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Greenland’s ice melt is its worst ever — and there’s still a month to go

Melting of the Greenland ice sheet broke the seasonal record on Aug. 8 -- and melting season isn't even over yet.

Picking Ryan means picking a fight on transportation

Paul Ryan has tried to derail plans for high-speed train lines, and his budget proposal would take a hatchet to transportation and infrastructure spending.

The baby beluga who inspired ‘Baby Beluga’ has died at the age of 46

Parents and nursery school teachers singing the beloved children’s song “Baby Beluga” by Raffi (a.k.a. Raffi Cavoukian) will have to wipe away a tear today after the final chorus: Kavna, the whale who inspired the song, died of cancer Monday at the Vancouver Aquarium at the age of 46. In other news, you are old. Update: Raffi […]

Watch a guy pull off a sting operation to smack down a bike thief

A Portland man who is not named Simon Jackson identified his stolen bike when the thief put it up for sale on Seattle Craigslist. So he wrote an email offering to buy the bike, and traveled to Seattle with backup and cameras. When the thief showed up to sell him his bike back, “Simon” confronted […]

Should we talk about the weather? Discussing climate without killing the conversation

Warmer weather and severe storms are changing the game for one New England ski resort. The Slow Ride Stories crew hears how the business is adapting -- and how nearby residents are getting along in a hot and volatile new world.

This is what North Dakota’s oil boom looks like

A tremendous spike in production is great news for the state in the short term. For the state. In the short term.

This kangaroo escape caper is ‘Dr. Doolittle’ meets ‘The Italian Job’

If you were a kangaroo in a zoo in Germany, would you say to yourself, “OK, well, I guess I’m never going to see Australia again, but hey, at least I like the smell of bratwurst”? Or would you say, “I bet it’s just a matter of time until the fox over there digs a […]

Seriously, what the hell is this thing

io9 is asking for help on behalf of a reader who found a horrible tentacle-thing on the ground in Stockholm, Sweden. He wants help identifying it, presumably so that when he gets devoured his next-of-kin knows where to search for its lair. I’m gonna go with “the unholy offspring of a sea urchin, an Elder […]

Here is a map of America’s most obese states

Winning the dubious distinction of first place: Mississippi.

All the plants in the Amazon would die without this tiny patch of desert in Africa

Sometimes nature has the coolest trans-continental bromance with itself.