SALON

Sunday, Mar 27, 2011 4:28 PM UTC

The Week in Uppers

Think this week was all about nuclear crisis and Libya? Maybe a million origami cranes will give you a lift

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Topics: Viral Video, Japan, Japan Earthquake, Uppers,

The Week in Uppers

While most news coverage this week fixated on intervention in Libya and the dire circumstances at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power station, there were still plenty of stories more likely to warm your heart than chill your bones.

  • For the millions around the world mourning the death of Knut, there’s a little bit of good news this week. Meet Gregor and Aleut, the polar bear cubs making their Germany zoo debut. (Telegraph)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

 

  • A California woman is spearheading a charity effort to fashion 1 million origami cranes and raise $1 million for disaster relief in Japan. (AOL News)
  • The FDA has approved a new drug expected to prolong the lives of patients with melanoma. (Business Week)
  • Rebecca Lanier, the world’s oldest person, turned 119 this week. (AOL News)
  • A Boston woman thought she lost her dachshund when a fire destroyed her apartment a month ago. Then last Monday she found the pup in the wreckage, alive and well. (AP)
  • A dolphin displaced by Japan’s earthquake-triggered tsunami on March 11 was found splashing around in a rice paddy, and subsequently returned to the ocean. (Reuters)
  • NBA star Derrick Rose has found a new way to give back to Japan. The Chicago Bulls’ leading scorer will donate $1,000 to earthquake relief efforts for every point he scores. (Huffington Post)
  • A New Jersey boy saved the life of his mother last week by applying the Heimlich maneuver — a technique he had learned that very same day. (AOL News)
  • Prodigious chef Bruno Serato has served fine Italian cuisine to underprivileged children — on the house — every day for six years and counting. He now accommodates more than 200 kids a week. (CNN)

More Peter Finocchiaro.

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The week in 10 pics

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  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

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