Do you know, my original title for this was "The Early Bird Gets the PR". I hastily changed it before posting because it was the most cynical title of I'd ever read, of anything, ever. But, it has undeniably happened. We have another earliest bird that has once again knocked Archaeopteryx off of its perch.

Here it is; it's called Aurornis xui, and here is Jon Tennant covering it for Discover.

Does more food labeling related to calories and nutrition make a difference? 

About one third of American kids and teens is overweight or obese, nearly triple the rate in 1963, making it a much bigger health concern than smoking or drug abuse. Meanwhile, a paper in the Journal of Public Health says obese kids are more likely to be paying attention to calorie information in restaurants.  40 percent of kids aged 9-18 read calorie information yet 33 percent are overweight.

What gives?

 Much like in Frank Herbert’s "Dune", a science-fiction epic about characters attempting to rule a planet torn apart by conflict, the issue of balancing desires for resources, and their impact on people, faces much of Africa today. The planet that serves as the stage for that story, a barren desert where control over said resources dictates human events, in many ways mimics the present situation on the African continent.

Global use of nuclear power has prevented about 1.84 million air pollution-related deaths and release of 64 billion tons of greenhouse gases that would have resulted from burning coal and other fossil fuels, according to a paper in Environmental Science&Technology.

Because government mandates and subsidies for ethanol have caused grain prices to increase, pig farmers have instead looked for alternatives. One of those is distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), a co-product of ethanol that has expanded along with that industry.

But it is an evolving feed and some believe that unsaturated fatty acids in distillers dried grains leads to increased oxidation, which affects texture, color, juiciness and the overall flavor of pork products, and therefore the shelf life.  Some producers believe they can counteract that by feeding pigs saturated fats which will undo the fat-softening effects of DDGS. Firmer fat means longer-lasting pork. 

Pundits are wrong more often than they are right but when preaching to the faithful, being accurate is less important than being confident. It's no different in politics or sports or business shows. 

You often choose to be accurate - or be popular. 

"In a perfect world, you want to be accurate and confident," says Jadrian Wooten of Washington State University economics program, who co-wrote a paper on the subject with Ben Smith, a fellow economics graduate. Smith originally wanted to test the accuracy and confidence of stock market pundits, taking inspiration from stock watcher and perpetual CNBC yeller Jim Cramer.

Psychology students, male and female, lie about their sexual behavior to match the cultural expectations of how they perceive other students believe men or women should act – even though they wouldn't distort other gender-related behaviors, a new paper has concluded.

Researchers have detected microplastic pollution - a concern in oceans because small bits of plastic can be harmful to fish and birds that feed on plankton or other small waterborne organisms
 - in one of Western Europe's largest lakes, Lake Geneva, in large enough quantities to raise concern.  

If you are a patient in the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS), try to have surgery on a Monday instead of a Friday, says a paper in the British Medical Journal.

The authors analyzed over four million elective procedures conducted in NHS hospitals in England between 2008 and 2011. They found that 27,582 patients died within 30 days of surgery and the mortality rate was lowest for patients having operations on Monday. Mortality increased for each subsequent day of the week. The odds of death were 44 per cent higher for operations on a Friday than a Monday.

Many seeds germinate in the soil and get their nutrition in the dark from limited reserves of starch and lipids, so as soon as possible they  grow toward light. Light-sensing proteins find the shortest route to sunlight – and then plants are even able to bend in the direction of the light source.