Smart News

This Late-Night Reading Group Zipped Through Finnegans Wake in Seven Short Months

A Los Angles-based Finnegans Wake reading group recently buckled down and decided to spare themselves the dozen-year cliff hanger

Agricultural Pollution Is Threatening America’s National Parks

Gases from heavy fertilizer use are threatening the ecological balance of America's natural parks

A false killer whale and a bottlenose dolphin hanging out at a zoo in Japan.

Dolphins Have Interspecies Hunting Parties

A real life tale of animal BFFs

Ritual Attacks on People Living With Albinism Go Largely Uninvestigated

Around one in 1,000 people in some African ethnic groups are born with albinism

This New Burial Technique Turns a Corpse Into a Tiny Pile of Freeze-Dried Fertilizer

In the future wills may include specifications for the type of flower or bush we'd like to fertilize rather than the make of coffin or urn

The Queen Mary Psalter, c 1310-1320

Why Were Medieval Knights Always Fighting Snails?

It's a common scene in medieval marginalia. But what does it mean?

Newer Movies Are Less Creative

The most creative time in film history was probably the 1960's

All Those Pink Products Make Women Take Breast Cancer Less Seriously

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, which means that everywhere you go things are painted pink - which might be a bad thing

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Watch Kids From 1962 Try to Build a Flying Bicycle

What kid hasn't wanted to make their bicycle fly?

It Might Rain Diamonds on Jupiter

Take some methane, add lightning and massive pressures, and what do you get? Diamond hail

Even Babies Can Be Depressed

For a long time, people didn't believe that children could become depressed, but they certainly can

An Aztec calendar sun stone

Oxford University Is Older Than the Aztecs

The historical timeline you keep in your head is all messed up

Being Around Predators Changes the Shape of This Fish’s Penis

Armadillos have bony plates, stick bugs evolved camouflage, and the Bahamas mosquitofish evolved a bigger penis

America’s Chinatowns Are Disappearing

For many, Chinatowns are an attraction to a city - and many cities boast about their robust cultural neighborhoods

Hurricane Phailin approaching India last night

Hurricane Phailin Is As Strong as Katrina, Twice as Wide as Sandy And About to Devastate India

India is bracing for what is potentially the strongest hurricane they've ever seen

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Hibernating Turtles Are Still Aware of What’s Going on Around Them

Researchers assumed they entered a coma-like condition during winter hibernation, but turtles are paying attention to the things that matter most

The Earliest Libraries-on-Wheels Looked Way Cooler Than Today’s Bookmobiles

These traveling libraries used to travel around bringing books to the people

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Astronaut Scott Carpenter, the Second American to Orbit the Planet, Dies at 88

John Glenn, who was a close friend to Carpenter, is now the last surviving astronaut from NASA's Project Mercury, the original space program

China’s 3,000 Cemeteries Will Run Out of Space in Just Six Years

China may have the world's largest population, but the country is not alone in its burial woes

How We Spot Friends in the Crowd Before Being Able to See Their Face

Facial recognition is already very much in place in all sorts of ways, from Facebook to surveillance cameras. Perhaps now they'll add body recognition too

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