Snippets and Soundbites

It's Friday! It's almost Independence Day!

So what's the best way to get the holiday weekend started? We think "Snippets and Soundbites" sounds like a great idea.

(And remember: if this edition of "Snippets and Soundbites" isn't enough random and slightly off-beat news for you, check out page 38 in every issue of ec. You won't be disappointed!)

Spelling error ends in jail time.

Your teachers have always told you that grammar and spelling is important, but you've probably never wondered if a misspelling could send you to jail. Well, it can, if it's in a phony letter you're trying to use to fool the police. Just ask a Paducah, Ken., woman. The woman's son was in jail and charged with receiving stolen property. Hoping to get her son's bail lowered, the woman presented a letter from Wagner and Sons Moving to officials, believing his bail would be lowered if he had written proof of employment. Court officials got suspicious when they noticed the company's name was misspelled in the letter. When they checked it out, they discovered the woman had asked for such a letter from the company and had been refused. Apparently, she then took matters into her own hands and forged the document. She was charged with evidence tampering and now both mother and son are in jail in leiu of cash bond. Read all about it here. If you're interested in stopping crimes against grammar, there's a Facebook page for that.

Sweet dreams!

Have you ever wondered if your pet dreams? Probably, when you've watched your cat's legs "run" while she's asleep or your dog bark while he's snoozing on the couch. Well, guess what? Scientists say dogs and cats DO dream. According to a researched at MIT, cats and dogs do replay images of past events in their minds, much like humans do when they recall past experiences while sleeping. It's all because humans, dogs, and cats all have a hippocampus, which is the part of the brain that deals with memory. Dogs and cats have different stages of sleep, just like humans, and most dreaming occurs in REM stage. Non-REM dreams are usually simply quick snapshots of things that happened that day. REM is a deeper state and REM cycle dreams last longer and tap into a bigger pool of experiences, drawn from weeks, months, and even years in the past. For people, REM sleep comes around about every 90 minutes. For cats, it occurs every 25 minutes. For dogs, it appears that the frequency and length of dreams depends on their physical size, meaning longer REM cycles and dreaming periods for Great Danes and much shorter dreams for tiny dogs. Want to know if your pet is dreaming? Look for these clues: whisker twitching, paw tremors, irregular breathing and—in dogs—occasional high-pitched yips. To learn more about pets and their dreams, go here.

Fly away home

Gregory Reese came to Hawaii for work, but once there, not one, but two job offers fell through. Soon, he was homeless. To make matters worse, his father has lung cancer and couldn't afford a ticket to get Reese back home to Washington state. That's where Reese's situation in the newspaper and was touched that he wanted to go home to be with his dad. So, she bought him a $299 ticket from Hawaii to Seattle. Reese flew home yesterday and Denise Saki, the woman who bought his ticket, says she'd like to create a program that would help more homeless people stranded on the island get back home to their families on the mainland.

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