There's new information about the world's oldest flying reptile, which was discovered in Australia. The giant creature is known as a pterosaur and lived about 107 million years ago. According to a study published today in the journal History Biology, the animal had a wingspan that was 6.5 feet long and was the first vertebrate able to fly. It lived alongside dinosaurs during the Mesozoic Era, which began 252 million years ago.
SHARK SPOTTING
Meanwhile, this shark was recently spotted circling around a man and his son who were taking a dip at Orange Beach, Alabama. The footage was captured on a drone by a 15-year-old who was monitoring sharks in the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf is home to 50 species of sharks, only about half of which are known to have encounters with people.
BEE SWARM
Finally, a huge swarm of bees was filmed over a crowd of spectators at the Indianapolis 500 Race over the weekend. The video shows the bees hovering above spectators. The man who shot the video says the crowd was unfazed by the bees and was mostly focused on the race. There was even a beekeeper sitting a few rows away from the swarm who helped remove the bees after the race. He said there were an estimated 12,000 to 16,000 bees in the stands.
Carlo and Baker cover the latest developments with the Omicron variant, and break down what we know and what we still don't. Plus, a relatively tame Black Friday, and more.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease specialist and senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, joined Cheddar to discuss the nations joining in on a travel ban against several African nations after South Africa reported the emergence of the omicron variant of COVID-19 currently worrying health experts. Adalja also added his own voice to the World Health Organization's objection to the travel ban at this time. "When you do a travel ban, you basically waste a lot of resources implementing the travel ban, you give people a false sense of security when the virus is likely already outside of the area of the travel ban, and then you punish countries like South Africa." He noted that South Africa should be praised for its transparency and not punished with restrictions, an act he thinks will lead to a chilling effect among other nations sharing data freely.
Blue Origin is gearing up for its next launch, set to blast off on December 9th. Michael Strahan is one of the six crew members who will snag a seat on the the New Shepard rocket. Jim Cantrell, CEO and co-founder at Phantom Space, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
Donald Pettey, Program Manager for Strategic Initiatives for MassDOT, and Mohammed Siddiqui, Vice President of Public Relations at Ko-Solar, join Cheddar Climate, where they discuss their plan to test highway barriers that absorb sound and solar energy, with construction expected to begin in the first half of 2022.
Over 100 world leaders signed on to a pledge at the United Nations COP26 climate meeting with the aim of ending and reversing deforestation by 2030. Leaders agreed to conserve forests and ecosystems, support developing countries on deforestation prevention, and more. Rod Taylor, Global Forests Director at the World Resources Institute, joins Cheddar Climate to discuss the pledge, whether it will have a significant impact, whether 2030 is a suitable deadline, and how we can verify if forests are actually being protected.
President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" bill could mean cheaper electric bicycles and scooters as the nation attempts to shift away from gas-powered cars. Noa Banayan, the director of federal affairs at PeopleForBikes, joined Cheddar's "Closing Bell" to provide some background on the E-Bike Act included in Biden's reconciliation bill that would provide tax credits for qualified purchases. "We want to make sure, from the bike industry's perspective, that this is a technology and a product that is available to the majority of Americans who want to lower their carbon footprint and get around town faster and do everything that they would normally do in a short car trip but by bike, because it's healthier, it's fast, it's efficient, you're not in traffic," she said.
It's being called the next big trend in crypto. A decentralized autonomous organization, or DAO, is an internet community of different types of groups and businesses. The purpose is to allow people to commit funds to a specific cause in a safe way. Now, one social platform is creating a do-it-yourself kit for those who want to step into the space. Upstream Collective just launched the beta mode of its platform with the goal of putting all facets of running a DAO in one place. Alex Taub, co-founder and CEO of Upstream, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
A NASA spacecraft that will deliberately crash into an asteroid is preparing to launch this week. The goal of the DART mission, or the Double Asteroid Redirection Test, is to hit the smaller of the two asteroids, Dimorphos, with the spacecraft at about 15,000 miles per hour and see how the impact changes the asteroid’s trajectory. Joey Roulette, space reporter at The New York Times, joins Cheddar News to talk more about it.
NFL Hall of Famer and "Good Morning America" host Michael Strahan will be able to add space travel to his list of accomplishments as he prepares to launch into orbit with the next Blue Origin mission.
