Special News

20May2008

Making a city a better place

Posted by Cecilia under: Life.

John Sutton is one of the persons who made the city where he is living a better place. A modest man, he just says that he is “giving back to a community that has supported him all the years”.

Since Sutton retired as a school teacher he worked tirelessly for several associations and projects in Lincoln, CA.

Last month he was honored with the Friend of Tourism Award for his volunteer efforts for Lincoln. With this award he receives a sign of gratefulness from the citizens of Lincoln for all his well known and recognized work.

There are numerous ways to make the city you live in a better place. Even when you don’t get awards every little step you make for this goal is precious.

19May2008

May is Older Americans Month

Posted by Cecilia under: Life.

Did you know that the month of May is Older Americans Month? You aren’t alone, I didn’t either. In 1963 it was established with the goal of acknowledging the contributions of the past and celebrating the elderly in our society.

Reading about it I thought immediately, what a great idea! The elderly in our society sometimes seem to be lumped together with children and teenagers as lessor contributors.

Unlike children, teenagers are considered to stand between childhood and adultood, neither protected nor accepted as persons of full value.

Elderly people are in a similar situation to teenagers - except they aren’t awaiting that transition to adulthood, and because of their advanced years they stand at the border of the society. And why? because many of them no longer work, and they don’t perform anymore a service for the economy. Immediately our social voice calls them useless.

The contrary is true! Elderly people carry an incredibly precious value: knowledge and life experience. Each social development, all our learning from the endeavors of the older generations come from the cumulative knowledge of the elder people.

If we interrupt this line society starts to flutter around, repeating it’s mistakes and behaving like, well, children! We need our foundation, the know-how of the elderly.

Celebrate the elderly in your life this May!

18May2008

Health-promoting fat?

Posted by Cecilia under: Health.

Last Sunday I wrote about food and health by explaining how you can eat garlic without smelling bad afterwards.

Writing the article inspired me to make a main dish with garlic that night. So I’ve decided to write something interesting about food each Sunday. I admit that I love to cook and I love to eat . Maybe by studying and writing about it each week we can improve our eating habits together!

You may be wondering from the title of the article - “What kind of high-fat food can be good for our health? ” Sounds like a quiz question, doesn’t it? Before you switch over to your favorite search engine to look, I’ll answer it for you: it’s almonds. Almonds, those tasty little nuts, have the same kind of fat as olive oil.

The greatest effect of almonds is the reduction of the risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol. If you combine them with something else, which is also known for lowering cholesterol, the effect is even additive. One possible combination could be almonds with other nuts (walnuts, pecans and chestnuts), or in a salad with beans, and pears. Or perhaps you prefer it in your oat cereal. All of these combinations have the effect of doubling your cholesterol reduction.

Read the rest of this entry »

17May2008

Garden events everywhere

Posted by Cecilia under: Nature.

For a lot of people, myself included, the month of May is the most wonderful month in the year. Everybody who has a garden can enjoy the blooming power of spring.

A lot of cities organize garden events throughout May. The calender is so filled with events you might have a hard time to deciding where to go and what to see.

I picked out some interesting and unusual events for you:

On May 21st in Seattle you can inform yourself about creating water features for urban wildlife.
On the weekend of May 17th/18th in Tampa you and your whole family can enjoy the Blueberry Festival with blueberry juice tastings, pies, muffins and even wines.
Through June 15th in New York at the exhibition “Darwin’s Garden - An Evolutionary Adventure” you can discover how Darwin worked as botanist.
On May 25th in Oakland CA you can learn everything about Bonsai creation and care.

This is only a short list of the many events. Try looking at Zevents to find more gardening events near you!

It’s a great way to spend a day!

16May2008

You get what you give

Posted by Cecilia under: Life.

Okay, if it seems like this is the third post in a row about generosity, you might be right. The title “You get what you give” is usually a slogan of generosity. But rather than adressing only generosity, my post today is really about friendliness.

On May 9th I wrote a post on Esteem News about “Which city is the most stylish?” and I mentioned that in order to make this list of the most stylish cities people were asked how they expect to be welcomed by the citizens.

It seems to be a simple question that people can answer by recalling their own experiences. But it isn’t so simple. The result of your impression of being welcomed or not actually depends on you!

In Vancouver, Canada a correspondant wrote that the citizens were very cold and unhappy. This premise was immediately tested for truth content by having individuals go out in the city and “meet the people” so to speak. What the testers found was exactly the contrary of what the author had stated. There were friendly faces everywhere.

What made the difference? The people of the city smiled when the testers smiled at them! This shows that you really get what you give.

Go with a smile through your life and your days will be full of joy and friendliness.

Read the rest of this entry »

15May2008

Huge generosity

Posted by Cecilia under: Education.

Yesterday I wrote about generosity and how it can be expressed by even the youngest of our society.

Today I found a list of generosity expressed by the richest of our society. The list is too long to reproduce here. It may surprise you to know that a large part of this generosity came from Asia.

The world’s most generous man, Anil Agarwal, spent $1 billion in order to build a new university in East India. Who is this man?

Anil Agarwal has the vision of a university modeled after, and with the reputation of, Stanford University. He wishes that young and talented Indians can study in their own country instead of leaving it to study overseas. The talented future workers will stay in the country and - this is another wish of Agarwal - increase the economy in this region.

This generosity is really impressive. Even more encouraging is the fact he offered money for education in his home country for his fellow citizens. Each school created for children and young people around the world is a service for our future.

14May2008

It’s better to give than to receive

Posted by Cecilia under: Education.

This proverb has it’s own truth which you can only truly feel by doing it. Like so many experiences in life being generous must be experienced to find out how good it feels.

This lesson is especially important for children. Sometimes I’m so surprised how deeply children can express their generosity. When you watch children playing with each other you can recognize some children really living their generosity toward the others.

If you want to give your kids the experience of generosity the best way is to let them make it themselves. When kids are forced by parents to be generous they can’t really learn and experience how generosity feels.

Giving kids the opportunity to live their generosity, even in a small way, without any expected reward is a lesson for life. It can’t be any better for both sides - kids and parents!

13May2008

Day of roses in Rome

Posted by Cecilia under: Culture.

Rome, Italy has the second oldest rose trial in the world. This year’s international rose trial will take place again in Rome.

On Saturday, May 17th a panel of international and local judges will award a gold, silver and bronze medal and a certificate of merit for each category of rose.

rose The next day, on May 18th , the rose garden “Roseto comunale” will be open to the public. What a wonderful moment to take a look of hundreds of the most beautiful roses you can imagine! A lot of the new roses show repeated blooming power and fill the air with their magnificent scent.

Today you even can be sure that while you admire the beauty of all those roses the breeding happens without using poisonous fungicides and insecticides. The rules for the rose breeders are very strict but the result is simply gorgeous!

This day of roses is worth making a trip to Rome for each fan of roses!

12May2008

Economies with positive news

Posted by Cecilia under: Economy.

Lately it seems the news is dominated by rising unemployment rates and falling home prices. The growth of economy seems to have slowed down noticeably.

But, fear not Special News reader, it’s still possible to find some positive news in this environment . Indeed there are ten reasons! Forbes created a list they call ten recession-proof cities:

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
San Antonio, Texas
Austin, Texas
San Jose, California
Raleigh, North Carolina
Salt Lake City, Utah
Houston, Texas
Seattle, Washington
Charlotte, North Carolina
Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas

All these cities show the same signs of a balanced economy: falling unemployment, strong house market, solid growth in agriculture, energy, industries or manufacturing.

For sure there are some external factors helping these cities to stabilize their economy. Nevertheless I can imagine that another reason has a big influence. I’m thinking about attitude and self assuredness of the citizens.

Optimistic and positive thinking even in hard times can make big changes possible, and it might even make your city “recession proof.”

11May2008

Did somebody just have garlic?

Posted by Cecilia under: Health.

Today I don’t have any actual news!

Today is Sunday, a good day to write a little bit about food and your health. As a matter of fact I want to speak about garlic. So stand back and hold out your can of personal deodorizer!

Personally I love garlic. I like it in all forms, raw, powdered, baked, minced, you name it. It makes almost any meal taste better.

Some people are like me and they love garlic in all kind of meals. The problem is the the people around you might not be as happy when you eat garlic. Unless you can convince them to have some with you. In case your powers of persuasion aren’t so great, I have something good news for you.

Read the rest of this entry »