Awesome Stories 281

/ August 13, 2016

This week Awesome Stories brings you cardboard homes, prison friendship, solar success and precious jewelry.

Amazing Cardboard Homescardboard homes, Awesome Stories

This is a pretty interesting project. Students built homes made from cardboard to demonstrate easier and more sustainable construction possibilities. I wish I could find an article with more info. Here is a nice collection of photos of their amazing cardboard homes.

Prison Friendship

This is a remarkable story of healing and forgiveness. Claudia and Ciliana are two women from opposite sides of the conflict in Columbia. Both are serving time in prison for killing people in the uprisings. After being assigned as cellmates, they began to get to know the person beyond the roles they played and found that they had much in common. Most of all, they didn’t want to cause any more harm. They realized it was time to go beyond the ideologies that create conflict and war, and unite. Through forgiveness, their relationship has grown into a friendship and model for reconciliation. Their reconciliation work has rippled out to other inmates, families, and even the military. May the healing continue.

Solar Success?solar electricity, Awesome Stories

The world’s largest solar plant opened in February 2014. The Ivanpah Solar Plant in the Mojave Desert covers 5 square miles, using 300,000 computer controlled mirrors and 3 focusing towers, to produce steam that power turbines and create electricity. At peak, the plant can produce 392 MW of solar power, enough to provide 140,000 homes with electricity, and eliminate 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the air. This is the equivalent of removing 72,000 vehicles from the road! The Ivanpah solar plant is not producing as well as predicted but seems to be improving. I hope they figure it out to serve as a model for other large-scale solar plants. What do you think?

Precious Jewelry

This is a wonderful and clever idea. Tasarım Takarım, a Turkish jewelry company, turns your child’s art into cufflinks, bracelets, necklaces, and more! Customers send Tasarim Takarim a copy of their child’s art and they turn it into custom jewelry in about a week, usually made from silver or gold. So far, the kids and parents are thrilled. Kid’s gain confidence and joy from having their work turned into precious jewelry. And the parents get to celebrate and share their child’s art in a lasting way.

What needs healing in your life? May you find the courage to forgive and find peace.

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26 thoughts on “Awesome Stories 281”

  7. Love the creativity on the cardboard houses. Great articles and very inspiring. I had the good fortune of watching the solar facility being built. It is located right off of Interstate 15 on the California side of the California/Nevada border just outside of Las Vegas. The focusing towers reminded me of something from Star Wars….sorry to hear it’s not up to projected capacity…very impressive engineering.

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  9. The prison friendship story reminds me of an article I read about how to listen to someone you disagree with strongly by asking about their story and how they came to believe what they believe, not to change their mind, but to understand. What I think about the solar power is that even if it’s not as efficient, the decreased damage to our planet is worth it.

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  10. Reblogged this on Anything is Possible! and commented:
    My favorite in the batch of “Awesome Stories” is the one about the two women on opposite sides of a conflict in Columbia. Both are in prison for killing people in the conflict. They found common ground in that they are human and demonstrate a “Model of Reconciliation.” Listening to the story of someone we consider our enemy builds a bridge to peace and even friendship.

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