The makers of the hit movie “Slumdog Millionaire” have bought a new home for one of the two child stars discovered in the slums of Mumbai.
The purchase of a 250-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment for the family of Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, 10, was completed Monday, said Nirja Mattoo, who helps oversee a trust set up by the filmmakers to help Azharuddin and his 9-year-old co-star Rubina Ali.
(Source: Access Hollywood)
On a recent Sunday, members of Bay Community Church each were given envelopes stuffed with cash. Inside was $20, $40 or $100.
No ordinary handout, the $50,000 gesture was billed as a “faith stimulus.” Church members were told to spend it helping others, a novel approach to religious outreach during tough economic times.
All five people miraculously survived after a plane plowed head-on into a pick-up truck in a freak accident in South Africa.
The light aircraft had taken off when it veered off course, crashed down on a secluded road, burst into flames and hurtled towards a group of friends.
“I got into the cockpit from the other side of the plane, loosened his seatbelt and we pulled him to safety minutes before the plane exploded,” said a friend who was freeboarding nearby.
As knife crime and gang culture scar the streets of England, one program is offering a glimmer of hope.
The X-it youth project has already had a huge impact on one of the country’s toughest gang regions.
The Lambeth project has been so successful — cutting the number of young people getting into trouble by a third — that the model could be used to fight gang crime across the country.
X-it is run by young people who have successfully left gangs and who are then encouraged to become peer mentors for others who are at risk of being influenced by gang culture and peer pressure.
Apple Inc. slashed the entry price for an iPhone in half ($99 for 8 gigabytes) and lowered some laptops by $300 Monday, the company’s first dramatic price cuts since the recession began a year and a half ago.
According to Apple, the number of Mac computer users has tripled in the last two years, to 75 million.
The company also unveiled its $299 32 gigabyte model, twice as fast with a longer battery life, with new features like built-in compass, video camera and satellite phone locator.
Watch the video below, or read more in the Boston Herald…
British superstar pop band ‘Take That’ came to the rescue after hearing that one of their fans missed the previous night’s concert after their car had wrecked on the way to the show. Ben Watcham and his mum were okay, but devastated over missing the concert he’d been anticipating for six months.
The policeman on the scene of the accident also worked the crowds at the concert. He saw band member Jason Orange, and told him about Ben and his mum. “I’m not having that,” he said.
Jason and pals laid on three VIP seats for Saturday’s gig, including an extra one for Ben’s dad.
(Read the rest in the UK Mirror)
Thanks to Andrew Norris for sending the link!
No doubt it is a difficult time for many, as employers continue to cut jobs — 345,000 in the U.S. last month. Given the economic conditions, it is no surprise that many are experiencing depression, a clinical condition which can include symptoms such as sadness, loss of interest, changes in sleeping and eating patterns, and suicidal thoughts.
The good news is that the field of positive psychology has much to offer those suffering from depression, whether the condition is related to the recession or to other factors.
In an empirical study by Nancy Sin (2009), positive psychology was shown to be effective at alleviating depression.* Its various therapies can help those affected by the recession to see that there are some factors in their lives that are still within their control, according to an article in Positive Psychology News. This is referred to in psychology as shifting one’s focus of control from external to internal. Allowing people to regain their sense of control in the midst of the recession is crucial in helping them to build resilience during this difficult time.
This shift in mindset can be achieved in several ways. People may need to adjust their goals to smaller ones that are reachable in the current economic circumstances, such as getting a part-time job rather than a full-time job. People may also need to focus on other domains of their lives until they find a job, such as family, friends, and hobbies. The good news is that making simple changes in mindset like these can help to alleviate some of the depression and stress felt by those affected by unemployment and financial difficulties.
Another way positive psychology can help those who are suffering from depression, recession-related or not, is expressed in a Psychology Today article. Martin Seligman (the father of positive psychology) described the importance of ‘learned optimism’ in preventing depression. This means ‘training your brain’ to focus on the good and joyful aspects of your life. Here are some of Seligman’s suggestions.
Training Your Brain Toward the Rosy Side of Life (MSN):
Positive psychology can be used with other forms of therapy to maximize treatment benefits for a given client. It can be used with cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and similar therapies, which help clients to change negative thoughts to positive ones. In well-being therapy (developed by Dr. Giovanni Fava, M.D.), similar to CBT, the client journals about positive events and the negative thoughts and emotions that might interrupt those events and contribute to depression. Through CBT-like principles, the client is taught to think more positive thoughts. These include developing hope by using coping skills such as breaking problems into manageable parts, or taking the time to slowly and purposefully enjoy a routine activity during the day, such as eating or doing the dishes, which was particularly effective for a client being treated for depression featured in Psychology Today.
Of course it is important to take each individual and his or her personality, diagnosis, and the severity of that diagnosis into account when deciding whether to use positive psychology on its own or whether to combine it with other approaches.
Far from ignoring clients’ pain and telling them to simply “think positive,” positive psychology can be used on its own or in combination with other approaches to change a client’s entire way of thinking.
This type of therapy combats the helplessness often present in depression by helping clients to regain a sense of control in their lives. Positive psychology teaches clients that they can break problems down into manageable steps, thus giving them a sense of mastery and empowerment. It encourages them to look at and reflect upon the positive moments in their day and on their feelings of gratitude. It teaches clients to be purposeful about even mundane tasks during their day, which increases pleasure and guards against the ‘robotic’ feeling of daily chores.
Especially during an economic downturn, I believe that positive psychology can help people to focus on other domains of their lives, allowing them to get back in touch with deeply held values such as family. Also, positive psychology opens people to the possibility of finding another job that they like even better or discovering a new passion. (Photos by bandita, CC license; Sun Star)
* Sin, N.L. (2009). Enhancing well-being and alleviating depressive symptoms with positive psychology interventions: A practice-friendly meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65, 467-487.
What was once a turtle graveyard is now one of the largest leatherback nesting colonies in the world, thanks to a woman who grew sick of sea turtle carcasses littering the beach and launched a crusade to help end the slaughter of the gentle giants.
She began patrolling the beaches nightly stopping people with machetes who were waiting for the turtles to nest. Now the community has created a sustainable tourism industry using the very turtles she saved along the gorgeous stretch of white sand that is Trinidad’s Matura Beach.
Watch the video below, or read the story at CNN Heroes.
A British company has created an irrigation system that can grow crops using almost any water, whether pure, brackish, salted or polluted. The system can even take most industrial waste-water and use it without the need for a purification process.
The pipes are made from a plastic that retains virtually all contaminants while letting clean water through to the plants’ roots.
Congratulations to Mark Tonkin of Design Technology and Irrigation, based in Brighton!
“Sandsation 2009” an annual sand sculpture festival in Berlin, gathering together an international cast of artists opened on Sunday with the theme: “Berlin in the year 2222.” Twelve sculptors have a week to finish their works.
Watch video below, or at Clip Sydicate…
The Swedish government won approval from the European Commission on Friday to guarantee loans from the European Investment Bank for Ford Motor Co unit Volvo to help co-finance the development of green cars.
A new campaign by global electronics brand HP is encouraging people to turn off their computers when they go to bed or leave work. They’ve created a cool desktop widget that tracks your impact on the environment, along with the cumulative effect of all the users around the world.
For instance, right now 5,359 people have downloaded the green desktop reminder, and shut down their computers enough to simulate 59 cars taken off the road. Not only are these emissions kept out of the atmosphere, but you save money on your own electric bill.
“In the U.S. alone, we have learned that only 36% of business desktop users turn off at the end of the work day,” says the Power to Change website. “This unnecessary use of energy increases costs and carbon emissions.”
By making one small change, many people together can make a big difference.
Download the widget on the Power to Change website, here.
Anna Campbell, 15, was unaware she had dangerously high blood pressure until she had a tooth out under general anaesthetic. Doctors discovered the schoolgirl suffered from a rare condition called coarctation of the main aortic artery.
Wal-Mart Stores expect to hire about 22,000 people for new positions, including plenty of cashiers and stock clerks, but also store managers, pharmacists and personnel workers.
The world’s largest retailer is still the target of criticism from union-backed groups for its pay and benefits, has improved its health insurance coverage and opened it to full- and part-time employees. The company says 94 percent of its employees have health coverage, either through Wal-Mart or another family member.
Dining at top-notch restaurants just got more meaningful with a charity drive that hopes to turn gourmet meals across Asia into food for children in one of the world’s poorest nations, East Timor.
More than 50 restaurants across Asia will donate 15 percent of their proceeds from special menus or promotions during August to the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in East Timor.
When you lose a leg, or two, it is hard to exercise. You gain a belly and sometimes a lot more. Especially at Walter Reed where, thanks to an outpouring of goodwill, we are surrounded by boxes and boxes of homemade chocolate chip cookies…
But an idea to bring the guys to the local pool turned into an ideal way to uplift and exercise. They also were blessed by free admission.
(Read more at the Washington Post)
Photo courtesy of Sun Star
Like a freeform painting, the Sydney Opera House will glow with rich, continuously changing configurations of color as part of its new exhibition of music, light and performance curated by rock musician Brian Eno.
The two-week LUMINOUS festival, launched last week with the lighting of the iconic building’s sails, also features a plethora of music acts, alongside public talks and art installations.
Part of Vivid Sydney, a city wide mid-year festival, its musical highlights include Battles, Ladytron, Lee Scratch Perry, Jon Hassell, Reggie Watts and Karl Hyde.
Eno’s spectacular visual light show will be projected on the sails from 6pm – 1am during the three weeks of LUMINOUS May 26-June 14.
Watch video report below… NOTE: UK residents need to watch it at ITN
Dr. Lawrence Farwell has invented a technology that he believes will make torture obsolete. The system, which detects recognition of information stored in a subject’s brain, has already been used to convict a suspected murderer and more importantly, to exonerate a man convicted of a crime he did not commit.
The Brain Fingerprinting system has proven 100 percent reliable in more than 120 tests involving the FBI, the US Navy, and tests involving real-life situations, such as actual crimes, reported the Fairfield Ledger.
In early tests Dr. Farwell scanned the brains of 21 people — 17 FBI new agent trainees along with 4 control subjects who lacked knowledge of the FBI. He correctly identified 100% of the 17 new agent trainees as FBI agents using an FBI-related stimulus presented on a computer screen.
This year’s “No Barriers Festival” in Florida includes eighteen disabled veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan who are gathering along with hundreds of other amputees for four days of classes in sailing, scuba diving and rock climbing.
Video below may take a moment to load…
See also www.NoBarriersUSA.org
A woman from the lowest “untouchable” caste in India has been unanimously elected as speaker of the parliament. Meira Kumar, a 64-year old diplomat and legislator welcomed the historic outcome and vowed to be neutral in her duties as the first female speaker.
(Read more in Aljazeera)
