The Republicans have a euphemism for undocumented workers— illegals — said Peter Beinart. With a tone of disgust, that single, dehumanizing noun has become the GOP presidential candidates’ preferred way to describe the millions of human beings picking our produce, cooking our food, cutting our lawns, and watching over our kids. It’s “the latest in a long line of euphemisms […]
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Anatoli Brouchkov, a scientist whose curiosity and thirst for knowledge drove him to go beyond the standard protocol of his experimentation by injecting himself with an ancient “Eternal Life” bacteria. In 2009, a 3.5-million-year-old bacteria strain called Bacillus F was discovered deep in the permafrost of Siberia’s Sakha Republic. Scientists later found that mice and fruit flies exposed to the bacteria seemed to […]
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Diego has single handedly helped to save the tortoise of Galapagos Islands from extinction. During his stay since 1976 on the island he has fathered over 800 babies to help rebuild the population on Espanola Island off the coast of South America. For his age he is doing a good job of reproducing. The 12 females on the island are […]
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Budapest Power grab: In the face of mass protests and international condemnation, the Hungarian parliament has overwhelmingly passed 15 pages of amendments to the country’s 1-year-old constitution that practically abolish all judicial checks on the government. The amendments retroactively restore a number of controversial laws that were passed by the right-wing Fidesz government but subsequently ruled unconstitutional by the courts. […]
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Feeling itchy from a sunburn, a bug bite or some other skin irritation is miserable, but the pleasure you get from scratching it isn’t just the absence of pain. It feels legitimately good to scratch, and the reason is fascinating. A 2008 study at Wake Forest University hooked people up to a MRI scanner and monitored brain activity when they […]
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We’re more reliant than ever on prescription medications. Should we be worried? Looking at the numbers alone, the U.S. runs almost entirely on Prozac and heart pills. They’re among the most prescribed medications, according to our national annual checkup from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which this year included a special report highlighting the ever growing […]
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High blood sugar doesn’t just increase your risk of developing diabetes—studies have also shown a link between blood sugar and dementia. Researchers tracked the blood glucose levels of more than 2,000 older adults for seven years and found that those who had high glucose levels—but not diabetes—were nearly 20 percent more likely to develop dementia than those with low levels. […]
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Dresden, Germany A German police officer has confessed to murdering a businessman who had a sexual fantasy of being killed and eaten. The officer, 55, identified as Detlev G., said he met his victim in an Internet chat room billed as “the No. 1 website for exotic meat,” where those who want to be cannibalized meet those who want to […]
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Researchers have found that when there is only one parent in the home the children have a tendency to smoke or drink alcohol. The study examined 11,000 children and found that when they were under the age of 7 when the parent left, they were at risk before the teenage years. The children find it difficult to cope with the […]
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A Polish prisoner triggered a crackdown on other inmates after he posted a photo of a large cannabis plant that he’d grown in his cell. To boast about his green thumb, Dozy Zendarski took a selfie with the plant using a smuggled smartphone and posted it to Facebook. When it went viral, prison officials searched the entire jail and seized […]
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