Volcano in Iceland

The eruption of a volcano beneath Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull has resulted in dangerous amounts of volcanic ash in the sky, huge headaches for travelers, and, it should be stated, unexpected beauty. Flickr members have captured a slew of photos of the ash and the resulting chaos. The eruption caused a 3.7 mile high plume of ash, […]


Billionaire Aids Charity That Aided Him

Were it not for the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, there might be no Google. Thirty years ago today, Sergey Brin, a 6-year-old Soviet boy facing an uncertain future, arrived in the United States with the help of the society. Now Mr. Brin, the billionaire co-founder of Google, is giving $1 million to the society, widely […]


All That’s Jazz

TOKYO — Jazz musicians have often been called “swinging cats.” But Jiken Miyazaki, founder of Café Samurai, takes it literally. His “jazz kissaten” (coffee shop) is crammed with 5,000 varied maneki neko, traditional lucky statuettes of a smiling feline with a beckoning upraised paw. “These cats and the music I play have a common spirit […]


Pony Express Artifact

A letter that took two years to reach its destination evokes the hazards of the Pony Express In 1860, an ill-fated Pony Express rider, whose name has been lost to history, was crossing the trackless wastes of Nevada when he vanished, likely killed by Indians. Two years later, in May 1862, the mail pouch from […]


McDonald’s sales take hit from US joblessness

McDonald’s US sales decline deepens as joblessness, competition catch up to burger chain CHICAGO (AP) — The supersized recession that was a boon for business last year caught up further with McDonald’s Corp. in November, as high unemployment ate into sales. While the world’s largest burger chain is still faring better than its competitors, who’ve […]


See a furious waterfall — without water

View from top of de-watered Niagara Falls A view from the top of the de-watered Niagara Falls in 1969 in New York. Unearthed after 41 years by American Russ Glasson, they were taken by his mother and father in law and show when the famous waterfall was turned off for almost six months. For six […]