The Dutch city of Utrecht will give unconditional monthly payments of about $1,000 to select citizens starting in January 2016 to see whether “basic income” can work as a means of welfare. Various other governments have resorted to unusual handouts to achieve certain ends: DUBAI City officials tried to boost public transport in November by raffling off prizes, including 8.8-lb. […]
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“Being American is bad for your health,” said Robert Samuelson. That’s the sobering conclusion of an exhaustive new report comparing our health with that of people in 16 other advanced countries. We rank at or near the bottom, from life expectancy at birth to frequency of death before age 50, and it’s only partly the fault of our health-care system. […]
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Back about 40,000 years ago the Neanderthals and Homo Sapiens coexisted for several thousand years in Eurasia. Researchers have found that during the coexistence they were able to breed. Humans that are not of African heritage do show Neanderthal DNA throughout their homo sapien genes. A study shows that about 40% of Neanderthal genes are contained in modern human genes. […]
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“Harper Estelle Wolfeld-Gosk has 6,282 Twitter followers,” said Joe Coscarelli in NYMag.com. “She’s 2 weeks old.” The infant daughter of Today show correspondent Jenna Wolfe is just one of thousands of kids who have Twitter accounts that are written in their voices but are “set up, maintained, and authored by parents.” Here’s a sample of little Harper’s tweets: “Pooped AND […]
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In a new study on screen time and mind and body development shows that it may have serious health consequences. It covered the connectivity in the brain between spending time in front of a screen or actual reading. They showed that the brain had better connectivity to language and cognitive control when the children read actual books more, over the […]
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Astronomers have discovered two clouds of gas some 12 billion light-years away that appear to preserve the primordial conditions of the universe in the minutes after the big bang. The clouds contain just hydrogen and its isotope deuterium, making them “the first examples to fit precisely” into what scientists think the early universe was like, University of California astronomer Jason […]
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“Everything comes to those who wait… except a cat.” Racing driver Mario Andretti, quoted in RoadandTrack.com “I have found that all ugly things are made by those who strive to make something beautiful, and that all beautiful things are made by those who strive to make something useful” Oscar Wilder quoted in Real Simple “Travel offers the opportunity to find […]
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The “stoner” stereotype isn’t just a myth. Heavy use of marijuana in the teenage years dulls intelligence—and the loss of IQ points may last for life, according to a new study. Researchers tested the IQs of more than 1,000 New Zealand schoolchildren at age 13, before most had tried marijuana, and again at age 38. In between, they regularly surveyed […]
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While filming a music video on the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge, Jon Bon Jovi stepped into the role of a compassionate hero, heroically saving a woman who was about to jump off the bridge in Nashville, Tennessee. In the surveillance footage released by the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department below, you can see Bon Jovi approaching a 62-year-old woman on the […]
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What’s the most forbidden topic in America? asked Timothy Egan. It’s not sex or religion. It’s gun violence. We are “the most armed society in the world,” with more than 300 million guns in private hands, and 9,146 gun homicides in 2009—a rate nearly 20 times higher than that of other supposedly civilized countries. “But don’t bring that up.” Sports […]
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