When was the last time you gave someone a really meaningful compliment? Or told someone just how important they were?
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The results were sweeter than you could imagine.
If you’re feeling inspired by the kind words, then maybe call someone close to you and tell them how you really feel.
(WATCH the video below)
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Colin Ross wasn’t planning on saving a small business when he woke up last Sunday suffering from the sickly after-effects of partying with his buddies.
To deal with his hangover, the gentleman set out to find a restaurant with some greasy food: Whitbie’s Fish & Chips in Lethridge, Alberta.
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After devouring his meal, Colin felt the effects of his hangover ebb away – and he noticed that the restaurant was empty save for McMillan.
The two struck up a conversation and the 69-year-old chef explained to Ross that times had been tough for the little establishment. Whitbie’s had been so short on income, that McMillan didn’t even make enough money to pay himself at the end of the day.
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Ross resolved to help the business, explaining that he had “2,000 friends on Facebook”.
Though the old owner didn’t understand such computer-related terms, he certainly did three days later when customers from all over Lethridge were standing in line for his service.
Ross had posted a glowing review of the restaurant on social media, requesting everyone to share the post with their own friends in support of Whitbie’s.
“I ordered the halibut special for 23$ – absolutely amazing,” Colin wrote on Facebook. “That traditional British fish and chips was just what I needed. And the owner was a gem, a real classy stand-up guy, so I ask everyone in Lethbridge to share this and go support this hard-working gentleman. He deserves it and he makes Joeys only look like child’s play.”
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“Our business has just gone right through the roof to the point where, you know, we’ve got people waiting an hour and a half to an hour and three quarters for their dinner,” McMillan told CBC. “Calgary had their flood. Fort McMurray had their fire and a little fish and chip shop in Lethbridge had its problem. The people of Alberta just come together. This is the greatest province and the greatest country.”
Cheers To Positivity – Click To Share With Your Friends – Photo by Colin Ross
After losing his police officer dad, this little four-year-old boy had an army of stand-ins for his first day of school.
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Jackson “really enjoyed having everyone here,” his mom, Jessica Scherlen, told KVII News. “Just to know that he’s still loved by the blue family and that they still care . . .emotionally, it’s awesome to see.”
These friends with badges also escorted two of Jessica’s other children to their first day of classes.
(WATCH the moving video below KVII) –Photos courtesy of Amarillo Independent School District
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These Dutch mall shoppers were caught by surprise when a swarm of 30 actors dressed up in 17th century garb started storming the corridors for a “thief”.
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The stunt ended in a real-life arrangement of Rembrandt’s iconic painting The Night Watch in order to promote the reopening of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
(WATCH the video below)
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This new interactive art installation designed specifically for pooches has hounds howling with excitement.
The London, England exhibit features a whole host of pawesome creations – like an open car window simulator that blows air into dog’s faces; a play ball pit made to look like a giant dog food bowl; a magic water bowl fountain; and even paintings colored in a dog’s color spectrum.
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The project known as #PlayMore was commissioned by insurance company More Than to encourage pet owners to exercise and play more with their canines.
Dominic Wilcox, the master artist behind the scheme, knows that hounds deserve to have their imaginations stimulated every once in a while.
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“I think that play is really important to a dog’s mental and physical health,” Wilcox said in a video about the exhibit. “And I really hope that the artwork gets a lot of dog tails wagging.”
Even though the installation was only open for the duration of last weekend, the innovative inventions will perhaps result in the creation of more puppy museums in the future.
(WATCH the video below)
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Katie Couric, former news anchor for “CBS Evening News” took a $1 million pay cut in 2009 in order to save other employees from losing their jobs.
The story is only just now coming to light because of the Amazon best seller Powerhouse: The Untold Story of Hollywood’s Creative Artists Agency by James Andrew Miller.
Through a string of sources, Miller was told about how Couric met with CBS News president Sean McManus, after only 3 years of working with the company, to address rumors of the significant layoffs.
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Couric proposed covering the necessary budget shortfall from her own salary, and only requested that there be “no public or private acknowledgement of the deed.”
Since the book was published on August 9th, 2016, the journalist has received widespread applause and admiration despite her modest wishes.
Pay The Positivity Forward, Click To Share – Photo by EllasPortfolio, CC license (top); and David Shankbone, CC (featured)
In the wake of the torrential rainfall causing debilitating floods this month throughout Louisiana, young voters in the neighboring state decided to set aside their political differences in order to lend a helping hand.
In a perfect show of Southern hospitality, the Texas Young Republicans Committee teamed up with the Texas Young Democrats to deliver supplies to displaced Louisiana families.
Since the donations started pouring in, the activists have distributed the gifts to flood victims together —without qualms, arguments, or disagreements.
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“We understand that a diversification of ideas is what makes us better as a human race,” TYD Communications Director Chelsea Roe told Upworthy. “At the end of it all, that’s what we have in common — we want to leave this world we live in a better place than it was when we came into it.”
If you would like to support the bipartisan disaster relief, you can send supplies to Scott’s Drum Center, C/O Flood Relief 4956 Johnston St, Lafayette, LA 70503.
Multiply The Good, Click To Share – Photo by Lonote County Young Republicans Committee
In a historic moment, after four years of negotiations, FARC rebels in Colombia have signed a peace deal with the government, bringing to an end decades of armed conflict and setting up a process for reconciliation and reintegration.
“We can say the armed conflict is over and the exchange of ideas has begun,” said Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos at the signing ceremony Wednesday night.
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The “ideas” that were iterated in the peace accord include serious agrarian reform on behalf of the government, and reparations for thousands of victims of the war.
It also creates a United Nations-backed commission to monitor the implementation of the agreement.
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The deal follows a cease fire between the two sides in June. It will be presented to the people of Colombia in a referendum in October.
(WATCH the video below from TeleSUR)
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This little cutie might be old for his species, but that doesn’t stop him from shooting hoops to pass the time.
VIDEO: Bear Literally Can’t Stop Jumping For Joy After Being Rescued
When the critter’s X-rays showed that he had arthritis in his elbows in 2013, zookeepers were put to the task of finding ways to keep Eddie’s joints healthy and active.
As it turns out, the elderly otter is the Michael Jordan of the sea.
(WATCH the video below)
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In 2015, Binh and Phuoc Wagner made national news with their incredible story: the twins were adopted from a Vietnamese orphanage by a Canadian family when they became very sick and in dire need of liver transplants – their adopted father, even though he was a perfect match, could only donate a piece of his liver to one of them.
The search began for a second donor – an anonymous stranger who would voluntarily give up a piece of their organ and undergo weeks of recovery.
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More than 600 people offered to donate but only one of them was chosen: Kris Chung, a 19-year old student who lived five minutes down the road from the Wagners at Kingston’s Royal Military College in Kingston, Ontario.
Now a year late, Kris is much more than a stranger to the Wagner family.
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After initially connecting over Facebook and learning of his identity, the twins’ parents met up with Kris for coffee.
“I just gave him a big hug when I first saw him,” Johann Wagner told Macleans. “I don’t even think I said: ‘Thank you.’ It was more: ‘Wow, it’s you.’ ”
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Kris, now 21, has now become a member of the family, stopping by the house every day after school and growing alongside his “little sister” Binh.
Kris and Johanna are working alongside each other for a non-profit known as Twins For Hope – an organization providing Vietnamese orphans like Binh and Phuoc education, shelter, health care.
(WATCH the incredible video below)
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This 6-year-old boy had lost faith in ever seeing his favorite ball again – at least before the local police force answered his poster asking for help.
Te Kahu Hall was outside playing with his beloved red ball when it rolled into the street where a woman in a silver car stopped next to the toy, picked it up, and drove away.
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Hall was heartbroken.
However despite his dismay, he immediately started searching for his lost treasure, creating hand drawn posters with the ball’s picture and bringing them in to the Whanganui, New Zealand police station.
The boys in blue were so touched by the child’s plight, they made a Facebook post describing the predicament to their page’s followers.
Even though the police were still searching for the lost toy, they bought a green replacement ball for Te Kahu to cheer him up.
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That’s when Hall’s parents started getting phone calls from people around town who had seen the police force’s Facebook post and were offering money and second hand balls for Te Kahu.
The family was delighted by the reminders that they still lived in a kind community that looked after each other, even if it was only over a little lost toy.
(WATCH the video below)
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Though shark attacks on humans are relatively rare, the irresistible shape of a surfer on the water’s surface closely resembles that of a seal to sharks with their terrible eyesight – putting them in the same category as prey.
The Shark Shield Freedom 7TM creates an electric field that causes muscle spasms in the creatures’ body, thus deterring them from approaching any further than about 4.2 feet on average.
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Though the schematic still needs more intensive testing with other species of sharks, it had an almost 100% success rate with great white sharks who have been the culprits behind the majority of shark attacks.
Out of 322 encounters between 41 sharks and a camera with bait and the Freedom 7TM attached, only one great white shark got past the field, and it only proceeded to nudge the bait rather than bite.
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The control study without the device attached showed that sharks would constantly wrap their jaws around the bait without hesitation.
There have already been other shark repelling devices on the market, but none have ever undergone scientific trials and research to make sure that they work in protecting ocean-goers.
Click To Share This Shocking Story With Your Friends – Photo by Kawika Holbrook, CC
In celebration of the National Park Service’s Centennial, you can now go on a ten minute virtual tour of one of the most famous American parks with none other than President Barack Obama as your tour guide.
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Since the First Family visited the scenic oasis earlier in the summer, the POTUS’s voice explains the history and significance of the breath-taking scenery.
The National Park Service is allowing free admission to all 412 of their parks this week – with their 413th addition on the way – in celebration of their centennial.
(EXPERIENCE the virtual tour below)
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Instead of cake and presents to celebrate his 9th birthday, Carson Boutte was inspired in a dream he had to ask for something rather unconventional of his parents: spending his gift money on pizzas for flood victims..
They also made a post on Facebook asking if friends or family members wanted to contribute any additional pizzas in Carson’s honor.
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That’s when people really started pie-ing it forward.
The social media plea spread like wildfire until dozens more orders for delivery started flooding the Dominos phone lines.
Inspired by the slew of compassion, the Italian eatery offered to match Carson’s 100 pizzas with their own.
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363 pies were donated in total and several neighboring families even lent a hand delivering the gifts to the evacuees.
“For a 9-year-old to even think to help people…it’s amazing,” flood victim Lacey Viator told ABC13. “It’s just so humbling especially in today’s time. You don’t see children that young who have such a big giving heart and that says a lot for Carson.”
(WATCH the video below)
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Scientists announced yesterday that the star closest to the Sun has a planet similar to the Earth – which also makes it the closest possibly-habitable alien planet ever found.
It is not yet known if this planet, Proxima b, has any life. Even if it does not, its potential ability to sustain liquid water might make it a good first hop for humanity’s future trips out into the Milky Way Galaxy.
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Although the planet’s parent star, Proxima Centauri, is cooler and redder than our Sun, one of the other two stars in the Alpha Centauri star system is very similar to our Sun. The featured image shows the sky location of Proxima Centauri in southern skies behind the telescope that made many of the discovery observations: ESO’s 3.6-meter telescope in La Silla, Chile.
The discovered planet orbits close in — so close, in fact, that one year there takes only 11 days on Earth.
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The planet was discovered by the ESO’s Pale Red Dot collaboration. Although seemingly unlikely, if Proxima b does have intelligent life, at 4.25 light years distance it is close enough to Earth for two-way communication.
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The air was rife last week with the smell of Brussels celebrating its 20th anniversary of the annual Flower Carpet event.
The Grand-Palais – a beautiful plaza of Gothic architecture honored as a Unesco World Heritage site – even features a concert with a specially composed anthem for the event’s theme.
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This year’s theme celebrated over 150 years of Belgian and Japanese friendship.
The Tapis de Fleurs includes a committee of artists and designers that use scaled pictures and illustrations to create the festival’s carpet image. Once the design has been confirmed, the flowers can be ordered in advance to highlight each color in the picture.
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A week before the flowers are arranged, a drawing is laid down on the cobblestones as a stencil for the volunteers.
It’s no surprise that the festival has been continuing since its first event in 1971 – Belgium is the largest exporter of begonias in the world, supplying over 60 million bulbs a year primarily to France, the United States, and the Netherlands.
(WATCH the video below)
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A 25-year-old man recovering from a coma has made remarkable progress following a treatment at UCLA to jump-start his brain using ultrasound. The technique uses sonic stimulation to excite the neurons in the thalamus, an egg-shaped structure that serves as the brain’s central hub for processing information.
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Monti said the researchers expected the positive result, but he cautioned that the procedure requires further study on additional patients before they determine whether it could be used consistently to help other people recovering from comas.
“It is possible that we were just very lucky and happened to have stimulated the patient just as he was spontaneously recovering,” Monti said.
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A report on the treatment is published in the journal Brain Stimulation. This is the first time the approach has been used to treat severe brain injury.
The technique, called low-intensity focused ultrasound pulsation, was pioneered by Alexander Bystritsky, a UCLA professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences in the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and a co-author of the study. Bystritsky is also a founder of Brainsonix, a Sherman Oaks, California-based company that provided the device the researchers used in the study.
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That device, about the size of a coffee cup saucer, creates a small sphere of acoustic energy that can be aimed at different regions of the brain to excite brain tissue. For the new study, researchers placed it by the side of the man’s head and activated it 10 times for 30 seconds each, in a 10-minute period.
Monti said the device is safe because it emits only a small amount of energy — less than a conventional Doppler ultrasound.
“The changes were remarkable,” Monti said.
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The technique targets the thalamus because, in people whose mental function is deeply impaired after a coma, thalamus performance is typically diminished. And medications that are commonly prescribed to people who are coming out of a coma target the thalamus only indirectly.
Under the direction of Paul Vespa, a UCLA professor of neurology and neurosurgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, the researchers plan to test the procedure on several more people beginning this fall at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center. Those tests will be conducted in partnership with the UCLA Brain Injury Research Center and funded in part by the Dana Foundation and the Tiny Blue Dot Foundation.
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If the technology helps other people recovering from coma, Monti said, it could eventually be used to build a portable device — perhaps incorporated into a helmet — as a low-cost way to help “wake up” patients, perhaps even those who are in a vegetative or minimally conscious state. Currently, there is almost no effective treatment for such patients, he said.
The study’s other co-authors are Vespa, who holds UCLA’s Gary L. Brinderson Family Chair in Neurocritical Care and is director of neurocritical care at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center; Caroline Schnakers, a UCLA neurosurgery researcher; and Alexander Korb, a Semel Institute researcher.
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Thanks to a family donation, a new space for outdoor adventure, recreation, and play will be available to the public in Maine.
This week, President Obama announced the designation of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument as America’s 413th participating space of the National Park System.
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The new national park was made possible through a generous donation of 87,500 acres by Roxanne Quimby and her family. The gift has been facilitated by the National Park Foundation as part of its Centennial Campaign for America’s National Parks.
In addition to the new park land, the gift includes an endowment of $20 million to supplement federal funds for initial park operational needs and infrastructure development at the new monument, and a pledge of another $20 million in future philanthropic support.
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“As the National Park Service begins a second century of conservation this week, the President’s designation of Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument serves as an inspiration to reflect on America’s iconic landscapes and historical and cultural treasures,” said U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. “Through this incredibly generous private gift for conservation, these lands will remain accessible to current and future generations of Americans, ensuring the rich history of Mainers’ hunting, fishing and recreation heritage will forever be preserved.”
“The National Park Service marks its centennial this week with a renewed commitment to tell a more complete story of our nation and to connect with the next generation of park visitors, supporters and advocates,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the Centennial and underscore our mission than by adding this extraordinary piece of Maine’s North Woods to the National Park System, and sharing its stories and world class recreation opportunities with the rest of the world.”
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Through the Centennial Campaign for America’s National Parks, the National Park Foundation seeks to raise $350 million for programs and projects designed to protect America’s special places, connect people from all backgrounds to parks, and inspire future generations of national park stewards. With this gift, the Foundation has raised more than $300 million toward the goal.
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These orcas will have to stay hungry thanks to the quick actions of this runaway seal.
The sailors encouraged the seal to stay still as the orcas circled in the water below.
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The critter accidentally fell off the boat a few times, but always managed to climb back on just in time.
Once the predators finally left after 35-40 minutes of pursuing their prey, the happy seal dived into the sea and swam into the sunset alive and well.
(WATCH the incredible video below) Editor’s note: graphic language used.
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The 2016 Rio Olympics have taken its toll on the city’s struggling infrastructure, but the Olympic Committee is taking strides to ensure more efficient social and environmental responsibility by reusing the buildings typically abandoned after the games.
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AECOM, an engineering consulting company that created the master plans for the Olympics has mapped out the event’s “legacy mode” – also known as the plans and processes of cleaning up once the games are over.
“With the legacy vision already in place, the strategy was always to create world‑class sports facilities that would not languish unused after the Games,” says Bill Hanway, AECOM’s Global Sports Leader on the buildings. “This meant looking hard at the business case for each stadium. If it didn’t have a clear role post-Games, it became a temporary venue, with its constituent parts designated for reuse.”
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Now that the games have ended, construction crews will start the deconstruction of the building for better use.
The handball venue known as the Future Arena will be used to build four 500-student primary schools in the city’s Jacarepaguá neighborhood while the $38 million Aquatic Stadium where Michael Phelps dominated his races will go towards creating two community swimming centers.
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The International Broadcast Center will become a high school dormitory for gifted athletes; the peninsula that featured several game venues will become host to public parks and private development; and the Tennis Center and souvenir shop can simply be disassembled for better use.
Not only are nomadic buildings better for the city’s infrastructure, but they’re also cheaper to build and more environmentally friendly since they don’t require permanent design and materials.
Build Positivity In Your Friends Lives, Click To Share – Photo by Around The Rings 1992
