Last summer in Timbuktu, an irreplaceable trove of manuscripts at risk of being destroyed by fundamentalist Islamic rebels, was secretly evacuated at great personal risk by a team of archivists, librarians, and couriers.
The manuscripts were saved from immediate destruction, but today they are still jam packed in footlockers used for their evacuation, while enduring higher humidity than ever before without archival protection. Already, some mildew is forming inside the containers.
Now, an internet campaign launched to fund the purchase of archival bags and boxes to protect these documents of immense global heritage has engaged people around the globe.
Handing down a 5-3 decision today, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Federal Trade Commission can challenge closed-door deals that the big pharmaceutical companies make with smaller generic rivals to keep cheaper products off the market and out of drug stores.
In honor of Father’s Day, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s newest inductee, Quincy Jones, is lending his talent and support to the Prostate Cancer Foundation for a new awareness campaign that will be broadcast in Major League Baseball ballparks throughout June.
With the help of his daughter, actress Rashida Jones (Parks and Rec), the new print, video and radio ads urge men to “Cherish Life’s Special Moments,” and talk to their doctors about prostate screenings. Prostate cancer is the second most common cause of cancer death for men in the U.S., with a death every 16 minutes.
Quincy Jones has enjoyed one of the longest, most successful careers in popular music as a record producer, conductor, arranger, composer, television producer, and trumpeter. As influential to jazz music as to pop, he has been nominated for a record 79 Grammys – and won 27.
“Prostate cancer has affected dear friends and family of mine,” said Jones, “So I am honored to be part of this campaign with Stand Up To Cancer and the Prostate Cancer Foundation to reinforce how incredibly important it is for men to talk to their doctors about prostate cancer.”
“I was excited to shoot this PSA with my father,” said Rashida Jones who currently appears on the hit NBC sitcom, Parks and Recreation. “We have to protect the men we cherish, so please talk to your fathers, your grandfathers, husbands, brothers and sons and make sure they speak to their doctors about this disease and how to reduce their risk.”
This year’s campaign builds on an 18-year tradition with Major League Baseball through an annual Home Run Challenge for Father’s Day. “There are over 2.5 million American men who are surviving prostate cancer this Father’s Day,” said Jonathan W. Simons, MD, president and CEO of the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
“Men are 40 percent less likely than women to have visited a healthcare provider in the past year. But talking to one’s doctor about prostate cancer is critically important,” said the president and CEO of Stand Up To Cancer (SU2C), Sung Poblete, PhD, RN.
To date, SU2C and the Prostate Cancer Foundation have collaborated to fund two Prostate Cancer research Dream Teams, each receiving $10 million over a three-year period. The first SU2C-PCF Prostate Cancer Dream Team is addressing therapeutic interventions for advanced prostate cancer with special emphasis on metastatic disease and delivering near-term patient benefit. The second SU2C-PCF Prostate Cancer Dream Team, also formed in 2012, is targeting adaptive pathways in metastatic treatment-resistant prostate cancer using scientists representing six world-class institutions.
Born in Nepal, but moved to Wisconsin in 2000 to attend the University in Whitewater, Ojash Shrestha found his true calling when he returned home 8 years later to be married.
While staying in his parents’ house, he met a young girl around 12 years-old who worked as a maid there because her family could not support her or afford to send her to school.
At that moment, Ojash realized how different her fate might be if she had the same opportunities as he had for education while growing up. When he was a child, he was going to school, playing with his friends, and sitting down with his family for dinner.
After returning to the U.S. he was happily married with wonderful memories of home, but could not erase the girl’s face from his memory. Her name was Rita and her salary was a mere $7 for a month of work.
On the bright side, he thought, she is in a safe place, she has enough food to eat, and is helping her family with financial support. Thousands of families like hers live on an annual average income of $473 and never dream of having the money to send their children to school.
Realizing how important education had been to his own success, Ojash decided to help change the fate of children like Rita. Together with family members and friends, he sponsored the schooling of not one, but five children in 2009 – providing tuition, books, supplies, and uniforms for the children.
The hunger for helping these children and their families grew until Ojash established a non-profit organization called Ganga Ghar, “mother’s house”, inspired by the moment he met Rita, and the holy River Ganga in Nepal.
Today, with a small dedicated band of volunteers in the U.S. and Nepal, Ganga Ghar sponsors education for more than 100 children, improves struggling schools by installing computer labs, fans, and more classrooms, and launching an entrepreneurship program for women in a remote village.
(WATCH what they did just during the Christmas holiday and visit the fantastic website to learn more: www.gangaghar.org)
After Jennifer’s husband left for an eight-month deployment, their beloved 11-year-old dog was diagnosed with a cancerous tumor.
“We were devastated,” she wrote on YouTube. “Kermie was our first child, and we did not think Eric would ever get to see her again.”
But Kermie continued to surpass the vet’s estimate for survival and as his deployment drew to a close, hopes for a never-expected reunion began to seem possible.
If you missed our story in February, you need to meet Albert Lexie, 71. He is a shoeshine man. It is the only job he has ever had.
Despite his station in life, the man is a high-roller when it comes to philanthropy.
For more than thirty years, Albert has taken every dime of his tip money from shining shoes and donated it to Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh – more than $200,659 and counting.
The Greek yogurt boom in New York is being harnessed to make electricity.
More Greek yogurt production has meant more whey, a watery byproduct from the process. Yogurt makers commonly ship it back to farms for use as feed and fertilizer, but it’s also is being used to generate power in several places.
Philadelphia’s mural art project has changed the face of the city from grim and gloomy to colorful, cultural and spirited.
As a bonus, the kids who have joined the program to paint the run-down walls of urban buildings racked up a 100% record of graduating from high school.
The program has launched the careers of some artists who have returned to teach the craft to other kids.
While sailing off Newport Beach, California, James Gilkinson and his niece got the surprise of a lifetime when a sea lion cub jumped onto their boat.
The young mammal seemed tired but also became quite affectionate, rubbing against the captain and angling for pats on the head for an hour or more. When they neared the port the man just stood up and said, ‘It’s time,” and into the water it flopped.
A creative surgeon turned to a common household substance to block the bleeding in a newborn’s brain last Wednesday.
When the 3-week old baby was rushed to the hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, a team of doctors discovered an an aneurysm that was hemorrhaging — a diagnosis so rare that the tiny surgical tools necessary for the job were unavailable.
So the surgeons chose the next best thing to plug the bleeding — super glue.
13-year-old Nick LeGrande has always dreamed of throwing out the first pitch at an Oakland Athletics baseball game. Wednesday night, with a life-threatening illness and too sick to take the mound, Nick was granted his wish through the use of Android technology and the kindness of Google.
The cross-country pitch in Kansas City was made possible by a telerobotic pitching machine that received signals from Nick’s own pitching motion. Nick viewed a big screen that televised the field and the catcher who was waiting at the plate for the robotic toss.
When a new neighbor moved in and began writing messages on a chalkboard in his front window, life changed on Atlas Ave.
Aimed randomly at people using the sidewalk, his funny and inspiring messages about happiness, or finding a wife, have made Ayden Byle, 36, the toast of his Toronto neighborhood.
“It’s not too late to be a ROCK STAR!” is one of his folksy chalk-isms.
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Thursday that human genes cannot be patented, a decision that could shape the future of medical and genetic research and have profound effects on pharmaceuticals and agriculture.
Simply because Myriad Genetics Inc. found the location of genes that were linked to breast and ovarian cancer, wrote Justice Clarence Thomas, doesn’t mean they should be able to claim patents on them.
“That discovery, by itself, does not render the BRCA genes . . . patent eligible.”
After celebrity stylist Loius Licari scans the crowd outside the TODAY show at Rockefeller Plaza, he chooses two women who want — and sometimes desperately need — a makeover.
When the hosts, Kathie Lee and Hoda, finally unveil the women and their stylish new looks, friends and families always gasp in shock over the transformations. Many times, the new haircut literally strips decades from the women’s faces.
Jonathan Allen stunned the crowd after taking the stage in America’s Got Talent. His back story already brought tears to the eyes of a wider television viewing audience, but when he opened his mouth, he amazed the judges with a stunning rendition of Luciano Pavarotti‘s ”Time To Say Goodbye.”
He received a standing ovation from all four judges, with Howie Mandel commenting that he had earned a much bigger family after displaying his talent and heart.
Nobody expected to find Cutie alive, that much is certain.
But there the little, black-and-white dog was, trapped under the bow of the overturned boat she had been riding in four days earlier when it flipped in the upper Chena River and was swept downstream by the strong current.
Oprah Winfrey is donating $12 million to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture — the museum’s largest donation to date. In recognition, Winfrey’s name will be on a 350-seat theater in the museum, which is currently under construction and set to open in 2015.
“I am so proud of African American history and its contributions to our nation as a whole,” said Winfrey, who has been a member of the museum’s advisory council since 2004. “I am deeply appreciative of those who paved the path for me and all who follow in their footsteps.”
Remember the World’s Best Wedding Photo we saw last month that had dinosaurs in the background? Another creative wedding photographer, this time in Toronto, has borrowed the idea to serve up a Star Wars theme via Photoshop for the bride and groom.
“There was a shot floating around the internet last week of a bridal party being chased by a dinosaur,” wrote the photographer on their blog. “Because Leslie (and us) are huge Star Wars nerds! We couldn’t resist their bridal party getting chased by a squad of Imperial AT-AT Walkers!”
Last summer in Timbuktu, an irreplaceable trove of manuscripts at risk of being destroyed by fundamentalist Islamic rebels, was secretly evacuated at great personal risk by a team of archivists, librarians, and couriers.
The hunger for helping these children and their families grew until Ojash established a non-profit organization called Ganga Ghar, “mother’s house”, inspired by the moment he met Rita, and the holy River Ganga in Nepal.
