Prehistoric News Roundup Vol.2

I’ve covered a bunch of bunk type news of late. So I’m going to cover some fun stuff for a bit and get some real news into this blog. Today’s theme is Prehistory.

And, we have a surprise visit from the Evolution vs. Creationism “debate”.

  • Creationism Creeping into Schools – FEB 15, 2013 08:00 AM // DISCOVERY NEWS
    Anti-science is all too common. 5 bills are proposed already. But it’s not just Creationism and Intelligent Design. Now it’s “Academic Freedom” to question things like Stem Cell Research or Climate Change. The bills want to give teachers the right to skip over units required by curriculum in favor of their own personal views.
  • Antiscience bills die in Arizona and Oklahoma – February 26, 2013 // By idoubtit
    Isn’t it shiny when things go so well? Of the 5 mentioned above on the 15th, 2 have lost! This is why you need to watch these cases and make your voices heard in response to them! Hopefully the other three will also get struck down!

Family-centric News Roundup

Today’s News Roundup theme is Families, with a focus on children, but a small detour into staying together.

  • Woman Births Two Sets of Identical Twins in a Day – FEB 19, 2013 12:45 PM ET // BY RICHARD FARRELL
    I brought this one up for the sheer statistical anomaly of a woman fertilizing two gets (creating fraternal twins) that each then went on to split into sets of identical twins.
  • Shopping Center Bans Screaming Children – FEB 20, 2013 09:52 AM ET // BY TRACY STAEDTER
    The part of this that catches my mind is that when Sydney Dee Why Grand shopping complex banned screaming children in the food court, it actually brought up supports of why people’s screaming kids should be tolerated. And I’ll excuse an infant, but when kids are “running amok in the food court” (the complaint that triggered the ban) there isn’t a “this is my only means of communication” reason for excuse the noise.
  • Couples Who Drink Together, Stay Together – FEB 20, 2013 08:00 AM // DISCOVERY NEWS
    Drinking effects your relationship… Positively, if you drink together. If you drink apart, the most issues you’ll have when together. So basically, if you’re going to drink, you’ll want to do it together. Keep in mind, though, heavy drinkers statically (even when matched) have a higher rate of divorce than their less sloshed counterparts.

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Critter News Roundup Vol.4

I loves me some Critter News. Here’s some of the latest news on animals.

  • 3 Islands Overrun By Crazy Animals – FEB 14, 2013 08:00 AM // DISCOVERY NEWS
    Islands full of feral cats, tiny migrating craps, and golden pit-viper snakes.
  • Virtual Fence Offers High-Tech Herding – FEB 15, 2013 01:29 PM ET // BY JESSE EMSPAK
    What we’re talking about is a smarter version of that underground dog fencing. Not only will it keep the animals in, but use the jolts to convince the animals to move to the places with the most water or the best grazing. Talk about upsizing technology.
  • Thousands of Dolphins Spotted Near San Diego – Monday, Feb 18, 2013 // By Sarah Grieco
    Dolphins covered 7 miles of ocean. Whale and dolphin tours are doing abnormally well this year, and this “super mega-pod” amounts to one of the larger mega-pods viewed of late.

And… Since I’m ready to be done but I don’t want this story to get buried (animal news other than the Ketchum Bigfoot paper is pretty hard to come by right now!), I have for you a bonus story that you can read at your own leisure!

Old School News Roundup

This roundup features news related to things that are old.

  • Wichcraft Belief in Malawi Sparks Violence – FEB 11, 2013 04:28 PM ET // BY BENJAMIN RADFORD
    George Thindawa, Executive Director of the Association of Secular Humanism in Malawi, has launched a 3 year campaign to attempt to stamp out belief in magic and witches through public education in hopes of eradicating violence against suspected magic-doers in the country.
  • Latin a Dead Language? Not Really – FEB 12, 2013 08:26 AM ET // BY ROSSELLA LORENZI
    Knowledge of the “dead” latin language led to Giovanna Chirri getting the scoop on the world when Pope Benedict XVI made his farewell speech in the archaic language.
  • Act of God? Lightning Strikes St. Peter’s Dome – FEB 13, 2013 07:45 AM ET // BY MARC LALLANILLA, LIFE’S LITTLE MYSTERIES STAFF WRITER
    The lightning strike in question came within hours of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation. It is unlikely, however, to have been an act of God due to the fact that locations of religious significance are frequently the highest thing around and thus the thing that is mostly likely to be struck.

New Roundup Special Edition: Crap that surprises Kitsu

This roundup is made up of news that Kitsu can’t believe someone had to report. Not because of ridiculousness, but rather because it’s happening at all.

  • How Cocaine and Controversy Mixed With Soda – FEB 4, 2013 08:44 AM ET // BY ROSSELLA LORENZI
    I didn’t watch the superbowl commercials, but apparently their were accusations of discrimination based entirely on a story-based decision, and no one seemed to consider beforehand that there would be a story-based reason in the final commercial for why you couldn’t just vote whatever way you wanted all willy-nilly. Way to assume the worst, people.
  • Women in Paris Can Now Wear Pants – FEB 4, 2013 01:30 PM ET // BY AMANDA ONION
    It’s mindblowing in the modern world that this law, while invalidated by other laws and accepted cultural changes, is still on the books at all. And this news story does not report the removal of the law, only a public statement that the law has been invalidated. Or rather “the implicit abrogation of the order”, because plain language isn’t french enough, apprently.
  • What Causes Early Puberty in Girls? – FEB 8, 2013 09:00 AM ET // BY SHEILA M. ELDRED
    First off, how did I not catch something before now that the new ages for early onset puberty is 6-7 (variation is based on race)? And, how did I miss the story about the nine year old who got raped and ended up giving birth. Just… Holy crap. As if the idea of being a parent wasn’t scary enough… Now you have to worry about pregnant pre-teens?

And down here are a few bonus stories that are too cool to just delete from my feeds, but are edging towards out of date:

Photo News Roundup

You know me. I love rounding up some news for you! This roundup features photos!

News Roundup Vol.3

This roundup has no theme, other than I got the stories on January 31st and wrote about them for today.

Prehistoric News Roundup

Kitsu here once again, enjoying the fact that some interesting Dinosaur news is in the pipeline, and she has enough for a roundup specifically for it!

  • Biggest Dinos Had Tennis Ball-Sized Brains – JAN 24, 2013 08:55 AM ET // BY CHARLES Q. CHOI, OURAMAZINGPLANET
    Specially they’re talking about Ampelosaurus, a discovery from 2007, formerly called Titanosaur. Monstrous body. Tiny, tiny brain. Science has verified this and it’s a consistent link amongst the Sauropod dinosaurs.
  • Small, Meat-Eating Dino Count Suddenly Triples – JAN 24, 2013 12:43 PM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS
    People looked at some teeth, which I don’t understand why this hadn’t already been done, and now the 7 species on record is replaced by a scientifically verified 16. This takes the total to 23. Way to go science! Don’t drop the ball for so long next time!
  • Tiny Feathered Dinosaur Found – JAN 28, 2013 11:20 AM ET // BY LIVESCIENCE
    Archaeopteryx has been gaining more and more company in the “feathered dinosaur” world for a long time, and this new discovery suggests that even Archaeopteryx’s name (meaning “First bird”) should be doubted. New discoveries from china show that feathers have been around, along with the avian body indicators, for a very long time.

Scary News Roundup

I love doing news Roundups. They’re so much fun! And this one has a Scary theme!

Critter News Roundup Vol.2

Here again, and it’s more Critters, because this week tons of Critter News rolled down the pipes. This one is longer than normal (5 stories instead of 3), but I didn’t want to skip talking about any of these, so I’m not going to. Roundups will now be 3-5 stories with comments (dumps will be 6+ stories without comments, or with very short comments).