Two hikers discovered a baby triceratops hatching from a bowling ball-size egg while trekking in the Catskills. "It hatched fast. When it was completely out of the egg, it honked loud—like a goose on steroids. We instinctively held out our hands, just like you would to show a puppy. It's okay boy. Come here. We won't hurt you," said one of the hikers who witnessed the triceratops hatching. Anyone who encounters the dinosaur is urged not to disturb it and to immediately contact the police. (Ed Note: And we thought bears were a problem!)
Source: Weekly World News
According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), more than 40 million workers get fewer than six hours of sleep per night, which is below the National Sleep Foundation's recommended seven to nine hours. The CDC says sleep-deprived workers pose a serious and potentially fatal risk to themselves and coworkers. The March National Sleep Foundation poll found 50 percent of pilots, 44 percent of truck drivers, and 29 percent of bus, taxi, and limousine drivers said they rarely got a good night's sleep on workdays. Sleep expert and clinical psychologist Dr. Michael J. Breus said signs of sleep deprivation include falling asleep in less than 10 minutes and hitting the snooze button more than twice. The study's author, Dr. Sara Luckhaupt, suggests that employers should also promote wellness initiatives that encourage workers to go to sleep at the same time every night and create a relaxing bedroom environment, which means avoiding reading and watching television in bed and shutting off the smartphone.
Source: CBS News
When 20-year-old Carlos DeLuna was arrested for the murder of Wanda Lopez in 1983, the eighth-grade dropout claimed he was innocent. DeLuna made repeated protestations of his innocence until he was executed in 1989. He even said he knew who the killer was: Carlos Hernandez, a notorious criminal who shared Deluna's first name and looked so much like him that the two were frequently mistaken for twins. Four years after DeLuna was put to death, death penalty expert James Liebman hired a private investigator to see if he could find any evidence of Hernandez, a person the prosecution at DeLuna's trial argued did not exist. Within hours, the investigator found a woman who knew Hernandez's date of birth, which proved not only Hernandez's existence but helped unlock his criminal record that showed he had a record of abusing women. Among Liebman's other findings: Hernandez had confessed to killing Lopez and basic forensic rules were not followed at the crime scene.
Source: Guardian (UK)
Research for 2011 by GMI ratings, an independent corporate governance ratings agency, reveals two years of double-digit pay rises for America's top CEOs—with a 15 percent increase in 2011 and a 28 percent increase in 2010. The survey found that CEOs in the top 500 companies had a total compensation of $12.1 billion. The highest-paid CEO was Michael Johnson of Herbalife, who made $89,419,474 in 2011. Yet the Securities Exchange Commission's newly adopted "say on pay" rules give shareholders the opportunity to voice their distaste in outsized pay deals for CEOs.
Source: The Guardian
A study at Duke University finds that the percentage of Americans who are severely obese, 100 pounds or more overweight, will double to an estimated 11 percent of the population by 2030. A 33 percent increase in the prevalence of overall obesity (30 pounds or more overweight) is projected to occur over the same time period. The new research indicates a worrisome 42 percent of Americans will be overweight by 2030.
Source: The Slatest
On April 25, Burger King announced that all its eggs and pork will be raised in a cage-free environment by 2017. The shift was inspired by their desire to appeal to the rising trend of consumers seeking humanely produced fare.
Source: New York Daily News
During the Iraq war the US provided $4 billion to battalion commanders in Iraq to cover costs of repairing schoolhouses, paying off ex-rebels, and paying blood money to the families of civilians killed by US Forces. A 2012 audit conducted by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction audit found that funds from that Commander's Emergency Response Program (CERP) were obtained by Iraqi insurgents. Seventy-six percent of the battalion commanders surveyed in the audit believed at least part of the CERP funds had been lost to fraud and corruption. The report serves as detailed evidence that at least a portion of CERP in Iraq may have fed the insurgency they were aimed at stopping. However, Marisa Sullivan, deputy director of the Institute for the Study of War, argues that CERP helped create a security environment that prevented economic development in the insurgency and put people to work who would have otherwise joined rebel forces. "Without CERP there would not be the kind of counterinsurgency success we saw in Iraq," Sullivan said.
Source: The Daily Beast
According to data released on May 8 by the National Climatic Data Center, the US has completed the warmest 12-month period in 117 years. The May 2011 to April 2012 average temperature surpassed the record-setting period of November 1999 to October 2000 by 2.8 degrees. Twenty-two states experienced their warmest 12-month period on record, including Maryland, much of the Northeast, and Upper Midwest, and the temperature in North Dakota was 10.4 degrees above average.
Source: The Washington Post
On May 8, the Federal Drug Admission's advisory panel recommended approval of a preventative HIV-fighting pill that would protect healthy people from contracting the disease. Gilead Science's Truvada is aimed at people who are at high risk for HIV, which includes those with HIV-positive partners and gay and bisexual men. The major red flags of Truvada include that it must be taken on a daily basis to be effective and if people become infected while on the drug, they may develop drug-resistant strands of the virus. Another potential issue is its price—researchers at Stanford University have estimated a cost of roughly $500 billion over 20 years for a daily preventative dose to all men in the US who would potentially have gay sex, which includes the cost of the drug and health-care visits.
Source: The Slatest
Ulster County was dubbed one of the "10 Great Places to Retire" by the AARP. Mentioned was the arts culture in Kingston and New Paltz, as well as the abundant outdoor recreation, which includes extensive options for hiking, camping, canoeing, and cross-country skiing, and the Shawangunk Ridge as a rock climbing haven. Also among the 10 are Austin, Cape Cod, and New Orleans.
Source: AARP
