Ambulance (Thinkstock)

Talk about above and beyond the call of duty.

A heroic New York City dispatcher spent a marathon eight hours on the phone with a stroke victim as rescuers attempted to locate her.

A story in the New York Post reports that EMT dispatcher Joann Hilman-Payne got a call from an ill Mary Thomas, and rescuers rushed to the woman's residence at East 71st Street. But the stroke victim was not there.

According to a letter of commendation written by EMT Capt. Philip Weiss praising Hilman-Payne, the dispatcher then struggled to communicate with the slurring Thomas to try to determine her location—and keep her conscious.

With the help of Verizon and the NYPD, firefighters checked several nearby addresses, but none proved to be right. Rescuers finally found Thomas at an East 72nd Street residence, where she had been working as a housekeeper.

She was rushed to Lenox Hill Hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, according to the Post.

“Throughout the entirety, [Hilman-Payne] worked to keep the patient awake,

Read More »from EMT dispatcher helps find stroke victim during 8-hour call

Jayden Sink (Image courtesy Jon Sink)

A 5-year-old girl who set up a lemonade stand across the street from the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., on Friday raised more than $1,000 in the name of peace.

Jayden Sink, with more than a little help from her father, Jon, sold "Pink Lemonade for Peace" from her stand outside the Equality House, a rainbow-painted building across the street from the controversial church's headquarters on Friday. According to Jon, his daughter got more than $170 in cash and more than $10,000 in online donations through Crowdrise. The money went to Planting Peace, a nonprofit that owns the Equality House.

Supporters of the Westboro Baptist Church—which has become infamous for its homophobic protests at soldiers' funerals—reportedly hurled insults at the pair and their customers, including more than a dozen active soldiers from the nearby Fort Riley military base who arrived at the lemonade stand on motorcycles.

"They hung out for quite a while and definitely showed their support," Jon Sink

Read More »from 5-year-old girl takes on Westboro with lemonade stand

Quebec's government is calling for Montreal's interim mayor to step down after he was arrested and charged in connection to a massive corruption investigation.

Michael Applebaum was arrested and charged in connection with improper dealings between public officials and members of Quebec’s construction industry. He faces 14 charges including fraud, breach of trust, conspiracy and municipal corruption.

Jean-François Lisée, Quebec's minister responsible for Montreal, said after Applebaum was charged that he should step down and allow council to select an interim mayor.

There is some sense to that. After all, Applebaum was named interim mayor last November after his predecessor stepped down amid the early stages of corruption allegations.

[ Related: Montreal's interim mayor, a self-styled corruption fighter, faces fraud charges ]

Anti-corruption investigators said Applebaum’s arrest, and the arrest of two other public officials, came following a months-long investigation into two real estate Read More »from Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum, charged in corruption investigation, urged to step down

With the days getting longer and the temperatures climbing, there's a lot of cool science going on, from the motion of our planet around the sun to the effects of the tiniest bits of matter on the world around us.

Cool thing #1: Canadians are actually further away from the sun in summer than we are in winter

Just from common sense, everyone knows that if you want to be warmer, you need to get closer to a source of heat. However, in the case of our planet and its seasons, that isn't necessarily the case, and for anyone living north of the equator, it's exactly the opposite, in fact — when it's summer in the northern hemisphere, the Earth is actually around 5 million kilometres further away from the sun than it is in winter.

It's common to say that 'the Earth circles the sun', but in actual fact we 'ellipse' the sun... or in other words, our orbit is more egg-shaped (it's pretty exaggerated in the diagram, though). Right now, as we northerners approach the first day of summer, the planet is

Read More »from Summer science: ten cool things about feeling the heat

Yes, this seems like damage control, but it's a pretty classy move as well.

Justin Trudeau says that he will "make things right" with charity groups that hired him as speaker during his tenure as an MP either by refunding the money they paid him or by speaking for them again, at no charge.

Here are some excerpts from a statement the Liberal leader released on Sunday morning:

Political leadership is about raising the bar on openness and transparency. Canadians faith in public office holders and politics has been seriously shaken in recent weeks by the ethics scandal rooted in a $90,000 payment by the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff to a sitting legislator, and the continued secrecy of the Harper Conservatives

For me, transparency isn’t a slogan or a tactic; it’s a way of doing business. I trust Canadians. I value their opinions. And now that I’ve heard them, I’m going to act.

It is in this spirit that I have decided to reach out to all the organizations that hired me as a professional

Read More »from Justin Trudeau vows to 'make things right' with charities, evokes memory of his father on Father’s Day

In the not so distant past, it was a rite of passage for student in elementary school to sit through lessons on cursive writing, slowly learning how to shape connected-up letters in the hope of one day having legible penmanship.

But with the increased presence of keyboards everywhere, the days of cursive writing may be numbered and schools are seeing the writing on the wall.

As the end of cursive writing appears to be nigh, many parents and educators probably find themselves wondering: should we still be teaching cursive writing?

There are at least 45 U.S. states and two Canadian provinces (Ontario and Quebec) that have nixed cursive writing as an official part of the curriculum. Other provinces, like Nova Scotia, allow teachers to decide how often students need to practice their cursive. And why should it be part of the curriculum? With limited time to cram everything in from the curriculum as it is, cursive writing is just one more thing teachers have to help students with in light of

Read More »from Cursive writing facing extinction in face of technology

Father's Day is a time to reflect on everything your dad has done for you.

Like caring for you when you were young, bringing you on fishing trips or maybe to the movies, and trying out his favourite dance move at your birthday party while you hid under the table.

Dads might adopt our slang and provide us with enough embarrassing moments to fuel a blog post or several. But we love their goofy habits, especially when they're posted online.

This dad thought Justin Bieber music was worthy of his killer moves:

Few things exemplify a nerdy dad better than a fanny pack and sit-down dancing:

Actor Will Smith proved on live television that he's an embarrassing dad, but his explanation clearly justifies his behaviour. "You know, when you have kids and you love them and you're proud of them, you just want to kiss them on the mouth sometimes."

One dad from American Fork, Utah takes his embarrassment duties very seriously. He dressed up in a different costume every morning for several months to wave to

Read More »from Father’s Day: Wonderful, embarrassing dad moments

There are some special days coming up this summer: June 16 is Father's Day, July 1 is Canada Day and Sept. 2 is Labour Day.

Here's another one to add to your calendars, if you wish: June 28 is National Stop Harper Day.

On the 28th, a group of anti-Stephen Harper activists are planning a series of protests across the country.

[ More Politics: Charity wants Trudeau to return $20,000 he earned for speaking ]

A National Stop Harper Day Facebook page says that the demonstrations will call "for the removal of the Harper government and an election be called."

Across Canada concerns are growing over the Harper Government’s legitimacy to rule and the complete disregard for our democratic rights by this government.

So last year a few of us managed to create a National Stop Harper Day on Canada Day. Over 14 cities participated and it was a huge success despite the lack of media coverage.

We want to recreate that again this year - a second annual event.

The main event will be in Calgary, to coincide with

Read More »from #NationalStopHarperDay trends on Twitter