Amazonian Mushroom Eats Indestructible Plastics [Science]

We use polyurethane to make just about everything—garden hoses, furniture, the entirety of my local 99-cent store. It's easy to produce, durable, and dirt cheap. What it isn't is recyclable—there isn't a single natural process that breaks it down. That is until a newly-discovered Amazonian fungus takes a bite. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/Wcvr501K5Rw/amazonian-mushroom-eats-indestructible-plastics

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Spanish economy shrinks in Q4, nearing recession (AP)

MADRID ? Spain's economy contracted by 0.3 percent during the fourth quarter, according to official figures released Wednesday, edging the country closer to a new recession as it deals with huge levels of unemployment and painful austerity cuts.

The figure announced by the National Statistics Institute broke a run of seven quarters without economic contraction. The institute said GDP fell 0.3 percent during the quarter compared with a year earlier. For all of 2011, it increased 0.7 percent.

The economy is expected to slide further through March, placing Spain back in its second recession in less than three years. A technical recession is defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction.

The country, where unemployment has hit a eurozone-high of 22.9 percent, is struggling to avoid slumping further into a debt crisis that has seen Greece, Ireland and Portugal needing financial bailouts.

Spain began in 2010 to emerge from a near two-year recession triggered by the collapse of a real estate bubble that had fueled growth for nearly a decade and helped make it Europe's top job creator up to 2008.

But the recovery has gone into reverse. The Bank of Spain says the debt crisis has sapped business confidence and dried up bank credits, leading to a huge drop in domestic demand, only partially offset by strong exports.

The bank predicts the economy will contract 1.5 percent this year while the International Monetary Fund says Spain will stay in recession until the end of 2013.

The figures are putting the new right-leaning Popular Party government, which took office last month, under increased pressures to usher in reforms.

On Friday, it introduced a budget-discipline law that will allow the government to impose penalties on debt-laden regional governments if they run deficits after 2020. It has also promised labor and financial sector overhauls in the next few weeks.

Spain's deficit for 2011 is expected to be 8 percent of national income. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government says it is still committed to reducing that to 4.4 percent in 2012 and down to the EU limit of 3 percent the following year, although with a recession looming, that pledge may prove impossible to keep.

Since taking office Dec. 23, the government has also approved austerity measures and tax increases it hopes will bring in some euro15 billion ($19.7 billion) to help ease the swollen deficit.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/eurobiz/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_spain_financial_crisis

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Feds: Megaupload user data could be gone Thursday (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Federal prosecutors say data from users of Megaupload could be deleted as soon as Thursday.

U.S. prosecutors have blocked access to Megaupload and charged seven men, saying the site facilitated millions of illegal downloads of movies, music and other content.

Megaupload hires outside companies to store the data. But Megaupload attorney Ira Rothken says the government has frozen its money.

A letter filed by prosecutors Friday says storage companies Carpathia Hosting Inc. and Cogent Communications Group Inc. may begin deleting data Thursday. Spokespersons for the two companies did not respond to messages Sunday night.

Rothken says the company is working with prosecutors to try to keep the data from being erased. He says at least 50 million Megaupload users have data in danger of being erased.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120130/ap_on_re_us/us_megaupload

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"The Artist" director Michel Hazanavicius wins DGA award (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) ? "The Artist" director Michel Hazanavicius was named the year's best feature film director by the Directors Guild of America on Saturday, further positioning the silent movie-era romance as a frontrunner for Oscars.

The movie about a fading star whose career is eclipsed by the woman he loves just as talkies are putting an end to silent pictures has been a critical darling throughout the Hollywood's current awards season.

"This is really touching and moving for me," said French director Hazanavicius upon accepting his award at the Grand Ballroom adjacent to the Kodak Theatre where the Oscars, the film industry's highest honors, will be given out on February 26.

"It's maybe the highest recognition I could hope for," he said.

The DGA Awards are a key indicator of who may win Academy Awards next month because only six times since the DGA began handing out annual honors in 1948 has the its winner failed to also be named best director by Oscar voters.

More important, there is a long history among members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which gives out the Oscars, to give their Academy Award for best film to the movie made by the winner of best director.

The next stop in the race for Oscars is Sunday's Screen Actors Guild awards in Los Angeles where "The Artist" will look to extend its streak of victories, including a Golden Globe for best film musical or comedy and honors from critics groups.

The DGA also gives out other awards, including one for best film documentary, which went to James Marsh for "Project Nim."

Among TV award winners, Patty Jenkins was given the DGA trophy for best drama series for the pilot episode of "The Killing" and Robert B. Weide took home the DGA award for best comedy series for an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

(Reporting By Bob Tourtellotte; Editing by Bill Trott)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/celebrity/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120129/en_nm/us_dgaawards

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Some Reactions After the Challenger Explosion (ContributorNetwork)

The space shuttle Challenger explosion on Jan. 28, 1986, with its seven-member crew was the most traumatic disaster of its type in history. It occurred before a live audience, broadcast around the world in real time.

While the causes of the disaster have been covered ad infinitum, there were some little noted reactions that bear touching on.

President Ronald Reagan Addresses the Nation

On the day the Challenger was destroyed, President Reagan was putting the finishing touches on the State of the Union speech. It had been hoped he would be able to mention the space shuttle mission, which would have been in orbit at the time, with Christa McAuliffe, the teacher in space.

Instead, Reagan gave another speech, in a televised address to the nation recorded at the Teaching American History page. The speech, one of the most moving of his presidency, had everything a memorial speech should have. It touched on the sacrifices of the crew and the importance of the space program. It had a historical reference to Francis Drake, who died at sea. It ended with a quote from "High Flight," the greatest aviation poem ever written. He said that the Challenger crew had "slipped the surly bonds of Earth" to "touch the face of God."

Three days later, Reagan journeyed to the Johnson Spaceflight Center in Houston to give another comforting speech, this time to the bereaved space workers who felt keenly the devastating loss. He had something fitting to say about each of the fallen Challengers. He gave the requisite vow to continue the space program and to not give up exploration in the face of tragedy.

The Challenger Center

In an attempt to turn tragedy into something positive, the families of the Challenger crew, particularly June Scobee (now June Scobee-Rogers), herself a teacher, created the Challenger Center for Space Flight Education. There are Challenger Centers across the U.S., in Canada, Great Britain and South Korea. The mission of the Challenger Center is to further science education through a variety of programs, including training teachers in the art of teaching science.

Challenger Memorials

There are a number of Challenger Memorials, including one at Arlington National Cemetery and a Space Shuttle Memorial Park near the Johnson Spaceflight Center. The film "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" contained a tribute, "The cast and crew of Star Trek wish to dedicate this film to the men and women of the spaceship Challenger whose courageous spirit shall live to the 23rd century and beyond..." Seven asteroids were named for each of the Challenger crew. According to NASA, craters on the moon have also been named after the Challenger Seven.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of Children of Apollo and The Last Moonwalker . He has written on space subjects for a variety of periodicals, including The Houston Chronicle, The Washington Post, USA Today, the L.A. Times, and The Weekly Standard.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/space/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120129/us_ac/10899887_some_reactions_after_the_challenger_explosion

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SAG Awards menu is months in the making (AP)

LOS ANGELES ? When your dinner party guests include Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Kate Winslet and Glenn Close, and the whole affair is televised live, it can take months to plan the menu. That's why the team behind the Screen Actors Guild Awards began putting together the plate for Sunday's ceremony months ago.

It was still summer when show producer Kathy Connell and director Jeff Margolis first sat down with chef Suzanne Goins of Los Angeles eatery Lucques with a tall order: Create a meal that is delicious at room temperature, looks beautiful on TV, is easy to eat and appeals to Hollywood tastes. Oh, and no poppyseeds, soups, spicy dishes, or piles of onions or garlic.

"It can't drip, stick in their teeth or be too heavy," Connell said. "We have to appease all palates."

The chef put together a plate of possibilities: Slow-roasted salmon with yellow beets, lamb with cous cous and spiced cauliflower and roasted root vegetables with quinoa. There was also a chopped chicken salad and another chicken dish with black beans.

To ensure the dishes are both tasty and TV-ready, Connell and Margolis, along with the show's florist and art director, dined together at this summertime lunch on tables set to replicate those that will be in the Shrine Exposition Center during the ceremony. The pewter, crushed-silk tablecloths and white lilies you'll see on TV Sunday were also chosen months ago.

The diners discussed the look of the plate, the size of the portions and the vegetarian possibilities.

"We'd like the portions a little larger," Connell told the chef.

"And a little more sauce on the salmon," Margolis added.

Come Sunday, it's up to Goins to prepare 1,200 of the long-planned meals for the A-list audience.

___

Online:

www.sagawards.org

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120128/ap_en_tv/us_sag_awards_menu

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Investing in Chinese Stocks: Capture Growth and Manage Risk

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by Carl Delfeld, Investment U Senior Analyst
Thursday, January 26, 2012: Issue #1694

Soon I?ll be publishing a new book and releasing a special report with sharply different messages.

New World, New Boom: Capture Growth Like the New Tycoons is a very blue-ocean optimistic book. It?s chock full of strategies and ideas to help investors grow wealthy with emerging and frontier markets.

The special report aimed at institutional investors, How Seven Trends Could Break China, challenges the conventional wisdom that China is an economic juggernaut and a one-way bet for investors. Its basic premise is that China?s economic and political system isn?t sustainable and will end badly.

Am I crazy bipolar or what?

Let me explain.

China?s Strategy Has Run its Course

You would be hard pressed to find someone more enthusiastic about emerging markets than I am. During the past 30 years, their progress has been remarkable, as market reforms and breakthroughs in technology and communications pulled hundreds of millions of people out of poverty.

The world filled in, and in my view, we?re just getting started.

China, in particular, is a remarkable growth story. China now exports more in one day than it did in the entire year of 1978, just before it opened up to the world. In 1990, its economy was the same size of Taiwan; now it?s more than 10 times larger.

But in my personal view, the strategy that fueled China?s success has largely run its course. More importantly, its political and economic system isn?t flexible enough to adjust to the serious challenges that confront it.

Here?s how Minxin Pei puts it in this week?s Financial Times:

?As China marks the 20th anniversary of Deng?s history-changing tour, the most ironic fact ? and perhaps China?s worst-kept secret ? is that pro-market economic reform in China has been dead for some time.?

So if you carry my thinking to its logical conclusion, the biggest threat to my optimistic view for robust Asian growth isn?t the euro debt crisis or America?s out of control debt and spending.

It?s China.

If this is unthinkable to you, I have a question: Did you expect unbeatable Japan to stagnate for two decades after its property and banking crisis or the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union?

Not So Fast, Though

But even if I?m right about this risk, I strongly recommend that you not go out and sell all your China stocks for a number of reasons.

First, the direction and/or pace of the seven negative trends in my report aren?t set in stone. While I?m skeptical that ?moneybags communism? can endure, the government has tools at hand to kick the can down the road, and they?ll certainly try to do just that as long as possible.

Second, Chinese stock markets are usually driven by liquidity and momentum rather than fundamentals. There were many years during the 1990s when the Chinese economy was growing at 10%-plus rates and the stock markets did nothing.

Take a look at iShares FTSE China 25 Index Fund (NYSE: FXI), the ETF basket containing China?s largest 25 companies. While China?s GDP growth is consistently growing at 10%-plus pace, FXI?s performance is on a rollercoaster.

Investing in Chinese Stocks

A buy and hold strategy for China has been, well, disappointing.

As 2012 markets opened, the Shanghai market is coming off a two-year period of weakness ? down 37%. Therefore, many stocks, and especially the banks, are trading at attractive valuations. This is why I wrote several times in the past few months that China stocks look dirt cheap.

This doesn?t mean the market will go up, but it does make it more likely. And so far in 2012, FXI is showing an upward trend.

On the liquidity issue, some of the domino trends might boost the market in the short term. As Chinese property markets slide, investors may very well move this wall of liquidity to stock markets. After all, what other choices do they have?

The state banking system set interest rates so low that they?re negative after adjusting for inflation. No wonder the Chinese who are able are moving capital offshore.

The One Simple Step

But there are simple steps you can take to limit or hedge Chinese risk. And the most important is to put in place a 15% to 20% trailing stop when investing in FXI, or any Chinese stock for that matter.

By doing this, you can capture any momentum in the Chinese market, but you?ll also protect yourself against the risks of continued market weakness.

So keep investing in emerging markets and Chinese growth, just be careful to manage the risks.

Good Investing,

Carl Delfeld

Any investment contains risk. Please see our disclaimer
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Source: http://www.investmentu.com/2012/January/investing-in-chinese-stocks.html

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PFT: Revis says Ryan unaware of Jets' chemistry woes

Dallas Cowboys v New York GiantsGetty Images

Bills QB Ryan Fitzpatrick suggested the team wasn?t ready to handle success this season.

G.M. Jeff Ireland hopes to uncover some future Dolphins at the Senior Bowl.

Patriots S James Ihedigbo showed Giants WR Victor Cruz around the UMass campus seven years ago.

A strong review of the upcoming HBO documentary about former Jets QB Joe Namath.

Kevin Cowherd of the Baltimore Sun comes up with some reasons why the Ravens should keep offensive coordinator Cam Cameron.

With no more head coaching vacancies, Mike Zimmer is back to solely concentrating on the Bengals defense.

Members of the Browns hierarchy won?t be in Indianapolis for the Super Bowl.

An appreciation of the career of DL Chris Hoke, who is retiring from the Steelers.

New coaches and new players made a big difference in the Texans secondary.

Said Colts coach Chuck Pagano about whether he?ll coach QB Peyton Manning, ?Uh, you know, I?ve got a text or call out to Rob Lowe and I haven?t heard back from Rob yet. I?m going to have to get back to you on that one.?

The Jaguars haven?t gotten much from their recent top draft picks.

A look at the Titans through the financial lens.

The Broncos could use a bit more pass rush from the middle of the line.

Figuring out how much to use Dexter McCluster is something the Chiefs need to do this offseason.

Said Raiders P Shane Lechler of new coach Dennis Allen, I think it will be a good fit for us. ?He?s a young, energetic guy. Smart guy. Been through a lot with Atlanta, then a lot with New Orleans, over to Denver and that defense. We?ll take all the help we can get right now.?

Chargers QB Philip Rivers doesn?t think the team is a long way from a return to the playoffs.

Cowboys RB DeMarco Murray says that he doesn?t pay attention to negative tweets.

Indianapolis will be a trip to the Super Bowl and a trip home for Giants LB Mathias Kiwanuka.

Eagles coach Andy Reid finally sat down and shared his thoughts about ? basketball.

New Redskins receivers coach Ike Hilliard is still getting the team?s offensive terminology down.

The new Bears general manager will have to hit the ground running.

North Alabama CB Janoris Jenkins is a player that Lions fans should keep an eye on in the Senior Bowl.

Packers C Scott Wells is enjoying the Pro Bowl before he starts worrying about his future.

New Vikings defensive coordinator Alan Williams said the team?s players have a clean slate this offseason.

Who are the likeliest cap casualties with the Falcons?

Panthers QB Cam Newton was catching some passes from Aaron Rodgers at Pro Bowl practice.

Said Saints T Jermon Bushrod, ?Teams fall short. It?s gonna happen every year. And it definitely still stings a little. But you?ve got to stick together as a team and remember there?s always next year. ? We?re too blessed to be down for too long.?

Buccaneers G Jeremy Zuttah played for Greg Schiano at Rutgers and looks forward to playing for him again in Tampa.

The Cardinals? coaching staff might be impacted by Greg Schiano?s arrival in Tampa.

Bryan Burwell of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wonders what keeping the Rams is really worth to St. Louis.

Wide receivers will be the first priority for the 49ers this offseason.

Seahawks S Earl Thomas is enjoying his first trip to the Pro Bowl.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/01/26/revis-says-rex-didnt-know-about-problems-in-jets-locker-room/related/

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Wounded soldier reunites with his war puppy, Smoke

  • It's tough out there for a...

    A cat who went missing for nine years. A beagle who went missing for five. An enormous, affable hog who survived a serious truck accident on the way to the sausage plant ? thereby avoiding the fate of being turned into sausage.


    These and other amazing tails ? er, tales ? of survival are contained right here in this slideshow. Some feature reunions with long-lost family members thanks to the miracle of microchips. Others spotlight the acts of kind-hearted humans. All of them will make you smile.

  • A dog's four-year, 1,100-mile journey

    Who knows exactly where Mickey the Boston terrier went, what he ate, how he traveled and who he met during his four long years away from home? Well, Mickey does ? but he's keeping his secrets to himself.

    The pup disappeared from his backyard in Kansas City, Mo. ? and about four years later in 2007, his owners were stunned to receive a phone call from an animal shelter 1,100 miles away in Billings, Mont., saying that Mickey had been found and identified with the help of a microchip. Mickey's family said their dog no longer knew his name when he came home, and his teeth bore signs of wear and tear ? but other than that, he was fine, and they were thrilled to have him back in their lives.

  • Oh Fudge!

    Attention, pet owners: Here?s a cautionary tale about leaving washing machine and dryer doors open. Ashlea Boon of Somerset, England left her dryer open in August 2010 ? and Fudge, her tiny new kitten, hopped inside the machine and curled up on a soft duvet cover for a cat nap. Boon had no idea Fudge was in there when she switched the dryer on to give the bedding a refresher spin.

    Fudge spun with the blanket for a five-minute cycle. When Boon removed it from the dryer, she was horrified to see her tiny kitten collapse lifeless on the floor.

    ?She was limp and wasn?t moving,? Boon said, according to the British newspaper the Daily Mail. ?She was just dead when she came out. She was very limp and just lying on the floor. I was very shocked. It was horrible.?

    Boon, a nurse, rubbed Fudge?s belly in an effort to revive her, and she started breathing again. She then rushed Fudge to the vet, who feared the kitten had brain and vision damage. But after being treated for 24 hours and given steroids, Fudge bounced back. She?s doing just fine today.

    ?It was really emotional and horrible,? Boon said. ?I would warn anyone else with pets to be aware when leaving the tumble dryer door open.?

  • Gone with the wind, saved by a psychic

    Chihuahuas are tiny little dogs, and at 6 pounds, Tinker Bell the Chihuahua was especially small. So perhaps it won't come as a huge surprise to learn that a 70-mph gust of wind was able to sweep the little girl off her feet. That's precisely what happened to her in April while she was minding her own business at a Michigan flea market.


    What may come as more of a surprise is that Tinker Bell flew completely out of the sight of her owners, Dorothy and Lavern Utley, who turned to a pet psychic for help. They said the psychic directed them to a wooded spot almost a mile away from the flea market ? and, what do you know? There was Tinker Bell! After two days on her own, she was hungry and dirty but otherwise fine. Dorothy Utley said the little dog "just went wild" when she saw Utley.

  • Should I call myself a cab, too?

    Talk about planning ahead. The owners of an African grey parrot in Japan spent two years teaching the bird to recite his full name and address in case he ever got lost.

    And that's just what the parrot did in May 2008 when he escaped from his cage and had to be rescued from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. He spent a night at a police station, where he stayed quiet as a church mouse ? but after he got transferred over to a veterinary hospital, he started chatting it up. "I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird announced to the vet, and he also spelled out his address and sang songs to the delight of the hospital staff. Because the address the bird provided was flawless, he was easily reunited with his family.

  • Kitty rescued from PVC pipe

    Myra Amado of Wareham, Mass., heard crying sounds in her backyard for several days in June 2009, but she just couldn't identify the source of the cries. She finally checked an out-of-the-way area near her shed, and ? gasp! What was that peeking at her out of a section of T-shaped PVC pipe? The head of a tiny orange tabby kitten!


    The 6-week-old feline was wedged inside the pipe so tightly that Amado had to call firefighters for assistance. Two hours and a dollop of vegetable oil later, the kitty was free from the pipe and on her way to a nearby animal shelter, where she was treated for dehydration and a broken paw. The name given to her by her rescuers? Piper.

    Video: Trapped kitten rescued from pipe
  • No swine before its time

    Picture this: An enormous, 800-pound hog is riding in a truck in Arkansas along with about 90 other pigs, unaware that he's bound for the slaughterhouse ? (but maybe slightly suspicious). There's an accident on the journey, and the truck flips. About 60 of the pigs survive. This one escapes.

    Not only does he escape, but he survives on his own for an entire week before deciding to take a dip in LeAnn Baldy's swimming pool. Baldy was stunned when she happened to notice that her pool was overflowing in June 2009. She was even more surprised when she saw the immersed hog cooling off in the water and enjoying a drink.

    This "ham on the lam" was spared a second journey to the sausage plant because slaughterhouse officials had no idea what he had been eating during his week on his own.

  • Reunited after Hurricane Katrina

    This is one of those stories that can make your heart hurt, even though it involves a happy reunion between a man and his dog. The drama began when Jessie Pullins had to evacuate New Orleans with his family in August 2005 as Hurricane Katrina approached. He figured he'd be gone a day ? maybe two at most ? so he left his Labrador-shepherd mix J.J. with a generous helping of food and water.

    Of course, Pullins was not able to return right away. J.J. ultimately got rescued and adopted by two sisters in California who cared for him deeply and wanted to keep him. After legal wrangling, the sisters returned J.J. to Pullins in 2009. The saga is detailed in "Mine," a PBS documentary about pet-ownership disputes in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

  • 'Dead' pet cat returns... nine years later

    Gilly Delaney of Birmingham, England never quite believed it when she was told in 1999 that her pet cat Dixie had been killed by an oncoming car. She always had a feeling the cat might return home ? so much so that she nixed a move to Malta that she and her husband had been considering.

    And sure enough, in 2008, animal shelter workers showed up at the Delaneys' home ? with Dixie! They had found the cat wandering less than half a mile away from the Delaneys' home, and they identified her because she had a microchip. The Delaneys were ecstatic. "Dixie's personality, behavior and little mannerisms have not changed at all," Gilly Delaney told the Daily Mail newspaper. "She is still a happy, contented cat who just wants to sit next to you on the sofa and have a fuss. She hasn't stopped purring since she came back through the door."

  • A 'flush' with death for tiny puppy

    Kids do the darndest things. Especially 4-year-olds who are playing with itty-bitty puppies. Daniel Blair, 4, of Middlesex, England, decided to give his 1-week-old cocker spaniel puppy a bath in the toilet in June 2009 because the puppy was muddy. And then ? oops! ? Daniel flushed the toilet!

    Daniel's mother, Alison, told Britain's Daily Mirror that she was convinced the puppy had drowned. Not so, however. A drainage company used a special camera and found the wet, startled and very alive puppy about 20 yards from the house. Four hours later, the puppy was out and safe. "I'm so, so sorry, " Daniel told the Daily Mirror. "I won't do it again."

    Video: Puppy survives trip down the toilet
  • 'Please Rocco, come home'

    After the Villacis' beagle Rocco strayed from their yard in Queens, N.Y., in 2003, the whole family was devastated ? but no one took it harder than little Natalie. The 5-year-old cried for extended periods, and she never parted with the dog's favorite toy, a stuffed cat.

    And then in 2008, more than five years after he had disappeared, he turned up 850 miles away at an animal-control office in Georgia. He was reunited with his family because of his microchip. "When my mom told me they found Rocco, I cried hysterically ? just like I did when they told me he was lost," Natalie told the New York Post. "Every time I would see a dog on the street, I would say to my mom, 'Maybe Rocco will come back.' She would say that he probably isn't going to come back. I would say, 'I know, but maybe he will.'...At night, I would wish, 'Please Rocco, come home.' And now that wish came true."

  • Somebody help this poor doggie

    This is the story of an impossibly small Chihuahua and an impossibly large barbecue fork, and it is not for the faint of heart.

    It happened at a barbecue in London, Ky. Somehow a huge barbecue fork broke in two and went soaring through the air ? and its 3-inch prongs lodged deep inside Smokey the dog's head. The 12-week-old puppy barked in pain, ran off and disappeared into a wooded area for two full days before his frantic owner, Hughie Wagers, managed to find him.


    A trip to the vet, Dr. Keaton Smith, revealed that the fork had impaled the dog's brain. Smokey was operated on immediately. During a TODAY interview, Wagers told Matt Lauer that his pooch "did wake up weird" from the surgery, but Smith expects Smokey's brain to recover completely since he's still a pup.

    Video: Chihuahua impaled by BBQ fork
  • Tossed turtle makes 670-mile journey

    Ten-year-old Carley Helm thought it was OK to bring her new friend Neytiri, a coin-sized turtle, back with her on a flight from Atlanta to her home in Milwaukee. And so did AirTran Airways personnel ? at first, that is.

    But, after Carley and her reptile friend were on board, flight attendants ordered the turtle off the plane.?

    The Helm kids set Neytiri in an airport trash bin, after calling their father William to come retrieve the animal. When he arrived, he wasn't able to find Neytiri. Turns out, another AirTran employee had already fished the turtle out of the trash, handed it off to a co-worker, who then took it home as a pet for their son.

    Jennifer Forbes, a cruelty caseworker for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, learned of the case and ran interference for the family. Eventually, Neytiri was retrieved and made the 670-mile journey to be reunited with the Helms.

    Video: Girl reunited with turtle tossed in airline flap
  • David, Brooke and Jake ? together again

    Whether you're rich or poor, famous or unknown, the heartbreak of losing a pet can be devastating ? and the thrill of being reunited with that pet can be the best feeling in the world.

    Just ask celebrity couple David Charvet of ABC's "The Superstars" and Brooke Burke, the Season 7 champion on "Dancing with the Stars." They were distraught when their chocolate Labrador retriever Jake went missing for nine long months ? until they got a shocker of a phone call informing them that Jake was fine and ready to be picked up.

    "Someone found Jake in our town, had no idea who his owner was (Jake had no collar) and gave him to a neighbor who took him in and cared for him," Burke wrote in her blog on ModernMom.com. "The man took Jake to a vet for a random check-up and for blood work. After telling the vet the story of how Jake came into his life, the vet decided to scan Jake. David had an identity chip put in Jake as a puppy. ...

    "Thank God for honest people who are selfless enough to do the right thing. I hope something wonderful happens to [Jake?s rescuer] ... for caring for Jake and letting him go."

  • Source: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46135960/ns/today-good_news/

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