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Have you ever used Google to search for your own name? If you haven’t, I suggest you give it a try: The results may surprise you. Google probably knows more about you than you’d assume. And, although Google receives a hefty share of criticism for its policies regarding private information, it’s far from the only [...]
In the great game of evolution, elephants have racked up an impressive list of achievements. For example: They’re the largest living land animal, and scientists are still studying the their prodigious brainpower. This intelligence is readily observable in the wild. Some appear to have an artistic streak (check out the video below). Humans even pay homage [...]
Let’s start with tigers. The World Wildlife Fund (commonly known as the ‘non-wrestling’ WWF) estimates that there may be as few as 3,200 tigers in the wild. Although the WWF has an ambitious plan to double the wild tiger population, things aren’t looking good for the largest member of the cat family. If humanity doesn’t make some drastic changes [...]
Have you ever tried to read Old English? It’s tough. To the untrained eye, even Middle English, the language of The Canterbury Tales, is markedly different from the language we use now. There’s no shortage of linguists and other experts studying the evolution of English from its roots to its present form(s), but many native speakers [...]
In an earlier post, we took a quick look at the amount of food wasted around the world each year. On the heels of this news, there’s been a new food-related issue gaining attention in the media. Brace yourself, because it might sound crazy: What if we grew meat in labs? I know, I know: [...]
KEO isn’t your typical time capsule. For starters, it’s a satellite. Instead of spending the next century or millennium buried in the ground or tucked away in a vault, it will (theoretically) leave Earth and return 50,000 years in the future, bearing messages to our descendants. These aren’t just messages from politicians, celebrities and brilliant, quirky mathematicians [...]
Not everyone relishes a freshly-microwaved plate of leftovers — but, if you had to guess, how much food would you say is lost or wasted across the world, each year? Hundreds of millions of tons, surely. Maybe billions? The actual number is 1.3 billion tons. According to a recent report from the UN’s Food and [...]
Here’s an intriguing proposition from toymaker Arvind Gupta: Could we use trash to build inexpensive learning tools for children? In this video from Ted.com, Gupta demonstrates how several of his toys are built. His passion is as impressive as his inventiveness. Seriously: This man is the MacGyver of toys. With nothing more than a few [...]
In the world of sound, Gordon Hempton — aka the Sound Tracker — is a pretty big deal. He’s traveled Earth recording everything from the clattering shuffle of freight trains to nocturnal symphonies of chirrups and clicks in forests across the planet. In addition to his life as a globetrotting audio ecologist, Gordon is dealing [...]
It’s no secret that censorship is a historically controversial topic, and the rise of the internet has reinvigorated some of the traditional, ongoing debates. For example, how should a country determine what information becomes classified? Or, to take it from another angle, how much power should the state have when it comes to censoring material [...]
Recent Postings by Category
BrainStuff
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Stuff Mom Never Told You
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Stuff You Should Know
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CarStuff
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PopStuff
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Stuff They Don't Want You To Know
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Stuff to Change the World
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Stuff You Missed in History Class
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