Students at a Bolivar,Tenn., high school last week elected a classmate with Down syndrome to be homecoming queen. Kara Marcum, 19, easily beat three other candidates in a victory one teacher chalked up to her considerable personal charm. Kara also has a life-threatening heart defect, but both her family and classmates say she doesn’t let her disabilities get in the […]
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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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A Paralympic medal winner who spent half her life in a wheelchair has made a miraculous recovery, and now hopes to represent her country in the Olympics. Monique van der Vorst had been paralyzed from the waist down since the age of 13, and won two silver medals as a hand-cyclist in the 2008 Paralympic Games. But the 27-year-old Dutch athlete […]
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Portion of China’s carbon emissions that is produced by manufacturing goods for export: 1/4
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The Kentucky Baptist Convention started giving away free steak dinners and guns to encourage “unchurched young rednecks” to come to church and accept Jesus. “Can you picture Jesus giving away guns?” asked one disapproving pastor.
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The United States costs of military and nation-building activities in Afghanistan and Iraq since the attacks of September 11th, 2001, is approaching half a trillion dollars – nearly the same cost as the 13-year-long Vietnam War.
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The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and its supporters produce as many as 90,000 tweets and other social media posts every day. The U.S. State Department is now assigning 80 people to counter ISIS’s propaganda on Twitter and Facebook.
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61% – Percentage of employed vacationers who plan to work during their time off doing tasks such as… 38% – Emailing 32% – Accessing work documents on computer 30% – Calling 24% – Texting 20% – Fielding requests by boss, client or co-worker to do work
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Number of U.S. police officers who have been prosecuted in the past decade for shooting someone in the back: 28 Number convicted: 6
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The European Union’s environmental agency said targets to curb pollution and climate change by 2050 would he missed without “profound changes” in technology, lifestyle and policy. The agency said poor air quality in Europe causes hundreds of thousands of early deaths a year.
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