Tag Archives: USA

Big Hearts Help Ship Fire Trucks

This is a heartwarming story of a group of people in the USA who had old fire trucks and shipped it to a place that could make good use of it. This is a great way to reuse equipment and make the world better! Thanks to Evan for finding this!

“Well, the town of Plymouth was able to scrounge up a few spare fire trucks, used, but in good working order; so why not ship them to Guinea-Bissau, along with an ambulance, and give the former Portuguese colony some peace of mind?
And that’s what is going to happen.

The country’s fire chief, Malam Djaura, will receive the keys to the equipment and training in how to operate them from Plymouth firefighters before the trucks and ambulance are shipped from New Jersey to West Africa.

These things, as improbable as they may seem, don’t happen in a vacuum. A Plymouth resident, David Applefield, who is a reporter for a newspaper in Guinea-Bissau, told his father, Jerry, about the fire. Jerry, in turn, mentioned it to state Rep. Vinny deMacedo, R-Plymouth. DeMacedo’s brother, Olavo bought one truck, and Jerry Applefield bought the other truck and ambulance, and Plymouth and Hanson fire officials threw in a bunch of hoses, connectors and other equipment. Olavo deMacedo even had one truck lettered and decorated with the Guinea-Bissau flag.”

Environmental Debt

E Magazine is reporting that Guatemala and the United States of America have signed a landmark agreement that switches debt into forest conservation.

“Environmentalists around the globe are toasting a deal announced last week in which the U.S. government has agreed to forgive $24.4 million in debt from Guatemala to free up the money for use in forest conservation efforts there. Two leading international conservation nonprofits, the Nature Conservancy and Conservation International, were instrumental in putting the “debt-for-nature” together, and each organization also provided $1 million toward Guatemalan conservation initiatives to help sweeten the deal.”

Walmart pays workers $78 million

Friday the 13th turned out to be very lucky for Michelle Braun and Dolores Hummel, both former employees of the popular Wal-Mart Inc. chain. The two workers sued the chain after they were forced to work during their break times. The jury found in favour of current and former employees in Pennsylvania to the tune of $78 million for wages lost between March of 1998 and May of 2006.

This was a blow to Wal-Mart’s already tarnished image. The chain has been accused of treating and paying employees poorly. Mike Donovan, attorney for the two workers, was thrilled with the outcome: “The message of today’s verdict to large retailers is that they can’t say one thing to their employees and do another.”

This is not the first time Wal-Mart has been in hot water, in December a Wal-Mart branch in  Bentonville, Arkansas was ordered to pay $172 million to employees who were denied meal breaks.

Water from Air

A company has created a way to extract water from plain old air. This is a great tool to help people in areas where water is scarce or hard to make potable. It can be a great help in areas hit by a disaster too.

“We figured out how to tap it in a very unique and proprietary way,” Sher said. “We figured out how to mimic nature, using natural salt to extract water and act as a natural decontamination.

“Think of the Dead Sea, where nothing grows around it because the salt dehydrates everything. It’s kind of like that.”

The 20-foot machine can churn out 600 gallons of water a day without using or producing toxic materials and byproducts. The machine was displayed on Capitol Hill last week where a half-dozen lawmakers and some staffers stopped by for a drink.

“It was very interesting to see the technology in action and learn about its possible implementation in natural disasters,” said Rep. E. Clay Shaw Jr., a Republican from Florida whose hurricane-prone district includes Fort Lauderdale.

The research and development into this technology was need-driven by the US Army wanting a way to keep soldiers fueled to fight. It’s unfortunate that this device is created out of a need to kill than a need to help live. That being said, this technology has lots of potential to help many people in need around the world.

Secret Rooms Gain Popularity

shhhhThe New York Times is running a story about the growing popularity of installing a
secret room into houses. I’ve always wanted a secret hideaway room that has the bat computer and a map printed on the floor.

““Most people don’t even recognize that it’s there,” said her father, Eric Beghou, who owns a consulting company with his wife, Beth. “When the home inspector came by to examine the house, our builder shut the bookcase, hiding the room. The inspector went up and down the stairs a couple times — he knew that something was unusual — but he couldn’t figure out what was there.”

Soon, however, inspectors and other guests may get wise to hidden rooms like the Beghous’. Although hard data is not available, architects report an increase over the last five years in the number of clients installing concealed rooms.”