Being overworked is the main reason Americans say they skip vacation: 40% – Heavy workload upon return 35% – Nobody else can do the work 33% – Can’t afford to take it 28% – Want to show dedication 22% – Don’t want to be seen as replaceable
Read more
“The worlds largest oil rig exploded and sank off Brazil. The company said the environmental impact would be minimal, partly because of the isolated location, and partly because they re lying through their teeth.” – Jon Stewart
Read more
The $9 billion, 1,000-ft. (305 m) Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory—now the tallest structure in South America—recently entered the final stages of construction. It will be inaugurated in August and fully operational by 2017. Here’s what Brazil and Germany, which co-funded the project, are hoping it will accomplish: Gather data The tower’s height and state-of-the- art instruments will enable scientists to […]
Read more
Heat and acidity are also bad for coral reefs, which have declined by 40% in some areas since the 1970s. Coral organisms reproduce just once a year, making it hard for reefs to bounce back.
Read more
California firefighters spent two hours extracting a naked woman from a chimney after she tried to sneak into her ex-boyfriend’s home at 5 a.m. The 35-year-old took off her clothes in the hope it would help her fit down the 1-foot-wide chimney. But halfway down, she became wedged and called the ex on her cellphone. “I said, ‘Where are you […]
Read more
Percentage of black U.S. children under the age of five who live in poverty: 43
Read more
Due to the high demand of the “dip season,” a national shortage of Velveeta has shoppers hunting stores for the gooey, bright-yellow “cheese product.” People planning Super Bowl parties are calling the shortage of the dip-friendly substance a “cheesepocalypse.” One fan tweeted, “If this is true, I’m going to die.”
Read more
About 690,000 of the estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S.—or about 6.3 percent—have been convicted of a felony or serious misdemeanor, according to a new report from the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan research group.These immigrants, along with the 640,000 who entered the country illegally since Jan. 1, 2014, will be priorities for deportation under new Obama administration guidelines.
Read more
A family of Norwegian bears broke into a holiday cabin and threw an epic, alcohol-fueled party. The cabin’s owner, Even Nilsen, returned to the cabin to find that the bears had eaten all the food and bitten into more than a hundred cans of beer, sucking down the contents. One bear evidently became so intoxicated that it passed out on […]
Read more
Fish flee existing habitats in search of better ones. Atlantic sea bass, for example, are migrating north to cooler waters—but the heat will chase them there.
Read more