Neanderthals, a sturdy hominid species closely related to Homo sapiens, lived in Europe for about 270,000 years until humans arrived on the continent, about 30,000 years ago, at which point they quickly disappeared. The latest theory for their puzzling extinction is that humans exterminated, and maybe even ate, their Neanderthal cousins. French anthropologist Fernando that the bacterial disease was present […]
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According to a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) around 7 billion people are breathing polluted air. Tens of millions dying from air pollution worldwide are dying every year. Polluted air can raise the risk of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and other chronic respiratory health issues. In a study back in 2015 they found that air pollution has […]
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Roger Pasquier hunts for coins on NYC sidewalks and keeps track of how much he finds. He discovered an odd consequence of everyone having a smartphone: people don’t pick up change on the sidewalk anymore. From 1987 to 2006, he averaged about fifty-eight dollars a year. Then Apple introduced the iPhone, and millions of potential competitors started to stare at […]
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Rome Penitent Pope Francis with centuries of precedent, publicly went to confession in St. Peter’s Basilica. It was believed to be the first time confessing his own sins. The priest hearing his confession appeared to laugh at one point. Just weeks earlier, the pope also met President Obama privately for nearly an hour, twice longer than expected, an encounter that […]
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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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Most analysts do not believe the two Iranians who used stolen passports to board the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight were terrorists. So why were they on the plane? The most probable reason being… they were simply hoping to find a better life in the West. Decades of debilitating, punitive sanctions have destroyed Iran’s economy, environment, and health-care system. Sanctions have […]
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Giant chunks of manmade space junk regularly fall to Earth. It has been reported that only one person has been hit by falling debris and she was not hurt. According to a Harvard University astronomer rocket parts and satellites that weigh two tons, or more are falling uncontrollably to the earth about once a month. If you go back a […]
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Having a baby in some Alabama hospitals can mean getting tested for drugs without a woman’s consent—and winding up in jail for a positive result. Alabama’s chemical endangerment law, in effect for nine years, spurred an investigation by ProPublica and AL.com into hospital drug-testing policies due to the law’s strict penalties. A woman who tests positive for drugs in a […]
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A hallucinatory party drug could point the way to the first new treatments for depression in a generation. Scientists have discovered that ketamine (“Special K”), which club-goers take for dream-like highs, also improves mood disorders by repairing damaged connections in the brain. What’s more, ketamine works within hours as opposed to weeks— even for people whose mood disorders have proved […]
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Dead and dying bottlenose dolphins are washing up along the Mid-Atlantic coast at an alarming rate. Since June, more than 120 dolphins have appeared on beaches from New York to Virginia—seven times the typical number. Early this month, the National Marine Fisheries Service declared the strandings “an unusual mortality event” requiring immediate attention. “All indications show there’s something serious going […]
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