Drone warfare is now coming to your own backyard, said Glenn Greenwald. Local police have begun using unmanned Predator drones like those used in Afghanistan and Pakistan to conduct surveillance of criminal suspects right here in the U.S. This chilling step toward “a Surveillance State”—without the public’s knowledge or consent— was revealed last week by the Los Angeles Times, which […]
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Stars are not born alone. Rather, they emerge from clouds of gas and dust in groups of up to 10,000, then slowly scatter through space. For the first time, astronomers have identified a star that came from the same solar nursery as our sun, some 4.5 billion years ago. This stellar relative—located 110 light-years away in the constellation Hercules—is hotter […]
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Only 1 in 10,000 people have absolute or “perfect” pitch, the ability to hear a tone and tell what note it is. This unusual ability is acquired early in life, typically learned during training at about four to six years of age, and there are no records of adults acquiring the ability. But a new study shows that people who […]
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Kindergartner’s ABCs Help Save Dad’s Life A New Jersey kindergartner is being credited for saving his father’s life — and it’s because he knows the alphabet. Five-year-old Nathaniel Darcy Jr., who attends Newark’s North Star Public School, was on his way home from buying new school shoes when his father got violently ill behind the wheel of their car. Nathaniel’s […]
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Residents of shorelines previously damaged by Hurricane Sandy turned to a cheap and plentiful resource to help them rebuild: discarded Christmas trees. The storm washed away miles of sand dunes, which protected the coast from flooding by serving as a buffer against wind and waves. Volunteers in New York and New Jersey piled thousands of the trees on top of […]
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Some of us like to rock & roll, and some of us like to gyrate & gestate. Gynecology clinic Institut Marquès has discovered a way to bring that front row concert experience right to your fetus. What they’ve designed is called Babypod, a speaker that expecting mothers insert into their vaginas (in tampon fashion) to play songs for their developing […]
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A year ago, 37-year-old Australian truck driver Bill Morgan was crushed in a car accident and came close to dying. When his luck finally changed after winning a car on a scratch-off lottery ticket, the local media wanted to air his story. Well, it was during that reenactment that he got another surprise. The ticket he was scratching was yet […]
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■ Alec Baldwin has vowed to retreat from public life in a new article in which he denounces his gay critics, and calls former colleagues at MSNBC “boring” and “full of s—.” In an “as told to” screed in New York magazine, the actor insists he “never wanted” to host the ill-fated MSNBC show Up Late With Alec Baldwin, which […]
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Meet “Pepper,” said Richard Lawler in Engadget.com. Japanese telecom firm SoftBank unveiled a new, robot last week that it claims “can recognize human emotion” thanks to technology that allows it to “communicate through emotion, speech, or body language.” Pepper is also equipped with microphones and proximity sensors, and will feature upgradable software, allowing users to install apps and updates to […]
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Awe-inspiring experiences, such as viewing works of art or overlooking a scenic vista, may have physical as well as mental health benefits, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, found that the positive emotions triggered by these encounters can have an immune-boosting, anti-inflammatory effect that helps protect the body from heart disease, depression, autoimmune conditions, […]
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