A choir of homeless men have been invited to sing at America’s most famous home.
President and Mrs. Obama have invited the Homeward Choir, which is entirely made up of men who stay at the Central Night Shelter in Atlanta, Georgia, to perform at the White House on December 21.
“It’s been a complete whirlwind,” Donal Noonan, the choir’s director, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’m so excited for the guys.”
Southwest Airlines has decided to fly all 26 choir members to Washington, DC for the concert.
As of November 21, the nonprofit group has raised more than $10,000 through its website and Facebook page to help pay for the rest of the trip– expenses like food, lodging, clothes, and musical accompaniment.
(WATCH the video below from WXIA or READ more at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) — Photo: Homeward Choir, Facebook
Lewis Carroll first told the story to family friends on a boat ride down the Isis river in an attempt to entertain three young sisters. One of those girls was 10 year-old Alice Liddell, whom Carroll later confessed was his favorite of the three. Alice loved the fantastical tale so much that she begged him to write it down so it would not be forgotten. After much pestering, Carroll promised the young girl that the story would not be lost.
Nearly two and a half years later Carroll delivered the story to Miss Liddell handwritten in a green leather booklet filled with illustrations and presented as a Christmas gift in 1864.
It was through later encouragement from friends who also read the manuscript that Carroll set his mind to publishing the story.
Composed of twelve short chapters that read like individual episodes, the children’s book begins with seven year-old Alice, sitting with her sisters. After falling asleep, she enters “Wonderland” by falling down a rabbit hole. Alice encounters many strange animals that engage her in conversation. As she moves deeper into Wonderland she becomes more enchanted–and confused–by the inhabitants of the strange land, including the Queen of Hearts who invites her for a game of croquet during which the infamous Cheshire Cat appears. At the end of the novel, when she finds herself in trouble, she wakes up. Her adventures in Wonderland–and all the meaningful metaphors–were all a dream.
Lewis Carroll was the pen name used by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, a shy man with a stammer and a great reluctance to open his private life. Though he remained personally sequestered from the spotlight, he relished the job of marketing his well-loved children’s story in any way he could. Illustrations of his quirky characters were placed on everyday items for children to see, such as biscuit tins and postage stamp cases.
BBC wandered the streets of Glasgow asking people left and right one thought-provoking question: if you could change one thing about your life, what would it be?
Endearing accents aside, their answers ranged from simple things like being a few inches taller or living somewhere warmer, to heart-wrenchingly deep, insightful answers – like owning a dragon as a pet.
However, beyond all the joking, it’s a sweet peek into the lives of average Scots going about their day. What would you change?
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He was homeless at the age of 16, but Rashawn Higgs has turned his life around.
On his 25th birthday, November 18, he loaded up a truck with $300 worth of clothing and coats from thrift stores, and packed dozens of bagged lunches– all on a mission to give back to the community he loves.
From the San Francisco area, Rashawn set up a Facebook page, called “Let’s help the world.”
(WATCH the video below from KTVU) – Image credit: KTVU video
Women consuming moderate amounts of caffeine during pregnancy can be reassured that they are not harming their child’s brain or intelligence.
The study of more than 2000 pregnant women is one of the first to focus on how in-utero caffeine exposure affects a child’s future IQ and behavior later in childhood.
The findings from The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital were published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Researchers analyzed a marker of caffeine in the blood of 2,197 expectant mothers at multiple sites in the United States in 1959-1974. According to the researchers, this was an era when coffee consumption during pregnancy was more prevalent than today, as there was little concern regarding the safety of caffeine. Therefore, the study was able to investigate a broader range of caffeine intake than if a similar study was done today.
“Taken as a whole, we consider our results to be reassuring for pregnant women who consume moderate amounts of caffeine or the equivalent to 1 or 2 cups of coffee per day,” said Dr. Keim, who is also a faculty member at The Ohio State University College of Medicine.
Researchers found there were no consistent patterns between maternal caffeine ingestion and child cognition or behavior at 4 or 7 years of age.
This study follows previous research regarding caffeine consumption during pregnancy conducted at The Research Institute involving the same group of women that found an increased ingestion of caffeine during pregnancy did not increase the risk of childhood obesity.
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Sawiris has since expanded his list to 17 islands with a goal of determining which could support the most people — he has proposed a population 200,000.
While he’s optimistic a deal is at hand, a top aide told Forbes, “Due to the delicacy of the issue he has not disclosed specific reasons for his optimism.”
Sawiris plans to rename his purchase Aylan Island in honor of the three-year-old Syrian boy whose death at sea triggered an outpouring of sympathy around the world for the plight of refugees fleeing the war.
Once an island is purchased, Sawiris plans to involve the public in helping to launch a new city — or country — for the refugees who relocate there. He’s suggested a joint-stock company that allows people to become “a partner in the island” by issuing shares in the project.
New York-based Turkish billionaire Hamdi Ulukaya has been hiring refugees for the past five years at his Chobani yogurt plants. He’s also created the Tent Foundation to provide direct assistance including two million dollars to help groups helping Syrian refugees.
There’s a new world champion for the most-shared video advertisement ever — because it is adorable.
Set to the music of Roger Miller’s “Oo-De-Lolly,” it’s a full minute of unlikely animal friends — a cat caring for duckings, a dog playing with an elephant, a tiger and bear in a cuddle, and an orangutan playing tag with a hound.
UK video technology company Unruly crunched the numbers and the ad by Android, called “Friends Furever”, came in at number one on the company’s Top 20 Global Video Ads Chart.
The ad premiered February 5, and has racked up 6.4 million social media shares and 20.6 million views on the original YouTube post.
(WATCH the video above)
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If you mention whale watching, not too many people will think of London, but an environmental comeback has led to dozens of sightings in the Thames River in the past ten years.
A half century ago, the river was declared “biologically extinct” — meaning, it was so polluted nothing could live in it. Now, with improved water quality, fish have returned and attracted the larger marine animals encouraged by the new food supply.
In addition to the whales, the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) has tallied reports of more than 400 dolphins and porpoises seen swimming in the Thames and hundreds of seals that frequent the river.
“It’s quite sheltered compared with the North Sea, and there is a whole different range of environments and habitats for the marine mammals to use.” Joanna Barker, ZSL’s European conservation projects manager, told the BBC.
With more than 2,700 marine mammals sighted along the Thames since 2005, its recovery from centuries of industrial pollution seems to be coming along swimmingly.
Some people are presented with a cake and a watch when they retire, but this street sweeper is getting a bronze statue of himself erected in the town square.
A committee in Sortland, Norway has decided that’s the best way to honor longtime street sweeper Kjetil Paulsen when he retires next year. He’s spent 20 years keeping Sortland’s streets litter free and was already elected “Sortlander of the Year” in 2008.
A Facebook group, “La oss hedre Kjetil Paulsen” (English: Let’s honor Kjetil Paulsen), sprang up this year to further pay homage to him before his retirement.
Committee members say a statue will symbolize Paulsen’s grassroots presence and human contact with Sortland’s people.
When it is erected in 2016, it’ll be the first life-sized statue in the town of 10,000. The sculptor who has already met with Paulsen says she wants to capture his “bubbly personality.”
Sortland is also promoting a new phrase — “Take a Kjetil” — meaning, “clean up after yourself,” since no one cleaned up their town better than Paulsen.
One comment in the Facebook group read, “Without Kjetil, Sortland would be a pigsty. He is doing a great job!”
(READ more, w/ photos, at ABC Nyheter) — Photos: La oss hedre Kjetil Paulsen, Facebook; blickpixel, CC
The last remaining research chimpanzees in the U.S. government are headed for a retirement home.
The National Institutes of Health shut down most research on chimps in 2013, but kept 50 of the apes in case of a public health emergency. On Wednesday, NIH announced those last chimps would sent to a sanctuary to live out their lives in the midst of nature. Another 82 chimpanzees the NIH supports at other research laboratories will also be headed into retirement.
About 300 government chimpanzees have already been sent to Chimp Haven in Louisiana. It has a waiting list and animal advocacy groups are working with the NIH to find new homes for the newly retired research apes.
The federal government relied on chimps for research during the early days of the space program and for decades to test new drugs because the apes are genetically and biologically similar to humans. The need to use them for any kind of research has become increasingly rare in recent years.
Earlier this year, the Fish and Wildlife Service gave research chimpanzees the same protections it provides endangered species. The move banned all invasive research on chimps in the U.S.
“It’s time to say we’ve reached the point in the U.S. where invasive research on chimpanzees is no longer something that makes sense,” said Dr. Francis Collins, Director of NIH, told ABC News.
A historic medical breakthrough in Canada this month gives doctors an effective new way to treat diseases of the brain, including cancer, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s.
A persistent obstacle to treating brain disorders and tumors has been the difficulty in delivering drugs to that location.
There is a natural barrier wrapped around the tiny blood vessels in the brain meant to keep toxins out. The problem is, this “blood-brain barrier” also prevents drugs in the blood stream from leaving capillaries and getting into the brain—until now.
Doctors in Toronto became the first to penetrate the blood-brain barrier. They used ultrasound waves and vibrating microbubbles which allowed life-saving drugs to pass through. Their new process allowed them to treat a woman’s terminal brain cancer.
“It will revolutionize the way we treat brain disease completely,” Dr. Kullervo Hynynen, Director of Physical Sciences at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Center, told CTV News in the video above. “It will give hope to patients who have no hope.”
Bonny Hall, had a tumor called a glioma, which is extremely difficult to treat surgically because it spreads out in a web within a large network of blood vessels. Patients don’t often survive because the complex surgery can rarely remove all the cancer. Chemotherapy isn’t very effective either, since only about 25% of chemo drugs reach the tumor due to the blood-brain barrier.
Researchers first injected Hall with cancer medications, then inserted tiny microbubbles into her bloodstream. They used ultrasound to cause the bubbles to vibrate in targeted parts of capillaries around her brain. The vibrating bubbles gently tore open tiny leaks in the capillaries, allowing the cancer medications to leak out of them and into brain tissue.
The damage is very temporary, with the capillaries healing and the blood-brain barrier restored within 12 hours after the procedure.
Breaching this barrier opens a new frontier for all doctors, not just those at Sunnybrook, who will test nine more patients before publishing their results.
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The world could learn a lot from this special education teacher in Florida.
He doesn’t start his lessons until he has complimented every student in his class — one at a time, with a high five as an exclamation point.
It’s part special education teacher Chris Ulmer’s unique way of boosting performance for kids with special needs. He spends the first 10 minutes of class telling each student what he likes about them.
He also uses videos and music to help his kids learn at Mainspring Academy in Jacksonville, Florida.
One of his songs teaches that they shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help finding books — or their courage.
“When it’s dark and scary, just grab your uncle Larry and ask for a little help,” one of his students sings as Ulmer strums away on a guitar.
He posts his videos to the “Special Books by Special Kids” Facebook page he started along with his students to teach everyone outside his classroom about the great kids found within.
“These children deserve to be heard, loved and appreciated,” Ulmer wrote in a post about one of his videos that has been viewed 36 million times. “The world needs to understand that in many ways, the children have it right. We need to learn from them.”
(WATCH the video below from Inside Edition) — Photo: Special Books by Special Kids, Facebook
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Want to beat the crowds on Black Friday? One group has a deal that’ll lead you among towering redwood trees instead of looking up at big box stores.
The Save the Redwoods League is sponsoring free visits to 49 California state parks that feature the giant trees. The deal is good for one day, November 27, the day after Thanksgiving — one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
To take advantage of what they call “the best bargain you’re going to find this Black Friday,” just go to the League’s website to download and print an admission pass. It will save you the purchase price of eight to ten dollars per vehicle to get in.
An anonymous donor contributed $50,000 to pay for the day in the parks.
Minnesota state parks are also are offering free admission to 76 of its parks which usually charge five dollars per car. Missouri already offers free admission to its state parks year round, but it’s waiving camping fees for anyone who wants to spend Black Friday camping out in nature — rather than a crowded parking lot.
(The KNTV video below shows the Redwoods near San Francisco) — Photo: Daniel, CC; Allie_Caulfield, CC
People on the Scottish island of Bute are promising dozens of Syrian refugees “a wonderful life” when they arrive in the next few weeks.
In fact, they’re hosting a film screening of the holiday classic, “It’s a Wonderful Life” December 13 to welcome the new community members–and also raise money to help pay for their necessities.
Fifteen families, including 50 children, will be transported by ferry to the island in the coming weeks.
About 6,300 people live in Bute and many have been pitching in to help the new arrivals. A “skills bank” was set up for volunteers to lend talents such as teaching English, translating for the refugees, or simply befriending them.
The local council has set up a Refugee Resettlement Group that’s already made arrangements to house the Syrian families.
“I want Bute to be a place where people who come here with little more than the clothes they are standing in can feel safe and at home.” Craig Borland, editor of local paper The Buteman, wrote in a commentary.
We all know it’s part of your job when you’re a law enforcement officer–to protect and serve. But, serving egg sandwiches?
Two Dutch cops were making their rounds in Eindhoven, Netherlands on Friday when they responded to a call about a hypoglycemic mother suffering from low blood sugar.
After the mother was whisked off to the hospital, five little kids were left alone in the house without dinner.
Stepping up to the call of duty, the two unnamed police officers kept the kids entertained while they made fried egg sandwiches, fresh fruit, and even washed the sink full of dirty dishes.
Before an adult guardian arrived to look after the kiddos, the officers posted a smiling selfie to the Politie Eindhoven page on Facebook.
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The largest of Austria’s nine states now produces all of its electricity from renewable sources.
The premier of Lower Austria, which surrounds the city of Vienna, made the announcement November 5, to spark inspiration ahead of the international conference on climate change next month in Paris.
Home to 1.6 million people, Lower Austria has invested three billion dollars in new solar, wind, and biomass power plants, and refurbishing the critical hydroelectric stations on the Danube River.
The Danube’s massive flow through the state’s hydro plants generates two-thirds of the state’s electricity needs. The last fossil fuel plants were shut down and replaced this year by the newer renewables.
Your first reaction to some video montages may be, “Someone had too much time on their hands…” But after watching this one, you’ll be glad they put in the effort.
This amazing video pairs clips from a parade of old Hollywood musicals with matching beats from Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars’s “Uptown Funk,” so seamlessly, you’ll swear the hit song had to have been featured in “Singing in the Rain.”
Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Gene Kelly are among the dozens of dancers who are spinning and tapping in perfect time with the modern groove.
The four people behind Nerd Fest UK plowed through hundreds of hours of classic movies to find just the right moves for the music. One of their members, Michael Binder, has written a book about film preservation and the group features links under this YouTube post asking others to donate to the cause.
This video may well revive a lot of old cinema, if younger generations are sufficiently moved by the moves.
A Michigan restaurant is offering a free feast and fellowship for the lonely on Thanksgiving — and it may be more crowded than the owner expected.
A passerby in Northville noticed the sign in the window of George’s Senate Coney Island offering free meals for anyone alone on Thanksgiving Day. He snapped a picture, posted it at Imgur, and thousands of people have seen the generous offer.
During Olive Horrell’s 97-year lifetime–especially her golden years–a lot has changed. She couldn’t keep up with all the recent technological breakthroughs and so had one bucket wish: to visit Google and see where they get all their good ideas.
Thanks to the Wish of a Lifetime organization that fulfills dreams for the elderly, Olive was given a VIP tour of the tech giant’s Mountain View, California campus where she gleefully experienced cruising in a self-driving car–and was thunderstruck while wearing virtual reality goggles.
The geeky grandma had wanted to be an engineer in her youth, but did not pursue it because her father, who worked in the field, said it wasn’t good for women.
Giddy with excitement, Olive wondered how she would keep up with the wonderful technology that surrounded her, which is how many of us feel sometimes.
Curious about the man’s dilemma, Officer Joyner asked what happened to his shoes.
After he explained that he simply didn’t own any, Joyner walked across the street to the shoe store to make a purchase.
Just as the policeman delivered a brand new pair of boots into the man’s hands, a woman walking by decided to turn on her camera phone and record the exchange.
“I just felt like the gentlemen simply was on hard times,” Joyner told KYW-TV. “He wanted to ride on the bus but he couldn’t afford shoes; there was no need for me to arrest him for that.”
The camera lady, Kayla Palmer, uploaded it to Facebook the next day where it has since received over 60,000 views.
Officer Joyner of the Delaware Port Authority is to be honored by Congressman Donald Norcross in Camden next Monday for his heartwarming act of kindness.
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