Recreation

Largest Cut Emerald In North America Found on North Carolina Farm

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:02:16 GMT

An emerald so large it's being compared with the crown jewels of Russian empress Catherine the Great was pulled from a pit near corn rows at a North Carolina farm.

The nearly 65-carat emerald, named the Carolina Emperor, was pulled from a farm once so well known among treasure hunters that the owners charged $3 a day to shovel for small samples

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Sandra Bullock Opens A Clinic For New Orleans

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:18:14 GMT

Five years after Hurricane Katrina, Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock returned to the New Orleans high school she helped rebuild for the opening of an on-campus health clinic.

Warren Easton Charter High School officials joined Bullock in cutting the ribbon on the $700,000 facility Sunday.
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Brad Pitt Shows off His Flood Resistant Green Homes for Low-Income New Orleans Residents

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 14:14:58 GMT
Brad Pitt was interviewed for Meet The Press on this anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and gave a tour of the new homes built by his Make It Right Foundation.

Residents living in these affordable, sustainable homes now pay nothing for electricity because the homes make more energy than they use.

Another special
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Angelina Jolie Donates $100,000 to Help Victims of the Pakistan Floods

Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:01:56 GMT

Understanding that many people are suffering from "compassion fatigue," Angelina Jolie stepped forward on Monday to donate $100,000 to efforts to help the victims of the floods in Pakistan.

While promoting her spy thriller "Salt" in London, Jolie told the Washington Post that she understands "it is getting hard for people they see Haiti, they see these other events
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Ailing Dad Finally Sees Son Play

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:29:40 GMT

You might have considered Wednesday night's Major League Baseball game between the Florida Marlins and New York Mets to be just another game, but it meant everythingto Marlins outfielder Logan Morrison and his dad, Tom.

Tom, you see, has been battling inoperable lung cancer. When the 51-year-old non-smoker was diagnosed, his first question to his doctor was whether he'd live long enough to see his son
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Rapper DMC Co-Founds Camp for Foster Kids in Need

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:32:00 GMT

Rap pioneer, Darryl "D.M.C." McDaniels, better known as one of the founding members of Run-D.M.C., is all about giving back. The 46-year-old recently co-founded Camp Felix a summer camp intended to provide a getaway for foster kids in upstate New York. With 171 campers from New York City currently attending, the camp has become a beacon for kids looking to establish a
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Top Videos: Man Makes Giant Bubbles Float Above the Beach

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:13:40 GMT

Bubble-smith Sterling Johnson makes floating giants across Stinson Beach accompanied by music from incompetech.com...

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Stand Up for the Gulf: Jay Leno to Perform Benefit for Oil Spill Victims

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 07:18:46 GMT

Tonight Show host Jay Leno will perform a benefit Saturday night for Mississippians impacted by the Gulf oil spill.

Proceeds from ticket sales will go to the Gulf Coast Community Foundation's Mississippi Oil Spill Recovery Fund, established to support non-profits working to help the state's fishermen, coastal communities and wildlife impacted by the disaster.

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US National Parks Offer Free Admission This Weekend

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 11:29:45 GMT
Today and tomorrow, as part of its ongoing effort to give families a break during economic hard times, the federal government will waive its national park entrance fees at 146 National Park Service sites that normally charge $3 to $25 for admission. (Another 246 national parks, landmarks, and historic sites are always free.)

Entrance fees were already waived during two stints earlier this year,
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‘Heart of Jenin’ Documentary Good for Palestinian Hearts

Sun, 08 Aug 2010 07:10:39 GMT
The opening of a new movie theater may not sound like a big deal. But for Palestinians in the West Bank city of Jenin, it’s something to celebrate.

And one documentary playing there is especially salient. It features the father of a Palestinian boy shot by Israeli soldiers who made his organs available to Arab and Jewish kids.

(LISTEN to the
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Bruce Springsteen Donates $50,000 To Help Feed The Hungry And Unemployed

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 11:22:02 GMT

The tab for dinner is on Bruce Springsteen for fifteen hundred struggling South Carolina families, thanks to new mobile food pantries, funded in part by a $50,000 donation from the Boss.

Beginning Tuesday, the five pantries-on-wheels began delivery of 75,000 pounds of groceries to residents of Fort Mill, S.C., a once a thriving mill town that today suffers with a 14 percent unemployment
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Homeboy Nolan Ryan Wins Auction For Texas Rangers

Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:00:21 GMT
Former all-star Texas baseball pitcher Nolan Ryan will be leading the state's beloved team, the Rangers, for years to come, now that an investment group led by the Hall of Fame hurler won a contentious auction for the team last night, "beating back a nearly $600 million offer from outspoken Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban".

Officials in federal
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More People Getting DVDs From Library Than From Netflix

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:44:14 GMT
A new study claims that more DVDs are borrowed from libraries each day than are rented via Netflix, Redbox or Blockbuster.

According to the survey released by the Online Computer Library Center, public libraries in the U.S. lend an average 2.1 million videos/day, which edges out the 2 million discs shipped by Netflix...

Another recent report says that libraries have doubled the size
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Smashing Pumpkins Benefit Concert Raises 80K for Good Samaritan Musician

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 15:04:47 GMT

Last week, Chicago's own Smashing Pumpkins played a benefit concert to raise money to pay the hospital bills for a local musician who was badly beaten after he stepped in to help a woman fighting off an attack by her husband. Matthew Leone was rushed to the hospital in June after incurring broken bones and head trauma when he heroically intervened in
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Top Videos: Artist Creates Own Grand Version of Big Bang Theory

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:58:30 GMT

A fantastic one-year effort by wall-painting artist, Blu, resulted in this unique stop-motion film entitled, Big, Bang, Boom.

The video is directed and animated by BLU, produced and distributed by ARTSH.it (send you enquiries there), with a soundtrack by ANDREA MARTIGNONI.

Visit Blublu.org for more... Watch a larger screen shot of this video at Vimeo, here.

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Ship Made of Plastic Bottles Completes Epic Pacific Voyage

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 08:51:14 GMT

After 130 days and 8000 nautical miles, a boat crafted from thousands of plastic bottles sailed into Sydney Harbor on Monday, completing an epic trans-Pacific voyage to highlight the benefits of recycling.

The "Plastiki" catamaran, made from 12,500 bottles and the brainchild of an heir to Britain's Rothschild banking fortune, was greeted by hundreds of well-wishers as it ended its
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Fans Pining for Old Tiger Stadium Weed the Grounds in Memory

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 11:16:23 GMT

A few nostalgic baseball fans make weekly pilgrimages to the place where their beloved Tiger Stadium once stood in Detroit, to weed and clean up the grassy field that remains.

"He's doing what the city couldn't do. He's getting done what the city couldn't get done, and it's really encouraging. I mean, talk about power to the people. It's really amazing to see
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Millions Turn Out for Party on German Autobahn Highway

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 13:57:06 GMT

An estimated three million people turned out for a celebration on the super highway in western Germany where cars were forbidden Sunday. Bicycles and roller blades glided along the famed Autobahn between Dortmund and Duisburg with dancing and music along the way.

Germany's Ruhr region was named this year's European Capital of Culture, which entails a year's worth of celebration and
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Humble South African Golfer Comes Out of Nowhere to Win British Open on Mandela's Bday

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:16:08 GMT

South Africa's Louis Oosthuizen, who had missed the cut in all his three previous Opens and was a 250-1 outsider before the tournament started, won the British Open Sunday on the 92nd anniversary of Nelson Mandela's birth.

Receiving thunderous applause, Oosthuizen crushed the world's best golfers by seven strokes to delight the crowd on the ninth green in
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Lebron James Publicity Stunt Earns $2.5 Million for Boys and Girls Clubs

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:54:09 GMT

Two recent sporting events have netted the Boys and Girls Club of America around $3 million dollars thanks to the attractive power of great athletes.

People may complain about the excess hubris surrounding the Lebron James announcement last week when the basketball star created a torrent of media buzz around which city he would choose to play for next year. The
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