Good Things in the World

Firefighters Save Tiny Baby Hamsters With Tiny Baby Oxygen Tubes

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A group of Washington firefighters who wanted to provide "good customer service" revived a family of baby hamsters with tiny little breathing tubes after responding to a burning home last week.

Apparently no humans were home when the fire broke out, but a loving hamster family was trapped inside.

Firefighters then found two adult hamsters and their three babies next to a marriage certificate filled out using crayons.

"Apparently they were married… The family had made a marriage certificate for Oreo and Madonna. It was pretty cute," Hulse said in regards to the adult hamsters.

The adults appeared to be OK, but two baby hamsters were sluggish and one was not moving.

The hamster rescue was largely successful—firefighters say four out of five lived to spin around a wheel another day—but the rest of the world was reportedly murdered by the unbearable cuteness.
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http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-washington-fire-hamsters-20140929-story.html

Yet another reason firefighters are awesome
 
Firefighters rock. That's such an adorable story :woot:
 
Teen Activist Malala Is the Youngest Nobel Peace Prize Winner Ever

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Malala Yousafzai, the 17-year-old Pakistani education activist who survived an assassination attempt by the Taliban for her work, became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She'll share the award with India's Kailash Satyarthi, 60, a child rights activist and founder of Save the Childhood Movement.

"The Nobel Committee regards it as an important point for a Hindu and a Muslim, an Indian and a Pakistani, to join in a common struggle for education and against extremism," Thorbjoern Jagland, the head of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, said of their win in Oslo.

Yousafzai was shot in the head by Taliban forces in Pakistan's Swat Valley in 2012 for blogging about their oppressive rule for the BBC. She was 15. The attack on her life only emboldened her cause to an international audience.

"Despite her youth, Malala Yousafzai, has already fought for several years for the right of girls to education and has shown by example that children and young people too can contribute to improving their own situations," Jagland said.

Yousafzai and Satyarthi's win is a return to the award going to individuals—in the last two years, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2013) and the European Union (2012) were the prize's winners.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/11/w...ackage-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

She is an amazing young woman and hopefully inspires more young Muslim women to change the world. Well deserved IMO
 
Human kindness win!
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This Baby Was Bred to Pilot a MechWarrior Robot Halloween Costume

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It was this 6-month-old baby's dream to pilot a robot from the '90s video game franchise MechWarrior for his first Halloween—just kidding. Baby don't care. He's just enjoying the view while he fulfills the destiny his father set out for him before his birth.

"My husband had this costume planned for several years, long before we had a child. The inspiration was a computer game he played in high school. When we found out we were having a baby, he got to work. Ryan sketched out the rough designs probably two months before Geraint was born," said Cassandra, the wife of the robot-building dad and mother of the robot-piloting baby.

Congrats, Geraint. You've "won Halloween" on several different websites and truly achieved your life's purpose. It's all downhill from here.
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http://www.gossipcop.com/baby-mechwarrior-halloween-costume-video-pictures-mech/

That is freaking awesome!
 
Genius Activists Trick Neo-Nazi Parade Into Raising $12,000 for Charity

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How do you turn the traditional neo-Nazi march that passes through your small town every year into a good thing? If you're the residents of Wunsiedel, in Bavaria, Germany, you turn their hate parade into an involuntary walkathon, so that every step they take raises more money for an anti-fascist charity.

As the former burial site of Rudolph Hess, Hitler's deputy führer, Wunsiedel is hallowed ground for far-right extremists, who gather there annually to march. This year, fed up with the intrusion, residents and activists organized Rechts gegen Rechts (rights against rights), pledging to donate €10, or about $12.50, to the organization EXIT Deutschland for every meter the marchers walked. EXIT's mission: to provide assistance to people who'd like to drop out of extreme right-wing communities and organizations.

"The further they march, the more money is collected," says the narrator of a video about the stunt below. "In other words, for every step they take, the neo-Nazis campaign against neo-Nazis, and unwittingly finance more and more defections from the extremist scene."

Organizers painted markers along the route to make marchers aware of the money they raised, hung banners with slogans like "If only the Führer knew," and distributed bananas to ensure the extremists made it to their goal. By the end of the march, they'd raised €10,000, or about $12,500.

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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/18/neo-nazis-tricked-into-raising-10000-for-charity

Brilliant :woot:
 
Extreme Racers Adopt Extreme Dog Who Followed Them Through the Amazon

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A Swedish extreme adventure team racing through Ecuador's Amazon rainforest ran into an unexpected companion: a stray dog who followed Team Peak Performance through the final two days of a 10-day, 430-mile course of extreme pain and extreme suffering.

They fed him a meatball and sent him on his way, but he didn't want to leave. He stayed with them through mud and mountains, until they ran into a 36-mile water stage. Because race organizers feared for the dog's safety, the team left him on shore while they took off in their kayaks.

But in the end, there was nothing they could do to stop the tough mutt from finishing the Adventure Racing World Championship. When the team realized he was swimming alongside them, they pulled him up into a boat and wrapped him in a jacket.

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They named him "Arthur"—Swedish for "extreme," probably—and took him back home with them (after having him checked by a vet and winning approval from the Swedish board of agriculture). He arrived to a crowd of reporters and immediately held an extreme doggie press conference.

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Arthur had a wound on his back when he was found, but it's said to be healing fast now. Of course it is. This dog is a badass.

Peak Performance came in 12th in the race, but they got a pretty good consolation prize.

"I came to Ecuador to win the World Championship. Instead, I got a new friend," team captain Mikael Lindnord said.
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http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-30194531

Yet another reason why dogs are awesome!
 
Samsung's Eye Mouse Lets the Disabled Use Computers More Easily

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Using a computer can be difficult or even impossible for some people with disabilities. Now, Samsung's eye-tracking technology allows people who would struggle to use a mouse to navigate their computer with relative ease.

Developed by a team of Samsung engineers, it builds on previous technology called EYECAN which required the user to wear glasses in order to interact with a computer. The update, called EYECAN+, allows the user to simply point with a look and then click with a deliberate blink. In demonstrations, users are able to type, as well as performing drag-and-stop commands—meaning that, yes, they can play Angry Birds. Praise be.

It's not, of course, the first example of eye-tracking for use in controlling tech, nor necessarily the best—but it is perhaps one of the most compelling. Why? Well, Samsung isn't commercialising the device; instead it has plans to make the design freely available so that other companies can use it in an open source agreement, to help people around the world. The hope is that a device could cost as little as $150— making it a very affordable prospect compared to other computing solutions for those with disabilities.
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http://www.theverge.com/2014/11/25/7279849/samsung-eyecan-plus-eye-mouse

That is awesome
 
Cool Pope Just Making Stuff Up About Heaven Now

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It is becoming increasingly clear that Cool Pope "Francis" (a nickname)—though he is certainly cool and wacky and generally chill—is just making stuff up as he goes along. Do dogs go to heaven? Sure, why not?

The cool Pope is known for things like dissing capitalism and being okay with porn and generally being the type of Pope who is ready to rap with you about how ganjah was found growing on the grave of Solomon. Now, the way the Catholic church has generally worked is, it's a big deal for the Pope to say something is or is not holy and stuff like that—sometimes they argue over these things for hundreds of years! But cool Pope is casting all that aside in favor of just, you know, freestyling off the top of the dome, about religious issues.

Historically Catholics have held that animals do not have souls. Cool? Certainly not. So the other day when the cool Pope met some kid whose dog had died, he stone cold told this kid, "Paradise is open to all of God's creatures." How cool is that???? From the New York Times:

Charles Camosy, an author and professor of Christian ethics at Fordham University, said it was difficult to know precisely what Francis meant, since he spoke "in pastoral language that is not really meant to be dissected by academics." But asked if the remarks had caused a new debate on whether animals have souls, suffer and go to heaven, Mr. Camosy said, "In a word: absolutely."

I'll tell you what he meant: "I like dogs and I'm the Pope so dogs are holy now. Deal with it." Cool Pope's style is cool as hell. Just be careful when he starts making pronouncements to the ladies in the club about God's condemnation of wearing panties, etc.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/12/w...column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

This Pope just gets cooler every time he speaks :woot:
 
He was doing what parents have done throughout human history.
 
Watch Parents Learn Their Son Just Paid Off Their Mortgage for Christmas

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Joe Riquelme built the popular iPhone video editing app Videoshop, and his project has been so successful that he was able to surprise his parents this Christmas by paying off their mortgage.

Watch him play it totally cool while he changes their lives and gives back a little of what they gave him.
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http://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/2qfegh/son_pays_off_his_parents_mortgage_as_a_christmas/

Wow, I've always wanted to do something like this for my mom
 
Lucky Bastard Guesses Wheel of Fortune Puzzle With One Letter, Wins $90K

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You might have missed some must-see TV last week, namely the Dec. 26 episode of Wheel of Fortune, when word nerd Matt DeSanto guessed "The Lone Ranger" with only one letter revealed. "The wheel definitely worked in my favor," DeSanto told the Today show. "I was extremely fortunate."

The Malvern, Penn. father of two continued to be extremely fortunate—he solved every puzzle in the game, the show's first sweep since 2011. He totally bungled the bonus round though, failing to guess "wooden gavel" and missing out on upping his $91,892 in winnings to $1 million.

My favorite part of this whole story is that the YouTube video of DeSanto's lucky guess (by user poo stick) is simply and appropriately titled "nope."
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Guy has those Wheel of Fortune skills
 
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This could use a boost. It's something that could be used in the abuse of power thread since this was heavily abused but now they can't do it anymore so too bad, no more legalized robbery by the cops. :D

Local and state police can’t use federal law to seize assets anymore

Attorney General Eric Holder announced Friday that the Department of Justice would be putting a stop to local and state police participation in a federal asset seizure program called “Equitable Sharing.”

The program has allowed local and state police to seize assets—usually cash and vehicles—without evidence of a crime. If the former owner of the seized property fails to make a case for the return of his or her property, the local and state police were allowed to keep up to 80 percent of the assets, with the remaining portion returning to federal agencies.

"This is a significant advancement to reform a practice that is a clear violation of due process that is often used to disproportionately target communities of color," Laura Murph, the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington legislative office director told Ars in a statement.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation also did its own research into how much of the federal asset forfeiture funds were going back into surveillance and wiretapping, finding that California spent $13.6 million on spying.

“Holder’s announcement could have a significant impact on how law enforcement agencies fund electronic surveillance,” Dave Maas, an EFF spokesman, told Ars. “However, it’s important to remember that the next administration’s attorney general could easily reverse this policy decision. Further, many states also have their own asset forfeiture programs, so a whole second layer of funding remains on the state level.”
Billions and billions

The Washington Post reports that since 2008, local and state police departments have seized approximately $3 billion in assets from 55,000 seizures around the country. In an earlier article published by the paper, government documents detailed that police departments spent their share of that money on “Humvees, automatic weapons, gas grenades, night-vision scopes and sniper gear,” and “electronic surveillance equipment” as well as less high-tech items like coffee makers, “challenge coin” medallions, and clown appearances (“to improve community relations”).

Data collected by the Post revealed that as a whole, local and state law enforcement agencies spent at least $121 million of the funds springing from these asset forfeitures on electronic surveillance equipment. Such equipment purchases are usually made with little oversight, and can include stingrays, license-plate readers, or wiretap equipment.

The seizure program began three decades ago as part of the federal government's War on Drugs and was meant to confiscate airplanes and boats that drug smugglers used to transport narcotics. In the 1980s, the program expanded to permit the seizure of cash and, especially after 2001, upticks in seizures were seen and justified as part of the efforts to fight terrorists.

Holder's decision today still allows certain assets to be seized under the federal law without officially charging the owner for a crime, “including firearms, ammunition, explosives and property associated with child pornography,” the government's press release stated.

Federal authorities will still be able to seize assets as before, and local and state police departments often have their own seizure rules that won't be changed by this new policy. However, the Post notes that most states require seized assets to go into the general fund rather than directly to the police department, as the Equitable Sharing funds did.

The new policy also does not apply “to seizures resulting from joint operations involving both federal and state authorities, or to seizures pursuant to warrants issued by federal courts.” Such seizures have been used in high-profile cases that Ars has followed closely, such as the US government's case against Kim Dotcom (the federal complaint seeking the civil forfeiture of Dotcom's assets is here) or in the case of the US government versus Ross Ulbricht, alleged to be the kingpin of the Silk Road (you can follow Ars' coverage of Ulbricht's trial, which is ongoing).
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Ars Technica
 
Do a YouTube search for Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Civil Forfeiture (HBO) and watch that. It has some cursing so I can't link to it directly without getting infracted.
 
I caught that live. Have that show programmed into the DVR. Mind blowing stuff they were getting away with
 
Cool Pope Francis Keeps It Real About Man's Stewardship of the Earth

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Pope Francis, at the end of his week-long tour through Asia, delivered a speech Sunday morning at a Manila university in which he declared that man has a God-given responsibility to protect the environment, The New York Times reports. In shirking that duty we betray God.

"As stewards of God's creation, we are called to make the earth a beautiful garden for the human family. When we destroy our forests, ravage our soil and pollute our seas, we betray that noble calling," the text of the speech reads. According to the Times, the pope went off-script while delivering the speech; when this happens, the prepared text is considered official.

"Respect for the environment means more than simply using cleaner products or recycling what we use. These are important aspects, but not enough," the speech reads, according to the Times. "We need to see, with the eyes of faith, the beauty of God's saving plan, the link between the natural environment and the dignity of the human person."

"This country, more than many others, is likely to be seriously affected by climate change," he told the gathered crowd on Sunday morning. In November 2013, Tyhpoon Haiyan killed at least 6,300 people, left a million homeless and displaced 4 million more.

Later on Sunday afternoon, six million people—a record-setting number—gathered to hear Pope Francis speak in the capital. "This is the largest event in the history of popes," Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi told NBC News.

Earlier in the week, Francis told reporters that his papal encyclical—a letter from the pope to his biships—on the environment was nearly complete, and should be published in June. He also told reporters that he believed humans are at least partly responsible for climate change.

"I don't know if it is all (man's fault) but the majority is," he said. "For the most part, it is man who continuously slaps nature in the face."
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http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/01/18/world/europe/18reuters-pope-philippines-environment.html

This pope kicks so much ass :woot:
 
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