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.
On this episode of 'Cheddar Reveals', Lydia McMullen-Laird and Samuel McMullen, co-founders of Live Zero Waste, discuss the sum of humanity's 'trash addiction' and lifestyle changes people can make to help reduce their individual trash output; Ryan Lupberger, Sustainability Pioneer and CEO of Cleancult, breaks down how Cleancult is redefining cleaning products and solutions to reduce their impact on the planet; Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Going Circular.'
The U.S. has reopened its borders for fully vaccinated international visitors, ending a ban on foreign travelers that started more than a year ago. It's a welcome change for families separated by the pandemic and a sign of hope for the battered travel industry. Steve Shur, president of the The Travel Technology Association, discusses the new rules and how they could propel the travel industry into a post-pandemic boom.
Virgin Galactic is reporting an increase in demand for commercial space flights after seeing a boost in ticket sales, raising the price for a seat on a shuttle to $450,000. The company said they now have 700 customers.
Jill Wagner and Baker Machado break down the state of the Opioid Crisis in the U.S. The CDC reported a 30% increase in overdose deaths from 2020 to 2021, but in recent months pharmaceutical companies have drastically raised the price of Naloxone or 'Narcan,' affecting the response of community harm prevention groups.
The world hit a grim milestone on Monday, with COVID-19 cases surpassing a quarter of a billion worldwide. As cases increase, the fight to beat the virus continues as well, with a number of medical breakthroughs coming out over the last few months in the form of pills from Pfizer and Merck. Regeneron is now the latest company to join the fight, recently releasing new data on a covid antibody cocktail. Professor Peter Pitts, former FDA Associate Commissioner and the founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest breaks down the differences between the 3 treatments and why vaccines are still among the fire line of defense.
Jill and Carlo discuss the scenes of joy at American airports as borders reopen, another tool in the Covid toolbox, the latest in the Astroworld crowd crush tragedy and more.
The Biden Administration's mandate for COVID vaccinations by large employers has been put on hold by federal courts as GOP-led states and some businesses push back on the order's legality. Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University, joined Cheddar to discuss the legal challenges to implementing such mandates through OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration). "Certainly expanding vaccinations is a good thing, and as vaccination rates go up that's better for all of us," Adler said. "But there are some legal questions about whether or not it's appropriate to use a law about occupational safety and health as the means to do that."
Dr. Nasia Safdar, Doctor at UW Madison, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to discuss the implications of Merck sharing its antiviral pill, which has been shown in early trials to cut hospitalizations and deaths by half, with poorer nations around the globe.
Dr. Robert Frenck, an infectious disease specialist at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, joined Cheddar to talk about the significance of children ages 5-11 being authorized to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. He also discussed schools being cleared to administer vaccines and noted the importance of meeting people where they are rather than forcing them to find the shots. Frenck also said he expects that children under 5 years old will begin getting vaccinations sometime in spring.
