Latest Articles
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Transit workers stop train to save toy bunny
Casey Carey-Brown, a Boston woman who blogs about her daughter “Roozle,” has chronicled a harrowing story about childhood trauma narrowly averted by big-hearted transit workers. It concerns Roozle’s toy bunny Nummy, pictured above. (Roozle is the human child, Nummy is the bunny. I just don’t want you getting confused and thinking this was almost way […]
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New York kids need a doctor’s note to use sunscreen in school or at camp
Once upon an innocent American summer, sun-kissed cheeks were all the rage for lithe, beautiful children freckling in the clean air. But now we know that evil sun rays will kill you — not now, but later, with skin cancer — and that kids should wear sunscreen pretty much any time they go outside for […]
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North Dakota’s fossil fuel boom: Messy
A report from ProPublica reveals that the state's booming economy has resulted in tens of thousands of gallons of spilled oil and wastewater.
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Tsunami debris on the West Coast could be ‘far worse than any oil spill’
Last year’s tsunami in Japan threw 1.5 million tons of debris into the ocean. It’s starting to show up on the West Coast — a soccer ball here, a motorcycle there, a 66-foot, 165-ton dock. According to the Associated Press, more might be coming. Or it might not. But when the debris arrives, if enough […]
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The coolest photos of Earth from space we’ve ever seen, hands down
NASA astronaut Don Pettit takes pictures from the International Space Station, and they are mind-boggling. In the long-exposure photos, cities appear as streaks of light as the ISS orbits Earth at Ludicrous Speed. And those blotches? Those are lightning. Holy shit.
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Halliburton gets tripped up by Indian bean farmers*
Spiking demand for a bean used in the fracking process has been a huge boon for farmers in rural India -- but it's caused Halliburton's profits to tumble. (Don't worry. They'll survive.)
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Tiny corn could be the next big thing
New science suggests that smaller crops might produce the same amount of food with much fewer resources.
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Umbra’s second helpings: Untangling the garden hose problem
A reader wonders how to find a hose that's not made of PVC plastics. Umbra's not going to water down this answer.
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Off our chests: What breasts tell us about the state of our world
Breasts are amazing things, says Florence Williams, author of the new book "Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History" -- but maybe not for the reasons you think they are.
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House Committee Votes to Allow Illegal Loggers to Pillage World’s Forests
Today, the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee voted to allow illegal loggers to undercut the Lacey Act by allowing them to pillage the world’s forests. The vote was close as a bipartisan group of Representatives voted against the bill that would gut the Lacey Act. Unfortunately, by a 25-19 vote too many House Members still […]
