Grumpy Editor

DO YOU LIE OR ARE YOU A TRUTH TELLER?

A recent study finds the average American tells about a dozen lies a week, notes Grumpy Editor.

 

University of Notre Dame researchers also point out “lying less actually improves our mental and physical health.”

 

Truth tellers report fewer instances of poor mental health, they add. That includes feeling tense or melancholy, along with physical symptoms such as sore throat or headaches.

 

Truth tellers also report improvements in relationships with friends and family.

 

Meanwhile, psychologists find lying can trigger an increased heart rate, high blood pressure and elevated levels of stress hormones in blood.

 

 

IN CASE YOUR FAVORITE NEWS OUTLETS MISSED THESE...

FUNDS DESTINED FOR 85 AIRPORTS.  The Biden administration is sending nearly $1 billion to 85 airports to expand and upgrade terminals and other facilities.  The funds, making flying safer and more efficient, were approved in last year's infrastructure bill.

HUTCHINSON'S TESTIMONY SCORES HIGH.  Former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson’s testimony before the Jan. 6 committee scored high with television viewers.  It garnered a larger live audience than any of the four earlier daytime hearings.

DRIVER IN CHINA OUTRUNS LANDSLIDE.  A driver ended up similar to a James Bond movie when a mountainside in China's southwestern Sichuan province gave way, causing rocks to spill onto the roadway but the imperiled car outran the landslide.

MORE U.S. MILITARY ITEMS GOING TO UKRAINE.  The U.S. is sending another $400 million in military equipment to Ukraine, including four more advanced rocket systems able to strike deeper behind Russian front lines.

NO VACCINATION, NO PAY, SAYS ARMY.  The Army says about 40,000 National Guardsmen and 22,000 Reservists who have refused to get vaccinated will lose their pay and benefits.

 

FIN WHALES RETURN TO ANTARCTICA AREA.  Nearly 9,000 fin whales return to their ancestral feeding areas near Antarctica for the first time since  their hunting was banned almost half a century ago.

 

CNN REPORTER TO HEAD WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENTS' ASSOCIATION.  CNN’s chief White House reporter Kaitlan Collins is elected by her peers to serve as president of the White House Correspondents’ Association in 2024.  It marks the election of a woman as president three years in a row for the first time.

 

TEENAGER SAVES PASSENGERS FROM CAR PLUNGE INTO RIVER.  A teenager is being hailed a hero after city officials in Moss Point, Mississippi say he saved three people and a police officer after a vehicle plunged into water.  Corion Evans, 16, came to the aid of three female victims after he saw a car drive off the Interstate 10 boat launch into the Pascagoula River.

 

Most eighth graders rank low in geography knowledge

 

Pinpointing national and world locations seems to be a problem these days for youngsters in schools --- and, as mentioned in last Monday’s Grumpy Editor, geography fuzziness also extends to grownups in newsrooms.

Analyzing test data from the U.S. Department of Education, the Government Accountability Office found only 27 percent of eighth graders nationwide scored at either the proficient (24 percent) or advanced (3 percent) level on standardized geography tests last year, reported CNS News.

Nearly half (48 percent) exhibited only partial mastery of the subject, and a quarter (25 percent) scored below basic competency on the geography tests, it added.

Last year’s tally showed virtually no improvement since 1994, when 4 percent of eighth graders tested at the advanced level, 24 percent at the proficient level, 43 percent at the basic level, and 29 percent below basic competency.

Lack of geography knowledge also showed up this month with some newsroom writers and editors, as pointed out here last week when major national print/broadcast outlets --- in heavily-reported stories --- placed  dry, sunny Los Angeles and Southern California in a storm-triggered mudslide area that actually was in Kern County in California's Central Valley.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED THESE…

Back in July GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump banned Des Moines Register reporters from an Iowa rally following a critical editorial in that newspaper.  Staffers late last week were probably delighted to place into print a Register survey that showed Dr. Ben Carson leading Trump by nine percentage points in Iowa...So how on-target are Washington media predictions?  Most were confident that Vice President Joe Biden would toss his hat into the presidential race.  “Biden is almost certain to run,” they echoed in print and broadcast outlets for days.  Result:  They were the most surprised folks by Biden’s decision not to run…Los Angeles residents were shaken up by a printed report that indicated there was a whopping 99.9 percent chance of a 5.0 magnitude or greater earthquake in the Los Angeles area by April 1, 2018.  The figure was labeled suspect by a U.S. Geological Survey seismologist…“Poor management is not a crime,” was in a message from the Justice Department on Friday with word that it won’t charge former Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner in connection with decisions on Tea Party groups’ applications for tax-exempt status…Overlooked by media last Thursday with the highly-covered 11-hour Benghazi quizzing of Hillary Clinton by a House committee:  A U.S. pledge of $70 million to Pakistan to help educate 200,000 adolescent girls plus building about a dozen schools and rehabilitating hundreds of facilities…Blaming sluggish global economy slowing its sales growth, 3M Co. said it plans to eliminate about 1,500 jobs…Also cutting staff, ESPN sports network, part of Walt Disney Co., cited rising programming costs and a loss of viewers with plans to eliminate as many as 350 positions.