Polls have closed in national elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo – the first multi-party vote in 40 years… Many people walked miles to get to the polling stations, and some queued overnight, waiting for them to open.
And, although many people are hungry and weary from a long civil war, voter Donatien Kalinga "said his heart was ‘full of joy’ at the prospect of voting for the first time."
50 college students from 21 Universities around the world have converged on MIT for an 8-week Vehicle Design Summit. The goal? To invent 5 different kinds of cars that can drive from Boston to Seattle without having to stop — even once — for fuel! The teams will not compete, but collaborate, and share their innovation with the world, for all our benefit…
When zoo keepers realized that classical music seemed to help Suma, the elephant, cope with the grief brought on by a mate’s death, they installed a stereo and showered the pachyderm with the healing vibes of Bach, Vivaldi, and her favorite, Mozart. (Sapa-AFP)
Newly discovered gardens of colorful corals blooming under water in the Gulf of Alaska, will get special protection… A new rule bars bottom trawling (the fishing technique that uses nets to drag the ocean floor) over an area the size of Texas and Colorado combined. (Fishermen agreed to the ban, which will hurt their income, but agreed it was needed. ENN)
The animal kingdom knows how to get along with each other — even if individuals look different, or reside across the border. CBS news in Iowa featured a story and photos of a dog who has adopted an orphaned baby squirrel and who is contentedly nursing it through its infancy. (CBS )
(GreenPeace News) In an historic deal that has impacts far beyond the golden arches, McDonald’s is now the leading company in the campaign to halt the deforestation of the Amazon for the benefit of soya farming. After feeling enormous consumer pressure from thousands of e-mails and letters sent to their European headquarters by environmental Activists, McDonald’s has agreed to stop selling chicken fed on soya grown in newly deforested areas of the Amazon rainforest…
Paris– Beyond ideology, snippets of a true dialogue are beginning to appear between Israeli and Lebanese bloggers on the Internet. Ignoring their political differences, they benefit from the human, not to say intimate, aspect of blogs to engage in a conversation that conventional media cannot enable…
This is not so much a story about a hero, although the family is indebted to the six- year-old for hailing an ambulance when his mother collapsed from a heart attack; and all the emergency dispatchers are raving of the boy’s brilliance in time of crisis. This is an illustration that teaches the importance of calmly relating the procedure (of dialing 911) to your children, so they can perform it properly when the time comes. I loved reading about the competence of this boy, and imagining the same about his mother, who taught him well … story from the Chicago Sun Times
A premature infant, Kaylin Baker’s heart, no larger than a quarter, would have failed or had to endure invasive open heart surgery and lengthy recovery, if not for a gentler life-saving procedure newly practiced at Texas Children’s Hospital. The Houston Chronicle shows — and tells — how the new approach can "fix even the smallest aortas."
My dad, now 90, told this story to me many times. It illustrates how our greatest challenges or problems in life can become our best opportunities for unthinkable success. What looks like an obstacle may be the natural step toward greatness…
One day the owner of a building tells his caretaker that he must go out of town for a day, but that he expects a most important letter. He informs the caretaker that he must make sure he gets the registered letter himself because it is very important.
The owner leaves the next morning. That afternoon the letter is delivered, but requires a signature. The caretaker tells the postman that he doesn’t know how to write.The postman explains that he must obtain an actual signature, no marks or X’s. Since the caretaker can’t write, the postman refuses to leave the letter.
When the owner returns and learns what happened, he becomes furious and fires the caretaker on the spot. The caretaker finds himself without a job and without an income. To support his meager existence, he starts peddling whatever goods and services he can to survive.
His business begins to grow and improves to the point that he is able to open a little store. By the time his sons are old enough to help him, he has become well established. The sons inherit the business when the caretaker retires and decide to build a larger store. They ask their father to help them borrow the money to finance their ambitious undertaking.
The father asks the banker for the loan and the banker says, “No problem. You can have whatever you need. Just sign on the dotted line.” The caretaker looks at the banker and replies, “I can’t sign. I never learned how to write.”In astonishment, the banker asks, “How is it possible that a man who can’t write could amass the wealth that you have?” “Ah,” says the caretaker, “If I could write, I’d still be a caretaker.”
This story has been around the block and was passed to me from my father, now almost 90. This is his version and is included in his foreword of my book Pathfinding: Seven Principles for Positive Living. In my work as a radio talk show host of “Positive Living” I interview so many people who have found success and are helping countless others because of having to overcome and find solutions to the same challenges they address in their books and programs.
More environmentally friendly computer equipment will soon be available to large volume purchasers thanks to manufacturers like Dell, HP, and others that now have products containing reduced levels of cadmium, lead, and mercury to better protect human health, that are easier to upgrade and recycle, and meet the government’s Energy Star guidelines for energy efficiency…
All the new greener products meet the test of the Electronic Products Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), a standard for computer products that measures environmental factors.
“These new standards can guide the manufacturing of green computers, laptops, and monitors,” said James Gulliford, assistant administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances. “Now purchasers can factor environmental considerations into their decisions when choosing computer equipment.”
EPEAT, a project funded through a grant by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and managed by the Green Electronics Council (GEC), promotes continuous improvement in the environmental design of electronic products and informs purchasers of the environmental criteria of electronic products. EPEAT may eventually expand to include individual consumer purchasers.
EPA has estimated that over the next five years, purchases of EPEAT registered computers will result in reductions of:
For more information about the EPEAT standard, the database of EPEAT registered products and the participating manufacturers, visit their Web site.
It strains my heart when I see the escalation of the war in the Middle East. Again.
For so long already. When will this madness come to an end? The Hezbollah is throwing bombs on Israel. The Israeli government is bombing Lebanon while talking about the “disarmament†of the Hezbollah as if this were a short, fair action by which the violence would finally be ended…
In a rare uncontensious round of voting, the US House unanimously approved a group of bills Monday that would protect wide swaths of wilderness in the west and ban some drilling there. Wilderness designations would forbid commercial building and motor vehicles on the land…
Peacemaker is a new video game about the conflict in the Middle East that let’s players assume the roles of either the Israeli prime minister or Palestinian president. It sparks empathy for the other side among college students who are testing the game in tandem with Carnegie Mellon University, and developers. Arab and Jewish students discover that bringing peace to the region is tricky, takes time and tact, and sometimes many failed attempts…
Some diesel cars, like the Volkswagen Jetta, are speeding happily along the highway fueled only by vegetable oil from restaurants that was previously used for deep-frying …
The US Interior Department announced last week $256 million in new federal funds to restore vital wetlands and parks along the Gulf coast that were devastated by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. More than 118 square miles of wetlands and marshes on the southeastern Louisiana coast were turned into open water by the twin hurricanes last year. If wetlands are not restored, nearby communities are at increased risk from future storms…
A Holland America cruise ship can now successfully process all "Dry Clean Only" garments without the conventional Dry Cleaning fluid and its toxic chemicals! (Sustainable Business)
A UN pilot energy-efficiency project in the developing world’s three leading economies, Brazil, China, and India, helped owners of local mills, factories, and office parks to cut their power use by as much as a third by installing equipment such as energy-efficient air conditioning units and steam boilers. (National Geographic)
If your business cares about cost reduction, then go green! Grist Magazine illustrates why:
At the meeting, she offered an illustrative example involving three fluorescent light bulbs: one cost $1 and was expected to last two years; another cost $5 and lasted eight years; the third cost $2 and lasted two years, but used 30 percent less electricity… “When I ran the actual numbers, including real costs of electricity for all of our facilities around the world, plus labor and disposal costs… I showed them that the cheapest bulb would cost us $50 million more than the most efficient bulb.”
Check out this dimmable CF Warm Glow bulb, with more features.)
Carolyn submitted this story, to which we both say, HILARIOUS! … A lady in New York awoke last week to find a pink and white garden glove missing from her porch … She had no doubt who was the culprit … (AP story and photo of 1-year-old kitty with stash of garden gloves)
