According to the Telegraph, the medicinal herb Artemisia annua has been seen as breakthrough that could save countless lives.The new plant will be given to poor farmers to help build their fragile economies. They hope to get this crop to farmers in the next few years, as the demand for a cure to Malaria skyrockets.
This plant might actually get somewhere since The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are funding the research. The project just received it’s second grant from the Foundation, supporting the final development of the new varieties and delivery to farmers in Africa and Asia.
Photo Courtesy of Ep.sos.de, via Flickr
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Design Revolution on Colbert
Last night, GOOD 100 winner Emily Pilloton was on The Colbert Report to talk about her new book, Design Revolution. Pilloton wants to fix the world with humanitarian design. Colbert rightfully asks, what exactly is humanitarian design? She responds explaining it as, “taking design as a creative process, which is pretty much problem solving, and putting it to work with some of the biggest social issues were facing today, instead of just design stuff we’re finding solutions for people who really need them.” Humanitarian design not only looks cool and works well but it has a positive social impact and can be measured in life, community and economy.
She brought a few products to demonstrate. The item is called the Spider Boot. The are intended for Landmine detection teams. The biggest danger in looking for mines is not the actual explosion but the shock waves. The Spider creates a distance between your foot and the earth. Colbert of course had them on and mentioned that they also must be great to dance in.
The second item was the Adaptive Eye Care. This is intended to be used for people living in the developing world and don’t have access to an eye doctor or can’t afford glasses, you can simply adjust prescription yourself. The glasses are filled withsilicon oil that changes the way you can see.
The last item was the hippo roller. It’s a water transport barrel that can hold 22 gallons of water for house that are located far from the water source. If you tried to pick up the barrel it would way 200 gallons whereas if you push it like a lawnmower it only weighs about 40 pounds. Emily pushes it around the studio and Colbert tells her she looks like a “very suspicious flight attendant.” Oh, Colbert.
Can you make a ton of money from these inventions? Emily Pilloton says there’s not a bottom line but a triple bottom line; planet, people and profit.
Photo courtesy of Wonderlane, via Flickr
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You never know what you’re gonna see when you walk into at a highway gas station. Lucky for the mother of this baby, just the right caring person walked in and her instincts were raging. In Palm Beach a woman went into a Shell gas station bathroom and came out with, what they thought at the time, was a stillborn. Tammy refused to believe the baby was dead so she called 911 and resuscitated the baby.Yay the baby lives!
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Author of best seller Half the Sky, Nicolas D. Kristof, looks into the lives of two very different folk. One is a 36 year old man who lives in Florida alone with a pool, he is successful, attractive and healthy. The other is a 64 year old black woman, poor and overweight but has a close relationships with her husband children, grandchildren. She is respected in her church for volunteering her time and energy in the music department and she give 10 percent of her income to charity and has raised 10,000 for earthquake relief in Haiti. Kristof tells the New York Times that he believes that the 64 year old woman is happier then the man. How do you figure?
According to Jonathan Haidt, a psychology professor at the University of Virginia, he writes in his book “The Happiness Hypothesis.” even though more people would prefer to exchange lives with Richard the 36 year old, Lorna the 64 year old woman is probably a happier person.Kristof explains, “she has less stress and is respected by her peers — factors that make us feel good. Happiness is tied to volunteering and to giving blood, and people with religious faith tend to be happier than those without. A solid marriage is linked to happiness, as is participation in social networks. And one study found that people who focus on achieving wealth and career advancement are less happy than those who focus on good works, religion or spirituality, or friends and family.”
Happiness is a very complex feeling to measure. Kristof quotes John Stuart Mill who had a point when he suggested: “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied.”
There was a study done by Dr. Jorge Moll of the National Institutes of Health that found when he asked his subject to think about giving money to a charity, the same parts of his brain that light up when thinking about self pleasures like food and sex. Co-founder of Smile Train says, “The most selfish thing you can do is to help other people,”. One could say that we are innately born to be selfish, whether it be eating or giving, it makes us feel good. There areworser things I suppose.
Photo Courtesy of Loganantill, via Flickr
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Antifreeze, Antibugs.
Where do insects go in the cold winter months you ask? We presume they must burrow deep into the earth or fly south like the butterflies do. But the reality is if those cute adorable spiders aren’t hiding in your closet and under your bed then they must be outside enduring the fridge cold. But these creepy crawlers have a little more to worry about then the average two or four legged. “With cells and bodies composed mostly of water, ice is potentially lethal because its formation disrupts the balance between the fluids outside and inside of cells, which leads to their shrinkage and irreversible damage to tissues.” – New York Times
Being the smart little buggers that they are, they’ve evolved in a way to avoid freezing to death by producing antifreeze. I won’t geek out on you and explain how, but if you care, click here. but if nothing else, take a moment to appreciate the brilliance of Nature the way humans, animals and insects are forever changing and evolving in order to adapt to our environment. Who knows what kind ofcryoprotectant we might be oozing next.
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MLK DAY
So many of you open you’re sleepy eyes on a day like this very day and rejoice over the fact that you don’t have to go into work! Seconds after this realization you slowly roll over onto your side and drift happily back off to sleepy town. Finally you open your brighter eyes around 12, make a snack and sit on the couch watching old reruns of Golden Girls or that classic TNT movie, Back to the Future II or Ferris Bullers Day off, which, is it just me or always is on when on holidays or sicks days? The point is, any other holiday, Memorial Day, Presidents Day, Labor Day, etc.
Photo courtesy of Mattlemmon, via Flickr
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Photo courtesy of Tony the Misfit, via Flickr
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Pope Benedict the XVI reached out to Rabbi Riccardo de Segni from the main synagogue in Rome, Temple Maggiore also known as the Great Temple, this past Sunday. Benedict called on Catholics and Jews to keep an open dialogue and tackle things like poverty and disease. The Pope said according to CNN, “As Moses taught … and as Jesus affirms in the Gospel, all of the commandments are summed up in the love of God and loving-kindness towards one’s neighbor.”
“This rule urges Jews and Christians to exercise, in our time, a special generosity towards the poor, towards women and children, strangers, the sick, the weak and the needy.”
Christians and Jews “share to a great extent a common spiritual patrimony,” but “often remain unknown to each other,” he said.
“It is our duty, in response to God’s call, to strive to keep open the space for dialogue, for reciprocal respect, for growth in friendship, for a common witness in the face of challenges of our time, which invite us to cooperate for the good of humanity …”
This religious common ground was suppose to be the beginning of an annual Catholic Day of Dialogue With Judaism celebration however Italy’s Jewish community pulled out of the 2009 Day of Dialogue in protest. The issue melted down to lingering feelings and conflicts between Jews and Catholics during the Holocaust.
Pope Benedict said the Catholic Church begged forgiveness for actions that “contributed to the scourge of anti-Semitism and anti-Judaism,” and looked forward to warmer relations between Catholics and Jews.
“May these wounds be healed forever,” he said.
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Inflatable Hospitals in Haiti
After the 7.0 Earthquake in Haiti, there is still a bit of a tofu-scramble to bring aid to every person who is in need of medical assistance. To help with this, Doctors Without Borders have used inflatable hospitals. And yes you heard it right, inflatable. And it’s exactly what it sounds like.
Paul McPhun, the operations manager for Haiti tells the press:
“We’re prepared now and have prepared freight, including an emergency inflatable hospital so we can set up exactly those services we’re currently missing.”
Doctors Without Borders have been employing them for years. In 2005 Doctors used the 120-bed inflatable tent to aid Pakistani’s after a 7.6 earthquake. They are quite handy little things. When you’re finished using the temporary hospitals, just deflate, pack up and reuse. Now if only there were doctorbots.
Photo courtesy of Scuacco, via Flickr
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One of NY’s Best Kept Secrets
You’ve heard of New York City Food Bank right? Have you heard of New York City Clothing Bank? Similar mission statement, just replace the word “food” with “clothes”. Bam! You got clothes with food all over it. No! You got clothes available for people in need.
Like so many things in the world that go to waste, clothing is one of them. Many companies have an excess inventory of garments and what do they do with them? Well if anyone has had their nose in the news in the past week, they surely heard about the H & M debacle.
To give you the short- one H & M distributor at Herald Square in New York City was found shredding and trashing new clothes that couldn’t sell. Understand, they are not the only ones out there doing this.
You ask yourself why would a company be so unnecessarily wasteful?
Photo by Flickr, Jsome1.
New York Times breaks it down;
‘Some businesses do not want their goods worn by poor people. Ed Foy, the founder of eFashionSolutions.com, said that brands invest billions of dollars in their images, using models and athletes, which makes them cautious about where donated leftovers might end up. “They want us to see that the people wearing their brands are the people we aspire to be,” said Mr. Foy, a board member of the Clothing Bank. “They want to know, ‘Who’s wearing the clothing and how can that hurt my brand?’ ”
Thank goodness for New York Clothing Bank founder Suzanne Davis, who asked her buddy Larry Phillips to pitch in. It all started in 1985 when the president of the Phillips-Van Heusen clothing line sent 100 boxes of windbreakers to a shelter on the Bowery. Then he asked his friends, and 750 London Fog trench coats arrived, followed by crates of Jockey underwear.
Today, New York City Clothing Bank recovers goods worth $10 million annually of unworn garments and distributes them to 250 aid groups, which help 80,000 people. Fantastic, right?
The New York City Clothing Bank believes that nothing boosts low self -esteem like new clothes that make them feel cared for and confident in school or work and other future endeavors.
Leftovers are the best! Everyone agrees with that.
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Lovely Jennifer Garner gave her time and energy this past weekend to help The Legends of Learning Foundation in Santa Monica, California. The organization encourages youth to stay excited about school and strive for a higher education. Not only were her and girlpal delivering food to the volunteers, she also picked up a drill and used it to build a tent. Now that’s a woman who has her heart and hands in the right place.
Photo by Flickr, Karon.liu.
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Recent Entries
- Plant Could Save Millions from Malaria
- Design Revolution on Colbert
- Woman Saves Baby From Gas Station Bathroom
- Food, Sex and Giving… Wait, what happened to Drugs, Sex and Rock ‘n Roll?
- Antifreeze, Antibugs.
- MLK DAY
- Catholics and Jews Unite to Solve Poverty and Disease
- Inflatable Hospitals in Haiti
- One of NY’s Best Kept Secrets
- Jennifer Garner Lends a Humbling Hand
- Percentage of Goldman Sachs Bonus go to Charity
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