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The Most Hopeful Place on the Internet: The Last Words of Texas’ Death Row...
There isn’t much to say about this. Though, if you can click through the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Death Row Information page and come out of it on the side of capital punishment, we...
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El Nino Is on a Climate Change Rampage
I write about this stuff for a living and still forget which is which is as far as La Nina and El Nino are concerned. So, to recap: La Nina is where water surface temperatures in the eastern Pacific...
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Let's Stop Wasting Money Sterilizing Our Spacecraft
Let's get rid of these clean rooms. Photo: NASA Each year, NASA spends lots of money making sure its spacecraft are properly sterilized so that our Mars landers and probes don't bring any bacterial...
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The Return of 'OMNI'
Classic covers from OMNI "Have you ever looked up at the sky on a clear, star-filled night and wondered at the awesome magnitude of the universe… and asked yourself: who and what am I; where do I come...
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So Long Google Reader, and Thanks for the Memories
Believe it or not, this picture was taken just a few weeks ago. We both thought it was, like, really beautiful. Oh, bitter irony! How could I have known leaving was on her mind? Not even two days...
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The Motherboard Guide to New Psychoactive Substances
Image via Flickr / CC. Don't let that label fool you. What you've maybe been hearing referred to as "new psychoactive substances" are only "new" insofar as they represent the most recent wave of...
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The White House Pledged More Support to Fight Wildlife Trafficking
Photo via Richard Ruggerio / USFWS President Obama is currently in the middle of an African tour, and while much of it has focused on development and democracy, this is a pleasant surprise: Today the...
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Sex and Stuxnet: Obama's Favorite General Is the Target of a White House Leak...
Eric Cartwright from Bonanza The former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General James "Hoss" Cartwright, took his nickname from Bonanza's loveable, warm giant, Eric "Hoss" Cartwright....
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An NSA-Themed Gift Exchange, Brought to You by Reddit and Motherboard
We're all well aware of the NSA's rampant data-gathering and spying on American citizens. Now what? As the revelations keep rolling in, it's become ever clearer that just about all of our electronic...
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The Surprisingly Complex Etymology of 'Skittles'
Photo via Wikimedia Commons There’s nothing more ready-at-hand than your language, so it’s easy to forget that we live in the decadent ruins of the great English language. Every day we rebuild it,...
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Neil Gaiman's New 'Sandman' Prequel Looks Awesome
Neil Gaiman, via guiltyx/Flickr Comic fans rejoice! The return of Morpheus is imminent. Yesterday, the New York Times revealed one of the covers of Neil Gaiman’s new Sandman prequel, The Sandman:...
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The Energy Secretary Says the US Is Still a Fan of Coal
US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz (right, foreground) gets a tour of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, via the ORNL Flickr page Last week, President Obama delivered a surprisingly aggressive speech on...
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What the Internet of Smells Will Smell Like
Not many people have been wondering why the internet doesn’t have a nose. But some have. Among them: Amy Radcliffe, a design student at Central St. Martins in London. She is working on a machine that...
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How to Survive Marriage in a 140 Square Foot Home
After realizing they had spent upward of $58,000 in rent after just four years, Malissa and Chris Tack opted to downsize. Malissa, a 3D designer and animator, designed their tiny, solar panel-equipped...
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NeoCities Is Recreating the Garish, Web 1.0 Creativity of Geocities
With 90s nostalgia at full throttle, it's no surprise to see the recent launch of NeoCities, a rebirth of the Dot Com-era web hosting platform Geocities, in all its flashy, neon, blinking, clip...
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But Is It Whistleblowing? Thomas Drake Railed Against the Dark Art of...
Video and photo by Alex Pasternack It wasn't Thomas Drake's typical venue. But the former NSA mathematician-turned-whistleblower, whom the government accused in 2010 of violating the Espionage Act,...
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Sleep Yourself Thin
Gratuitous Internet cat image, via Two weeks after the New York Times reminded you that not getting enough sleep is ruining your internal organs, your immune system, and your ability to drive, in...
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In Helping Power Africa, Why Didn't Obama Commit to More Renewables?
Photo: Chrissy Olson/Flickr President Obama's recent remarks about bringing much-needed electricity to parts of sub-Saharan Africa drew applause in Cape Town and gave a nod to clean energy and...
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How Deep Brain Stimulation Works, as Explained by a Neurologist
Diagnosed with early onset Parkinson’s disease at the age of thirty-five, Andrew Johnson of Auckland, New Zealand chose to undergo a surgical treatment called deep brain stimulation (DBS) to keep his...
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The Cost of New Student Loans Just Doubled
Having failed to come up with viable solution by the July 1 deadline, Congress has allowed the interest rates on subsidized Stafford student loans to double. For prospective college students, it’s more...
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