Now this is an amazing story!! Favio Chavez, an ecological technician has discovered a brilliant use of the trash in a small impoverished community. The town is Cateura, Paraguay and it is a village built on a landfill.
Many families in the community recycle trash and sell it to make a living. Favio once found a violin in the trash and decided that he could build many instruments out of recycled trash and teach the kids how to play. He has made cellos, flutes, and violins out of old wood, oil drums, and metal.
"People realize we shouldn't throw away trash carelessly…well we shouldn't throw away people either." Favio states.
Favio's idea picked up and now the kids are learning the instruments…and they sound amazing!! They are the stars in a new documentary titled:
Landfill Harmonic, "a film about people transforming trash into music; about love, courage and creativity."
Watch the trailer - it is incredibly heartwarming :)
Peace & Love,
Jon
The Good World News
Why would you want to leap out of a perfectly good aircraft? To fly a winged jetpack over the city of Rio de Janeiro, of course. It sounds nuts, but it's just a day in the life for Yves Rossy, the self proclaimed "Jetman" who flew over the Grand Canyon last year. Since soaring over the Rio Grande, Rossy has pitted his carbon-fiber wings against a rally car on Top Gear, taken to the skies over Abu Dhabi and, most recently, buzzed Brazil's famous Christ the Redeemer statue. Jetman rocketed past the monument on an 11 minute flight earlier this week, beginning his journey by dropping out of a helicopter over Lagoa Rodrigo de Freitas. Rossy pulled his Rocketeer trick and eventually parachuted to safety on Copacabana beach. Sound fun? Head past the break to see the man in action. Us? We'll keep our feet planted on terra firma, thanks.
Buckley, Sean. "Jetman soars over Rio, flies circles around historical landmarks ". Engadget. 4 May 2012. Web.
View original good news story at engadget.com:
http://www.engadget.com/2012/05/04/jetman-soars-over-rio-flies-circles-around-historical-landmarks/
Environment officials from Costa Rica and Honduras on Thursday proposed protections for scalloped hammerhead sharks under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
“The time has come to regulate international trade of endangered hammerhead sharks,” said Ana Lorena Guevara, Costa Rica’s environment vice minister, while participating at a minister’s council of the Central American Commission on Environment and Development (CCAD) in Honduras from May 9-11.
Scalloped hammerheads are listed as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). They are in high demand for shark fin soup and account for about 4 percent of all shark fins in international trade.
Government delegates from the 175 CITES member countries will vote on the hammerhead and other possible shark protection proposals at next year’s meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, which will take place March 3-15 in Thailand.
"Costa Rica and Honduras propose better protection for hammerhead sharks". Tico Times . 14 May 2012. Web.
View original article at ticotimes.net:
The golden poison dart frog, which is arguably the world's most poisonous animal, is now residing in the first ever sanctuary established to save the deadly, yet endangered, amphibian.
The poison of this frog is so toxic that even coming into contact with a paper towel that has touched the frog can be fatal. A single 2-inch-long frog has enough poison to kill 10 adult people within minutes.
"Death by frog," in this case, is pretty horrific too. Its bright orange skin is covered by a secretion of deadly alkaloid poison (batrachotoxins). The toxin prevents nerves from transmitting impulses, leaving muscles in a constant state of contraction, leading to heart failure. Death comes within minutes.
So why save it, you might ask.
The frog has its place in the ecosystem. Our ancestors somehow managed to use the poison for hunting, maybe permitting their own survival. It just uses the poison for defense. And, you have to admit, the frog is pretty cool, in a James Bond-weapon kind of way.
As journalist Simon Barnes wrote in The Times of London newspaper in September 2011: "Astonishing: we are on the edge of wiping out one of the most extraordinary and thrilling creatures on the planet. No matter how well a creature is protected by nature and by evolution, it is always vulnerable to humans. There's nothing we can't do when we put our minds to it. Still, at least we are now beginning to put our minds to saving the golden poison frog: we would all be much poorer without such a creature to give us nightmares."
The new sanctuary for the frog, located along the Pacific coast of western Colombia, will also provide refuge for several key bird species, including the endangered baudó guan, a medium-sized game fowl whose worldwide population is estimated at 10,000-20,000 individuals; the vulnerable brown wood-rail, a medium-sized, mostly rufous-brown rail whose population is estimated to be between only 1,000 and 2,500 individuals; and the vulnerable great curassow, a large, pheasant-like bird whose population is estimated to be between 10,000 and 60,000 individuals.
The new sanctuary, consisting of 124 areas of threatened Chocó forest, is named the Rana Terribilis Amphibian Reserve. That comes from the Spanish word for frog -- rana -- and the frog's Latin name,Phyllobates terribilis.
The land, in one of the planet's wettest tropical rainforests, was purchased with the help of the World Land Trust, American Bird Conservancy and Global Wildlife Conservation. The reserve is owned and managed by Fundación ProAves, Colombia’s leading conservation organization. This is the second amphibian reserve owned by ProAves in Colombia; the first is the Ranita Dorada Reserve.
"The support from our partners made the creation of this critical new reserve possible, and one of the world's most amazing creatures, the beautiful and deadly golden poison frog, is now protected," Lina Daza, executive director of Fundación ProAves, said in a press release.
George Fenwick, president of the American Bird Conservancy, concluded, "We need to halt the continued, rapid disappearance of rainforests and the resultant loss of wildlife that depend on them."
Viegas, Jennifer. "DEADLY FROG GETS NEW SANCTUARY". Discovery News. 11 May 2012. Web.
View original article at discovery.com:
http://news.discovery.com/animals/sanctuary-deadliest-animals-120511.html
As The Huffington Post reported, Latin American pop superstar Shakira joined over 30 world leaders at the 6th annual Summit of the Americas held over the weekend in Cartagena, Colombia, to advocate for children.
At the summit focused on regional integration, poverty reduction and drugs, the Colombian singer -- the most recent addition to President Barack Obama's Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics -- was there to promote universal early childhood development and the eradication of poverty.
Taking the stage alongside President Obama and Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos on Sunday, Shakira, 35, reflected over the successes of the summit, stating that she felt "optimistic" about the "commitment of the presidents to work on education and early childhood development".
She added that this was the first time in history that the issue of early education had been treated so directly in a Summit of the Americas.
This was after President Obama had pledged $133 million to early childhood development initiatives and President Santos had emphasized his commitment to making early childhood education a national priority.
With 35 million children in Latin America who have no access to quality education and nutrition, Shakira stressed that this is an effort that must continue -- in a big way.
"Early attention given to our children is the most efficient formula for eradicating poverty and for economic growth," Shakira said.
Shakira has recently helped to start a $36 million education project for 6,000 Colombian children -- which has both the Columbian government and private institutions donating millions to the cause, the Christian Science Monitor reports.
"I believe that every single one of us, celebrity or not, has a responsibility to get involved in trying to make a difference in the world," she told Forbes in an interview last week.
A UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, the Grammy award-winning singer is also the founder of the Barefoot Foundation and ALAS -- both dedicated to children's education and the eradication of poverty.
Watch Shakira's speech at the Summit of the Americas here (or below).
"Shakira Advocates For Children And Universal Education At The Summit Of The Americas In Colombia" Huff Post. 16 April 2012. Web.
View original article at huffingtonpost.com:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/16/shakira-advocates-for-chi_n_1429786.html