The swag and style emanating from these fashionable seniors is enough to make anyone want to run out shopping.
Barbara Chapman, Solana Beach, California – All photos by Ari Seth Cohen, Advanced Style: Older and Wiser, published by powerHouse Books
In a new photo book titled Advanced Style: Older and Wiser by Ari Seth Cohen, colorful elders from around the world are photographed for a jaw-droppingly cool collection.
Sarah Jane Adams, Sydney, Australia
Whether it’s a more toned down chic or a bubblegum popping pastel, the different styles expressed by these older folks is inspiration for any fashion enthusiast.
Ignacio Quiles, Providence, Rhode Island
The book serves as a sequel to Cohen’s original collection of street fashion, Advanced Style.
Maureen Gumbe, Union Square, New York City
Since its release on April 26th, the book has maintained an almost-perfect five star streak from hundreds of Amazon customers.
Roberta Haze, Venice Beach, California
“Advanced Style” also became a documentary that examines the lives of seven unique New Yorkers, ages 62-95, whose eclectic personal style and vital spirit have challenged conventional ideas about beauty and aging.
Upper West Side
WATCH the preview of Ari’s documentary, Advanced Style below…
This high school senior is going to prom with the one woman who has always been there for him–his mother.
Trey Potter popped the big question to his mother Melissa Roshan at their home in Gahanna, Ohio, as a sign of respect and appreciation for everything the young woman has done for him.
Before she was pregnant and homeless at 16-years-old, MelRo spent her youth in 23 different foster homes and was never given any encouragement about her value as a human being, or about her future. After turning her life around, she was discovered as a magazine model and took care of her son all on her own.
“When I was pregnant with him, I heard, ‘Mel because you lived in the foster care system, you’re probably not going to raise a thriving individual. It just doesn’t happen,” Potter told WATE. “You can’t give him what you don’t have.’”
“So seeing who he has become–and knowing the sacrifices that have been made and how much I love him and seeing that come to fruition–I’ve proved them wrong.”
A research center dedicated to studying Arctic marine ecology has taken a giant leap toward protecting the environment — switching from fossil fuels to seawater for 98% of its heating needs.
The Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward will slash its carbon dioxide (CO2) output, while using the very same gas to heat and cool its building.
The specialized heat pump system saves as much as $15,000 each month in heating bills during the coldest part of the Alaskan winter. At the same time, it reduces the center’s carbon footprint by 1.24 million pounds of CO2 every year.
“As a mission driven non-profit organization, this project is doubly important,” Tara Riemer, ASLC’s President and CEO said in a statement. “We are benefiting the environment and saving money at a time when both are very critical.”
The system mixes seawater with glycol and then injects liquid CO2, which causes the mixture to boil. This releases CO2 vapor, which the system compresses in order to super-heat it — hot enough for the heated water to be pumped throughout the building. The cycling water flowing through those pipes then heats the building.
The million dollar heat pump also cools the mechanical and electrical rooms at the research center — absorbing the waste heat generated in those rooms and pumping it to other parts of the building.
While too big and expensive to be practical for anything but large organizations and buildings, the system’s builder, Andy Baker of YourCleanEnergy, believes the technology will one day be an affordable alternative for heating homes.
(WATCH the video below from YourCleanEnergy and READ more at CS Monitor
This billboard may remind us of a giant fly swatter, and it actually kills mosquitoes that carry the Zika virus —by smelling like humans.
The signs are going up around Brazil in an effort to wipe out the bugs and their virus, which is linked to birth defects in newborns and nervous system disorders in adults.
The billboards emit a lactic acid and carbon dioxide (CO2) solution that smells to mosquitoes like human sweat or an exhaled breath. Lights added at night keep attracting the biting bugs with the promise of warmth.
Mosquitoes that are within a one-and-a-half mile radius can be lured into traps at the base, then live out their natural lives inside the sign, unable to bite anyone.
The billboards were designed under a Creative Commons license, meaning they can’t be patented and their plans are available for other cities and countries to duplicate and build free of charge.
This isn’t the first time a billboard has wowed us with brilliant innovation to help solve human problems. The University of Engineering and Technology of Peru has wowed us again. Their first billboard to get worldwide attention provides drinking water to a parched and arid region of Peru. Another creation, built on a construction site with massive amounts of swirling dirt, is actually cleaning the air for workers and neighbors alike .
(WATCH the video below from NBS or READ more at PRI News) — Photo: NBS video
These twins are overachieving for the sweetest and most loving reason possible.
Deprice and Shaprice Hunt filled out so many college applications –enough to get accepted into 56 different schools – they racked up over $1.6 million in potential scholarship money.
The Chicago brother and sister say their extensive hunt for the perfect school was all done to make sure that their mother never had to sacrifice to provide them an education.
(WATCH the video below)
School Your Friends On The Power Of Determination… Click To Share
Prospectors and explorers have wandered the California desert looking for gold for centuries, but this man has found his treasure in the trash others leave behind.
Marty Pigue makes a living picking up cans and bottles along the highway near the California-Arizona border. He lives with his dog in a tent, working from sunrise to sunset picking up recyclables—and well into the night compacting and bagging them.
“I keep the highway clean out here,” he says in the short documentary below. “When I started, I just kept going.”
In the early days, after he left the military service and set up camp in the desert, people would notice how much money Marty could make bringing in recyclables, then follow the veteran back to the desert thinking he’d found a motherlode. After they discovered how hard he worked and saw the long days he put in to make that money, people quit following him.
Marty’s a fixture along Highway 62 — people bring him ice and food, and families drop off their recyclables on the way home from a weekend at the lake. He trades American flags for donations and separates the steel beer cans from the 1950s and 60s to sell as collectibles.
Yes. He is picking up trash that’s been littering the side of the road since before the 55-year-old was even born.
He loves the job he created for himself, and walks anywhere from four to eight miles every day in his hunt for litter. He also uses a four-wheeler to expand his range.
After Friends learned that his trailer had broken down, they organized a crowdfunding page called “A New Trailer for Marty,” to replace the cart that he pulls behind his ATV.
They need 2,500 more dollars to reach their goal so he can pick up more trash and keep his patch of the desert clean.
A once-in-a-lifetime line-up of six of Rock and Roll’s most influential artists and bands will rock the California desert in October — with tickets going on sale Monday.
The Desert Trip concert will feature The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney, Neil Young, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, and The Who
The three-day concert takes place in Indio, California, October 7-9, at the Empire Polo Club — home to the Coachella music festival, whose organizers are behind the even — with two acts playing each of the three nights.
Tickets will be available starting on Monday, May 9 at 1:00 pm ET or 10:00 am PT at DesertTrip.com. Prices start at $200 for a single day’s general admission to top of the line packages including meals by world class chefs or private safari tent camping.
This military mom had a lot on her plate, so a positive pranksters TV show decided to take away some of the burden.
Janis Miller works a full time job while taking care of her new-born baby and donating any free time to assisting other military families. Because her husband Nate is serving overseas in Afghanistan, the overwhelmed 40-year-old has found it difficult to find time to move all their possessions into their newly-purchased dream home.
That’s when the kindness-based Random Acts television show produced by Brigham Young University stepped in.
While Janis was at work, a BYU-TV crew and a team of volunteers –co-workers of hers from the National Abilities Center and friends of her husband– moved everything the couple owned from the old house to the new one. The ordeal took about 6 hours of hard work, but when Janis returned from work, she was shocked to walk into a completely empty home.
In the center of the living room was a table carrying a laptop and webcam featuring her husband Nate explaining what happened.
“My first thought: shock and bewildered,” Janis told Good News Network. “Second thought – there’s noooo way my mom could’ve done all that packing while I was at work. Where’s the furniture? And wait! Why is Nate’s face on a laptop?”
With tears of happiness in her eyes, she was ushered by the host of Random Acts to her newly furnished home.
“I was overwhelmed with relief. I had this undercurrent of stress of whether or not I was actually going to be able to do it all—the working full time, fixing up the new house, moving out of the old house, cleaning it, cleaning the new house, moving in and setting it all up,” she recalled. “I kept telling myself there are so many other spouses with so much more on their plates and they do it–I can do this too! But I truly didn’t realize how stressed out I was about getting it all done until I walked thru that door and saw it all done.”
(WATCH the reveal from the Random Acts episode above)SHARE the Random Acts TV SHow…
This eight-year-old boy with autism may be the next Mozart in training.
Jacob Velazquez has been playing piano for the last four years and has already started playing concerts.
“Shortly after his fourth birthday I heard the song playing from our family piano that my husband was playing the night before…but my husband was at work. I went to look to see who it was and to my surprise it was Jacob–I couldn’t believe my eyes! ” wrote Jacob’s mother, Tina, on the Autism Speaks website.
“It took us a while but we finally found a piano teacher that would take a 4-year-old. His teacher soon became aware of his gift as he was flying through books learning 2-3 songs per week,” she added.
The young musician has already released an album and become a member of the the National Musician’s Guild.
“My son who could never sit still could focus so intently on learning his songs on the piano,” says Tina. “It seemed to be an outlet for him, helping him to express his feelings and emotions.”
(WATCH the video below and Click To Share) –Photo: Jacob Velazquez on Youtube
Eight months after their journey began, 33 lions have arrived at their new home in Africa in the largest airlift of big cats ever.
Animal Defenders International (ADI) freed the big cats from circuses in Columbia and Peru – last year with the help of those countries’ governments. Many needed medical and dental attention for missing claws and broken teeth.
“The lions are returning to where they belong,” the sanctuary’s founder, Savannah Heuser said in a statement. “This is their birthright. African sun, African night skies, African bush and sounds, clouds, summer thunderstorms, large enclosures in a natural setting where they can remember who they are.”
(WATCH the video below from Animal Defenders International and READ more at TODAY) — Photos: ADI
A ragtag team of football players that have tugged on the heartstrings of a city in the East Midlands for 132 years have just been crowned champions of England.
The Leicester City Football Club (pronounced Lester) has completed what many people believe to be, certainly the greatest story in English football, but perhaps the greatest story in the history of the game. In a season where huge cash transactions made the nation’s favorite sport seem more like a cold and gluttonous game run by billionaires, the scrappy roster of Leicester City has proven that a love of the game, old fashioned grit, and an indomitable togetherness, are worth more than gold. So, how did they pull it off–winning the ultimate prize as 2015/2016 Barclay’s Premier League Champions?
They climbed up, only last season, from the second level of English Football –the equivalent of AAA baseball in America– where they had played for the majority of their 132 year history. But it all began to change in 2011, after a fairly disastrous season that pushed them to the third division. They appointed a new manager, Nigel Pearson, who in four years with the club, lifted them all the way to the big show.
Once they did reach England’s Premier division in 2014, Leicester City had a torrid time and found themselves spending Christmas day in last place. For all their hard work, it looked as if they would be sent back down to triple A status at the end of the season–a harsh reality of Soccer in Europe.
But a remarkable and record breaking “Great Escape” at the end of the season saw Leicester clinch seven wins from their last nine matches and secured their spot in the Premier League for their historic run.
The final piece in this Cinderella comeback story arrived when the club sacked their coach and hired the kind, lovable Italian manager, Claudio Ranieri, who had led some of the best teams in the world to second place, but had been fired for failing to reach the top in the various leagues. If he couldn’t lead those multi-million dollar rosters to victory, it seemed unlikely that Ranieri would be able to accomplish anything with The Foxes, whose odds of winning the title were a staggering 5000-1 at the start of the season.
The team was–like their manager–a collection of “Almost” stories. Many of the players had at one time or another in their careers, been brought to a big club as an exciting prospect. This was a squad of players who had seen the harsher side of professional sports. Many of them, such as Robert Huth, the 32 year-old German center back, or Danny Drinkwater, the 26 year-old English midfielder, had been sold from one club to another on a trail of unfulfilled potential before finally ending up with Leicester in the second division.
Now the starting eleven of The Foxes is exploding with potential, a mix of young starlets, experienced veterans, and hungry castaways. Players, like the one just named PFA Player of the Year, Riyad Mahrez, an Algerian international found playing in the third tier of French football, signed for a fee of 500,000 pounds, a truly poultry sum by the standards of the times. The right-winger this season has contributed 17 goals and 11 assists at the time of writing, and at 25 years of age is looking like one of the best in his position in world football.
Another new star is Jamie Vardy, a 29 year old English striker who, until he began banging them in for The Foxes, was playing with tiny teams such as Halifax Town, and Stockbridge Park Steels, deep in the bowels of the English Football System. He’s bagged 22 goals in 36 games with his stunning speed and savagery, and scored in a record eleven consecutive Premier League matches.
With exquisite counter-attacking football Ranieri has engineered one of the great classic underdog stories in the history of sports. The charismatic coach has fostered a wonderful relationship with his players, letting them relax during the week–with two days off instead of one–and even drink before games. He insists that playing must be fun, rather than a job.
He has been a darling in the papers since day one. He’s done it with charm, saying things like “Why can’t we continue to run, run, run? We are like Forrest Gump; Leicester is Forrest Gump”. He’s done it with passion, inspiring lesser teams around him with quotes like “I told my players: It’s this year or never. In an era when money counts for everything, we give hope to everybody”. And finally, he’s done it with humor, like this gem, responding to a reporter who asked which actor he would like to portray him in a movie: “Robert De Niro would be good. I’ve heard that’s who they want to play me”.
The Foxes have become just the sixth team to win the Premier League since its inception in 1992, and the commanding 38 game performance has become an example to small town football clubs the world over, that maybe, just maybe, they can be like Leicester.
Just because you’re an Ivy League professor with a PhD from Harvard doesn’t mean you haven’t seen your share of failures. That’s why this academic success decided to list all the times he came up short, just to show people that no matter how smart you are, you don’t always get everything you want.
Princeton’s Johannes Haushofer points out that failure is often invisible and people only notice the successes in a person’s career. His Curriculum Vitae — or resume — of Failures is an impressive list of his deficiencies.
He figures if people only look at others’ successes, they may take their own failures too hard.
“As a result, they are more likely to attribute their own failures to themselves,” he wrote in his CV of Failures, “rather than the fact that the world is [randomly determined], applications are crapshoots, and selection committees and referees have bad days.”
He lists six degree programs he didn’t get into, three academic posts for which he was interviewed but not hired, and nine scholarships, eight grant applications, and five academic papers for which he was rejected.
Haushofer caps it all off with his “Meta-Failures” which he sums up as: “This darn CV of Failures has received way more attention than my entire body of academic work.”
Posting it to Twitter set of a chain reaction of other successful people talking about their shortcomings — and the lessons they learned.
One tweet even claimed credit for creating the hashtag #CurriculumMortae — substituting the Latin word for “death” in the place of the usual “vitae,” meaning “life.”
Haushofer points out that most of what he tries, fails, and that his “CV of Failure” is a work in progress. He plans to keep adding to it and reminding people failure is all a part of eventual success.
The hungry, homeless, and poor always have a hot meal waiting for them at this Indian restaurant.
Parkash Chhibber, owner of Indian Fusion in Edmonton, Canada, has posted a sign on the establishment’s back door promising free meals for anyone who needs one. The sign reads:
“Dear Friends, If you are hungry and have no money to pay, just ring the bell below or come in for a free meal box/coffee any time.”
Immediately after paying off his business loan two years ago, Chhibber began helping others. He started offering the free meals in October, 2015, and says he next plans to create an additional seating area if those coming for free meals want to stay.
(READ more at CBC News) — Photo: Indian Fusion, Facebook
Two University of Washington undergraduates have won a $10,000 prize for their invention of gloves that translate sign language into audible speech, on the spot.
SignAloud wearable technology can recognize hand gestures that correspond to words and phrases in American Sign Language (ASL). Each glove contains sensors that record hand position and movement and send data wirelessly via Bluetooth to a central computer. The computer looks at the gesture data, and then the associated word or phrase is spoken through a speaker.
The Lemelson-MIT Student Prize is a nationwide search for the most inventive students. The team of UW sophomores, one majoring in science and the other in business, won the undergraduate category that recognizes technology-based inventions to improve consumer devices.
Navid Azodi and Thomas Pryor, who is studying aeronautics and astronautics engineering, honed their prototype until it could translate ASL into a verbal form instantaneously and in an ergonomic fashion.
“Many of the sign language translation devices already out there are not practical for everyday use. Some use video input, while others have sensors that cover the user’s entire arm or body,” said Pryor, a researcher in the school’s Composite Structures Laboratory and the software lead for the Husky Robotics Team.
“Our gloves are lightweight, compact and worn on the hands, but ergonomic enough to use as an everyday accessory, similar to hearing aids or contact lenses,” said Pryor.
The duo met in the dorms during their freshman year and discovered they both had a passion for invention and problem solving. Azodi has technical experience as a systems intern at NASA. His long history of diverse volunteer work — which includes organizing dozens of blood drives — provided motivation to build a device that would have real-world impact.
The MIT prize money will help Pryor and Azodi reach their first target audience– the deaf and hard-of-hearing community and those interested in learning and working with American Sign Language. But the gloves could also be commercialized for use in other fields, including medical technology to monitor stroke patients during rehabilitation, gesture control and enhanced dexterity in virtual reality.
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey’s has featured circus elephants in their show for the last time, officially retiring the animals last night and ending the policy of using performing elephants two years earlier than previously planned.
In March of last year, Feld Entertainment announced all of touring elephants would move to the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation by 2018.
With the final show Sunday night in Providence, Rhode Island, all 11 of the Asian elephants from the traveling circus units are being moved to their permanent new home in Florida. There they will join the rest of the Ringling Bros. herd of Asian elephants, for a total of 42 at the 200-acre Conservation Center.
Similarly, SeaWorld announced a plan in March to phase out their performance shows featuring orcas, and in a partnership with the Humane Society, to end captive breeding of the whales. The move effectively sun-sets there use, because SeaWorld ended their wild capture program years ago.
When a Miami judge recognized a defendant in her courtroom as a childhood friend, the burglary suspect broke down sobbing.
Courtroom cameras revealed the moment when Judge Mindy Glazer announced that Arthur Booth had been “the nicest kid in middle school” and they used to play football together. Through his sobs, Booth could not have heard his old friend wonder aloud how things could have gone so wrong.
But this pitiful scene was the catalyst for Booth to regain his pride and launch a happy new beginning.
Ten months later, when he finished his sentence and left jail, Glazer was waiting for him alongside his family with a welcome hug and a promise that she would help him get his life back on track.
“You’re going to do something good for somebody else,” Judge Glazer told him Booth as he was released. “This is a group effort to see you succeed. Don’t let us down.”
An Alabama college student has been cutting grass for free to help single moms, the elderly, and disabled, while teaching local youth the values that can turn boys into men.
Rodney Smith, Jr. (pictured, right) started mowing the lawns in Huntsville, Alabama last fall, using his time between classes at Alabama A&M to reach a goal of mowing 100 yards before winter.
Rodney is from Bermuda, where he says people help each other and are always friendly. “That’s what drives me to help people.”
Last month he was getting ready to launch his mowing service for the summer, when he heard about this 93-year-old woman in the photo trying to cut grass by herself. Smith and a friend showed up to do the job for her.
“Have no fear, Raising Men Lawn Care is going to make sure her lawn is done every two weeks!” he wrote on Facebook.
In November, when a local TV station gave him $300, calling it a “pay it forward” gift for his good work, he used it to create the non-profit service group, Raising Men Lawn Care Services. He also launched a crowdfunding page to buy lawn equipment and other supplies — including t-shirts emblazoned with a logo to promote unity and pride.
He thought it was quite impressive that the homeless woman never asked for money. It was the reason a Florida man decided to take the time to ask her about herself— and those answers changed both of their lives for the better.
Greg Smith is resigned toward the many homeless people asking him for money. He wears a suit and tie as he travels around downtown Orlando, Florida for his job, and looks like he has cash to spare.
But one homeless woman stood out. Amy Jo never asked for money, just wished him a good day as he hurried by. Smith decided to start buying her lunch once a week.
“For 30 minutes to an hour I get to hear how positive she is, even though she really has nothing,” Smith wrote on his Facebook page.
During one of those lunches, she “dropped a bomb” on Smith: the reason she remained homeless was because she couldn’t read. Any money given to her by strangers, she spends on reading lessons, hoping it will help her get a job.
“So now not only do Amy Joe and I sit and have lunch, I’m teaching her to read,” Smith wrote. “I rent one library book a week and we read it together Tuesday and she practices on her own throughout the rest of the week.”
He’s even created a GoFundMe campaign that’s raised more than $2,000 to help Amy Joe learn to read and get back on her feet.
Smith encourages others to seek out “their Amy Joe,” and thinks that such helpfulness for someone in need could begin by simply smiling and saying hello.
(WATCH the video below from Greg Smith) — Photo: Greg Smith, Facebook
For their wily method of catching crooks, this group of kids is being honored for exceptional creativity in the service of police.
The children from Red Hill, Surrey formed a human arrow, by arranging themselves on the ground, to point to two escaping burglars and convey their whereabouts to the pursuing police helicopter.
Former Daily Show comedian, Larry Wilmore was the featured funny man, but President Obama delivered the most anticipated speech of the night– his eighth and final standup routine for the annual gala in D.C.
During his remarks, the president poked fun at himself and others–including all the presidential candidates– and got huge laughs.
