A new species of mammal living in the cloud forests of South American's Andes Mountains has been identified, and given the name "olinguito". The name is derived from that of another species, "olingo", due to its similar appearance and smaller size. Olinguitos also differ from olingos in fur color and natural habitat, living at elevations ranging from 5,000 to 9,000 feet above sea level. Weighing about two pounds, the olinguito is smallest known member of the raccoon family.
From Fox News, if you're a man who likes to swim, and you live in or plan to visit the coastal areas of Denmark or Sweden, skinny dipping is not a good idea.
From Yahoo TV, racial discrimination claims in the lawsuit against Paula Deen have been dismissed.
From the Washington Post, Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that "low-level, nonviolent drug offenders with no ties to gangs or large-scale drug organizations" will no longer face mandatory minimum sentences.
From Today News, a Dutch prince has died after being in coma which resulted from being buried in an avalanche while skiing.
From the Daily Caller, North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has signed an election reform law that includes a photo ID requirement.
And from the News Observer, on August 15, the Carolina Mudcats will put on Carlos Danger Night. For that game, anyone with a mustache, either real or fake, will be sold a box seat for just $5. So if you're in or near Zebulon, North Carolina, get out that mustache and enjoy some Minor League baseball.
From the Washington Free Beacon, the new Iranian president Hassan Rowhani has appointed a holocaust denier as his country's foreign minister. This, of course, makes his no worse than Rowhani's predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (via Pat Dollard)
From the Daily Caller, a conservative group has given their support to the Justice Safety Valve Act.
From the New York Post, the new owner of the Drake's Cakes brands has announced that Coffee Cakes, Devil Dogs, Ring Dings and Yodels will return next month.
And to finish with some humor, my blogosphere buddy Holger Awakens presents the Dem's poster boy.
Pfc. Bradley Manning, who disclosed a large number of government documents to Wikileaks, has been acquitted of the charge of aiding the enemy but convicted of over 20 other charges, including espionage. The judge, Col. Denise Lind, reached the verdicts after a trial that lasted about 8 weeks, which took place at Fort Meade. Although acquitted of the most serious charge, Manning still faces a maximum possible sentence of 136 years.
From the Tampa Tribune, one of the jurors in the George Zimmerman trial says that he "got away with murder", but that there wasn't enough evidence under Florida law to convict him.
From Russia Today, Great Britain is putting up ads telling illegal immigrants to go home or be arrested. Now there's a bit of immigration reform I could get behind.
And from The Guardian, the newest heir to the British throne has been named George Alexander Louis. The announcement of his name was relatively quick compared to other royal babies, such as his father and grandfather after their respective births. Britain has had six kings ruling under the name George, the most recent being Queen Elizabeth's father. Louis was the name of Prince Philip's uncle, Lord Mountbatten.
A few things I've run across in the last couple of days:
In a hospital in central New York, doctors intent on harvesting a patient's organs suddenly realized that rumors of her death had been greatly exaggerated.
Two House Democrats have proposed a new National Historical Park - on the moon. This would present a number of difficulties, starting with the fact that while the moon was explored by twelve Americans, is not United States territory. And any Department of the Interior personnel assigned to such a park would face an exceptionally difficult commute.
A House Republican has inserted an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would protect the religious freedom of military personnel.
This next item is two and a half years old, but still relevant in light of the recent Supreme Court rulings on "gay marriage". This is a look inside the gay culture and the gay rights movement, from a former participant.
The Virginia Tech football team has lost a running back, due to his own fault. This past April, Michael Holmes was charged with malicious wounding, a felony, for his actions in a fight that started between his then-girlfriend and an ex-girlfriend. Holmes plea-bargained the charge down to assault and battery, a misdemeanor. School policy allows a misdemeanor offender to be reinstated to his athletic team, but a student judicial panel decided to expel Holmes from both the team and the school.
It would appear that protesters outside the U.S. embassy in Cairo have some complaints about our president. Like many teabaggers/hobbits/wacko-birds back here in the U.S., I say, "Join the club." Thankfully, many Egyptians seem able to distinguish between Barry and America.
From The Corner at National Review Online, abortion-rights activists and their signs.
From Bare Naked Islam, the British government, who recently decided to ban Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller from entering their country, had already stopped an American Jew from doing so.
Earlier today, the Supreme Court struck down part of the Defense of Marriage Act, commonly referred to by its acronym DOMA, and dismissed an appear of a lower court ruling against California's Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment that had defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. DOMA had first been enacted during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Here are some related stories:
From Politico, a second IRS staffer pleads the Fifth when summoned before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. (via Red State)
From the Military Times, accused NSA leaker Edward Snowden, having flown from Hong Kong to Russia, may or may not be hanging out at Moscow's Sheremetchevo Airport.
From The Times Of Israel, the US is considering sending training teams to Lebanon and Iraq, to help those countries deal with possible spillover from the civil war in Syria.
From Yahoo Sports, New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has been arrested and charged with murdering his neighbor. Metrodesk at Boston(dot)comhas more.
Earlier today or late yesterday, Rusty the Red Panda escaped from his enclosure at the National Zoo, but was found today in a Washington, DC neighborhood. He's now back at the zoo and appears to be none the worst for his brief adventure.
Red pandas share the giant panda's ability to grip objects, because the digits on their paws can oppose an extension of their wrist. However, while the giant panda is a member of the bear family, red pandas have their own family, the ailuridae.
From CBS DC, according to recently uncovered documents, the State Department "may have covered up allegations of illegal behavior ranging from sexual assaults to an underground drug ring".
From the Washington Examiner, sales of George Orwell's book 1984 have gone up 69%. Hmmm, it does kinda seem like Big Brother is watching us these days.
The Mars rover Curiosity may not have killed any cats, but it appears to have found something that resembles a rat. It's really "a piece of dusty orange rock", but it does kinda, sorta resemble a small rodent.
The SETI Institute contest to name the two most recently discovered moons of Pluto has produced its two winners, Vulcan (which garnered the most votes) and Cerberus (which got the second most votes). Vulcan was the name of a planet thought to be located closer to the sun than Mercury, but is most famous as a world in the science fiction TV series Star Trek and its sequels and movies. In Roman mythology, Vulcan was the god of lava and smoke, and nephew of Pluto, god of the underworld. Cerberus was the name of the underworld's three-headed guard dog. Because there is an asteroid named Cerberus, its Greek equivalent Kerberos could possibly be used. The final say in naming the moons will go to the International Astronomical Union.
Unfortunately, the Walt Disney connection was disqualified. No moons will be named Mickey, Minnie or Goofy, or even Donald or Daisy, the last two suggested by Findalis of Monkey In The Middle when she commented on my previous post on this matter.
A few things recently in the news as some of us get a day off:
The Washington Post, and in the spirit of the day, invites you to pick the most underrated and overrated presidents.
From the Daily Caller, the president of Brevard Community College in Florida has recommended the firing of a professor who forced her students to sign pledges to vote for president Obama.
From the New York Post, the former LAPD cop Christopher Dorner asked some fishermen to take him to Mexico.
Also from Fox News, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has accused the Obama administration of not enforcing a century-old law requiring immigrants to avoid becoming a "public charge".
From the Los Angeles Times, details of Pope Benedict's physical ailments emerge, including blindness in one eye.
And from CBS News, two brothers in Kansas, while celebrating a lottery win, blow up their house. ---- UPDATE: One more, from Inventor's Business Daily. That asteroid which flew by last Friday is coming back.
Earlier today, while scientists awaited the flyby of near-earth asteroid 2012 DA14, a different space rock entered the earth's atmosphere and exploded above the Ural Mountains region near Chelyabinsk, Russia. The resulting shockwave damaged several buildings and blew out thousands of windows. About 1200 people have reported injuries, mostly minor. So far, army units have found three sites where the meteorite's fragments have impacted on the earth's surface. According to NASA, this meteorite is unrelated to 2012 DA14, which by now has passed the earth at a distance of about 17,200 miles.
Read more at Russia Today and Gawker, who both have pictures and videos. One of my friends in the blogworld, Holger Awakens, also has posted some meteoric video. Here's one from Russia Today, showing the light generated by the explosion:
This meteorite explosion is reminiscent of the Tunguska event, in which a huge explosion took place over Siberia in 1908, which is thought to have been caused by a meteor or a comet entering the earth's atmosphere. No impact crater has ever been found, but the pattern of fallen trees would turn out to be eerily similar to that of fallen buildings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even though there weren't any known nuclear weapons in 1908. Fox News has more on the Tunguska event.
Today is Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday"), the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent as observed by the Catholic Church and most of western Christianity. The Orthodox Churches (Greek, Russian, etc.) use a different calendar, and thus schedule their Easter and Lent differently. Tonight, President Obama will give his State Of The Union address, which like most SOTUs, I have no intention of watching. Here are some other things going on:
From the Los Angeles Times, police in San Bernardino County, CA have a gun battle with former officer and murder suspect Christopher Dorner near Big Bear Lake.
From the Washington Post, the Virginia Senate has passed a bill to allow counties in northern Virginia to pass a 1% income tax without a public vote.
From ABC News, former police Sgt. Kimberly Munley, who with her partner stopped the Fort Hoot shooting spree, says the president has broken his promise that "the victims would be well taken care of".
The celestial body known as Pluto, which was thought of as the ninth planet until being reclassified as a "dwarf planet" due to its small size, is nevertheless orbited by five known moons. The largest, Charon, has been known for some time. More recently, two smaller ones have been discovered and named Nix and Hydra. During the past two years, two more have been found, and given the designations "P4" and "P5". The P4/P5 Discovery Team has decided to rename the two moons, and give the general public a chance to provide some input. You can go to Plutorocks and vote for your two favorite names out of a list of 12, or even make your own suggestions. Because Pluto shares its name with a certain cartoon dog, I think "Mickey" and "Minnie" might be appropriate.
CNN anchor Deb Feyerick, after wondering if the blizzard that the northeast is now digging out of was caused by global warming, apparently asks science reporter Bill Nye if global warming is to blame for an asteroid that will soon pass near the earth. I was going to give her the benefit of the doubt because she uses the pronoun "this", which could refer to either the blizzard or the asteroid, as possibly being caused by global warming, but then she refers to "meteoric phenomena", which nowadays refers to rocks traveling through outer space and sometimes entering the earth's atmosphere. At one time, however, the term "meteor" encompassed not only rocks from outer space, but things that fall from within our atmosphere, such as rain and hail. A vestige of this is the term "meteorology" for the the science that studies weather. Maybe she meant "meteorological phenomena", which would refer to the blizzard. Watch the video and decide for yourself.
Although according to the laws of physics, no object that has mass can travel faster than the speed of light, some physics Masters students at the University of Leicester in England have figured out what you would see out the window of your spacecraft if it could travel faster than light. But instead of stars looking like streaks of light, as seen in the Star Trek TV shows and Star Wars movies, you wouldn't see them at all. Due to the Doppler effect, their light would be shifted into the X-ray range of frequencies. On the other hand, the cosmic microwave background radiation would be shifted into the visible range. So if we could ever construct a spaceship that could travel faster than light, we'd better include tinted windows and X-ray shielding.
From the Los Angeles Times, despite some new information on the death of Natalie Wood (1938-1981), the LA County Sheriff's Department says that the evidence is insufficient to show homicide.
From the Daily Mail, the story of a British woman who decided against aborting her severely disabled baby, who sadly lived just 9 hours after being born. (via Life Site News)
From NBC News Vitals, research that marijuana use lowers IQ is challenged by a new study pointing to other factors.
From the Dallas Morning News, George P. Bush, who intends to run for Texas Land Commissioner, has raised $1.3 million for his campaign in the past two months. He is the son of Jeb Bush, nephew of George W. Bush and grandson of George H.W. Bush.
From the Examiner, another relative of an American president is running for office. The president's brother Malik Obama is running for governor in Saiya, Kenya.
From the Daily Caller, Representative Steve Stockman (R-Texas) says that he will go as far as filing articles of Impeachment to prevent President Obama from implementing gun control by executive order. (What's this, a Republican with a spine? What's going on here?)
From Creative Minority Report, three Massachusetts men were arrested after throwing punches and smashing furniture - at a baby shower.
From CBS New York, State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-64th District) says that the state legislature will "ban assault weapons".
And from Jimmy Kimmel, Los Angeles overreacts to the recent cold snap.
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