Society

Ohioans Swear More than Any Other State & are the Least Courteous

According to research by Marchex Institute, Ohio leads the country in swearing, with residents dropping curse words every 150 words. On the other side of the spectrum, when it comes to being courteous and dropping in the pleases and thank yous into our conversations, Ohioans rank pretty low and have been ranked as "not courteous" by the research group.

The researchers scanned for curse words from A to F to S, and then linked the frequency of those words with all 50 states. The worst offenders were put in the "Sailors" category and include:

1 - Ohio
2 - Maryland
3 - New Jersey
4 - Louisiana
5 - Illinoise

The least frequent users of curse words were placed in the "Goody Two Shoes" category and include:

1 - Washington
2 - Massachusetts
3 - Arizona
4 - Texas
5 - Virginia

Ice Age Bison Fossil Discovered Under San Diego Highway

The fossilized remains of an Ice Age bison were recently discovered at a Caltrans construction site near Pala Mesa in north San Diego County, Calif., while working on the State Route 76 East highway project.

According to a Caltrans representatie, Cathryne Bruce-Johnson, the remains are estimated to be around 200,000 years old. It is the first time that bison remains from the Ice Age have been found in Southern California.

The San Diego Natural History Museum unveiled the find on Monday in a presentation.

Caltrans, which is an abbreviation for the California Department of Transportation, has been working on improving the Route 76 ramp that runs between interstates 15 and 5. The widening and overhaul of the I-15/Route 76 interchange is expected to continue through summer 2014.

Any paleontological discoveries that are made between now and the project's completion are protected by the Environmental Quality Act of California, a law that requires developers grant researchers a chance at collecting specimens before moving forward toward completion of construction projects.

Alaska Village Will Disappear by 2017

The village of Newtok, Alaska, may become the United States' very first refugees due to climate change. The coastal village of 350 residents is located about 480 miles west of Anchorage, and is currently in the process of being washed out into the Bering Sea.

The Ninglick River flows past three of Newtok's sides on its path to the sea, and has slowly been eating away at the village. The rate has only grown more aggressive due to climate change that's also been linked to melting permafrost and dwindling protective sea ice.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have already surveyed the village, coming to grim conclusions. They predict that seawalls or other protective measures would not work and that the town's highest point could be underwater in just four years, by 2017.

19 Injured in Shootings at Mother's Day Parade in New Orleans

19 people were injured when gunfire during an informal Mother's Day parade in New Orleans on Sunday, said police. Among the injured were two young children.

The shots were fired at 1:45pm local time as the second line of the parade passed the 1400 block of Frenchmen Street in the city.

Ten men and seven women were shot in addition to a 10-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy. A spokesman for the police department said that the children were grazed and are in good condition, adding that "many of the victims were grazed by some bullets that ricocheted." Two victims are undergoing surgery.

Obama Mannequin Targets That Bleed Were on Display at NRA Convention

During its national convention held in Houston, Texas, over the weekend, the National Rifle Association asked a vendor to take down a mannequin target that shared the likeness of President Barack Obama.

The vendor, Zombie Industries, sells "life-sized tactical mannequin" targets that "bleed" when they are shot. Some of the other mannequins that were on display for sale at the NRA convention included a clown, a Nazi, and a "terrorist".

A Zombie Industries spokesperson told BuzzFeed.com:

"Someone from the NRA came by and asked us to remove it. They thought it looked too much like President Obama."

When the worker was asked if the resemblance to the President was intentional, he told BuzzFeed:

"Let's just say I gave my Republican father one for Christmas."

Former FBI Agent Claims All Calls in the U.S. are Recorded and Accessible to Government

Tim Clemente, a former FBI counterterrorism, has hinted at an intrusive surveillance network that is used by the U.S. government to monitor its own citizens. Discussing the Boston Marathon bombings and the past telephone conversations of now deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his wife Katherine Russell, Clemente indicated that those conversations would be available to investigators.

Clemente admitted that U.S. citizens are under constant government surveillance and that all communications are recorded. He discussed this with host Erin Burnett on CNN last week:

BURNETT: ' Tim, is there any way, obviously, there is a voice mail they can try to get the phone companies to give that up at this point. It's not a voice mail. It's just a conversation. There's no way they actually can find out what happened, right, unless she tells them?'

CLEMENTE: 'No, there is a way. We certainly have ways in national security investigations to find out exactly what was said in that conversation. It's not necessarily something that the FBI is going to want to present in court, but it may help lead the investigation and/or lead to questioning of her. We certainly can find that out.'

BURNETT: 'So they can actually get that? People are saying, look, that is incredible.'

CLEMENTE: 'No, welcome to America. All of that stuff is being captured as we speak whether we know it or like it or not.'

Clemente made the statements on Wednesday evening, and repeated them again on CNN on Thursday night, adding that "all digital communications in the past" are recorded and saved, and stressed that no digital communication was secure.

80 Percent of Americans Don't Meet Physical Activity Guidelines

No wonder there's an obesity crisis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 80 percent of Americans fail to meet the federal government's physical activity recommendations.

The findings, which are based on data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a yearly phone survey of adults over 18, were recently published in the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

The U.S. government's Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommends that adults walk for at least 2.5 hours per week or jog for at least one hour and 15 minutes a week. In addition to the aerobic exercise, the guidelines recommend Americans complete push-ups, sit-ups or other muscle-strengthening activities on two or more days per week.

According to the report, more people are getting in the suggested amounts of aerobic exercise than are participating in the suggested amount of muscle-strengthening activity.

Incidence of Suicide on the Rise in Middle Aged U.S. Adults

According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates among middle age American adults are on the rise.

Over the course of the last decade, the rate of suicide among adults ages 35 to 64 increased 28 percent, from 13.7 suicides per 100,000 people in 1999 to 17.6 suicides per 100,000 in 2010. The largest increases in suicide were seen among people ages 55 to 59 (a 49 percent increase) and ages 50 to 54 (a 48 percent increase).

Firearms were the most common way that people committed suicide (8.3 suicides per 100,000 people), followed by hanging/suffocation (4.1 suicides per 100,000 people), and poisoning (3.8 suicides per 100,000 people). During the study period, the rate of suicide from hanging/suffocation also increased 81 percent.

Linda Degutis, director of the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, said in a statement that while suicide prevention efforts have typically targeted the young and old, these findings suggest that it is important for prevention strategies "to address the types of stressors that middle aged Americans might be facing."

Researchers Show Physical Evidence of Cannibalism at Historic Jamestown Site

Historians have long suspected that the early settlers of Jamestown resorted to cannibalism to survive the deadly winter of 1609-10, a period in which 80 percent of colonists survived, but now they have physical proof. Douglas Owsley, division head for physical anthropology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, presented earlier this week a forensic analysis of 17-century human remains that prove survival cannibalism took place in historic Jamestown.

Owsley made the announcement along with chief archaeologist William Kelso from the Jamestown Rediscovery Project and Preservation Virginia and historian James Horn, vice president of research and historical interpretation at Colonial Williamsburg.

Owsley and Kelso have worked together closely since 1996, examining skeletal remains along with a team of archaeologists to understand the lives of the individual colonial settlers in the Chesapeake. The particular incomplete human skull and tibia (shown above) were excavated in 2012 by Jamestown archaelogists as a part of a 20-year excavation of James Fort. The remains were unusual due to their location and extensive fragmentation. Kelso then decided to take the remains to the Smithsonian's forensic anthropologist for a comprehensive analysis.

Researchers identified several features on the skull and tibia which indicated that the individual was cannibalized. Four shallow chops to the forehead indicate a failed first attempt to open the skull, and the back of the head was then struck by a series of deep, forceful chops from a small hatchet or cleaver. A final blow split the cranium open. Sharp cuts and punctures mark the sides and bottom of the mandible, which indicate efforts to remove tissue from the face and throat using a knife.

U.S. Approves Morning After Pill Plan B for Ages 15 and Up Without Prescription

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a brand of emergency contraception - Plan B One-Step - for ages 15 and up without a prescription, in defiance of a judge's order to make the so-called "morning after pill" available to all ages.

The FDA's decision to allow Plan B One-Step to be sold over the counter to some teens without a prescription from a doctor falls short of the orders of a judge last month. In a statement late Tuesday, the FDA said:

"The product will now be labeled 'not for sale to those under 15 years of age *proof of age required* not for sale where age cannot be verified."