Low-income and unemployed Floridians can get free mobile phone and voice services to help them in an emergency or find employment.
The service, called Assurance Wireless, recently launched offering the cell phones pre-programmed with 200 free minutes.
“Programs like Assurance are so important for helping individuals and families stay on — or get back on — their feet and succeed in these difficult financial times.”
(READ more in the News-Press)
A cybercrime report released in July 2010 revealed a 50 percent drop in the number of attacks on retail stores in 2009, with 143 million stolen records, down from 360 million the year before. (CS Monitor)
Professor John Burland has spent the last two decades striving to save – and understand – the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After defying gravity, Italian bureaucracy and accusations of corruption, it seems he’s finally cracked the case.
“Without our intervention, any local storm or earth tremor could have finished it off,” Burland said of the freestanding bell tower, adjacent to the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa.
Burland, 72, an emeritus professor of soil engineering at Imperial College London, helped solve one of the most fascinating riddles in architectural history.
Two decades ago, when a committee of experts drawn from every discipline was assembled, they couldn’t even find a computer program that would accept the fact that a building tilting 4.7m could still be standing, according to the UK’s Telegraph.
Professor John Burland has spent the last two decades striving to save – and understand – the Leaning Tower of Pisa. After defying gravity, Italian bureaucracy and accusations of corruption, it seems he’s finally cracked the case.
“Without our intervention, any local storm or earth tremor could have finished it off,” Burland said of the freestanding bell tower, adjacent to the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa.
Burland, 72, an emeritus professor of soil engineering at Imperial College London, helped solve one of the most fascinating riddles in architectural history.
Two decades ago, when a committee of experts drawn from every discipline was assembled, they couldn’t even find a computer program that would accept the fact that a building tilting 4.7m could still be standing, according to the UK’s Telegraph.
The tide is turning for whole grains as American grocery shoppers are choosing more healthy sliced bread. A report in July showed whole wheat edging out the empty-calorie white bread in total sales for the first time.
Flooded with messages about heart health and the need for fiber, breads with “natural” in the name, or grains visible through the packaging are among the best performing at grocery stores — even though they cost a little more. Among the most popular: Nature’s Own, Nature’s Pride, and Arnold.
(READ the story in Chicago Tribune)
Why has The Lone Star State weathered the economic recession better than the rest of the U.S.?
“Compared to the rest of the country, Texas is experiencing something like an economic boom. Pick your category, and Texas dominates.”
(READ the article in The Atlantic)
First Lady Michelle Obama urged Congress to pass current legislation that calls for higher nutritional standards for school meals.
In an op-ed article appearing in Monday’s Washington Post, Mrs. Obama applauded the Child Nutrition Bill which would require more fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and less fat and salt in school lunches and breakfasts.
“Our prosperity depends on the health and vitality of the next generation,” she wrote.
(READ the AP story in WTOP News)
As a reward for working so hard during the economic slump, owners of a popular Nashville restaurant are taking 48 employees on an Alaskan cruise.
At the end of a staff retreat last September, Puffy Muffin owners Lynda and Jack Stone unveiled the trip plans and told employees that if they met some aggressive sales goals for the next 10 months their deck chairs — as a group — were awaiting them on a Holland America cruise line bound for Alaska.
“We have the most wonderful people working here,” Lynda Stone said. “This was a way to really motivate everyone and to have a different attitude during the crunch.”
Expect to find the doors at each of their locations closed and locked until August 9.
(READ the story in the Tennessean)
As a reward for working so hard during the economic slump, owners of a popular Nashville restaurant are taking 48 employees on an Alaskan cruise.
At the end of a staff retreat last September, Puffy Muffin owners Lynda and Jack Stone unveiled the trip plans and told employees that if they met some aggressive sales goals for the next 10 months their deck chairs — as a group — were awaiting them on a Holland America cruise line bound for Alaska.
“We have the most wonderful people working here,” Lynda Stone said. “This was a way to really motivate everyone and to have a different attitude during the crunch.”
Expect to find the doors at each of their locations closed and locked until August 9.
(READ the story in the Tennessean)
A new study claims that more DVDs are borrowed from libraries each day than are rented via Netflix, Redbox or Blockbuster.
According to the survey released by the Online Computer Library Center, public libraries in the U.S. lend an average 2.1 million videos/day, which edges out the 2 million discs shipped by Netflix…
Another recent report says that libraries have doubled the size of their movie collections over the last decade — and library users have taken notice.
“Friday nights, the hour before we close, it’s like a video store… People are running to get their movies before the weekend.”
(READ the story in the Courant, via the Consumerist)
Last week, Chicago’s own Smashing Pumpkins played a benefit concert to raise money to pay the hospital bills for a local musician who was badly beaten after he stepped in to help a woman fighting off an attack by her husband. Matthew Leone was rushed to the hospital in June after incurring broken bones and head trauma when he heroically intervened in the domestic dispute near his home.
After several brain surgeries, the Good Samaritan bass player for Madina Lake is in stable condition but the medical bills for the uninsured musician are topping $250,000.
The concert and related auctions have raised around $80,000, after lead-singing Pumpkin, Billy Corgan, auctioned a signed guitar, band poster and an opportunity for fans to meet him, adding $16,000 to the tally.
Last week, Chicago’s own Smashing Pumpkins played a benefit concert to raise money to pay the hospital bills for a local musician who was badly beaten after he stepped in to help a woman fighting off an attack by her husband. Matthew Leone was rushed to the hospital in June after incurring broken bones and head trauma when he heroically intervened in the domestic dispute near his home.
After several brain surgeries, the Good Samaritan bass player for Madina Lake is in stable condition but the medical bills for the uninsured musician are topping $250,000.
The concert and related auctions have raised around $80,000, after lead-singing Pumpkin, Billy Corgan, auctioned a signed guitar, band poster and an opportunity for fans to meet him, adding $16,000 to the tally.
Here’s a new dieting tip for producing happiness in the brain – eat more fat. It needs to be the right kind of fat, however.
Omega-3 fatty acids, found abundantly in fish, can enhance your mood and build your brain.
In countries where people eat very little seafood, people have a 50% higher risk for depression. Indeed, studies show these fats are at least as good for treating depression as anti-depression drugs. (More scientific studies also show that consuming fish while pregnant is more beneficial, than risky, for baby and mother, even given the amounts of mercury.)
But the other Omega fat, Omega-6, found in various oils, can negate the positive effects of Omega-3’s by actually depleting the amounts already in the body. Unfortunately, in today’s Americanized diet, Omega-6 ingredients have been on the rise for decades, particularly from “seed oils” that were unheard of 100 years ago.
OUT: Omega-6 rich soybean oil, corn oil, safflower seed oil, mayonaise, and margerine
IN: Oils like olive oil and butter. Many grocers now provide generic brands of olive oils, which are less expensive.)
Learn how to build a firewall around your intake of healthy fats and preserve their benefits. You can listen to the show below, and check out the book authored by one of its guests: Maximize the Power of Omega-3s to Supercharge Your Health, Battle Inflammation, and Keep Your Mind Sharp
Listen to the fact-filled program on NPR’s Kojo Show, and his three guests.
RELATED STORIES: — Omega-3 Fish Oil Better ADHD Treatment
— Schools, Prisons Take Positive Action With Diets (see bottom for Scientific Studies)
Here’s a new dieting tip for producing happiness in the brain – eat more fat. It needs to be the right kind of fat, however.
Omega-3 fatty acids, found abundantly in fish, can enhance your mood and build your brain.
In countries where people eat very little seafood, people have a 50% higher risk for depression. Indeed, studies show these fats are at least as good for treating depression as anti-depression drugs. (More scientific studies also show that consuming fish while pregnant is more beneficial, than risky, for baby and mother, even given the amounts of mercury.)
But the other Omega fat, Omega-6, found in various oils, can negate the positive effects of Omega-3’s by actually depleting the amounts already in the body. Unfortunately, in today’s Americanized diet, Omega-6 ingredients have been on the rise for decades, particularly from “seed oils” that were unheard of 100 years ago.
OUT: Omega-6 rich soybean oil, corn oil, safflower seed oil, mayonaise, and margerine
IN: Oils like olive oil and butter. Many grocers now provide generic brands of olive oils, which are less expensive.)
Learn how to build a firewall around your intake of healthy fats and preserve their benefits. You can listen to the show below, and check out the book authored by one of its guests: Maximize the Power of Omega-3s to Supercharge Your Health, Battle Inflammation, and Keep Your Mind Sharp
Listen to the fact-filled program on NPR’s Kojo Show, and his three guests.
RELATED STORIES: — Omega-3 Fish Oil Better ADHD Treatment
— Schools, Prisons Take Positive Action With Diets (see bottom for Scientific Studies)
After seven years at sea, the Crafton family is coming ashore, but slowly. They are in no hurry to shed the awe they feel about what they have accomplished: an 83-month, 30,000-mile circumnavigation of both the globe and the roughest years of their kids’ childhoods.
“We just seemed to get along better the longer we were out there,” marveled Tom, father in the family of five.
“The day we moved onto the boat, the sibling rivalry stopped.”
(READ the story in the Washington Post)
At a recent government inquest into what went wrong when a train car derailed in London and killed seven people on May 10, there was also discussion of what went right.
“The impact of the accident may well have been far worse, had it not been for a number of ordinary people who did a number of extraordinary things that day,” said a reporter for the BBC News Service.
The inquest heard how fellow train passengers, waiting travellers, passers-by, rail workers, off-duty emergency employees and staff from nearby businesses all put their own fears aside and dashed to the aid of those affected by the derailment.
The judge at the hearing made a point of highlighting these acts of kindness during the inquest, offering an official public ‘Thank You’, and said it was “gratifying” to recognize the remarkable response from local people and passengers.
(READ more about the kind acts in BBC News)
Two years back, these two men didn’t know of each other’s existence. Then they learned they had been accidentally switched at birth more than 20 years ago.
But the discovery didn’t bring bitterness or recrimination. Rather, it led to the creation of a bigger family.
Today, the two 25-year-olds are living with both sets of parents working together growing vegetables and coffee on a small farm in southeastern Brazil.
(READ the AP story, w/ photo at Yahoo)
The cheetah is poised to sprint once again along India’s grassland, nearly half a century after it was hunted to extinction.
The fastest mammal on Earth and the only one whose name has been derived from Sanskrit will be reintroduced into three specified sites under a planned $6 million rehabilitation project.
India’s federal environment ministry plans to import 18 African cheetahs acquired from Iran, Namibia and South Africa, where they were raised in captivity.
(READ the story in the Irish Times)
Government officials hope to turn 150,000 acres of farmland into wetlands by Aug. 15 to be ready for migratory birds that would otherwise be visiting their usual Gulf of Mexico wintering grounds which are threatened by oil.
Across eight states, farmers with fallow fields of rice and crawfish will try to provide an alternative for some of the tens of millions of ducks, geese and shorebirds that are beginning to make their way south.
“Hopefully, we can help,” said Craig Gautreaux, who has dedicated 762 acres to the project about 90 miles inland from the Gulf under a three-year, $132,441 contract that likely will cover his costs but provide little if any profit. “I want to keep the birds around.”
(READ about the $20 million federal project via AP in the TimesUnion.com)
Gentle on the body, but still effective for relieving symptoms, alternative remedies have the backing of scientific studies.
The editor of Prevention magazine shares alternative treatments for everything from hypertension to hot flashes.
WATCH the video below, or at Today…
