Blog Posts by Nadine Kalinauskas

On Sunday, November 4, Zac Vawter, 31, became the first person to ever climb 103 floors of Chicago's iconic Willis Tower wearing a bionic prosthetic limb.

He finished the climb in about 45 minutes.

Vawter, who lost his right leg in a motorcycle accident, wore a mind-controlled motorized prosthetic leg "designed to respond to electrical impulses from muscles in his hamstring" for the record-breaking climb the Associated Press reports.

"The hardware is amazing, it's there, it is something exciting and fun and I hope we push the boundaries of the research and the leg are capable of," Vawter told CNN.

"Tiny blue lights blinked beneath Vawter's white shorts, and as the leg moved, it made a crunching sound that brought to mind the movie superhero Iron Man," the Chicago Sun-Times describes the bionic leg in action.

Nearly 3,000 climbers participated in SkyRise Chicago, the annual charity event to raise money for the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. The institute used Vawter's climb as a

Read More »from Zac Vawter climbs 103 floors of Chicago’s Willis Tower with bionic leg

The Obama Cafe opened on Toronto's Danforth Avenue on President Barack Obama's inauguration day in January, 2009, and became "an instant media darling."

Four years later, Emmanuel Debass, founder of the tiny coffee shop in the city's east end, is hoping Obama will win another term.

Debass, who was born in Ethiopia but has called Canada home for more than 30 years, told the Toronto Star of how he got swept up in Obama's campaign:

"He was talking about bringing America together. He seemed to be this great role model for young black people," he said.

"Owner Emmanuel Debass came up with the idea for the café post-election, so he had to act quickly in order to have the sign up before the inauguration in January. He managed to just make it, attracting hoards of both TV and print media, but he had to conduct all the interviews on the sidewalk (the actual café didn't even have tables or chairs then)," the Torontoist's Kaori Furue wrote of the cafe's speedy opening.

Debass claims that business

Read More »from Obama Cafe in Toronto hopes for second term for its namesake

Cuteness alert.

In 2012, seven giant panda cubs were born at the Chengdu Panda Base in Chengdu, China's Sichuan province.

The "cutest panda photo ever" of the seven adorable cubs, named Oreo, Xiao Qiao, Si Yi, Yuan Run, Miao Miao and twins Cheng Shuang and Cheng Dui, napping together is melting hearts worldwide.

"Pambassador finalist Melissa Katz from the U.S. formally announced the new additions today in Chengdu and all the cubs are in good health and were photographed together for the first time," Alejandro Grau, a spokesperson for the reserve, told Discovery News of the baby boom.

Earlier in the year, the Chengdu Panda Base announced its search for thee "Pambassadors," a dream job for panda-lovers that involves a year-long Global Panda Conservation Tour.

"I'm very excited to announce this big news, and with my fellow pambassador finalist friends be the first people to photograph all these babies together," Katz, a field hockey coach from Tinton Falls, N.J., said in a press release.

Read More »from Seven giant panda cubs steal hearts

Lucy Walkowiak, 11, of Sandy-stricken Hoboken, New Jersey, is finding a way to help others in need.

The young girl and her father, Steve, opened a pop-up internet cafe and charging station on one of the few blocks with power to help give their still-in-the-dark neighbours access to the internet and the ability to charge their phones.

In return, Lucy asks for a small donation to the Red Cross.

Steve insists the initiative was all his daughter's idea:

"Lucy does a lot of community service through her school, so this is on par with what she's been learning," he told PhillyMag.com.

Lucy's good deed makes her just one of the many local heroes helping out their battery-dead neighbours during Sandy's aftermath.

Redditor RuffDesperado uploaded a photo of a good Samaritan's makeshift charging station outside his home that welcomes strangers to plug in their gadgets as they await their power to return.

The Occupy Sandy Relief NYC campaign started an OWS bike generator service "to charge

Read More »from 11-year-old New Jersey girl opens pop-up Internet cafe to benefit Red Cross

Reddit may get its share of bad press — troll Violentacrez certainly didn't help — but it also celebrates good news, sweet moments and random acts of kindness. It has even become a place for the online community to rally together to help others.

Earlier this week, Reddit user womp0982 posted a photo of a typed note left on a truck:

"You do not know me but I saw that you needed some tires for your truck and I wanted to do something nice for a stranger because one day a stranger did something nice for me. The receipt is in the envelope and all you have to do is go by Warehouse Tire on 3rd Street and ask for Steven Hodges and they will be put on for free. All I ask is that one day you do something nice for a complete stranger," the note read.

After some Redditors expressed cynicism about the note — User AlexanderMoore2 immediately called the note a fake — Huffington Post determined that the note was, in fact, the real deal.

"[A] call to Warehouse Tire & Battery Sales revealed there indeed

Read More »from Good Samaritan ‘pays it forward’ and buys stranger new tires

A kind-hearded businessman wrote a generous cheque to fundraisers at a rugby match in Wales — and almost immediately changed a little girl's life.

Three-year-old Ellie Jury was born with Spastic Diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy that makes her walk on tiptoes.

At an international rugby match in Cardiff, Wales, family and friends collected loose change from attendees to help raise the £40,000 ($64,500 CAD) needed to send her to a clinic in Missouri where she could get a life-changing operation that involved cutting the rogue nerves from her spine. The amount would also cover physiotherapy costs.

"It is the only procedure that can provide an end to what Ellie has to endure," Ellie's mother, Lucy Fudge, told Wales Online last year. "Having this operation will also lead to Ellie having less complications as she gets older."

Her family feared it would take more than a year to raise the needed funds.

Conor McCloskey stopped by the fundraisers' charity bucket and asked them how short they

Read More »from Businessman donates $34k to help 3-year-old girl get life-changing operation

Evan Rapp, 7, is being hailed a hero in Chilliwack, B.C., for saving his grandfather's life.

Evan's grandfather, George Epp, 67, was driving Evan to a soccer game when he suddenly felt faint. Epp pulled over, shaking and sweating before losing consciousness.

"He was laying on his side and his false teeth fell out, and it looked like grandpa fell asleep, or that he was joking," said Evan's father, Brian Rapp.

Fast-acting Evan remained calm and grabbed his grandfather's cellphone — he quickly figured out that the password-protected phone could be unlocked for emergency calls — and called 911.

He told the 911 operator where they by spelling out street signs and identifying nearby landmarks. Those details helped a police officer arrive on the scene before an ambulance got there.

Epp blacked out in severe pain because of a broken back, Rapp said of his father-in-law's condition. Epp remains in hospital where he's recovering under observation.

"It was pretty emotional to listen to," Rapp

Read More »from 7-year-old British Columbia boy Evan Rapp saves grandfather’s life

In 1944, Thomas Beck, 15, escaped a Nazi juvenile concentration camp in Budapest. He left behind his 14-year-old sweetheart, Edith Greiman.

"We were both very sad and depressed, separated from family, separated from everyone. We found solace in each other and I fell in love with her," Beck told J-Wire.

Sixty-two years later, Beck found Greiman in Australia. The reunited love birds now live together in St Kilda East, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia.

Beck was working on a documentary about his experience on the Eastern Front four years ago, when he learned that his childhood love had survived the Holocaust. She was living just 300 km away from Beck's son.

Beck and Greiman quickly connected over email. It wasn't long before they realized they'd been given a second chance at love.

The documentary eventually shifted its focus to Beck and Greiman's story.

"The film started as 'the one that got away' but turned into 'the two that got caught,'" Beck joked.

"We are together again four years

Read More »from Childhood sweethearts, separated by WWII, reunited after 60 years