Bao Lulin was always being mistaken for someone else. People would approach her at the restaurant where she worked in Guizho, China, asking why she didn’t recognize them. This October she discovered why: Lulin had an identical twin sister from whom she’d been separated at birth; she was living hundreds of miles away. Each had been adopted and raised with no […]
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Jamie Fox, a 22-year-old from Great Britain with a degree in music, was given a job as a human scarecrow on a farm. Fox will make $400 a week scaring off partridges by playing an accordion, ukulele, and cowbell.
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A nonprofit group in San Francisco is helping the city’s homeless population with a former public transit bus that’s been outfitted with two bathrooms, complete with toilets and hot showers. “If you’re living on the streets and you’re filthy, you can’t interview for a job and you can’t apply for housing,” explains the group’s founder, Doniece Sandoval. “You get disconnected […]
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25%: Share of the world’s population that the U.S. is legally bound to defend thanks to pacts and treaties signed with over 60 countries, according to a report from the Harvard Belfer Center.
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The odds are 1 in 4 million that you’ll be on a bridge when it collapses at some time during your life.
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$6 trillion – Upper estimate of the cost to the U.S. of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan
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City officials in Chengdu, China, have been painting the city’s grass green to make residents think spring is here.The ruse came to light when some residents noticed unpainted patches of yellowish winter grass, and others found the green paint coming off on their shoes. The city was then forced to admit its deception, but an official said the goal was simply […]
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44%: Percentage of U.S. firms since 2008 that have reduced their head counts in part because of automation.
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A Florida man with a “moral opposition” to trimming the plants, grass, and weeds in his yard has racked up over $130,000 in fines. Neighbors complain that Sean Law’s unkempt lawn is an eyesore that’s driving down property values, but Law says it’s his right to grow crops on his property in a natural manner, and calls it a “blunt […]
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A British woman has become the first person to ski across Antarctica without the help of kites, machines, or dogs. Felicity Aston, 34, completed the 1,084-mile journey in 59 days, battling through the frozen wastes in temperatures as low as -22 and dragging 187 pounds of supplies behind her on a sled. She overcame crushing loneliness by listening to Agatha Christie […]
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