Puppy Rescued from the Top of Train
October 25, 2011 by admin · View Comments
LIBERTY, S.C. — A black Lab puppy is lucky to be alive after being rescued from the top of a train car after a journey that had a mysterious beginning.
No one knows how the puppy, who appears to be about 3 months old, ended up on top of the Norfolk Southern train that left Pennsylvania, and had already gone through Virginia and North Carolina on its way to Atlanta.Tina Parker, of Pickens, said she and her family were driving home Sunday night when they stopped at a red light by the Walmart store in Easley, S.C., as the train passed by.Parker said she spotted what she at first thought was trash on top of the train. But she said the “trash” started moving and she realized it was a puppy.Parker called 911 and then followed the train on to Liberty.
A Norfolk Southern spokeswoman told News 4 that they were alerted to stop the train. The spokeswoman said the train would have been traveling about 50 mph.The Parker family helped spot which car in the long train the puppy was on top of.”The only thing we can think is probably somebody put her up there,” Parker said.The Liberty Fire Department arrived and used a ladder to reach the pup on the top of the Hunter boxcar. The cars carried double-stacked containers, making them about 20-feet tall.
Beth
15 (More!) Terrific Towering Tree Houses
August 22, 2011 by admin · View Comments
[ By Steph in Art & Design & Home & Garden. ]
There’s something about human dwellings perched in trees that brings out the child in all of us, gazing up in wonder at seemingly endless staircases and platforms so near the sky. These 13 (more!) tree houses range from rustic cabins that seem like overgrown versions of children’s playhouses to modern interpretations gleaming in glass and stainless steel.
Fairytale-Inspired Forest Tree House, British Columbia
(images via: enchantedforestbc.com)
Deep in the woods of British Columbia is the Enchanted Forest, a fairytale-like theme park filled with ‘jolly fairy folk figurines’, boardwalks, nature trails, castles and BC’s tallest treehouse. The latter is certainly a magical place, spiraling into the air , supported both by tree trunks and added beams.
Reverend Burgess’ Reclaimed Treehouse, Tennessee
(images via: stephanie alice rogers)
Thought to be one of the largest treehouses in the world, this wacky structure located in the small town of Crossville, Tennessee was built over 15 years by Reverend Burgess, who believes he’s on a divine mission. Burgess has built the 10-story, 100-foot structure out of reclaimed wood, and it now occupies six mature trees.
Camp Treehouse
(images via: the lettered cottage)
Camp Treehouse was built by a group of friends for Wandawega Rentals, a private resort in Wisconsin. The two-story treehouse was built on an old dead tree trunk and includes a wrap-around porch, a vaulted ceiling with a loft, a hammock, a ladder and a rope swing. Nearly all materials were reused or handmade.
Lord Northumberland’s Scottish Treehouse
(images via: alister cameron)
Another contender for the world’s largest treehouse was built for an astonishing $7 million in 2006 (compare that to the $12,000 spent by Reverend Burgess!) Scotland’s Lord Northumberland commissioned the treehouse from Treehouse Company. It features disabled access and full facilities for its 120-seat restaurant. The treehouse is suspended between 16 lime trees and is located on the grounds of Alnwick Gardens.
Lifepod by Kyu Che Studio
(images via: kyuche.com)
A traveling yurt that can be placed nearly anywhere, the ‘Lifepod’ by Kyu Che Studio also makes for one incredible (and slightly scary, for those afraid of heights) suspended treehouse. The prefab pod home concept can be shipped worldwide within weeks of ordering, and fits within a 40-foot shipping container.
Sky High Treehouse, Saleve Mountain, France
(images via: curbly)
This unbelievably high treehouse is perched near the apex of a 130-foot Austrian pine in Saleve Mountain, France. The treehouse is supported by a hidden ring; guests who brave the nearly 70-foot spiral staircase are rewarded with views of Lake Geneva.
Home Built Around a Tree
(image via: the chive)
Homes like this unidentified castle-like abode prove that homeowners building on untouched land don’t necessarily have to clear out trees in order to bring their dream home to life. This treehouse appears to be about one story above the ground, with branches poking through the roof and deck.
Nussraum, Dusseldorf, Germany
(images via: cimots)
Supported on stainless steel legs, the Nussraum design by Baumraum, a German company specializing in modern treehouses, could either be assembled around a tree like conventional treehouses, or stand alone. Nussraum, which translates as ‘Walnut Room’, gets its name from the walnut wood used to create it. This one stands in a garden in Dusseldorf.
Towering Twin Treehouses
(image via: edmerritt)
The provenance of this incredible treehouse photo is unknown, but it’s certainly captivating. Two tiny cabins teeter atop fir trees, accessible via spiraling staircases.
Cedar Spire, Fife, Scotland
(images via: erindale real estate)
Located on an estate in Fife, Scotland, Cedar Spire is a castle-like treehouse with stained glass windows, a turret-like main room, a balcony and a suspended walkway leading to a viewing platform on an adjacent tree.
Pharrell Williams’ Eco Treehouse Concept
(images via: oppenheim architecture)
Rapper Pharrell Williams is collaborating with architect Chad Oppenheim on a vision for a treehouse-inspired youth center in William’s hometown of Virginia Beach. The 30,000-square-foot Pharrell Williams Resource Center features three modern volumes set within a dense forest.
Wilkinson Treehouse by Robert Oshatz
(images via: oshatz.com)
Noting the sloped grade of the site, architect Robert Harvey Oshatz saw an opportunity to bring the main level of a commissioned home up into the tree canopy. The Wilkinson Residence is an organic, flowing home with shapes that mimic those in nature. While the home is not supported by trees like a traditional treehouse, it achieves a similar effect with its unusual shape.
Spiral House, Rambouillet Forest, France
(images via: independent)
HIdden within Rambouillet Forest in France, the Spiral House is a tiny cabin high up in a tree, accessible only by a tall staircase.
DIY Traditional Tree House
(images via: edmund sumner)
This treehouse, built without help from an architect or skilled carpenter, perches almost frighteningly high in the sky on just a few skinny supports. Used as a tea house in Japan, the treehouse was created by a tea master who harvested the logs for the support from a local mountain.
Takashi Kobayashi Treehouse
(images via: treehouse.jp)
Designed for an advertising agency client, which used it to film an ad for Nescafe commercial, this rustic, playful treehouse resembles a bird’s nest. It was conceived and built by Takashi Kobayashi, one of Japan’s foremost tree house designers.
“What exactly is it about treehouses that would so captivate a slacker like me, a man who could never devote himself to any one cause or finish anything he started?” says Kobayashi. “What is it in treehouses that attracts anyone? I’ve come to think the answer lies in the vitality of the trees themselves. Everlasting life.”
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Positive Quote Wednesday - Quote on the Great Outdoors
May 14, 2011 by thegreenchildrenfoundation · View Comments
Growing up in northern California has had a big influence on my love and respect for the outdoors. When I lived in Oakland, we would think nothing of driving to Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz one day and then driving to the foothills of the Sierras the next day.
- Tom HanksHearty laughter is a good way to jog internally without having to go outdoors.
- Norman CousinsI enjoyed growing up part of my life in Virginia Beach. We had the ocean and the beach and a beautiful landscape. We were outdoors all the time and we played outside.
- Mark RuffaloI hate the outdoors. To me the outdoors is where the car is.
- Will DurstI have composed several pieces which are performed outdoors, not only in the auditorium.
- Karlheinz StockhausenI need to go outside. I wouldn’t say I’m an outdoors person, but I like to go outside.
- Edie BrickellI see humanity now as one vast plant, needing for its highest fulfillment only love, the natural blessings of the great outdoors, and intelligent crossing and selection.
- Luther BurbankI’m an introvert… I love being by myself, love being outdoors, love taking a long walk with my dogs and looking at the trees, flowers, the sky.
- Audrey HepburnIn the photographs themselves there’s a definite contrast between the figures and the location - I like that kind of California backyard look; clapboard houses, staircases outdoors.
- Helmut NewtonIt is good to realize that if love and peace can prevail on earth, and if we can teach our children to honor nature’s gifts, the joys and beauties of the outdoors will be here forever.
- Jimmy CarterMarry an outdoors woman. Then if you throw her out into the yard on a cold night, she can still survive.
- W. C. FieldsObvious enough that generalities work to protect the mind from the great outdoors; is it possible that this was in fact their first purpose?
- Howard NemerovThe outdoors, the beautiful environment, both in fresh and salt water. And the thing that concerns me is the amount of kids that stand on street corners, or go into pinball parlours, and call it recreation.
- Rex Hunt
Beth
Random Act of Thanksgiving Kindness
November 30, 2010 by admin · View Comments
The day before Thanksgiving, Lucy Crutchfield left a message on her daughter’s answering machine. The despair was evident in her voice.
Crutchfield owed a mortgage payment on her home, but her daughter wasn’t even able to afford food for the coming week. So, Crutchfield left a message saying that she would send money for the groceries—even though that meant she wouldn’t have enough to pay her monthly mortgage bill.
But as it turned out, Crutchfield had dialed a wrong number, leaving her heartbreaking message on a stranger’s machine.
Instead of simply deleting the message, the stranger on the other end, San Diego real estate agent Virginia Saenz, decided to call her back.
“On the phone, she sounded so desperate for her daughter, it broke my heart,” Saenz told NBC San Diego.
When she reached Crutchfield, she told her not to worry. Saenz would help out Crutchfield’s daughter, so that Crutchfield could still make her mortgage payment.
Lucy Crutchfield was blown away by the stranger’s generosity—and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Times were very tough, and she’d recently gone into foreclosure on her own home. The mortgage payment was for her mother’s house. Her mother had recently passed away, and Crutchfield was struggling to stay on top of her debts, too. “I thought I was going to lose that house, too,” she said.
Thanks to Saenz’s offer, she was able to make that payment, while Saenz went to the grocery store to pick up food for Crutchfield’s daughter’s family. Crutchfield’s daughter said she only needed milk and eggs, but Saenz decided to go on a shopping spree for the family, picking up enough food for the rest of the month, plus a turkey, stuffing, and all the trimmings to make a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.
The next day, while sitting down to her own Thanksgiving dinner, Saenz gave thanks for the fact that she was able to provide help to a stranger in need. That random act of kindness “made the day special for me,” she said.
Beth
Only Positive News
October 7, 2010 by · View Comments
When I hear a man preach, I like to see him act as if he were fighting bees.
Abraham LincolnNo part of the education of a politician is more indispensable than the fighting of elections.
Winston ChurchillYou either get tired fighting for peace, or you die.
John LennonFighting for peace is like screwing for virginity.
George CarlinVictory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop fighting.
Napoleon HillThe supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
Sun TzuFor to win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the acme of skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill.
Sun Tzu
Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting.
Sun Tzu
It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.
Helen KellerBe kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.
PlatoPart of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in itself a victory.
Norman Vincent PealeThe world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it.
Ernest HemingwayTo be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
e. e. cummingsIf Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
James MadisonAll the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
George OrwellMost sorts of diversion in men, children and other animals, are in imitation of fighting.
Jonathan Swift
As we advance in life it becomes more and more difficult, but in fighting the difficulties the inmost strength of the heart is developed.
Vincent Van GoghThe tragedy of modern war is that the young men die fighting each other - instead of their real enemies back home in the capitals.
Edward AbbeyIf you insist upon fighting to protect me, or ‘our’ country, let it be understood soberly and rationally between us that you are fighting to gratify a sex instinct which I cannot share; to procure benefits where I have not shared and probably will not share.
Virginia WoolfBeauty is mysterious as well as terrible. God and devil are fighting there, and the battlefield is the heart of man.
Fyodor DostoevskyAs we become purer channels for God’s light, we develop an appetite for the sweetness that is possible in this world. A miracle worker is not geared toward fighting the world that is, but toward creating the world that could be.
Marianne Williamson
Now I’m fighting cancer, everybody knows that. People ask me all the time about how you go through your life and how’s your day, and nothing is changed for me.
Jim ValvanoYou must show the world that you abhor fighting.
Desmond Tutu
Let the Sun Shine: Solar Decathlon Europe 2010 Winners
June 30, 2010 by admin · View Comments
[ By Delana in Art & Design, History & Trivia, News & Politics. ]
Every other year, some of the best and brightest college and university students come together to built amazing solar-powered home designs. Designs are judged based on their efficiency, their comfort, and their architectural structure, among other factors. The 2010 Solar Decathlon took place in Madrid, Spain, marking the first time that the competition was held in Europe. One of the main focal points of the contest is to highlight the fact that eco-friendly dwellings can be exceptionally modern and attractive, contrary to many assumptions. The designs that came out of this year’s competition were some of the most forward-thinking and creative solar homes that the world has ever seen; these five were the judges’ top picks.
Lumenhaus
(image via: afagen)
Lumenhaus, the winning 2010 design from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University team, is a fantastically open home that emphasizes a “whole building” design. The shape and overall look of the home were influenced by the all-glass Farnsworth House designed by Mies van der Rohe. The two glass exterior walls of the Lumenhaus, along with its open floor plan, bathe the entire house in natural sunlight. A distinctive mixture of high-tech features and low-tech features are what make this design a winner: a solar roof, radiant in-floor heating, an energy-efficient central computer system, grey water recycling, and the use of passive energy. Moreover, the modular design is extremely portable and units can be added with very little effort, making the Lumenhaus the perfect expandable Earth-friendly home for the family of tomorrow.
Ikaros
A very close second place went to the team from the University of Applied Sciences, Rosenheim for their Ikaros design. The Ikaros house features a visually striking exterior design, but that’s far from being its only impressive side. The house produces four times more solar energy than it uses, meaning that future residents could sell their “extra” electricity to the power company and make some extra money every month. That distinctive exterior design serves to shade the home so that it will require less energy to cool in the summer months, and excess energy from the home’s systems is used to keep the home warm in the winter.
home+
The team from Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences walked away with third place for their home+ design. The glittering home is covered in lovely photovoltaic cells that lend a very distinctive look to the exterior while producing far more energy than the home’s residents would need. The idea behind the home was to produce a prototype that uses the least amount of traditional grid power possible but that was comfortable and pleasant to look at. The home+ design includes a wind tower (for passive cooling), phase changing-materials for moving heated or cooled air to where it’s most needed, and a modular design that lets users configure the four-part dwelling in whatever way works best for them.
Armadillo Box
Despite its funny name, the Armadillo Box from the Ecole National Superieure darchitecture de Grenoble team is serious about solar design. Like the desert-dwelling creature that shares its name, the Armadillo Box is great at conserving energy and withstanding brutal heat. The home features a nucleus that houses all of its technical equipment, keeping it safe while acting as the “heart” of the sustainable, flexible home meant for two people. Large windows help to provide natural sunlight, while overhangs reduce the amount of heat that seeps in through those windows. And of course, a massive photovoltaic array is prominently featured on the exterior of the house.
Luukku
Team Finland rounded out the top five with its simply beautiful Luukku design. The team drew inspiration from traditional Finnish summer houses which use slightly elevated foundations and natural materials to make beautiful and functional buildings. The overall feel of this design is one of simplicity: sustainable wood, water heated by solar collectors, high-efficiency insulation and windows, and – naturally – a large and effective photovoltaic system. What’s best about the Finnish design is that it’s meant for cold climates that don’t get much sun – so even in Finland the home can produce at least as much power as it needs for the family living inside.
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Microfinance Pioneer Muhammad Yunus Speaks at U.Va.
October 17, 2009 by admin · View Comments
Microfinance pioneer Muhammad Yunus speaks at the University of Virginia, sharing a central message that in working together we can change the world. Mr. Yunus established Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, reaching out to people traditional banks don’t deem creditworthy. Grameen Bank now serves more than 8 million people through ‘microloans’ totalling about $1 billion a year. Mr. Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. In August 2009, US President Barack Obama presented him with the Medal of Freedom.
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