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Cool Finds

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Hyperlapse Is the Coolest Thing to Happen to Google Maps Since Street View

Hyperlapse photography is super hard to do, but the results are just incredible

Can We Use Umami to Get People to Eat Better?

Research into umami has unlocked answers about our preferences, our recipes, and perhaps how to correct our crash course with obesity

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Spelling Bee Champs Will Actually Have to Learn the Meaning of the Fancy Words They Spell

Kids will have to define words in addition to spelling them, which the competition hopes will help the process of identifying finalists

Hurricane Katrina Kicked Off a Startup Renaissance in New Orleans

Within three years after Katrina, the rate of new start-up launches in the city doubled

How to Turn a Paper Image of a Record Into a Beautiful Music

You can’t make sounds from books, except when you can

It is I, Scangrade the Magnificent, here to grade your essay.

Can a Computer Really Grade an Essay?

One company is developing an essay grading computer program that can take the load off professors and standardized test graders

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The World’s Oldest Photography Museum Goes Digital

From 19th century daguerrotypes to photos of Martin Luther King Jr., some of photography’s history goes online

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Thieves Break Into Safe to Steal $3 Million Worth of Rhino Horns

Right now the going rate for rhino horn (just about $30,000 a pound) is higher than for gold

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There Is Now a Hypothetical Species Named Shrewdinger Because of You

Last week, the public voted, and named a hypothetical placental ancestor Shrewdinger

A Few Rare People Hallucinate Musical Scores

Musical hallucinations are the rarest form of ‘text hallucinations’

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Wildlife Managers Are Poisoning Rhino Horns to Stop People From Eating Them

The poison, a mix of parasiticides and pink dye, now fills more than 100 rhinos’ horns

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Google Autocomplete Isn’t the Same in Every Country

Chronicling the ways google autocompletes your searches can be both enlightening and horrifying

I see your log bungalow and raise you a fully-functioning ion channel.

Need to Build a Functioning Neuron?

In Minecraft, a player creates a functional neuron

Graham Crackers Were Supposed To Be a Sex Drive–Suppressing Diet Food

The original vision for graham crackers had little to do with s’mores

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‘Altitude Sickness’ Might Actually Be Two Different Diseases

Something like 20% of people in the United States who travel to the mountains in the west report getting altitude sickness, but the symptoms might actually be from two different diseases

Celebrate Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month By Reporting These Horrifying Species

April 1st marks the beginning of Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month, but how does somebody celebrate?

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One of Napoleon’s Generals Was More Interested in Gathering Beetles Than Fighting at Waterloo

When he died in 1845, Count Pierre François Marie Auguste Dejean owned the largest personal beetle collection in the world

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This Picture of Boston, Circa 1860, Is the World’s Oldest Surviving Aerial Photo

A sight from 2,000 feet, a view of 1860s Boston

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This Board Game Is Designed For People to Play 2,700 Years Into the Future

That is assuming, of course, that humans manage to stick around in time for the big unveiling event

iPods and sperm, America’s favorite exports.

America May Be the World’s Top Exporter of Sperm

The United States may be the world’s largest exporter of sperm

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