Editor’s Comment
This past week’s been a busy one for Happyzine as it morphs from a weekly ezine (with a website bubbling away in the background) into a dynamic daily positive news website (it’s very exciting). From your end nothing will change, apart from the fact that we’ll be able to offer you more good news options down the track. Here at Happyzine H.Q. though I’m enjoying building up a network of media outlets who are only to happy to share their good news with us. I read recently that the spirit of motivation requires daily nourishment. Just as our bodies benefit from regular excercise, so too do our minds require regular positive input if we want to remain happy. That’s what we’re here for, so drop in anytime to the site www.happyzine.co.nz and enjoy your uploads of inspiration.
Charlotte Squire
Good News Roundup
Here’s a special project – a nation-wide programme has  been launched to promote community gardens on Marae and Maori community projects, according to the People’s Times.com. Setting up ‘Mara Kai’ – which means ‘community garden’ is an act of reclaiming Maori culture, self reliance and rangatiratanga, said Maori Affairs Minister Dr Pita Sharples. The nation wide programme will grant 250 eligible mara kai access to $2000 funding to buy tools and composting equipment, or to build garden beds and implement sheds.
Remaining with the hot gardening goss (how fresh and new to combine the words ‘gardening’ and ‘hot goss’ in the same sentence) – are you an Auckland based family with an un-explored urge to garden? Here’s your big opportunity. Prime, NZ Gardener and Top Shelf Productions are looking for a family – ideally Mum, Dad and a few kids, “who are interested in adopting a new more self sufficient lifestyle by establishing a home garden and creating a fully producing edible wonderland” (People’s Times.com).
Just briefly, and in a slightly random change of subject – BBC news reports that researchers have discovered the bones of a flying reptile that existed 160 million years ago
Lets talk about our kids now, this is a sweet story about the powerful, often surprising worlds of our children’s imagination. Published on Salon.com, the author and camera person interviewed a group of kids at the Little Missionaries Day Nursery and asked each of them to tell a story. With quotes such as “They didn’t recognize Cinderella. They kind of did, because of the hair” and “She has her necklace, and inside her necklace is her voice,” the videos they produced included “familiar tales, imagined epics and a hefty dose of nonsense”.
Perhaps it’s a good idea to encourage our tamariki (Maori word for children) to partake in the following activity – did you know that juggling increases brain power? Perhaps you’re already so switched on from all that juggling that you suspected it! Well now it’s official. Research shows that complex tasks such as juggling produce significant changes to the structure of the brain (BBC)
Onto positive environmental news – an International collaboration of fifty four countries, lead by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, and including the Wild Flower Center has managed to collect the seeds from native wild flowers world-wide over a decade (Happynews.com.
Inhabit.com reported on the inspiring story of the  Gigantic Coal Gasometers in Vienna which have been transformed from industrial shells to structures which shelter a thriving community. When the four huge structures – each around 230 feet tall and 200 feet in diameter – were built in 1896 they were designed to hold coal gas. They were decommissioned in 1984 and stood empty for a while until architects came up with an innovative new plan. The gasometers were gutted and then renovated into 615 new apartments, a student dormitory, offices, a day care center, a multiplex, over seventy shops, bars, restaurants and cafes; an events hall and the Vienna National Archive.
Check out the ultimate hammock for your garden in Inhabit.com. It’s built to carry people on it’s large web like structure, whilst beneath the hammock dwellers grows garden of lavender, lemon geranium and peppermint that wafts up a delicious scent (Inhabitat.com).
Finally, Mother nature has surprised us again, ENN.com reported that NASA has discovered a new ring around Saturn. It’s by far the largest of the giant planet’s many rings – the bulk of its material starting about six million kilometers away from the planet. One of Saturn’s farthest away moons – Phoebe – is thought to be the source of the material that makes up the big ring.
Got another five minutes? Check out increasing amounts of marvelously inspiring good news at:
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