were able to ease some of the pain for Williams and his family.

“When he found out that we are bringing his daughter and granddaughter to see him and that my mom and dad bought the tickets, he was crying to the attorney,” Kayla said. “He was sad he couldn’t talk to us.”

(Family photo of Michael Greenwood, his wife Stacey and young daughter Kayla)

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Nationwide Drought of Last Few Years is Over in the U.S.

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McKinley Corbley
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This exciting new report says that drought within in the United States has fallen to about 6.1% within the lower 48 states – which is the lowest it has been in 17 years.

Since the U.S. Drought Monitor was created almost two decades ago, it has delivered weekly data sets on the prevalence of drought within the country. The previous record-low from the federal organization was reported in July 2010 with 7.7% drought. The highest amount of recorded drought was 65.5% in September 2012.

California’s years-long drought has essentially come to an end, with only 40% of the state drought-stricken in January, followed by only 8% this month.

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Northern California alone has enjoyed the most abundant snow and rainfall it has had in 6 years.

Southern California, while it is still technically in drought, is expected to be much less harsh as the relieving weather conditions continue.

Gov. Jerry Brown plans to elaborate on the state of drought emergency that he declared in 2014 after the wet season is over.

Click To Share This Cool Story With Your Friends (Photo by Pedro Szekely, CC)

Drone Photographer Warns Surfers of Shark Circling Beneath Them

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These surfers may have ended up as fish food if it weren’t for a hawk-eyed photographer and his drone.

David Finlay of Kiama Beach, Australia was checking out the ocean waters with his aerial drone when he saw a shark in the waters underneath three oblivious surfers.

When the photographer spotted the marine predators, he alerted the local lifeguards to their presence.

WATCH: Goose Hails A Police Officer To Rescue its Baby Tangled in String

After the lifeguards raised the alarm, the surfers headed for shore – where they eventually made it to safety.

Should Finlay have missed the danger, the unfortunate swimmers may have become a sequel to the Jaws films.

(WATCH the video below)

 

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97-Year-old Fulfills Lifelong Dream, Becomes Firefighter For a Day

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You’re never too old to be a hero – not even if you’re 97 years old.

Bill Grun of Doylestown, Pennsylvania was given the birthday wish of a lifetime when firefighters from the Doylestown Fire Company No. 1 showed up at his retirement home.

The civil servants offered Bill a position on the Ladder 9 – also known as the biggest truck in their arsenal – as an honorary firefighter in recognition of his special day.

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The spry senior delightedly accepted and was given a VIP ride around town. Bill was even allowed to sound the sirens at will.

The surprise was orchestrated by his retirement home Wesley Enhanced Living, as part of their WEL Wishes Program.

Bill is reportedly already planning his 98th birthday around a helicopter ride.

(WATCH the video below)

 

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New Study Shows that American Youth Violence is on the Decline

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McKinley Corbley
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Millennials may be given a lot of grief for taking selfies all of the time, but this new study shows that youth violence is in dramatic decline.

The study, conducted by researchers at Boston University, found a 29% decrease in violence related to young Americans between the years of 2002 and 2014.

“There is often the sense that teenagers are out of control and that things are always getting worse,” said Professor Christopher Salas-Wright. “However, our study makes clear that, over the last 10 to 15 years, we have seen a meaningful decrease in the number of adolescents involved in fighting and violence.”

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The amount of kids between the ages of 12 and 17 years old who committed any form of gang violence, fighting, or attack dropped from a high of 33.6% in 2002 to 23.7 in 2014.

While there were some disparities in violence related to race, Salas-Wright and his team wish to emphasize that the decline in youthful fighting is no small victory – communities wishing to eliminate the problem entirely should focus on intervention-based programs and consoling for teens, as well as conducting risk behavior analysis.

“While we are seeing noteworthy decreases in violence and other risky behaviors among youth, we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that these problems persist,” said Michael Vaughn of Saint Louis University. “There is still much work to be done.”

Click To Share The News With Your Friends (Photo by Irving Aebiel, CC)

Watch Stag Climb to Elderly Woman’s Window Twice a Day For a Snack

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McKinley Corbley
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This 80-year-old woman may not be Snow White – but she’s enchanted quite a wild friend to keep her company in the woods.

Every day of the winter season, Mette Kvam leans out her window with homemade cookies and biscuits in order to feed her friend Flippen: a massive wild stag.

Since they first met one another outside Mette’s window, Flippen has visited her house in Aurland, Norway every winter for the last three years – and Mette is always waiting for him.

WATCH: This Couple May Not Have Children But They Do Have a Bear

The friendship began when the senior saw the creature moving through her snowy yard in 2014. She offered him a cookie and – to her surprise – he cautiously put his hoofs up on the side of her house and accepted the snack. Now, whenever he sin’t hiding up in the mountains during the warmer months, he is always visiting his elderly friend.

The friendship hasn’t just provided Flippen with valuable treats, either. Since Flippen was fondly named after his flipped ears, hunters always recognize him as Mette’s famed friend and avoid harming him in any way.

Though Flippen is too shy to be around anyone but Mette, he reportedly takes great pleasure in head scratches and nose pets from his human friend.

(WATCH the video below)

 

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50-Year-old Drug Saves Thousands of Moms After Childbirth

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An inexpensive and widely available drug could save the lives of one in three mothers who would otherwise bleed to death after childbirth, according to this new major study.

The drug, called tranexamic acid (TXA), works by stopping blood clots from breaking down. The global trial of 20,000 women found that death due to bleeding was reduced by 31% if the treatment was given within three hours. The findings also show it reduced the need for urgent surgery to control bleeding by more than 36%.

Severe bleeding after childbirth – known as post-partum haemorrhage or PPH – is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide. More than 100,000 women globally die each year from the condition, but this clot-stabilizing drug has the potential to reduce the number substantially.

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The WOMAN (World Maternal Antifibrinolytic) Trial recruited mothers from 193 hospitals in 21 countries, mainly in Africa and Asia, but also in the UK and elsewhere. The results show that of the women given tranexamic acid within three hours, 89 died from bleeding compared with 127 given placebo in addition to standard care. The researchers found no side effects from the drug for either mothers or babies. These findings provide the first comprehensive evidence on using tranexamic acid for post-partum haemorrhage and suggest it should be used as a frontline treatment.

Haleema Shakur, Associate Professor of Clinical Trials at the London School of Hygiene said: “We now have important evidence that the early use of tranexamic acid can save women’s lives and ensure more children grow up with a mother. It’s safe, affordable and easy to administer, and we hope that doctors will use it as early as possible following the onset of severe bleeding after childbirth.”

Tranexamic acid was invented in the 1960s by a Japanese husband and wife research team, Shosuke and Utako Okamoto.

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Ian Roberts, who co-led the study, said: “The researchers who invented tranexamic acid more than 50 years ago hoped it would reduce deaths from post-partum haemorrhage, but they couldn’t persuade obstetricians at the time to conduct a trial. Now we finally have these results that we hope can help save women’s lives around the world.”

Almost all of the deaths from post-partum haemorrhage are in low- and middle-income countries. Although giving birth in a health facility increases the chance of surviving post-partum haemorrhage, women still die from the condition even within hospitals.

Tim Knott, Senior Partner in Innovations at Wellcome Trust, said: “Globally, severe bleeding in childbirth remains one of the main causes of maternal death – with alarming numbers of women dying in many low- and middle-income countries. The WOMAN Trial team undertook a hugely important and incredibly ambitious study. Their work stands to make a critical difference in preventing women dying after childbirth.”

(WATCH the video below)

 

(Source: London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

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Swipe Right to Save a Species: Last Male White Rhino Takes to Tinder

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McKinley Corbley
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Tired of the endless swiping on Tinder? Next time you open the app, be sure to keep an eye out for Sudan: “the most eligible bachelor in the world”.

Sudan is the last male white northern rhino on the planet, and conservationists at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya have partnered with the dating app Tinder to save his species.

Sudan was unable to mate with the only two other surviving female white northern rhinos, leaving his chances of natural reproduction at zero. However, scientists believe that they can save the species by using in vitro fertilization (IVF).

Though the operation has never before been performed on rhinos, officials say that there is still a chance for the rhinos if they try.

CHECK OUT: Manatee Population Has Rebounded 500 Percent, No Longer Endangered

“There is no guarantee of success.  We could spend this money and fail.  But we hope that you will agree that it is worth trying,” says Elodie Sampere of Ol Pejeta Conservancy. “Should any funds remain after success or failure, then the committee set up to safeguard the northern white future will reinvest those monies into protecting the world’s remaining rhino species.”

Assisted reproduction methods are estimated to cost about between $9 and $10 million – but Tinder users can now find the massive mammal on the app featuring a bio that says: “I don’t mean to be too forward, but the fate of the species literally depends on me. I perform well under pressure… 6ft (183cm) tall and 5,000lb (2,268kg) if it matters.”

Lonely singles who come across Sudan’s profile – which will be displayed in 190 countries and over 40 languages – can donate money to his fundraiser.

If you’ve already found love and have no need for dating apps, you can donate via the conservancy’s website or Sudan’s GoFundMe page.

Feeling Horny? Click To Share The News With Your Friends (Photo by Khalil Baalbaki/ZOO Dvur Kralove)

Pope Francis is Paying the Rent of a Private Beach for the Disabled

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McKinley Corbley
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Now every Italian – no matter their disability – can have fun in the sun and enjoy a day at the beach.

That’s because Pope Francis has just volunteered to pay a year’s worth of rent towards Work of Love; an organization that manages a private section of the Little Madonna beach exclusively for people with disabilities.

RELATED: Pope Opens Free Laundromat for Rome’s Poor

For the last five years, Work of Love has helped their beach – located 17 miles south of Rome – become the only section of Little Madonna that is fully equipped to accommodate people with disabilities. The volunteer-based organization has installed boardwalks, ramps, wheelchair transportation, and water vehicles that are all designed to give disabled people a pleasant beach experience.

Pope Francis, who donated an undisclosed amount of money, reportedly contributed enough funds to pay off the beach’s rent for a year, and to support their other endeavors and financial needs.

According to CNN, the organization expressed “enthusiasm and astonishment” over the pontiff’s generous donation.

(WATCH the video below)

 

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Bloomberg Gives $3Mil to Job Training For Coal Communities in Decline

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Bloomberg Philanthropies announced today a three million dollar donation for organizations providing career training to coal workers affected by job losses throughout an industry in decline. The funds will be used by the Just Transition Fund, and two other groups to support job training programs, foster economic development and offer new career opportunities in communities affected by the trend toward cleaner energy.

Coal continues to lose U.S. market share to cheaper and cleaner sources of energy, which have broadly benefitted the country in terms of public health and jobs – with nearly 500,000 Americans now working in the solar and wind industries.

RELATED: Appalachian Miners Trade Coal for Code, Digging Computer Skills

“The federal government has failed to help coal communities for decades, and now…so we are stepping up,” said Michael R. Bloomberg. “We discovered several local groups in coal regions that are doing great work to help out-of-work miners develop new job skills and find new career opportunities.”

Bloomberg’s foundation is also launching a national fundraising campaign for citizens who also wish to support the coal workers.

MORE: Solar Power in US Sets New Records, Beats Natural Gas for the First Time

The initial $3 million donation will support the following groups:

The nonprofit Coalfield Development Corporation works in southern West Virginia rebuilding the Appalachian economy by supporting social enterprises that help transform perceived liabilities into assets via job creation, higher education, and mentorship. Coalfield Development’s enterprises provide jobs and new career opportunities in sustainable construction, solar installation, mine-land reclamation, sustainable agriculture, and artisanship. Coalfield Development hires unemployed people, including laid-off coal miners, according to a 33-6-3 weekly schedule: 33 hours of paid work for the enterprises listed above, 6 hours of higher education, and 3 hours of life-skills mentorship. The result is real work experience, an Associate’s Degree, and renewed self-confidence.

The Just Transition Fund helps to create robust communities in coal-dependent regions across the U.S. by strengthening projects in sustainable economic development, equity, and clean energy solutions. Guided by its conviction that communities have the power and wisdom to solve their own problems if given adequate support and resources, the Just Transition Fund works with a wide range of federal agencies and philanthropic foundations to provide just that.

The Western Organization of Resource Councils is a network of grassroots organizations rooted in the coalfield communities in Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota and Colorado. From its beginning in 1979, WORC has championed the preservation of family farms and ranches, while building sustainable and prosperous communities that balance economic growth with the health of people and stewardship of their land, water, air and wildlife resources.

Bloomberg Philanthropies is also launching a CrowdRise campaign entitled From The Ashes to raise money for coal communities, and will cover all transaction fees for any donations. The funds raised by the CrowdRise campaign will be used by these three groups to help workers left behind by the coal industry.

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