It Wasn't All Bad
Students at C.W. Baker High School in Baldwinsville,N.Y., are learning about the demands of unwanted parenthood.As part of a child-phychology class,they spend a weekend caring for "Baby Think It Over," a computerized infant doll that is programmed to cry at random.The teenager must then feed,rock,burp,or otherwise tend to the android until it stops wailling.The idea is to trevent pregnancies by demonstrating that infant care is a 24/7 job. The message seems to be sinking in."I like babies,"said junior Maggie Stanistreet," but I want to go to college.
When cargo worker Robert Lewis opened a misplaced 40-pound cargo bag that he had found at Kansas City International Airport,his eyes popped. Inside was $266.000 in jewerlry and gems.Lewis,36, traced the find back to jewerlry-store chain Helzberg Diamonds,which has given him a $10,000 award for his honestly.Lewis intends to use the money to pay for his up coming wedding."They could have just told me,Thank You and walked away,so I truly appreciate that, he said. The company says the bag ws being transported by a Brinks armored car; an investigation has been lauched.
On July 15,1942,eight U.S. warplanes bound for England were forced to ditch in Greenland.Though the crews were rescued,the aircraft were left behind,eventually becoming entombed in ice. Now , one of the planes--a P-38 fighter nicknamed "Glacier Girl"--is completing its mission having been recovered and restored at a cost of more than $4 million.The fighter is currently,in stages,from Teleroro, N.J. to Canada,Greenland.Iceland,and Ultimately to England.The last surviving mission member,Col.Brad McManus,89, has gone along for part of the ride.'it's a thrill to know this is occuring," he said,"and to think they are going to fly it over the same route that we flew in 1942."
Archaeologists have identified the first mummy of an Egytian ruler since King Tutankhamen was discovered in 1922.The remains are of Queen Hatshepsut,who resigned in the 15th century B.C. and died at about age 50.The skeleton had originally been found in 1903 in an obscure tomb in the Valley of the Kings,but it was never identified.But a few weeks ago, a CT scan of a wooden box known to have belonged to Hatshepsut revealed a tooth that precisely fit into the mummy's mouth.DNA evidence confirmed the connection." It turned out that this box held the key to the riddle," said Zahi Hawass,secretary-general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities.
The Massai tribesmen of East Africa have long celebrated their manhood by killing lions--especially when the lions eat their goats and cattle.But now that the animals are at risk of being wiped out,and the Masai have now joined a campaign to save them.A masai troupe is spending the summer at the San Diego Zoo, where they are re-enacting their traditional hunts in a dance routine near the lion cage and spreading the message that the majestic beasts should be spared."We have decided as a community to put down our spears and try to save the loin,"said Noah Nchona Ntiata,the troupe's elder.For their cooperation,the Kenyan government has begun compensating the tribesmen for livestock losses caused by the lions.
Kent Couch had always wanted to fly.So last week, he strapped 105 helium baloons to his lawn chair and took to the skies from his home in Bends,Ore. For nine hours,the 47-year-old gas station owner drifted east using bags of water for ballast while his family and dog followed below in a three-car caravan.After 193 miles,Couch took aim with his BB gun and popped enough baloons to settle down softly."When you're lying in the grass on a summer day and you see the clouds,you wish you could jump on them," he said."This is as close as you can come."
In a remote jungle of central Vietam,scientist have discovered 11 new species of plants and animals, including previously unknown types of snakes,butterflies,and orchids.All were found in the so-called Green Corridor,the tropical forest that thrive on Vietnam's Annamites mountain range.Scientists were particularly excited about the orchids, which include rare varieties that are leafless. " You only discover so many new species in very special places," said Chris Dickinson of the Worldwide Fund for Nature. "The Green Corridor is one of them.
When contractor Paul Barnett began tearing down the 11-story Woodward Building in Washington, D.C. , he found a battered suitcase. Inside, was a trove of personal items,including family photos, a 1924 high school yearbook,and a handwritten paper titled "The Causes of the World War." There was only one clue to link the belongings to a potential owner: the name "Shaughnessy" cropped up several times , including a Brian Shaughnessy,who was listed in a 1952 elementary school graduation program. Barnett tracked him down,and Shaughnessy, a 68-year-old local lawyer,established that the suitcase belonged to his family. " I'm so glad to get it," he said. The items "don't mean anything to anyone else,but they mean a lot to me.
When the driver of an Orlando school bus suffered a seizure last week and lost control,39 students began screaming in terror. The bus careened off a guardrail and was headed for disaster. But Mariah Hutchinson,17, jumped from her seat and grabbed the steering wheel,wrestling the bus away from the guardrail. Joshua Cosme, also 17, pulled the emergency brake and brought the vehicle to a stop. Nobody was seriously ijured. The students "Quick thinking," said Florida Highway Patrol Sgt. Jorge Delahoz, "Kept this from becoming a tragic."
When Karen and Mark Cline of Mansfield, Ohio, were married in 1980, they hired photographer Jim Wagner to record the happy day. But when the cermony was over, they couldn't afford to pay him, and they were left with just one photo of Karen coming down the aisle,snapped by a guest. But last week, Wagner surprised the Clines with the wedding album, which he found while doing some cleaning. In tears, Karen paid him his long overdue fee pf $150. "I kept hugging and thanking him," she said, "but how do you thank someone enough when they hand you something you never dreamed about getting?"
LaVerne and Beverly Maves of Edgerton, Wis., certainly know the meaning of dedication. LaVerne,87, and Beverly,82, have been handling the same newspaper route for 54 years, delivering the Wisconsin State Journal every single day--other than during a blizzard last year and LaVerne's heart surgery in 1996. The couple began the pre-dawn route in 1953 to earn extra cash, with Beverly rolling and bagging the papers and LaVerne tossing them from the car. "We didn't think we'd do it very long-just to get over the hump," Beverly said. "neither one of them can barely walk anymore," said one long-time customer," but I'll be danged it they don't deliver that newspaper every morning."
An annonymous donor has given a staggering $100 million to a foundation in Erie, Pa., that distributes funds to local charities. Mike Batchelor, president of the Erie Community Foundation, would say only that the donor has been working with the group for years to identify deserving recipients struggling Rust Belt community have been informed of their grants. Kitty Cancilla, who runs a homeless shelter, cried when she learned it will get $2 million. The shelter's previous largest donation was $25,000. While speculation about the donor's identity is rife, most folks simply refer to him or her as "Anonymous Friend."
Photographs of Abraham Lincoln are extremely rare--only about 130 are Known to exist. But now, historians have tentatively identified two more, thanks to the efforts of an amateur history buff. John Richter, 51, of Hanover, Pa., was examining thousands of photos of Gettysburg,digitized in 2000 by the Library of Congress, when he spotted a tall man, in a stovepipe hat, saluting Union troops. Experts say the man appears to be Lincoln, just prior to the delivery of his historic address. "When I saw it for the first time, my jaw dropped," said Bob Zeller, president of the Center for Civil War Photography.There is only one other photo of Lincoln in Gettysburg.
When 31-year old Aaron Giles of Gloucester, Mass. was about 5, he lost his ID bracelet while playing in his grandfather's barn in Fairmont,Minn. The barn was later dismantled and moved to nearby Elmore, where it was used to house chickens.Recently, poultry workers were slaughtering some of the birds when they noticed something shiny in a gizzard. It was Giles bracelet, which had apparently been transported with the dismantled barn and swallowed by a chicken. "It was in pretty immaculate shape," said Giles, who hadn't seen the bracelet in more than 25 years."It was quite the surprise."
