Good News About America

Cindy Stevenson. Mary Chesley. Chris King. John Barry. Chris Gdowski.

What do these people have in common?  They’re all superintendents of Colorado school districts whose contracts stipulate they’re due raises and bonuses this year, who (citing the tough economy and school budget woes) have refused to take them.

Granted, these people are doing pretty well to begin with – the lowest salary between the five of the, is $187k – but they’re giving up a significant amount of money, so here’s a shout-out to them for setting a good example. Maybe area CEOs will follow their leads and donate this year’s bonuses to charity?

A recent study by US geologists has found that Afghanistan has a much larger quantity of valuable minerals than previously believed: approximately a trillion dollars’ worth. That figure is all the more staggering compared to Afghanistan’s GDP of about $12 billion. The minerals include lithium, iron, gold, niobium, mercury, and cobalt; Afghanistan is seeking bids to extract the minerals, starting with iron and copper mines.  The deposits are so big and varied that US officials believe Afghanistan could eventually become one of the most important mining centers in the world.

Extracting the minerals may be challenging, as much of it is in territory that the Taliban controls and the country, which has never had large-scale mining, does not have the infrastructure in place to extract, refine, and ship its natural resources.

In the United States, polio is a disease from the days of yore, long since eradicated. But in Africa and South Asia, while vaccination programs lead by the WHO have lead to a decline in new outbreaks, many people are still suffering from its effects.

30-year-old physiotherapist Sanjay Kumar has developed a low-cost treatment for helping paralyzed survivors regain their mobility; the process takes one to two months and costs about $30-$35 per patient.  Patients are given plaster casts, which are cut and replaced weekly, using wooden wedges to straighten the muscles.

An infrequently-updated blog about the work is available here.

So it’s not exactly good news, but if you want to donate to organizations working in the Gulf of Mexico, check out this article by Lifehacker; they offer tips on how to help, as well as linking to BBB-veted agencies that can use your donations.

Disasters unfortunately tend to bring out scammers; stick with well-known charities to avoid being taken in.

I can remember walking home from school when I was a kid. These days, most kids get a ride; less than 15% of American children regularly walk or bike to school. The Safe Routes to School initiative is hoping to change this, working to make it safer and easier for students to get themselves to school and get a little exercise along the way.

Among other things, this involves working out safe routes to school,  where crosswalks, school crossing signs, sidewalks, and other elements help protest pedestrians from traffic. Some schools are setting up walking school buses, where volunteers walk a designated route with groups of children. This both encourages students to walk to school and makes it safer for them to do so.

No word yet on how they feel about roller skates..

Olivia Boulder spends a lot of time drawing.  The 11-year-old aspiring ornithologist has so far raised approximately $80,000 sending her drawings to people who donate to help birds affected by the BP oil spill.  Olivia has committed to create up to 500 pieces of art for the cause (150 have been sent out thus far), after which contributors will get limited edition prints.

You can see Olivia’s facebook page, or to receive your original art, go to the Audubon Society to donate and email your proof of donation to oliviasbirds@aol.com.

One of the constants since the news of the sexual abuse scandal in the catholic church broke has been Rome’s insistence that the church leadership did nothing wrong and accepts no responsibility for anything that occurred.  To an objective observer (I’m Christian but not Catholic), it appears as if the church has been more interested in covering themselves than in protecting children.

So it was nice to see Pope Benedict XVI’s speech on Friday, asking forgiveness from St. Peter’s Square and promising to take action to ensure that such abuses never happen again. It remains to see whether concrete actions will be taken.  If people are going to trust the church, they need to know that pedophile priests will not be protected, and the pope needs to take responsibility specifically for his part in what happened.  The pope is treated as a head of state; I can’t imagine that a secular head of state in the same position wouldn’t be facing calls for his resignation.

When 5-year-old Andrew Gentile wandered into deep water last week, he was in luck; his playmate, 8-year-old Reese Ronceray, watching SpongeBob SquarePants.  Specifically, he remembered an episode that showed how to rescue someone in danger of drowning, and jumped in to retrieve his friend.

Too much TV is bad for anyone, particularly children – studies show that an excess of television, even educational television, leads to lower IQs for kids.  But sometimes, you learn something useful!

Once a year, a lunch is auctioned off for charity.  It’s a very special lunch: you get to eat with Warren Buffet (the third richest man in the world), who will discuss anything except what he’s buying and selling.  The winner, who has not been named as of this writing, will pay $2.63 million for the meal; the money will go to the Glade Foundation, which provides services for the poor and homeless in San Fransisco.

Buffet, who build a fortune of approximately $47 billion through investments, has pledged most of his wealth to the Gates Foundation.

By now, probably everyone has heard that Abby Sunderland, the 16-year-old whose her attempt to sail around the world was unsuccessful, was rescued by a French fishing ship off the coast of Australia yesterday.  The mast of her boat, Wild Eyes, was destroyed in a bad storm on Thursday.

It appears that a number of people are attacking her and her parents based on the theory that she was obviously too young to be sailing around the world by herself.  From the sound of it, she had some bad luck, did exactly what she was supposed to, and handled the situation well.  If both she and her parents were willing to accept the risk, I can’t see how a bit of bad weather in any way invalidates her ability to successfully finish the task she’s chosen or her right to take it on.  She made it over halfway around the globe, so I can’t imagine that she won’t want to try again; all I can say is, Go Abby!