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Evacuation from Syrian camp ‘on hold’ – BBC News
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
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Rudyard Kipling: an unexpected revival for the ‘bard of empire’ | Books | The Guardian
There’s a dilapidated bangla (bungalow) in the grounds of the Sir JJ School of Art in Mumbai that commemorates the nearby birthplace of Rudyard Kipling.
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Vintage Photos Share the Joy of Snow
The Pictures We Loved in 2015 National Geographic editors choose the images that intrigued, delighted, and moved them.
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Echoes by Laura Tisdall – review | Children’s books | The Guardian
When I read the first chapter, I hadn’t even finished reading it and I knew it was something I had to carry on reading. Not only was I drawn into the story within the first few paragraphs, but I fell in love with the cover.
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Which Animal Has the Longest Claws of All Time?
How would you like to have been able to tear open a Christmas gift with these? The possibly 3.2-foot (1-meter) long claws of Therizinosaurus, which hung down like the alarming mitts of Edward Scissorhands, are said to be the longest claws of all tim…
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Butler County Hispanics Thrive Despite Sheriff | Al Jazeera America
HAMILTON, Ohio — A block from the sprawling, fortresslike Butler County sheriff’s office in Hamilton is Supermercado Garcia, a Mexican grocery store selling spices and tortillas that provide a taste of home to area residents from south of the border.
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River Ribble overflows as flood warnings issued for Lancashire – video | Environment | The Guardian
Footage taken by Twitter user Joseph E Nolan shows the effect of heavy rain on the river Ribble on Saturday, as severe flood warnings are issued across Lancashire and Yorkshire. Almost 150 flood warnings have been issued as up to 120mm of rain is se…
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Islamic State conflict: Iraqi forces push deeper into Ramadi – BBC News
Iraqi forces have moved deeper into Ramadi, pressing an offensive to drive Islamic State militants from the city. Bombs and booby traps have been slowing their advance, army officials say.
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Life returns to the Mexican city of Juarez – Al Jazeera English
Ciudad Juarez, Mexico – Fifty-two-year-old Raul Rivera is the owner of Quick restaurant in Ciudad Juarez, a humble place with historic Mexican memorabilia on the walls and fried chicken on the plates. He is a stout man with a furrowed face and a fir…
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The year that’s past was a season of fear. Next to the onslaught of anxiety, hope and optimism seem powerless, if not downright foolish. As a motivating force, hope is more fragile, harder to inspire, easier to lose sight of.
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Palestinians defy Israel’s Jerusalem ban – Al Jazeera English
Two Palestinians have taken refuge in an International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) office in Jerusalem in defiance of an Israeli order banning them from entering their hometown for several months.
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Gerald Seymour’s publishers held a dinner for him last month to mark the 40th anniversary of his ground-breaking thriller Harry’s Game.
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December 26, 1991: The Soviet Union Dissolves | The Nation
The Soviet Union abolished itself on this day in 1991, recognizing the independence of its constituent parts. In an obituary for “the late U.S.S.R.,” The Nation’s editors wrote:
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2015 Wasn’t Kind to Several Candidates Running for President – The Atlantic
Hey, remember Scott Walker? That corn-fed, Kohls-shopping, union-busting, unintimidated governor of a blue state who had a real shot at next July’s nominating convention? He’s probably sitting in his Madison, Wisconsin, office right now reading the …
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The Year’s Best Under-the-Radar Podcasts | Mother Jones
Ah, the holidays—more time to binge on your favorite TV shows and catch the midnight showing of the new Star Wars flick. Or maybe instead you’ll want to close your eyes and sink into the latest media craze: podcasts.
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The 20 photographs of the year | Art and design | The Guardian
Skip to main content Photography Twenty photographs of the week The 20 photographs of the year Europe’s refugee crisis, the Paris attacks, pollution in China, the continuing violence in Israel and Syria – the world’s leading photojournalists describ…
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2015 in childrens books – quiz | Children’s books | The Guardian
Quiz
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Addressing fault-lines within the Saudi-led coalition – Al Jazeera English
As the weeklong truce in Yemen coincides with the wrapping up of the scheduled peace talks, the Saudi Arabia-led coalition should take a moment to examine emerging fault-lines within its ranks, which have become particularly evident in the most rece…
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Taliban denies sharing ISIL intelligence with Russia – Al Jazeera English
Afghanistan’s Taliban group has officially denied any negotiations or exchange of information with Russia to fight the spread of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in Afghanistan.
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NEW DELHI — It started with a private phone call by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif of Pakistan on Friday morning to wish him a happy birthday. About four hours later, Mr. Modi landed in the Pakistani city of…
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The book that reminded me America could be magical too | Sloane Crosley | Opinion | The Guardian
My parents have many wonderful qualities, but championship gift-givers they are not. “This is more for your father” is a common refrain before the first corner of wrapping paper has been unstuck.
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José Hipólito Raposo – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
José Hipólito Raposo (born 13 February 1885 in São Vicente da Beira – died 26 August 1953) was a Portuguese politician, writer, lawyer and historian.
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Here are some brilliant ways to use up your leftover eggnog | Grist
Solar was facing a rough end to 2015 — until Paris, Wall Street, and Congress gave it a Christmas miracle.
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Householders in the north of England have been warned to take their Christmas presents and other valuables upstairs as the Environment Agency issued 149 flood warnings and 123 alerts.
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Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper-batsman Kusal Perera faces a four-year ban after his B sample also tested positive for a prohibited substance. The 25-year-old failed an out-of-competition anti-doping test in October.
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China ‘expels’ French journalist over Uighur article – BBC News
China has effectively expelled a French journalist over an article she wrote that was critical of Beijing’s policy towards Muslim Uighers in Xinjiang. Beijing confirmed it would not renew press credentials for Ursula Gauthier, of the French news mag…
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A War and Peace for our time | Books | The Guardian
In English vernacular, the title of Leo Tolstoy’s 1869 epic about the Napoleonic wars does double metaphorical service. As the book is around 1,300 pages long, it has become shorthand for prolixity.
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Longbow Girl by Soffia Nicholas – review | Children’s books | The Guardian
Most English books about – or based in – Wales aren’t very good. I once read an English book about Wales and it was outstandingly bad. However, there are some exceptions, and Longbow Girl is one of them. The author is Linda Davies, and this was the …
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The traditional image of a farmer standing in a field, squinting anxiously at the sky for signs of rain, may be about to get a 21st-century makeover as researchers explore the use of drones on farms from Sri Lanka to Uganda.
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Science: Best long reads of 2015 (part one) – BBC News
The Alaskan fishing village taking on ‘Godzilla’. By Matt McGrath Alaska is a vast wilderness of natural beauty. But it also holds more coal than all the other US states put together.
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Veterans for Bernie 2016. In addition to the CHOICE Act, Bernie has sponsored more veterans bills than any other legislator in the last three decades. (vetsforbernie.org) as much as I like sanders, this isn’t the bernieforpres sub. Please don’t link…
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Dialysis Company DaVita Leads List of Companies Caught for Committing Fraud against U.S. “Forced to pay $800 million this year to settle fraud cases brought by the Justice Department.” (allgov.com)
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BBC Sport – Man City: We are the strongest team – Manuel Pellegrini
Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes he has the strongest team in the Premier League – when all his players are fit. City are third in the table, six points behind leaders Leicester after Monday’s 2-1 defeat at Arsenal.
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Raging Australian bushfire destroys more than 100 homes – Al Jazeera English
At least 116 homes have been destroyed in a bushfire that continues to rage along the coast of Australia’s southeastern state of Victoria, but so far no deaths have been reported.
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In the days before Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak was ousted in February 2011, Alaa al-Aswany, dentist, novelist and founder member of the democratic movement Kefaya (“Enough”), was one of the most influential voices of the leaderless revolution.
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For 2016 I am going to try and read 52 books in 52 weeks. I am wondering if any of you guys would like to join me? (self.books) Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, hopefully this year was good to everyone and may 2016 be even better.
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Australia’s carbon emissions are increasing, government report shows | Australia news | The Guardian
Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions increased in 2014-15, a report released with obscure timing by the Australian government has shown. Related: What does the Paris climate agreement mean for Australia? | Lenore Taylor
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1byone Super-Thin Digital Indoor HDTV Antenna | Digg Store
Thanks to the nationwide switch from analogue to digital TV, great-quality HD television can be accessed without committing to a lengthy cable or satellite contract. Connect up to 35 miles away from your closest broadcast tower and start watching ne…
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ELI5: why are aliens generally portrayed/imagined as green or gray? : explainlikeimfive
ELI5: why are aliens generally portrayed/imagined as green or gray? (self.explainlikeimfive) Where did the stereotype come from?
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Alan Watts Introduces America to Meditation & Eastern Philosophy (1960) | Open Culture
Alan Watts moved from his native London to New York in 1938, then eventually headed west, to San Francisco in the early 1950s.
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Friends and I were celebrating Christmas when a stray dog came into the back yard. His mouth was taped shut and infected. We took him to an emergency animal hospital. Meet Chance. (imgur.com) Saw another saved dog with its mouth taped shut the other…
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Aww beautiful. Love her Christmas sweater! What a sweet lady.
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Severe flood warnings issued for northern England – BBC News
Residents have been urged to take action after five severe flood warnings were issued for northern England. The Environment Agency said flooding was expected in areas around the River Ribble and River Calder in Lancashire and urged residents to “be …
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Prime Minster of Canada flips knife before cutting his birthday cake : gifs
Do you think the Internet could get his attention to accept the challenge to beat Putin’s record? Honestly, nothing on the internet surprises me anymore. Totally possible.
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It was a prettayyy, prettayyy good year when it came to sex in the movies and TV. Here are the best sex scenes of the year. Trainwreck (Dir. Judd Apatow)
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My friend asked me what I got for Christmas – I didn’t get anything. This is what he immediately sent me. I haven’t seen or spoken (irl) to this guy in eight years. This made my year. (i.imgur.com) Send some cattle for a ride on the wind turbine fer…
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Mosque ransacked and copies of Quran burnt in Corsica – Al Jazeera English
A crowd vandalised a Muslim prayer hall and set fire to copies of the Quran on the French island of Corsica, police said, in an attack condemned by the government.
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Glory Hole Falls, The Ozarks, Arkansas [1920×1080] [OC] : EarthPorn
I was lead to believe… Ok, ok, I’ll pull up my pants now. You know, I’ve never seen the other side of a glory hole. The gushing makes sense
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There’s an old French saying, “Send a donkey to Paris and it won’t come back any smarter.” It sounds good, but I’m betting it’s wrong, and that the big Paris conference has saved the world from heat death.
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APOD: 2015 December 25 – To Scale: The Solar System
Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Explanation: Want to build a scale model Solar System? A blue marble 1.
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You must be at least eighteen years old to view this content. Are you over eighteen and willing to see adult content?
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‘Many missing’ in Myanmar landslide – BBC News
Dozens of people are reportedly missing and feared dead after a landslide hit a jade mining region in Myanmar’s northern Kachin state. Officials say a search for survivors and bodies is continuing after Friday’s accident in the area around Hpakant.
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Radiohead released their rejected James Bond theme song. It’s gorgeous. – Vox
Radiohead released their rejected James Bond theme song. It’s gorgeous. https://t.co/r9hEp7HVz7 https://t.co/wBdRWMz0ZV
Radiohead doesn’t have a reputation as the world’s jolliest band, but give them this: they know how to deliver a Christmas present. As the note suggests, this is more a Radiohead song than a James Bond theme song. But that’s a good thing. -
When even the birds seek shelter from the restless waves | Environment | The Guardian
Last week the seas off our vantage point under a low cliff were the roughest we have ever seen from this peninsula. The strong wind was from the west, where, in the far distance, we could see the snow-capped tops of the hills.
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Suicide has never been more adorable : gifs
Cripple Me Elmo. He doesn’t exactly have legs, so there’s that.
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Fireworks and City Image, Uttarakhand, India – National Geographic Photo of the Day
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Abstinence-only advocate Bristol Palin gives birth to 2nd out-of-wedlock child : nottheonion
Man, it’s a Christmas miracle! This virgin gave birth not just once but twice! So do the two neo Jesuses battle it out or what?
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Twitter says new measures ‘have tackled trolls’ – BBC News
Twitter has clamped down on internet trolls by introducing a series of measures over the past year, its European head Bruce Daisley has said. Speaking to The Independent ahead of Twitter’s 10th birthday, Mr Daisley said more effort had been put into…
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Alabama tornado: city of Birmingham hit by twister | World news | The Guardian
A tornado has struck Birmingham, Alabama, damaging houses, uprooting trees and injuring at least three people in the state’s largest city, law enforcement and weather officials said.
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LeBron James and Oculus created a 12-minute virtual reality film | The Verge
LeBron James’ Christmas gift to fans this year is an unorthodox marriage of sports, film, and technology.
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TIL 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in world are just in India. : todayilearned
TIL 13 of the 20 most polluted cities in world are just in India. (politifact.com) Curious about these results I decided to do some research, here’s what I found.
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Open thread for night owls: Declassified U.S. nuclear plans targeted 1,200 Soviet, Chinese cities
The National Security Archive on Wednesday for the first time declassified a list of potential Cold War nuclear targets, and the picture is chilling.
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Earthquake shakes Afghanistan, Pakistan and India – Al Jazeera English
A 6.2-magnitude earthquake has struck northeast Afghanistan near the country’s borders with Pakistan and Tajikistan, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS), with tremors being felt as far as New Delhi. The USGS said Saturday morning’s earthqua…
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The Religious Right Is Right to Be Scared: Christianity Is Dying in America – The Daily Beast
Among the Christian Right, and most Republican presidential candidates, it’s now an article of faith that the United States is persecuting Christians and Christian-owned businesses—that religion itself is under attack.
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What’s Worse For Your Brain—Drinking or Playing Football? – The Daily Beast
I woke up Sunday morning with a throbbing headache. I’d spent the previous night heavily sampling a selection of rare whiskeys with some friends.
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How Jeff Vespa Takes Such Intimate Celebrity Portraits – The Daily Beast
As a child, Jeff Vespa wanted to be a fine artist, but “really needed instant gratification,” as he puts it. So, he put down the paintbrushes and picked up his mother’s camera.
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What’s It’s Like to Have Russian Jets Bomb the Crap Out of Your Town – The Daily Beast
“When I’m sitting here and we hear a plane, which is a lot now, I know from the sound. If the plane is above us—you can tell if it’s above you, because that’s when it’s the loudest—and if it’s a Russian plane, then it doesn’t attack where we are.
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Save the Rainforests for 100 Bucks – The Daily Beast
After 13 days of heated negotiations, the Paris COP21 Climate talks ended with an ambitious plan to curb the rise of greenhouse gas emissions.
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The Nixon-Masked Man Who Helped End Homosexuality as a Disease – The Daily Beast
With those words, Dr. Anonymous began his famous address to the 1972 convention of the American Psychiatric Association. No one in the room recognized the homosexual before them because he was disguised in an oversized tuxedo, a distorted Nixon mask…
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Cape Cod: America’s Heroin Hot Spot – The Daily Beast
The best comparison I can make to the experience would be watching a car hit a brick wall. I knew exactly where the story was headed, yet I was drawn to the horror of the journey. I was left searching for answers. I was wondering who, if anyone, wou…
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Putin’s Homage to Yeltsin, and the Ghost of Freedom Past – The Daily Beast
YEKATERINBURG, Russia—The last year has seen Moscow changing enemies with head-spinning speed. Every few days, it seemed, there were new culprits to blame for the country’s woes.
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Eat Less Ramen in 2016: The Best Cookbooks of 2015 – The Daily Beast
The wannabe chefs in your life are pretty easy when it comes to Christmas gifts—gorgeous, tasty cookbooks always do the trick. And, this year, there is a stellar crop to choose from.
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Why Suburbia Looks So Much the Same – The Daily Beast
The processes and ingredients that built suburbia—mortgage guarantees, the interstate highway system, the baby boomers, crime, white flight, and so on—are intensely familiar. But the processes that actually built suburban homes are not.
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How to Save American Healthcare – The Daily Beast
The American healthcare system is the most expensive in the world, with some $2.8 trillion—or one sixth of the economy’s outgoings—racked up in spending each year.
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Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki can’t help but chuckle at the thought of a bear having its way with Leonardo DiCaprio. “It’s funny for a second, but then it’s so sad that somebody published that and then we read it.
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Just in terms of its narrative structure, “The Husbands Of River Song” is one of the strangest hours in television history.
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Couldn’t think of what to get my Dad this year for his Birthday. So I wrote hundreds of celebrities to wish him a happy birthday. As we close out the year, I thought I would show the results… (youtu.be)
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Gary L. Alford was running on adrenaline when he arrived for work on a Monday in June 2013, at the Drug Enforcement Administration office in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan.
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Doctor Who’s Most Controversial Character Just Got Even More Confounding
River Song is arguably the most divisive character to come to Doctor Who in the past five years. She’s a swashbuckling archeologist who outwits almost everybody, and an unabashedly sexy older woman. She’s also so dependent on the Doctor as to be kin…
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What are the movies, songs, and books that make you weep?
Stock photo; not the author. I don’t cry a lot. Rather than getting into the psychology of why that might be, let’s just take it as a fact and move on to the related fact that when a piece of culture—a book, a movie, a song—does make me cry, it tend…
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Can Fintech Fix Financial Services? | TechCrunch
It serves as one of many examples of how our malfunctioning financial system produces fundamentally unfair outcomes. Why do we need that system? Americans feel about bankers the way they do about lawyers: they’re all bastards — until you need one.
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1915 WW1 diary gives account of second Christmas truce – BBC News
Pte Robert Keating’s account explains how a ceasefire was held by some men despite orders from officers who did not want a repeat of a 1914 truce. It has been donated to the archives of Royal Welch Fusiliers (RWF) and is being transcribed at Wrexham…
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Unstoppable force? The earning power of Star Wars – BBC News
A LOT of things get blown up in any Star Wars film, and The Force Awakens is no exception. But of all the things that get smashed, the box office has been as wrecked as any poor Imperial tie-fighter. The list of records being set by this film is diz…
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From Shatner to Shakespeare, what will you be reading in 2016? – BBC News
Author Julian Barnes’s many fans will not have to wait long for their next fix as his 12th novel, The Noise of Time, arrives in January. It is Barnes’s first since winning the Man Booker Prize in 2011 for Sense of an Ending.
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After nearly a year of answering questions, John Sorensen posed one of his own: “Do you know what you want to do when you get old?”It was a day of frustration for Mr. Sorensen, whose 92nd birthday was the day after Christmas.
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Australia bushfire: Residents and holiday makers forced to flee – BBC News
Hot and windy conditions have pushed bushfires out of control in the state of Victoria, in southern Australia. More than 50 houses have been destroyed in the fires that have swept through the popular holiday towns of Wye River and Separation Creek.
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Arson suspected fire at Bill Clinton’s childhood home – BBC News
A fire at former US President Bill Clinton’s childhood home in Arkansas is believed to have been caused by arson, officials say.They say the blaze in the city of Hope slightly damaged one interior room before it was extinguished.Arson is suspected b…
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Before 2015 many of Oscar Isaac’s roles involved him suppressing his natural, god-given charisma. As the villain in Sucker Punch, the vaguely menacing third leg of Drive’s love triangle, or the misanthropic folk singer in Inside Llewyn Davis, Isaac …
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BEIRUT, Lebanon — The commander of one of the most powerful Syrian insurgent groups in the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus, was killed Friday in an airstrike, according to the government and its opponents.
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A Huge Steam Screwup Leaked Users’ Account Info, and Valve Isn’t Talking | Motherboard
On Friday afternoon Eastern Time, we started getting reports that something was seriously wrong with Steam, the digital PC games platform that services over 125 million users.
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A week ago, no one had ever heard of Edward Clarkin. Today he has inspired multiple parody Twitter accounts, prompted one journalist to quit his job after 22 years and has been the subject of intense speculation in elite media circles.
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Christmas blaze guts Australia homes – BBC News
Hundreds of firefighters battled the blaze along the Great Ocean Road in Victoria’s south-west on Friday. No injuries or deaths have been reported so far. Authorities evacuated 1,600 residents and tourists from the popular tourist spot of Lorne.
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My family designed and made a gingerbread christmas tree. The numbers say “Christmas Tree” in binary (i.imgur.com) Binary data is nothing without an encoding. ASCII, I assume?
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Environmental Peace Ecology is out! https://t.co/HxGJ3d5xFf
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HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — For nearly half a century, Margot Carlson Delogne had grieved over her father’s death. She battled alcoholism, wore a missing-in-action bracelet and deeply resented the Vietnamese who shot down his plane in 1966.
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Searching for Vadim Kozin, the Soviet tango king – BBC News
Vadim Kozin was one of the most famous singers in the Soviet Union in the 1930s, but in 1944 he disappeared – banished to Siberia. Half a century later the British singer, Marc Almond, heard some surviving recordings and became a devoted fan.
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What are your favorite online political quizzes?
As an elections junkie, there are few things I find more enjoyable than digging into a good political quiz. One of my favorites recently came from the National Journal, which asked how many U.S. senators you could identify just from their photos.
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ELI5: why child support is based on income rather than what a child would need monthly. (self.explainlikeimfive)
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Something ain’t right here… : funny
Something ain’t right here… (imgur.com) Now we wait for comments to be locked due to racism.
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AllGrid Energy, an Indigenous-owned company has emerged as a hopeful minnow beside corporate giants poised to drive the expansion of Australia’s fledgling home solar battery industry.
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French boules lovers push for recognition – BBC News
Fans of the gentle French pastime of boules are on a roll. Not only has an agreement been signed to allow their sport to be played in French schools, but now they are also seeking Olympic recognition.
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Is it OK to use family and friends to crowdfund your wedding? – BBC News
You’re in love. You’ve found the one – or rather, The One. You’ve popped the question, and to your utter joy, they’ve said “yes”. Now how are you going to pay for the wedding?
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Paid to spend two months in bed – BBC News
Space travel has a major impact on the human body, so in order to help scientists work out what this means for astronauts’ health, a lab in Germany is getting people to spend two months lying in bed. Envihab looks like a building from the future.
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Kidnapped by IS, saved by the Taliban – BBC News
A young Afghan man freed nearly nine months after being kidnapped by Islamic State fighters in Zabul province has been talking about his ordeal.
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LCD Soundsystem’s first track in five years is a super sad Christmas song | The Verge
LCD Soundsystem released their first song in five years yesterday, a melancholy holiday-themed track called “Christmas Will Break Your Heart” that’s sure to intensify any feelings of loneliness and longing this time of year.
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The hints of irreverence can be traced to a private meeting in Coral Gables, Fla., with the soon-to-be presidential candidate and his rapper acquaintance. Jeb Bush had grown fond of Pitbull, the Miami performer gone global, who seemed to share his z…
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On Christmas Eve in 1968, as the three astronauts of Apollo 8 were sailing around the moon, they sent a message home. With the world watching on live television, they took turns reading the creation story from Genesis, and then signed off. “Good nig…
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The Ultimate To-Do List App Comparison Chart Compares the Most Popular Productivity Apps
To-do list apps are the cornerstone of a productivity system meant for the digital worker. But which app you should use is subjective. The crowd-sourced to-do list app comparison chart can steer you to the right app for you.
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Children of Abraham: The work of acclaimed photojournalist Abbas – BBC News
The career of the acclaimed Iranian photojournalist Abbas has spanned more than four decades and has taken him from the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City to perhaps the greatest boxing match of all time, Muhammad Ali versus George Foreman.
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Will Jared Leto’s Joker Be Too Raw And Subversive For Modern Society To Handle?
Wow, we knew from previous reports (“Leto …
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How Elizabeth Hand Turned Boba Fett Into a Fully Rounded YA Hero
We’re anxiously awaiting Elizabeth Hand’s next novel, Hard Light. But in the meantime, did you know she was also a prolific author of tie-in novels? In an article for the Washington Post, she explains how she wrote the novelization of Twelve Monkeys…
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Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay flooding displaces 150,000 – BBC News
More than 150,000 people in Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil have been driven from their homes by some of the worst flooding in years. Heavy summer rains have caused rivers to swell across a vast area.
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Top searches of 2015 (and what they didn’t include)
Both Google and Bing released their top searches of 2015 and one thing the two search engines had in common was Caitlyn Jenner and Paris (the attacks, not the celebrity). Jenner topped Bing’s “celebrity” searches and landed fourth among Google’s gen…
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PSA: Steam is broken, showing you random people’s accounts. Don’t buy anything til it’s fixed! (store.steampowered.com) Hi all.
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Track Your Commitment, Not Progress, to Achieve Your Resolutions
It’s standard advice to track what steps you have accomplished towards your goal. But that progress can trick you into thinking you can get away with cheating now. Avoid “the progress trap” by questioning your commitment to the goal.
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Letter Y: Ugab River, Namibia : Image of the Day
Today’s Image of the Day is derived from our newest feature: Reading the ABCs from Space. You there, Y…what begins with Y?
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SQRRL is the craziest art project we’ve seen in ages
There have been some truly strange gallery shows dealing with science-fictional themes in the past several years. But SQRRL, a new show from artist John Russell, which runs until Jan. 10 at the Bridget Donahue Gallery in New York, could just be the …
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Ars in 2015: The year in gaming conventions | Ars Technica
The stereotypical image of a gamer is of someone sitting alone in a dark basement, staring at a screen for hours on end. Forget that! Ars Technica’s gaming coverage got off the couch plenty this year, visiting events from Washington state to Washing…
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Muslim prayer hall attacked on Corsica – BBC News
A crowd has vandalised a Muslim prayer hall in Corsica, following an attack on firefighters on the French Mediterranean island. Officials say a small group of protesters also tried to burn copies of the Koran in the capital, Ajaccio.
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Ethiopian opposition urges scrutiny of industrial plan – Al Jazeera English
The international community needs to pressure the Ethiopian government to halt land grabs and respect human rights, an opposition party leader has said after two prominent opposition members were arrested for inciting protests in Oromiya earlier thi…
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Turkish president ‘talks a man out of a suicide attempt’ – BBC News
The office of the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, says that he has helped talk a man out of jumping off the Bosphorus bridge in Istanbul. The presidential convoy spotted the man on the bridge, and officials then came to his assistance.
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LPT: Adjust your growing pets collar regularly, you should be able to fit at least two fingers underneath. (self.LifeProTips)
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The following post contains spoilers for the latest Doctor Who Christmas special titled “The Husbands of River Song.” But it also contains some great insight from River herself, Alex Kingston.
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Stars in the Tarantula Nebula js – Just Space
Stars in the Tarantula Nebula js https://t.co/StMCWQE9AD https://t.co/vDrFk5DrHt https://t.co/VRDokKatZu
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Northern Afghanistan hit by 6.3-magnitude earthquake – BBC News
According to the US Geological Survey, the quake’s epicentre was in the northern province of Badakhshan, close to the Pakistani and Tajik borders. It is not clear if there were any casualties in the area itself, but at least 17 people were injured i…
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Turkey President Erdogan ‘talks man out of suicide’ – BBC News
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked a man out of jumping off a bridge in Istanbul, his office says. The man had climbed over a railing on the Bosphorus bridge linking Europe with Asia and was threatening to kill himself.
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Air strikes kill prominent Syrian rebel commander – Al Jazeera English
Zahran Alloush, the commander of the best organised group in the Damascus area, has been killed in an air strike, with conflicting claims about who carried out the attack.
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Royal Christmas Pictures – The Daily Beast
Kate Middleton, the Queen and other members of the Royal Family gathered at St Mary Magdalene Church near Sandringham for the traditional Christmas Day service today. Kate was resplendent in green, but Prince George did not attend the service.
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Every year I watch at least a little bit during the tv marathon they run for it and every year I appreciate every more how amazing the writing is for this movie. I really want to hear that.
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Can You Spot All the Geeky Details in these Fantastic Drawings?
Artist Joey Jacks has set himself a challenge: Every day this month, he’s posting a bit of fan art. His pen-and-ink style is full of humor, and each drawing is jam-packed with the kind of deal only fans can really appreciate.
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Search Is Back Is an Advanced Facebook Graph-Like Search Tool
It can be difficult to find that exact post you remember seeing on your timeline. If you need advanced search tools for Facebook…well, Search is Back! This third-party tool combs through through your own timeline or through the public one.
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Soviet-era cable cars keep Georgian town going – Al Jazeera English
Chiatura, a mining town in northern Georgia, boasts one of the oldest aerial tramways in the world. Even today, the rusting cable cars are still used to ferry commuters and miners in and out of the city centre.
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Investing In Artificial Intelligence | TechCrunch
Artificial intelligence is one of the most exciting and transformative opportunities of our time.
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How Christmas Day was celebrated around the world – BBC News
Hundreds of millions of people across the globe have celebrated Christmas Day. Kristina Zarich has been looking at how different countries have marked the day.
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It isn’t Christmas without online service outages | The Verge
As sure as day follows night, this Christmas saw a batch of major online service problems as servers were presumably crushed by the weight of thousands of giftees trying to activate new hardware and software for the very first time.
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Burundi urged to accept African Union peacekeepers – Al Jazeera English
Burundi’s government has been urged by the the African Union to allow peacekeepers into the country as the move was not part of any “other agenda”.
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Track of the Day: ‘I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day’ – The Atlantic
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Golden State Warriors v Cleveland Cavaliers: NBA at Christmas – live! | Sport | The Guardian
Happy holidays everybody and welcome to the Guardian’s Christmas Day basketball liveblog! While there’s a full slate of NBA games going on today, five in total, we’re going to cover the one that everybody has really been waiting for: the Cleveland C…
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Narendra Modi Makes Surprise Pakistan Visit, First Indian PM to Drop by in Years | VICE News
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise stopover in Pakistan on Friday to meet his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif. It was the first time an Indian premier has visited the rival nation in over a decade.
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Thanks, Obama. Fewer people have problems paying medical bills.
It may not be perfect, but Obamacare is helping millions of people every day. Here’s just one more indicator of that from the National Health Interview Survey: Now, 47.7 million people not being able to pay medical bills is way too high, and that in…
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Valve’s Steam platform is having some big security problems right now | The Verge
It’s the middle of game storefront Steam’s big winter sale, which means a huge number of people are browsing, buying, and playing games right now. Some of them, however, seem to have tripped into a major security hole.
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Struggling To Absorb Asylum-Seekers, Germany Steps Up Deportations : Parallels : NPR
Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel says it is her country’s responsibility to help anyone fleeing from war: More than a million people have sought asylum in Germany this year, and the German government has been generous in welcoming many of them.
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Song From Broadway Musical ‘Hamilton’ Celebrates Founding Mothers : NPR
As part of NPR’s year-end series “One That Got Away”, reporter Jeff Lunden tells us about his favorite song from the hit Broadway musical Hamilton. It’s not about the founding fathers; it’s about some founding mothers.
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Found Recipes: ‘Wurst Cakes’ : NPR
Writer Diana Abu-Jaber recalls her grandmother’s holiday cookies, which they call “wurst cakes.” This story originally aired on Dec. 12, 2013 on All Things Considered.
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‘Our Gang’ Chronicles Lives Of African-American Actors In ‘The Little Rascals’ : NPR
NPR’s Robert Siegel talks to author Julia Lee about her book Our Gang: A Racial History of The Little Rascals. She chronicles the story of the African-American actors in the films. They were hailed as heroes of the black community for a time but wer…
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‘New York Times’ Report Finds Most Americans Live Close To Mom : NPR
A new report shows that Americans live surprisingly close to home. According to the new analysis, a person in the U.S. lives on average just 18 miles away from his or her mother. NPR’s Robert Siegel talks with Quoctrung Bui of The New York Times abo…
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Elizabeth Laird, Who Gave Hugs To Soldiers At Fort Hood, Dies At 83 : NPR
Elizabeth Laird was known as the hug lady because she met every deployment — coming or going — from Fort Hood and gave each soldier a hug. She died Thursday on Christmas Eve.
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The Year In Congress: How Did Republicans Do? : NPR
Republicans had something to prove when they took over both houses of Congress at the beginning of 2015 — that they could govern. So, did they prove it?
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Rural Wyoming Town’s First Mosque Sparks Anti-Muslim Rhetoric : NPR
The first mosque recently opened its doors in the rural town of Gillette, Wyo. It didn’t get much attention at first, but then a group of locals started a Facebook group called “Stop Islam in Gillette.” This has been hard for a Muslim family with de…
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Santa For President In 2016 : NPR
His resume is unimpeachable and he has great approval ratings. Santa Claus sounds like the perfect candidate — so what if he ran for president? That’s the central question in this work of audio fiction by the podcast The Truth
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On Paper As Parent And Child, Gay Couples Annul Adoptions To Marry : NPR
We usually think about adoption as a relationship solely between parents and children. It’s not.
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Can Big Food Win Friends By Revealing Its Secrets? : The Salt : NPR
The special holiday version of Hershey’s Kisses, now on sale nationwide, is an icon of the food industry’s past, and perhaps also a harbinger of its future. Back when Milton Hershey started making this product, more than a century ago, it was a simp…
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U.S. Visa Rules May Burden Relatives Abroad, Advocates Say : NPR
A new restriction aimed at keeping terrorists out of the U.S. is proving troublesome. Critics say it will keep families apart, and it’s already causing some diplomatic difficulties.
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‘Revenant’ Reveals A Breathtaking, Punishing Saga Of Survival And Revenge : NPR
An Oscar-winning director, a major star, a survival saga that makes Heart of Darkness look like a pleasure cruise… and all anyone wants to talk about is the bear attack. And in fact, it’s hard not to start there. It comes about comes 24 minutes in.
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Instead of the Usual Yule Log, Try This Video On For Size
“Yule Log 2.015” is a collaborative process where a bunch of different artists each make their own yule-log-based short, which are all stitched together into a montage that replaces the traditional video of a burning log. You can learn more about th…
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Pay what you want for the design asset super bundle / Boing Boing
Every designer, from amateur to pro, would benefit from creating every pixel from scratch. But who has the time? That’s why we’ve gathered the year’s best assets to both inspire and enhance each and every one of your design projects.
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The Nintendo 2DS is coming to Japan in four gorgeous Pokémon-themed colors | The Verge
Two years after release, Nintendo’s hingeless 2DS console is coming to Japan, and it’s doing so in style. Tomorrow, preorders start for four transparent Pokémon-themed variants of the 2DS, each preinstalled with a version of Pokémon Red, Blue, Green…
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Steam Goes Nuts, Offers Access To Other People’s Accounts
Steam is running into serious problems right now, giving players across the world access to the wallets and buying history of other people’s accounts. It’s not yet clear how this security breach occurred, but it’s a doozy.
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Drupe Shows All Contacts and Lets You Choose Which App to Talk With
Android: Some apps grab you by surprise and leave you saying, “Where has this been all my life?” Drupe is one of those apps for me. With one swipe, you can choose which app you’d like to use to talk with a contact right now.
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Two Dead as 200 Migrants Try to Enter Spain by Sea | Al Jazeera America
Two people drowned and at least 12 others were injured when they tried to get to a small patch of Spanish territory in North Africa by swimming from Morocco and scaling a barbed-wire fence that juts into the sea, Spanish and Moroccan news agencies r…
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Watch Bloody, Witty New ‘Deadpool’ Red Band Trailer | Rolling Stone
Watch Bloody, Witty New ‘Deadpool’ Red Band Trailer “Surprise: This is a different kind of superhero story,” Ryan Reynolds’ wisecracking, fourth wall-shattering hero says in preview
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My 58 year old dad was so disappointed fallout 4 didn’t come out on 360. Look at his face when he opens up a Fallout 4 Xbox one bundle for Christmas! (imgur.com) Are those tears? Those lovely tears of 58 yr old joy? You did good OP. You did good. Yo…
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Russia Warming ‘2.5 Times Quicker’ | Al Jazeera America
Russia is warming more than twice as fast as the average for the rest of the world, the country’s environment ministry said Friday, sounding an alarm on the rise in floods and wildfires nationwide.
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BECAUSE the Christmas story has been told so often for so long, it’s easy even for Christians to forget how revolutionary Jesus’ birth was. The idea that God would become human and dwell among us, in circumstances both humble and humiliating, shatte…
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Ben Jennings on the UK Muslim family barred from Disneyland – cartoon | Opinion | The Guardian
Illustration: Ben Jennings
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John Scalzi’s empty jar of fucks to give / Boing Boing
I’ve know John for a dozen years, and he’s a cool customer. When he’s targeted by insulting jerks, he never loses his cool. At first, I assumed that this was because John had a tight handle on his limbic system.
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Why does it fee like the Chinese are dead set on destroying everything?
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Arson suspected at former President Bill Clinton’s early childhood home | US news | The Guardian
Authorities say a fire that caused minor damage to former President Bill Clinton’s childhood home in Hope, Arkansas, was apparently caused by arson. Hope police department chief JR Wilson says a motorist spotted flames early Friday at the Clinton Bi…
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Bourbon in the egg nog, so it’s now or never. FYI: Yes, I know that a parsec is a unit of distance, not time. But the writers of the original Star Wars didn’t, and this was a pop culture reference, not a physics lesson.
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Why do artists keep making holiday albums? Because they still sell lots of copies. – Vox
Thanksgiving is over. You’re gobbling up leftovers and maybe even putting up the tree. That makes it the perfect time to change your background soundtrack from whatever it’s been the rest of the year over to the holiday songs you’ll steadily grow si…
Why do artists keep making holiday albums? Because they still sell lots of copies. https://t.co/U3rKs3aWac https://t.co/23awhE891f -
NBA stars’ PSA against gun violence a first-of-its-kind power move | US news | The Guardian
Vaunted NBA players Stephen Curry and Carmelo Anthony appeared in a first-of-its-kind campaign against gun violence which debuted during the NBA’s Christmas day game slate on Friday.
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The Essential Cyberpunk Reading List
It’s now been over three decades since cyberpunk first exploded, and in that time we’ve seen gorgeous movies, read fascinating books, and seen dozens of offshoots like steampunk (and my new favorite, deco punk) develop. Here are the 21 cyberpunk boo…
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PlayStation Network Is Having Trouble Creating New Accounts Today
People trying to create new PlayStation Network accounts this Christmas are running into a significant digital roadblock which is keeping people from effectively using their new PlayStation 4s.
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ANKARA, Turkey — As tensions in the Mideast and Ukraine rose in recent years, Turkey moved to jointly manufacture a sophisticated missile defense system. The $3.4 billion plan would have given Turkey’s military more firepower and laid the foundation…
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Blue Christmas: Feed Your Seasonal Depression with Holiday Masterpieces | Open Culture
Where have all the Fezziwigs gone? Those festive souls whose joyfully uncomplicated relationship to Christmas inspires generosity and the highest of spirits?
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The Complete Raspberry Pi 2 Starter Kit | Digg Store
You asked, and they delivered. The Raspberry Pi Foundation released a new and improved model of its iconic microcomputer that offers more memory, faster output, and increased opportunity for electronic exploration.
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Thousands of footpaths, alleys and bridleways across the UK face being lost forever within a decade under a clause in right-to-roam legislation, campaigners have warned.
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Take a holiday tour of the White House via YouTube!
Turn on some carols and enjoy a look at the White House during holiday season.
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Avoid the “Shot From Above” for Better Selfies
A popular selfie tip is to raise your camera above your head and look up at it, so it hides your chin and makes you look slimmer. It doesn’t look natural though. Model Tess Holliday shows how to achieve the same effect while looking natural.
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The Middle East in 2015 – Al Jazeera English
It is sometimes said the Middle East, with its overlapping rivalries and conflicts, is like a three-dimensional game of chess. But even that metaphor fell short of describing just how complex the region was in 2015.
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Daniel Stern Reprises ‘Home Alone’ Thief in Response to Culkin Video | Rolling Stone
Daniel Stern Reprises ‘Home Alone’ Thief in Response to Macaulay Culkin Video “I saw it on the Internet! The kid is coming to get us,” Marv warns his Wet Bandit associate
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On April 21, 2011, Mark Boal called the CIA to tell them he was going to Afghanistan. The previous year, the screenwriter had been at a dinner when CIA director Leon Panetta asked Boal to alert the agency if he ever traveled to the country.
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Midday open thread: 2015 best year ever? Solar miracle from Congress; DC weed big on gift lists
• Does Paris deal fall short? Yes. But no difference between the parties on climate change? Come on, by Ian Reifowitz Take two fellow horsemen of the apocalypse alongside war: famine and pestilence. Both were on the defensive in 2015.
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How Bad Are Things? | Slate Star Codex
One “advantage” of working in psychiatry is getting a window into an otherwise invisible world of really miserable people. I work in a wealthy, mostly-white college town consistently ranked one of the best places to live in the country.
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Only two states say National Guard facilities can house immigrant children | US news | The Guardian
Only two states say their National Guard operations could provide facilities to house unaccompanied immigrant children following a request for options from the government.
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My 2015 happy holidays family photo shoot
I began this site in 2002, when I was a wee 31 years old and had zero kids.
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My 7 yr old daughter asked for fingerless gloves with flowers on them. Grandma delivered. : funny
My 7 yr old daughter asked for fingerless gloves with flowers on them. Grandma delivered. (imgur.com) Where is this from?
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Dozens Are Reported Dead After an Explosion on Christmas Eve in Nigeria – The Atlantic
Dozens of people who were waiting to buy fuel to prepare their Christmas meals were killed in southeastern Nigeria when a tanker truck exploded outside an industrial plant.
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Two drown as hundreds of migrants swim to Ceuta – Al Jazeera English
At least two people have died and 12 others injured when hundreds of migrants swam from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta and tried scaling the border fence.
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This fall, David Aderhold, the superintendent of a high-achieving school district near Princeton, N.J., sent parents an alarming 16-page letter. The school district, he said, was facing a crisis. Its students were overburdened and stressed out, jugg…
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Patsy Walker’s Brand New Comic Book Is A Delightful Surprise
Hellcat’s new comic isn’t just for fans of Patsy “Trish” Walker’s awesome appearance in Jessica Jones. It’s not even particularly for long term fans of Patsy as a character.
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Sparkling NGC457 – The Owl Cluster js – Just Space
Sparkling NGC457 – The Owl Cluster js https://t.co/LsAKxwBMrI https://t.co/ldN3yp7ZUG https://t.co/KBnXjKbwNz
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Sparkling NGC457 – The Owl Cluster js https://t.co/LsAKxwBMrI https://t.co/ldN3yp7ZUG https://t.co/KBnXjKbwNz
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Make IMDB Ratings More Relevant by Checking their Voter Demographic
IMDB is the go-to destination for checking out a movie. But before you decide to skip that movie with the 5.5/10 rating, check the voter demographic. You might be in for a surprise.
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What the Economic Crash of 2008 Taught Me
I’d lost almost $200 million in October. November wasn’t looking any better. It was 2008, after the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy. Markets were in turmoil. Banks were failing left and right.
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Hoverboard wipeouts are the Christmas gift that keeps on giving | The Verge
For months we’ve heard that the hottest holiday gift would be “hoverboards,” or self-balancing scooters.
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Hear Miley Cyrus and Flaming Lips’ Moody ‘My Sad Christmas Song’ | Rolling Stone
Hear Miley Cyrus and Flaming Lips’ Moody ‘My Sad Christmas Song’ ‘Dead Petz’ collaborators team on track about spending holidays alone
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10 husbands, still a virgin. : Jokes
Husband #2 was in software services: he was never really sure how it was supposed to function, but he said he’d look into it and get back to me. Husband #3 was from field services: he said everything checked out diagnostically but he just couldn’t g…
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How to Watch Cavs vs. Warriors Live Stream Online – The Daily Beast
In a rematch of the 2015 NBA Finals, the league-leading Golden State Warriors (with a monstrous 27-1 record) will host the Eastern Conference leaders Cleveland Cavaliers (19-7) for a Christmas Day rumble for the ages. Starting at 5 p.m. ET, at the O…
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Arab League demands Turkish forces leave Iraq – Al Jazeera English
The Arab League has called on Turkey to immediately withdraw its soldiers from northern Iraq, where the Turkish government says they are training local Kurdish and Sunni Arab forces to take on the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
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The Verge’s best longform stories from 2015 | The Verge
In 2015, The Verge published over 40 longform features. We went to Cuba, we learned what it was like attending day care with monkeys, we discovered the dark history behind Rube Goldberg machines — we even sat down with astrology guru Susan Miller! B…
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These 3D Star Wars Animations Are Incredibly Fun To Play With
With a new Star Wars movie in theaters, we’re rediscovering our love for that galaxy far, far away. But there are always new ways to rediscover Star Wars, and one of the best is through looking at tributes created by talented artists.
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Couple Prepares to Livestream Birth of Cloned Puppies, a Christmas Miracle | Motherboard
UK residents Laura Jacques and Richard Remde are spending their Christmas in South Korea this year, while they wait for the birth of two puppies cloned from their dead dog, a boxer named Dylan.
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Letters: ‘The Force Awakens,’ Nazis, and Your Website Sucks on Mobile | Motherboard
Merry Christmas, dear readers! We hope you all got a BB-8! My, what a busy week. Star Wars: The Force Awakens opened last week, and we loved it. Then we thought about it and didn’t love it as much anymore. More about that in a minute.
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Charlie Hebdo ‘Set the Tone’: The Year in Questionable Allies and Freedom of Speech | VICE News
A diminutive Saudi woman named Ensaf Haidar made a powerful speech and received a standing ovation before the European Parliament this month. Her husband, the imprisoned blogger Raif Badawi, had just received the Sakharov Prize, the European Union’s…
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Ferrets enjoy dip in a peanut pool. / Boing Boing
Crank it up and freak out your dogs, people! Anita Krajnc, of Toronto, was charged with criminal mischief when she gave drinking water to pigs being transported to a slaughterhouse on a hot day.
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The unethical superhero: Why science in The Flash needs some oversight | Ars Technica
Marvel is fast becoming synonymous with the superhero—a pair of blockbusters and two critically praised Netflix shows just this year will have that effect. But they aren’t the only game in (cape)town.
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Fire after Nigeria blast ‘raged for hours’ – BBC News
A huge explosion on Thursday at a butane gas depot in south-eastern Nigeria left “tens” of people dead, Nigeria’s president says.The fire raged for more than five hours before being extinguished.
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Russian raids kill prominent Syrian rebel commander – Al Jazeera English
Russian air strikes have struck targets in multiple locations in Syria, killing the commander of the best organised and best armed opposition group in the Damascus area, Al Jazeera has learned.
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Barbara Perkins and her husband were hunkered down inside a closet when violent winds peeled the roof off their Mississippi home. The storm sucked the central air conditioning unit beside the couple straight up from the floor and into the howling sk…
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Russia Airstrike Kills Rebel Leader in Syria | Al Jazeera America
An airstrike near the Syrian capital, Damascus, on Friday killed top rebel commander Zahran Allouch, who led one of the most powerful groups fighting against President Bashar Assad’s government, opposition activists said.
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Astronaut dials the wrong number from space, surprises Earthling | The Verge
New space station, who dis? Picture this: it’s Christmas Eve, and for some reason you weren’t able to reunite with your family. Maybe you had to work, maybe your flight was canceled.
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Seven killed in Turkey military clashes with Kurds | Al Jazeera America
Explosions and gunfire resounded around the southeastern Turkish town of Cizre on Friday after a clash overnight that the army said killed six Kurdish fighters and one soldier, as a security operation there entered its 11th day.
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Who is Sun King in lavish French Versailles TV drama? – BBC News
France has aired its most expensive television period drama ever, about the life of its most famous monarch, Louis XIV. Lucy Williamson went to meet the British actor who takes on the lead role.
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So, what was under your tree today? | The Verge
For some, today is the most magical day of the year: the day when gifts materialize out of thin air underneath a pine tree that has been placed inside your home, covered in lights and decorative orbs.
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“The Gift of the Magi,” Six Weeks Later – The New Yorker
Dear Reader, you are doubtless familiar with the James Dillingham Youngs, or, as they are known to one another, Della and Jim. Let us then peer into the couple’s rented room, to which the term “furnished” seemed to have been affixed with ironic deli…
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Janet Jackson Postpones Unbreakable Tour to Undergo Surgery | Rolling Stone
While LCD Soundsystem, Radiohead, Green Day and the Weeknd were showering fans with Christmas cheer, Janet Jackson unfortunately had a lump of coal to deliver: The singer was forced to postpone her Unbreakable World Tour effective immediately after …
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Have Kids Write Their Thank-You Notes Before Playing with Gifts
You want your children to be raised with the right values and good manners. When someone gives them something, the kid should thank them. Use this holiday season to instill that habit with a simple rule: use a gift only after a thank you.
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Shutting down Planned Parenthood would catapult women into poverty. When access to abortion and contraception is denied, low-income women suffer most. (thenation.com) They know that.
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Incredible volleyball save : sports
SO DID THEY GET THE POINT OR WHAT? No, but they won the championship.
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South Carolina could spend up to $3.6m to display the Confederate flag that once flew on statehouse grounds in Columbia and was taken down after it became a fixed point of outrage following the killing of nine black churchgoers in Charleston in June…
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Top Syrian Rebel Leader Zahran Alloush Reportedly Killed in Aerial Raid | VICE News
Zahran Alloush, the head of Jaysh al Islam, one of the most powerful insurgent groups in the rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, was killed in an aerial raid that targeted his group’s headquarters, two rebel sources said on Friday.
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A very important question: What are your Christmas food traditions?
Merry Christmas! I have an important question for you: What do you cook and/or eat on Christmas? Thanksgiving is easy. There’s a standard repertoire starting with turkey and ending with pie. But Christmas is a little more up for grabs.
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Christmas In Space: Astronauts Beam Holiday Wishes to Earth (Video)
The winter holiday season is well underway, and the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are getting ready to celebrate in zero-gravity.
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Merry Christmas podcast, with Poesy / Boing Boing
It’s been a year since I sat down at the mic, but it’s Christmas and we have a tradition to uphold. Now we’re settling in here in Burbank and I’ve got a new computer, I’m hoping to get everything running again and get back to a regular schedule. (MP…
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Radiohead reveal rejected theme for James Bond film Spectre – BBC News
Radiohead have released the song they recorded to be the theme for the latest James Bond movie Spectre. The band have revealed they were asked to write a signature tune for the movie, but it “didn’t work out” and the song was not used.
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Rocky Planet Found Around Star with Least Metal Yet
How low can you go? Astronomers have found a star with an incredibly low concentration of heavy elements that still has a sizable planet around it — the most metal-poor star ever discovered with an orbiting, rocky planet.
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It’s Christmas, which means people are crashing brand new drones | The Verge
If hoverboards are this year’s most buzzed-about holiday gift, drones are probably a close second. They were a big hit last year, and that appears to be the case again this year — even if this time around, the new drone owners will have to register …
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The 4 Kinds of Fake Christmases in Science Fiction and Fantasy
Everyone loves a good seasonally-appropriate special, and that usually means Christmas. Unless, of course, you’re a science fiction or fantasy story where real Christmas would make no sense. Then you’ve got to come up with something Christmas-like t…
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Photo Essay: Kentucky’s Creation Museum | Motherboard
The Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky that lets visitors experience a version of the Earth’s history in which dinosaurs roamed in the Garden of Eden.
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A succession of high-wattage thefts in New York has uncovered a bizarre pattern involving women who target wealthy men at nightclubs, accompany them home and then disappear with tens of thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry.The police have offere…
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Merry Christmas, Here’s Radiohead’s Rejected Theme Song for ‘Spectre’ | Motherboard
This is so cool. This is so cool. Radiohead posted a song on SoundCloud that the band says was originally written for Spectre, the James Bond movie that came out in November. “Last year we were asked to write a theme tune for the Bond movie Spectre,…
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Inspired Christmas baubles for a surveillance business-model Xmas / Boing Boing
Remember when Internet Person JWZ began to append sarcastic messages to the “This building monitored by CCTV” sign that appeared without warning in his lobby (“FEAR THE UNKNOWN – MONSTERS ARE REAL” “DON’T SUSPECT YOUR NEIGHBOR: REPORT HIM!” “DRONE S…
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A Christmas Carol is a defense of charity — and capitalism – Vox
Marley was dead: to begin with. That’s one of the most famous opening lines of any work of English literature.
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Rockefeller Christmas tree’s lumber slated for Habitat for Humanity homes | US news | The Guardian
Even the iconic Rockefeller Center Christmas tree has to come down after the holidays. For the ninth year in a row, the tree set aglow during a televised ceremony and visited by an estimated 500,000 people each year, will be milled into lumber for H…
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Your New PS4 Isn’t Complete Without PlayStation Plus, So Get It Today For $10 Off
If you unwrapped a new PS4 this morning, here’s a chance to save $10 on a year of PlayStation Plus. [PlayStation Plus, $40] Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising, and if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small …
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Okinawa Sues Tokyo in Bid to Stop Move of US Base | Al Jazeera America
Local authorities on Okinawa sued the central government of Japan on Friday in an attempt to stop the relocation of a U.S. air base, deepening their decades-long row over the heavy American troop presence on the southern Japanese island.
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Nostalgia keeps the telegram going in China – Al Jazeera English
SHANGHAI – At a telecom office in China’s largest city Shanghai, customers come to send messages to loved ones using technology almost 200 years old.
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Autistic man who is in his fifties explains that the “Different, not Disabled” viewpoint ignores the real-life struggles of many. (jonathans-stories.com) A very interesting read, thanks for sharing. I am an autistic man as well, and very much in the…
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Syrian rebel leaders ‘die in air strike’ – BBC News
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version.
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Santa left a new Kindle, iPad, Kindle Fire or other media player under your tree. He did his job. Now we’ll do ours. We’ll tell you how to fill those devices with free intelligent media — great books, movies, courses, and all of the rest. And if you…
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Happy holidays, from all of us at Reddit! : blog
Happy holidays, from all of us at Reddit! (redditblog.com) The real holiday gift would be if reddit stopped subsidizing hate speech.
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Weekend Rock Question: What Is the Best Album of 2015? | Rolling Stone
Weekend Rock Question: What Is the Best Album of 2015? Cast your vote in our weekly poll Decemb
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TIL that Volvo invented most important safety device ‘Three point seat belt’. Volvo could have netted a fortune on patents alone but gave free license to all other auto manufacturers to use it as free life saving tool than something to profit from. …
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Lyft Takes In More Foreign Investment – Including From A Saudi Prince | TechCrunch
Lyft is now partly owned by Saudi prince Al-Waleed Bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al Saud. The prince led a recent $247.7 million round for a roughly 5 percent stake in the ridesharing service – putting up $105 million in his own funding as part of the dea…
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For Christmas, First Lady Michelle Obama joins the president in presenting his weekly address
Remarks of President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama Weekly Address The White House THE PRESIDENT: Merry Christmas, everybody! This is one of our favorite times of the year in the Obama household, filled with family and friends, warmth …
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Rubio dismisses Obama and youth analogy: ‘his ideas were the wrong ones’ | US news | The Guardian
Marco Rubio recognized the question immediately – a knowing expression overtaking the young senator’s face as a voter nearly twice his age began to draw the comparison. The comparisons to Barack Obama are anything but new.
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A Holiday Perspective On Technology And Consumerism | TechCrunch
Holiday shopping, long a staple in American life, has undergone significant change over the past half century. The “Miracle on 34th Street” post-war tradition of heading downtown to Macy’s or Bloomingdale’s has evolved from quaintly old-fashioned to…
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The Gwenpool Holiday Special Is A Marvel Christmas Done Right
Christmas is a time of bringing people together—usually, with copious amounts of food, booze, and gifts. The Gwenpool Holiday Special might sound like a zany stunt comic, focusing on Marvel’s latest female star, but it’s really about togetherness, a…
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Daily Cartoon: Friday, December 25th – The New Yorker
Sign up for the daily newsletter.Sign up for the daily newsletter: the best of The New Yorker every day.
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Americans Started to Really Pay Attention to Drug Price Hikes in 2015 | VICE News
This story is part of a partnership between MedPage Today and VICE News.
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We’re Hiring A Summer Intern for Podcasts and Video | FiveThirtyEight
FiveThirtyEight is looking for a summer intern to help with the site’s podcasts and videos.
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We’re Hiring A Summer Intern For Politics Coverage | FiveThirtyEight
We’re looking for a data reporter intern interested in politics to join our newsroom this summer. You’ll be at the center of our coverage of the 2016 election; it’ll be crazy, hard and a lot of fun.
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We’re Hiring A Summer Intern for Sports Coverage | FiveThirtyEight
FiveThirtyEight is is looking for a summer sports intern. The internship will be a mix of writing, research and contributing to short blog posts and longer features. You’ll be learning the precepts of sports journalism in general, and data-based spo…
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Nearly 14 billion years ago, our universe was born from a swirling quantum soup, in a spectacular and dynamic event known as the \big bang.
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Cage-free, free range, organic: what all those egg labels really mean – Vox
If you’ve ever bought eggs in a supermarket, you’ve probably faced this conundrum: do I buy the regular, cheap eggs, or the nicer, organic/cage-free eggs? And supposing you want to spring for the humane stuff, how do you know which farms are really …
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Amazon’s Christmas Day Digital Sale Includes Movies, Ebooks, Apps, and More
Amazon’s celebrating Christmas Day with huge discounts on a variety of downloadable movies, albums, Kindle books, and Android apps. I broke out a few of my favorites below, but let us know in the comments what you bought. [Amazon Christmas Digital S…
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The Reynolds Pamphlet, explained: Why Alexander Hamilton printed his sex scandal’s details – Vox
Every Sunday, Javier Muñoz takes to Broadway to portray the titular character in Lin-Manuel Miranda’s smash-hit musical Hamilton. But there’s one burning question he still has about his character’s motivations.
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In Star Wars, Han Solo’s Millennium Falcon did the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs; in real life, all the Falcon 9 has done so far is land at Cape Canaveral without falling over or exploding.
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The ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ Dancers You Most Want To Party With | FiveThirtyEight
It’s a debate as old as time. Or, at least as old as 1965’s “A Charlie Brown Christmas Special.” Of the many revelers throwing down sick moves to “Linus & Lucy” by The Vince Guaraldi Trio, who would you most like to party with?
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Children and the cost of conflict – Explained in 60 seconds – BBC News
About 16 million children were born into conflict in 2015, Children in Need says. Children bear much of the brunt of global conflict, particularly in places like Syria.
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Merry Christmas From Ireland : pics
He’s Irish. At best it’ll last him until dinner. Is Dutch Gold like the Natty Light of Ireland?
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BOSTON — An investigation by St.
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Cyberattacks Hit Turkish Banks on Christmas Eve as Turkey Defends Itself from Hackers | VICE News
Turkish banks reported sporadic disruption to credit card transactions on Friday as hackers stepped up a two-week barrage of cyberattacks, believed to be the worst the country has seen. Early reports of the assault appeared after various banking ins…
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Pope Francis Calls for Peace in Syria, and Unity Against Militant Groups – The Atlantic
Pope Francis used his Christmas message to call for peace in parts of the world ravaged by violence and terrorism. Addressing the crowd at the Vatican from the balcony of St.
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Boy 23 by Jim Carrington – review | Children’s books | The Guardian
In this dystopian future, an epidemic has swept across the lands leaving few people alive and a tyrannical power in control. This is the world boy 23 is introduced to with no idea of who he is, where he is and what has been happening.
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Brilliant Orangutan Builds Itself A Hammock – Digg
21 diggs Animals Did you know that orangutans can tie and untie knots? And that they can adjust their hammocks to be more comfortable? And that they are probably smarter than most teens? Meanwhile, this cat does dog tricks
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The Weeds: Teen births are plummeting — and economists are judging your Christmas gifts – Vox
If all you wanted for Christmas was an in-depth discussion of the falling teen birth rate, well, you are in luck! Since 2007, the teen birth rate in the United States has declined 42 percent.
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The Weeknd, Future Drop New Track ‘Low Life’ | Rolling Stone
The Weeknd, Future Drop New Track ‘Low Life’ Abel Tesfaye also remixes Jeremih’s “Pass Dat” as Christmas gift to fans
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China’s New Anti-terror Law to Pass Sunday | Al Jazeera America
China is set to pass its controversial new anti-terrorism law on Sunday, the largely rubber-stamp parliament said on Friday, despite U.S. criticism about its cyber provisions and concerns over human rights.
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The 12 Days of Christmas: the story behind the holiday’s most annoying carol – Vox
It might seem unbelievable given that the radio has been blasting Christmas tunes since roughly Thanksgiving, but the true Christmas season actually starts on Christmas Day itself.
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The phony “War on Christmas” seems to be about forcing Christianity down people’s throats.
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Deadly famine looms in South Sudan – Al Jazeera English
More than two years after the outbreak of civil war in South Sudan, tens of thousands of South Sudanese face starvation, say NGOs.
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Bring Us the Greatest Gift of All: Your GIFs.
It’s that kind of party today. The GIF kind. Contact the author at katharine@io9.com.
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Indian Pm Modi Makes Surprise Visit to Pakistan | Al Jazeera America
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a surprise stopover in Pakistan on Friday to meet his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, the first time an Indian premier has visited the rival nation in over a decade.
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Hey, Want a ride? (gyfbin.com) Don’t try and derail the comments section.
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Janet Jackson postpones Unbreakable tour for surgery – BBC News
The US singer Janet Jackson has put her Unbreakable world tour on hold until spring to have surgery. Jackson said her doctors told her she needs an operation “soon”.
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When you are on the ISS and call the wrong number to wish a merry christmas : space
Smuggled? Pretty sure the vodka is on the manifest. I feel like some would still be smuggled. It’s the principle of the thing.
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The Revenant features some of Leonardo DiCaprio’s best work, not much else – Vox
The Revenant is director Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s best movie in ages — probably since his 2000 release Amores Perros. Considering his resumé boasts a Best Picture winner in 2014’s Birdman, as well as another Oscar darling in 2006’s Babel, that likely…
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Radiohead – Spectre (Rejected James Bond Theme) : Music
“Last year we were asked to write a theme tune for the Bond movie Spectre. Yes we were. It didn’t work out, but became something of our own, which we love very much. As the year closes we thought you might like to hear it. Merry Christmas. May the f…
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Ah, the pleasures of the New York Botanical Garden in winter. The crowds thronging to the Holiday Train Show. The deep greens of the hardy conifers. And, this year, the sweet aroma of flowering viburnum.
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On paper, David O. Russell’s new film, “Joy,” looks perfectly straightforward, even square. It’s a bootstrap-capitalist fable, a tale of adversity overcome and rags exchanged for riches, a case study in success suitable for a self-improvement semina…
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Review 2015: The year in science – BBC News
Rebecca Morelle looks back on the year in science – from a British astronaut blasting off into space, to efforts to halt global warming here on Earth.
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A Fan Favorite Character Is Returning To Agent Carter—But With A Catch
Plus the show teases a bizarre crossover. Sleepy Hollow casts a new bad guy. Get a look at what’s next on The Flash and Arrow, as well as the debut of Legends of Tomorrow. Plus, more snippets from Batman v Superman, and another clip from tonight’s e…
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The US Declassifies Its 1959 List of Cold War Nuke Targets | Motherboard
On Monday, the United States Strategic Air Command released the most comprehensive and detailed list of Cold War-era nuclear targets and target systems ever declassified.
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In 1974, Bob Clark’s Canadian horror film, Black Christmas, was released. At the time, it was the highest grossing made-in-Canada film ever. It didn’t do as well in the U.S., but made enough of an impact to get the attention of writer/director John …
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My dad was from Chicago, and grew up with Nat Cole and his older brothers. Nathaniel Adams Coles was born in Montgomery, Alabama, on March 17, 1919. Cole had three brothers: Eddie (1910–1970), Ike (1927–2001), and Freddy (born 1931), and a half-sist…
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Debunking the biggest myths about artificial intelligence | Ars Technica
The concept of inhuman intelligence goes back to the deep prehistory of mankind. At first the province of gods, demons, and spirits, it transferred seamlessly into the interlinked worlds of magic and technology.
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Scientific American MIND Reviews The Man Who Wasn’t There – Scientific American
For centuries philosophers, theologians and psychologists—including René Descartes, the Buddha and William James—have mused over the nature of the self: Is it an illusion, or is it real? If it does exist, where in the brain does it reside?
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Week’s Best Space Pictures: Enceladus’ Faces and Space Jets
Did Egypt’s Old Kingdom Die—or Simply Fade Away? The end of the great age of pyramid building in Egypt was long thought to be a traumatic collapse that plunged the Nile Valley into a long era of chaos. New research is changing that view.
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Hear Radiohead’s Unused James Bond Theme ‘Spectre’ | Rolling Stone
Hear Radiohead’s Unused James Bond Theme ‘Spectre’ “It didn’t work out …
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To stop gentrification from hurting the poor, neighborhoods need to change faster – Vox
To stop gentrification from hurting the poor, neighborhoods need to change faster https://t.co/VGPPUPGTAs https://t.co/ES9cfmhf6h
Discussions of “gentrification” are commonplace in contemporary urban America, with complaints usually focusing on two main themes. -
Start here: the best apps for all your new devices | The Verge
Whether you just received a new Windows PC or spend the holiday upgrading yours to Windows 10, this is our list of our most-used and most-important apps.
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The best games for your new PS4, Xbox One, or Wii U | The Verge
Are your thumbs ready? You finally have it! That video game console you ogled on Amazon all years has been transported at last to your living room. You were so consumed with desire for the hardware that you forgot a console is only as good as its so…
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The best games for your new iPhone, iPad, or Android phone | The Verge
That new smartphone or tablet you just got for the holidays does a lot. It can help you keep in touch with friends and family, be more productive when you’re away from your computer, or even help you create through writing, music, and art apps.
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The best apps for your new Mac | The Verge
So you came out of the holidays with a new Mac! Congratulations! Now, whether it’s a MacBook or 27-inch 5K iMac, we’ve got you covered with the best picks for apps, utilities, tools, and everything else to get the most out of your new computer.
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The best apps for your new iPhone | The Verge
The iPhone 6S has a gorgeous 4.7-inch screen, a super-fast processor, and arguably the best mobile camera on the market. But out of the box, it won’t have the apps you can’t live without.
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The best apps for your new Windows 10 PC | The Verge
Whether you just received a new Windows PC or spend the holiday upgrading yours to Windows 10, this is our list of our most-used and most-important apps.
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The best apps for your new Android phone | The Verge
Congrats on your new Android phone! If you’re new to the platform, you’ll be happy to know that apps are prolific and — most importantly — getting to be really high quality. Whether it’s a Samsung or a Nexus, these apps and utilities will help you g…
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Listen to Radiohead’s unused theme for song for James Bond movie ‘Spectre’|Dangerous Minds
Merry Christmas from Radiohead, who have just posted their unused theme song for the latest James Bond romp Spectre on social media today. Last year we were asked to write a theme tune for the Bond movie Spectre.
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The Activist Mermaid | Motherboard
Hannah Fraser floated on a surfboard in a cove near the Japanese village of Taiji. It was just after sunrise on October 28, 2007, and local fishermen had lured a pod of pilot whales into the bay to be slaughtered. Fraser bobbed in the water wearing …
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Pope speaks out against terrorism in Christmas message – BBC News
Pope Francis has prayed that Christians persecuted for their faith be given strength, in his Christmas Day message. He also condemned what he called “brutal acts of terrorism” in France, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia and Mali.
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In defense of secular Christmas – Vox
There are two Christmases in America. There’s the Christmas of an ethereal nativity scene featuring a sweet baby Jesus nestled in his manger, the north star shining bright over him, Mary, Joseph, the three wise men, angels, a shepherd, and animals i…
In defense of secular Christmas https://t.co/On9dUTrozW https://t.co/1KEu3OjElq -
Hear Radiohead’s unreleased James Bond theme song for Spectre | The Verge
(Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images) Were you not a fan of Sam Smith’s “Writing on the Wall,” the somewhat overwrought theme song for Spectre? Would you have preferred, say, Radiohead to soundtrack the opening to the lates
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Walking the American Revolution – The New Yorker
I like to walk in the American Revolution. It’s something I do a lot. You get some old maps and pick out a route—a retreat, a long march—and maybe convince a friend to come along, and then you are off into the past.
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Ayahuasca: a Possible Cure for Alcoholism and Depression | Motherboard
Jorge* is around 60 years old, works a white collar job, has gray hair, married children, and grown grandchildren. People who work with him would never imagine that he participates in religious rituals using a mind altering tea. And yet, thanks to a…
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India PM Modi makes surprise Pakistan visit – Al Jazeera English
Narendra Modi has made a surprise stopover in Pakistan to meet his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, the first time an Indian prime minister has visited the rival nation in over a decade.
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If you see The Hateful Eight in glorious 70-millimeter format, as it’s being presented in limited engagements around the country, it begins with a soaring overture and has an intermission halfway through its three-hour-plus running time.
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Our Solar System Is Overflowing with Liquid Water [Graphic] – Scientific American
Shannon Hall
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‘Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming’ Is a Musician’s Christmas Carol – The Atlantic
Welcome to The 12 Days of Christmas Songs: an attempt to uncover the forgotten history of some of the most memorable festive tunes. From December 14 through 25, we’ll be tackling one secular song and one holy song each day.
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US and UK must not close doors to refugees, says former British minister | World news | The Guardian
Former British foreign secretary David Miliband has urged the US and UK governments to resist closing their doors to Syrian refugees in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Paris and California, warning that to do so would have a serious “ripple eff…
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Islamic State Sanctioned Organ Harvesting from Captives in Document Taken in US Raid | VICE News
The Islamic State sanctioned the harvesting of human organs in a previously undisclosed ruling by the group’s Islamic scholars, raising concerns that the violent extremist group may be trafficking in body parts.
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Tishman Speyer Properties, one of New York City’s most active real estate developers, had bought two parcels of land on the Far West Side of Manhattan to clear the way for a 2.8-million-square-foot office tower planned for Hudson Yards.
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It’s a wonderful life for the solar industry right now | Grist
Solar was facing a rough end to 2015 — until Paris, Wall Street, and Congress gave it a Christmas miracle. As the holidays wrap up, don’t throw away your decorations: eat them.
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Flying Battleship, 1915 – Scientific American Blog Network
As the year 1915 came to a close, Scientific American published an article on a new, and somewhat unrealistic, design for a seaplane. At the time it seemed as if this new airplane was merely an evolution of current military trends:
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Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi Makes a Surprise Visit to Pakistan – The Atlantic
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has made a surprise visit to Pakistan to meet with his counterpart, Nawaz Sharif—the latest step in an often-fragile process of rapprochement between the two neighbors. Spoke to PM Nawaz Sharif & wished him on his…
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You know the sound of the theremin, that weird, warbly whine that gets a solo in the Beach Boy’s “Good Vibrations” and signals mystery, danger, and otherworldly portent in many classic sci-fi films and the original intro theme to Doctor Who.
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Trading Places: A Christmas Comedy That’s Still Surprisingly Relevant – The Atlantic
Trading Places isn’t exactly a traditional Christmas film. There are no carolers or large family gatherings.
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Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: A Merry Christmas Round-up
Used with permission
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STIFU by being Santa. (self.tifu) An evil Santa? I could see this Santa doing that.
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Transhumanists, in Their Own Words | Motherboard
Transhumanism, the idea that humans should use science and technology to extend our natural abilities, is the religion of the 21st century. It’s a concept that has been around since the 70s, but seems to be resonating with a growing number of people.
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The Mysteries of ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas’ – The Atlantic
Welcome to The 12 Days of Christmas Songs: an attempt to uncover the forgotten history of some of the most memorable festive tunes. From December 14 through 25, we’ll be tackling one secular song and one holy song each day.
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Why Do People Give Gifts on Christmas? – The Atlantic
During a week when so many Americans have experienced some combination of joy, rage, and frustration in seeking the perfect holiday gifts for their children, it seems appropriate to pause and ask: Where did the practice of giving Christmas gifts to …
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Should Parents Give Their Kids Everything They Want for Christmas? – The Atlantic
A little more than a decade ago, the sociologist Allison Pugh spent three years studying parents and children at three elementary schools—one low-income public, one affluent public, and one private—in Oakland, California.
Love Everyone Often 12/26/2015
Evacuation from Syrian camp ‘on hold’ – BBC News This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. tags: Pocket bbc news – world newsblur Rudyard Kipling: an unexpected revival for the ‘bard of empire’ | Books…
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