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Cool Finds

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U.S. Military Wants to Recruit the Smartest Dogs by Scanning Their Brains

The theory is that, by scanning a dog’s level of neural response to various stimuli, including handler cues, the researchers will be able to identify the dogs that will be the quickest learners and therefore the easiest to train

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Here’s What Three Mummies Might Have Looked Like While Alive

For the first time in over 2,000 years, these three mummies’ faces now stare back at viewers, much as they might have appeared just before their deaths

Google’s New Maps Reveal That, Yes, There Are Roads in North Korea

A Liberty Head nickel from 1883

1913 Nickel Could Sell for More Than $2 Million

The coin is one of only five 1913 Liberty Head nickels known to exist, though this one has an illicit, serendipitous back story

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To Hear Color, This Man Embedded a Chip in the Back of His Head

Because of a rare condition called achromatopsia—total color-blindness—he lived in a black-and-white world, until he and an inventor paired up to developed the “eyeborg,” a device that translates colors into sound

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Cracking the Code of the Human Genome

This Gun Shoots Criminals With DNA

This new gun shoots the bad guys with artificial DNA, that can then be traced back and identified

Never Listen to a Wine Critic Babble About Tannins Again

Turns out, a lot of what wine experts “know” isn’t really based on fact

The earliest known portrayal of patients suffering from syphilis, from Vienna in 1498.

Did Shakespeare Have Syphilis?

Shakespeare acquired an uncanny obsession with syphilis late in life, perhaps along with a few bacteria of his own

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Parking Meters, Originally Meant to Keep Traffic Moving, Need an Update

The long history of the parking meter - innocent seeming towers behind much of today’s driving woes

Digital Mannequins Are Replacing Human Models in Clothing Catalogs

Now, fashion retailers are skipping the flesh and bones, and putting their clothes on digitally rendered mannequins

Mongolia Is Turning Politicians’ Offices Into a Dinosaur Museum

Out with the old, in with the…even older.

The score doesn’t matter, only the ads.

Meta Superbowl Commercials Just Got a Lot More Meta

Around 1998, Super Bowl commercials got meta. But this year, it’s worse. This year, people are running commercials, for their Super Bowl commercials

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Tiny Robot Helicopter Will Follow You Around, Filming Everything You Do

This little drone will follow you around, film everything you do

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There’s a Vaccine for the Cat Version of HIV. So Why Are Cats Still Getting Sick?

Understanding how cats with FIV stay healthy could help researchers figure out how to keep humans with HIV from falling ill

For Dogs, Max Is the New Spot, Even in New York City

In the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia, Max ranks as the number one name for male dogs

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The First Canned Beer Went on Sale 78 Years Ago Today

If you’ve ever drank beer out of a can, you can thank Gottfried Krueger Brewery. They were the first ones, 78 years ago today, to put the tasty beverage in a can and offer it up to consumers

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Tapirs—South America’s Largest And Weirdest Mammal—Thrive in Secret Jungle Corridors

Good news for tapirs, the odd forest dwelling South American mammals that look something like a cross between a deer, pig and anteater

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This Is What Being a Google Maps Editor Is Like

Google maps is back on the iPhone, and thank goodness because the whole world could basically not function without it. But how does Google Maps get made?

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Sonar Uncovers Amazing Photograph of Sunken Civil War Ship

The USS Hatteras, sunk 150 years ago, was discovered and photographed recently using 3D sonar

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The Russian Government Once Funded a Scientist’s Quest To Make an Ape-Human Hybrid

In 1926, a famed Russian biologist was “hell-bent” on creating an ape-human hybrid

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