FIND FACTS- 12/16/11- FRIDAY

New Zealander Annette Swoffer got the surprise of her life when she found a baby seal in her kitchen, who later began to snooze on her couch, the New Zealand Herald reports.

According to the report, the seal wandered from the bay waterfront, through a residential area, across busy roads, under a gate, through a cat door, and up some stairs before he was found at around 9:30 p.m.

"I thought 'I'm hallucinating, this is just wrong,'" Swoffer told the paper. "Then it looks at me with those huge brown eyes. It was so cute..."

Swoffer then called the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), who called the Department of Conservation. According to a report by Stuff.co.nz, the department was already looking for the pup.

When biodiversity program manager Chris Clark came to pick up the animal, he told Swoffer he'd been looking for the seal all afternoon and that it had likely just been weaned from its mother.

Department of Conservation's Katrina Knill elaborated on the state of the New Zealand fur seal population in an email to The Huffington Post:

"seal populations are starting to recover in the western Bay of Plenty, and are believed to be breeding on Motuanau (Plate) Island, which is approximately 12km offshore.
At this time of year, young seals are dispersing from the rookeries. Seal pups may often spend days at a time alone, whilst the mother is away foraging for food.

Seals usually occupy rocky shores in places that have some protection from heavy seas and are often found resting on Bay of Plenty beaches.

Occasionally they travel inland (usually via estuaries and waterways). When on land they can become disoriented and have been found on previous occasions in unexpected places such as backyards, drains and streets.

Seals are wild animals and the Department's policy is to return them to the care of their natural habitat. Knill went on to write that seals can carry infectious diseases and injure humans, so members of the public should contact authorities if they see a seal in trouble or in an odd location.

What would you do in a situation like this? Would you kill the animal? Keep the animal? or Just set it free?
Please write in comlpete sentences and don't forget spell check

FIND FACTS- 12/15/11- THURSDAY

Birds crash-land at Wal-Mart _Thousands of migratory birds died on impact after apparently mistaking a Wal-Mart car park and other areas for bodies of water and plummeting to the ground.

Crews went to work cleaning up the dead birds and rescuing the survivors after the creatures crash-landed in St. George, Utah, in what one wildlife expert called the worst downing she's ever seen.
The crash happened on Monday night and by midday Wednesday, volunteers had helped rescue more than 3,000 birds, releasing them into nearby bodies of water.


Stormy conditions probably confused the flock of grebes, a duck-like aquatic bird likely making its way to Mexico for the winter, which tried to land in a Cedar City Wal-Mart car park and elsewhere.
The birds plunged into the car park, football fields, highways and over miles of property that had been blanketed by about three inches of gleaming snow. At least 1,500 are believed to have died.

The storm clouds over the top of the city lights made it look like a nice, flat body of water. All the conditions were right,’ Ms Griffin told The Spectrum newspaper in St. George.
'Before there were (artificial lights), the sky was always paler than the ground. When all of a sudden there's light all over the place, they don't know which way is up anymore'
Kevin McGowan
‘So the birds landed to rest, but ended up slamming into the pavement.’ No human injuries or property damage have been reported.
Kevin McGowan, who studies birds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York, said grebes rely on starlight to navigate during their nighttime migration.
'Before there were (artificial lights), the sky was always paler than the ground,' he said. 'When all of a sudden there's light all over the place, they don't know which way is up anymore.'

FIND FACTS-12/13/11 WEDNESDAY

A curious library caretaker in the Bavarian city of Passau has discovered a treasure trove of ancient silver coins and medals that went overlooked for more than two centuries. The surprise find is reportedly worth as much as six figures.

Janitor Tanja Höls had often passed by an unassuming wooden box stowed away in an archive in Passau's historic state library, but it wasn't until about two weeks ago that curiosity got the best of her and she was decided take a look inside.

What she found were dozens of coins, most of them made of silver. "I had no idea that I'd found a treasure," the 43-year-old told the German news agency DAPD on Wednesday. But when she told the head of the library in the Bavarian city what she had seen, he soon realized their value.

What would you have done if you had found these items?

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FIND FACTS- 12/13/11- TUESDAY

NEWINGTON, N.H. -- A Dover man is due in court Friday morning after police said he ran through the Fox Run Mall in Newington Thursday smashing windows and display cases with a hammer at six stores.

Newington police said Michael Williams ran around the mall with the hammer claiming to be God. Click Like For NH News Updates: Several shoppers actually got down on the floor, thinking someone was shooting a gun.

Witnesses said Williams sat down on a bench and tossed the hammer away before he was arrested. One young woman, who was working at one of the stores, was injured after his arrest when a piece of hanging glass fell on her as she was cleaning, police said.

Out of the six stores that were damaged, Kay Jewelers, Pandora, Yankee Candle, The Limited and Motherhood Maternity had all reopened Friday after inspection by the Newington Fire Department. Zales Jewelers was expected to be open by 2 p.m.

In your opinion, what should happen to a man like this? Should he be considered dangerous? Or just sick? What would you do if this was one of your loved ones?

Please write using complete sentences and don't forget spell check!

FIND FACTS- 12/12/11- MONDAY

A Buffalo girls basketball team was suspended after the players allegedly used a racial slur as part of their pregame cheer.

Tyra Batts, the sole African-American on the Kenmore East High School’s squad, told the Buffalo News that her teammates would hold hands before the game, say a prayer and then shout "One, two, three (n------)."

The practice came to light when Tyra was suspended for getting into a fight about the use of racial slurs during practice, according to the newspaper.

She said that she was alarmed by the cheer, but had been outnumbered and told that the use of the slur was just a team tradition.

"I said, 'You're not allowed to say that word because I don't like that word,'" she told the newspaper. "They said, 'You know we're not racist, Tyra. It's just a word, not a label.' I was outnumbered."

The 15-year-old eventually exploded after a practice when a teammate called her a 'black piece of (expletive).’ She says she got into a fight with the girl later in school.

"It was a buildup of anger and frustration at being singled out of the whole team," she told the newspaper.

Tyra’s suspension was shortened after the principal learned of the racial allegations. At least a dozen girls were suspended.

Some of the team's former players who took to Twitter seemed to have little knowledge of any “tradition” the team had of racial chants.

"You (racist) b----," a 2010 graduate tweeted. "Glad I'm out of there."

Another one added, "Haha oh yeah that Ken East crap that's going on. I want no part in that."

What is your opinion about this situation? Is this right? Should there have been a suspension?
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FIND FACTS- FRIDAY-12/9/11

Teen wakes sleepy bus driver, A quick-thinking 17-year-old jumped up and grasped the hand of a school bus driver just as he started nodding off at the wheel. Emmanuel Williams said the unnamed driver, an eight-year veteran now on leave, had been driving erratically since he picked up students.There’s one key rule to being a passenger … always keep an eye on the driver!

A teenager has become a hero for thinking quickly on his feet and preventing a bus driver who fell asleep at the wheel from crashing.


17 year-old Emmanuel Williams along with 24 other students were headed home from school when he noticed the bus was swerving and missed an exit.

The 65-year-old driver had apparently nodded off and was no longer focused on the road. Without hesitation, Williams jumped up and awoke the driver before anything tragic could happen.

“I was looking at him and his eyes would close, and when we’d get to a turn, he’d look both ways, start driving again, and they would close more and more,” Williams said. “And as soon as I see his head go down, and I see the bus go back to the freeway, I hop up, get to the front of the bus as fast as I can. I guess I just did it because it was right to do.”

Once the driver was back alert and awake, he regained control of the bus.

In the days that followed the incident, Williams says he pondered over what could have happened if he wasn’t paying attention. “Something would have happened if I didn’t get up,” he said. “I know that there would have been a big huge thing going on because he would have crashed and it would have been a whole lot more than what it is now.”

Tacoma Public Schools District says the driver had a clean driving record with no accidents during eight years.

“Certainly safety is very important to us and to the families involved, and we want to get to the bottom of it and make sure nothing like this happens again,” said Dan Voelpel of Tacoma Public Schools. “It’s unusual. It’s not something we’ve dealt with before.”

The driver has been placed on administrative leave while the incident is under investigation.

What is your opinion about this situation? Would you have done the same thing?
Please use complete sentences and don't forget spell check!

FIND FACTS- 12/8/11- THURSDAY

AP) SEATTLE - A Seattle chiropractor and his wife live in a $1.2 million waterfront home and have spent the past eight years flying to Moscow, Paris, Israel, Turkey, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

All the while, federal authorities say, the couple was collecting more than $100,000 in public welfare payments.

Now, the U.S. attorney's office is suing David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova, accusing them of filing false claims and demanding that the couple pay back more than $135,000 in federal housing assistance since 2003. Prosecutors are also seeking tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

In gaining housing assistance, Shimonova represented that she lived alone with her two children and that her household assets were less than $5,000. Silverstein received the monthly benefits of $1,272 as Shimonova's purported landlord, the government said.

Shimonova also received benefits under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, as well as Social Security cash reserved for people who can't work due to age or disability and whose assets fall below a certain threshold — $3,000 for a married couple or $2,000 for a single person, the complaint said.

Meanwhile, they were traveling the world, according to Department of Homeland Security records.

Michael Radyshewsky, a federal welfare fraud investigator, wrote in an application to search the couple's home that they took weeklong trips to Moscow in 2003, Dominican Republic in 2005, and Mexico and France in 2009. In 2007, they went for 12 days to Israel, and this past June they took a two-week trip to Turkey. Seattle couple accused of stealing $100,000, couple on welfare,

Silverstein said Tuesday his lawyer asked him not to comment. The home did not appear to have a listed phone number, and no contact information for Shimonova could immediately be found.

Is this fair? What is your opinion of this situation?
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FIND FACTS- 12/7/11- WEDNESDAY

In a heroic story beyond reason, a yellow lab named Reagan made a discovery on an Iowa roadside that saved two precious lives.

Two kittens had been sealed into a bag of Meow Mix, left on a roadside and run over by traffic on a rural Iowa highway about three months ago, WHOTV.com reports.

It was Reagan the dog who dragged the bag home and whined until his owner opened it. Reagan's owner discovered two kittens barely hanging onto life, while the rest of the litter hadn't survived, prompting a call to the Raccoon Valley Animal Sanctuary.

"There was a litter of four or five of them and you couldn't tell if there were two or three [in the bag]...they had been run over by a vehicle. It was not a pretty sight," Linda Blakely of the animal shelter told WHOTV.com.

The Raccoon Valley Animal Sanctuary is now housing the two kittens -- Skipper and Tipper -- who weren't originally expected to live through the ordeal. The two were bottled-fed every two hours and are now back to their normal lively selves, the news outlet reports.

Thanks to Reagan, both kittens are now up for adoption through the Raccoon Valley Animal Sanctuary.

What would you do if this were your dog? Do you think it was a good idea or a bad one?
Please answer in complete sentences and don't forget spell check!

FIND FACTS- 12/6/11- TUESDAY

CHICAGO (AP) - Teen sexting of nude photos online or via cellphone may be far less common than people think, new research suggests.

Only 1 percent of kids aged 10 to 17 have shared images of themselves or others that involve explicit nudity, a nationally representative study found. Roughly the same number said they’d shared suggestive but less graphic photos; while 7 percent said they’d received either type of picture.

The research focused on teens only _ not young adults, an age group included in some earlier studies which showed considerably higher sexting participation. The new study suggests texting of sexual photos among younger kids is rare.

The results are reassuring, showing that teen sexting isn’t rampant, usually isn’t malicious, and is generally not something parents should panic over, said lead author Kimberly Mitchell, a research assistant psychology professor at the University of New Hampshire.

Previous reports said as many as 1 in 5 young people, or 20 percent, have participated in sexting. But some surveys included older teens and people in their early 20s. And some used definitions of sexting that included racy text messages without photos, or images “no more revealing than what someone might see at a beach,” authors of the new study said.

An Associated Press-MTV poll done in August found that 7 percent of teens said they had sent a naked photo of themselves. That result was for older teens _ 14 to 17 _ and was conducted online.

The latest study focused only on pictures, and asked more detailed questions about the kinds of racy photos kids are sharing.

Is this stuff legal? What would you do if you found out that your children were showing racy pictures of themselves to God knows who? What if it was your parents, what would you do?

Please answer in complete sentences and don't forget spell check!

FIND FACTS- 12/5/11- MONDAY

BRENTWOOD, N.H. --A New Hampshire man was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison Friday for beating his wife to death with a flashlight after he came home to find she had strangled their 4-year-old son with a ribbon and tried to kill their 7-year-old daughter.

Christopher Smeltzer, 38, pleaded guilty to killing Mara Pappalardo, who was hospitalized several times for mental illness. Prosecutors say she was paranoid, obsessed with death and convinced her husband and mother-in-law were plotting to take her children away.

"When I walked into the room, as soon as I saw my son, I knew something was very wrong," Smeltzer told the court before he was sentenced, his voice breaking at times. "I knew he was dead. And I lost all control. Enraged, I struck my wife. I did something that was not going to bring my son back."

Smeltzer was charged with second-degree murder in the November 2010 killing at their Auburn home. Prosecutors later downgraded that to manslaughter, saying he was provoked by the sight of the still bodies of their son, Mason, and daughter, Mercey.

He arrived home Nov. 7 to find Mason with a ribbon around his neck and Mercey with a scarf around hers. He thought both were dead. Pappalardo tied a blue rope around her own neck in an attempt to kill herself, although prosecutors said she died from both strangulation and Smeltzer hitting her in the head with the flashlight.

Smeltzer did not call 911. Instead, he snipped the ribbon off Mason's neck and removed the scarf from Mercey's. Then he took all the pills he could find -- painkillers, sleeping aids and methadone -- and lay down on the couch to die.

He was awakened the next morning by Mercey, who asked if her mother and brother were breathing and requested a cup of tea. He made her one, then called his father and 911.

Smeltzer, who was wearing handcuffs Friday, wept while talking about how much he misses his son. "I miss my wife as well," he said. "I miss Mara's smile and heart and the way she played with our children."

He apologized to her family. "I brought more pain and sorrow," he said, adding he wishes every day he had a rewind button.

Judge Tina Nadeau said if Smeltzer earns a college degree and completes anger management behind bars, his minimum sentence would be reduced to 10 years.

What would you do in a situation like this? What if this was your Father or your Mother? Or what if this happened to your children?
Please answer in complete sentences and don't forget spell check!

FIND FACTS- FRIDAY- 12/2/11

Snake charmer's slithering protest - An angry snake charmer caused chaos at a government office when he released a bag of serpents at land revenue officials in India.

Deadly cobras were among the reptiles set free, causing widespread panic among staff at the office as they slithered through the building. snake charmer protest,

Hakkul, of Lara village in the Basti district released the vipers at a land revenue office in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. His talent with the hissing reptiles means he is known among other villagers as ‘the snake charmer’ and has reportedly saved many lives warning snakes away from villages.

"Snakes were climbing up the tables and chairs. The office was full, there were nearly 100 officials and clerks and many more visitors," local journalist Mazhar Azad told the BBC. cobra snake,

"There was total chaos for several hours. Some people started taking photos with their telephone cameras, others brought out sheets to try to cover the snakes. Some came with sticks and wanted to beat up Hakkul."

Hakkul’s peculiar form of protest came after he demanded land on which to keep his snakes.

Although his request has been approved he believes local officials are stalling the process. snake charmers poisoned protest,

The poisonous snakes were released to a room of over 100 villagers and officials as a form or revenge. Amid the confusion, Hakkul is yet to be found. No one was hurt. definition :bribery,