flickering pictures

Before I read this, I didn’t know that octopuses could navigate mazes, solve problems, and even work the lid off a screw-top jar in search of food.
Wikipedia says:

An octopus has a highly complex nervous system, only part of which is localized in its brain. Two-thirds of an octopus’s neurons are found in the nerve cords […]

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When I was a kid, comic books always had those little ads for mail-order venus flytraps, with promises that they’d keep your home bug-free by crushing the life out of unsuspecting houseflies with their razor-sharp fangs and super-corrosive digestive juices. When my mom finally got me one, I was a little disappointed — no […]

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A tiny island chain, isolated and all but forgotten off the coast of Yemen, is home to one of the most fascinating and unique ecosystems on Earth. It also looks like something Lewis Carroll might have dreamed up after way, way too much absinthe.
I have to go there.
From the New York Times:
Some 250 million […]

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A company called BioArts International has started selling clones of long-lost pets under the slogan “What if you could be best friends again?”, and wants your beloved Mr. Tinkles to be next. From the press release:

BioArts International announced today that they have delivered the world’s first commercially cloned dog, a 10-week old Labrador named […]

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Parts of South Dakota are buried under a staggering snowstorm that apparently came out of nowhere, and people are missing all over the state. I know South Dakotans are hardy and all, but isn’t it a little early in the season for this sort of thing?
CNN reports:

“We cannot see a thing in many areas […]

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What? Why was a moose in a helicopter? Why did he fall out? And what the heck does “DNR” mean?
The CBC reports:

An endangered moose died as a result of a fall from a helicopter sling, the Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources says.
Department spokesman Dan Davis said veterinarians have confirmed the […]

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Just as the world is starting to look for alternatives to “blood” diamonds, which are mined from African war zones and help fund violence, there’s also a movement to seek rubies outside of the “Valley of Rubies” in Myanmar, which provides 90 per cent of the world’s supply and has a dismal human rights record. […]

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And they say there’s no such thing as climate change…
For 12 weird and wonderful hours last week, a Kenyan village turned into a winter wonderland.
From a Reuters story picked up by Yahoo! News:

A huge hailstorm turned parts of central Kenya white, thrilling residents most of whom had never experienced such conditions, officials said on Wednesday.
[…] […]

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A California company called LS9 says it has done the impossible: come up with cheap, homegrown, renewable “carbon-negative” oil to satisfy the world’s growing fuel needs. With bug poo.
From the Times:

To be more precise: the genetic alteration of bugs -– very, very small ones –- so that when they feed on agricultural waste such […]

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Interested yet?
Having cured cancer and solved world hunger, U.S. researchers have focused their skills and public research dollars on an age-old quandary: why is James Bond sexy?
From the New Scientist:

The traits are the self-obsession of narcissism; the impulsive, thrill-seeking and callous behaviour of psychopaths; and the deceitful and exploitative nature of Machiavellianism. At their extreme, […]

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