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Archive for January, 2010

Volunteerism up among Americans in 2009

Jan 29

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ANN SANNER

WASHINGTON (AP) – A million and a half more Americans volunteered to help with such activities as raising money, collecting food and tutoring children during the span of a year ending in September 2009, a period marked by job losses and a lousy economy.

About 63.4 million people ages 16 and older volunteered at least once between September 2008 and September 2009, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

That’s about a 1.6 million increase compared with the 61.8 million people who helped their communities in 2008, but not as many as the 65.4 million who lent a hand in 2005.

A little more than one in four Americans volunteer, the report showed.
dailymail.com

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Gates Makes $10 Billion Vaccines Pledge

Jan 29

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DAVOS, Switzerland — The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will donate $10 billion over the next decade to research new vaccines and bring them to the world’s poorest countries, the Microsoft co-founder and his wife said Friday.

Calling upon governments and business to also contribute, they said the money will produce higher immunization rates and aims to make sure that 90 percent of children are immunized against dangerous diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia in poorer nations.

“We must make this the decade of vaccines,” Bill Gates said in a statement. “Vaccines already save and improve millions of lives in developing countries. Innovation will make it possible to save more children than ever before.”

Gates said the commitment more than doubles the $4.5 billion the foundation has given to vaccine research over the years.
huffingtonpost.com

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Dog rescued after 100-mile journey on ice floe

Jan 28

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Sailors spot chilly canine ‘struggling not to fall into water’ in Baltic Sea

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Using pedal power, London boy raises money to help Haitian children

Jan 27

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Seven-year-old Charlie Simpson of London originally planned to just enjoy a bicycle ride in the local park with his father.

Instead, he made a five-mile trip that has raised more than £150,000 for children affected by this month’s Haitian earthquake, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has announced.

Charlie decided to raise funds for UNICEF’s response to the disaster by riding around his local park seven times last Sunday. His goal was to collect £500 in sponsorship pledges through a website, but as of today he has raised nearly £170,000 and counting.

“I want to do a sponsored bike ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives,” he writes on his website. “I want to make some money to buy food, water and tents for everyone in Haiti.”
un.org

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Sunflower DNA map could produce plants for fuel

Jan 25

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By Dirk Lammers, Associated Press

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — A $10.5 million research project aimed at mapping the DNA sequence of sunflowers could one day yield a towering new variety for both food and fuel.

Researchers envision crossbreeding a standard sunflower with the Silverleaf species out of Texas to produce a hybrid with bright yellow flowers bursting with tasty seeds and thick stalks filled with complex sugars that can be turned into ethanol.

The wild, drought-resistant Silverleaf is known for its woody stalks, which can grow up 15 feet tall and 4 inches in diameter.
usatoday.com

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Dog Rescue In LA: Helicopter Team Helps Trapped Animal

Jan 23

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Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

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Solar-Power Innovations Helping Haiti

Jan 22

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By Jace Shoemaker-Galloway

The 7.0-magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12th, caused not only a tremendous loss of life, but considerable damage to the nation’s infrastructure. As people around the world watch the heart-wrenching images coming out of the earthquake ravaged nation, donations are pouring in.

But getting aid into Haiti has been a slow-going process, especially when the lines of communication are interrupted. Communication is critical in getting humanitarian aid, services and information into the disaster area.
triplepundit.com

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At Haiti golf course, 82nd Airborne runs a refugee camp

Jan 21

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The 82nd Airborne division helicoptered in to a golf course in the hills above Port-au-Prince, and is now running a camp for 50,000 displaced Haitians, struggling for food and water.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti

It was once a thing of beauty for Haiti’s elite – a rolling nine-hole golf course, overlooking Port-au-Prince and the ocean beyond and framed by Hispaniola’s central mountain range.

Today it’s a patchwork of blankets, sheets, tarps and cardboard, sheltering as many as 50,000 displaced people.
csmonitor.com

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NY rescue team finds 2 kids alive in Haiti rubble

Jan 21

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NEW YORK — Officials say a joint New York City Police-Fire rescue team in Haiti has pulled out two children alive from the rubble of a collapsed two-story building in Port-au-Prince.

Police spokesman Paul Browne says the 8-year-old boy and 10-year-old girl had been trapped for a week and were severely dehydrated. He said the children were rushed to an Israeli tent hospital where they were being treated.
Browne says the team recovered the bodies of three children from the same site earlier in the evening Tuesday, but they were pronounced dead at the scene. He says a rescue team from Virginia joined the NYPD and FDNY in the effort.

Browne says the boy and girl were the fifth and sixth individuals pulled alive from collapsed buildings by the New Yorkers since their arrival in Haiti on Saturday.
timesunion.com

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U.S. husband pulls wife from Haiti rubble

Jan 20

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She was trapped for 10 hours; aid worker drove 100 miles and dug her out

By Mike Celizic

Frank Thorp Jr., an American aid worker, was in the mountains 100 miles away from Port-au-Prince when the earthquake struck, and at first he didn’t realize how serious it was. But then he learned that it had leveled the Haitian capital and that his wife, Jillian, was trapped in the wreckage of a building.

“We felt the earthquake, but it was just a small earthquake up there,” Thorp told TODAY’s Matt Lauer Wednesday via cell phone. There had been no cell phone reception in the mountains where he was, he explained, but “We heard a rumor that it had hit Port-au-Prince really hard.”
msnbc.msn.com

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