We all have our forgetful moments. Most of the times, we admonish ourselves for it, as if mistakes were a sign of our flaw-filled nature. But we’re human and it’s alright to forget.

Of course, occasionally the stakes can be higher than misplacing some sunglasses or our car keys.

Ann Roggen is a violist with NJ Symphony Orchestra who had one of those “whoops” moments when she left her $40,000 viola in a New York City cab. She didn’t take a receipt but the Taxi and Limousine Commission was able to track down her prized musical instrument using a GPS to figure out which cab had taken her from the Fairway back to her Upper West Side apartment.

When the TLC contacted the driver, Deniz Getting, he was sound asleep. But when he got the messages and checked the backseat of his car, there was the viola, safe and sound.

As for Roggen, she promises to “always make sure to take a receipt.”

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Buddy is not your average German shepherd - though German shepherds are far from average dogs. They are extremely intelligent and fiercely loyal dogs. But when Buddy’s owner, Joe Stalnaker, had a seizure in his Phoenix home, it was Buddy who called 911. That’s right - a dog called 911 and got the help his owner needed.

Buddy was adopted from a Michigan-based clinic called “Paws with a Cause” which trains assistance dogs. Buddy, at the age of 18 months old, is able to press programmed buttons until an operator is online. The operator then sees on the screen that this household has a trained dog to aid and assist in medical emergencies. The operator dispatches help immediately.

So what can be heard on the recording of the 911 call? Whimpering and barking.

Once the dog’s owner was rushed to the hospital, he spent several days recovering…and grateful he had such a well-trained and intelligent dog.

Buddy and his owner Joe Stalnaker

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Positive News for Old Text

The world has gone digital - there’s no doubt there! And sometimes it can seem overwhelming, being bombarded by tons of useless information online (except for this of course!) But the Internet can also be an amazing tool that gives you rare opportunities to experience, research and learn about topics that otherwise might be impossible.

Take the book Forme of Cury. It is one of the 40 rare and ancient manuscripts that’s getting a digital treatment thanks to the hard work of University of Manchester’s John Rylands University Library.

What is Forme of Cury? An ancient cookbook used by master chefs in 1390 when preparing meals for none other than King Richard II.

Digitisation has made it possible to review these complex and unusual recipes (like blank mang - a recipe including meat, milk, sugar, and almonds) and also to preserve the physical text, which is inherently fragile. So if you want to “eat like a king,” remember, its just a keystroke away.

A Lebanese couple in the city of Tyre were in for quite a surprise during their oyster lunch. While consuming one of the bivalves, Raymond Salha’s wife made an amazing discovery - one of her oysters contained 26 pearls inside!

Realizing their value, the couple contacted the city’s maritime museum who sent a team over to examine the goods. The team took the pearls and the oyster away for closer examination. The report back? The team only counted 25 pearls (though Salha insists that there was 26!)

And while the pearls themselves aren’t worth a tremendous sum of money, the fact of one oyster containing so many pearls is highly unusual and impressive.

Currently the oyster and the pearls are on display at the restaurant. When asked whether the owners plan on reporting the oyster to the Guinness Book of World Records, Salha had this this to say:

”If they read about it and find that it is a record, then they can come and record it themselves,” he said.

In the meantime, Salha will wonder what happened to that 26th pearl.

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According to Haley Stern, the project started simply enough. Her cousin was coming in for a visit and wanted to see the world-renowned Bronx Zoo. When they went to see the “Congo Gorilla Forest,” it was love at first site.

According to Haley:

Deep in my heart something told me that these gentle creatures needed me. One day, my parents rented “Gorillas in the Mist” for me to watch, but during the poaching scenes, I couldn’t believe that was ACTUALLY happening!? I was so terrified, my parents and I adopted “Kubana”, an infant mountain gorilla. But, I had a feeling I had more of a part to play, being an animal lover and all.

I decided to start a school club “Kids Save Apes” that would include a small group (3 to 5 members!) of close friends that would go around raising awareness. We all had our favorite types of apes (gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos, or gibbons), so we researched them and decided to put our work on a website (http://www.freewebs.com/kidssaveapes ). And boy, word spread.

It all happened so fast, but now, we have 20+ members, from all over the world. We have KSA-UK (our United Kingdom Branch), KSA-CA (Canadian Branch), KSA Tanzania (our Tanzania, Africa, branch) and we have USA members in Vermont, New York, Florida, California, and Massachusetts. So far we have raised $1000 (with credit from our partners, Ape Aware and G.O.P.G).

On May 3rd we had a fundraiser, and we hoped to raise $800 to adopt 14 apes and make a generous donation of $100 to the Great Ape Trust (http://www.iowagreatapes.org)

During the rest of the year, we will be presenting at a Roots and Shoots (http://www.rootsandshoots.org) fair, and meeting Dr. Jane Goodall PhD- a great hero in the activist world. We have also been discussing projects we can do with our Tanzanian Branch, such as tree planting in Tanzania. We also hope to fully update our website. One thing we hope to do is touch a poacher’s life, so he’ll put down his knife - even just one poacher. Our main goal is to save the apes from extinction - maybe even from being endangered.

There is often a natural affinity between children and animals. This affinity, for Haley, has meant actual change. We can only imagine the good she’ll do for the animal kingdom as she gets older.

Haley Stern and friend with Jane Goodall, world-renowned primatologist

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Claudia Mitchell had a regular college life up until 2004 when she experienced a motorcycle accident that left her disabled. But as a result of a new surgery, Claudia has become a real-life version of “Bionic Woman” - part computer and part human.

After the accident, the doctors raced to reattach her arm but the operation proved to be unsuccessful.
The doctors then provided a prosthetic arm in its place. Mitchell unfortunately had a great deal of adjustment difficulty, to the point where her prosthetic arm was impossible for her to manage.

“It just sat on the shelf. It didn’t do anything,” said Mitchell.

She then read about a new, experimental nerve surgery developed by Dr. Todd Kuiken entitled “targeted reinnervation.” A robotic arm would be implanted that wouldn’t be controlled by the patient’s shoulder but by her thoughts. Mitchell volunteered to take part in this revolutionary procedure. The doctors proceeded to take severed and dormant nerves in her shoulder and put them under a muscle in her chest.

Now when Mitchell wants her arm to move, she puts the thought in her head first. This signal travels from her brain to the muscle in her chest. The chest muscle contract and “lets tiny bits of electricity out.” These electric signals then go to an internal computer that decodes them and then tells the artificial arm what to do - and all in an instant!

“I have what I call my ‘eureka moments,’” Mitchell said. “My stunned ‘I can’t believe I just did that’ moments. There are a lot of daily tasks that people don’t even think about being able to do that I can [do] now.”

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I brought the idea to my fellow friends, Muslims and Christians, and I said we should make a co-op selling our coffee but as well as spreading peace in the world.

They were all so happy so we called it Mirembe, which means peace, Kawomera, which means that even our coffee must be of quality.

Then we made that cooperative.

— JJ Keki, founder & director, Peace Kawomera

That’s the “story” behind Mirembe Kawomera Coffee, stemming from JJ Keki’s dream. JJ Keki is a Ugandan coffee farmer who hit the streets, asking Muslim, Christian and Jewish neighbors to put aside their idealogical differences and create a great coffee with an even better cause.

In addition to the specialness of their message, these farmers also economically needed to gather and form a collective that could help them keep pace in an ever-changing market. With the help of Laura Wetzler from the US organization Kulana, this possibility became actualized.

At this point, Peace Kawomera Cooperative has over 750 members. Because of the collective power, they now sell directly to Thanksgiving Coffee Company and receive 4 times what they previously made. This has started a chain reaction in their community, as farmers are able to send their children to school, save money and reinvest.

It’s positive news indeed that something as simple as a cup of coffee can break down religious barriers and help a Ugandan community thrive.

Founder JJ Keiki and Son

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People might not be the most predictable lot but animals still have a consistent loyal capacity that can’t be matched. The border collie was recently celebrated at Dawsonville, Georgia where throngs of people came out to witness the smarts of this fine species. How is this positive news, you may ask? Because dogs like border collies are constantly making our world happier and easier. We take animals for granted and often forget how much they contribute to our community. They don’t ask for a reward or recognition - just love, work and food.

Border collies in particular have been bred to contribute. They are highly intelligent dogs that have are known for their natural herding ability. Because of their smarts, they are also commonly utilized to sniff out drugs or explosives for authorities. Some border collies are used as sled dogs.

“I don’t consider them pets, I consider them partners.” one farm owner had to say.

While smart, agile and bred to help out humankind, these dogs don’t necessarily make the best house pets. They aren’t met to spent a lot of time indoors and really have a deep need to work and stay busy.

So let’s celebrate the contributions of one particular kind of dog. It might seem small, but for centuries, our dogs have been helping us in consistent and needed ways, with very little fanfare!

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Olga Murray had a big plan. She had been volunteering in Nepal for several years when she found out that in a nearby area, poor farmers would sell their daughters as slaves to wealthier families at the cost of $35 - $75. The families of the would-be slaves felt they had no alternative - without selling their daughters, they compromised the entire family’s ability to survive.

Olga Murray knew she had to come up with a solution quickly. She recognized the importance of pork in these communities and that a pig could easily fetch the amount of money that these families needed.

In 1989, she began going door to door, offering the poor family free piglets in exchange for keeping their daughters safe, at home. In addition, she offered to pay for the girl’s education through her group, the Nepalese Youth Opportunity Foundation. Out of 37 Nepalese families she approached, 32 took the offer.

19 years later, Murray and her organization have continued their offer. As a result, more than 3,000 girls have been given the opportunity to remain at home with their families as well as flourishing in a solid educational program.

“The local schools are full of former kamlaris (girl slaves) and the size of the classrooms are swollen, and girls are outnumbering boys,” Murray’s business partner, Som Paneru, wrote in an e-mail to the Chronicle. “We’ve already built over 35 new classrooms, but the need is still not fully met.”

“At rallies, or on the radio, they promise out loud that their little sisters will never, ever go through what they did, and that’s when you hear them start to cry,” said 83-year-old Murray.

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Some people wander around a modern museum, wondering how somebody could sell random splotches of paint for a small fortune. Maybe you need to think “outside of the box.” Or maybe its a seal’s idea of fine art.

At Columbia’s River Bank Zoo in South Carolina, the zoo is auctioning off some of its best work - by animals. That’s right, art normally created by human hands is done by claws and paws. The star artists are snow leopards and sea lions and parrots and more. No Picasso here - just some animal paintings for fun and for a good cause.

Association spokesman Steve Feldman says zoo keepers have used animal paintings for some time, as a way to raise money and as a form of stimulation for the animals, who appreciate color and play.

The money raised will go toward zoo conservation efforts and is sponsored by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums. To take part in this online auction, visit http://www.auctionnetwork.com. The first painting up for bidding is done a penguin. Now THIS is abstract art at its best!

Sushi, the Sea Lion with paintbrush, creating a masterpiece