The designers understood the risk. The city waited with baited breath. Would one of the largest living roofs flourish or flop? Well, the answer is somewhere in-between:

It’s been three years since the green roof was planted on Vancouver’s new convention centre.
Is it a success? Is it as good as they promised it would be?
The answer is that some parts are terrific — attractive, quality planting; a beautiful habitat for songbirds and insect life.
But other areas are untidy, scrubby, a bit of a mess; you might even say, an eyesore, and a fair ways from what they could or should be.

Overall, the roof is more a success than a flop, but there’s definitely room for improvement, so the designers should not spend too much time patting themselves on the back. There’s still some refining work to do.
Covering 2.4 hectares (just over six acres), it is still the largest living roof in Canada and the largest non-industrial green roof in North America.
But being 10 storeys above ground, you can’t see much of it from street level, say from outside the Fairmont Pacific Rim at Canada Place.
The roof is mostly visible to people working in adjacent highrise office blocks, such as the Shaw Tower, or living in luxury condos opposite.

Read more at the Vancouver Sun.

The inimitable Betty White celebrated her 90th birthday recently. Animal activist and actress, we celebrate her through her words:

On one’s well-being: “Keep the other person`s well-being in mind when you feel an attack of soul-purging truth coming on.”

On getting rest after a long day: “Oh, I don’t need sleep. I just went to my hotel and had a cold hot dog and vodka on the rocks.”

On living life to the fullest, we think: “I’ve always liked older men. They’re just more attractive to me. Of course, at my age there aren’t that many left! I’ve enjoyed the opposite sex a lot. Always have. Always will.”

On staying active: “I have a two story house and a bad memory! I’m up and down those stairs all the time: ‘What did I come up here for again?’”

On Facebook, after a successful campaign on the social media network site landed White a gig as a host of Saturday Night Live: “I didn’t know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say: It sounds like a huge waste of time.”

On gay marriage: “I don’t care who anybody sleeps with. If a couple has been together all that time — and there are gay relationships that are more solid than some heterosexual ones — I think it’s fine if they want to get married. I don’t know how people can get so anti-something. Mind your own business, take care of your affairs, and don’t worry about other people so much.

Source: GlobalMontreal

Young adults gain knowledge and compassion when part of charitable projects. Their self-confidence increases as well as their sense of community, which has staying power for a lifetime. This story shows how students and communities work together to help needy families, and interestingly, help themselves:

Normally, the day before Thanksgiving on the campus of Gonzaga High School in Washington, D.C is found to be silent. All the students are at home with their families and enjoying the holiday break. However, that is not the case in the basement of the next door church. Faculty, staff and parents have gathered to volunteer their time to feed the needy.

Inside the basement, folks worked diligently all day long making Thanksgiving dinners with all the trimmings to feed about 50 people that are older and live nearby in the lower income dwellings. The meals are a welcome sight and are a blessing to those that receive them from the volunteers from the school. The holidays are not the only time that this charitable work occurs. Volunteers help feed the needy twice a week all year long in a project founded in 2001.

The project, started by Robert Egger is called the Campus Kitchens Project (CKP) and it uses resources that are both available and left over. They use the campus kitchens, the leftover food and volunteer students to help prepare and feed the hungry. The program has taken hold and spread to 28 colleges and 3 high schools.

Read more at Amazing News.

This story is a testament to the human soul and the mind’s capacity for resilience and creativity. Truly amazing. 

Survivor, Thriver

King spent 29 years in solitary confinement in a six-by-nine-foot cell at Angola Louisiana State Penitentiary.

King was convicted of robbery in 1969 despite the testimony of the main witness who admitted he picked King out of a lineup after being tortured.

King escaped from the Orleans Parish Prison and joined the Black Panther Party in New Orleans—five years after the federal government passed the Civil Rights Act.

He was recaptured within weeks of his escape and sent to Angola, then considered the bloodiest prison in America, in the spring of 1972 where he met Black Panthers Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace in solitary confinement.

They became informally known as the “Angola 3.”  Woodfox and Wallace remain in solitary confinement, while King was released on time served in February 2011.

King learned the power of creative, physical activity while he was in Closed Cell Restriction (CCR), also known as extended lockdown, at Angola.

Unlike the other living spaces on Angola’s 18,000-acre prison grounds, the CCR cells did not have a slot for passing food to inmates.  King had to eat from his plate through the bars while the plate was on the floor or while he balanced the plate in mid-air.

As a solution, King built a cardboard food tray and hung it from strings outside his cell. “All the guys began to do it.  Some guys got creative about it. They drew pictures on their trays. They covered them in table clothes. We had fun with it,” King says.

They also made chess boards out of tissue paper.  They fastened sixty-four tissue squares to their concrete floors with toothpaste to make chessboards. They made expertly sculpted tissue paper rooks and kings.

Read more at Gimundo.

A touching and inspirational story proving once again its never too late to learn. Anyone you know who can’t read? Don’t let any more time go by. There’s help, from amazing organizations like ProLiteracy.com. According to their stats:

ProLiteracy also estimates:

• 63 percent of prison inmates can’t read
• 774 million people worldwide are illiterate
• Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate are women

And now, a man who starting reading (then writing a book) rather late in life.

MYSTIC, Conn. (AP) - When retired Stonington lobsterman Jim Henry was 91 he decided it was time he taught himself how to read and write.

And now seven years later, at the age of 98, Henry is a published author.

Henry recently signed copies of his just-released book, “In a Fisherman’s Language,” at Academy Point, the senior housing project where he lives. A larger public signing is being planned for December, and the book will be soon be available at www.fishermanslanguage.com.

The book is a collection of short stories such as the time he was unable to save a fellow fisherman who fell overboard, his time as professional boxer and his arrival by boat from Portugal with his parents. Many of the stories involve his career on the ocean.

The cover of the book, which is published by Fowler Road Press of North Stonington, is a close-up black and white photo of Henry’s right hand as he writes on a piece of paper.

On Tuesday, the day before the signing, Henry was at the desk in his apartment.

He was beaming.

“I feel so good about doing this. I don’t know what to do or what to say,” he said. “I feel like I was just born.”

In recent days, Henry said people who have read the first copies of the book have told him they can’t believe they were now talking to the author.

“Here I am, nothing but a fisherman before and now everyone is looking up to me. It makes me feel so happy,” he said.

Source: News8.com

The shopping onslaught has begun. But that doesn’t mean you have to be sucked in! There are some GREAT organizations out there, so when you buy a gift, you help the world. I love shopping at 10,000 Villages, for instance. Its a wonderful feeling to know you’re helping small craftspeople around the world. It gives shopping a whole other feel:

1. 10,000 Villages Online Store: One of the world’s largest fair trade organizations and a founding member of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO), 10,000 Villages offers gifts and accessories representing the diverse cultures of artisans from 38 countries. Your purchases help improve the lives of tens of thousands of artisans worldwide. [Shop 10,000 Villages]

2. Best Friends Animal Society Online Store: There’s no reason to shop at the big box pet stores for the animal lovers in your life this holiday season when you can purchase collars, treats, and toys directly from one of the best animal charities in the United States. [Shop Best Friends Animal Society]

3. CARE Packages: CARE has a very unique holiday gift program that allows you to compile care packages to send to women entrepreneurs and girls worldwide. As a group or as an individual, CARE Packages can help send girls in Afghanistan to school for a year, or help expectant mothers in Peru safely deliver. It’s fun and you’ll be bringing hope to girls and women around the world. [Send a CARE Package]

4. Concern Worldwide Gifts: When you buy Concern Gifts, you support Concern’s work in 25 countries worldwide – bringing food, clean water, good health, education and a higher standard of living within reach of more people. Although Concern is based in the U.K., their gift program also accepts U.S.-issued credit cards. [Shop Concern Gifts]

5. Feeding America Tribute Gifts: With poverty and food insecurity at record levels in the Untied States, it’s practically your patriotic duty to donate to Feeding America!  [Give a Feeding America Tribute Gift]

6. Jane Goodall Institute Online Store: You don’t have to be primate activist to shop at the JGI Online Store. Their store also offers jewelry, African art and music, and clothing. That said, there’s also some great gifts for the primate activists in your life.  [Shop the Jane Goodall Institute Online Store]

7. Kiva Cards: Starting a $25, Kiva Cards change lives. You can purchase Kiva Cards which then can be redeemed by your gift recipient to fund a loan of his or her choosing. A microfinance nonprofit working to uplift entrepreneurs out of poverty worldwide, this is great holiday gift for those subscribe to the belief of giving a hand-up, not a handout. [Buy Kiva Cards]

8. Save the Children Gifts of Joy: From ornaments  handmade in India to the sponsorship of a girl’s education in a developing nation to providing health snacks at school to children in the United States, Save the Children has put a together a great online catalog for giving this holiday season. [Give a Save the Children Gift of Joy]

9. Sea Shepherd Conservation Society Online Store: If you have a family member or friend who supports saving the whales and dolphins from slaughter with direct action and activist intervention, then Sea Shepherd is a great choice for a holiday gift. The nonprofit behind Whale Wars, their online store also includes numerous items ideal for skaters, surfers, and other ocean-loving hipsters. [Shop Sea Shepherd]

10. Special Olympics Tribute Gifts: An excellent choice for the athletes in your life, Special Olympics Tribute Gifts enable those with intellectual disabilities to experience the power of sports to create champions. [Give a Special Olympics Tribute Gift]

11. Women for Women International’s Gifts That Give Back: Women for Women’s gifts enable you to empower women to rebuild their lives after the ravages of war. You can purchase everything from looms to farming supplies to books, rulers, and pencils which are then given in the name of your gift recipient to a woman in war-torn country.  [Give a Women for Women's Gift That Gives Back]

Source: NonProfits.org

Whether you are for or against the Occupy Wall Street movement, one thing can be agreed on: people have the power to make change globally. If you believe in what these groups are doing around the world, help them in whatever way possible. Here are some suggestions.

We cannot go on expecting solutions to come from the political and economic elites who ride in limousines with security guards. They are not exposed to the impacts of their policies, so the feedback loop has been broken by the concentration of wealth and power in a few hands. This is why so many people are out in the streets demanding a transition from the dominant system (guns and money) to a new system that will give social justice and environmental restoration a higher priority than corporate profit-making.

By Kevin Danaher – Co-Founder,  Global Exchange

Beth Mann, a popular online writer, recently published a piece about the therapeutic benefits of writing. Here’s an excerpt:

I equate writing with singing. People often won’t sing because at some point, usually during their formative years, someone told them they weren’t doing it right. They closed off their voice and became quieter.

Many think they can’t write, as if its a skill you either possess or don’t. My point? Who cares? Use it anyway. I write for my life now. It doesn’t have to be perfectly tailored pieces; it just needs to be released from my mind.

That’s why journaling is so powerful. There is no right or wrong to it. You simply need to move the thoughts from your brain onto paper. That’s it. Doesn’t sound very helpful, does it? But actually, its a tool by which you begin purging often-negative mental junk and clarifying the true, clear voice underneath.

If you make a practice of writing every day, you will see changes in your life. I promise. Its almost uncanny how accessible and simple of a life-changing tool it it, right at your disposal. It’s therapy on paper. It’s creativity refining itself into actual, tangible ideas. It’s release for a quieter mind.

Fill me with anything!

It’s always a positive thing when you can use something you were just about to throw out for some other purpose. It’s called “repurposing” or “pre-cycling.” And I bet there are plenty of items you are getting ready to toss that can be used for something else instead. Here are a few examples:

1. Reuse your blankets and towels. Bring them to a local shelter that will be glad to put them to good use and give animals a soft, warm place to sit.

2. Reuse seeds from fruit and vegetables and try to grow them!

3. Reuse old plastic bags. There are 10 creative ways to reuse plastic bags here.

4. Reuse paper bags as school book covers, or be a little more creative with these ideas.

5. Cut used pieces of paper into scrap pieces of paper (a message pad!).

6. Reuse stove heat by opening up the stove once you are done with it and letting the warm air into your home in colder weather. Reuse the heat!

7. Reuse coffee grinds by keeping them aside and placing them into your garden or soil.

8. Reuse coffee that you don’t drink by putting it over ice and placing it in the fridge for an iced coffee later.

9. Reuse Christmas trees (not the fake ones) by putting them outside for birds and letting it naturally break down.

10. Reuse packing peanuts, air pillows, bubble wrap and boxes for your own ebay shipping, or bring them by the local post office or recycling center for others to use.

Check out more here.

Let’s take a moment of thanks and appreciation for the Occupy Wall Street protesters. You don’t have to agree with them. But they are exercising their rights as US citizens and taking a stand and attempting to make a positive change.

What can you do today to take a stand, no matter how small? Make a difference in your own life first and the ripple effect will occur. How can you instill in others around you the importance of standing up for your rights?