An enormous iceberg in Antarctica has killed off 150,000 penguins and threatens to wipe out an entire colony, which has become trapped and unable to reach food. A study by researchers from New Zealand and Australia said only about 10,000 Adélie penguins have survived after an iceberg – labelled B09B – grounded in a bay in 2010. The grounding, at […]
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Mike Carmichael simply wanted to do something weird when he and his 3-year-old son slapped a coat of blue paint on a baseball in 1977. The central Indiana resident stuck with painting the ball, which grew large enough to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records in 2004. At that time, it was 9 feet (2.7 meters) across, […]
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Fewer people are being killed by lightning strikes due to better ways to get out of its way. In the United States we have learned that we can get out its way by having covers over us that don’t attract the lightning bolts. In the 1940s there was over 400 people a year that were killed by lightning and in […]
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If thinking about your own death freaks you out, there may be over-the-counter solution. A new study shows that the main ingredient in Tylenol, acetaminophen, can help calm existential dread in the same way it reduces the physical pain of a headache. To get volunteers worried about their own mortality, University of British Columbia researchers asked them to watch scenes […]
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Chief Justice John Roberts is even more powerful than you might think, said Ezra Klein. In addition to presiding over the Supreme Court, Roberts also has the “exclusive, unaccountable, lifetime power to shape the surveillance state.” It’s a little known fact that the chief justice appoints all 11 members of the secret court set up by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance […]
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For showing a picture of a tube of toothpaste with the words “Squeeze Russia out of yourself” Andrei Bubeyev was arrested and sentenced to over two years in prison. He showed this to twelve of his friends on social media under his private setting and didn’t know that others besides his friends could see the post. Since 2010 there has […]
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If you think drone warfare has created some tricky moral dilemmas, said Robert H. Latiff and Patrick J. McCloskey, just wait until we start sending robotic soldiers into battle. Early prototypes of robots that can hunt down and destroy enemies with ferocious firepower are in development, and “what now seems like the stuff of Hollywood fantasy is moving toward realization.” […]
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Cannabis and Pregnancy – What are the potential health effects? The combination of cannabis and pregnancy can be harmful to your baby’s health. The chemicals in marijuana (in particular, tetrahydrocannabinol or THC) pass through your system to your baby and may harm your baby’s development. Although more research is needed to better understand how marijuana may affect you and your […]
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“How did we end up with a military like this?” asked The Hankyoreh in an editorial. Hazing in South Korea’s conscription army is shockingly brutal—and increasingly deadly. Within weeks before this writing, two soldiers have hanged themselves to escape bullying. And just months before that, one young recruit snapped after military hazing In South Korea and killed five soldiers at […]
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■ The 15-year-old son of an accused mugger met this week with his father’s alleged victim to make amends. Christian Lunsford sought out Tona Herndon—who had her purse snatched while visiting her late husband’s gravesite in Bethany, Okla.—after learning that his father, Shane, had been arrested for the crime. The teenager met with Herndon to apologize and give back $250 […]
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