In a fenced off-area behind Cedar Creek Correctional Center, two inmates spend nine hours a day feeding and tending their tiny Oregon spotted frog darts as participants in an endangered species conservation program.
Much to the surprise of research scientists and zookeepers, who are also participating in the program, the two have raised the biggest, healthiest amphibians of all.
(READ the News Tribune story at the Register Guard)
Academy Award winning actor Jeff Bridges came to Washington, D.C. yesterday to roll out a new campaign as national spokesperson for the No Kid Hungry Campaign. “This is the most significant thing I’ve ever done,” he told reporters.
The nationwide effort launched by hunger advocates at Share Our Strength pledges to end childhood hunger in America by 2015.
“Millions of our kids can’t learn in school because they are hungry.” Bridges said. “Public charities, food banks, and church pantries are doing more than ever before, but they can’t keep up with the need.”
Bridges said the campaign is not proposing any new government programs, but they do have a plan to address the gaps where existing federal programs, like the school lunch program or food stamps, can effectively fill in by expanding their access.
Academy Award winning actor Jeff Bridges came to Washington, D.C. yesterday to roll out a new campaign as national spokesperson for the No Kid Hungry Campaign. “This is the most significant thing I’ve ever done,” he told reporters.
The nationwide effort launched by hunger advocates at Share Our Strength pledges to end childhood hunger in America by 2015.
“Millions of our kids can’t learn in school because they are hungry.” Bridges said. “Public charities, food banks, and church pantries are doing more than ever before, but they can’t keep up with the need.”
Bridges said the campaign is not proposing any new government programs, but they do have a plan to address the gaps where existing federal programs, like the school lunch program or food stamps, can effectively fill in by expanding their access.
Thousands of viewers from around the world are expected to log-on to “Tundra Connections” this week, to participate in free, live webcasts from the tundra of Western Hudson Bay, featuring leading experts and wild polar bears via remote video cameras.
Over 30 segments will be broadcast from onboard ‘Buggy One’, a tundra vehicle that has been specially-equipped with high-speed internet, cameras and stabilizers for beaming live clips of polar bears in the wild. During video conferencing from this mobile classroom, participants can ask questions of the experts in real time. Teacher lesson plans are also available for free.
As Buggy One roams a network of established trails within the Manitoba Conservation, cameras mounted on the outside of the Buggy broadcast any bears nearby, and the experts break from their prepared talks to comment on what the viewers are seeing. The audience is often treated to polar bears sparring, mothers with cubs and curious bears who may nuzzle up to a camera.
Thousands of viewers from around the world are expected to log-on to “Tundra Connections” this week, to participate in free, live webcasts from the tundra of Western Hudson Bay, featuring leading experts and wild polar bears via remote video cameras.
Over 30 segments will be broadcast from onboard ‘Buggy One’, a tundra vehicle that has been specially-equipped with high-speed internet, cameras and stabilizers for beaming live clips of polar bears in the wild. During video conferencing from this mobile classroom, participants can ask questions of the experts in real time. Teacher lesson plans are also available for free.
As Buggy One roams a network of established trails within the Manitoba Conservation, cameras mounted on the outside of the Buggy broadcast any bears nearby, and the experts break from their prepared talks to comment on what the viewers are seeing. The audience is often treated to polar bears sparring, mothers with cubs and curious bears who may nuzzle up to a camera.
Steve Carell, Betty White and Steve Martin walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC along with other comedians, including Lorne Michaels and cast members from Saturday Night Live, to honor the woman who perhaps best personifies hip humor in the age of social media.
Tina Fey credits luck and Sarah Palin’s “crazy voice” for her meteoric rise to fame as a comedy writer and actor, best known for her impersonation of Alaska’s ex-governor (“I can see Russia from my house”), and her Emmy Award-winning show, 30 Rock.
(Photo courtesy of WETA-TV)
Steve Carell, Betty White and Steve Martin walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC along with other comedians, including Lorne Michaels and cast members from Saturday Night Live, to honor the woman who perhaps best personifies hip humor in the age of social media.
Tina Fey credits luck and Sarah Palin’s “crazy voice” for her meteoric rise to fame as a comedy writer and actor, best known for her impersonation of Alaska’s ex-governor (“I can see Russia from my house”), and her Emmy Award-winning show, 30 Rock.
(Photo courtesy of WETA-TV)
Veterans are getting a big thank you from companies that are providing free meals and discounts in honor of Veterans Day this week. Applebees, Golden Corral, Chili’s and Hooters are all offering free meals to vets, both active and retired, while Outback Steakhouses are giving away Bloomin’ Onions.
Veterans are getting a big thank you from companies that are providing free meals and discounts in honor of Veterans Day this week. Applebees, Golden Corral, Chili’s and Hooters are all offering free meals to vets, both active and retired, while Outback Steakhouses are giving away Bloomin’ Onions.
Actor Paul Newman’s food company, Newman’s Own, got its start in the actor’s basement with a homemade salad dressing he gave to friends as gifts.
Today the company is a manufacturing empire, with every penny of after-tax profits going to charity. Last week, it announced that it surpassed $300 million in donations since its founding in 1982.
Newman’s Own offers more than 100 varieties of all-natural food and beverage products, which include salad dressings, pasta sauces, salsas, popcorn, lemonade, and thin & crispy frozen pizza and cookies.
The charitable mission of Newman’s Own was expressed by Paul in the company’s motto: “Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good.” Thousands of charities have benefitted over the 28 years.
“When people would thank Paul for his charitable giving, he would always reply that he didn’t think he was doing anything special,” said Robert Forrester, president of Newman’s Own Foundation. “He believed that the real thanks should go to those people who work every day to make ours and the future’s a better world. For Paul, it was a privilege to be just one among these many. That’s how we all feel today as we carry on this unique and wonderful philanthropic legacy.”
(READ more in USA Today)
Classical music piped through speakers has dramatically reduced crime rates in the center of New Zealand’s second largest city, retailers in Wellington said today.
They said the introduction of soothing music from composers such as Mozart had seen the number of anti-social incidents in the city’s central mall plummet from 86 every week in 2008 to just two per week this year.
(READ the full AFP story at Yahoo! News)
A year ago, he was living in an impoverished township in rural South Africa. Now, the 12-year-old is living his dream with Canada’s National Ballet School.
Little did he know, in the spring of 2009, while performing in a local dance show that he was actually getting a life-altering audition of sorts.
Kelly Dobbin and Scott Mathison, visiting South Africa on an extended vacation from Toronto, had attended the recital by invitation and soon found themselves riveted by Siphe November.
Visit his Facebook page, set up for Siphe to collect donations for him to continue his studies.
(READ the full story w/ new photos at The Globe and Mail)
A UK graduate student invented a solar-powered fridge that uses zero electricity, keeping food cold for families in Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
It works through evaporation and can be used to keep perishable goods such as milk and meat cool for days.
Emily Cummins has also designed a multi-bucket water system to help people transport water effectively across southern Africa.
(READ the story at the Daily Mail)
Beginning Jan. 1, it will be illegal to dump electronics — waste that does not break down — into landfills.
Bradley Frick, owner of Going Green Computers in Pekin, Ill., saw an opportunity.
His company is rare in the region. It takes personal computers, laptops and other electronics and recycles them to keep the waste out of the already crowded and growing landfills.
“As a father and citizen of this community, I wanted to make a difference.”
(READ the story from GateHouse News Service)
Eating a healthy diet and exercising regularly can do more to make you good-looking than cosmetic surgery or make-up, according to academics at St Andrews University.
Their research on what people find attractive suggested people do pick up on subtle changes to skin color, enhanced by diet and exercise: exercise increasing the blood flow and diet changing the chemical composition of our skin.
(READ the story in the BBC)
Serbian President Boris Tadic apologized Thursday at the site where more than 200 Croats were massacred in wartime atrocities.
Tadic said he came to “bow down before the victims.”
“By acknowledging the crime, by apologizing and regretting, we are opening the way for forgiveness and reconciliation,” Tadic said
A few hours later, his Croatian counterpart laid a wreath at the graveyard of 18 Serbs killed by Croats.
(READ the AP story at San Diego Union Tribune)
For the seventh year in a row, staffing services company Robert Half International has conducted a suit drive to benefit Dress for Success and other non-profits that help people find new jobs.
More than 19,000 items of interview-appropriate clothing and accessories were donated by local businesses and Robert Half employees through the program.
Dress for Success, which promotes the economic independence of disadvantaged women, and other partners will distribute the items to thousands of men and women actively seeking employment.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed $50 million to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC.
The gift, announced Wednesday night by the Smithsonian, sets aside $30 million to create the Youth Access Endowment to reach underserved youth who do not get a chance to visit the museums – using online tools and materials for classrooms.
(READ more in the Washington Post)
More than 70 years after Seabiscuit took America’s attention away from the Great Depression and the prospect of war, another hero has emerged to distract the nation as it copes with recession and the aftertaste of a bitterly divisive election.
Zenyatta, a six-year-old thoroughbred mare, is unbeaten in 19 races, trouncing mares, fillies, colts and geldings. On Saturday she is bidding to make history by recording her 20th win in one of the US’s greatest horse races, the Breeders’ Cup.
What’s more, she is the only female racing in an all-male field.
“Usually the fillies can’t keep up with the boys,” said one horse-racing enthusiast.
Additionally, she is unfamiliar with dirt tracks only having run on them twice. This, her 20th race, will be the last of her career. (Read the story in the Guardian)
UPDATE: Watch her last-to-first victory from October 2, 2010, in the TVG’s Lady’s Secret Stakes at Oak Tree Hollywood Park, the mare’s 19th win in a row, undefeated in her career.
Here is her unbelievable come from behind (down by ten lengths) in last year’s Breeders Cup to become the first female ever to win the season ending race.
More than 70 years after Seabiscuit took America’s attention away from the Great Depression and the prospect of war, another hero has emerged to distract the nation as it copes with recession and the aftertaste of a bitterly divisive election.
Zenyatta, a six-year-old thoroughbred mare, is unbeaten in 19 races, trouncing mares, fillies, colts and geldings. On Saturday she is bidding to make history by recording her 20th win in one of the US’s greatest horse races, the Breeders’ Cup.
What’s more, she is the only female racing in an all-male field.
“Usually the fillies can’t keep up with the boys,” said one horse-racing enthusiast.
Additionally, she is unfamiliar with dirt tracks only having run on them twice. This, her 20th race, will be the last of her career. (Read the story in the Guardian)
UPDATE: Watch her last-to-first victory from October 2, 2010, in the TVG’s Lady’s Secret Stakes at Oak Tree Hollywood Park, the mare’s 19th win in a row, undefeated in her career.
Here is her unbelievable come from behind (down by ten lengths) in last year’s Breeders Cup to become the first female ever to win the season ending race.
