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A group of students discovered something that's never been found in Santa Cruz County before. A fossil of the Jefferson's Ground Sloth, an animal that paleontologists had no idea was in this area of the state until a few curious kids unearthed it. “They were building a dam, looking for crawdads,” said Bryn Evans, a teacher who was with the students when they found the fossil. “They're just in the mud pulling things out and then one of them comes up and is like, 'This isn't a stick, this is a bone!'” What the Tara Redwood School students discovered was...

New research suggests humans lived in South America at the same time as now extinct giant sloths...Scientists analyzed...pendants made of bony material from the sloths...Dating of the ornaments and sediment at the Brazil site where they were found point to an age of 25,000 to 27,000 years ago...

Perez took her 15-year-old daughter, Amarianna Ramon, to Custom Creatures pet shop in Saginaw Township on Feb. 12 for its “Sloth Encounter Experience,” in which visitors can interact with a two-toed sloth named Sid for $49.99. But the teen quickly learned the dark side of hanging with a sloth when she entered his enclosure to feed him apple slices and he bit her upper right arm through her shirt, Perez said. Perez informed workers at the pet shop about the bite, treated her with antibiotics and took her to the hospital for preventative rabies treatment. The pet store’s owner, Kallan...

In a time of hybrid work, employers are extra-focused on making sure their staffers are being productive. Now come employees with work hacks to keep the bosses off their tails. Mr. Abbas wrapped the cord of his computer mouse around a rotating desk fan. Its motion kept the mouse moving and prevented his computer from shutting down. “I logged on, went to the gym,” he says. For workers who aren’t as handy, mouse jigglers are for sale on Amazon. “Push the button when you’re getting up from your desk and the cursor travels randomly around the screen—for hours, if needed!”...

Protests have erupted in Buenos Aires over the past 90 days and continue to build inside the capital as residents battle with their center-left government over sizeable amendments to social programs. Cuts to subsidies in the energy sector based on household income already began in June. Other subsidies, including the country’s notorious welfare program, are also on the chopping block, triggering thousands of angry residents to take to the streets. State-sponsored aid for civilians has soared in the past 20 years, leaving 22 million Argentinians dependent on some form of government assistance. However, for the 1.2 million members dependent on...

Is insulting someone by calling them a “pig,” “sloth,” or “chicken” actually insulting animals? Well, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) seems to think so! In a recent tweet, they shared an infographic with alternative words to common animal-based insults such as snake (try “jerk” instead), rat (“snitch”), or pig (“repulsive”). They ask that people use these alternatives because “using animals as insults perpetrates speciesism.”

Getting a paycheck for doing nothing could be in the future for residents of New Jersey’s largest city. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka says the city is going to study a pilot program to provide a universal basic income, or basically guaranteeing income for all residents whether they have a job. […] The city has launched a taskforce to see if the program is feasible with help from the Economic Security Project and the Jain Institute. […] There has not been a successful long-term Universal Basic Income program. A small basic-income program that was tested in Finland was ended after one...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Doris Cochran, a disabled mother of two young boys, is stockpiling canned foods these days, filling her shelves with noodle soup, green beans, peaches and pears — anything that can last for months or even years. Her pantry looks as though she’s preparing for a winter storm. But she’s just trying to make sure her family won’t go hungry if her food stamps run out.For those like Cochran who rely on federal aid programs, the social safety net no longer feels so safe.

Javonnie McCoy was growing marijuana when the cops came to his Middle Georgia home. He was caught red-handed with it. Almost a pound of it, in fact. He admitted it to police, and later he looked jurors in the eye and said, yep, it was mine. I used it as medicine. The jurors let him go. He was minding his own business and wasn’t hurting anybody, they reasoned. He just doesn’t belong in prison. The jury’s decision earlier this month in Dublin, Ga., may have been due to a muddled prosecution of a muddy case. Or it may have been...

(Javonnie McCoy and Atlanta attorney Catherine Bernard after his acquittal) Javonnie McCoy was growing marijuana when the cops came to his Middle Georgia home. He was caught red-handed with it. Almost a pound of it, in fact. He admitted it to police, and later he looked jurors in the eye and said, yep, it was mine. I used it as medicine. The jurors let him go. He was minding his own business and wasn’t hurting anybody, they reasoned. He just doesn’t belong in prison. The jury’s decision earlier this month in Dublin, Ga., may have been due to a...

The latest "big idea" in the U.S. is the Universal Basic Income — a guaranteed income for all. Progressives of course like the idea, but even some conservatives and libertarians do, too. Only one problem: It doesn't work. Ask Finland, a highly progressive Scandinavian country that has an ongoing guaranteed income experiment, but is abandoning it. Starting in 2017, the two-year Finnish program selected a random group of 2,000 unemployed people and gave them a monthly income roughly equal to about $678 for doing ... nothing. The government hoped that many participants would flood back into the labor market. But...

A Warning About Sloth in a Story from the Old Testament Msgr. Charles Pope • August 9, 2017 • This week in daily Mass we are presented with a vivid portrait of the sin of sloth and its effects:A critical moment has arrived for the people of Israel. Having seen the Egyptian army defeated at the Red Sea, they have now crossed the desert in a short period of time, perhaps a matter of months. It is now time to enter the Promised Land and savor its “milk and honey.” This is the Land that God had promised them...

Words cannot add to the glory of this image. Would you like to submit a photo to our #TTPicOfTheDay series? Please send horizontal photos at least 1100 pixels wide to kstanley@ticotimes.net. We’d love to see the sights with you.

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As a society, we have done millennials a disservice. An entire generation of young people in America came of age during a decade of sluggish economic growth, and as a result, many are skeptical of free enterprise and capitalism. A stunning 2016 Harvard University survey of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 found that 51 percent of respondents do not support capitalism. Millennial support for avowed socialist Bernie Sanders in the Democratic presidential primary was proof that young people today aren’t enamored with capitalism. During the Obama years, the 18-29 age group heard countless presidential speeches railing...

The geology of the site, as well as pollen and algae finds, suggest that the hunter-gatherers encountered the mastodon next to a small pond that both humans and animals used as a water source, the researchers believe. Waters said that the prehistoric "people knew how to find game, fresh water and materials for making tools. These people were well adapted to this environment. The site is a slam-dunk pre-Clovis site with unequivocal artifacts, clear stratigraphy and thorough dating." Another research team previously excavated the site and found what they believed were dog remains, so dogs "would most likely have been...

If you've felt your blood pressure rise after seeing passengers being served champagne on the tarmac while you're fighting for overhead space in coach, you are not alone. A new study finds that class division in the skies can have a real and occasionally dangerous effect on passengers in both sections of a plane. And when economy-class passengers are forced to pass through the luxurious first-class area on their way to the cramped economy seats, the rate of air rage incidents is more than seven times higher than if there were no first-class seats at all. Researchers report that the...

The employee of a water utility owned by the Spanish city of Cadiz didn't appear at its office for up to six years and "did absolutely no work" for three years prior to his retirement in 2011, said the ruling issued last month and provided to The Associated Press Frida The case has made headlines across Spain this week, and current Cadiz Deputy Mayor Martin Vila told reporters Friday he was amazed that "a person could be hired for years and collecting (pay) without doing anything whatsoever."

Antidote for sloth? 4/8/2015 Q. Do you have any suggestions for a person who is guilty of sloth and laziness? On account of it, I am often sluggish and this keeps me from many of my responsibilities and duties to be a good and prayerful Catholic.— N.W., Baltimore, Md. A. Here’s a reply from Msgr. Charles Pope: Sloth, which is one of the seven capital sins, is sorrow or aversion to the good things that God is offering us. And thus one who has sloth — and hears that God can save them from sins and enable them to do many...

A Study of Sloth in the Life of Lot Msgr. Charles Pope • July 1, 2015 •   In daily Mass this week (the 13th week of the year) we have been reading through Genesis. Tuesday’s reading highlights a significant spiritual problem: sloth, one of the seven deadly sins. Sloth is a sorrow, sadness, or aversion to the good things God offers. Rather than being joyful and zealous to obtain these gifts, the slothful person sees them as too much trouble to obtain and is averse to the changes such gifts might introduce into his life. This is clearly the...