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Martin Shkreli, chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals LLC, exits federal court in New York, US, on Thursday, December 17, 2015. Shkreli was arrested on alleged securities fraud related to Retrophin Inc., a biotech firm he founded in 2011. (credit: Louis Lanzano/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

In a swift set of blows, KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biotech company formerly headed by Turing’s Martin Shkreli, announced that it is being delisted from the Nasdaq stock exchange, and that the company's interim CFO and accounting firm have both resigned.

The series of events follows the company’s Monday announcement that it had fired Shkreli, former CEO and chairman. On December 17, Shkreli was arrested on securities fraud charges relating to another biotech company he headed, Retrophin, as well as two hedge funds he managed. He pled not guilty and was released on a $5 million bond.

In a press release dated Wednesday, KaloBios reported that the Nasdaq informed the company in a letter sent December 18 that it would be delisted from the exchange. The letter cited a number of reasons for the delisting, including Shkreli’s indictment plus the simultaneous indictment of Evan Greebel, the company’s former outside counsel.

A blue bead discovered in a 1500-year-old Viking garbage pile. (credit: Åge Hojem)

When Norway announced plans to expand its Ørland Airport this year, archaeologists got excited. They knew that pre-construction excavation was likely to reveal ancient Viking artifacts. But they got far more than they had hoped.

Ørland Airport is located in a region of Norway that changed dramatically after the last ice age ended. The area was once completely covered by a thick, heavy layer of ice whose weight caused the Earth's crust to sink below sea level. When the glaciers melted, much of this region remained underwater, creating a secluded bay where today there is nothing but dry land. At the fringes of this vanished bay, archaeologists with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology Museum found the remains of what appears to have been a large, wealthy farming community.

In this map, you can see the excavation site in yellow. The light green areas were all once underwater. Note the Viking village was once on the shores of a sheltered bay. (credit: Ingrid Ystgaard)

Surveying an area of roughly 91,000 square meters, the researchers uncovered post holes for three large "longhouses" arranged in a U-shape, where villagers would have gathered, honored their chieftain, and possibly stored food. Over the next year, the team plans to unearth more of the village layout—with help from the Norwegian government, which funds scientific excavations at sites set for development.

(credit: USDA)

If you serve it, they will eat it—or at least that seems to be a take-away from a new study on healthy menu options published in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

Between 2010 and 2012, the Walt Disney Company experimented with kids' meal menus in 145 restaurants in its Orlando theme park, Walt Disney World. The company swapped traditional sides of fatty fries and sugary sodas with fruit or vegetables and low-fat milk or water. If parents wanted to go with the unhealthy standard fare, they simply had to “opt out” of the fresh meal items. But, according to the data analyzed by health researchers at the University of Colorado, around half of patrons didn’t bother and stuck with the healthy options.

In the time frame, 48 percent of guests were content with the healthier food sides and 66 percent of guests kept the healthier beverage option.

The Slants performing in Oregon in 2010. (credit: Oregon Nikkei Endowment)

An Asian-American rock band called The Slants has taken a legal fight over its name all the way to an appeals court, resulting in a major decision over trademark rights.

The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) denied The Slants a trademark registration under an old section of trademark law that denies trademark registration to marks that the US Patent and Trademark Office considers disparaging. Now, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, sitting en banc, has struck down not just the USPTO decision about The Slants, but the entire section of the Lanham Act that bars "disparaging" trademarks.

The decision is sure to have repercussions for other owners of controversial trademarks—most notably, the Washington Redskins, a team that was stripped of its trademark rights but is continuing its fight at the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit.

We’ve been covering the twists and turns of Congressman Lamar Smith’s (R-Tex.) tussle with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Rep. Smith, who chairs the House Science Committee, has accused NOAA scientists of manipulating climate data for political ends. While the NOAA has provided Smith with all the (publicly available) data and methodology behind the peer-reviewed study in question, Smith has also subpoenaed the scientists’ e-mails.

Now, a new combatant has joined the fray: conservative government watchdog and FOIA factory Judicial Watch.

According to a press release from the group, Judicial Watch submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on October 30 for many of the same records Rep. Smith is seeking. The group requested “all documents and records of communications between NOAA officials, employees, and contractors” relating to decisions about methods for building NOAA’s global surface temperature dataset. In addition, Judicial Watch included a request for communications about Rep. Smith’s subpoena.