New research suggests that high levels of BPA, a chemical in many plastics and canned food linings, might raise the risk of miscarriage in women prone to that problem or having trouble getting pregnant. While the study is not nearly enough to prove a link, experts say it does add to “the biological plausibility” that BPA might affect fertility and […]
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In a controversial move that has caused a massive public backlash, the city of Montreal will go ahead with their plans to dump over 2 billion gallons (8 billion liters) of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River — Montreal’s primary drinking water supply — in mid-October. While the Quebec Environment Minister David Heurtel has stated that the sewage dump […]
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Human-like sounds made by a captive beluga whale suggest that cetaceans could learn to mimic our voices, and perhaps even converse with us. Researchers at the National Marine Mammal Foundation first noticed in the 1980s that one of their whales was attempting to copy the speech patterns of his handlers and they began recording his human-like vocalizations. Recently, they analyzed […]
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Nohmul, Belize A Belizean construction company has bulldozed one of the country’s largest ancient Mayan pyramids. The 2,300-year-old Nohmul mound was dug out and crushed into gravel for use in road building. “It’s like being punched in the stomach, it’s just so horrendous,” said Jaime Awe, the head of Belize’s Institute of Archaeology. “Why can’t these people just go and […]
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People who say they are unaffiliated with any religion constitute nearly 20 percent of the American public, making them almost as numerous as Catholics, who accounted for 22 percent of participants in a new Pew Research Center study released Oct. 9. The survey of 2,973 adults conducted this summer found people who say they are atheist, agnostic or “nothing in […]
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■ Tourists at a Los Angeles hotel were distressed to learn they’d been drinking, bathing, and brushing their teeth with water from a rooftop tank in which a dead body had been decomposing. The body was discovered by a maintenance worker who was trying to figure out why the water pressure was so low. “The water did have a funny […]
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The world’s most dedicated Loch Ness monster hunter has scotched reports that has finally given up looking for the legendary Scottish beast after a quarter of a century of searching. Last week, the Times newspaper reported that Steve Feltham, who gave up his job, house and girlfriend 24 years ago to look for the creature full-time, had abandoned his long […]
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Mark Roberts likes nothing more than taking off his clothes in public, said Adam Lee P6tter in The Daily Mail (U.K.). The 48-year-old from Liverpool, England, is the world’s most notorious streaker: He has appeared naked at 519 public events, including the Super Bowl, Miss World, and Wimbledon. “There’s no major venue or event I haven’t done,” he says proudly. […]
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Russian teens are killing themselves en masse, and the authorities “seem oblivious,” said Alexander Tretyakov. The country has long had one of the world’s highest teen suicide rates, and in the past decade it’s gotten worse. Thousands of teens have joined “suicide forums” on Vkontakte, the Russian equivalent of Facebook. There they share stories of abuse and desperation and trade […]
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Scientists predict that we may have a cosmic collision which will cause space fireworks and launch us into exile. We do have some time before this will happen so we can prepare ourselves. According to astrophysicists we could be threatened by an asteroid smashing into earth in the distant future. We may not be able to survive a collision between […]
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