It’s going to be the big word of 2010. Remember it, boys and girls. Because sustainability has never mattered more.

Here’s the definition. Read:

Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the capacity to endure. In ecology, the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of well-being, which in turn depends on the well-being of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.

Sustainability has become a wide-ranging term that can be applied to almost every facet of life on Earth, from a local to a global scale and over various time periods. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems. Invisible chemical cycles redistribute water, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon through the world’s living and non-living systems, and have sustained life for millions of years.

As the earth’s human population has increased, natural ecosystems have declined and changes in the balance of natural cycles has had a negative impact on both humans and other living systems.

Music is powerful. We all know that. Even the most tone-deaf can be transcended by a beloved song. But did you know that music can literally transform your mind?

In an experiment comparing preschoolers who had taken music lessons to those who didn’t, researcher Laurel Trainor of the Institute for Music and the Mind at Ontario’s McMaster University discovered that the musically-trained kids had larger brain responses to certain sound recognition exams. Trainor’s findings reveal the possibility that musical education can actually modify the brain’s auditory cortex, leading to better overall learning skills.

The study’s results indicate that “musical training (but not necessarily passive listening to music) affects attention and memory, which provides a mechanism whereby musical training might lead to better learning across a number of domains,” Trainor said in a statement.

The effects of music education are even more pronounced in children with dyslexia and other language-related disabilities. “A music intervention that strengthens the basic auditory music perception skills of children with dyslexia may also remediate some of their language deficits,” said Gottfried Schlaug, who has also studied music education in relation to learning.

So, whether or not you can play a Tchaikovsky symphony part, it’s likely that your years of music lessons prepped your brain for all the presentations, emails and adult conversations that are part of your life today.

To help make sure that kids today have the same opportunities for music-inspired brain enhancement, help out by volunteering with or donating instruments to your school’s music education department, or contributing to a nationwide group like Little Kids Rock.

Source: Gimundo

This is an older positive news story but bears repeating:

The giant lobster caught 100 miles off the Massachusetts coast spent last month in the lobster tank at Angelica’s Restaurant in Bethlehem. He recently was returned to the water, just off the southern tip of West Island, five miles from New Bedford, Mass.

Fred Cunha, the restaurant owner, bought the 37-inch Monstro with his 15-inch-long claws from a New Bedford fishing boat in mid-October. Cunha estimates Monstro is 50 years old.

Fifteen-pound lobsters are rare anywhere, but especially in the North Country. Half the customers who weighed in on the subject wanted to eat Monstro; the other half felt sorry for him.

After persistent lobbying from diners and his 7-year-old daughter, Angelica, Cunha decided to raffle off Monstro, with the winner deciding whether to send him to the ocean or the cooking pot.

So Monstro lounged in the restaurant’s tank with Mr. Crabby, Angelica’s pet 2-pound lobster, feasting on minced crab and scallops. Cunha sold chances at $1 apiece until he reached Monstro’s retail price of $150.

“She was really worried,” Cunha said of his daughter. “She really wanted him to go free.”

Last Friday, Angelica drew the winning ticket. The winner, Claire Lupton of Whitefield, doesn’t eat lobster. She said a lobster that big and that old shouldn’t end up on a dinner plate.

The Monstro raffle was so successful that Cunha extended it to another lobster, a 9-pounder who’d joined Monstro in the tank a couple of weeks ago. That lobster was set free, too.

Source: MSNBC

Lobsters - born to be free, too!

Judith Lang takes her jewelry making very seriously. She uses found objects on the beach such as plastic and metals and creates amazing pieces of artwork from it. To her, its a small step in reversing the damaging effects we are having on our planet:

Judith Selby Lang is an artist who never pays for material for her jewelry or artwear. This bright plastic junk is forever washing up on shore at her beloved Kehoe Beach in Marin County.

“The environmental situation is so dire, the plastic pollution is enormous, it goes back to what can I do? As one individual, where can I begin?” said Judith.

One of Judith’s bracelets is made of discarded flip-flops. It’s all stuff we can relate to, like a bouquet of popped balloons still strung together, soon to be a necklace.

“I hope to engage people in the idea that they can take a bag to the beach and they can pick up some plastic and make stuff of their own and that’s a way we can get the beach clean also,” she said.

There are lots of disposable lighters out there and some may be about to light up someone’s wardrobe.

There is no sitting around waiting for these pieces to sell. At studios, like the Donna Seager Gallery in San Rafael, this artwear is on display and selling. A bracelet is made of milk carton pull tops now selling for $45. The plastic necklace worn by the gallery owner is $300.

“I think they get an especially big kick out of it because it looks good. I don’t think they would be so impressed if it didn’t, but it has both qualities,” said Donna Seager Liberatore.

And Judith is now adding a twist to her trash collecting, moving from the beach, to the high seas. She has received her first shipment from the North Pacific Gyre, a massive circulating pile of plastic trash out of both sides of Hawaii. She has big plans for a fishing line and may turn it into a necklace.

“Not only will it be a great reminder of what’s going on about ghost nets and the gyre, but I think it will also make a beautiful piece of work,” she said.

With many more loads from the gyre to follow, a world’s worth of trash is one woman’s treasures.

What can you do that matches this woman’s efforts? Can you turn a piece of trash into a treasure? Can you reuse something or repair something you were ready to discard? Can you visit a second-hand store for a “found treasure” instead of buying something new?

Remember, change starts with you.

Source: ABC7 (Take a look at the video for her amazing work.)

Some of us make the most of our time, no matter how limited. Such was the case of Elena Desserich, a little girl with a serious problem. When Elena was only five years old, she was diagnosed with pediatric brain cancer.

“They told us at the very beginning that she had 135 days to live,” Elena’s father, Keith Desserich, told WLWT News.

Elena and her family made the most of that time. She spent the long days in the hospital working on her paintings, which were full of hearts, fairies, and smiling families. One of her artworks was displayed in a local gallery in Cincinnati, right next to a Picasso painting. As the tumor grew larger and she lost the use of her voice, she began to communicate with her family by writing notes.

Elena died in 2007, just nine months after her diagnosis, lying in bed beside her parents.

Even though they’d known Elena’s death was inevitable, her parents Keith and Brooke were devastated by the loss. But they soon discovered that she had left a gift behind for them.

Not long after her death, Elena’s parents were sorting through her things when they began to find notes that she had written to them. “They would be in between CDs or between books on our bookshelf,” said Keith.

All through her final days, Elena had been writing love notes to her family, and hiding them in secret places throughout the house.

“We started to collect them and they would all say ‘I love you Mom, Dad and Grace.’ We kept finding them, and still to this day, we keep finding them.”

While Brooke and Keith treasure all of the notes from Elena, each of them has left a single envelope unopened. “We always want to know that there’s one more note that we haven’t read yet,” said Keith.

Elena’s parents Keith and Brooke recently published a book about Elena’s short but inspiring life, called Notes Left Behind. All proceeds from the sale of the book go towards The Cure Starts Now, the non-profit they founded to help find a cure for cancer.

Source: Gimundo

“The holidays are more for the kids,” you’ll often hear weary parents moan, as they go through the motions but have long since forgotten their own connection to this time of year.

This year, instead of writing Halloween off as a sweets-laden waste of time, remember its your time to change who you are - to play “dress up” without any repercussions.

Why not dress up in a way that really suits the inner you (and sure, wicked witches are allowed in this category!) More than just dress up, dare to act it out. When was the last time you allowed yourself to make-believe? BE Dracula, down to the ominous stare. Get in touch with your Inner Ghost. Take some imaginative chances. Act the role.

Halloween exists for many reasons. It’s a powerful time of year, for one. But it’s also just a time to play, before it gets cold and our natural tendency toward hibernating sets in.

In short, LET LOOSE!

Mary was driving home from one of her business trips in Northern Arizona
when she saw an elderly Navajo woman walking on the side of the road. As
the trip was a long and quiet one, she stopped the car and asked the Navajo
woman if she would like a ride. With a silent nod of thanks, the woman got into the car.

Resuming the journey, Mary tried in vain to make a bit of small talk with
the Navajo woman. The old woman just sat silently, looking intently at
everything she saw, studying every little detail, until she noticed a brown bag on the seat next to Mary.

“What in bag?” asked the old woman.

Mary looked down at the brown bag and said, “It’s a bottle of wine. I got
it for my husband.”

The Navajo woman was silent for another moment or two.

Then speaking with the quiet wisdom of an elder, she said:

“Good trade.”

Who says you have to dream big? Dreams can be as small and simple as a paper airplane. Just ask Mong Thongdee:

A boy with no official nationality who lives in Thailand captured third place in a Japanese paper airplane contest Sunday after his tearful pleas to be allowed to attend prompted authorities to grant him a rare temporary passport for the event.

Mong Thongdee, 12, won a national paper airplane championship in Thailand in August 2008 after he threw a plane that flew for 12 seconds, and was later chosen to attend the Japanese contest in Chiba, near Tokyo. But Mong, who lives in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, is the son of Myanmar migrants who are stateless and so have no legal right to travel abroad.

His first application to leave Thailand was denied, but after national media coverage of him quietly sobbing after the refusal captured the hearts of many Thais he was granted a temporary passport.

Source: MSNBC

Even in the wake of the most tragic events, positivity can survive, sometimes even thrive. We’ve all had experiences that floored us, only to look back and see how positive change resulted or see how people come together during a horrendous event, like September 11.

This story showcases that positivity can walk with tragedy. One does not negate the other:

Last Thursday, six cars collided on the Niagara Thruway outside of Buffalo, New York, and within moments, bystanders rushed in to save the trapped passengers from the vehicles. When one of the car’s engines caught fire, one Good Samaritan grabbed a fire extinguisher to put out the flames; another used a saw to cut the cars’ frames apart and pull out the unconscious people trapped inside.

“There wasn’t one hero,” Michael Byham, one of the volunteer rescuers, told the Buffalo News. “There was a bunch of people who jumped in.”

Thanks to their quick and cool-headed work, several people were injured, but only one passenger, 7-year-old Asa Hill, who’d been traveling with his grandfather, seemed to be in critical condition—he was immediately rushed to a hospital and placed on life support.

Sadly, doctors soon declared the young boy brain-dead. His parents, Amilcar Hill and Rahwa Ghirmatzion, said their goodbyes to their only child the next day, and gave their blessing for the staff to harvest Asa’s organs, so that he could save the lives of others.

Despite their devastating loss, Hill and Ghirmatzion are choosing to focus on the happiness that their son brought them in his short life. “He enjoyed being loved,” Amilcar Hill told the Buffalo News. “He enjoyed being our baby. He enjoyed being our son, I know that for a fact. He told us, I know it’s for real. He enjoyed his moments with everyone. That’s who he was.”

Hill and Ghirmatzion had been a couple since they were teenagers, and though they’d never gotten married, they were deeply committed to their relationship. But Asa always wanted them to celebrate their love with a real wedding, and asked them several times if they would get married. Though they told him they would, they never got around to following through.

But after Asa died, the couple decided to pay tribute to their son by honoring his request in an unusual way. Rather than using his funeral as an occasion for grief, Hill and Ghirmatzion decided to turn it into a celebration.

More than 1,100 people attended the funeral service on Monday, which was filled with tributes to Asa from family and friends, African drum performances, and dancing. And, to cap it all off, the service ended with Hill and Ghirmatzion walking down the church aisle, pledging their lifelong commitment to one another in a beautiful wedding. Asa’s parents knew their son would have loved it.

“We wanted it to be a surprise,” Hill told CNN. “We knew it would be a joyous moment. You could see how it lifted them, and we figured, why not make it a surprise at the end.”

Source: Gimundo

At first they might come across as insincere but The Compliment Guys are quite serious in their intent: they want to spread as much good cheer as humanly possible.

According to Lafayette Online, the two stand in the center of campuses weekly “giving out free compliments to thousands of passersby. Initial suspicion of their motives quickly melted in the face of their enthusiasm and earnestness.”

“When I started giving compliments on the Purdue campus almost a year ago, I never expected it to be so well received all over the world,” said complimenter Brent Westcott (along with Cameron Brown.) “This trip will allow us to share the same good feelings with people around the country that we have exchanged at Purdue.”

The BrightSide tour begins today in New Orleans. From there, the dynamic duo will travel to Birmingham, Ala.; Atlanta; Charleston, S.C.; Charlotte, N.C.; Washington; Baltimore; Philadelphia; and New York City. The tour ends on Aug. 7 in Rochester, N.Y.

Take a quick look at this fun video to see these guys in action!