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Todd Oldham (left) is a designer and president of L-7 Designs who announced the award, David Fischer (right) is the CEO of Grief Inc who accepted the award for PAck h2O.

Cooper-Hewitt Announces Design Award Winners

As part of National Design Week, National Design award winners celebrated their achievements with a gala held October 17

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Pumpkin-Spiced Products Have Increased by 234 Percent Since 2008

There are pumpkin spice air fresheners, M&Ms, tortialla chips, whiskey, candles and beer

You Can Buy the Violin That Played the Titanic Out

The violin of Wallace Hartley, a member of the on-board orchestra, is up for auction

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Three Drones Mapped the Matterhorn in Six Hours

The Matterhorn is one of the highest peaks in the alps, and claimed the lives of 500 men before the first was able to reach the top

Great lakes Huron, Ontario, and Erie

In the U.S., Water is Starting to Get Way, Way More Expensive

In the past few years the price of water rose 23%, and water utilities are taking on crushing debt to keep up

There’s a Universal Law of Urination in Mammals

They all take an average of about 21 seconds to empty their bladders, nearly regardless of how big they are

Yetis Were Probably Just Polar Bears

A recently discovered “Yeti corpse” was likely nothing more than a poor polar bear who many years ago found itself at the wrong end of a spear or a sword

Next Year, Your Smartphone Might Actually Charge Itself Using Solar Power

“Invisible” solar cells may soon turn smartphone displays into battery-assisting solar panels

Children stand near a memorial at Cambodia’s killing fields

The Trial of Cambodia’s Genocidal Leaders Is Nearing a Verdict

More than 30 years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, trials of the group’s genocidal leaders are inching closer to a verdict

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Some Seemingly Harmless Snakes Possess a Secret Venom Gland

These attacks are extremely rare, however, and victims were probably doing things they should not have been doing

This Man From Calgary Spent 23 Years on the Road, Visiting Every Country in the World

While many other people have also managed to visit more than 190 countries, in Bown’s book those visits don’t count

Up to 31,000 People in Britain Carry the Prion for Mad Cow Disease

What this means for the people who silently carry the abnormal protein, however, remains unknown

Glitches in the Common Application Have Seniors Pulling Their Hair Out

Should the Common App fall down entirely, we’ll probably hear the collective wail millions of high school seniors all over the country

The GeoEye-1 satellite

This App Tells You When Satellites Are Watching You

For the paranoid among us, an app that says when you may be being watched

The Youngest Winner of the Booker Prize Also Wrote the Longest Book

Eleanor Catton is 28, and her book The Luminaries is over 800 pages long

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Zombie Corals Can Come Back From the Dead

Killed by bleaching, this weird kind of coral can regrow from cryptic tissue

The Perfect Way to Ripen Fruit and Other Ingenious Inventions Recognized by the Dyson Awards

Entries into the annual inventors competition include an Iron Man-inspired suit and a printer that fits in your bag

The panda cam is back, meaning you can once again watch the baby panda to your heart’s content.

The Panda Cam is Back

After a 16-day hiatus, the Smithsonian National Zoo panda cam is back on the air

There Are No More Landlines in This Town

Residents, however, are not pleased and demand their landlines to be reinstated

A new study shows that chimps make different warning calls based on the presence of other chimps, and keep sounding the alarm until their friends are safe.

Chimpanzees Intentionally Warn Their Friends About Danger

A new study shows that the apes make specific warning calls when near other chimps, and they keep sounding the alarm until their friends are safe

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