Stories tagged birth
Remember back a few years when Nadya Suleman was in the news? She was the young woman who gave birth to octuplets. The media dubbed her Octomom, and some people were outraged "Eight babies at once? That's ludicrous!" was a common rant. You think so? Well, how about this real Octomom? Her name is Opal and last year she gave birth to over 50,000 babies! Of course, Opal's an actual octopus, so it doesn't seem so outrageous. Anyway, Laurynn Evans, a scuba diver in Seattle, Washington discovered Opal in 2009 while diving off shore in West Seattle. After she realized that Opal was a female and had laid eggs - lots of them - she began regularly videotaping her right through the big night of the massive hatching (I don't think Opal survived the ordeal). You can see the blessed event in the video below and read more about it on NPR's sciencey blog Krulwich Wonders. That's a lot of diapers.
Tags : It's the story that just keeps going and going. One of the displaced panda's from the China earthquake has given birth to two cubs. There's tons of cute panda footage on this video for all you panda groupies out there. And here's the latest video, showing the actual birth of the panda.
The number of males being born around the world is dropping. Though still outnumbering female births, the gap is closing. No one knows why.
OK, stop your snickering. A report from England indicates that a high-calorie, high-potassium diet prior to conception increases the likelihood of a woman giving birth to a boy. Low-calorie diets lead to more girls.
U.S. population, 300 million: from Wikimedia As I entered college in the fall of 1967, the population of the United States reached 200 million. Now, 40 years later, it will hit 300 million (about Oct. 15).
Our population is effected by deaths, births, and migration. Here are the current rates for each:
- One birth every.................................. 7 seconds
- One death every.................................. 13 seconds
- One international migrant (net) every............ 31 seconds
- Net gain of one person every..................... 11 seconds
The U.S. Bureau of the Census has a website projecting the current resident population of the United States (click link for today's number). At 300 million, the United States is the world's third most populous nation, though it remains far behind the growing economic superpowers of China (1.31 billion) and India (1.09 billion).
Minority children become a majority
Now, according to the Population Reference Bureau, almost half of all children under age 5 are members of a racial or ethnic minority.
Other changes since 1970
- The suburbs share of the population grew from 38 percent to 50 percent (share of population living in central cities stagnated at around 30 percent).
- The population in the South and West grew from 38 percent to 48 percent of the nations total.
- Persons living alone rose from 18 percent to 26 percent. Households with five or more people almost halved, from 20 percent to 11 percent.
- Women in the workforce grew from 43 percent to 59 percent.
- Persons over 24 with high school diplomas soared from 55 percent to 85 percent.
Source: Population Reference Bureau, and RedOrbit
