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The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Friday, August 9, 2013

In the News

Just the News

PBS NewsHour becomes first nightly national newscast anchored by two women 

This is cool news: The PBS NewsHour (which I have contributed to, via their science correspondent Miles O'Brien) today announced that they'll be the first nightly news broadcast in the US with two female anchors. This shouldn't be a big deal, bla bla, but come on. It is. Gwen Ifill and Judy Woodruff. Brian Stelter: "The co-anchor arrangement harks back to the 1970s, when Jim Lehrer and Robert MacNeil founded the nightly newscast that was later named “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour.” The two men jointly presented the program until 1995." 

Don't touch that hot stove! 

The complicated process that allows your brain to quickly cancel an order and replace it with another. 

Life in a toxic country 

New York Times China correspondent Edward Wong describes his life in heavily polluted Beijing, where he no longer feels safe running outside and, in order to bike around town, dons a black air filter face mask that makes him "look like an Asian Darth Vader". 

Unnecessary shark attack safety advice 

Your chances of being killed by a shark are 1 in 3.8 million. But, you know, just in case, here's what you do to survive a shark attack.

The real scoop on the biggest shark that ever lived 

Megalodon is dead, to begin with. (Not that you'd know that from watching the Discovery Channel's recent intentionally fake, but presented as factual, documentary on the subject.) But the extinct giant shark — 3x the length of a Great White and 10x the mass — is still pretty damn fascinating. Check out this actually factual treatment of the biggest shark that ever lived at The Contemplative Mammoth blog. 

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