THE FIRST WORD

hypertufa

These days, authentic stone basins are scarcer than bustles, so trough-planting zealots have taken to making their own equally porous (and much lighter) containers out of hypertufa—a mixture of portland cement, peat moss, perlite and fibermesh.

Tufa comes from a Latin word that was used to describe any kind of light and porous stone.

ONLY IN AMERICA

Wealthy Manhattanites are paying handicapped tour guides to help their kids circumvent long lines at Disney World. The guides charge $130 an hour to pose as family members and use their handicapped privileges to get on rides without waiting. “You can’t go to Disney without a tour concierge,” one parent told the New York Post. “This is how the 1 percent does Disney.”

NOW YOU KNOW

Fashion models are twice as likely as computer programmers to get their applications for H-1B visas approved. In 2010, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services approved more than half of the 478 applications it received for fashion-model visas, but granted just under 28 percent of H-1B visa requests for computer-related occupations.
Bloomberg.com

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

A couple who had booked a Turkish Airlines flight from Los Angeles to Dakar, Senegal, ended up almost 7,000 miles away in Dhaka, Bangladesh. “When the flight attendant said we were heading to Dhaka, we believed that this was how you pronounced ‘Dakar’ with a Turkish accent,’’ said Sandy Valdiviseo.

PEOPLE BEING PEOPLE

 A group of American tourists in Iceland started to eat dinner at a table and chairs set up on an ice floe, only to find themselves floating out to sea when the floe broke apart. They had to be rescued.

DOING GOOD

A high school baseball team in Sacramento was practicing last week when they heard desperate cries for help. A teenage girl had been pinned underneath a car in the Valley High School parking lot. Without prompting, the 30-strong team quickly lifted the four-door sedan off the injured girl, allowing coaches Troy Quirillo and Brett Sawyer to pull her to safety. The girl was treated for minor injuries in the hospital and released. “The baseball players became men,” said Sawyer. “Their courage in a traumatic situation was truly remarkable. I couldn’t be more proud.”

PROTECT YOURSELF WHILE TRAVELING

Copy everything. Before you leave home, photocopy your plane tickets, hotel information, passport, license, and credit cards. Leave the copies with someone you can reach in the event of emergency.

Carry less. The less you make available to thieves, the better. So clear out your wallet before traveling, paring the contents to a driver’s license and two credit cards. When staying at a hotel, never leave valuables out in the room while you’re away. Use the room’s safe whenever you’re out—for your passport, plane tickets, and one of those two credit cards.

Protect your smartphone. To prevent identity thieves from mining information on a stolen phone, be sure to set up a password lock. You can also install apps that can track a missing phone’s location or erase the data remotely. 

HOLDING THE BAG

TRAFFIC, TRAFFIC....

SNAPSHOT

GOAL!!!!!

NOW YOU KNOW

Sandwich sales in the U.S. have risen by 4.8 percent since 2010, according to food consulting firm Technomic. The rise reflects Americans’ growing tendency to buy rather than make their sandwiches. Sandwiches purchased from restaurants or food-service locations made up 49 percent of all sandwiches eaten in 2012, up from 44 percent in 2010.
AdAge.com

CHARITY OF THE WEEK

The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (PedAids.org) works to eliminate pediatric HIV infection and AIDS through advocacy, research, treatment, and prevention programs. It was created in 1988 by a mother who contracted HIV in a blood transfusion and passed it to her children. Though pediatric AIDS has been virtually eradicated in the U.S. and Europe, every day some 900 children worldwide contract HIV, mostly through mother-to-child transmission in utero or through breast milk. When left untreated, these children rarely live past infancy, but with proper treatment, they can live long and fulfilling lives. EGPAF now works at more than 5,400 sites in 15 countries. Approximately one in five HIV-positive mothers worldwide receives lifesaving medications through clinics that EGPAF supports.

---

The charity has earned a four-star overall rating from Charity Navigator, which ranks not-for-profit organizations on the strength of their finances, their control of administrative and fundraising expenses, and the transparency of their operations. Four stars is the group’s highest ranking.