QUITO, Ecuador – “Lonesome George, the long-living Galapagos Islands giant tortoise thought to be the last of his kind, might soon be a father… The eggs have appeared after 36 years of multiple efforts (with the closest female to its kind).” (Yahoo News brings this AP report)
Lonely Galapagos Tortoise May Start a Family
From Motown to Growtown: Urban Gardens Revitalize City and Feed Poor
A 2-Acre city lot in Detroit is now a thriving garden of fresh produce, thanks to Urban Farming.
Taja Sevelle saw the hundreds of acres of vacant land in the city of Detroit and came up with the idea of creating an organic self-help movement that would turn wasteland into free vegetable gardens and feed the poor people who live nearby. A side benefit as more people pick up a spade is that community spirit is revitalized.
In 2005 Ms. Sevelle’s Urban Farming program began with 3 gardens in Detroit. In 2007 190 gardens bloomed across the country and abroad, in places like Haiti, providing fresh produce to an estimated 50,000 people, some of whom desperately need it. (Read more at BBC News)
Visit the Urban Farming website.
Alzheimer’s Drug Reverses Cognitive Decline Over 12 Month Period In Early Human Testing
“A drug once approved as an antihistamine in Russia improved thinking processes and ability to function in patients with Alzheimer’s disease in a study conducted there, said an expert at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. The findings featuring the drug, Dimebon, are published in the journal The Lancet.” (ScienceDaily.com)
Encouraging Words a Tonic for Broken Golfer
After a car accident, physicians and surgeons told the great golfer, Ben Hogan, that he would never walk again. But he did return to golf to regain his title as best in the world, thanks to thousands of encouraging letters from fans. “Kind words softened a hard heart, helping to heal a mangled body.” Read more about Ben Hogan’s transformation – physical and emotional – in the July 16 column, Integrity Matters, in The Salinas Californian, by Jim Bracher.
43 Nations Form Historic Mediterranean Union
French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged the disparate and conflicted countries around the Mediterranean Sea on Sunday to make peace as European rivals did in the 20th century as he launched an unprecedented Union for the Mediterranean incorporating countries in North Africa, the Middle East and Europe representing 800 million people including Israelis and Palestinians.
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African Leaders Move to Limit Conflicts
African leaders have approved a plan to create a super peace council with the goal of limiting the number of conflicts within the African continent. The Peace and Security Council of the African Union has rolled out an elaborate blueprint to incorporate the cooperation of the Arab League, the United Nations Security Council and the South American group of nations to help bring conflicts in the continent to a halt. (The Media Line, MidEast News Source)
Arts and Chess Part of Plan to Boost School Scores
Two poorly performing Kentucky schools in downtown Lexington will receive $1.2 million to hire more teachers and offer chess, violin, foreign language and art instruction in an effort to boost student achievement. One of the schools, William Wells Brown elementary, newly built to replace a failing school, presented a dynamic proposal produced by its principal, Yvonne Peace, “who spent eight years at Ashland Elementary, which infused the curriculum with arts education a few years ago. Ashland’s standardized test scores have steadily improved in the past few years.” (Kentucky.com)
Talking With Enemies Gains Favor in Mideast
Negotiating with enemies instead of shunning them may be signaling the United States, Israel and European allies are changing Mideast tactics, analysts said. The shift is borne out by recent events — U.S. and Iranian diplomats at the same table, an Israeli-Hezbollah prisoner swap, Syria’s president welcomed in France and the United States considering setting up a diplomatic presence in Iran, The New York Times reported Friday.
Oregon Girl Starts Website to Feed Dogs Displaced by Foreclosure
A young Oregon girl has started an online movement to feed some unexpected victims of a failing economy, abandoned dogs. Like FreeRice.com, FreeKibble.com, donates a small amount of food every day that you come to the website and click. A Bow-Wow Trivia question appears every day.
Whether you answer correctly or not, freekibble.com and its corporate sponsor provide 20 pieces of kibble to animal shelters — a total of 500 pounds of food in the month of May, 5 million pieces of kibble since April 1.
Editor’s note: Thanks to Kippy for submitting the link!
The Art of Word Fasting: Today’s Word is ‘Denial’
Jack is back on Fridays, after both of us having been overseas, with his spiritual metaphors and acronyms. The acronym for today is: D.E.N.I.A.L. (Discordant Energy Negating In Accepting Love)
As a musician of some years now my mind tends to rely on the art of music to describe personal experiences (in this case, my moments of denial.)
Iran Calls Nuclear Talks Positive
“For the first time, the US is expected to have a presence at the impending nuclear talks in Geneva. Initial responses to the talks have been positive, as the US has shifted from its confrontational policy of isolating Iran in favor of diplomacy. The US Administration is also proposing to open a de facto U.S. Embassy – which would mark the first time in almost 30 years that U.S. diplomats would go to Iran since the countries broke relations after the 1979 Islamic revolution.” (AP story via Yahoo.com)
Saudi King Calls for Unity, Reconciliation at Interfaith Conference
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia sponsored an interfaith conference that kicked off in Madrid yesterday with the goal of bringing Muslims, Christians, and Jews closer together. He opened the 3-day dialogue with a call to shun the extremist violence that has tarnished the reputation of religious faith. “It was the first time Saudi Arabia invited Jews to such a meeting,” Reuters reported.
Married Couples Who Play Together Stay Together
“Most couples know their marriages are happier when they make time to have fun. But fun can fall by the wayside in a trying economy. Now research from the University of Denver supports the idea that finding moments to be together free of financial, family or other stresses — just to have fun together — is not an indulgence.” (Continue reading at USA Today)
UK Schools Go Green and Join Carbon Trading Scheme
“State schools are to be included under the government’s new domestic carbon emissions trading scheme from April 2010, the environment minister said on Wednesday. Britain has also earmarked 110 million pounds for installing renewable energy technology in more than 200 secondary schools undergoing refurbishment over the next three years.” (Daily Mirror has the story)
“Young people stand to gain most tomorrow from the action we take on climate change today. That’s why schools should be included in the shift to a low carbon economy,” Environmental Minister Hilary Benn said in a statement.
Kenya Village Gets Clinic from Brothers it Helped Send to Med School in U.S.
Residents of a remote village sold chickens and cattle to raise the $900.00 needed to fly the siblings to Dartmouth College. A new film tells the story of the brothers’ efforts to return to Kenya to finish building a clinic that their father had started constructing before he died of AIDS. The compelling story of community was featured in an MSNBC story and video. Unable to raise enough money on their own, the brothers are joined by students, politicians, and a rock band who launch a fund raising drive among young people across the United States. The documentary, Sons of Lwala, follows the young men on their incredible journey as they find a way, despite all odds, to open their village’s first hospital.
The making of the movie provides another compelling twist: A TV anchor in Nashville quit his job after interviewing the about their struggle to create the clinic and decided to capture the story on film to help raise money for the effort. The Lwala Community Alliance website helps you get involved in the mission that is saving thousands of lives. Why not show the Sons of Lwala documentary in your neighborhood, school or church? They can send you the materials. You can buy the DVD at www.sonsoflwala.com. Click to watch the inspiring movie trailer below.
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Dallas Accelerating Production of Trash to Gas
“City officials in Dallas plan to have the state’s first landfill that captures methane gas for conversion into natural gas to be used in homes. If successful, the McCommas landfill will use banana peels, milk cartons and newspapers to fuel up to 16,000 homes.”
(The Houston Chronicle)
Study: World Getting Happier
Overall, the world is getting happier, according to a World Values Survey, done regularly by a global network of social scientists. It found happiness to be on the rise since 1981 in 45 of 52 countries analyzed. Some of the optimism is attributed to economic growth in previously poor countries, democratization of others, and rising social tolerance for women and minority groups. The happiest country is Denmark. The US ranked 16th. (MSNBC.com has the story)
Wal-Mart To Eliminate Wood from Illegal and Unknown Sources
Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has committed to using more wood from sustainable, certified sources and phasing out wood from illegal or non-sustainable sources. By becoming a member of the Global Forest & Trade Network (GFTN), Wal-Mart will be helping to save the world’s most valuable and threatened forests.
DC Mural Project Covers up Graffiti
A city-funded project to cover graffiti launched this weekend in DC as six teenagers began creating images of “a trumpet player, a girl playing a guitar and a diploma-clutching graduate to cover a huge 50-foot-long brick wall. Over the coming year, 12 murals of aerosol art will be commissioned across the city and painted by local teens using a type of oil paint that repels the spray paint typically used by taggers.” (Washington Post has the story and another photo)
Lebanon, Syria to Establish Diplomatic Relations
Western countries welcomed a historic decision by Lebanon and Syria to open diplomatic relations after talks with the French president Saturday.
