While You Were Sleeping

The gist of what you may have missed

by Amy Lubinski, August 24, 2008

An explosion of jellyfish populations (pictured above, Nomura jellyfish netted off the coast of Japan) across the globe is signaling a decline in the health of the world’s oceans, scientists say. The increased number of jellyfish reflects a combination of severe overfishing of natural predators (tuna, sharks, and swordfish), rising seatemperatures (ideal conditions for jellyfish breeding) caused by global warming, and pollution that has depleted oxygen levels in coastal shallows, killing other fish as jellyfish thrive. The jellyfish populations are becoming more pronounced in the Mediterranean, but problem areas include the Gulf of Mexico, the Black Sea, the Sea of Japan, the Yangtze estuary, and the coastlines of Australia, Hawaii, Namibia, and Britain.
Source: New York Times

The federal government is spending more money on veterans than it did after the demobilization of World War II. In 2007, expenditures hit $82 billion due to the rising cost of health care, the expense of caring for an aging population of Vietnam War veterans, and a new crop of severely wounded troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The figure exceeds the $80 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars spent in 1947 after most of the 16.1 million Americans serving in World War II left the service. There are currently 5.5 million veterans of all ages receiving VA health care.
Source: USA Today

A study conducted by the Center for Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University revealed that ABC, NBC, and CBS news anchors said more negative things about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama than Republican presidential candidate John McCain during the first six weeks of the general election
campaign. When network news people offered their opinions of the candidates during July, 72 percent of the statements made regarding Obama were negative, whereas only 57 percent of the statements made regarding McCain were negative. Obama has also received twice as much network time as McCain in the seven weeks after the end of the primary season, as found in a study conducted by the online Tyndall Report. Obama received 166 minutes of coverage, compared to 67 minutes of coverage for McCain.
Source: Los Angeles Times

Hundreds of people working in the military, government, and education are on a list of nearly 10,000 people who spent more than $7.3 million buying counterfeit high school and college degrees from a Spokane, Washington, diploma mill. Individuals on the list include high-ranking officials at NASA, the Department of Health, the National Security Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency. Eight people who set up and operated the diploma mill were indicted and convicted of federal crimes, but the Department of Homeland Security is considering pursuing charges against an estimated 300 federal employees who bought counterfeit degrees.
Source: Spokesman-Review

Domestic violence is the leading cause of death for women ages 15 to 44, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is also a leading cause of death of pregnant women, mortality research shows, and African American and Native American women are at the highest risk for intimate-partner homicide. In addition,  women who have experienced domestic violence are 80 percent more likely to suffer a stroke, 70 percent more likely to have heart disease, and 70 percent more likely to drink heavily than women who have not experienced intimate-partner violence.
Source: Women’s eNews