1. Baby Love! San Francisco Zoo Welcomes New Red Panda
It’s springtime and you know what that means…baby animals will be popping up at zoos around the country. The San Francisco Zoo is welcoming an adorable 10-month-old red panda into its family and the little guy will be making his public debut May 10th. The red panda is still waiting for a name, but not for long. The zoo’s emeritus board member and his wife donated $31,000 to secure naming rights.
2. Astronaut to Give Commencement Speech from Space
The University of Connecticut’s School of Engineering will get its commencement speech from outer space. Astronaut Rick Mastracchio will still be orbiting Earth on the International Space Station when his video speech is delivered to the graduating class of 2014 on May 10th. Mastracchio pre-recorded his speech last weekend and beamed it back to NASA, which will deliver the files to UConn. Being out of town just isn’t a good excuse for missing speaking engagements anymore.
3. 5 New, Terrifying Roller Coasters to Ride This Summer
We've all seen scary roller coasters before, but these are on a whole other level. Check out Wired's selection of the latest death-defying rides. From the speed, to the curves, to the height of the vertical drops, we're getting vertigo just looking at them.
4. Chinese Burger King Markets “PooPoo Smoothie”
Add this to your list of marketing “don’ts”: a Chinese Burger King is advertising the “PooPoo Smoothie” which, thankfully, is not made of what you might expect, but rather is a mango-flavored concoction. A server at a Shanghai Burger King explained to the Wall Street Journal that the name “sounds phonetically similar to the Mandarin term for bubbles, or paopao.”
5. Study: You Can Smell Someone’s Gender
Your sense of smell could be telling you more about a person than you think. A study published in the journal “Current Biology” suggests people may have the ability to smell the gender of another human – just like animals. The study’s lead author says individuals are able to “subconsciously extract gender information from chemosensory cues depending on their gender and sexual orientation.” Men and women do have different scents, but before now, scientists have questioned whether humans could discern between the two. Clearly, they’ve never studied a men's locker room.
6. Who’s Ready to Move?
How much do you love your state? If you call Illinois or Connecticut home, chances are 50-50 you’re ready to move elsewhere. A recent Gallup poll surveyed residents in 50 states and found roughly half of the respondents in both Illinois and Connecticut said they’d like to live somewhere else. The states with the most satisfied residents are: Montana, Maine and (surprise, surprise) Hawaii.