About 200 million years ago, a leech released a slimy mucous cocoon that unwittingly encased and trapped a bizarre animal with a springy tail, preserving it until researchers discovered the teardrop-shaped creature in Antarctica recently. The cocoon looks like those produced by living leeches, such as the medicinal leech Hirudo medicinalis. Encased inside was a…
Tag: world
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Forget Royal Baby: ‘A Horse Walks Into McDonald’s’ Tops UK News
by Staff •
Burned out on Royal Baby updates? You’re not alone. That’s why we’re bringing you the following extremely important story of a woman who was fined by police over the weekend for bringing her horse into a McDonald’s location in Greater Manchester after employees wouldn’t serve her from the drive through window. Once inside, the horse…
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Watch Felix Baumgartner Jump From Space Live
by Staff •
UPDATE: Watch NOW: Supersonic Freefall From Space [LIVE VIDEO] Today, Felix Baumgartner will try to do something no other human has done before: He will jump from a height of 22 miles, breaking the world record for highest altitude free fall. Baumgartner’s suit and support crew are equipped with more than 30 cameras, so every…
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Computer Program May Save Power Grid From Blackouts
by Staff •
Power failures aren’t that common in the U.S., but they are more likely to happen in the summer, when people crank up the air conditioning. Back in August 2003 a blackout covering much of the northeast happened because the control systems for the grid system did exactly what they were designed to do — but…
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One Simple Trick Could Disable a City’s 4G Network
by Staff •
High-speed wireless data networks are vulnerable to a simple jamming technique that could block service across much of a city, according to research findings provided to a federal agency last week. The high-bandwidth mobile network technology LTE (long-term evolution) is rapidly spreading around the world. But researchers show that just one cheap, battery-operated transmitter aimed…
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French President Threatens to Make Google Pay for News
by Staff •
In a meeting with Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt in Paris on Monday, France’s President Francois Hollande threatened to put through legislation that would force Google to pay publishers for indexing their stories on Google News unless an alternative agreement was realized by the end of the year, according to a statement released by the…
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Travelers: Prepare to Pay Even More for That Flight
by Staff •
Image: Mary Altaffer/Associated Press The formerly troubled airline industry has rebounded to record profits, but don’t expect that to bring down the price of your next roundtrip ticket. The average round trip airfare ticket within the United States, including taxes, reached $509.15 in the first six months of this year, up nearly $14 from the…
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Rare ‘Sea Serpent’ Caught on Video
by Staff •
The giant oarfish is the longest bony fish in the world, measuring — according to some reports — about 56 feet from tip to tail, although recorded lengths are somewhat more modest. Its size and its snake-like shape suggest that it may have been the source of at least some legends of sea serpents. In…
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New Fears About Ebola Spread After Plane Scare
by Staff •
Medical personnel inside a clinic taking care of Ebola patients in Sierra Leone on July 27, 2014. Image: Youssouf Bah/Associated Press DAKAR, Senegal — No one knows for sure just how many people Patrick Sawyer came into contact with the day he boarded a flight in Liberia, had a stopover in Ghana, changed planes in…
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How to Change Your Dropbox Password, and Make It Better
by Staff •
Dropbox is the latest tech company to have fallen victim to a security breach, and there’s a good chance your account is at risk. But unlike recent hacks on sites such as Yahoo, LinkedIn and eHarmony, account names and passwords weren’t posted online, making it more difficult to check via a tool if yours was…
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Amid Uproar Over NSA, Malaysia Wants to Expand Its Spying Powers
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The spying scandal roiling the National Security Agency in the U.S. may turn out to provide great air cover for other countries wanting to expand electronic surveillance. Take the Malaysian government. The official in charge of fighting graft in the Southeast Asian nation says that the government may soon use phone tapping and Internet monitoring…
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The Company That (Still) Feeds Your Vinyl Record Obsession
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Since 2007, vinyl record sales have seen a massive resurgence worldwide — and riding that wave is a Czech Republic-based company called GZ Media. The factory, originally called Gramofonove Zavody (Gramophone Record) Lodenice, pressed its first vinyl record in 1951 and was the main producer of vinyl records for the Eastern Bloc. Even as vinyl…
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Is it Possible to Travel Faster Than the Speed of Light?
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Albert Einstein first published his theory of special relativity back in 1905. Although the physics are complex, the theory has one simple rule: the speed of light cannot be broken. And, since then, it’s kept its place as the universal “top speed.” Scientists at the University of Adelaide in South Australia, however, published a study…
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U.S. sends 6 Guantanamo Bay prisoners to Uruguay to be resettled as refugees
by Staff •
The U.S. government said on Sunday Dec. 7, 2014 that six men who have been held more than 12 years at Guantanamo Bay have been sent to Uruguay to be resettled as refugees. Image: Brennan Linsley/Associated Press MIAMI — Six prisoners held for 12 years at Guantanamo Bay have been sent to Uruguay to be…
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Huge Asteroid Cruises Past Earth
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An asteroid wider than nine ocean liners sailed safely past Earth today (May 31), making its closest flyby of our planet for at least the next 200 years. Asteroid 1998 QE2, which is about 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) wide, cruised within 3.6 million miles (5.8 million km) of Earth at 4:59 p.m. EDT (2059 GMT)…
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How Victory in the Scottish Vote is Tearing the UK Apart
by Staff •
British Prime Minister David Cameron addressed a press conference in Aberdeen, Scotland on September 15, ahead of the referendum on Scotland’s independence. Image: BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images At the end of the movie Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, when it looks like our hero has the upper hand, he lets his adversary Moriarty get a…
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Private Space Taxi Builders on Track to Launch Astronauts Soon
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Representatives from the three different companies chosen by NASA to develop private space taxis to carry astronauts to orbit say their vehicles are making substantial progress toward launching people into orbit within the next few years. The companies — Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX), The Boeing Company and Sierra Nevada Corp. — are competing to…
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Local Court Orders Turkey to Lift YouTube Ban
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Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses the lawmakers of his Justice and Development Party at the parliament in Ankara, Turkey on June 26, 2012. Image: Burhan Ozbilici/Associated Press A local court ordered Turkey to lift its ban on YouTube on Friday, just one day after the government finally unblocked Twitter following another court ruling.…
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Vine Your Earth Day Good Deeds With #GivingVine
by Staff •
In celebration of Earth Day, a website called HooplaHa.com is asking for people everywhere to submit their own Vines of Earth-friendly acts of kindness under the hashtag #GivingVine. HooplaHa, a self-proclaimed “feel good” website that produces original, guaranteed-to-make-you-smile videos, started the #GivingVine campaign earlier this year with the sole purpose of collecting Vines of good…
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This Unbelievable Photo Shows Beijing’s Off-The-Charts Air Pollution
by Staff •
The air quality in Beijing, China is notoriously bad, but it was unspeakably terrible over the weekend. How bad was the pollution? On a scale of 0-500 (500 being the worst), Beijing hit 755 on Saturday evening. That’s not a typo — Beijing’s air was so bad that it shattered the existing scale. That’s according…