Awesome Stories 205

/ January 17, 2015

This week Awesome Stories bring you water adventures, kindness, solar innovation, earth love, enlightened nursing care and musical mastery.

Good Samaritangood samaritan, Awesome Stories

I love how this simple act of kindness has grown into a wellspring of helping others. It started with a homeless man named Robbie offering a young student all his money to help her with taxi fare. Dominique Harrison-Bentzen was stranded without money, phone or purse, and Robbie offered to help. She turned down his offer, but was so touched that she decided to repay his kindness by starting a fundraising campaign on his behalf. In trying to find Robbie, Dominique grew to understand how hard it is to be homeless. She has now raised over $50,000 and is working on how to best utilize the money to help both Robbie and other homeless people in the Preston area of the UK.

Solar Spray!

Researchers at the University of Toronto just tested and published a paper on a new technique to spray solar cells onto almost any surface. In their vision, installers would literally spray on solar cells onto almost any object, turning it into an energy producer. This roll-on-coating is much simpler and less expensive than current approaches to coating surfaces with solar cells.

Quadrofoil

I don’t need to own one, but I’d love to ride in one of these Quadrofoils. While they’re still in the development stage, the features are very interesting. They are fun, quiet, non-polluting and cruise above the water on runners. They are designed to be a fun personal watercraft that feels like flying over the water. I want a test ride. How about you?

Transforming Nursing Home Care

After accepting the role of Medical Director, Bill Thomas was struck by how little life was evident in Chase Memorial Nursing Home. He was determined to bring more life, enthusiasm and independence to the patients. Bill Thomas decided on the radical idea (at the time) to bring animals into the nursing home. First he had to convince the management, change the rules and gradually win the support of staff and patients. His wild plan was to bring in 4 dogs, 2 cats, rabbits, hens and 100 song birds! Read about the gradual transformation of the patients and facility in this DailyGood article. Ultimately, the patients helped care for the animals, became engaged and more functional. The drug use and medical costs dropped and Bill Thomas became a pioneer for transforming patient care in nursing homes.

Creative Innovation

Start-up company Phononic has a very innovative solution to thermal energy management. They’ve created some unique approaches to heating and cooling that may revolutionize energy management. Specifically, they created a solid state chip that replaces compressors in cooling applications. This would mean reduction in cost and size, eliminating toxic refrigerants, and no moving parts or cooling fans. All while saving money on the systems and energy use. Very cool stuff!

Gifted Percussionist

Dame Evelyn Glennie is a gifted musician with an amazing story. Despite becoming deaf around age 12, she is considered a percussion virtuoso and one of the first to sustain a solo career. She has won numerous awards and continues to compose, perform, teach, lecture and wow audiences. She plays by listening with her whole body, is a master of many instruments, has a collection of 1800 instruments and continues to explore new creative expressions.

What joys did you bring into the world this week? If you are short, you can borrow some of mine!  🙂

 

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18 thoughts on “Awesome Stories 205”

  1. Inspiring stories!
    The article ob the nursing home is a testament to the therapuetic value of pets or animals in general. They help us to focus on nature, even in an urban environment, by turning us away from introspection on ourselves or other people,enabling us to see that other forms of life we share the planet with are wonderful beings 🙂 And, I believe, animals when cared for provide a pure example of unconditonal love.

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  2. Sounds like you have personal experience and affinity with animals Robert. I love watching them, but have not had pets. But I agree that caring for animals or any other life forms helps us learn care and returns more love and connection to us through that care. To honoring all life,

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  3. Great stuff once again, Brad! Evelyn’s story was fascinating. An inspiring reminder of how much is possible… I like the look of that instrument on her site she appears to have invented that looks like a pressure cooker with sticks along its circumference that you play with a bow… 🙂

    Michael

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  5. Wonderful stories again this week Brad, thanks so much for sharing them. I especially liked the one about the gal raising funds for her homeless good Samaritan and the one about bringing the animals into the nursing home. When my daughter was a toddler we used to visit one of the nearby nursing homes periodically and sometimes would bring our dog, it was wonderful to see the residents light up when we came in with him. I also enjoyed the musical piece as well. 🙂

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  6. Wow, thanks for diving into so many of the stories Julie. 🙂 I hope they brought you some love and joy. I too have seen the joy of bringing animals into nursing homes. They are often starved for connection. We used to have a group that went caroling in the homes every December. I miss seeing the joy of the residents as well as the singing.

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  11. I love the initial story on good Samaritans. It is touching to see someone with nothing but spare change can give so much more from the depths of the heart without expectations of anything in return. Human kindness has an immeasurable value that is demonstrated in this heartfelt story – thanks for sharing Brad, a perfect start to my Monday morning 😉

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  13. Another awesome collection Brad… Loved the music.. And yes if only more could pay it forward with a simple act of kindness Brad.. it would go along way to bringing the world to that better place..
    Blessings my friend..
    Sue x

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