This Is Happening.

She was one of the five finalists in an American Idol-style competition. But she did not have to sing. This was Integrity Idol 2015 in Liberia. The candidates all worked for the government and had a record of integrity. The public voted by phone and by the Internet.

The winner, announced earlier this month, was Jugbeh Tarpleh Kekula. She’s a registered nurse who works nights in the emergency room at the Liberia Government Hospital in Buchanan, the third-largest city in the country, and also educates people about family planning through Planned Parenthood of Liberia. She is married and the mother of five — “three biological children, two foster children.”

‘American Idol’ Can’t Compete With Liberia’s 'Integrity Idol’

Brazil declares emergency after 2,400 babies are born with brain damage, possibly due to mosquito-borne virus

Brazilian health authorities are sounding the alarm about a mosquito-borne virus that they believe may be the cause of thousands of infants being born with damaged brains.

The pathogen, known as Zika and first discovered in forest monkeys in Africa over 70 years ago, is the new West Nile – a virus that causes mild symptoms in most but can lead to serious neurological complications or even death in others. Brazil’s health ministry said on Nov. 28 that it had found the Zika virus in a baby with microcephaly — a rare condition in which infants are born with shrunken skulls — during an autopsy after the child died. The virus was also found in the amniotic fluid of two mothers whose babies had the condition.

“This is an unprecedented situation, unprecedented in world scientific research,” the ministry said in a statement on its website, according to CNN.

Brazil is investigating more than more than 2,400 suspected cases of microcephaly and 29 deaths of infants that occurred this year. Last year the country saw only 147 cases of microcephaly.

The situation in Brazil is so overwhelming that Angela Rocha, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist in Pernambuco, one of the hardest hit states, said in an interview with CNN that women may want to hold off on getting pregnant.

“These are newborns who will require special attention their entire lives. It’s an emotional stress that just can’t be imagined…,” Rocha said. “We’re talking about a generation of babies that’s going to be affected.”

A company started by a Cornell food scientist turns bug-based proteins into a wonder ingredient that can be used in all kinds of culinary staples, from a meat replacement in summer barbecue to a cooking alternative to eggs or butter in your next batch of cookies. Lee Cadesky, M.S. ‘15 envisions his product as a key fixture in a future food landscape where insects offer a more sustainable alternative to beef and better flavor than plant-based proteins like tofu. Learn more about his ideas here: http://ezramagazine.cornell.edu/Upd…/Dec15/EU.Cfu.Foods.html 

Republican voters’ priorities embodied in this one Facebook user’s question posed to the candidates during this “debate." 

Australia vs Pluto.

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, The Four Seasons in one Head, c.1590, oil on wood, 60 x 45 cm, Private Collection. Source