■ Michael Drysch last week had the kind of night basketball fans can only dream of. The 50-year-old computer technician had been selected to attempt a half-court shot during the Miami Heat-Detroit Pistons game. When Drysch threw his long hook shot high into the air, the crowd groaned, then screamed in delight as the ball went in. Superstar LeBron James […]
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10 Tips For A Sustainable Christmas. Tricks and Tips for a More Eco-Friendly Christmas. With the Christmas Holidays approaching, and everyone getting excited about all the festivities and excitement that come with it, it is time to address the other side of this holiday, which is often overlooked and ignored. Christmas might be “the most wonderful time of the […]
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■ A Virginia teenager was booted out of her prom after fathers acting as chaperones complained that her sparkly mini-dress would “cause the young men at the prom to think impure thoughts.”The 17-year-old had made sure the dress met Richmond Homeschool Prom’s regulations for length. But she said dads who were “ogling” her as she danced suddenly sent a security […]
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Facebook can make you unhappy. Researchers texted study participants five times a day with questions about their social-networking activity and how they felt, and found that Facebook visits directly correlated with negative emotions, such as depression and loneliness. While Facebook seems to fulfill “the basic human need for social connection,” says University of Michigan social psychologist Ethan Kross, it can […]
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Pompey the Great’s soldiers were bone tired. For most of 65 BCE, Roman legions marched around the southern edge of the Black Sea as they battled the local ruler, Mithridates VI of Pontus. Then, something magical happened: The exhausted troops discovered a stockpile of honeycombs strewn across their path, and they fell upon the sticky treats like hungry bears. But […]
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Every week, more than 50 million Americans take acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and many other popular painkillers, to ease their aches and pains. But a new study has revealed that the drug also dulls emotions—including happiness. Prior research showed that acetaminophen can help take the sting out of negative feelings like dread, but the new findings from Ohio […]
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Horsemeat is passing for ground beef in supermarkets all over Europe, said Hugh Camegy in the Financial Times. Claims have also been made that there are restaurants serving horse meat. It has been found in Findus’s frozen lasagna, Tesco’s frozen hamburgers, and even Burger King’s Whoppers in the U.K., France, Sweden, and beyond. The horsemeat makes its way to dinner […]
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Beijing The cloud of pollution over Beijing grew so dense this week that much of the city was rendered invisible. Hundreds of flights were grounded, auto traffic was stalled for scores of miles, and residents rushed to buy masks and air filters. Chinese officials downplayed the air-quality crisis, as usual, saying their readings showed that air pollution was “moderate.” But […]
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Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, has blistering 800-degree temperatures at its equator—but its poles are full of ice. New data from NASA’s Messenger spacecraft, which began orbiting Mercury last year, has revealed that as much as a trillion tons of ice exists in shadowy polar craters, where temperatures can drop to minus 370 degrees. Much of the ice […]
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If you’re worried about infertility, don’t try to Google the term with a computer on your lap, says the London Telegraph. A new experiment suggests that radiation from a single Wi-Fi-enabled laptop may be strong enough to cause cell damage in sperm. Argentine researchers took samples of ejaculated semen and left them directly under a computer—simulating holding a laptop directly […]
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