Ida Keeling has set a record as America’s oldest sprinter. The Bronx athlete started running when she was already a senior, at 67. Her training regimen includes lifting weights, riding a stationary bike, and running the halls of her apartment building at home.
“Sometimes, before I run, I feel like maybe I’m too tired,” Ida said.
But that doesn’t stop the 97-year-old from competing.
Watch Ida break the record for fastest 100 meter sprint in the 90-years-and-above age group.
A group of Irish travelers set out to see how far they could get without spending a cent — and you’d be amazed at how far they made it.
In an event known as the Trinity College Jailbreak, nearly 70 students from the Dublin University were given a day and a half to get as far away from the Irish capital as they could without spending any money.
Susanna Rohm noticed her 12-week-old infant had stopped breathing. Lucky for her, a 9-year-old boy and his friend were out playing in the street.
Scared and home alone, the Marietta, Georgia mother couldn’t remember how to give CPR. She jumped up and lost her cellphone in the commotion. There wasn’t a landline in the house, so she stepped outside screaming for someone to call 911.
Susanna Rohm noticed her 12-week-old infant had stopped breathing. Lucky for her, a 9-year-old boy and his friend were out playing in the street.
Scared and home alone, the Marietta, Georgia mother couldn’t remember how to give CPR. She jumped up and lost her cellphone in the commotion. There wasn’t a landline in the house, so she stepped outside screaming for someone to call 911.
A seasoned skydiver in Northern California was attempting a complex stunt after jumping from about 8,000 feet when both of his parachutes failed and he went into a three-minute spin, hitting the ground at 30 mph but surviving with minor injuries.
In video shot by his other teammate, Craig Stapleton, 51, is seen plummeting to earth in a “3-minute spin”. He lucked out by landing parallel to the road in a row of grapes, in freshly plowed dirt, which he said was “very soft.”
He will be skydiving again soon, he says, but doesn’t know if he will try any complicated stunts.
(WATCH the video below or READ the story from ABC News)
A seasoned skydiver in Northern California was attempting a complex stunt after jumping from about 8,000 feet when both of his parachutes failed and he went into a three-minute spin, hitting the ground at 30 mph but surviving with minor injuries.
In video shot by his other teammate, Craig Stapleton, 51, is seen plummeting to earth in a “3-minute spin”. He lucked out by landing parallel to the road in a row of grapes, in freshly plowed dirt, which he said was “very soft.”
Russell Brand has not used drugs for 10 years. He has a job, a house, a cat, good friends. But temptation is never far away. He wants to help other addicts, but first he wants us to feel compassion for those affected — like Amy Winehouse.
“It is my belief that if you regard alcoholics and drug addicts not as bad people but as sick people then we can help them to get better,” he wrote in the Guardian. “By we, I mean other people who have the same problem but have found a way to live drug-and-alcohol-free lives.”
This is the reason he started a fund within Comic Relief, called Give It Up — to raise awareness of, and money for, abstinence-based recovery.
Ellen was excited to surprise two of her favorite teachers with a huge gift from Skype. They teach in a Title 1 school, which means more than 50% of students qualify for free lunches.
The kids and their classrooms don’t have enough money for supplies and other basic needs, so teachers often end up paying out of their own pocket.
An anonymous customer at a pizza parlor in Wisconsin left a big tip for college bound employees last month.
According to Jane Schradle, owner of the Lake Country Pizza in Turtle Lake, a gentleman ordered a single order of spaghetti to take home on Feb. 10. While waiting for his order, the man questioned the purpose of the tip jar labeled “college fund.”
He asked how many of Lake Country employees attend college, the Turtle Lake Times reported.
Many 16-year-olds might ask for s smartphone, an Xbox, or even a new car.
But a foster care child like Ronald Hennig might just want a simple suit for wearing to a relative’s funeral.
Anonymous benefactors are stepping in to help kids like Hennig, using a website called One Simple Wish.
Danielle Gletow started the website to help grant the wishes of children in foster care — from tangible items such as a bicycle, a varsity jacket or school supplies to an experience like music lessons or a trip to the theater.
Since 2008, the nonprofit has granted more than 4,000 wishes for children living in 35 states.
(READ the story from CNN Heroes)
Vanderbilt University student Michael Pollack got the chance to ask a question at a college-hosted Billy Joel appearance. He told the ‘Piano Man’ that he had performed “New York State of Mind” with Joel’s saxophonist in the past and wondered if he could go onstage and play it with Joel himself.
Taken by surprise the celebrity could have easily demured, but he said, “Okay.”
The impressive performance was recorded on video and Pollack is now making the rounds on national media shows.
Vanderbilt University student Michael Pollack got the chance to ask a question at a college-hosted Billy Joel appearance. He told the ‘Piano Man’ that he had performed “New York State of Mind” with Joel’s saxophonist in the past and wondered if he could go onstage and play it with Joel himself.
Taken by surprise the celebrity could have easily demured, but he said, “Okay.”
The impressive performance was recorded on video and Pollack is now making the rounds on national media shows.
Thirteen years ago, Haley Whatley was a 5-year-old with a heart made for Easter. She started a Bunny Drive to benefit sick patients at the local children’s hospital. Every year since then Whatley collected plush bunnies and teddy bears for the kids. This year she broke her own record, collecting 3,767 stuffed animals.
This is her last year in Texas and the last year for her Bunny Drive, as she heads off to college in North Carolina in the fall. She exits a “Hometown Hero” having donated 28,772 cuddly toys.
Thirteen years ago, Haley Whatley was a 5-year-old with a heart made for Easter. She started a Bunny Drive to benefit sick patients at the local children’s hospital. Every year since then Whatley collected plush bunnies and teddy bears for the kids. This year she broke her own record, collecting 3,767 stuffed animals.
This is her last year in Texas and the last year for her Bunny Drive, as she heads off to college in North Carolina in the fall. She exits a “Hometown Hero” having donated 28,772 cuddly toys.
Mitch Seavey scored one for the senior crowd Tuesday night by becoming the oldest champion in Iditarod sled dog race history, finishing the 1,000-mile trek in nine days and seven hours.
The 53-year-old who won the race this year, is father to Dallas Seavey who last year became the youngest ever to win the race at age 25.
A rough, whitish block recovered from an Elizabethan shipwreck may be a sunstone, the fabled crystal believed by some to have helped Vikings and other medieval seafarers navigate the high seas, researchers say.
In a paper published earlier last week, a Franco-British group argued that the Alderney Crystal – a chunk of Icelandic calcite found amid a 16th century wreck at the bottom of the English Channel – worked as a kind of solar compass, allowing sailors to determine the position of the sun even when it was hidden by heavy cloud, masked by fog, or below the horizon.
Former President Clinton praised Haiti’s economic potential while touring new agricultural plants that produce coffee and Heineken beer.
He also announced Monday that his Clinton Foundation is donating $700,000 that will go toward efforts to plant trees, build a coffee farm and train farmers.
Mr. Clinton gave tours to other potential investors including restauranteur Mario Batali and representatives from a perfume company and a lingerie company.
A four-month-long walk on the ancient Santiago de Compostela offers young offenders a different pathway — a route to redemption.
Since 1982 more than 350 teenagers have walked the 2,496 kilometers along one of Christianity’s most important pilgrimages.
At the end of the self-reflective journey through Spain lies not only the tomb of St James, but also their own freedom.
“The whole idea is that we give youngsters a different role in society from the one they know,” says Sophie Boddez, one of the Oikoten project managers.
(READ the story in the New Internationalist magazine from July 2012)
A decree recently signed by the Turkmen President ordered government ministries to plant 3 million trees in 2013 with the aim of transforming the desert Central Asian nation into a “blooming garden”.
Media reports said 465,000 public-sector employees, including those working at schools and universities in the country, took shovels in hand on March 10 and spent the day planting 755,000 trees.
Aimed at combating the country’s creeping desertification, Project “Green Belt” has been ongoing since 1999, when first initiated by a former president.
According to the new plan, 1.5 million saplings would be planted in the capital Ashgabat and its surroundings and another 1.5 million in different areas of the vast state. Local authorities have been tasked with ensuring the trees are properly watered through irrigation canals.
According to Mustafa Bilgin, the owner of a Turkish company that is one of the main providers of the trees, the total cost of the initiative would total at least $39 million.
(READ more at the Global Post)
An international conference voted on Monday to ban trade in some shark species whose populations have fallen to crisis levels due in part to demand from China, the world’s biggest consumer of shark fin soup.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) agreed to ban international trade in several species of sharks unless those shipments are accompanied by documentation showing they were caught legally.
