A Bush secret
Wednesday - 19Dec2018
“Proclamation of Thanksgiving”
Thursday - 22Nov2018
Shares the wealth
Monday - 19Nov2018
Batkid in remission
Friday - 16Nov2018
See again
Wednesday - 21Mar2018
Accidentally
Monday - 12Mar2018
Daughter's Single Tweet Accidentally Launches A Business For Her Struggling Dad
““Christopher Gonzales, 39, has been facing hard times. The single father of two injured himself on the job last year and has been struggling ever since. The injury at his construction job left him with spinal cord nerve damage which makes it hard for him to physically move around. His only source of income has been a disability check he receives once a month.
Over the past year, Christopher has been trying to find his passion by exploring new hobbies. He enjoyed woodworking in his garage.
He started creating logos of various sports teams.
His daughter, Alexis, saw his amazing work and posted pictures of them on Twitter hoping someone might be interested in buying one.
"So my dad is disabled and is trying to make a little extra money because he makes so little. He makes wood carvings [in] his free time, and he can make them any size, for anything (not just team logos). Even if you don't like them a RT will help spread the word."
Alexis's tweet went unexpectedly viral with over 214,000 retweets!
She woke up the next morning to 7,000 direct messages.””
Parents surprise students
Wednesday - 07Mar2018
“Parents Surprise Students By Painting The School's Bathrooms With Positive Messages”
Read More...Super!
Monday - 05Mar2018
Escaped
Wednesday - 28Feb2018
“Former Slave Escaped To US, Competed In The Olympics Twice, Joins Air Force To Give Back”
Read More...Success
Monday - 26Feb2018
“Mom Turns $700 into a $65 Million Company After Manufacturer Calls Her ‘a Stupid Woman’”
Read More...Young heroes
Tuesday - 20Feb2018
“West Point posthumously admits shooting victim Peter Wang to Class of 2025”
“U.S. Army Awards Medal of Heroism to Three Junior ROTC Cadets Killed in Parkland Shooting”
Read More...No, boys aren't broken
Tuesday - 20Feb2018
❝❝Me, I think men protect their own, and stand between innocents and danger. I'm sure there are hundreds of other ways. I just don't buy that manhood is validated by the gender of the people you might sleep with.❞❞
— NeoWayland
“Peter Wang died a 'hero' in Florida shooting, wearing his ROTC uniform. Petition seeks a full honors military funeral”
“JROTC students use Kevlar pads to shield classmates from Florida shooter”
“Hero boy shot five times shielding classmates from Florida school gunman”
“Florida school shooting: Football coach shot, killed while protecting students hailed as hero”
“A heroic geography teacher died protecting his students from the Florida high school shooter”
Read More...Gone in a day
Wednesday - 14Feb2018
American dreaming
Wednesday - 14Feb2018
“As kids, they picked cotton and dreamed about the 'mansion' across the road. Now they own it.”
Read More...Adoption
Monday - 12Feb2018
Teacher Almost Quit Because Of Unruly Student. Then She Adopted Him
““A fourth-grader's behavior was so bad that his teacher Chelsea Haley almost gave up on teaching altogether. So Haley did what she felt she had to do: she adopted the 12-year-old student, and his one-year-old brother.
Haley, 24, joined Teach for America in 2013 to make a difference in a low-income school. She met Jerome Robinson while teaching at an elementary school in Baton Rouge.
"At certain points, his behavior got so bad," Chelsea Haley told CNN, "I thought, 'I can't do this anymore. I can't be a teacher.'"
Though she struggled to control him, the two formed an unlikely bond. Other teachers would send Jerome to Haley's classroom because they knew she was the only one he would listen to.
As her two-year experience with Teach For America was drawing to an end, the school principal suggested Haley stick around "for Jerome." She did, signing on for a third year as a special education teacher.
Then one October night, Haley felt as though God spoke to her in a dream, telling her to be Jerome's mother.
Jerome and his one-year-old brother lived in poverty with their grandparents and birth mother, who shared care for the two boys. The family was going through tough times after the recent loss of two family members.
Haley says she awoke from the dream and laughed out loud, thinking the idea was preposterous, and went back to sleep.
But the very next day, Jerome looked up while taking a test and asked Haley if he could live with her.
Now Haley knew it was meant to be, so she invited Jerome's mother to dinner.””
Generous
Monday - 05Feb2018
Chip and Joanna Gaines team up with Tim Tebow to help pay off family's mortgage
““Tuesday’s episode of “Fixer Upper” turned out to be much more than a home remodeling for the Copp family.
Chip and Joanna Gaines teamed up with former football quarterback Tim Tebow to transform a run-down Waco, Texas, house into an Americans With Disabilities Act-compliant home for Melissa and Jody Copp and their two sons, Calan, 9, and Lawson, 5, who both use wheelchairs.
But what started out as a desire to design a family home for the Copp family ended up being so much more. After the episode’s airing, Chip Gaines took to Instagram with a very important request to his followers: Please donate to pay off this extremely deserving family’s mortgage.
And thanks to the help from strangers everywhere, less than two days later Gaines revealed they had raised enough money to pay off the family’s mortgage completely.””
— Danielle Wolf
Drone rescues teens
Friday - 19Jan2018
“2 Teens Were Rescued By A Drone While Lifeguards Were Still Learning How To Use It”
Read More...Charity instead of trash
Wednesday - 10Jan2018
“Instead of Trashing Groceries During Cooler Malfunction, Store Donates 35,000 Pounds of Food”
Read More...Giving back
Wednesday - 20Dec2017
Tea Company Exchanges Fair Trade Status For Giving Back Directly to their Farmers
““Tiesta Tea’s co-founders and marketing director just got back from installing a water well for our company’s hibiscus farmers in Nigeria.
Words can hardly describe the feeling of seeing thousands of villagers so genuinely happy to receive one of life’s basic necessities: water. Giving back directly to that community made a life-changing impact, not only for our farmers, but on our entire company.
To summarize our experience, we defied the US travel recommendations and traveled to northern Nigeria (Kano and Jigawa states), an area known for unrest and harsh conditions. With the Boko Haram activity in the region, we knew this would be a risky journey.
Our visas were denied through the typical US process. Driven by our determination to give back, however, we had to work with the Nigerian government directly to receive a visa upon arrival.
As a loose leaf tea company, we get all of our hibiscus from farmers in Jigawa, Nigeria, who produce the best hibiscus in the world. Nigeria is one of the few countries that can produce hibiscus because of the hot, dry climate required to grow it.
Learning that women and children spend up to 5 hours every day walking 2-3km to collect water to use for cooking, cleaning, and drinking, we recognized the opportunity to give back to our hibiscus farmers.””
— Rachel Heinzinger
Share a photograph
Monday - 18Dec2017
“Marine's wife finds way to include deployed husband in touching Christmas card”
Read More...In time for Christmas
Monday - 18Dec2017
Forgive
Thursday - 14Dec2017
How hate and debate came to a Connecticut mosque
““The night of Nov. 14, 2015, was not the first time Ted Hakey, 50, went into his backyard in Meriden, Connecticut, and fired guns to let off some steam. It was the night after a deadly terror attack in Paris, and Hakey was furious.
So he shot his Springfield Armory M1A .308-caliber rifle into the air. Some of those shots hit the Baitul Aman Mosque next door. Luckily, no one was in the building at the time.
“I wanted to scare ’em, but the shots that hit were never supposed to hit,” says Hakey, who admits he harbored significant hate for Muslims back then. His Facebook posts reflect that well enough.
Prosecutors used some of those posts to build their case against him. The shooting got him six months in jail on federal hate crime charges, but leaders of the mosque argued he should be forgiven and not even serve jail time. Dr. Mohammed Qureshi, the mosque president, expressed this feeling to the judge at Hakey’s sentencing.
For 29-year-old Zahir Mannan, the criminal case was an opportunity to show Hakey and anyone else paying attention — which by then included the national media — what Islam is really about.””
— Arthur Nazaryan
“I’m trying to bring some happiness to people…”
Tuesday - 12Dec2017
Man Spends Black Friday Paying For $10K Worth Of Toys For Local Kids
““A New Jersey man spent this Black Friday putting together a great surprise for dozens of local families.
The man, identified only as Charlie K., told CBS 3 that he woke up Friday morning planning to shop for his son when a bright idea hit him. He went over to the Toys R Us store in the town of Cherry Hill, where he paid for orders that customers had put on layaway.
He wound up paying for more than 60 orders totaling over $10,000, according to WMUR.
“I’m trying to bring some happiness to people, to the community that brought happiness to me and my family,” he told CBS 3. “I love this community and I am trying to provide back to it.”
A Toys R Us spokeswoman confirmed the good deed.
“We love the heartwarming acts of one secret Santa who visited Toys R Us Cherry Hill this morning - Charlie K. paid off more than 62 Layaway orders totaling approximately $10,780,” the spokeswoman told NJ.com.
On top of that, Charlie K. also purchased an additional $2,000 worth of toys for Toys for Tots, a charity run by the U.S. Marine Corps Reserve that brings Christmas gifts to children whose parents can’t afford them.””
— Hilary Hanson
Force field cloak
Monday - 11Dec2017
This Glowing Blanket Is Designed to Ease Kids' Fear of the Dark
““Many kids have a security blanket they bring to bed with them every night, but sometimes, a regular blankie is no match for the monsters that invade their imaginations once the lights are off. Now there’s a glow-in-the-dark blanket designed to make children feel safer in bed, no night light required.
Dubbed the Force Field Cloak, the fleece blanket comes in several colorful, glowing patterns that remain invisible during the day. At night, you leave the blanket under a bright light for about 10 minutes, then the shining design will reveal itself in the dark. The glow lasts 8 to 10 hours, just long enough to get a child through the night.””
— Michele Debczak
Charity vending machines
Monday - 04Dec2017
The Last Generator
Monday - 04Dec2017
“Man Who Gave The Last Generator To A Crying Stranger Gets A Free One From Lowe's”
Read More...Clean water
Wednesday - 30Aug2017
Serving up hot meals
Wednesday - 30Aug2017
Private citizens to the rescue
Monday - 28Aug2017
“Cajun Navy's on the way: South Louisiana springs into action to help Texas amid Harvey floods”
Read More...Busting a move
Friday - 25Aug2017
“John Cena Reacts | Fans Surprise John Cena | John Cena Loves the Internet | Cricket Wireless”
Thursday - 24Aug2017
Hero brother
Wednesday - 23Aug2017
Cured
Wednesday - 23Aug2017
“Peanut Allergy Cured In Majority Of Children In 'Life-Changing' Immunotherapy Trial”
Read More...No more homework
Monday - 21Aug2017
Florida County Bans Homework, Asks Parents To Read With Their Kids Instead
““Students in one Florida county will no longer have to do homework. Instead, parents are being asked to read to their children for at least 20 minutes a night.
Marion County School District Superintendent Heidi Maier issued a "no homework policy" for all 31 elementary schools in the district.
"Kids don't learn the way they used to," says Keven Christian of Marion County Schools. "And making them do meaningless or tedius homework assignments every night just really doesn't contribute to their learning."
Any parents who feel that they might have trouble fulfilling the reading request can receive additional support from school programs and resources.””
A billion trees
Monday - 21Aug2017
In ‘Momentous Milestone’, Pakistan Plants One Billion Trees Ahead of Schedule
““Pakistan’s northwestern province, Khyber Pakhtunkhaw (KPK), has planted an unprecedented 1 billion trees in just more than two years and surpassed an international commitment of restoring 350,000 hectares of forests and degraded land.
The massive effort aims to turn the tide on land degradation and loss in the mountainous, formerly forested KPK, which lies in the Hindu Kush mountain range.
Imran Khan, head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party governing the province, launched the reforestation campaign, dubbed “Billion Tree Tsunami,” in 2015.
The cricket-star-turned politician revealed to VOA that the goal of adding 1 billion trees by planting and natural regeneration has been achieved this month, well ahead of the original deadline of December 2017.
He says his party plans to organize a special event in Islamabad in late August to celebrate the successful completion of the project, and experts as well as foreign diplomats will be invited.
“We will show them by coordinates, on Google map you can go and see where these trees have been planted, 1 billion trees, this is now the model for the rest of Pakistan,” Khan said.””
— Ayaz Gul
“Brother Offers Support To Sister In Car Wash”
Monday - 21Aug2017
“The brother of a girl hilariously terrified of a car wash comforts her on the backseat as she cries to go home.”
Read More...Good neighbor
Monday - 14Aug2017
How a Swimming Pool for Neighborhood Kids Helped Heal a Man After Wife’s Death
““Keith Davison got so tired of his solitude following the death of his wife, he decided to do something about it – and things have been going swimmingly ever since.
The 94-year-old retired judge had been married to his wife Evy for 66 years until she passed away from cancer last year.
After dealing with the grief and the silence of his house, he decided to build a pool in his backyard.
But not for himself – he built it for the neighborhood kids to enjoy.””
Not really second place
Friday - 11Aug2017
“1st Place Runner Collapses 50m Shy Of Finish Line, Gets Help From 2nd Place Runner”
Read More...Neighbors parade
Friday - 11Aug2017
Regrowth
Wednesday - 09Aug2017
“'Breakthrough' penny-sized nanochip pad is able to regrow organs and heal injuries”
Read More...The BA Christmas bonus
Monday - 07Aug2017
When Richard Branson's airline won $945,000 from a lawsuit, he gave it all to his employees
““Three decades after after its launch, Virgin Atlantic is the second-largest UK carrier. "But it hasn't always been easy ... during those 33 years," the founder writes in a letter to his employees.
Most notably, when Branson's airline was trying to establish itself in the 1990s, British Airways ran what became known as the "dirty tricks" campaign.
"We had about four planes flying, and [British Airways] went to extraordinary lengths to put us out of business," recalls Branson on an episode of NPR's "How I Built This" podcast. "They had a team of people illegally accessing our computer information and ringing up our passengers and pretending that they were from Virgin, telling them that flights were cancelled and switching them onto BA."
Virgin took British Air to court and won $945,000 in damages, the largest libel settlement in UK history. Branson chose to invest the money back into his Virgin Atlantic team.
"It was Christmas time," he tells Raz. "It became known as the BA Christmas bonus — we distributed it to all our staff equally."””
Serious cuteness
Monday - 07Aug2017
Rescued
Friday - 04Aug2017
Good Samaritans Jump In Canal To Rescue Elderly Man Trapped In Truck
““Norman LaBarge, 79, of Tremonton, Utah, is grateful for the three good Samaritans that came to his aid Wednesday after he drove his truck into a canal on state Route 30.
LaBarge is diabetic and said his blood sugar had gotten a little low, which caused him to lose control of his vehicle.
"I remember bouncing off the guard rails, and I remember going over toward the canal, and then the next thing I knew is there was water coming in," LaBarge said.
Several people stopped to help, including Adam Blanchard, a Fire Department volunteer who was about a mile away when he heard there was a vehicle that had gone off the road into the canal. He, along with Utah Highway Patrol trooper Justin Zilles and a third man ran into the canal.
The good Samaritans were able to pull him out of the truck through the passenger side.””
Age is just a number
Wednesday - 02Aug2017
Sharing the extra
Wednesday - 02Aug2017
This Mom Has Donated 5,000 Pints Of Breast Milk To Help Feed Premature Babies
““Elisabeth Anderson-Sierra has donated 5,000 pints of breast milk to help premature babies.
The 29-year-old mom from Beaverton, Oregon, spends an incredible 10 hours a day pumping around 1.75 gallons of milk - ten times the average woman.
Elizabeth has hyperlactation syndrome, which means she produces masses more milk than what is considered average. But she still manages to squeeze in feeding time for her own six-month-old daughter before generously giving the rest to those more needy than herself.
The milk goes to a milk bank for micro preemies, so 1oz can feed three or four babies. Elizabeth's milk has fed thousands of babies.””
Treehouse
Monday - 31Jul2017
“35 Fellow Cops Finish the Treehouse a Slain Officer Was Building For Daughter”
Read More...Offering a hand
Wednesday - 26Jul2017
That's what buddies are for
Wednesday - 26Jul2017
Last $40
Monday - 24Jul2017
Teen Who Lost Everything In Fire Spends His Last $40 On Firefighters
““An Alabama mom can't help but brag about her 15-year-old son Kenneth.
"In general, teenagers get a bad rap," Casie Bennett told AL.com. "My son is a good kid. He really is."
Earlier this month the Bennett family's house burned down and they lost everything. On the night of the fire, Kenneth returned from a friend's house to find volunteer firefighters battling to put out the blaze that had consumed his home.
Shockingly, the high school sophomore thought not of himself or his possessions, but of the firefighters. Their cooler, he noticed, was near empty.
Around 1am, after the fire was out, Kenneth went to a nearby gas station to buy a root beer. There he noticed some cases of water, so he handed the clerk $40, and took the water straight to the fire department.
That $40 was all Kenneth had left.
"He had been saving that money for his anniversary, the day after the fire," Casie explained to AL.com. "He wanted to take his girlfriend, Bailey, to Ruth's Chris."””
Magical adoption
Monday - 24Jul2017
Watch Mickey Mouse share magical news of adoption with these foster kids
““Tom and Courtney Gilmour had long planned for two big events: the adoption of their two foster children, and a trip to Disney World. By coincidence, just three days before leaving for Orlando, Florida, this past spring, a Pennsylvania court confirmed the Gilmours' adoption date.
Suddenly, their Disney vacation took on an extra-magical quality.
Janielle, 12, and Elijah, 10, had bounced around different foster homes their whole lives. Three years ago, they landed in the Gilmours' Portland home in eastern Pennsylvania.
Courtney Gilmour, 36, knew she wanted to adopt the brother and sister as soon as she met them. “We instantly connected," she told TODAY. "We blended as a family. It didn’t feel weird for a second. It felt natural."
But, as Gilmour explained, “the adoption system doesn’t work as fast as your heart does.” So the couple waited.
Finally, on April 7, the Pennsylvania court offered the Gilmours an official adoption date: May 24, 2017. Three days later, the family set off for Disney World.
The couple could barely contain their excitement, but they decided to wait until they arrived at the Magic Kingdom to share the wonderful news with the kids.””
— Julia Curley
Martial arts for Middle Eastern women
Friday - 21Jul2017
“The First Self-Defense Studio in the Middle East that Teaches Women to Fight Back”
Read More...Man builds stairs in park
Friday - 21Jul2017
“Man Hires Homeless Man And Builds Park Stairs For $550 After City Estimates $65,000-$150,000 For The Project”
Read More...Long haired boy
Friday - 21Jul2017
Boy grows his hair out to help kids with cancer — despite bullies who teased him
““An 11-year-old boy from Wales is on a mission to help people with cancer after meeting a young girl who had lost her hair due to chemotherapy.
Joshua Scott-Hill of Llanelli, a town on the country's southern coast, grew his hair for a year and a half so that it could be donated to make wigs for children with cancer. He was inspired after running into a girl with cancer, a daughter of one of his mother's friends, at a grocery store early last year, he and his mother told TODAY.
"He asked where her eyebrows were, and I was like, 'Oh no!'" his mom, Samantha Scott, 35, said.
"I was curious, so I asked her, and she said she was going through chemotherapy and that's why she lost her hair," Josh told TODAY.
Later, after talking to his mother, he decided to grow his hair long to help other children who have cancer.
Eighteen months later, Josh's hair had grown 10 inches. And on Saturday, he buzzed it all off, and donated the locks to an organization called Little Princess Trust, which makes real-hair wigs for boys and girls in the U.K. who have lost their hair due to cancer treatment.””
— Rheana Murray
🚀 ❝The Eagle has landed.❞
Thursday - 20Jul2017
“The video of the very first moon landing of the apollo 11 mission in 1969! Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon with his now legenday words "One small step for man, a giant leap for mankind." This is a truly amazing video and it was in 1969!!! If you think about it, you have orders of magnitude more processing power in your mobile phone than they did in the whole space craft!! Incblurbible!”
Read More...Sometimes you need a hero
Wednesday - 19Jul2017
“Ex-Con Skips Job Interview, Jumps Off Bus And Saves The Life Of Car Crash Victim”
Read More...Amazing police officer
Wednesday - 19Jul2017
“What About America Are You Grateful For?” by SoulPancake
Monday - 17Jul2017
New Monona Mura
Monday - 17Jul2017
Business owner fights back against vandals using the same tool
““But now, the racial slurs and symbols are gone from the building. What left behind is what Wadsworth now calls the new Monona Mural. It's a beautiful and bright piece of artwork that's permanently spray painted on the same walls that were once tagged by the vandals. It's a project both Wadsworth and her colleague decided to do after a lot of thought.
"I called my landlord (and said), do you mind if I paint the door? I started out with the door," Wadsworth said as she laughed.
Her landlord gave her permission, so she went to the store and bought $94 worth of spray paint, went back to her shop, grabbed her colleague and had some fun.””
— Hunter Saenz
Buy their meals
Friday - 14Jul2017
Millionth passenger
Friday - 14Jul2017
“Southwest Pilot Showers His Millionth Passenger With Gifts, Pays For Her Ticket”
Read More...The heart knows
Friday - 14Jul2017
Sharing is caring
Thursday - 13Jul2017
Rescue Pup Melts Hearts by Sharing its Good Fortune With Homeless Dog
““Lana the rescue dog may have a loving home to call her own, but she hasn’t forgotten what it’s like to live on the streets.
So when she saw a nearby homeless pup outside of her family’s home in Brazil, she decided to share her wealth with the foreign hound.””
— McKinley Corbley
“We’re going to get them out.”
Thursday - 13Jul2017
Rip currents swept away a Florida family. Then beachgoers formed a human chain..
““When Jessica and Derek Simmons first saw the beachgoers pausing to stare toward the water, the young couple just assumed someone had spotted a shark.
It was Saturday evening, after all, peak summer season in Panama City Beach for overheated Florida tourists to cross paths with curious marine life. Then they noticed flashing lights by the boardwalk, a police truck on the sand and nearly a dozen bobbing heads about 100 yards beyond the beach, crying desperately for help.
Six members of a single family — four adults and two young boys — and four other swimmers had been swept away by powerful and deceptive rip currents churning below the water’s surface.
“These people are not drowning today,” Jessica Simmons thought, she told the Panama City News Herald. “It’s not happening. We’re going to get them out.”””
— Katie Mettler
☥ ▽ Heinlein Day
Friday - 07Jul2017
Robert A. Heinlein • Before birthday
Lived 07Jul1907 to 08May1988 (80). Author, libertarian, philosopher, "dean of science fiction writers."The Heinlein Society
Robert Heinlein - Fantastic Fiction
Robert A. Heinlein Quotes
Silence
Wednesday - 26Apr2017
The Bad Manners of the Campus Left
❝❝What the hooligans last Thursday at my lecture in Colorado were objecting to was a very different kind of invasion—a peaceful, voluntary offering of ideas they were unaware of, didn’t want to hear, and thought it was their right to prevent others from hearing. Their intent was to intimidate, to harass, to silence, to dominate. This is not conduct that a citadel of education should tolerate for an instant.
Interesting, isn’t it, that what some go to college for, others find “offensive.” As I watched the incident occur, I thought to myself, “I’m standing in a taxpayer-funded institution of supposedly ‘higher’ education, not a Khmer Rouge re-education camp, for crying out loud!”❞❞
— Lawrence W. Reed
Political discussion
Monday - 08Aug2016
NeoNotes — Ordinary
Saturday - 05Mar2016
❝❝Most of the ordinary are already great.NeoNotes are the selected comments that I made on other boards, in email, or in response to articles where I could not respond directly.
Even their day to day actions produce wonders.
That orange juice in your fridge and in fridges all over the country? Absolutely wonderful and put there by everyday people doing everyday things.
That smartphone you use? We were barely reaching for it twenty-five years ago. Made possible by ordinary people wanting things just a bit better than they were yesterday.
That food bank downtown? It's only there because some folks decided to make things a little easier for their neighbors.
All great things. All wondrous things. All made possible by ordinary people.❞❞
Power
Wednesday - 20May2015
Pocketing climate change
Thursday - 05Feb2015
It only takes a simple program and a scientific calculator to show the holes in the climate change models
Read More...Stockman takes Wilson to the woodshed
Monday - 26Jan2015
Maggie McNeill takes a stand
Wednesday - 05Nov2014