Animals too need their mothers

And we have no compunction in taking away the mothers of baby elephants merely to satisfy our insatiable greed.

It's traumatic for these elephant babies. Yet, despite this, elephant orphans try to rebuild their lives. They cope with their situation in many ways. They devise their own social strategy to help them to become part of a group - part of a family, for they need someone to teach them life skills. It is essential for them to be part of a support group, or else they just fade away.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20141125-how-elephant-orphans-cope-alone

A hug can change the world

A 12-year-old black boy, tears streaming down his face, and a white police officer embrace in the middle of a Ferguson-related demonstration in Portland, Oregon.

All it needs is understanding, a reaching out, and a hug....

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/11/29/living/ferguson-protest-hug/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

Tough convict to super chef

Singaporean chef Benny Se Teo spent more than a decade of his young life in and out of prison for drug-related offences and rehabilitation centres because of a heroin addiction.

Beneath his tough exterior is someone who has managed to become one of the city-state's most inspiring and successful entrepreneurs.

Today, he runs Eighteen Chefs, a restaurant chain that hires ex-offenders and troubled youths, and turns over $10m (£6.4m) a year. His five restaurants employ about 140 people, nearly half of whom had difficult pasts.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-30077649

Tribute to a doorman

18-year-old Kottarappu Chattu Kuttan crossed to what was then Ceylon by boat from Kerala in 1938. He started working as a domestic servant, and then joined the Galle Face in 1942. Though he retired as a waiter in the 1980s, he was kept on at the front entrance, where he "found his true calling."

"Emperor Hirohito, Richard Nixon, Sir Laurence Olivier and George Bernard Shaw came and stayed with us," he told Agence France-Presse in 2010. He also met Lord Mountbatten and Jawaharlal Nehru, the then Princess Elizabeth, and the Bond girl, Ursula Andress. And he saw a Japanese fighter-plane crash-land in the grounds during World War Two.

The hotel held a minute's silence as a tribute to Mr Kuttan.

What a life!!

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-30104851

From banks to pubs

Many can't remember the last time they actually went into a bank. They can however remember the last time they went for a pint and it turns out the pub they were in just might have been a bank.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/29801667

There's only one kind of music

Good music.

Esteemed rock and pop critic Paul Morley makes an unexpected and revelatory case for classical music's futuristic credentials:  ‘Pop belongs to the last century, classical music is much more relevant to the future.'

But, it's not about music being pop or classical. There will always be good music - could be pop, could be classical...It has to vibrate with your heart and soul, and it has to make you come alive.

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20141006-does-pop-belong-to-the-past