Bob Schiro’s Halloween displays are legendary in San Jose. His goal is to foster neighborliness, but, it’s grown bigger than that.
Over the past decade his displays have become increasingly elaborate. Last year’s pirate ship was 50-feet long. This year’s haunted house, a Victorian mansion, is hand-constructed and three stories high.
Hundreds of doctors, firefighters, emergency personnel and volunteers are converging on the East Coast to help devastated areas with recovery efforts.
Trent Smith, from Indiana expects to spend the coming days working long hours with little sleep, but he said the work will have its own rewards.
“The vast majority of people that work for (the) department do this because they have this internal feeling that ‘I want to help,'” said Smith, who normally works as a public information officer for the Indiana state police.
Most people traveling to the East Coast are part of organized groups. But some are heading out on their own, driven by a desire to help in whatever way they can.
(READ the featured story from NBC News)
A new project to record the stories of America’s “Greatest Generation” was launched by a Boy Scout who lost his grandfather at an early age.
Of the 16 million men and women galvanized during World War II, fewer than two million are still alive. Society is losing on average 700 of these seniors daily — like the scout’s grandpa who fought in the Battle of the Bulge. Many of this generation have never spoken about what they did during the war.
Greg Merson, an A student who dropped out of the University of Maryland and beat a drug addiction has also now beaten the table to win the World Series of Poker, outlasting eight other players to win $8.5 million.
His parents, who had traveled to Las Vegas from Laurel, Maryland to witness the finals which started on Monday, rushed the table to hug and congratulate him as confetti flowed from above.
Two little girls in Texas gave up their Justin Bieber tickets to let another ‘belieber’ with a rare blood disorder go to the concert instead.
Dawson Beaty and Samantha Brown didn’t even know 7-year old Emma Routh. They read about her on a facebook page.
“I wanted to go to the Justin Bieber concert,” Beaty said, “but she really wanted to go, so I let her have my concert tickets.”
Players from German orchestra mingled with crowds on a Cologne plaza recently and one by one joined in to play the well-known tones from a galaxy far, far away.
The WDR Radio Orchestra cherishes all kinds of good music, including operettas and jazz, rock and pop, film and video game music in its repertoire.
The Coast Guard rescued 14 people adrift in life rafts in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 90 miles off the coast of Hatteras, N.C. on Monday morning, following the sinking of their ship in 40 mile-per-hour winds.
The heroic Coast Guard effort to rescue survivors from the replica tall ship, HMS Bounty, involved helicopters, baskets and swimmers in the midst of some 18-ft swells.
The Coast Guard rescued 14 people adrift in life rafts in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 90 miles off the coast of Hatteras, N.C. on Monday morning, following the sinking of their ship in 40 mile-per-hour winds.
The heroic Coast Guard effort to rescue survivors from the replica tall ship, HMS Bounty, involved helicopters, baskets and swimmers in the midst of some 18-ft swells.
Six-year-old Nico Castro from San Bruno, Calif., isn’t letting his battle with brain cancer affect his spirit of giving this Halloween.
After his doctor gave him the green light to go trick-or-treating thanks to a break in his chemotherapy, he began worrying about the other kids in the cancer ward who remain confined to beds.
“I was sad they wouldn’t have candy (or costumes),” Nico explained.
There is “reason for some optimism” for the UK economy, the Bank of England’s deputy governor Charlie Bean said after last week’s GDP figures showed production expanded by 1%.
He also pointed to “signs of progress” from the eurozone and banking crises and inflation, which is staying down.
In related news, Reuters reports that British retail sales picked up faster than forecasted in October.
Chrysler Group LLC reported a net profit of $381 million for the third quarter of 2012 on Monday, up 80 percent from the $212 million profit the company reported for the same period a year ago.
Monday’s results mark the third consecutive quarter of solid profitability for the company, which means the 26,000 members of the United Auto Workers employed in Chrysler’s factories will next year likely receive their signing bonus of $1,750, as part of the union’s 2011 agreement with the automaker.
An 80-year-old Utah man arrived on the East Coast Monday to help feed evacuees from Hurricane Sandy. Vern Gillmore, who says his hobby is volunteering, joins other Good Samaritans from around the country and Canada leaving their warm homes and heading into the eye of the storm to help neighbors they’ve never met.
“It makes me sad to see some of the devastation that goes on with the hurricanes,” said fellow Utah Red Cross volunteer Tina Spencer, “but it’s just a wonderful thing to see the gratitude on the faces of people that are in the middle of a disaster.”
Red Cross Volunteers will stay on the scene for at least 2-3 weeks or until they are finished providing services.
Meanwhile, utility crews from as far away as Florida and even Canada have sent convoys of trucks streaming into the disaster zone to help restore power and repair dangerous broken power lines expected to impact millions of people in every state from Virginia all the way north to Vermont, according to reports.
– WATCH the Arkansas video below – or READ the story, here.
An 80-year-old Utah man arrived on the East Coast Monday to help feed evacuees from Hurricane Sandy. Vern Gillmore, who says his hobby is volunteering, joins other Good Samaritans from around the country and Canada leaving their warm homes and heading into the eye of the storm to help neighbors they’ve never met.
“It makes me sad to see some of the devastation that goes on with the hurricanes,” said fellow Utah Red Cross volunteer Tina Spencer, “but it’s just a wonderful thing to see the gratitude on the faces of people that are in the middle of a disaster.”
An expanding body of research suggests people’s moral compasses are active far earlier than previously thought.
Young children and even babies demonstrate attributes such as generosity, empathy and a sense of justice, indicating that far from being born as clean slates, humans seem to have innate altruistic tendencies and are able to make moral choices at a remarkably young age.
A new Canadian (CBC) documentary offers a fascinating exploration of this relatively new and growing area of research. “Babies: Born to be Good?” follows the work of researchers in Canada, the U.S. and China as they test children’s inherent abilities to distinguish right from wrong.
– If you are in Canada, you can watch the full show here on CBC.
– READ the article in the Toronto Globe and Mail
– WATCH the preview below
An expanding body of research suggests people’s moral compasses are active far earlier than previously thought.
Young children and even babies demonstrate attributes such as generosity, empathy and a sense of justice, indicating that far from being born as clean slates, humans seem to have innate altruistic tendencies and are able to make moral choices at a remarkably young age.
Earthquakes, hurricanes, fires, floods, and tornadoes can cause massive damage quickly. It is essential to have a disaster plan in place for your animals.
What if you are away when disaster strikes? Do you know your neighbors? If you have to make a poster for your Missing Pet, do you have a simple non-cluttered photo for the best reproduction?
Researchers at the University of British Columbia say they’ve found a way around the nuisance and potential danger of repeatedly having to plug in an electric car to get it moving again.
The university’s physics department says it has developed a way to wirelessly recharge the vehicle using magnets to create a frequency 100 times lower than what’s used now.
126 years to the day since the copper lady was first unveiled in New York City’s harbor, and after a year-long renovation, the Statue Of Liberty is set to receive visitors once again inside her crown.
A ceremony this morning marked the reopening of the statue’s crown and new access to a lower observation deck for the first time to visitors with disabilities.
Highlights of the new rennovations include a new staircase that is not as steep and new elevator for wheelchair access as well as safer exits in case of emergency.
The statue, a gift from France in 1886, stands 305 feet tall if you include the pedestal and base. The copper was hammered by hand in France before being shipped overseas in pieces.
(READ more in the article from New York Fox-13)
126 years to the day since the copper lady was first unveiled in New York City’s harbor, and after a year-long renovation, the Statue Of Liberty is set to receive visitors once again inside her crown.
A ceremony this morning marked the reopening of the statue’s crown and new access to a lower observation deck for the first time to visitors with disabilities.
Scientists in Britain say they have developed a super-sensitive test using nano-particles to spot markers for cancer or the AIDS virus in human blood serum using the naked eye.
As it does not need sophisticated equipment, the test-tube technique should be cheap and simple, making it a a boon for disease detection in poor countries, the team wrote in Nature Nanotechnology on Sunday.
