Exhausted penguin gets a lift home, and more

Exhausted penguin gets a lift home

An emperor penguin that swam nearly 4,000 miles from Antarctica to New Zealand is getting a well-deserved lift home. The bird, nicknamed Happy Feet, was found on a beach in June, exhausted and sickened from eating sand. After a restorative stint at the Wellington Zoo, he has recovered and will soon travel back to Antarctica aboard a New Zealand research vessel that was heading that way anyway. “This is an excellent result for everyone involved, and for the penguin,” Wellington Zoo CEO Karen Fifield said.

From marine to marine: a life-saving kidney

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One Marine’s death last month gave a lifeline to another. Marine Sgt. Jacob Chadwick, diagnosed with kidney failure, feared he’d wait years for a suitable kidney for a transplant. But when a fellow Marine, 2nd Lt. Patrick Wayland, 24, died after a swimming exercise in Florida, his parents decided his kidney should go to another Marine. A Navy doctor found Chadwick by entering “marine needs a kidney” on Google. The match “definitely speaks of the bond Marines have,” said Chadwick, who is now recovering from the transplant. “It was just meant to be.”

Floridian earns a Ph.D. at age 87

At the age of 87, Richard Smith has earned a Ph.D. in American history from Florida International University. Smith had to leave the University of Pennsylvania to fight in World War II, but he completed his degree when the war ended. After that he gave little thought to academics until he retired from his clothing business, at 70, and his wife urged him to get out of the house. “I said, ‘Hey, listen, you have to find something to do because you are choking me here,’” she said. “It’s a good way to stay young,” said Smith. “There are a lot of pretty girls here.”