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Liquid courage: Vitaminwater challenges fans to ditch smartphones for a year

WASHINGTON — Vitaminwater, made by Coca-Cola, is offering one lucky person the chance to win $100,000 by ditching their phones and tablets for a year. Anyone looking to participate can enter by tweeting or making an Instagram post.

If you want to enter, come up with a good explanation of how you would spend your year without a smartphone. Include the hashtags #nophoneforayear and #contest. For more information about the contest, visit the rules page. Those who are interested can only enter four times. The rubric for deciding the winner is as follows: Creativity and originality – 30 percent, Cultural or brand relevance of submission – 30 percent, Humor – 30 percent and Quality of the submission (spelling and grammar count here!) 10 percent. The contest opened on December 11 and runs through January 8. At that point submissions will be reviewed and a winner will be chosen. People have already submitted their ideas on how they would spend their phone-free year. Some recurring themes: exploring the outdoors, spending more time with family and using the money they would save from paying for a phone to pay other bills.  

 

Gracie the Giraffe, who went missing after wandering off a Texas ranch, is finally found

Gracie the Giraffe, who went missing for about two weeks in Texas after wandering off a remote private ranch, was finally found Friday — and the open range appeared to have agreed with her. The giraffe was spotted about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) south of her enclosure during an aerial search in the Texas Hill Country, according to Real County Sheriff Nathan Johnson. He said Gracie's owner, Vick Jones, contacted a veterinarian and began putting together a team to bring the giraffe safely back to the ranch. “She’s in good shape,” Jones said. “She’s standing there, swishing her tail.” Gracie, who is about 3 years old and weighs at least 1,200 pounds, was found within a half-mile of a pond and creek and had plenty of vegetation to feed on, said Jones, adding that she appeared to have been in that area for about a week.
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