Cheered by hundreds of thousands of jubilant Kenyans waving national flags, President Mwai Kibaki signed a new constitution last week that curbs his sweeping powers and strengthens civic rights.
In a ceremony full of military pomp and traditional dance, Kenyans packed Nairobi’s Uhuru Park—or Freedom Park—to see their leaders take fresh oaths under the first overhaul of the charter since 1963.
(READ the story in Reuters)
A UK news reporter has fun with a seagull, investigating its real life of crime…
U.S. manufacturing grew faster than expected, chalking up a 13th straight month of expansion, while the overall U.S. economy has grown for 16 consecutive months.
The Institute for Supply Management factory report showed a reading of 56.3 in August, up from 55.5 in July. A reading above 50 shows manufacturing is growing. The index has averaged 56.6 over the last 12 months.
The latest figures support the view that the U.S. economy will avoid a double-dip recession, says the Wall Street Journal.
Stocks shot upward on the news. The three major U.S. indexes rose nearly 3 percent Wednesday.
Meanwhile, US small businesses continued to hire in August, according to the Intuit Small Business Employment Index. The August employment growth translates to approximately 26,000 new jobs nationwide, the same number of jobs added in July.
Since the growth trend first began in October 2009, small business jobs have increased by 340,000, with healthy gains made in January through April of 2010.
The employment index reflects data from approximately 57,000 small business employers who use Intuit Online Payroll.
U.S. manufacturing grew faster than expected, chalking up a 13th straight month of expansion, while the overall U.S. economy has grown for 16 consecutive months.
The Institute for Supply Management factory report showed a reading of 56.3 in August, up from 55.5 in July. A reading above 50 shows manufacturing is growing. The index has averaged 56.6 over the last 12 months.
The latest figures support the view that the U.S. economy will avoid a double-dip recession, says the Wall Street Journal.
Stocks shot upward on the news. The three major U.S. indexes rose nearly 3 percent Wednesday.
Meanwhile, US small businesses continued to hire in August, according to the Intuit Small Business Employment Index. The August employment growth translates to approximately 26,000 new jobs nationwide, the same number of jobs added in July.
Since the growth trend first began in October 2009, small business jobs have increased by 340,000, with healthy gains made in January through April of 2010.
The employment index reflects data from approximately 57,000 small business employers who use Intuit Online Payroll.
“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.”
“After the gem was cut and re-cut, the finished product was likely worth more than one and a half million dollars.”
(READ the AP story at CBS News) –Photo courtesy of gemologist “Cap” Beesley
China and Russia have agreed to set up the first cross-border protection zone for rare Siberian tigers.
Only about 500 of the big cats are thought to be left in the wild.
The zone will straddle the border, where both sides will enforce anti-poaching measures.
(READ the story in BBC)
You probably have a routine for when you get home from work. You might go through your mail, change out of your work clothes, spend a few minutes checking in with your spouse or maybe grab something to drink. You get the idea.
You basically have a handful of automatic responses designed to help you physically and emotionally recover from your day. And it requires no thinking on your part. Unfortunately, because of the increasingly complex and demanding lives most of us are choosing to live, these automatic responses are not enough.
The winner of Mitchum’s Hardest Working Man in America contest was awarded $100,000 last month for his labor of love: hauling tires, trash – and even rusty cars – out of the nation’s rivers on behalf of his non-profit conservation group.
Chad Pregracke has worked for twelve years to clean up America’s rivers – retrieving over six million pounds of debris including 775 refrigerators and 55,000 tires.
Pregracke was shocked as a high school student when he first glimpsed the trash that littered the bottom of the Mississippi. In 1998 he founded Living Lands & Waters, based in East Moline, Illinois, and today, the organization has grown to include ten full-time employees and a fleet of four barges, a towboat, six workboats, two skid steers, six work trucks. The crew has worked with tens of thousands of volunteers along the Mississippi, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and Potomac Rivers.
“Although Mitchum’s contest focused solely on my efforts,” said the humble Pregracke. “I can’t accomplish the mission without the help from a dedicated bunch of conservationists and thousands of volunteers that allow us to keep the rivers clean.”
His work offers other rewards beyond peace of mind: He met his bride-to-be when she came on board as a volunteer.
Having received 50,000 votes in the Mitchum contest, Pregracke will be among the subjects featured in a short film by acclaimed documentary director Albert Maysles set to premiere on Sundance Channel in early October.
A wide range of Americans submitted reality videos on which the voting was based, ranging from a drill sergeant, fighter pilot and working mother, to a custodian, and blacksmith. Their films offered a rare bird’s eye view into our neighbors’ lives and provided a source of inspiration on the tireless efforts of Americans every day.
WATCH Chad’s inspiring video below…
The winner of Mitchum’s Hardest Working Man in America contest was awarded $100,000 last month for his labor of love: hauling tires, trash – and even rusty cars – out of the nation’s rivers on behalf of his non-profit conservation group.
Chad Pregracke has worked for twelve years to clean up America’s rivers – retrieving over six million pounds of debris including 775 refrigerators and 55,000 tires.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control analyzed 2000-2009 data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey on tobacco use and found a significant decline over the decade.
During 2000–2009, the prevalence of current tobacco use among middle school students declined 6.9 percent (15.1% to 8.2%), and cigarette smoking experimentation declined 14.8 percent (29.8% to 15.0%).
Similar trends were observed for high school students, with current tobacco use declining from 34.5% to 23.9% – an improvement of more than 10 percent. Experimentation with cigarettes in high school also was down nine percent over the decade, according to the school-based survey.
There’s a lot less smoking in the movies these days, too, a new report shows. In the most popular films from 1991 to 2009, tobacco use on the silver screen peaked in 2005 and has been on the decline since.
Last year more than half of the 145 top movies released didn’t show any smoking at all. That’s a record for the past two decades. For films aimed at children or teens, the percentage of non-smoking was even higher — 61 percent.
(Teen smoking study in detail at the CDC)
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control analyzed 2000-2009 data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey on tobacco use and found a significant decline over the decade.
During 2000–2009, the prevalence of current tobacco use among middle school students declined 6.9 percent (15.1% to 8.2%), and cigarette smoking experimentation declined 14.8 percent (29.8% to 15.0%).
Gene targeting drug therapy may offer hope for those with difficult-to-treat advanced-stage skin cancer according to preliminary data published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Treatment with the drug was able to shrink tumors and slow the progression of the disease for 81 percent of patients with metastatic melanoma.
A Haitian-born Canadian singer has taken leave from a successful musical career to help the earthquake-displaced people in his homeland by spearheading the building of a village.
But Luck Mervil wants to build homes that will withstand any natural disaster by using retired shipping containers as the main building blocks.
Mervil plans to use 900 retrofitted containers to construct a new village fit for 5,000, erected on a parcel of previously uninhabited land near Leogane, a coastal city west of Port-au-Prince.
(READ the story from The Toronto Globe and Mail)
Visit his foundation’s Vilaj Vilaj for photos and info (in French — and more design photos at Inhabitat.com)
Ever since the night 10 years ago, when Oscar Aranda, a biology student out of college, witnessed the gruesome death of a sea turtle killed for its eggs and meat, he has patrolled Puerto Vallarta’s beaches as an unofficial keeper of the sea turtle maternity ward.
He later founded a conservation group, La Sociedad Ecológica del Occidente, dedicated to protecting turtles that nest along Mexico’s northwest Pacific beaches.
From June through December — prime nesting season — Aranda and his unpaid volunteers watch over the shorelines where the turtles lay their eggs.
WATCH the video below, or read the story at CNN Heroes…
Ever since the night 10 years ago, when Oscar Aranda, a biology student out of college, witnessed the gruesome death of a sea turtle killed for its eggs and meat, he has patrolled Puerto Vallarta’s beaches as an unofficial keeper of the sea turtle maternity ward.
He later founded a conservation group, La Sociedad Ecológica del Occidente, dedicated to protecting turtles that nest along Mexico’s northwest Pacific beaches.
The University of Oregon is marshaling a veritable army of faculty and students in architecture, law, business, and other fields to help Oregon’s capital transition to a more sustainable and accessible future.
Short on tax dollars, Salem, a city of 150,000 people, will be the academic sandbox for roughly 600 University students in 25 classes who will devote 80,000 hours during the coming year.
Consumer confidence rose in August and home prices gained more than expected in June, easing some worries the economy is headed for another downturn soon.
The data shows “the economy, while it is not going on all cylinders, is also not sliding into this double-dip recession that people are concerned about,” Eric Kuby, chief investment officer at North Star Investment Management Corp told ABC News.
A Christian relief organization says its aid worker kidnapped in May in Sudan’s Darfur region was freed Monday.
Samaritan’s Purse relief worker Flavia Wagner was held hostage for 105 days by kidnappers but now is doing well and looking forward to being reunited with her family in the United States.
“We thank God that Flavia is safe and free,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “We appreciate the help of the government of Sudan and the United States government.
From Lexie C. comes this video of a daily friendship between a dog and a dolphin. Every day the dolphin comes calling to the seaside pier and calls the dog, who comes running…
Diagnosed with ‘ locked-in syndrome’ and paralyzed from head to toe, stroke victim Graham Miles was told he would never recover.
Doctors said he would be a prisoner in his own body for the rest of his life. He was able to communicate only by moving his eyelids.
Just a few months later, however, Mr Miles left the medics ‘utterly bewildered’ by taking his first faltering steps.
