Alaska’s Rat Island is finally rat-free, 229 years after a Japanese shipwreck spilled rampaging rodents onto the remote Aleutian island, decimating the local bird population.
Now there are signs that several species of birds, including Aleutian cackling geese, ptarmigan, peregrine falcons and black oystercatchers, are starting to nest again on the 10-square-mile (26-sq-km) island.
(Continue reading Reuters report via Yahoo)
Photo credit: Alaska Fish and Wildlife Service
In a corner of the New Mexico desert, the largest solar plant in the United States, the Suntower, will provide power to some 74,000 homes when it opens in 2011.
The 92 megawatt solar thermal plant will look like a giant sea of mirrors surrounding large towers that will house the steam created to push the turbines.
Video from Business Center TV may take a moment to load…
When Washington manicurist Lidia Schaefer returned to her native village in Ethiopia, she was troubled by what she saw: children walking three hours each way to attend classes held not in a school, but under a tree.
After learning in 1998 that one of the girls she’d met — Medhine — had been attacked and killed by a hyena after falling behind other children during the long trek home from school, Schaefer knew she had to act.
She began setting aside a third of her salary and all of her tips, and later sold her house and car, to raise enough money to build a school for the village.
An important but seldom-taught lesson is the value of gratitude. In a culture like ours, where the norm is always to want more, it’s important to encourage children — especially teens — to think about being thankful and to feel fortunate for what they already have. When they do, they often get a boost of happiness and optimism. So do adults, claim researchers.
(Read more by Tom McMahon in Contra Costa Times)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
Dow industrials are in positive territory for 2009 for the first time since January, ending Friday above its 2008 close of 8,776.39.
Markets have rallied for three months straight, since bottoming March 9. In that time, the Dow has gained just over 34%, the S&P 500 40% and the Nasdaq 47%, as of Friday’s close. Bets that the pace of the recession is waning have helped fuel the advance.
A New York City transit conductor says she went to catch a train and caught a baby instead. Bretta Sykes helped a woman who went into labor in a subway train at a lower Manhattan station.
Watch her tell the story of what happened… (Video may take a moment to load.)
President Obama turned on the charm at an event in Wisconsin when an audience member told the president that his daughter was missing school to come hear him speak about healthcare reform. He asked if she needed a note for the teacher, and then obliged, writing, “She’s with me.”
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As fire season approaches, Oregon-based Evergreen International Aviation demonstrated its new 747 Supertanker, billed as the world’s largest and fastest firefighting aircraft.
Vdeo below may take a moment to load…
The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says the country could get rid of its nuclear weapons if other nuclear powers are ready to abandon them too.
“What do we need nuclear arms for?” Putin said during talks with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Yoga is one of the newest ‘secret weapons’ in the US Armed Forces for soldiers suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Beck’s petrel, a small seabird relative of albatrosses and shearwaters, was rediscovered in 2007 by Israeli ornithologist Hadoram Shirihai in a group of Pacific islands near Papua New Guinea. There hadn’t been a confirmed sighting of the bird since 1929. Read more in Wikipedia. – June 11, 2009
When Kevin Paicos was serving as a medic in Afghanistan he was shocked to learn that in a city the size of Orlando, there were no ambulances — locals had never heard of them.
He called his fire chief back home in Ashburnham, Mass., to help. They found an old ambulance, fixed it up and pushed it through the Army’s red tape, delivering it to the people of Farah.
“These people are wonderful, wonderful people,” says Paicos, who is now back in America recruiting volunteers to find and service more ambulances to send overseas. “They’ve been at war for three decades; they deserve a break.”
RELATED GNN STORY: Hearts Open to Donate Fire Equipment a World Away
Ten of the nation’s largest banks are set to return more than 34 percent of the TARP bail-out loans including $1.8 billion in interest.
The financial institutions, J.P. Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Capital One, American Express and Morgan-Stanley among them, will pay back $68 billion of the $199 billion in taxpayer money, beginning as early as next week.
The decision is a milestone for the Obama administration’s financial rescue plan, reflecting new confidence that some large banks have returned to stable profitability.
(Read More in the Washington Post)
The Pittsburgh Steelers were honored at the White House last month, but the ceremony was not the only play President Obama had in mind. He took them out on the lawn to get their help in producing 3000 care packages for US troops overseas.
The President, 50 Wounded Warriors from Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center, and their families joined in the fun.
Watch the uplifting video from the White House …
A retired carpenter with 35 years experience in construction has demonstrated that he can lift a Stonehenge-sized pillar weighing 22,000 lbs using nothing but sticks and rocks.
Wally Wallington believes he has solved part of the mystery of how Stonehenge was raised, thanks to his “Forgotten Technology” which relies on gravity and human ingenuity.
For more information, visit his website, Forgotten Technology.
Is your grocery store conniving, manipulative and scheming?
Most supermarket chains use certain tactics to get you to spend more money on extras that you don’t really need—tactics that affect your wallet, your weight, and your health.
On your next trip, be prepared to fight back.
Read 7 tips in this Atlanta Journal-Constitution Better Health blog.
Enjoying the blessing of living close to a public garden and highway in Tehran where the young generation intentionally produces traffic to react to the enforced religious ideology. The sound of clamor heard from that direction is indeed hope-inspiring. It is as though everybody is awakening from a long slumber, even if only for these remaining nights before the election.
Two weeks of free demonstrations with no violence as such is unprecedented in this so-called “post-revolutionary” era of our county. Depending on age, it reminds of Khatami’s first presidential campaign (1997), the revolution (1978), Khordad 15, 1963, Mosadeq’s movement (1953) … all the way back to the constitutional movement (1905-1911).
The constant sound of car-horns (in familiar rhythms played when brides and bridegrooms are escorted to their new home) interrupted every now and then by collective human voices makes it as though there is a national wedding ceremony. May it be the long awaiting wedding of Ms. Freedom and Mr. Democracy! (Photo credit, above, ISNA photo of political rally, by Mona Hoobkhfekr
The two paintings were extraordinary – Helen Zhuang, the manager of the Goodwill store, knew that the minute she laid her eyes on them. The luminous, framed canvases were left overnight in the donation bin.
She spoke to a supervisor and the two paintings were taken to an auction house where they were sold for a combined total of more than $150,000.
As restaurants compete for customers in the economy of a big city, the SAME cafe in Denver has doubled its business since the recession. The reason is that there are no prices on the menus, just a “Pay what you can” philosophy.
If you can’t afford to pay at all for the largely organic, homemade food, you can volunteer to wipe tables, weed the garden or wash dishes. Many people are inspired to pay extra at the SAME cafe “So All Might Eat”.
(WATCH the video below)
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Despite pre-election forecasts that the Hezbollah-led opposition might gain seats, the pro-Western coalition won 71 of the 128 seats in parliament — picking up one seat — while the Syrian- and Iranian-backed opposition alliance led by Hezbollah won 57.
Both the White House and State Department congratulated the Lebanese people for carrying out a peaceful election.
In a written statement, President Barack Obama said the Lebanese people had once more demonstrated to the world their courage and the strength of their commitment to democracy.
(Lebanese flag – Flickr Photo credit: ItzaFineDay)
