General News
Meropi Kyriacou Honored as TNH Educator of the Year
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
BOSTON — A “swift-footed lizard” that lived millions of years ago in what is now Massachusetts has been named the state’s official dinosaur under legislation signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Charlie Baker.
Podokesaurus holyokensis received more than 60% of the roughly 35,000 votes cast in a social media campaign initiated early last year by state Rep. Jack Lewis, beating out another dinosaur that was also discovered in the state.
“If I think about my own childhood … the thing that got me interested in science in the first place was dinosaurs,” the Republican governor said at the signing ceremony at the Museum of Science in Boston, with some of the state’s leading paleontologists standing behind him. “And the main reason they got me interested is because of their majesty, and their ferocity and their almost alien-being status. As a kid, they just created wonder.”
Lewis came up with the idea of a state dinosaur while trying to find engaging projects for the Cub Scout den he led during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The project did not just get people involved in science, but also taught them about the legislative process, the Framingham Democrat said.
Podokesaurus holyokensis, which means “swift-footed lizard of Holyoke,” was discovered in western Massachusetts in 1910 by Mount Holyoke College professor Mignon Talbot, “the first woman to find, discover, name and describe a dinosaur,” Lewis said.
“Hopefully if this project inspires just a couple young girls to grow up and explore paleontology, it would have been all worth it,” he said.
The species was 3 to 6 feet (around 1 to 2 meters) in length, weighed approximately 90 pounds (40 kilograms), and was estimated to run 9 to 12 mph (14 to 19 kph), Lewis has said.
Baker called the creature “a tough, spunky underdog from Holyoke.”
About a dozen other states also have official state dinosaurs, Lewis said.
NEW YORK – Meropi Kyriacou, the new Principal of The Cathedral School in Manhattan, was honored as The National Herald’s Educator of the Year.
TORONTO (AP) — Police said nine people are facing charges in what authorities are calling the biggest gold theft in Canadian history from Toronto’s Pearson International airport a year ago.
Allman Brothers Band co-founder and legendary guitarist Dickey Betts dies at 80 Dickey Betts, who died Thursday at age 80, really was born a ramblin’ man.
NEW YORK — New York police removed a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at Columbia University on Thursday and arrested more than 100 demonstrators, including the daughter of a prominent Minnesota congresswoman.
ATHENS - The special 'Easter Basket,' which offers traditional Easter foods at lower or unchanged prices, will come into effect from April 24 to May 4.
LIVERPOOL - Liverpool failed to overcome a three-goal deficit and was eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday despite beating Atalanta 1-0 in the second leg of their quarterfinal matchup.