One of the fire fighters climbed up the 20-feet coconut to bring down the little kitten.

Thank you Bomba Malaysia for saving this kitten, who was chased by dogs and climbed up a 20-feet tall coconut tree. We believed she got stuck in the tree for 24 hours and couldn’t get down.

When we heard and found her, we couldn’t help her but to call Bomba of Melaka for help. After 15 minutes, they came with their gears and saved the kitten from the tree.

Thank you again, we appreciate your effort and kindness.

May all bEE happy

.

Terima kasih kepada pihak Bomba Malaysia yang menyelamatkan kucing. Ia melarikan diri ke atas pokok kelapa yang lebih kurang 20 kaki, akibat dikejar anjing. 15 minit kemudian selepas kami telefon pihak Bomba, mereka pun tiba and menyelamatkan kuching itu dari pokok kelapa.

Terima kasih and semoga berkhidmat dengan lebih cemerlang

The post Thank you Bomba Malaysia (fire fighter) for saving the kitten appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

The post Improvement in Love appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

My name is Fei Fei. I was a stray puppy.

‘My name is Fei Fei. I am 8.’

‘I was a stray puppy until I came into CJ’s family. They now have a family and a furry daughter like me.’

‘When I am free, I love to run and swim in the stream nearby. I think slippers are nice to chew.’

‘Cats in the family are my friends. I love more of their dry food than my own food. I’ve stopped many fights between my friends with others.’

‘I love human. Sometimes they can be unpredictable yet they are very obedient. When I sit, they will give me their hand and say, ‘hand’. In return, I give them a good hand shake.’

‘I can be fierce sometimes when I see strangers in the neighborhood. I saved my mom once for being robbed at the house. I too alarmed the neighbors when someone tried to break in their cars.’

‘Because of me, my family no longer feel lonely. Because of me, they feel safe and loved. Because of me, they have new pairs of slipper always.’

‘There are many me on the streets. Please bring them home with compassion, they will lovEE you and become your good friends and family.’

The post I am Fei Fei. I am 8. I was a stray puppy… appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

happy family near the beach of a fishing village in Vietnam

One day, a father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the firm purpose of showing his son how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family. On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, “How was the trip?”
“It was great, Dad.”

“Did you see how poor people live?” the father asked.

“Oh yeah,” said the son.

“So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?” asked the father.

The son answered, “I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden, and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden, and they have the stars at night. Our patio reaches to the front yard, and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on, and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us; they have friends to protect them.”

The boy’s father was speechless.

Then his son added, “Thanks, Dad, for showing me how poor we are.”

一位亿万富豪想让他的儿子体验什么叫作“贫穷”，于是就把他送到乡下的穷亲戚家去亲身体验。他儿子在乡下住了三天三夜。

在回家的路上，他父亲在车里问他：“你觉得怎么样？”

“很不错”，儿子回答。

“乡下跟我们家有什么区别吗？”父亲又问。
​
儿子说，有许多不一样。​

1、我们家有一条狗；他们家有四条。
​
2、我们家院子里有个游泳池，里面是加工处理过的水；他们家有个大池塘，水很 清，里面还游着各种各样的鱼。​
​
3、我们的花园里有电灯照明；他们的院子里有星星和月亮照明。
​
4、我家的花园一直到围墙边；他们的院子一直延伸到天边。
​
5、我们买饭吃；他们做饭吃。​
​
6、我们听CD；他们听小鸟、青蛙和其它动物的音乐会，当他们在田里工作时，所有这些美妙的音乐都会伴随着他们。
​
7、我们使用微波炉做饭；可是他们的木材炊饭比我们好吃的多。​

8、我们家四周都是围墙；他们家任何时候门都是开着，迎接朋友们的到来。

9、我们与行动电话，电脑和电视紧密相连；他们与生活紧密相连，蓝天，碧水，绿草，树荫和家庭。

父亲对儿子的观点很吃惊，最后儿子总结说：“谢谢，爸爸！你让我看到我们有多么的贫穷！”

我们一天比一天更贫穷，因为我们已经感受不到上帝为我们创造的大自然。
​
我们每天想的都是拥有、拥有、拥有、更多的拥有，从来没有想到过存在与奉献。​

The post How the poor live? 什么叫做贫穷? appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

An aerial view of a coastal town, devastated by super Typhoon Haiyan, in Samar province in central Philippines November 11, 2013. Dazed survivors of super Typhoon Haiyan that swept through the central Philippines killing an estimated 10,000 people begged for help and scavenged for food, water and medicine on Monday, threatening to overwhelm military and rescue resources. (image by REUTERS/Erik De Castro)

When emergencies hit — they hurt children most. This is especially true in the Philippines with super typhoon Haiyan. Early reports indicate hundreds dead while UNICEF estimates that up to 4 million children could now be affected by the disaster.

It is this year’s most powerful tropical storm and is also the latest natural disaster to strike a country already reeling from monsoon flooding and a massive earthquake that struck in October.

UNICEF, with humanitarian partners, has deployed assessment teams to support the government to respond to this latest disaster. We are rushing emergency life-saving supplies such as therapeutic food for children, health kits, water and hygiene kits to the affected areas.

We urgently appeal for your help so that we can respond to the needs of the children and families most affected by this latest calamity.

Please donate today!

The post Philippines children’s disaster appeal (UNICEF) appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

Jason (left) and CJ with police reports, hoping justice for Chee Gaik Yap

We just lodged police reports on the 2th July 2013 at the Balai Polis Tengkera Melaka, in hoping that justice will be done for the rape-murder of Chee Gaik Yap.

victim Chee Gaik Yap

Seven years ago, Chee Gaik Yap, a marketing executive and Universiti Utara Malaysia graduate, was believed to have been tailed by her assailant while jogging in the neighbourhood of Taman Ria Jaya in Sungai Petani.

She was kidnapped, raped and killed before her body was dumped at the housing estate.

The suspect was arrested and released on police bail, he then fled to Australia for six years to escape investigations. He was ambushed and detained at the KLIA upon returning to Malaysia last year.

He was charged for murder (not rape!?). Few days ago, the suspect was acquitted and walked out from the court as a free man, as the victim’s grieved father attempted to jump off the court building after the ruling. Luckily the pressmen managed to stop him.

It was confirmed that his semen was an evidence after he was arrested.

Why can’t he be convicted even though there’s evidence (the suspect’s semen)?

Why was he charged with only murder but not for rape?

Our lodging of police report was relatively easy and it took us only 30 minutes. The front desk officers of Balai Polis Tengkera Melaka was being very helpful.

In our reports, we demand Polis Diraja Malaysia to take further action into the investigation:

Saya hendak Polis Diraja Malaysia
(a) Menyiasat adakah Chee Gaik Yap dirogol oleh suspek Shahril Jaafar.
(b) Menyiasat siapakah orang ketiga di mana air maninya juga dijumpai di dalam kemaluan Chee Gaik Yap.
(c) Menyiasat adakah Chee Gaik Yap diseksa ataupun dicederakan oleh suspek Shahril Jaafar dan sekumpulan orang sampai mati.
(d) Mengambil tindakan yang sewajarnya dengan segera.

Make your police report, it can be done in any police station at anytime, and send a copy to reportcheegaikyap@gmail.com to draw more awareness.

Get more info from https://www.facebook.com/JusticeForCGY

We hope justice could be done.

– by jason and cj

The post Justice for Chee Gaik Yap appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

Save Malaysia Stop Lynas on upcoming 13th general election

Translations of this message from today’s Sin Chew Daily paper to English and Malay.

Thanks to Jason Tan and Chow-Gui for helping. Stop being a fool! Vote wisely for a greener, cleaner and better Malaysia.

Do you want to sacrifice the future of your children?

These are the children living near Asian Rare Earth in Bukit Merah, Perak. Lin Li-Jun, died of leukemia in 1991. Gao Bao-An, died of leukemia in 1992 as well. Hu Zhi-Hao, died of Brain Cancer in 1992. Zheng Wei-Cheng, died of leukemia in 2005, and Wang Zhi-Jian died of leukemia.

China is also paying the price for having rare earth plants in their country at Bao Tou, China’s Inner Mongolia. In ten years, 77 people have died of cancer and the place is being known as ‘Cancer Villages’.

Four days later you will decide on what future you want for you and your future generation and also decide on whether to have ‘Cancer Villages’ in Malaysia. Please take some time to analyze the issues below :-

• Even countries with large land areas like China, Japan, America and Australia does not want to have rare earth plants anymore, Malaysia which is much smaller compared to all the above countries is running the largest rare earth plant in the world. If you believe that having a rare earth plant in Malaysia is safe, then you are a FOOL!!

• Malaysians are not aware of the Lynas plant until it was exposed by the New York Times magazine in 2011. Ironically, the Lynas plant has already started to build since 2008 and if you ever believe there is transparency shown by the relevant government bodies, then you are a FOOL!!

• By the regulations under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Basel Convention, of which Malaysia is one of the signatories, Lynas is prohibited from transporting its radioactive waste from Malaysia to another country. Our Health Minister, Liow Tiong Lai however stated that Lynas will export the radioactive waste from the rare earth production out of Malaysia. And if you still believe, then you are a FOOL!!

• Current government stated that they can recycle the waste from the production of rare earth without telling to you that only the non-radioactive waste can be recycled. They are misleading the public. If you still believe them, then you are a FOOL!!

• 30 years ago, the Perak state government agreed upon using our nation resources to keep 80,000 steel barrels of radioactive waste from the Bukit Merah rare earth plant, at the dump in Perak for 300 years. Now, Lynas’s plant in Kuantan is ten times or more larger than the Bukit Merah’s one, and is estimated to produce a million steel barrels of radioactive waste. If you think that the current government is thinking of your health then you are a BIG FOOL!!

If they are making a fool out of you and are taking you and your future generations’ health for a ride, what you should do?

Hi, I’m Tan Bun Teet and I am 65 years of age, a retired teacher and a grandfather. I do not have any political background. When I know that my beautiful homeland will host the largest rare earth plant in the world, my heart is broken and I felt of migrating to another country with my children and grandchildren.

In the end, I decided to stay on because I found there also many people here, have the same spirit to fight injustice till the end for our homeland.

SMSL (Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas) has never politicize this Kuantan’s rare earth plant issue. We have gone through all the proper channels provided by the current government, to appeal and complain but to no avail. We even brought up this matter to court with international expert on rare earth to stop Lynas operation in Malaysia but we failed.

In the end, the government just ignore us by telling us ‘ Lynas is safe’ . The license to operate a rare earth factory is issued to Lynas, and the rare earth material is secretly brought into our country.

Is the ‘rakyat didahulukan’ (people first) in this matter? Does the government really care for us?

Now we have been forced to use the last resort — a political approach into the rare earth plant.

So the coming 5th of May 2013, please use your power to vote! You can vote as a fool, OR vote for as a wise person!!

SMSL Chairperson
Tan Boon Teet

你忍心牺牲你的孩子吗？

这些都是30年前住在霹雳州红坭山稀土厂附近的小孩，林丽君，1991年死于血癌。高宝安，1992年死于血癌。胡志豪，1992年死于脑癌。郑伟成，2005年死于血癌。王志健，死于血癌。

中国也因为稀土提炼而付出代价，在内蒙古的包头， 10年间有 77 人死于癌症，已经成了着名的癌症村。

四天后，将是你决定人民未来的一刻，也是你决定马来西亚未来有没有癌症村的一刻。请花些时间思考下面的问题：

• 当地大如大陆、日本、美国和澳洲的国家都不敢再提炼稀土，而地小的马来西亚政府却建了一座全世界最大的稀土提炼厂，还说Lynas稀土厂是安全的。如果你相信的话，你就是笨蛋！！

• 当Lynas事件是美国一家杂志New York Times 在 2010年公佈后，我们马来西亚人民才惊觉原来在 2008年时 Gebeng已经开始偷偷的兴建一家全世界最大的稀土提炼厂。如果你还相信相关政府部门有透明度，你就是笨蛋！！

• 当马来西亚已经签了不能把辐射废料运输出国的国际公约（Basel Convention），而卫生部长廖中莱却说Lynas会把辐射废料运出国来敷衍我们。如果你相信的话，你就是笨蛋！！

• 当原任政府却告诉我们他们能够再循环稀土废料，他们却没告诉你能再循环的只是没有辐射的部份，他们是有意图的在误导人民。如果你相信的话，你就是笨蛋！！

• 当 30 年前的霹雳州政府签约用国家的钱来库存红坭山稀土厂的 8 万桶辐射废料 300年，而现在的 Lynas 稀土提炼厂比红坭山的还要大十倍以上，如果你认为一个以后要在马来西亚境内库存一百万桶辐射废料的政府是关心你的健康的话，你就是个大笨蛋！！

当人家当你是笨蛋，拿你和你家人的生命来做赌注时，你需要怎麽做？

你好，我是陈文德，我是一位65岁退休的老师和爷爷，没有任何政治背景。当我知道了我美丽的家乡中竟然隐藏了一座全世界最大的稀土厂时，我很心痛，有想过要和子孙们移民。但，最后我决定要留下来，因为我发现原来有一大群的伙伴也跟我一样，有跟不公奋斗到底的精神。

拯救大马委员会（SMSL）一直以来都没有政治化关丹稀土厂的事情，一直都用着原任政府所提供的管道来提呈诉求、示威，甚至也用了国外的权威稀土厂专家来在法庭上讼诉来阻止 Lynas稀土厂的运作。能够合法做的一切，我们都做了。

最后，原任政府只是告诉了我们一句「稀土厂，没问题。」然后就发了执照给 Lynas，还神不知，鬼不觉的就把稀土运到了马来西亚。

Rakyat 真的有 Didahulukan吗？他们真的在乎我们吗？

我们已经被逼得要走最后一条路 —— 要政治化稀土厂事件！

来临的 5 月 5 日，请善用你神圣的投票权！你可以投下笨蛋的一票，或者选择投下有智慧的一票！！

拯救大马委员会主席
陈文德 敬启

Adakah anda mahu mengorbankan anak-anak anda?

Ini adalah kanak-kanak yang tinggal berhampiran Asian Rare Earth di Bukit Merah, Perak. Lin Li-Jun, meninggal dunia akibat leukemia pada tahun 1991. Gao Bao-An, meninggal dunia akibat leukemia pada tahun 1992 juga. Hu Zhi-Hao, meninggal dunia akibat kanser otak pada tahun 1992. Zheng Wei-Cheng, meninggal dunia akibat leukemia pada tahun 2005, dan Wang Jian Zhi-meninggal dunia akibat leukemia.

Negara China juga telah dihukum dengan membina kilang nadir bumi di negara mereka di kawasan Bao Tou, China Inner Mongolia. Dalam sepuluh tahun, 77 orang telah meninggal dunia akibat kanser dan tempat itu dikenali sebagai ‘Kampung Kanser’.

Empat hari dari sekarang, anda akan membuat keputusan mengenai hala tuju dan masa depan untuk anda dan juga untuk anak buah anda. Adakah anda akan memilih untuk mempunyai ‘Kampung Kanser’ di Malaysia? Semua berada di tangan anda. Sila ambil masa untuk menganalisis isu-isu berikut: –

• Walaupun negara-negara dengan kawasan tanah yang besar seperti China, Jepun, Amerika, Australia tidak berani untuk mempunyai kilang-kilang nadir bumi lagi, Malaysia yang jauh lebih kecil berbanding dengan semua negara-negara di atas telah membenarkan pembinaan loji bumi nadir terbesar di dunia. Jika anda percaya bahawa dengan adanya sebuah kilang nadir bumi di Malaysia adalah selamat, maka anda adalah BODOH.

• Rakyat Malaysia tidak mengetahui kilang Lynas sehingga ia didedahkan oleh majalah New York Times pada tahun 2011. Ironinya, kilang Lynas telah pun bermula dibina sejak 2008 dan jika anda pernah percaya ada ketelusan yang ditunjukkan oleh badan-badan kerajaan yang berkaitan, maka anda adalah BODOH.

• Selain itu peraturan-peraturan di bawah Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Program Alam Sekitar (UNEP) Konvensyen Basel, di mana Malaysia adalah salah satu penandatangan, Lynas dilarang mengangkut sisa radioaktif ke negara lain. Menteri Kesihatan, Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai bagaimanapun menyatakan bahawa Lynas akan mengeksport sisa radioaktif daripada pengeluaran nadir bumi dari Malaysia. Dan jika anda masih percaya, maka anda adalah BODOH.

• Kerajaan sekarang menyatakan bahawa mereka boleh mengitar semula sisa daripada pengeluaran nadir bumi tanpa memberitahu kepada anda bahawa hanya sisa bukan radioaktif boleh dikitar semula. Mereka mengelirukan orang ramai. Jika anda masih percaya kepada mereka, maka anda adalah BODOH.

• 30 tahun lalu, kerajaan negeri Perak telah setuju untuk menggunakan wang negara kita untuk menyimpan 80,000 tong keluli sisa radioaktif dari loji Bukit Merah untuk 300 tahun di Perak. Sekarang, Lynas adalah sepuluh kali lebih besar daripada kilang nadir bumi di Bukit Merah, dan dijangka menghasilkan lebih daripada 1 juta tong keluli sisa radioaktif. Jika anda berfikir bahawa kerajaan sekarang adalah memikirkan kesihatan anda maka anda adalah seorang BODOH.

Jika mereka telah memperbodohkan anda dan juga mengambil anda dan kesihatan generasi masa depan anda dengan selamba, apa yang perlu anda lakukan?

Hi, saya Tan Bun Teet dan saya berumur 65 tahun, seorang guru bersara dan telah menjadi datuk. Saya tidak mempunyai apa-apa latar belakang politik. Apabila saya sedar bahawa tanah air yang indah saya akan menjadi tuan rumah kilang bumi nadir terbesar di dunia, hati saya lemah dan merasakan untuk berhijrah ke negara lain dengan anak-anak dan cucu-cucu saya. Akhirnya, saya memutuskan untuk kekal kerana saya dapati terdapat juga ramai orang di sini, mempunyai semangat yang sama untuk melawan ketidakadilan sehingga akhir untuk tanah air kita.

Jawatankuasa SMSL (Save Malaysia Stop Lynas) tidak pernah mempolitikkan isu kilang nadir bumi di Kuantan. Kami telah menggunakan semua saluran yang betul yang diberikan oleh kerajaan semasa, merayu dan mengadu tetapi usaha kami tidak berhasil. Kami juga membangkitkan perkara ini ke mahkamah dengan pakar antarabangsa mengenai nadir bumi untuk menghentikan operasi Lynas di Malaysia tetapi kami telah gagal.

Akhirnya, kerajaan telah mengabaikan kami dengan memberitahu kami ‘Lynas adalah selamat. Lesen bagi mengendalikan kilang nadir bumi dikeluarkan kepada Lynas, dan bahan-bahan nadir bumi telah dibawa masuk secara rahsia ke dalam negara kita.

Adakah ‘Rakyat Didahulukan’ dalam perkara ini? Adakah kerajaan benar-benar mengambil berat tentang kita?

Sekarang kita telah terpaksa menggunakan pilihan terakhir – satu pendekatan politik ke dalam loji nadir bumi.

Jadi pada 5 haribulan Mei 2013, sila gunakan kuasa anda untuk mengundi. Anda boleh mengundi seperti orang bodoh, atau mengundi sebagai orang yang bijak.

Pengerusi SMSL
Tan Bun Teet

The post Save Malaysia Stop Lynas on upcoming 13th general election appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

Starving orangutan, Indonesian Borneo (image: IAR Indonesia)

Footage of starving orangutans in West Kalimantan on Indonesian Borneo shows the wanton destruction of the great ape’s dwindling habitat in the pursuit of wealth.

Despite being a member of the RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil), Bumitama Gunajaya Agro violated the rules of the organization by depriving orangutans and other endangered species of their homes and food through deforestation. International Animal Rescue and conservation staff from the Indonesian government have already rescued four starving orangutans from the palm oil plantation. They will be moved to areas of forest with more food.

From a press release by International Animal Rescue (IAR):

We know that there are more orangutans isolated in small patches of forest in this plantation along with other protected wildlife such as proboscis monkeys. All the animals in this plantation are under threat and therefore this company should stop all land clearing immediately, carry out habitat assessments and develop strategies to protect all the endangered wildlife in their estate.

–Adi Irawan, Program Director, IAR Indonesia

Footage of the rescue operation shows the shocking condition of the starving orangutans.

In related news, conservation officials rescued two Sumatran orangutans in a village in Aceh. Many orangutans have been pushed out of their habitat in the Rawa Tripa peatland region of Aceh due to the construction of palm oil plantations.

From the Jakarta Globe:

Under such conditions, the orangutans can’t find sufficient amounts of food, so they starve to death. Sometimes, they are even murdered by locals or plantation workers.

–Ian Singleton, director, Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Program

Despite laws designed to protect the species, much of the struggle seems to depend on NGOs and volunteer conservationists. One such group is the Orangutan Project, founded by Australian Leif Cocks, who, together with local volunteers and other orangutan groups, patrols the jungles of Sumatra and Borneo in order to “deter wildlife poaching, illegal logging and land clearing in Indonesia”. This is a dangerous job and according to Cocks, a member of his team dies in the line of duty nearly every year. Read more on that story onnews.com.au.

The growth of palm oil plantations is largely fuelled by the biodiesel, food and cosmetic industries, owned by multinational corporations like Nestle and Unilever, who pump palm into every product they can.

Check out similar stories of starving and abused orangutans from Science Daily and theDaily Mail.

Orangutan family in Tanjung Puting National Park, Kalimantan, Borneo. (image: Russ Watkins (Flickr CC))

The post Indonesia: Rescue of starving orangutans highlights conservation plight appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

wonderful world

At 8:30 p.m. today, people around the world will celebrate Earth Hour by turning off their lights for one hour in a symbolic show of support for the planet. Earth Hour brings awareness to climate change and symbolizes a commitment and concern for managing climate change. Started nine years ago, the movement now spans thousands of cities in countries around the globe.

Earth Hour raises awareness and provides a unique opportunity for collective action aimed at doing something positive for the environment. It is not just about saving energy for that one hour, but it symbolizes a concern for managing climate change and commitment to adopting environment-friendly practices and habits in everyday life.

So let us participate in the Earth Hour, not only to conserve energy but to raise awareness on the need to protect the environment.

Sharing some of the shots taken in year 2012. May all beings bEE happy.

lazy sunday lazy felix

monday blue

sharing love

hi there

balance

four out of ten

sweet saturday

utopia

coffee for rainy monday

cloudy tuesday

from the other side

little creature says morning

durian stall

network

welcome to melaka

sun bathing

状元认母

the beca-man

urbanization

red piano

lady cat

monday’s dream

chinese wooden clog

“grandpa, what’s that?”

klebang beach

friday raya holiday

selamat hari raya

dawn

jetty walk

The post Fotografia (Earth Hour 2013) appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

Billy Ray Harris returns the diamond engagement ring to owner Sarah Darling. (image: KCTV5)

A homeless man who returned a diamond engagement ring to a woman who mistakenly dropped it into his donation cup when she was giving him some spare change now stands to be handsomely rewarded for his selfless act.

A fund set up on GiveForward.com for Billy Ray Harris, the man who was panhandling on the streets of Kansas City, Mo., earlier this month when he received the valuable donation in error, had gotten more than $146,000 in donations as of Monday evening.

“It is good to know honesty still exists despite one’s circumstances which Mr. Harris exemplifies!” wrote one poster, who donated $25. Another who gave $100 added: “People from all over the world salute.”

The donations – more than 6,000 of them in varying amounts – have come in from all over the United States, as well as from Germany, Sweden, Australia, Ireland and other countries. In addition to the congratulations and good wishes that they offered, some donors also urged that Harris receive help to manage the money that was earmarked for him.

Harris himself seemed to be bemused by the outpouring.

“What I actually feel like is, what has the world come to when a person returns something that don’t belong to them and all of this happens?” he said last week in an interview with KTNV-TV, an ABC News affiliate in Las Vegas.

When Harris saw the unintentional donation in his cup on Feb. 8, he kept it safe until its owner, Sarah Darling, returned to ask about it. Her wedding and engagement rings had reportedly been bothering her, so she removed them and put them into her purse, and that’s how they ended up in Harris’ cup, KCTV reported.

News of Harris’ act – and Darling’s gratitude – have spread. KTNV-TV reported that complete strangers have sought Harris out to congratulate him and give him food.

The fund was started 10 days ago by Darling’s husband, Bill Krejci. It will close in 80 days, at which time the money will be given directly to Harris, according to a note on the fund’s web page.

In a note that Krejci posted on the website on Feb. 23, he wrote that he had met with Harris and they had chatted.

This is the ring Sarah accidentally dropped into the coin cup. (image: news.com.au)

“We talked about a lot of things related to my family’s ring and the many donations. We talked about one day in the future the ring may one day be passed down to my daughter. We talked about how insanely positive all this has been. We talked about what he’s planning to do with the donations. The details would be better left for later but know that he has a very solid plan and a very solid way of making it happen,” Krejci wrote.

Another bit of good has apparently come out of Harris’ sudden fame. He and his sister have reconnected after having lost touch more than 20 years ago. She lives in Texas and has reportedly offered him a place to stay with her, KTVN reported. Harris is considering the offer.

The post Ring’s return brings new life for Kansas City homeless man appeared first on juesatta (CJ Photography).

Chris Jordan’s photographs of bird carcass with stomach full of plastic.

Sharing a heart wrenching video I saw from the net. People need to realize what we do to our environment and take the appropriate steps to keep it clean, and in our current situation clean it up.

Do our beautiful earth a favor, start with each self by producing less garbage and manage our waste better. 

The MIDWAY film project is a powerful visual journey into the heart of an astonishingly symbolic environmental tragedy. On one of the remotest islands on our planet, tens of thousands of baby albatrosses lie dead on the ground, their bodies filled with plastic from the Pacific Garbage Patch. Returning to the island over several years, our team is witnessing the cycles of life and death of these birds as a multi-layered metaphor for our times. With photographer Chris Jordan as our guide, we walk through the fire of horror and grief, facing the immensity of this tragedy—and our own complicity—head on. And in this process, we find an unexpected route to a transformational experience of beauty, acceptance, and understanding.

We frame our story in the vividly gorgeous language of state-of-the-art high-definition digital cinematography, surrounded by millions of live birds in one of the world’s most beautiful natural sanctuaries. The viewer will experience stunning juxtapositions of beauty and horror, destruction and renewal, grief and joy, birth and death, coming out the other side with their heart broken open and their worldview shifted. Stepping outside the stylistic templates of traditional environmental or documentary films, MIDWAY will take viewers on a guided tour into the depths of their own spirits, delivering a profound message of reverence and love that is already reaching an audience of tens of millions of people around the world.

Production of the feature film “MIDWAY” continues through 2013.
Please go to midwayfilm.com for more information.

For more information:
MidwayFilm.com

To donate:
midwayfilm.com/donate.html

Midway Project blog, team details, production diary videos:
MidwayJourney.com

Facebook – behind the scenes photos, latest updates
Facebook.com/MidwayJourney

Twitter:
twitter.com/#!/midwayjourney

Youtube:
youtube.com/journeytomidway

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Alice Pyne (facebook photo)

We can learn a great deal from the all too short life of Cumbria’s exceptional Alice Pyne.

The question is, of course… will we?

A young girl, given dreadful diagnosis of a cancer that would almost certainly claim her life, had every right – at the age of 12 – to retreat into self-pity and dark gloom.

But she did precisely the opposite. Alice moved up a gear in the business of living, kept a smile on her face, vowed to relish every minute and worked to give strength to others similarly blighted by life-threatening conditions.

She listed all the fun experiences she wanted under her belt before death claimed her – ticked them off her bucket list happily, raised £100,000 for charity into the bargain and humbled the powerful, famous and influential with her instinctive, sunny kindness.

Alice was 17 when she died at the weekend. Her mum Vicky described her as having gained her angel wings. She had certainly earned them – probably without realising how richly she’d deserved them.

Thousands of tributes were paid to this youngster on her passing. People she had never known or met felt her loss and knew she had left behind an empty space few others could ever hope to fill.

And there is one of the lessons we, who grumble and complain so routinely and regularly we embrace pessimism as second nature, should be learning from Alice.

This special girl knew the true value of a smile. She accepted optimism as the friend that would see her cheerfully through life – however short – and death.

She has taught that it is not the length of days that matter but what we make of our days that counts.

For those of us who have been at a distance from Alice, watching in amazed admiration as she inspired quietly and intuitively to be better than we are, it’s hard to shed tears for the passing she knew she would face.

Her loss will be deeply painful for her family and friends, of course. But they must know they have been privileged to have been close to an exceptional young woman, gifted with immense wisdom.

For our part, if memory of Alice Pyne’s uncompromising philosophy of eternal sunshine can hold us back from carping and sniping, criticising others – falsely believing it makes us seem clever – we will have learned something life-changing from her short but enlightening time with us.

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The unexpected hero, Cassandra Lin (image from www.theday.com)

Twelve-year old Cassandra Lin admires “the unexpected hero.” She loves the YouTube story about a young boy from Malawi who created windmills out of bicycle parts to generate electricity for his village.

“I think that was great,” Cassandra says. “Even though he never finished school, he built windmills. He learned on his own. Nobody expected a Malawian kid to generate electricity.”

And nobody expected a kid from Westerly, RI, to create an award-winning recycling program that generates fuel for the needy in her community. But that’s exactly what this sparkly, no-nonsense seventh grader has done.

To Cassandra, it’s all no big deal. It’s what she does with her friends after school.

The recycling program, called Project T.G.I.F. (Turn Grease into Fuel), encourages residents to bring their used cooking oil to the town transfer station to be recycled. There, a contractor picks it up, along with other grease from local restaurants that also donate oil to the program. A biodiesel company then processes it into biodiesel fuel. All of the team’s proceeds are donated to help heat the homes of needy people in Westerly. To make it work, Cassandra and a team of classmates educated themselves about the biodiesel refining process, made their own biodiesel by mixing cooking oil with methanol and lye with proper protection (“It was very safe, don’t worry,” she notes reassuringly), won two separate youth seed grants and convinced an array of community leaders to come on board with the project.

T.G.I.F. is an outgrowth of the Westerly Innovations Network (WIN), a student community service organization started by her father, Jason Lin, in 2002. And Cassandra is quick to credit her older brother, Alex, as a mentor in the project. Alex is a senior member of WIN and serves as the assistant coach to the group’s junior team. Like his sister, he has earned numerous accolades for his own service initiatives.

Cassandra explains, very carefully, how Alex motivates her: “I don’t want to just follow in my brother’s footsteps, but put my footsteps over his. I don’t want people to say, ‘Oh, you’re Alex’s sister.’ I want to make an impact. I want to be better than him, but in a different way.”

As it turns out, a little sibling rivalry has been good for Westerly.

Girl in action: Cassandra Lin – one part cooking oil, one part love (image from www.teenvoices.com)

The genesis of the T.G.I.F. project is a case study in creative pragmatism, as Cassandra explains it: “We looked at an array of problems to see what we could solve in our own community.” A few important strands came together: she learned about turning cooking oil into biodiesel when she attended the Rhode Island Green Expo in 2008; she knew her local community had a non-sustainable program to provide emergency heating for the needy; and, she heard that local restaurants and residents were pouring fats, oils and grease (FOG) down their drains and clogging up town sewage pipes.

Cassandra and her team puzzled over how to combine these problems to devise a solution. An article she found on Google about SF Greasecycle, a municipal effort in San Francisco to collect and recycle cooking oil, clinched the deal. “All of our problems kind of snowballed together,” she says.

That snowballing is no accident. The different pieces that coalesced to form T.G.I.F. were gathered in by a rare combination of forces: clear-sightedness, logic, and a splash of ingenuity.

Cassandra’s fearlessness lies at the center of these forces. Her mind is eager to apply itself to the world, and she does so with a cheerful, scintillating energy that would motivate the most confirmed nay-sayer.

Innovative people need to be encouraged, she says: “Their family should support them and not inhibit their imagination so that they can be as much as they can be.”

Not surprisingly, Cassandra says her parents have created a nurturing space for her by “cheering from the sidelines, giving good advice, pushing me farther.” She adds, “They also expose me to a lot of things. They always want me to learn something new. My dad gives me articles from Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal to read. We also travel a lot, so our eyes have been open to the world from a young age.”

Cassandra is also aware that her parents have placed limits on certain things, although the reasons are fuzzy.

“I don’t have a Facebook,” she says. “I want one, but my parents won’t let me. And we don’t have cable because my parents think that—. ” She considers for a moment. “I don’t know what they think. They just don’t think that cable is a good thing.”

The mysterious ban on television in the Lin household thankfully doesn’t extend to the Internet, where Cassandra says she gathers important ideas, such as how to make biodiesel.

“It’s really hard to believe that YouTube only started in 2005,” she reminisces. “I was seven. I never really used YouTube until I was like nine or ten.”

Reminded that she herself is on YouTube, speaking as a delegate to the Tunza International Youth Conference held in South Korea last year, she responds like the unexpected hero:

“Am I?”

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The civets are almost exclusively fed coffee berries, which they then excrete. This image was taken on a civet farm just outside Surabaya, Indonesia. (Photograph: guardian.co.uk)

Producers of kopi luwak coffee, the $150-plus-per-pound Indonesian coffee harvested from the excretions of cat-like palm civets, are now in the sights of animal rights groups that are alleging abuse.

A report from the UK’s Guardian says representatives of the magazine recently visited a coffee shop in Sumatra in which an adult female civet was kept in a small back-room cage and separated from her two young offspring, while many other cages with unknown contents were kept behind the building.

Here’s more from the Guardian:

Animal welfare groups contend that growing numbers of such civet “farms” are emerging across south-east Asia, confining tens of thousands of animals to live in tiny cages and force-fed a debilitating diet. The Asian palm civet is common, but conservationists claim that related species are sometimes used which are under threat of extinction. The binturong, another cat-like species that is sometimes used to produce Kopi Luwak, is classed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s red list as “vulnerable”.

Animal rights issues aside, the increase in caged civets for coffee production could also be having a negative impact on Indonesia’s place in the specialty coffee market. According to a recent Jakarta Post report, the surge in worldwide demand for kopi luwak has resulted in an increase in “farmed” beans, with more than 60 percent of the 40 to 50 tons of the coffee produced annually coming from caged animals rather than wild animals.

“The condition of the luwak affects the taste and quality of the coffee. The caged luwak are often left starving and forced to digest both the unripe green berries and the finest ripe red ones,” Wirawan Tjahjadi, owner of the Bhineka Jaya coffee company in Indonesia, recently told the paper.

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Faithful: New research shows how a pair of Magellanic penguins were loyal to each other for 16 years

● Penguin couple stayed together for 16 years, smashing all previous records
● New research shows incredible loyalty in spite of the epic distances travelled by the bird

As the UK divorce rate continues to soar, a new study has today shown how marital harmony is thriving in the penguin world.

Research has revealed a pair of Magellanic penguins as among the most faithful in the animal kingdom.

The couple have remained loyal to each other over a 16-year period, in spite of spending thousands of miles apart during their winter trips.

Loyal: A pair of penguins can track each other down among hundreds of thousands of other birds using a distinctive call

The findings come after a 30-year study of the breed where researchers placed metal identity bands on the flippers of 50,000 birds on the southern coast of Argentina.

Previously penguin relationships were believed to span a maximum of just 10 years, with many cut short by the unexpected death of birds during migration.

Loving: A Magellanic penguin stays loyal to the same mate, in spite of long periods apart

‘Divorce’ is also a possibility as couples who fail to hatch chicks will split up and find new mates.

But according to The Sunday Telegraph, biologists have been surprised by the longevity of the relationship between a particular couple.

‘The bond they have is incredible really,’ lead researcher Dr Pablo Garcia Borboroglu, of the National Research Council of Argentina, told the newspaper.

‘It is unbelievable how far Magellanic penguins swim – and each breeding season they come back to the same nest and to the same partner.’

The research was revealed during a lecture to the Whitley Fund for Nature in London, and Dr Borboroglu will set out his findings in a book to be published next year called Penguins: Natural History and Conservation.

Magellanic penguins can only be found around the Falkland Islands and South America.
Argentina has the highest population, with 900,000 breeding pairs in Argentina, while there are 800,000 couples in Chile.

But their numbers have dropped dramatically since the turn of the century due to oil pollution and falling fish numbers and there are thought to be around 1.2 million left in the world.

Dr Borboroglu’s project also used satellite tracking to identify the movements of the birds, showing the enormous journeys they travel each winter to the warmer waters of Brazil.

Every year, the penguins arrive at their summer nests in the southern hemisphere and find their partners using a distinctive call.

After reuniting and mating, the female usually lay two eggs, which each partner takes turns guarding while the other goes out to sea.

After they hatch, the parents spend a month caring for their young before heading off to their wintering area.

The penguins join a roll call of other animals that undertake loyal relationships, including the albatross, French angelfish and black vultures.

Mates for life: In spite of long distance flights, albatrosses always return to breed with the same partners

Jealous: Like the Magellanic penguin, black vultures are strictly monogamous

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