17 year-old swimmer Missy Franklin is being called the new Michael Phelps, after winning four gold medals and a bronze in London and competing in almost every different stroke.
While training overseas, she heard about the tragic shooting at a Batman movie premiere in her hometown of Aurora, Colorado.
She vowed to do all she could to inspire her neighbors and friends back home, and her performance last week proves she delivered.
Facing unfavorable odds, the U.S. scored a huge victory, sticking a landing on the surface of Mars early Monday, setting down the largest and most sophisticated mobile laboratory ever deployed, which is now beaming back photos of the red planet.
NASA ground control engineers flew into a frenzy of high-fives, hugs and cheers after NASA’s Curiosity rover survived a perilous seven-minute plunge to the surface of the red planet.
After eight months traveling millions of miles, NASA’s largest and most complex rover ever will attempt a difficult and complicated Mars landing tonight, August 5.
The landing—or the crash—should be confirmed by about at 10:31 PDT (that’s 1:31 EDT on August 6). Here’s what you may want to know about this venture.
The rover, named “Curiosity,” and its spacecraft will plummet into the Martian atmosphere at 13,000 mph, then use a huge parachute to slow its decent to about 200 mph.
Kim Hartke, who served 14 months in jail for stealing a car to pay for her addiction, turned her life around in part because of financing provided to a social services program from an innovative type of bond.
The bonds are part of a new trend in social investing that is gaining some favor with cash-strapped states and communities that are looking to private investors to help pay for badly needed social services programs.
Belarus’ authoritarian President Lukashenko has sacked two of the nation’s top defense officials after two Swedish advertising agency employees piloted a light plane into the country’s heavily guarded airspace, dropping 879 teddy bears decked out in parachutes and slogans supporting human rights.
Following the incident, Belarus (also known as the last dictatorship in Europe) denied the flight took place but then jailed a journalist for posting a photo of the bears on the internet.
Three independent studies have now shown that our understanding of the physical makeup of cancer tumors has been based on a myth.
The conventional view of cancer is that it results from genetic mutations within ordinary cells that cause them to divide uncontrollably into a tumour that can then spread to other parts of the body. This suggests all cancer cells are created equal.
But, a portion of the cells are now seen to be “cancer stem cells” which are responsible for causing a tumor to grow and develop. Treatments, therefore, can be focused on killing these cells rather than targeting the wider community of tumor cells.
(READ the story in the Independent) – Photo by Ed Uthman, CC license on Flickr
Belarus’ authoritarian President Lukashenko has sacked two of the nation’s top defense officials after two Swedish advertising agency employees piloted a light plane into the country’s heavily guarded airspace, dropping 879 teddy bears decked out in parachutes and slogans supporting human rights.
Following the incident, Belarus (also known as the last dictatorship in Europe) denied the flight took place but then jailed a journalist for posting a photo of the bears on the internet.
A University of Washington researcher listened to the audio picked up by a recording device that spent a year in the icy waters off the east coast of Greenland. She was stunned at what she heard: whales singing nearly constantly for five months using the most remarkable variety of songs.
In 2008, oceanographer Kate Stafford set out to discover how many endangered bowhead whales populated the area. The species was hunted to near-extinction in the 1800’s.
A University of Washington researcher listened to the audio picked up by a recording device that spent a year in the icy waters off the east coast of Greenland. She was stunned at what she heard: whales singing nearly constantly for five months using the most remarkable variety of songs.
In 2008, oceanographer Kate Stafford set out to discover how many endangered bowhead whales populated the area. The species was hunted to near-extinction in the 1800’s.
if you are watching too much “news” in America these days, you’re not hearing the truth about the economy as much as political messaging and strategy. The truth is, the U.S. still has the strongest economy on the planet. We should be touting that.
America’s performance should be measured against the current competition, not against the records it set in the 1990s or 2000s. Everything is relative to expectations, even global economic competition. These days, the United States is an underestimated underdog, while China is still widely seen as a dominant sprinter, even though it is carrying a worse burden in terms of national debt.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy use in the first quarter of this year fell to their lowest level in the US in 20 years, as demand shifted to natural gas-fired generation and away from coal-fired electricity due to record low gas prices, the energy department said.
The nation’s carbon emissions fell 8 percent from the same period a year ago.
Greenland’s ice seems less vulnerable than feared to a runaway melt that would drive up world sea levels, according to a study showing that a surge of ice loss had petered out.
The discovery of fluctuations casts doubt on projections that Greenland could be headed for an unstoppable meltdown, triggered by manmade global warming.
A unique, not-for-profit business school in South Africa recently held its fifth graduation ceremony. Their students are not required to pay for their education monetarily, but rather to ‘Pay it Forward’ by transferring the knowledge, skills, and resources into their communities.
Since its first classes in 2004, 760 students have been awarded full scholarships to the private Tertiary School in Business Administration who would otherwise be unable to access higher education. The accredited school’s goal is to ignite student opportunities to enlighten the world as leaders and entrepreneurs. It has produced four Mandela Rhodes scholars, awarded to African students who display academic excellence and broad leadership potential.
A unique, not-for-profit business school in South Africa recently held its fifth graduation ceremony. Their students are not required to pay for their education monetarily, but rather to ‘Pay it Forward’ by transferring the knowledge, skills, and resources into their communities.
Since its first classes in 2004, 760 students have been awarded full scholarships to the private Tertiary School in Business Administration who would otherwise be unable to access higher education. The accredited school’s goal is to ignite student opportunities to enlighten the world as leaders and entrepreneurs. It has produced four Mandela Rhodes scholars, awarded to African students who display academic excellence and broad leadership potential.
Last Saturday a 22 year-old woman performed ‘the impossible’ when she found her father unconscious having been crushed by his car which slipped off its jack.
The former basketball player managed to pick up the BMW weighing a ton and a half and shove it away from her father’s body. When she discovered he was not breathing, her skills as a former lifeguard kicked in and she brought his limp body back to life.
“I just lifted up kind of right here and just kind of threw it, shoved my body as hard as I could then I came back and dragged him out and started CPR,” Lauren said. “It flashed like, I’m going to lose my dad.”
(WATCH the video below or read the story in WWBT)
Last Saturday a 22 year-old woman performed ‘the impossible’ when she found her father unconscious having been crushed by his car which slipped off its jack.
The former basketball player managed to pick up the BMW weighing a ton and a half and shove it away from her father’s body. When she discovered he was not breathing, her skills as a former lifeguard kicked in and she brought his limp body back to life.
Doomsday watchers of the US economy did not get the depressing monthly jobs number they were perhaps hoping for. The country’s private sector businesses added 172,000 jobs in July, the most in five months, the US Labor Department reported this morning.
That is well above the forecast of 100,000 that most economists had predicted.
Manufacturing was one of the bright spots, adding 25,000 jobs.
A Stradivarius violin – possibly worth several million dollars – has been handed in to a lost-and-found office in Switzerland office after a hapless musician left it on a train.
The owner had lent the precious instrument to a musician friend who took it on a train on Friday but forgot it when he got off at Bern, police said.
This is the third time in four years that a musician’s priceless Stradivarius was returned by kind strangers. Two cabbies from Newark and New York City were each hailed for their honesty toward forgetful musicians in 2008 and 2009.
(READ the story in the Telegraph)
Half Million Dollar Violin Left in Taxi, Returned to Owner (2009)
Violinist Reunited with $4M Stradivarius Left In Back of NJ Cab (2008)
Crowds cheered as Kieran Maxwell, donning a cane and heavy prosthetic leg, carried the Olympic flame through northeast England in June.
During the torch relay, the young teen, who became an amputee after a battle with a rare form of cancer, was tripped up by the awkward artificial leg.
His parents had been fundraising to buy him a lighter replacement limb, and this week Britain’s biggest lottery winners stepped in to supply the money.
His mother Nicola said he started “yelling and dancing” when he found about the “brilliant” donation.
The limb will allow him to do “everything”, the same as other kids.
(READ the story from the BBC – Watch Kieran carry the torch below)
Crowds cheered as Kieran Maxwell, donning a cane and heavy prosthetic leg, carried the Olympic flame through northeast England in June.
During the torch relay, the young teen, who became an amputee after a battle with a rare form of cancer, was tripped up by the awkward artificial leg.
His parents had been fundraising to buy him a lighter replacement limb, and this week Britain’s biggest lottery winners stepped in to supply the money.
