Synagogue members suggested they rent their building to a Muslim congregation when they heard it was looking for a place to host overflowing crowds.
On Fridays now in the suburban building in Reston, Virginia, there are Jewish prayers in Hebrew for the evening, and a Muslim call to prayer in Arabic for the afternoon. They are “breaking the stereotypes” of Muslim-Jewish conflict.
(READ the AP story at NBC News)
American household wealth increased this spring for the first time in nearly two years as rescue efforts to turn back the recession boosted stock portfolios and home values.
The Federal Reserve says household net worth grew by $2 trillion to $53.1 trillion in the April-to-June quarter.
(Read more in AP article at Cleveland.com)
At the Emmy Awards the night’s biggest winners, like 30 Rock and Mad Men, were recipients of the award last year, but there were also a few surprises as actors and comedians waited to see who won the major awards.
Watch the highlight video from Reuters: (Also, see the fashions from the red carpet in second video…)
The Aldine Independent School District outside Houston has won the 2009 Broad Prize for Urban Education, the largest education award in the country, and will receive $1 million in college scholarships for graduating seniors, four out of five of whom come from low-income families.
Announced last week, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation prize honors the most consistent student achievement gains nationally in urban American school systems where once there were wide gaps in performance among minority and economically disadvantaged groups.
Aldine will receive $1 million in college scholarships for seniors graduating next spring, while the four other finalists — Fort Lauderdale, Florida’s Broward County Public Schools; Atlanta’s Gwinnett County Public Schools; Long Beach Unified School District in California; and Socorro Independent School District in El Paso, Texas — will each receive $250,000.
They are non-addictive, mood-altering chemicals that are legal, affordable and easily obtainable in your neighbourhood – at any grocery store.
They’re not pills, powders or capsules. They come in the form of foods like bananas, cantaloupe, kale and whole wheat bread.
From cake, steak and tapas, to oysters, chicken and burgers, a British entertainment reporter roamed the world to find the 50 best things to eat and the best places to eat them in…
Check out Killian Fox’s list in the Guardian!
The head of the FCC plans to propose new rules that would prohibit Internet service providers from interfering with the free flow of information and certain applications over their networks, according to reports published Saturday.
‘Net neutrality’ would bar Internet service providers such as Verizon, Comcast or AT&T, from slowing or blocking certain services or content.
The top United Nations envoy in Afghanistan today joined colleagues in releasing 21 doves ahead of the International Day of Peace for a country which has witnessed intensifying conflict over the past year.
“We need peace now. We need to bring this terrible conflict to an end,” said Kai Eide, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan. (Photo, right by Fardin Waezi-UNAMA)
The doves were released from the Kabul headquarters of the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan by Mr. Eide and representatives from 21 UN agencies working in the country.
The Special Representative called for an immediate end to the conflict, adding that the burden of bringing the conflict to a halt falls first of all on the Afghans themselves.
A 64-year-old retiree from northern England has shot two holes-in-one but on the same round of golf.
“A hole in one in itself is usually pretty amazing,” Day said in Friday’s edition of The Journal, a newspaper in northeast England. “But I couldn’t believe it when I did the same thing 10 holes further on.”
The head of the United Nations maritime agency has praised Iran for its support of international efforts in combating piracy off the coast of Somalia.
Secretary-General Efthimios E. Mitropoulos yesterday wrapped up a four-day visit to Iran and Syria where he met with Government ministers to discuss challenges surrounding piracy, shortages in the number of seafarers and climate change.
In a meeting with high-level ministers in Iran, Mr. Mitropoulos applauded the government for dispatching naval vessels to the Gulf of Aden to prevent and suppress piracy in the region.
The largest real-world test of fuel cell cars celebrates one million miles driven over the last two years with a fleet of hydrogen powered vehicles test-driven by everyday people.
Participants in Project Driveway were given the opportunity to drive the gas-free, emissions-free Chevrolet Equinox wherever they wanted. Shell Oil teamed up to provide the hydrogen filling stations for the mid-sized SUVs. To celebrate the millionth mile, current and former drivers came together to share their experience and talk about the future of hydrogen.
In exchange for the two months of free gas and insurance, the drivers in California, New York City and Washington, D.C. provided feedback to engineers. Customer comments are helping the automaker improve the fuel cell experience and in some cases modify the vehicle, bringing it one step closer to reality. Several automakers have said that they will have hydrogen-powered vehicles ready for market by 2015. It is considered the cleanest, greenest of vehicle technologies, yet with the most hurdles to overcome.
The video below may take a moment to load…
The Department of Energy announced yesterday they finalized a loan of $5.9 billion for Ford Motor Company to transform factories across Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, and Ohio to produce more fuel efficient models.
The loan is part of the Department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing program, which supports the development of innovative, advanced vehicle technologies. The loan for Ford Motor Company is the first to be finalized since the program was appropriated by Congress in the fall of 2008.
This announcement builds on steps taken by the Obama Administration earlier this week to require an average fuel economy of 35.5 miles per gallon from U.S. automakers by the year 2016. That standard will reduce oil consumption by an estimated 1.8 billion barrels, prevent greenhouse gas emissions of approximately 950 million metric tons, and save the average car buyer more than $3,000 in fuel costs. The funding announced today will help Ford meet those targets.
A winner and three finalists from the Changemakers/Global Water Challenge are sharing a $1 million gift from the Coca Cola Foundation to bring clean water and sanitation to the far corners of the Earth.
“We believe (it) will start a ripple effect in their communities and create scalable, replicable and sustainable models that can be applied around the world,” said Paul Faeth, President of Global Water Challenge.
More than a billion people worldwide lack a consistent supply of clean water and 2.6 billion do not have access to a safe toilet. But solutions abound…
As the Obama administration and Congress debate the details of a national health care plan, the state that paved the way for universal coverage was honored in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 14. 
Even in the “oldest old,” a little physical activity goes a long way, extending life by at least a few years for people in their mid- to late 80s, Israeli researchers found. The three-year survival rate was about three times higher for active 85-year-olds compared with those who were inactive.
Indeed, it seems that it is never too late to start,” the researchers wrote in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine, which published the study.
(Continue reading in HealthZone)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
She dared to be different. Before Chanel, no one casually wore a dress in black. In the new film, Coco Before Chanel, we see “a penniless orphan transform herself into a fabulous designer who transformed ladies’ fashion.”
In the late 1800’s, living on her own and earning money as a seamstress during the day, Chanel one day found herself surrounded by beauties topped with hats like “cakes on their heads.” Disgusted with women’s fashion, she was “driven to design a simpler silhouette,” even cutting her boyfriend’s clothing down to fit her slim figure.
“Other women noticed Chanel’s chic, beautiful style and began to buy her clean-cut, simple clothes.”
(Read more about Coco w/ photos, or hear review, at NPR)
The French film (with subtitles) opens next Friday in the U.S. in a limited release. See a trailer here.
Artist David Anthony Hummer’s paintings are collected worldwide but his real passion is blossoming back in his hometown of Wausau, Wisconsin among the county’s 1000 homeless people.
Hummer began painting the faces of weathered homeless men and women after a Manhattan business trip with a fellow gallery owner. He had just exited a gallery in which people regularly purchase works of art priced in the millions. He noticed a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk with a sign on his lap asking for help. This extreme contrast of poverty and wealth hit him with a shock. (Portrait, right, Cassandras Peace by David Hummer)
His work has evolved from wistful and light brushstrokes capturing children in red wagons into realistic portraits of homeless people, ever hoping to create an awareness of this growing problem. He abandoned his gallery business and spent the next 15 years producing these portraits and working with homeless shelters.
After returning to the city of his roots, Hummer is now helping local homeless vets through the Randlin Homes program. He has recently donated 7 large homeless portraits from his collection to sell as a benefit to Randlin Homes, which is helping to get homeless vets back on their feet.
“For me, as an artist, these compositions keep me alive and interested and fresh,” said Hummer. “The new work evolves (when I ask) myself what I can say about this person, composing and orchestrating new images that allow me to make my connection to the subject, which in turn will allow the viewer to make connections.”
Watch the local news report below, and view more of his gorgeous work online at
DavidAnthonyHummer.com.
Writing and editing by Geri; Thanks to the Sequoia Project for submitting the links!
A company in Washington, D.C. opened a new a $5 million plant this morning that it says will annually convert 6,000 tons of plastic into nearly a million barrels of something resembling oil. The product can be blended with other components and sold as gasoline or diesel. Their proprietary process uses infrared energy converting one to the other for about $10 a barrel, he said.
Montgomery County, just north of Washington, is giving the Envion company a free supply of plastic and a spot at its waste transfer station.
With Ramadan ending in the coming days, Imam Habeeb Alli is making a special point of what he calls the greatest act of charity a Muslim can make during this holy month – signing an organ donor card.
“This is one of the greatest charities we can do,” he says, adding that Ramadan, which ends Monday, emphasizes charitable giving. Alli says his group drew on the writings of several top Muslim thinkers to show that the vast majority support organ donation. “It has the validity of scholarship,” he says.
(Continue reading in Toronto Star)
Photo: Muslim Holy service in Mecca- by Ali Mansuri, CC license
The unwise practice of routinely prescribing antibiotics to kids suffering from an ear infection is coming to a formal end in Canada.
The Canadian Paediatric Society today instructed doctors to watch and wait for 48 hours before using antibiotics to treat most ear infections in healthy children over six months of age.
About 95 percent of the time, an acetaminophen like Tylenol alone works just as well to treat the kind of ear infection that preschoolers with a cold are prone to, said specialist Dr. Joan Robinson in a statement. She said the main reason for the treatment change is concern about increasing resistance to antibiotics by over-prescribing them.
