This is awesome … In December, 50-year-old Molly Friel of Fresno, California, qualified for the 2020 Olympic Marathon trials. Friel finished with a time of 2:43:57, well under the 2:45 qualifying standard. Friel is the second-oldest woman ever to qualify for the marathon trials. Sister Marion Irvine was 54 when she qualified for the 1984 Olympic Trials. But something to consider: Back then the qualifying time was more than six minutes slower than it is today. (Runners World)
Speaking of Olympic milestones … 17-year-old Maame Biney (Mah-may Bye-nee) has made history by becoming the first African-American woman to qualify for the U.S Olympic speedskating team. Biney was born in Guam and came to live with her father in Virginia when she was five. Biney, who is still in high school, is applying to colleges and wants to study chemical engineering. She told Team USA she "can do chemistry all day." (Cosmo)
People are grumpier on social media in the morning, especially winter mornings … Researchers examined over 800 million Twitter messages sent at different times of the day and different times of the year and discovered some trends. Not surprisingly, people are grumpier in the winter months and in the mornings. And, they post more positive things in the spring and summer months, when the days are longer. (BuzzFeed)
Materialists want to collect things … and likes. According to new research, materialistic people view and treat their Facebook friends as "digital objects," and have many more "friends" than people who are not as concerned with how much stuff they have. Not surprisingly, materialistic people have a greater need to compare themselves with others on Facebook – using likes and the number of social media friends they have to feel good about themselves. (Elsevier)