A Tennessee woman searching for the stranger she kissed while running the Boston Marathon this year says she finally heard back — from the mystery man's wife. Barbara Tatge says her daughter had dared her to kiss a random, good-looking man as she ran through the town of Wellesley, where the women of Wellesley College traditionally offer kisses to runners. After the April 20 race, her daughter took to social media to try to find the man, who clearly left an impression on her mom. Tatge says The Wellesley Townsman, a Boston-area news outlet, passed on a letter addressed to her Sunday after the campaign generated nationwide attention. The unidentified man's wife said the attention was fun but that the couple wanted to remain anonymous. "When this story aired on the news we were pretty surprised," the mystery man's wife wrote in a portion of the letter quoted by The Townsman. "For me, I'm not mad. Believe me, our friends have gotten a lot of mile

Far-right Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders, who addressed participants at a Prophet Mohammed cartoon contest in Texas before a shooting erupted outside the event, believes he is on a mission to stop the "Islamisation" of the West. Reviled and supported in equal measure for his anti-Islamic rhetoric, the 51-year-old firebrand has become a divisive figure in the Netherlands, which prides itself on its long but fading tradition of consensus politics and multi-cultural tolerance. Wilders, the creator of the anti-Islam film "Fitna" ("Discord" in Arabic) has previously said his popularity in the Netherlands is due to the fact that "we dare to talk about sensitive subjects like Islamisation and we use plain and simple words that the (Dutch) voter can understand." The 17-minute film, featuring shocking images of attacks in New York in 2001 and Madrid in 2004 combined with quotes from the Koran, Islam's holy book, drew outrage in several Muslim c

On this day in 1776, Rhode Island, the colony founded by the most radical religious dissenters from the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay Colony, becomes the first North American colony to renounce its allegiance to King George III. Ironically, Rhode Island would be the last state to ratify the new American Constitution more than 14 years later on May 29, 1790. Rhode Island served as a mercantile center of the transatlantic slave trade in the 18th century. West Indian molasses became rum in Rhode Island distilleries, which was then traded on the West African coast for slaves. After taking their human cargo across the notorious middle passage from Africa across the Atlantic to the Caribbean islands, Rhode Island merchants would then sell those who survived the boats’ wretched conditions and rough ocean crossing to West Indian plantation owners for use as slaves in exchange for a fresh shipment of molasses. Desire to protect this lucrative triangle trade led Rhode Islanders to bristl

Abbey Lee’s coat–as unmistakable in its bold pattern as a Jun Kaneko ceramic head–is what inspired this post. I enjoyed it so much it might become an ongoing series. Top to bottom: Model Abbey Lee + ceramicist Jun Kaneko, Street style + Nebraska landscape painter Keith Jacobshagen, Street style + Robert Rauschenberg, Elisa Nalin + Mark Rothko

An undersea volcano about 300 miles (480 km) off Oregon's coast has been spewing lava for the past seven days, confirming forecasts made last fall and giving researchers unique insight into a hidden ocean hot spot, a scientist said on Friday. Researchers know of two previous eruptions by the volcano, dubbed "Axial Seamount" for its location along the axis of an underwater mountain ridge, Oregon State University geologist Bill Chadwick said on Friday. But those 1998 and 2011 eruptions were detected months or years afterward, Chadwick added. Last year, researchers connected monitoring gear to an undersea cable that, for the first time, allowed them to gather live data on the volcano, whose peak is about 4,900 feet (1,500 meters) below the ocean surface. "The cable allows us to have more sensors and monitoring instruments than ever before, and it's happening in real time," said Chadwick, who also is affiliated with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmosp

Texas police shot dead two gunmen who opened fire on Sunday outside an exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that was organized by an anti-Islamic group and billed as a free-speech event. The shooting in a Dallas suburb was an echo of past attacks or threats in other Western countries against art depicting the Prophet Mohammad. In January, gunmen killed 12 people in the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in revenge for its cartoons. Sunday's attack took place at about 7 p.m. in a parking lot of the Curtis Culwell Center, an indoor arena in Garland, northeast of Dallas. Geert Wilders, a polarizing Dutch politician and anti-Islamic campaigner who is on an al Qaeda hit list, was among the speakers at the event. Police said they had not determined the identity of the two gunmen or whether they were linked to critics of the event who had branded it anti-Islamic. As a precaution, a police bomb squad was checking the suspects' car, and the i

My hometown's fire department is on fire. I don't think they will live this down for awhile. Fire departments in Williams County responded to a fire at the Florence Township fire station on S. Michigan Street in Edon on Sunday. Pictures taken from the scene indicate significant damage to the building. The fire department serves the village of Edon, Florence Township, Blakeslee and the Ohio Turnpike. The Williams County sheriff's office says three fire departments responded to the fire and says there were no injuries.

OREM, Utah (AP) — A shopper with a concealed weapons permit shot and killed a man who was trying to carjack a woman Saturday outside a Utah grocery store, officers said. The 31-year-old male shooter was in Macey's parking lot in Orem, 45 miles south of Salt Lake City, when he heard a woman's screams as she was being pulled from her SUV by the suspect, investigators said. The man told police he went to assist the woman, and the 27-year-old male suspect lunged at him in an attempt to grab his gun. The man fired one round at the suspect, hitting him in the chest. The suspect later died at a hospital. No other injuries were reported. OREM, Utah (AP) — A shopper with a concealed weapons permit shot and killed a man who was trying to carjack a woman Saturday outside a Utah grocery store, officers said. The 31-year-old male shooter was in Macey's parking lot in Orem, 45 miles south of Salt Lake City, when he heard a woman's screams as she was being pulled from her

I have lived in the shadow of Rainier for over a year now and I have to say there are still days that I look at the mountain and even in person I can't believe it is real. It is so enormous up close