Thanks! ...

I'm sorry for not posting last week, but as I said in an email, I've been swamped with school. And that's just one class. Tonight I start the first of three concurrent classes.

So in advance of what promises to be a very busy semester, I've decided to stop updating the blog. It's not that I think it's a not worthwhile thing to do. There were so many days where I managed to pick up my own spirits looking for stories.

But despite what it may look like, this does actually take me a while to do. :) So I hope you've all enjoyed reading my updates, and I'm sorry if I've disappointed anyone. If you found this blog after this post, I encourage you to read the archives. There are some good stories in there (and I can say that because I didn't write them!).

More found than lost...

The title that immediately sprang to mind for today's blog was "Lost and Found." But then I thought about it, and the three stories I have today are more about found than lost. Which, when you ponder further, is definitely the cooler side of those opposites.

The YouTube video above came from Yahoo! News. Todd Bieber, a film-making New Yorker, found a canister of black and white film in Brooklyn's Prospect Park after the last blizzard. Out of curiosity, he developed the negatives and found a trove of exceedingly good images, seemingly taken by two men here in the US on vacation. Bieber made a video to post online in hopes of finding the men who lost the film.

Recently there was a spate of weird fish and bird deaths in the southeastern United States. I never found out if they decided on a recent for the mysterious genocide, but I was heartened by another Yahoo! story, one highlighting the discovery of a new species of crayfish in Tennessee. The sucker literally crawled out from under a rock and is five inches long, which is like twice the size of "normal" crayfish.

And now from something new to something very, very old. PhD candidate Brian Schubert found 34,000-year old bacteria living inside salt crystals. The crystals, dug up for climate research from Death Valley years ago, apparently grow very quickly and trap whats around them. The microorganisms suspended themselves in hibernation in the fluid inside the salt crystals but got right back to work reproducing and functioning after being released from the salt.

Medical miracles and reunions...

There's a pleasing symmetry to today's stories. Well, pleasing to me, since I'm a nerd. : ) There is a story about a reunion, a story about a medical miracle, and a story about a reunion between a doctor and her medical miracle. I'm beginning to see why the Mayans thought 2012 would be the end of the world with what seems like more than the usual chaos reigning lately. But, as always, I'm finding little stories here and there that help keep a positive light shining.

Global conflict has been happening for centuries, but the last round - Iraq and Afghanistan - seems like it will never end. But thanks to Tostitos and the USO, some families got a break from it. Eight children were reunited with fathers they thought were still in Iraq during the halftime show of the BCS college football national title game. The Philadelphia Daily News reports the mothers were in on it, but the kids thought they had just won tickets and field passes to the game. Their fathers were hidden behind a banner until the big reveal, and the looks on the kids faces could have softened the hardest heart. I'm tearing up just thinking about it.

Something else that made me tear up this morning was a story from Yahoo!'s home page about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. According to Yahoo! she made a Herculean effort to open her eyes on Wednesday, to see her husband and three close friends. Her friends were talking about taking her out for a pizza and a beer when she recovered from her injuries when she started opening her eyes and reaching out for her husband. Her surgeon thinks she has a "101 percent chance of recovery."

Something that has been slow to recover is the island of Haiti. It's now been just over a year since the earthquake that leveled much of the Caribbean nation. Elections were marred by violence and then a cholera epidemic broke out. Talk about apocalypse. But CNN International reported on a doctor volunteering in Haiti during the initial earthquake who recently reunited with a baby girl who has made a miraculous recovery of her own. "Baby Jenny" survived four days buried in rubble without anything to drink and with severe head trauma and her chest caved in. Dr. Karen Schneider, on the island with the Sisters of Mercy, had just started a nap after a 30-hour shift when Baby Jenny was brought in. Schneider did her level best and then sent the child to the US for further care and had always wondered what happened to her.

New Year's news...

This is about the time of year when new Congressmen and Congresswomen are sworn into office. I've seen a few stories on our local guys' and gals' swearings-in when I accidentally happen to catch the nightly news. So I thought it might be appropriate to use today's blog to post a couple nice stories about the government before this whole new crop has a chance to do any damage, err, affect change.

Yahoo! posted a story on the lieutenant governor of my old state, Tim Murray. He and his wife were driving through a town outside Boston when they spotted a mini-van on fire. Murray pulled over and sprang into action, pulling children from the van. He almost got punched by their grandma for his efforts, but luckily everything turned out fine.

While too young to run for office herself, two year-old Charlotte English is old enough to make a video go viral. The little girl is shown here in this MSNBC video naming different past presidents and quoting their most famous bon mots. She gets extra points for simply getting "Gorbachev" out of her mouth.

And this last story is not about the government, but I didn't want to wait until next week to post it. I love it. Another video gone viral, this time highlighting a golden-voiced homeless man in Columbus, Ohio. Drugs, alcohol and "a few other things" had sent Ted Williams into the street. A chance video interview, according to MSNBC, with a Columbus Dispatch under an overpass on Ohio's I-71 revealed Williams' honeyed speaking voice and led to a second chance for the ex- radio announcer. He has been offered lots of voicework and even a home by the Cleveland Cavaliers. But what excites him the most is the invitations to do the morning talk shows in New York has given him the opportunity to visit his 92 year-old mother in Brooklyn for the first time in years.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone! I'll be back next week with a new post. :)

'Tis the season...

You better not pout, you better not cry. No matter how much the traffic and the mean people at the malls make you want to. At the very least you can read the stories in this post and maybe feel a little more jolly and a little less stabby.

If you're a parent, you're jumping for joy these days. It's the one time of the year children behave without being told to. :) The ever-powerful naughty or nice list has been looking over their heads for quite some time now, thanks to retailers starting the Christmas season in September. If you need a little reassurance that you're receiving something other than coal in your stocking this year, you can check Santa's Naughty or Nice List for yourself.

One of the traditions of Christmas is the annual tree hunt. When I was younger it used to include traipsing all over kingdom come to find the perfect tree. Lately, it involves my parents and a race to see if they can beat their time from last year. I believe they are down to 10 minutes, parking lot to tree to parking lot again. One of my favorite authors has this to say about her tree-hunting experience. Compare and contrast.

The Guardian reported a trend in the UK of purchasing replantable trees, calling them a "surprise hit." In fact, the demand has been so high, grocery market giant (and tree supplier) Tesco had to order more after running out the first week of December. The article touts their green and green-saving credentials.

Today is a big day around the country for office Christmas parties (or so the DJ on the radio told me this morning). Office Secret Santas are usually a yearly nightmare. Drawing names; landing someone you don't know, or worse, don't like; and then having to find that person a gift. But Yahoo! posted a story on the type of Secret Santa you can really get behind. An anonymous man in Kansas City had, at the time of the article, given away $10,000 in hundred-dollar bills to needy strangers - a police officer with terminal cancer, a homeless man, a woman who couldn't afford presents for her 27 grandchildren, and a woman who'd lost her entire family in the course of two years among others. The nameless giver doesn't talk about his own finances but expects to give away around $40,000 this year.

MSNBC had a story on a similar situation. A six year-old little girl in southwest Florida wrote a letter to Santa asking for just one present. Her family had been hit hard by the recession and, in an aborted attempted to find a job in New Jersey, had sold or given away nearly everything they owned. Postal workers were touched by the little girl's note and decided to provide a trimmed tree, presents and furniture to the family.

And finally, I was late with my Hanukkah presents to Jewish friends this year, so it follows I'm late posting a story about what one rabbi is calling a Hanukkah miracle. The Palm Beach Daily News wrote a story on the reunion of two women, old friends from neighboring Polish towns who had survived the Holocaust and subsequently lost touch for 65 years. The nephew of one of the women unknowingly attended the same temple as the other woman, and after a chance gift of a book to the temple's rabbi by that nephew, the two women reconnected.

I hope every has or has had a wonderful holiday! As a little gift to myself, I'm taking next week off from the blog and will return in the new year. So happy new year too!!

End of the year fun...

So it's the middle of December. Time for holiday travel, overspending and ugly sweaters. It's also the time of year for countdowns and montages. Today's post packs in a little of everything.

I was more than overjoyed with Southwest opened a terminal at Logan Airport when I lived in New England. The cheap fares, decent customer service and funny flight attendants usually made up for the long lines, minimal service extras and grumpy TSA agents that come with air travel. So I had to click on this link from the Today Show this morning, showing a "flash mob" of Southwest employees kicking it to Brenda Lee's "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." Oh, those crazy kids... (Note: Those who cannot handle Saving Private Ryan-esque cinematography should avoid this link.)

VentureBeat reported on the "biggest shopping boom since before the recession." I joined about a billion other people doing their Christmas shopping online this year. Aided by really good deals (and the motivation to avoid crowds at all costs), I, and apparently many others, pretty quickly finished my shopping and then sat back and waited for the presents to come to me. In the first 43 days of the holiday shopping season, consumers spent 12 more than last year, or $23.82 billion dollars.

I found the above photo on Google Images. There were so many, each much worse than the last. *gleeful giggle * I had such a hard time picking...

And finally, the first "Best...of 2010" image gallery came to my attention this morning via NASA on Twitter. Yes, I follow NASA. Yes, I'm a giant nerd. Popular Science had the 72 (??) best science images of this year collected on its website. I didn't flip through all of them, but there's a pretty cool acorn squid-thing around image 35. Fair warning, Mom, you will not like image number 1.

Going to the chapel...

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This weekend I'm attending the wedding of one of my childhood friends. I've known her for around 20 years (frightening thought we're that old but anyway...), and I'm very happy for her and her future husband and wish them the best of luck. :)

So as I was casting around for stories today (Google Alerts let me down for this week), I happened to see two separate video stories on MSNBC's website. The first is about a couple in Pennsylvania who was too poor to afford to print their wedding photos when they first got married. Their negatives remained in the photographer's storage until he died 45 years later. The couple was encouraged by the man's son to come look for their negatives and finally print them. Little did they know exactly how large a haystack it would be...

The Today Show's Natalie Morales reports on the second story, about the holiday generosity of strangers via those ubiquitous red Salvation Army kettles. She notes all the things of massive value people have dropped in this year, including an engagement ring and matching wedding band. The video can be found on the text link and in the box above.

Hope and inspiration...

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I was going to put up a "Happy Thanksgiving!" post on the day, but it got away from me and all of a sudden football was on, the fire was going and I was asleep in a chair...

So yesterday was World AIDS Day. Every year for the past 22 years, this has been a day to lament the disease's progress and the staggeringly horrible statistics. But this year, for the first time ever, there was some good news to report. The Victoria Times Colonist and the Greater Binghamton Press both noted the 20 percent drop in reported cases, the promising progress on a vaccine, and the fact the Catholic Church has said condoms are morally justified in combating the disease - a massive turnaround on an earlier stance. All of these things give you hope that one of the most deadly epidemics on the planet might be getting closer to being controlled.

The Daily Mirror posted a story on a different sort of inspiration. The paper had a long story on the four winners of the Northern Ireland Youth Achievers Award. Honored at a banquet on Nov. 29, Blair Richie, Rachel McStravrick, David Meehan and Jamie Johnston were all recognized for not only their efforts at helping others but for the way they have turned their own lives around.

Today's final story comes from Yahoo! News. In an unprecedented step for democracy around the world, Icelandic citizens have chosen to elect their own countrymen to a special committee to re-write their constitution. Inspired by their country's descent into bankruptcy after the credit crisis deflated their economy, everyday Icelanders have the chance to be part of a major event in their national history.

(Photo courtesy of The Daily Mirror)

Inbox clean out...

I use Google Alerts to help me find the stories I post, and I can usually come up with a theme within a day or two, so I save the emails. But lately I've had a few orphans in my inbox, stories I thought were cool, but I couldn't come up with anything related to them. So I've decided to just put them all in this post. :)

Yahoo! News posted a story a little while ago that notes the stigmas attached with shopping at Goodwill or consignment and even using layaway are disappearing. Being budget-minded has apparently even caught on with the rich, Yahoo! noted, who are buying nearly a third more fast food than last year. People seem to finally have cottoned on to the idea that it's okay to say "I can't afford it."

Yahoo! also posted a story on what appears to be the oldest photo in existence of people. Granted it was taken in 1848, so that's not THAT long ago in the grand scheme of things but still pretty cool. The daguerreotype appears to show two men standing on a river's edge in Cincinnati. One man seems to have a foot resting on a wooden beam while the other is standing on the beam.

The last story is from CNN. While it dates from this past summer, it has only been sitting in the inbox for five weeks. :-P I promise. Four former Harvard students have found a way to harness the energy released from your foot when you kick a soccer ball. Their "Soccket" retains that energy and a plug in the ball allows you to power electronic devices like cell phones and lamps. The inventors believe it will do the most good in places like the Alexandria (South Africa) township where it was road-tested during the World Cup.

(Photo courtesy of Yahoo!)

A salute to the military and veterans...

Veterans' Day is not necessarily a happy holiday but finding heartwarming and good stories was a lot easier than I thought it would be. I didn't even have to leave Yahoo! to find three of today's links.

Lt. Col. Chester E. Bear (ret.) is the subject of the first of two Yahoo! profiles in today's post. A veteran of three wars, Bear parachuted behind enemy lines in the Korean, Vietnam and Desert Storm conflicts. A gift from a little girl to her father's Air Force Reserves unit, the stuffed animal became a mascot, flying first on a humanitarian mission before moving on to combat, where he received many medals. Bear (above right and left) was even declared MIA for three weeks when the US Infantry found him after a jump and wouldn't give him back.

The second profile I read centered on a rifle squad composed of decorated veterans from two generations and three wars who attend the funerals of fallen vets to provide one last salute.  Grown from the original patchwork six members, today's squad features 128 former soldiers spanning 30 years and all branches of the military who are believed to be the nation's only all-volunteer rifle squad.

My Yahoo! email contained a message from First Lady Michelle Obama's office marking Veterans' Day with a message and a link to Serve.org. It's a website full of ways to help military families across the country. One of my six rules to life is the absolute truism that one of the most sure-fire ways to feel better in your own life when you feel low is to help someone who is worse off than yourself. Military families often struggle to get by because of their nomadic lifestyles regardless of whether all members are stateside. Serve.org is a great way to see how you can make your own and someone else's lives richer, often spending nothing but your time.

ESPN alerted me to this last story. The universities of Maryland, Texas Tech and Utah have teamed up with Under Armour to raise money for the Wounded Warriors Project. All three teams wore or will wear custom camouflage uniforms in games last weekend and this which feature camouflage numbers and details. The players' last names are replaced with one of the core values of the armed services - duty, honor, freedom, courage, commitment, integrity, country and service. The jerseys will be auctioned off after the games in which they're worn, and 100 percent of the proceeds go to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Better late than never?...

Okay, so first of all, my apologies. This week got a little crazy for me, and I didn't managed to post on Thursday. I started this blog when I had little to do at work, and now, oddly, that I'm less employed and a part-time grad student, I actually have far more to do in life than I did when I had a full-time job.

I composed this post mainly of four stories that are pretty cool. The first is a YouTube video which my friend Katie sent me. It's billed as someone who actually walked across the United States, but regardless of whether that's actually true, the music and editing on this video makes the few minutes you waste on it totally worth it.

Yahoo! Sports' Rivals blog had a story highlighting the fact sometimes you can have two winners at the end of a game (even when you're not playing soccer). Jarod Claybourn, head coach of Sterling (N.J.) High School's football team, managed to break a two-year long losing streak. He did it against Mike Karp and Gateway High School. But in the process, Gateway's own losing streak extended to 17 games - the length that Sterling had reached before snapping the skid. So what did Claybourn do with his longed-for winning game ball? He gave it to Karp and Gateway High...

The last two stories are related in topic and come from MSNBC.com. In both cases, the articles tell of thieves who had a change of heart. In the first, a homeless man who was held up in front of his shelter received his belongings back. In the second, someone burglarized an art gallery but decided to give the items back, leaving them with a note at a local church.

Reunion crazy...

So I had an entirely different theme planned for today and then three separate reunion stories popped up on my Google alerts. It depends on your entertainment proclivities, but I imagine these stories probably qualify as good news to some people. They do to me, at least. :)

Recently a book came past me at the library called "Totally Tubular '80s Toys". It is hot pink and highlights all the greatest '80s toys by year. It was a fantastic trip down memory lane. So when I saw this story from London's Daily Mail, it immediately caught my eye and was like a little detour off that lane. Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter, better known as Bill and Ted, were spotted out at the movies together and there is talk of a third installment of excellent adventures...

The cast of one of my favorite '80s flicks also reunited earlier this week. Christopher Lloyd, Michael J. Fox, and Lea Thompson - better known as Doc Brown, Marty McFly and Lorraine McFly - recently celebrated the 25th anniversary of the fabulous movie "Back to the Future". It grossed $380 million dollars and was the biggest hit of 1985, according to CBS. To commemorate the anniversary, BTTF is coming out on Blu-Ray with never-before-seen-footage. Those are four of my favorite words in entertainment... :)

The Daily Mail seems to be all over the reunion stories. This afternoon, 45 years after "The Sound of Music" debuted, the movie version of the Von Trapp family - including Dame Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer - joined Oprah on her show. The movie won five Oscars in 1965 and the enduring hatred of Plummer for its saccharin-y sweetness. But he seems to have softened in his old age, speaking (positively) about the movie for the first time in decades. The end of the article does little bios on what all the actors have been up to for the last almost-half century.

(Photo courtesy of The Daily Mail)

Think pink...

Every October, the landscape is blanketed not only with leaves but with everything pink. Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2010, the effort to remind everyone about the dangers of breast cancer and women in particular about the importance of early detection shows up in anything from pink ribbons to men's athletic gear.

National Breast Cancer Awareness Month began as a collaboration between the American Association of Family Physicians and other sponsors to promote the importance of self- and physician examinations in the hope that fewer women will be caught off guard and fall victim to the cancer. As the years have passed the awareness activities have grown, and the treatment techniques have advanced. London's Daily Mirror posted an article highlighting some of those advances in techniques and treatments for diagnosing and treating breast cancer.

The idea of wearing ribbons for awareness is believed to have started when people wore yellow ribbons during the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. It is then somewhat interesting (and really good for women there) that the pink ribbons and wearing of pink has spread to the Middle East.

My friend Matt publishes a blog called the Middle East Alliance, and in his last email, there was a post from a Saudi Arabian female hospital worker talking about breast cancer awareness in her country. The post comes complete with a photo of her custom pink ribbon-edged abaya and pink Coach purse.

Today's last story is from the Rockford, Ill. Register Star. It profiled a local small business owner, Terri Johnston, who uses her successful battle against breast cancer as inspiration in her efforts to help other women deal with the effects of treatment. The pain and nausea from chemotherapy can be dealt with, but Johnston helps women work through the maybe harder issue of losing self-identity with the hair loss.

Sometimes they just write themselves...

Trapped since August 5, all 33 Chilean miners and six rescuers have emerged from nearly 2000 feet below the earth's surface. The rescue was originally thought to take place near Christmas, but serious international cooperation brought the miners back to their families two months sooner than expected.

As the Christian Science Monitor notes, the rescue took advantage of drills and workers from Canada, NASA experts who helped build the rescue capsule Phoenix II, a huge drilling tool from the US and a drilling expert from Australia who had until recently been in Afghanistan, drilling wells there.

The Phoenix II capsule carried the miners up to safety and fresh air, but those who went down the hole aren't receiving perhaps the attention they deserve. The Sydney Morning Herald did a piece on Manuel Gonzalez, the brave rescuer who served as guinea pig, descending first into the pit housing the miners. Coincidentally, the Phoenix II reunited two long-lost soccer rivals. Rescuer Gonzalez had played professional soccer against miner Franklin Lobos Ramirez 25 years ago, and the pair hadn't met since, according to the Mirror.

Irish Central summed up the feeling evoked from the nearly miraculous and totally successful rescue fairly well in this opinion piece. It focuses on how the world doesn't so much have stories like this to rally around that often. Many media watch outlets have already noted how intensely the world watched on TV and online as Chile hauled up its miners one by one. Some of the viewers weren't the average nightly news' demographic; they were children. CNN had a story on touching reactions by children around the world.

(Photo courtesy of Reuters)

(Un-) Earthly delights...

Today's post is a short one, featuring stories from both above and below Planet Earth. (Those DVDs, by the way, are phenomenal. Definitely worth a watch.)

MSNBC posted a story today saying the 33 trapped Chilean miners could be freed by Saturday. It seems they will finish drilling by this weekend and are contemplating putting in a steel sleeve through the hole before pulling up the miners. Originally estimated to be freed around Christmas, this is absolutely good news for the poor men stuck below ground and their anxious families above. 

The second story isn't so much strictly good news as pretty cool. My friend Stef posted this on Twitter (different article though) - scientists have found a planet not that far from Earth which could sustain life. Called a Goldilocks planet (get it?), Gilese 581g orbits a red dwarf and is one of six planets in its little system about 120 trillion miles away.

(Photo courtesy of USA Today)

Thoughts on charity...

As the Great Recession drags on, it can be hard to believe that people are doing anything other than keeping their own heads above water. But these three stories prove individuals and companies are keeping an eye out for others.

In a previous post, I mentioned Warren Buffett's and Bill Gates' "Giving Pledge" - the two billionaires calling on the richest Americans and other citizens of the world to contribute part of their fortunes to the less fortunate.

Recently, according to CNBC, the pair took their message on the road to what some consider to be the economic giant of the future - China. They met with 50 businessmen and philanthropists to find out about the charity work already going on there as well as talk about ways to get the traditionally skittish Chinese to develop their own methods of philanthropy.

MSNBC posted a story on the first-ever world-wide charity index. Australia and New Zealand tied for first, while the US tied for fifth (with 55 percent) in the ranking of 153 nations. The index measured the willingness of each country's citizens to donate time and/or money to charity. China ranked near the bottom, so perhaps Buffett and Gates can make some headway there...

Finally, in this time where companies are pinching pennies and slashing budgets, LEGO has taken a stand for its workers. The Wall Street Journal blogged that the Denmark-based company has begun holding an annual "Stress-Free Day" for its 600 employees in Connecticut. Workers there are encouraged to remember adults need playtime too by getting beauty treatments, playing sports or kicking back with video games. The day is capped off with a happy hour featuring a beer- and wine-tasting.

(Photo courtesy of The Wall Street Journal)

Grab bag!

Today's post is going to be a mixed bag - all sorts of different things. I want to start with a story on Scout.com.

The subject of the story is fans' behavior at University of Maryland - College Park football games. While not necessarily good news in and of itself, the fact it was written by my friend Sam, and featured on MSN.com absolutely is. Congrats, Sam!

MSNBC.com posted a feature on the newest world's oldest man. Walter Breuning, a 114 year-old Montana resident, recently addressed local dignitaries and representatives from Guinness Book of World Records, recalling his youth (which did not include electricity for 11 years) and imploring people to be more tolerant.

Finally, the photo on this post (courtesy of the BBC) is of the harvest moon. The BBC has a slideshow of images related to the moon, including some cool photos of a Chinese lantern festival celebrating the harvest. It's the brightest in over a decade and coincides with the actual fall equinox (which will not occur again until 2029).

What else is pretty cool is the fact the harvest moon coincides with an astronomical oddity - Jupiter and Uranus, though really very far from each other, are lined up right now. This article explains all the astronomy parts, but what it boils down to is there are some awesome things going on in the sky this week. Well, at least to my budding inner science geek.

Worldwide bulletin...

I guess the big news this week is the release of the American hiker Sarah Shourd from an Iranian prison, where she and her two friends were imprisoned last year for allegedly spying. They were hiking along the Iran/Iraq border and apparently strayed into Iranian territory.

According to ABC News, part of the condition of her release was the potential for deteriorated health due to a precancerous condition. The Shourd family was reunited in Oman and hope for the release of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer.

Iran isn't exactly known for its human rights record. But now, thanks to billionaire George Soros, The Human Rights Watch will be able to continue its fine work. Soros plans to give $100 million to the watchdog group to expand its work worldwide. It is the largest gift Soros has ever made and the largest ever received by the group. According to MSNBC, Soros has already donated $700 million this year to various charitable groups (including the gift to The Human Rights Watch).

On a completely unrelated note, everyone loves a party. Forgetting its drug issues for the moment, Mexico celebrated the 200th anniversary of its independence. The Washington Post blog has some incredible photos of the festivities, including the one that is featured in this blog. I'm particularly impressed by the "O".

Seeing red...and green...

It's probably one of the hottest days of the year and the East Coast is facing one of summer's favorite natural disasters - the hurricane - but for some reason Christmas colors came to mind today.

MSNBC has a video story today on the world's largest tomato toss, and it all goes for a cause. I'm not exactly sure how the money was raised but lots of people got together in Reno to throw tomatoes at one another, raising $20,000 for the American Cancer Society in the process.

In another bit of fun, RTT News reports the Smithsonian has acquired the original Kermit the Frog puppet. Jim Henson's widow Jane donated the world's most famous frog and nine of his cohorts from "Sam and Friends" to the National Museum of American History. Kermit got his start on the show in 1955 and transitioned to "Sesame Street" and "The Muppet Show" after "Sam and Friends" went off the air in 1961.