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Israel warns Brazil in row over settler ambassador – BBC News
Israel has warned Brazil it will downgrade relations unless it accepts a former head of the Jewish settlement movement as its ambassador in Brasilia. Argentine-born Dani Dayan was appointed four months ago but his nomination has not yet been approve…
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Myanmar activist jailed for Facebook post mocking army – Al Jazeera English
A Myanmar court has jailed a woman for six months for a Facebook post “ridiculing” the country’s army chief and the colour of a new uniform.
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Replicas of an ancient monument in Palmyra that has apparently survived attempts by Islamic State to demolish it are to be erected in London and New York. The 15-metre-high arch is one of the few remaining parts of the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel i…
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Amazon Is Expanding Its Secretive Air Cargo Operation | Motherboard
Amazon’s homegrown shipping infrastructure is mounting, with air cargo operations emerging in several new cities in the United States and abroad.
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Iraqi Military Spokesman Says Ramadi Is ‘Fully Liberated’ – The Atlantic
Iraqi government troops, backed by some Sunni tribesman and U.S. airstrikes, have retaken the strategically vital city of Ramadi from the Islamic State group. Iraqi troops had encircled the city last month, but progress was slow.
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The Year of Miss Agnes by Kirkpatrick Hill – review | Children’s books | The Guardian
This story is all about a new teacher, Miss Agnes Sutterfield, arriving at Fred’s Athabascan village in Alaska. Fred was actually Fredrika and she liked to be a tomboy. Fred started liking Miss Agnes because she did things differently.
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Kinder, Gentler Vikings? Not According to Their Slaves
The ancient reputation of Vikings as bloodthirsty raiders on cold northern seas has undergone a radical change in recent decades. A kinder, gentler, and more fashionable Viking emerged. (See “Did Vikings Get a Bum Rap?”)
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Seven Major Archaeological Discoveries of 2015
2015 was a year when archaeology frequently made headlines around the world, but unfortunately, it was all too often for the same terrible reason. This was the year when ISIS (Islamic State) released their full destructive fury on ancient sites and …
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This Cheat Sheet Will Make You Win Every Climate Argument | New Republic
Okay. Take a deep breath. If you’re not careful, comments like this can result in dinner-table screaming matches. Luckily, we have a secret weapon: A flowchart that will help you calmly slay even the most outlandish and annoying of climate-denying a…
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How to Level Up Your Tabletop Role-Playing Games
Not only are tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons and FATE a blast to play, they can actually improve your life. Whether you’re new to tabletop RPGs, or you’re a goblin-slaying veteran, there are plenty of tricks to make your games ev…
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The App-ocalypse: can Web standards make mobile apps obsolete? | Ars Technica
It’s the apps. The iPhone and Android conquered the world because of the apps. More specifically, what keeps Android and iOS dominant is the utter lack of those apps on competing platforms.
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France opens archives of WW2 pro-Nazi Vichy regime – BBC News
France is opening up police and ministerial archives from the Vichy regime which collaborated with Nazi occupation forces in World War Two. More than 200,000 declassified documents are being made public on Monday. They date from the 1940-1944 regime…
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Japan and South Korea Have Reached a Historic Deal on ‘Comfort Women’ | VICE News
South Korea and Japan reached a landmark agreement on Monday to provide compensation to the women who were forced to work as sex slaves, or “comfort women,” for Japan’s Imperial Army during the World War II. About one billion yen ($8.
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Domhnall Gleeson’s Very, Very Big Year – The Daily Beast
One might look back at a 2015 filled with noted turns in sci-fi thriller Ex Machina, period drama Brooklyn, stunning survival tale The Revenant, and that obscure little flick Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens and deduce, correctly, that Dom…
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‘Comfort women’ – a painful legacy for Tokyo and Seoul – BBC News
The issue of “comfort women” – a euphemism for those forced to work in Japanese wartime military brothels – has long plagued Japan-South Korea ties. Tens of thousands of women – some say as many as 200,000 – from around Asia, were sent to military b…
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Page Not Found – Al Jazeera English
This past year has been particularly challenging not only for China, but for its national image as a land of inexorable progress and dynamic leadership.
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Suspected Boko Haram attacks rock Maiduguri – Al Jazeera English
At least 15 people have been killed after a series of suspected Boko Haram attacks on the outskirts of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria.
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Stateless in the Dominican Republic – Al Jazeera English
Santa Lucia, Dominican Republic – Sitting outside her family’s shack in Santa Lucia, El Seibo province, in the Dominican Republic, 27-year-old Yolanda Alcino is worried. “My family is divided, four of my siblings were never registered here and they …
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Besides being a commonsense admission that the best-qualified person – whatever their gender, faith or orientation – should be hired for a job, the last half-decade of increased inclusivity in the US military has also seen poignant victories for equ…
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Ellsworth Kelly, one of America’s great 20th-century abstract artists, who in the years after World War II shaped a distinctive style of American painting by combining the solid shapes and brilliant colors of European abstraction wi
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2015 Was the Most Dramatic Year for Space Nerds in Recent Memory | Motherboard
From Plutonian flybys to launchpad explosions, the year 2015 has been a total roller-coaster for space nerds. The last 12 months have been liberally sprinkled with discoveries and disasters, spacesuits and lawsuits, and heaps of premium space porn.
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“Today, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is so far outside the historic American model of constitutionally limited government and the rule of law that it is the perfect case study of the pathologies that infect our bureaucracies at the feder…
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Most Pollsters Say Their Reputations Have Worsened | FiveThirtyEight
No votes have been cast yet in the 2016 election, but there may already be one set of losers in the campaign: pollsters’ reputations. And that’s according to the pollsters themselves.
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It’s hard to overstate Donald Trump’s impact on the 2016 race for the White House. The business tycoon symbolizes the shift from traditional presidential campaigns to the new uncampaign. Trump has had no need to pander for money, and he has been imp…
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Two major explosions rip through Syrian city of Homs – Al Jazeera English
At least 32 people have been killed and 90 others wounded in two explosions in the Syrian city of Homs, UK-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
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Poem of the week: The Three Rs by Kelly Grovier | Books | The Guardian
The opening assertion, “The world always begins / with a phrase”, seems an echo of John 1.
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2015 Year in Review: Presidential Politics – The Atlantic
Every December, The Atlantic looks back on the previous year—to highlight not just the “big moments,” but the progression of “big ideas.” Below, the first of three installments looks at the year in presidential-politics coverage.
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How Democrats and Republicans Can Fix Transportation – The Atlantic
Fixing America’s decrepit infrastructure shouldn’t be controversial—it enhances competitiveness, creates jobs, and helps the environment. And of course, it protects the public.
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December 28, 1973: Alexsander Solzhenitsyn’s ‘Gulag Archipelago’ is Published | The Nation
The first installment of the Gulag Archipelago was published on this date in 1973; when the third and final volume came out five years later, the late politics professor Harvey Fireside reviewed it in The Nation.
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The strong economics of wind energy | John Abraham | Environment | The Guardian
As a follow-up to a recent article I posted on renewable energy, this article discusses the economics of wind in both the developed and developing worlds compared to other renewable energy sources.
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What’s the greener choice, bar soap or body wash? | 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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Protect Your Privacy & Security on the Internet With These Tools | TechCrunch
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Martin Guptill narrowly missed out on a world record as New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka by 10 wickets in Christchurch to go 2-0 up in their one-day series. The 29-year-old hit his country’s fastest one-day international 50, reaching the milestone off…
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Stolen Antiquities Department and Slave Ministry: Government, Islamic State Style | VICE News
Islamic State (IS) has set up departments to handle “war spoils,” including slaves, and the exploitation of natural resources such as oil, creating the trappings of government that enable it to manage large swaths of Syria and Iraq and other areas.
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Iraq declares Ramadi liberated from IS – BBC News
There needs to be a “complete rethink” of the UK’s flood defences following unprecedented flooding across northern England, the Environment Agency says.
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Nigeria mosque ‘targeted by female suicide bomber’ – BBC News
It comes after militants attacked the village of Dawari on the outskirts of the north-eastern city on Sunday night. The authorities said 21 people died and 91 others were injured as the gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades fired from trucks d…
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Properties at risk of flooding need to be waterproofed in a complete re-think of the UK’s flood defences, warns the Environment Agency.
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Corsica attack: Nationalist leader blames ‘imported’ racism – BBC News
A newly-elected Corsican nationalist leader has blamed an “imported ideology” for an attack on a Muslim prayer hall on the French island.Jean-Guy Talamoni, president of the Corsican assembly, said the anti-Arab violence was “totally incompatible wit…
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Samsung’s Galaxy S7 will reportedly come in two new sizes | The Verge
Samsung’s Galaxy S7 smartphone will be released with two different screen sizes, according to a report from South Korea’s ET News. One version will reportedly have a flat, 5.2-inch display, while the second — the “Edge” variant — will incorporate a …
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Italy smog: Milan bans cars for three days as pollution rises – BBC News
Milan has partially banned cars, motorcycles and scooters for three days in an attempt to combat a build-up of smog in the city. The Milanese ban will be in force for six hours until Wednesday, with drivers facing fines if they do not comply.
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Call for ‘complete rethink’ of UK flood defences as thousands evacuated | Environment | The Guardian
The UK’s climate is entering an era of “unknown extremes” and there needs to be a complete rethink of flood protection and resilience across the country, the deputy chief executive of the Environment Agency has said.
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Jennifer Lawrence on bringing Joy to the big screen in new film – BBC News
Jennifer Lawrence and the director David O. Russell have teamed up once again for their new film, Joy. The film is about a woman who invented the miracle mop.
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West Indies avoided humiliation on day three of the second Test against Australia but are still facing a heavy defeat in Melbourne. Having resumed on 91-6, the tourists rallied with Darren Bravo (81) and debutant Carlos Brathwaite (59) adding 90 but…
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Uber And Beyond: 12 Transportation On-Demand Services In Asia | TechCrunch
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Kazuo Ishiguro: roaring giant or sleeping dragon? – books podcast | Books | The Guardian
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Chinook Tribe Continues Recognition Fight | Al Jazeera America
BAY CENTER, Wash. — At the spot where the current of the Columbia River becomes the tide of the Pacific is the land the Chinook call home. It is a stretch of land where beaches glitter with smooth cuts of sea glass, and the ocean wind shakes the for…
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On needing feminism, but not needing to be the perfect feminist | Grist
The long slog toward gender equality needs everyone, and it’s not going to complain about your cracks and blemishes. Can’t drink it all? Here’s how to finish off that ’nog.
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Anti-Islamic State journalist murdered in Turkey – BBC News
An anti-Islamic State activist and filmmaker has been shot dead by assassins in broad daylight in Turkey. Naji Jerf, 38, was shot with a silenced pistol in downtown Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, Turkish media reported.
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Europe’s first decade of navigation satellites / Navigation / Our Activities / ESA
Ten years ago today saw the launch of Europe’s very first navigation satellite. A decade of hard work later, more than a third of the Galileo constellation has followed it into orbit and a ground network sharpening the satnav system’s accuracy encom…
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The Irresistible Psychology of Fairy Tales | New Republic
How can we parse our curious fascination with fairy tales, which persists while the times change and we change with them? The years between 2010 and 2015 have witnessed a spate of significant new books, including—over two centuries after the fact—th…
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Former ‘comfort woman’: ‘I was forced to have sex with many men’ – BBC News
Japan and South Korea have reached a historic deal to settle the issue of “comfort women” forced to work in Japanese brothels during World War Two. Japan offered an apology and will pay 1bn yen ($8.3m, £5.6m) to a South Korean-administered fund for …
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Flood rescue teams go house to house in York – video | Environment | The Guardian
Flood rescue teams in York go house to house to evacuate people trapped in buildings. Three cities – York, Leeds and Manchester – have been by affected by the severe weather, alongside scores of towns and villages, forcing the evacuation of thousand…
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Socialist Unity Party of Germany – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations.
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Evacuation of Three Syrian Towns is Underway Thanks to Rare Ceasefire Deal | VICE News
Dozens of Syrian fighters and hundreds of families were being evacuated to Turkey and Lebanon on Monday under a United Nations-sponsored deal reached by the warring sides with the help of Turkey and Iran.
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Breakthroughs galore: A transformative year in medicine – BBC News
This year has seen the dawn of gene editing, the rise of immunotherapy and the first hints of a drug to slow the pace of Alzheimer’s disease. They could all be breakthroughs that change medicine for all of us.
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The long goodbye: Kobe’s farewell season is a trudge, but a compelling one | Sport | The Guardian
Basketball has defined so many greats. A wrath of analogies have grown from the game, and Kobe Bryant, playing in his 20th and final season, has re-defined the way people comprehend the sport.
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Palestinians unite to help victims of home demolitions – Al Jazeera English
Shuafat refugee camp, occupied East Jerusalem – More than 1,000 Israeli troops entered Shuafat refugee camp in the occupied West Bank earlier this month to demolish the family home of Ibrahim al-Akkari, who was shot dead by Israeli forces after ramm…
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China landslide: Shenzhen official jumps to death, say police – BBC News
A local official in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen has apparently killed himself, days after a landslide there buried dozens of people.Police said the man who fell off an apartment block on Sunday night was the former head of the local Urban …
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How to…make a book and fill it with stuff | Children’s books | The Guardian
Sophy Henn, author of the Pom Pom books and Where Bear?, is here to rouse you out of the post-Christmas slump with her amazing guide to making your very own book and turing it into something cool – think sketchbook or scrapbook or ‘zine!
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The oil price, Iran and Saudi’s economy – Al Jazeera English
During last month’s OPEC meeting, Saudi Arabia again declined to cut oil production despite the world being awash with oil. The great unanswered question for Saudi Arabia is: How low can prices go, and for how long?
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Dozens dead in US Christmas storms – BBC News
At least 43 people have been killed over the past five days by severe storms across southern and western parts of the United States. Flash floods, tornadoes and now snow have destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses and snarled transport links.
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John Astin, From The Addams Family, Recites “The Raven” as Edgar Allan Poe | Open Culture
How fitting that the head of The Addams Family would harbor a lifelong obsession with author Edgar Allan Poe.
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British couple pay £60,000 for cloned puppies – BBC News
Laura Jacques and Richard Remde, from West Yorkshire, took DNA extracted from Dylan to the Sooam Biotech Research Foundation in South Korea. The DNA is implanted into an egg which has had the nucleus removed, and implanted into a surrogate mother.
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Japan and South Korea reach ‘comfort women’ agreement – Al Jazeera English
South Korea and Japan have reached a landmark agreement to resolve a long disputed compensation package for Korean women forced into Japanese military-run brothels during World War II. Under the deal, Japan will finance a 1bn yen aid ($8.
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Eyewitness: York | World news | The Guardian
An aerial view shows the extent of the flooding in York city centre after the river Ouse burst its banks, resulting in more than 200 homes being evacuated on Sunday. Photograph: Glen Minikin/SWNS
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Sacha Baron Cohen donates £670,000 for Syria – BBC News
Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and his wife, the actress Isla Fisher, have donated £670,000 to two charities. The couple have given £335,000 to Save The Children to help vaccinate against measles in northern Syria.
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Amazon devices double in sales as Prime members set new holiday records | The Verge
More than three million people joined Amazon Prime in the third week of December alone, 200 million items were shipped for free to Prime subscribers, and more than two times as many Amazon devices were sold than last year as part of Amazon’s 2015 ho…
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Boxing Day boost for High Street shops – BBC News
Boxing Day sales and the three-day weekend have seen shoppers flock to the High Street, early figures show. The number of people visiting High Street shops on Boxing Day increased 11.7% compared with last year, said retail analyst Springboard.
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UK floods: thousands evacuated after ‘unprecedented’ crisis | Environment | The Guardian
It’s five days since the waters began to rise and thousands of people across the north of England have been badly affected by flooding. Many areas are expecting some respite today but the storms are expecting to return on Wednesday.
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Patti Smith on Transformation of the Heart https://t.co/CbfTVfOXtV https://t.co/V57hQqSAd1
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Love Everyone Often Peace Beauty Balance Life Light Magic: The Ascent of Man
The Ascent of Man https://t.co/DKTR0XYMrS https://t.co/T6LHjchpTs
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Love Everyone Often Peace Beauty Balance Life Light Magic: Doomed Star Eta Carinae
Doomed Star Eta Carinae https://t.co/GaZw2X4EsW https://t.co/psGDn2W1jk
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This bug. via /r/pics https://t.co/4R4Mi48ifU https://t.co/BNaosGgdna https://t.co/Q75KhPqUBG
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This bug. via /r/pics https://t.co/4R4Mi48ifU https://t.co/BNaosGgdna https://t.co/Q75KhPqUBG
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MEOW_IRL via /r/MEOW_IRL https://t.co/JzRXxglD7B https://t.co/8K8w6UxDZT https://t.co/NvBWNWFYpu
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MEOW_IRL via /r/MEOW_IRL https://t.co/JzRXxglD7B https://t.co/8K8w6UxDZT https://t.co/NvBWNWFYpu
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Cartoon Network, Discovery and AMC Are Cable Standouts of 2015 : television
How discovery made this cut here? Definitely would not have pegged Discovery for a standout network yet.
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This year exposed palm oil’s political, environmental and social ramifications like never before. Here’s what happened
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Take shelter from festive excesses with a good, creepy book | Books | The Guardian
In the strange and soporific lull between Christmas and the new year, you either want (books-wise) cosy or creepy. Cosy is more easily dealt with.
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Besieged Syria rebels evacuated in rare deal – Al Jazeera English
Beirut, Lebanon: Dozens of wounded rebel fighters, along with members of their families, are being evacuated from a besieged Syrian border town as part of a deal that will also see the safe passage of scores of people from two Shia-dominated village…
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Afghanistan’s tough year, but optimism persists – Al Jazeera English
“A spark of joy, a ray of hope in Afg inferno,” tweeted the renowned Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary over the weekend, referring to last week’s spectacular triumphs by the Afghan national football and cricket teams in regional and international game…
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Female refugees face sexual exploitation in Greece – Al Jazeera English
Lesbos, Greece – It took Samira 11 days to travel from Ahfir, in Morocco, to the Greek island of Lesbos. She didn’t know where it was along the Turkish shore that she boarded the dinghy.
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First I’ve heard of the Tangier Island “Tangerines,” since coming across them in an anthology of American short stories maybe thirty five yrs ago.
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In 1957, Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) became the second youngest laureate of the Nobel Prize in Literature, awarded to him for work that “with clear-sighted earnestness illuminates the problems of the human conscience in our times.
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In America today, big time philanthropists are often lauded for helping to even the playing field for those less fortunate.
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Q&A: Is CAR ready to hold a free and fair election? – Al Jazeera English
After enduring a series of delays, this time the elections in the Central African Republic (CAR) may actually take place.
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China fines global shipping firms for price-fixing – BBC News
Chinese regulators have fined seven major international shipping companies 407m yuan ($65m; £42m) for fixing prices after a year-long investigation. Korean, Japanese and European shipping companies that carry vehicles were found to have coordinated …
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I don’t know if Christopher Hitchens left written instruction, but the publication date of this sixth collection of his essays seems pointedly to have been designed to miss Christmas lists.
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In my early twenties, I took up a peculiar practice of cultural insurgency — every time I found a Bible in a hotel night-stand drawer while traveling, I would go to the local bookstore, purchase a copy of Darwin’s , and replace the Bible with it.
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Syria fighters evacuated under UN deal – BBC News
Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to visit flood-hit areas of northern England later, as swamped communities continue to battle against raging waters.
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GARLAND, Tex. — Travis Koscheski said he was alone in his apartment here when he was first alerted to the approaching danger by “the classic train sound.” The whistling that Mr.
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Amazon Says It Added 3M Prime Members In The Week Before Christmas | TechCrunch
Amazon is a company famous for press releases that are devoid of actual information. (As we saw after Thanksgiving this month.
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One of the benefits of living in this day and age of myriad scripted entertainment, or “Peak TV” if you want to be trendy, is that it allows for more niche ideas to gain a foothold in the television landscape.
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Children describe what life is like growing up in a Rio favela – BBC News
BBC News went to Maré favela to meet 11 year-old twins, Samira and Samir da Silva, to learn how violence affects their daily lives as they grow up in a Rio de Janeiro’s shanty town.
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Bruce Springsteen can overcome even the moodiest teenager’s hate · Hear This · The A.V. Club
In Hear This, The A.V. Club writers sing the praises of songs they know well. This week: Songs our families made us listen to repeatedly. My mom has solid taste in music, something I didn’t appreciate but benefited from greatly growing up.
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Here’s what’s up in the world of TV for Monday, December 28. All times are Eastern. WWE Monday Night RAW (USA, 8 p.m.): Look, there’s not that much on television right now. Things are dire. Coincidentally, things have been dire for WWE Monday Night …
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22 songs that are great despite being pro-Jesus · Inventory · The A.V. Club
Even though the birth of Christ is over for another year, there’s still plenty of Christ-centered music to keep you going for another 12 months.
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Can… you… dig it? · Watch This · The A.V. Club
Every day, Watch This offers staff recommendations inspired by a new movie coming out that week. This week: It’s the final week of the year, so we’re dispensing with themes and just recommending some movies we love.
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Reporter gets possessed by Bill Burr. : videos
Reporter gets possessed by Bill Burr. (youtube.com) That was spot on haha. Almost scary.
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China passes controversial new anti-terror laws – BBC News
China has passed controversial new anti-terrorism laws, saying they are needed to combat growing threats. The new laws, passed on Sunday by China’s legislature, create a new anti-terror agency and security forces with significant powers.
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Slide Show: New Yorker Cartoons January 4, 2016 – 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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Game of Thrones was 2015’s most torrented TV show | The Verge
Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show of 2015, TorrentFreak reports, with the fantasy drama’s season 5 finale downloaded an estimated 14.4 million times via BitTorrent. The show beat out its closest rival — The Walking Dead, which was downloa…
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This Week in Fiction: Ottessa Moshfegh on the Repressed Western Consciousness – The New Yorker
Your story in this week’s issue, “The Beach Boy,” revolves around a middle-aged couple’s trip to an unnamed tropical island. Afterward, the wife, Marcia, talks, in the same breath, about the beautiful beaches, the amazing seafood, and the impoverish…
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Cover Story: Frank Viva’s “The Long View” – 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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My name is Leah-Ellyn Altschuler, and, though I am one of only forty-eight students here at the Shower of Blessings Junior Bible College, in Claramore City, Nebraska, I have been emboldened by the activism of so many students, nationwide.
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The Ford Foundation’s Quest to Fix the World – The New Yorker
The urge to change the world is normally thwarted by a near-insurmountable barricade of obstacles: failure of imagination, failure of courage, bad governments, bad planning, incompetence, corruption, fecklessness, the laws of nations, the laws of ph…
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John Doyle’s “The Color Purple” – The New Yorker
Although the civil-rights movement did a lot to change how black life was dramatized on the American stage in the fifties and sixties, white composers and lyricists often still rely on familiar tropes when it comes to representing black women in mus…
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“Poem of Regret for an Old Friend” – The New Yorker
What you did wasn’t so bad.You stood in a small room, waiting for the sun.At least you told yourself that.I know it was small,but there was something, a kind of pulped lemon,at the low edge of the sky. No, you’re right, it was terrible.
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Jeb Bush’s Fight Over the Everglades – The New Yorker
On the afternoon of December 11, 2000, Jeb Bush, the forty-third governor of Florida and a member of the most dominant American political family since the Kennedys, stood in the Oval Office with President Bill Clinton to mark the signing of a landma…
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The Joy of Steam Heat – The New Yorker
This winter’s heat wave has created problems for a lot of ventures: fur-coat sales, ski weekends, pond-hockey games.
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The Seductive Audacity of “Transparent” – The New Yorker
“Please don’t do that to me—betray me and then tell me it’s a gift,” Rabbi Raquel says to Josh Pfefferman, who is trying to put a positive spin on having spilled the couple’s secrets to the world.
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They frame the night with their howls. We are after nothing, really.
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“The Beach Boy” – The New Yorker
The friends met for dinner, as they did the second Sunday of every month, at a small Italian restaurant on the Upper East Side.
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An Iranian Woman’s Battle to End Stoning – The New Yorker
In the Mazandaran province of northern Iran, where the Elburz Mountains careen toward the Caspian Sea, Asieh Amini grew up on a farm surrounded by kiwi and tangerine orchards. Born in 1974, Amini was the third of four sisters.
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“The Hateful Eight” and “The Revenant” – The New Yorker
Combine two films released on Christmas Day, Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight” and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “The Revenant,” and what have you got? Five hours and thirty-eight minutes of malice and mistrust, in which the characters—mostly …
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Tom Jones’s Good Genes – The New Yorker
Sir Tom Jones, the singer, who was born in Wales and now lives in Los Angeles, was recently driven through the Bronx, in the company of Mark and Donna Woodward, his son and his daughter-in-law, who are also his managers. The three of them had a half…
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“Bel Canto” and “Great Scott” – The New Yorker
“Not my style—it’s in English,” an operagoer said at the Lyric Opera of Chicago the other night. The company had just performed the first act of Jimmy López’s “Bel Canto,” in its world première, and the dissatisfied customer was headed for the exit.
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Leslie Jones: Always Funny, Finally Famous – The New Yorker
On TV talk shows, the host introduces a guest, then music plays while the guest emerges from backstage. On podcasts, the etiquette is still being worked out. The host often launches into an introduction while the guest sits quietly in the same sound…
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Germany recruits 8,500 teachers to teach German to 196,000 child refugees : worldnews
RefugeesGermany recruits 8,500 teachers to teach German to 196,000 child refugees (theguardian.com)submitted 49 minutes ago by loading…[–]RagingFuckalot [score hidden] 3 minutes ago(0 children)Good.
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Tornados, snow blizzards and flash flooding hit southern US – BBC News
More than 40 people have been killed by tornadoes and storms that have battered the southern United States over the past week. At least 11 of the victims were in Texas, where tornadoes swept though the Dallas region.
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A land on the edge of darkness | Environment | The Guardian
Near winter’s solstice, the sun doesn’t rise far here. It grasps above the skyline, then slinks the southern mountains in a tired arc, like a sentry pacing a watch-wall. During its six-and-a-half-hour march its light barely flickers the vast sky’s t…
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APOD: 2015 December 27 – Doomed Star Eta Carinae
Doomed Star Eta Carinae via NASA https://t.co/Xpmx2jYJVy https://t.co/5D3k6LXDas https://t.co/NnJFVx4zYd
Explanation: Eta Carinae may be about to explode. But no one knows when – it may be next year, it may be one million years from now. Eta Carinae’s mass – about 100 times greater than our Sun – makes it an excellent candidate for a full blown superno… -
LinkedIn Rival Viadeo Exits China | TechCrunch
Viadeo, the French rival to LinkedIn, is to exit China in order to focus on becoming a profitable business. In a further cost-cutting move, it will also shutter its data center in California and migrate to the cloud.
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Tributes after Steve Wright of Australian 60s band Easybeats, dies – BBC News
Australians are paying tribute to Steve Wright, widely regarded as Australia’s first international pop star, after he died aged 68. He became a superstar at the age of sixteen, as lead singer of iconic 1960s rock band The Easybeats.
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UK floods: David Cameron to visit swamped communities – BBC News
The prime minister is expected to visit flood-hit areas of northern England later, as swamped communities continue to battle against rising waters. Nearly 30 severe flood warnings – meaning there is a danger to life – remain in place in England and …
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I’ve always liked the one impaled by a tree. Calvin’s getting better in his teen years.
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Modern science and the spectre of ancient man coexist in this thought-provoking image of a petroglyph near the site of ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. A petroglyph is an ancient stone engraving, examples of which can be found scattered across t…
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ELI5: Why hasn’t there been anything in the news about the Russia/Ukraine conflict lately? Is it still happening? Has anything changed? Is the media just bored of the story? How SHOULD I have found new information about this topic? (self.explainlike…
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Hot Spring Image, Yellowstone, Wyoming – National Geographic Photo of the Day
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Chicago’s ‘Shoot First, Ask Questions Later’ Cops Kill Again – The Daily Beast
He was a promising engineering student who grew up in foster care and was determined to make something of himself. She was a mother of five who loved church and dancing, and had just hosted her family Christmas. In the early hours of Dec.
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Manhattan DA: Smartphone Encryption Foiled 120 Criminal Cases – The Daily Beast
Investigators of the Paris attacks revealed recently that the terrorists used the encrypted apps WhatsApp and Telegram to communicate and coordinate beforehand.
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Creationism Whistleblower: ‘Academic Freedom’ Is Sneak Attack on Evolution – The Daily Beast
When a public school teacher walks into his or her biology classroom, they cannot legally teach creationism or intelligent design.
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How ‘Star Wars’ Shaped the U.S. Military – The Daily Beast
Now that J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars original trilogy remix The Force Awakens has been unleashed, transforming a new generation of cinemagoers into Nick Winters at The Powder Room, fanboys have begun to dissect its myriad inspirations.
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The Endless Bobby Kennedy-Jimmy Hoffa Cage Match – The Daily Beast
In January 1957, as the newly appointed chief counsel to the Senate’s Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor and Management Field, Robert F. Kennedy began his pursuit of Jimmy Hoffa, the union boss who was said to be the most improper …
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What’s Next for Outer Space? – The Daily Beast
It came streaking down from the night sky over Cape Canaveral, Florida late on Dec. 21—the booster stage of a 224-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket belonging to SpaceX, the California-based space company founded by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
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The Big Business of Online Abuse – The Daily Beast
It can be a terrifying experience: thousands of individuals, ganging up on a single person to ruin his or her life and, in some extreme cases, drive that person to suicide.
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U.S. Fears Grow of a ‘Newly Awakened’ Russian Navy – The Daily Beast
For the first time in 24 years, the U.S. Navy’s intelligence branch has published an unclassified report warning against a rapidly rearming and increasingly aggressive Russian fleet.
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The Best Fine Art Books of 2015 – The Daily Beast
In a world in which an American clothing designer’s car collection is exhibited at The MFA in Boston and a major Italian clothier is shown in major museums across the country, painting and sculptor make news when one or another of the top-level auct…
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Gross: The Year in Political Scandals – The Daily Beast
It wouldn’t be a year in politics without a scandal or two. On that count, 2015 did not disappoint. From secret servers to the Secret Service to a sex bus across the pond, here are the lies, cover-ups and takedowns that defined bad behavior in 2015.
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Congress: A Buzzkill for Weed in 2015 – The Daily Beast
For pot fans, 2015 was a money year on the state level but Congress proved a reliable buzzkill, yet again, for the greenest lobby in town.
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Get Ready: Why 2016 Will Be Totally Nuts – The Daily Beast
You want predictions? After a year like this?! Who knows. I will say in my defense that after Donald Trump went after John McCain, and nearly everybody in Punditland was saying that’s it, he’s cooked, I wrote no, not so fast. Five-plus months later,…
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What the GOP Gets Wrong About ISIS – The Daily Beast
As we come to the end of a year of terror—actually, of horror—and we enter a year of terrible campaigning by some horrible candidates for the presidency of the United States, one might wish the Republican front-runners would step back from the path …
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The Curse of Israel’s Undersea Gas El Dorado – The Daily Beast
TEL AVIV — Almost six years after Israel discovered deep-water gas reserves, the potential riches, like an undersea El Dorado, have brought forth deep suspicions and furious debate, exposing bitter economic and social divides.
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It’s been a busy few months for big global discussions on social and environmental issues.
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We’re not nearly as appreciative of how many years we’ve gone without Jersey Shore as we should be. (self.Showerthoughts) Seconded. We shouldn’t have had to go with it, to begin with.
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Minnesota Vikings steamroll New York Giants to clinch playoff berth | Sport | The Guardian
Adrian Peterson ran for 104 yards and a touchdown over three quarters, Harrison Smith took one of Eli Manning’s three interceptions into the end zone and the Minnesota Vikings clinched a playoff spot with a 49-17 victory over the New York Giants on …
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How GoPro Is Building Its Future Drone Platform Foundations | TechCrunch
GoPro started working on drones a few months ago in order to stake a claim in this multibillion-dollar market. This is a natural for them, as they will be able to offer the best flying immersive camera on the market — completely autonomous, no pilot…
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If you’re not deep into internet culture, you may be unaware of the intensely devoted section of the Captain America fan base who consider Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), not Peggy Carter (Haley Atwell), to be the true object of Steve Rogers’ (Chris …
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Sweet success: Unravelling the Jelly Baby’s dark past – BBC News
The humble jelly baby has been giving fans a sugary thrill for generations, but the apparently innocuous treat harbours a somewhat dark and mysterious past. BBC News takes a look at its journey from a Lancashire sweet factory to mass-produced giant …
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Why the smartest man in football made the dumbest decision of the year | Sport | The Guardian
You don’t become the smartest man in football without taking risks. New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick is unshackled by the constraints that hold most coaches back.
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Japan and South Korea to discuss comfort women issue – BBC News
Japan and South Korea’s foreign ministers are set to discuss the fraught issue of so-called “comfort women”, forced to work in Japanese brothels during World War Two. Up to 200,000 women are estimated to have been sexually enslaved by Japan during t…
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This is living: Part IV : gaming
If you had that house you would have those friends. Especially those gaming laptop friends.
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The revolution has begun : funny
Will it be televised? No. It will be live.
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Man and bear startle each other : gifs
Living proof that unless you run across a bear with its cubs, it’s more afraid of you then vice versa. They will haul ass away from you pretty much everytime.
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Car bomb explodes at Kabul airport – Al Jazeera English
The interior ministry said Sunday’s explosion occured near the airport’s eastern gate, which is used by NATO and coalition forces.
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Open Source Software Went Nuclear This Year | WIRED
Open source software—software freely shared with the world at large—is an old idea. A guy named Richard Stallman started preaching the gospel in the early ’80s, though he called it free software.
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Rush – Freewill ( Music Video HQ ) – YouTube
Rush – Freewill ( Music Video HQ ) https://t.co/ry8c3xDo3N
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Obama’s Leadership Style: Chessmaster or Pawn – The Atlantic
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7 Actors Who Refuse to Watch Their Own Very Famous Work | Vanity Fair
Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (effective ) and Privacy Policy (effective January 2, 2014). Your CA Privacy Rights.
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Coolest McDonald’s sundae ever : creepy
Not blame, only thank for good bones and calcium. Thank You don’t think soft serve vanilla ice cream is creepy? What kind of calloused SOB are you?
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MIAMI — Frank Carollo, a longtime member of the City Council here, had worked for several weeks fine-tuning a proposal to limit the use of recreational drones, the increasingly popular remote-controlled flying devices.
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Rush – Freewill ( Music Video HQ ) – YouTube
Music videoclip for Freewill ( Permanent waves ) by Rush
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“Scorched Earth” had fewer lines of dialogue than any other episode in Flesh And Bone’s eight episode run, not just because of those dance sequences but because there was room to breathe within the scenes.
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Slapstick. That’s the word Peyton Manning used to discredit the man who could destroy his legacy. He said it repeatedly in an ESPN interview on Sunday.
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Freight train carrying sulphuric acid derails in Queensland, Australia – BBC News
An exclusion zone is in place after a 26-carriage freight train carrying approximately 200,000 litres of sulphuric acid derailed in Australia. The accident happened at 10:20 Sunday morning, 20km (12.4 miles) east of Julia Creek in north-west Queensl…
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Mounting an aggressive campaign against a report that linked him to performance-enhancing drugs, Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning said Saturday night that he was treated at an anti-aging clinic in Indianapolis in 2011 while r
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Didn’t appreciate this joke as much back then : gifs
Are we just gonna ignore the cold fusion booth at the beginning. That’s probably the joke, that almost everyone ignores it. Also just going to be honest, I don’t really know what cold fusion is..
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On December 19—the last Saturday before Christmas—there was a shooting in my hometown. It happened at East Towne Mall, a place that was a huge part of my teenage years.
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Christmas lights still glowing beneath the snow in Midland TX : mildlyinteresting
Same here, waiting for at least some cold temperatures. The fact that I had the AC running on Christmas was only made sadder by the rain.
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It was recently sold (2012) for $1.585m. Assuming 20% down and a 3.75% 30 year fixed The principal and interest would be $5,872.31. If they elected to escrow their taxes and insurance the total payment would be around $9,013.14. $34,690 annual taxes…
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You are being told that you will become famous tomorrow, but not what for. What is the most realistic reason you can come up with? (self.AskReddit) I’m gov security, so likely it’ll be a shitty security cam video of me getting gunned down by some ps…
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Looks great…. I hope you don’t mind a little edit: http://i.imgur.com/piGnMYx.jpg Thank you. I was disappointed there was no rat.
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Bin Laden’s former bodyguard Nasser al-Bahri dies – BBC News
Nasser al-Bahri – Osama Bin Laden’s former bodyguard – has died after a long illness, medical sources in Yemen have told the BBC. They said Mr Bahri, a Yemeni national, passed away on Saturday in a hospital in the southern city of Mukalla. He is bel…
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South China Sea: Filipino protesters land on disputed island – BBC News
Protesters have landed on a remote Philippine island in the disputed South China Sea, officials say. About 50 Filipinos, mostly students, reached Pagasa in the Spratly archipelago on Saturday, saying they planned to stay for three days.
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Arizona Cardinals clinch first-round bye with thrashing of Green Bay Packers | Sport | The Guardian
Arizona sacked Aaron Rodgers eight times and returned two of his fumbles for touchdowns on Sunday in a dominant 38-8 victory that clinched a first-round playoff bye for the streaking Cardinals. Carson Palmer threw for 257 yards and two touchdowns fo…
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Corsica march: Hundreds defy protest ban after Muslim prayer hall attack – BBC News
Several hundred people have marched in Corsica, defying a ban on protests introduced after a Muslim prayer hall was vandalised on the French island. They avoided going to the poor neighbourhood of Ajaccio where Friday’s attack happened, instead rall…
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Which President Had the Best Last Year in Office? – POLITICO Magazine
In one retelling, the term “lame duck” first diffused into the American political lexicon with President Abraham Lincoln, who supposedly said that “[a] senator or representative out of business is a sort of lame duck.
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Workplace drug testing is widespread but ineffective.
I was shocked to hear, several weeks ago, that a fellow journalist, who recently started as a research editor at a national magazine, had been asked to pee into a cup.
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Japanese shares lead Asia’s gains in early trade – BBC News
It was a mixed picture for Asian shares at the start of a week shortened by holidays, amid quiet trade as Japanese shares lead the region’s gains. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index was up 0.3% to 18,818.69 despite economic data painting a gloomier pict…
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Used bookstores are making a comeback. : books
Used bookstores are making a comeback. (washingtonpost.com) My local used bookstore is amazing.
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South Africa still awaits its golden age – BBC News
As South Africa enters its 22nd year since the end of apartheid it seems another revolution is at hand. Or is it? Judging by the tumultuous events of the last few weeks it seems like Nelson Mandela’s peaceful revolution is about to give birth to its…
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Tony Abbott’s former business advisory council chairman Maurice Newman has criticised Malcolm Turnbull and Barack Obama for prioritising “collectivist visions” over “private choice” in relation to climate change.
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Environmental Peace Ecology is out! https://t.co/YbXVDaHyev
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The East German team that refused to die – BBC News
Twenty-five years ago, in 1990, Germany was reunified, and the state of East Germany ceased to exist. But in the dying days of the so-called Democratic Republic one international football match in Belgium remained to be played.
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Africa’s best quotes of 2015 – BBC News
It has been a roller-coaster year of African news, from the historic elections in Nigeria to the momentous visits of the Pope and the US president. Can Nigerians stop being unruly?
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Morocco postpones opening of world’s largest solar power project | World news | The Guardian
Morocco has postponed without explanation the inauguration of Noor-1, a solar power plant due to open Sunday in Ouarzazate, part of what will eventually be the world’s largest solar power production facility.
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Ukraine’s traumatised soldiers struggle with civilian life – BBC News
Sergiy Goptarev says he wants to leave his time fighting in eastern Ukraine behind him. But he is finding it difficult. The memories arrive like uninvited visitors. Now a civilian, he can be seized by an anxiety attack when he goes past a wooded are…
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Smartphone, smart photography – BBC News
Professional photographer, writer and lecturer Grant Scott explains how you can use your mobile phone to improve your creative photography.
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Inside a women-only assembly in Pakistan – BBC News
In a remote part of Pakistan, one woman is trying to end centuries of discrimination. Tabassum Adnan has set up an all-women assembly known as a Jirga in Swat valley – challenging the dominant male one.
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China Telecom chairman Chang Xiaobing under investigation – BBC News
The chairman of one of China’s largest state-owned mobile operators, China Telecom, is being investigated by the country’s anti-corruption watchdog.
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At Theranos, Many Strategies and Snags – WSJ
The night before a big meeting with a Swiss drug company in 2008, Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes and a colleague sat in a Zurich hotel, sticking their fingers with a lancet.
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The Large Magellanic Cloud Photographed by Eddie… – Just Space
The Large Magellanic Cloud Photographed by Eddie Trimarchi js https://t.co/Q3wfPuwlUS https://t.co/hIz7mhv5qY https://t.co/T1M65M8wg6
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The Large Magellanic Cloud Photographed by Eddie Trimarchi js https://t.co/Q3wfPuwlUS https://t.co/hIz7mhv5qY https://t.co/T1M65M8wg6
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It’s 2013. Kirsten is an airline pilot like me. I met her when I moved from New to old England in 2001. We were in the same pilot training course, at a flight school in the emerald-green countryside north of Oxford, one of those parts of the world I…
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Who runs Russia with Putin? – BBC News
When Vladimir Putin first came to power, he was asked in an interview which of his colleagues he trusted most. This core group illustrates two important points about who runs Russia.
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Ancient Rome v North Korea: Spectacular ‘executions’ then and now – BBC News
This year saw reports of two executions of high-ranking North Korean officials and an endless stream of speculation about Kim Jong-un and his leadership style. Stephen Harrison, professor of Latin literature at Oxford University, considers the paral…
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Does Paris deal fall short? Yes. But no difference between the parties on climate change? Come on
This is why we must remember that—while we simultaneously fight to drag the Democratic Party leftward—even today’s Democrats are fundamentally better than the alternative Election Day will offer us.
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The 12 Most Common Plants That Are Toxic to Cats and Dogs
Cats and dogs don’t usually know what things make them sick, so their curious nature occasionally gets the best of them. To keep your pets safe, avoid having any of these common plants around your home.
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3,200-Year-Old Papyrus Contains Astrophysical Information about Variable Star Algol : science
… confirms that the brightest phases of Algol and the Moon had particularly positive meanings for the Ancient Egyptians. It also confirms that the first variable star, as well as its period, were discovered much earlier than previously thought.
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Phonejoy GamePad 2 Bluetooth Controller | Digg Store
When you’re in battle, you need the right weapons. This expandable, portable controller has everything your video games offer at home: shoulder buttons, a joystick, and all the action buttons to make you the hero on screen.
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Inside The Clinic Allegedly Supplying Peyton Manning With Human Growth Hormone – Digg
Sports Documentary Drugs News In a special Al Jazeera investigation, Liam Collins goes undercover in an attempt to expose the breadth of doping in professional sports.
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Step 3: crumble paper and improvise. Uh, Hi, everybody. I’m Rick. You know, when I first met Birdperson, he was
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Patriots make huge mistake on coin toss in overtime, lose : sports
Wouldn’t put it past the Patriots to have thrown the game on purpose after the Steelers lost, to put them in a deeper hole. That was the first thing I thought when I seen that the Jets winning had them leap the Steelers in the playoff race without c…
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More than £200,000 raised for flood victims in northern England | Environment | The Guardian
Community groups have raised more than £200,000 to help people who have been hit by flooding in northern England.
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United Arab Emirates, Persian Gulf : Image of the Day
Crews aboard the International Space Station often look for signs of human activity along the coastlines of the Persian Gulf, where a growing Middle Eastern population has been moving. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates…
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It Was One Chip That Changed The Video Game Market Forever
Welcome to this week’s Reading List, where you’ll find the best popular culture and science fiction stories on the internet assembled in one delightful package. This week: The Star Wars Holiday Special, reading lists, managing movie theaters and the…
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The rumors were true! Radiohead did record a theme for the latest Bond movie, Spectre. But director Sam Mendes or the producers, in their infinite wisdom, decided to go with a track from Sam Smith instead.
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My dog would not leave the fishtank all weekend. We couldn’t even get her to eat… : aww
My dog would not leave the fishtank all weekend. We couldn’t even get her to eat… (imgur.com) She’s got her housecoat on she’s not going anywhere.
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Slide for iPhone Shoots Weird 3D-Looking Photos
iPhone: Wish you could capture some depth with your photos? Slide’s an app that turn photos into short GIFs with a 3D effect. To take a photo, you align your shot then slide your phone to the right. The result is a 3D image effect that can be saved …
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Canadian Arrested in Tunisia May Have Tried to Join Libyan Islamic State | VICE News
Reports are circulating in Tunisia that a Canadian man was arrested last week in the southern desert city of Tataouine for trying to join Islamic State forces — but he was not trying to reach Syria and Iraq, where the ranks of Islamic State foreign …
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Dozens Die Tornadoes Flooding Snow Texas Midwest | Al Jazeera America
At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in strong tornadoes that swept through the Dallas area and caused substantial damage this weekend, while six people died in flooding in the Midwest.
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Is There A Smoother Road To Success For Tesla In China? | TechCrunch
Things weren’t looking good for Tesla in China in early 2015. The luxury automaker faced tax breaks that favor domestic manufacturers, complex local license-plate laws and an army of sophisticated domestic copycats. Such hurdles are to be expected w…
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100 years ago: Pale shoots signal the new year dawn | Environment | The Guardian
SURREYThe sky was grey and lowering this morning, but in the east there were streaks of orange and dull pink colour (“puce” the latter was called by the farmer’s wife), and when we got a glint of the sun the cornfield appeared of a just perceptible …
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Why Politicians Want You to Panic – POLITICO Magazine
Crime is down, jobs are growing, America is pre-eminent. And yet Republican candidates are still fanning the flames of fear.
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Watch directors Quentin Tarantino and Thomas Paul Anderson geek out over 70mm film | The Verge
You might have heard that Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, at least on the technology side of things, is something special. That’s because it was shot in Ultra Panavision 70mm — the first film since 1966’s Khartoum to do so.
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BBC Sport – Man Utd players trying their best for Louis van Gaal, says Carrick
Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick says it is “disrespectful” to claim the club’s players are not trying their best for manager Louis van Gaal. United’s Boxing Day defeat at Stoke was their fourth in a row and extended their winless run to…
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Here’s How Hayden Christensen Was Supposed to Appear in Star Wars: The Force Awakens | Vanity Fair
Who knows? Force ghosts usually only appear as representation of fully enlightened masters of light side like Obi-Wan or Yoda. So to have a ghost version of the Vader side of Anakin seems a little off. But it would make the for —The Shadow of the Em…
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Watch directors Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson geek out over 70mm film | The Verge
You might have heard that Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, at least on the technology side of things, is something special. That’s because it was shot in Ultra Panavision 70mm — the first film since 1966’s Khartoum to do so.
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One-year-old hit in face by stray bullet expected to recover after surgery | US news | The Guardian
A toddler struck in the face by a stray bullet while sitting in his family’s parked car has undergone surgery and is expected to recover fully, relatives said. The shooting happened Saturday afternoon outside a Jersey City post office, where the boy…
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Security Researchers Offer Warnings About Hackable Railroads | Motherboard
The well-being of critical infrastructure and transportation has long been the elephant in the room when it comes to cybersecurity: plenty of researchers have warned about the possibility of attacks on power-plants, the national grid, and, more rece…
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Nigeria Declares Victory Over Boko Haram — But Do Nigerians See It That Way? : NPR
With Nigeria’s president saying Boko Haram is “technically defeated,” we assess its current strength. The Islamist insurgents have lost ground but still terrorize the nation with suicide bombs.
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Auto Industry Poised To Wrap Up A Blockbuster Year : NPR
Amid falling gas prices and easy access to credit, auto dealers sold a record number of cars and trucks in 2015. The last few weeks of the year may be one of the best times to get a deal.
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Did Corruption In Nigeria Hamper Its Fight Against Boko Haram? : Parallels : NPR
Nigeria’s former national security adviser, Sambo Dasuki, is on trial for money laundering and breaching the public trust.
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Stuck In A Brooklyn Shelter, Mother Of 3 Struggles To Find A Home : NPR
Shakira Crawford, a single mother in New York City, struggles to find a landlord who will accept her city voucher to pay rent. Mirela Iverac from member station WNYC reports.
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Most Medicaid Patients Can’t Get Advanced Hepatitis C Drugs : Shots – Health News : NPR
Sarah Jackson had quit abusing drugs, been sober for six months, and was looking forward to starting a career and raising her kids in Fort Wayne, Ind., when she found out she was infected with hepatitis C.
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Brick And Mortar Stores Go Further To Get You In The Door : NPR
The weekend after Christmas has typically been big business for retailers, as people return gifts — and buy new ones for themselves.
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As Justice Department Opens Investigation, New Police Shootings In Chicago : NPR
NPR’s Michel Martin speaks with WBEZ reporter Linda Lutton to give us the latest on the Chicago police shootings.
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The new Will Smith movie “Concussion” has put the spotlight back on the dangers of football. Smith portrays Dr. Bennet Omalu, the Nigerian immigrant who was the first to publish research on the degenerative brain disease he called chronic traumatic …
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From #Squadgoals To Schlonged, Contenders For 2015’s Word Of The Year : NPR
In two weeks, the American Dialect Society will gather and decide: Of all the words we read, wrote, spoke and heard in 2015, which one deserves the title Word of the Year? Presiding over that conference will be linguist Ben Zimmer, executive editor …
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A New Incident Between China and the Philippines May Be Looming | VICE News
A group of Filipino protesters landed on a disputed Philippine-held island in the South China Sea, a risky expedition that may trigger a strong reaction from China.
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Former El Salvador footballer Pacheco murdered – BBC News
Former El Salvador national team footballer Alfredo Pacheco has been shot dead, officials say. Police say two other people were injured in the attack, the motive of which is being investigated.
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An Angry Peyton Manning Rejects Accusations Made in an Al Jazeera Documentary – The Atlantic
Peyton Manning, the Denver Broncos quarterback, has fiercely denied claims made in an Al Jazeera documentary that he was supplied with human growth hormone in 2011.
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On the Charts: Adele’s ’25’ Racks Up Third Platinum-Selling Week | Rolling Stone
On the Charts: Adele’s ’25’ Racks Up Third Platinum-Selling Week Singer’s latest sells 7 million copies in five weeks; it took ’21’ 52 weeks to reach that feat
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Ruby’s True Identity Is Finally Revealed on Ash vs Evil Dead
While many shows go on hiatus around the holidays, Ash vs Evil Dead proved there’s no rest for the wicked with “Bound in the Flesh,” its penultimate episode.
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A montage assembled of scenes from an unreleased project shot in the summer of 2014. Music by Cliff Dweller (https://cliffdweller.bandcamp.com/) Director: David M. Helman Director of Photography: Benoit Soler Original Editor: Paul O’Reilly Colorist:…
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Jarryd Hayne impresses on return to 49ers team in defeat to Lions | Sport | The Guardian
Jarryd Hayne showed plenty of steel, but no rust as he resurrected his NFL career with a strong performance in the San Francisco 49ers’ loss to the Detroit Lions.
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Here’s How Captain Phasma Got Her Silver Armor
Gwendoline Christie has certainly made her mark in the Star Wars universe as the silver-armored Captain Phasma. This short video shows where that armor came from, and it’s hilarious.
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Iraqi forces ‘retake Islamic State Ramadi stronghold’ – BBC News
Iraqi forces have retaken a former government compound in Ramadi from where Islamic State (IS) group militants have been resisting an army offensive, the military has said. The complex was “under complete control” and there was no sign of IS fighter…
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Carolina’s bid for an undefeated season ended Sunday when Julio Jones’ dramatic 70-yard touchdown reception powered the Atlanta Falcons to a 20-13 victory over Cam Newton and the Panthers. Carolina (14-1) got the ball with 90 seconds left and no tim…
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Cops automatically shoot down all people carrying a gun on the street, don’t they?
It’s difficult to confirm from watching the video (where it appears Robertson merely looks over his shoulder at the deputies just before they begin to open fire), but some witnesses claimed that he aimed his gun at them.
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Slain Gaza man was not mentally disturbed, says father – Al Jazeera English
The unarmed 28-year-old Palestinian who was shot dead by Egyptian guards after he swam in from the Gaza Strip on Thursday was not mentally disturbed, according to his father.
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LPT: Women, put your hair to the side when being the little spoon. It will help the big spoon breath tremendously! (self.LifeProTips) No but I got a mouthful.
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Hubble snaps image of space oddity Hannys Voorwerp… – Just Space
Hubble snaps image of space oddity Hannys Voorwerp js https://t.co/DqQGztPL2a https://t.co/0p7dFKWRLc https://t.co/2aVUrhbkYf
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Hubble snaps image of space oddity Hannys Voorwerp js https://t.co/DqQGztPL2a https://t.co/0p7dFKWRLc https://t.co/2aVUrhbkYf
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Death toll hits 35 amid days of dangerous weather across the US | US news | The Guardian
At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in apparently strong tornadoes that swept through the Dallas area and caused substantial damage this weekend, while five people died in a flash flood in Illinois.
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Worst Wifi Password Ever : videos
Good one, the description fits this right too. Fuck it. I’m just gonna jerk off Slater.
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Concern in Israel over bill on foreign-funded NGOs – Al Jazeera English
Israeli cabinet ministers have approved a bill that critics say could severely curtail the influence of foreign-funded non-governmental organisations, including human-rights groups.
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Paid dating with teenage students thriving in Japan – Al Jazeera English
Tokyo – Japan must do more to stop child abuse, and especially the exploitation of young girls working in entertainment cafes across the country, according to a UN official. This message comes as Japan records an increase in the number of exploitati…
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The Airlines With the Worst In-Flight Service
Unless you’re flying first class, you can’t expect much from most airlines. The majority of them leave much to be desired, but some are worse than others. Travel + Leisure has named the world’s worst airlines for in-flight service.
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[AMA Request] Zlatan Ibrahimovic : IAmA
Request[AMA Request] Zlatan Ibrahimovic (self.
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Deadly Storms in South Central US Move North, Disrupt Flights | VICE News
As storms slammed several South Central US states this weekend, meteorologists predict harsh weather conditions that have turned deadly in Texas will track northeastward across the region into Monday, likely affecting flights and road conditions.
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Why Groupon Needs To Go Private To Rebuild Its Vision | TechCrunch
After seeing big and small competitors collapsing or withdrawing altogether from the race, Groupon still enjoys an undisputed leadership in the deal space.
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What’s behind Turkey’s renewed crackdown on Kurds? – Al Jazeera English
Just a few months ago, Turkish Kurds had hope for a political solution to their ongoing disagreements with the government. They had won seats in parliament and later this week, the pro-Kurdish party the HDP was to meet with Prime Minister Ahmet Davu…
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When you’re in battle, you need the right weapons. This expandable, portable controller has everything your video games offer at home: shoulder buttons, a joystick, and all the action buttons to make you the hero on screen.
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Glorious Jupiter, caught this morning! : space
Glorious Jupiter, caught this morning! (i.imgur.com) Woke up at 4am this morning to catch this bad boy! It was absolutely freezing but I held on for over 2 hours trying to get the perfect shot. Conditions were getting better every minute. This is de…
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Hundreds of thousands flee South American floods – Al Jazeera English
Severe floods around the area bordering Paraguay, Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil have forced around 160,000 people from their homes. Additionally, at least eight deaths have also been reported across the four countries.
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Facebook Confronts The Free Internet Neutrality Dilemma | TechCrunch
What’s more important? Restricted free Internet access for the poor? Or maintaining an open, neutral Internet without limitations? This is the debate Facebook is having with the world via petitions to regulators, skeptical forums, and today, full-pa…
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Doping allegations against Peyton Manning called into question | Sport | The Guardian
An explosive Al Jazeera report that Peyton Manning received a human growth hormone through his wife has been called into question, after the primary source says he recanted the allegations he made against Manning.
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The political influence of Murdoch’s media empire – Al Jazeera English
Seven months after the UK’s Conservative party was re-elected at the polls, there are indications it is trying to completely reshape the British media landscape. The meetings are worrying at best and… very, very unhealthy for a healthy democracy.
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Bribes and brown envelopes: Nigeria’s ‘journalists’ – Al Jazeera English
There is a saying that ‘the music hunger plays in your stomach makes you deaf to reason.’ You don’t preach ethics to a hungry man. Therefore when journalists are not paid they are prone to being compromised.
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An Exact Clone of a Dead Dog Was Just Born | Motherboard
The first puppy to be cloned from the DNA of a dead dog was welcomed into the world this week, being called a “miracle” by his owners.
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Mexico no closer to solving missing students mystery – Al Jazeera English
Mexico City – Relatives and supporters of 43 missing Mexican students have protested on the streets of the Mexico’s capital, demanding to know what happened to their loved ones. It has been more than a year since the students disappeared. They are b…
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In 2015, The US Finally Agreed It’s Time to End Mass Incarceration | VICE News
When criminal justice scholars look back at the explosion in America’s prison population in the late 20th and early 21st century, they may well mark 2015 as the year it began to come to an end.
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Your Budget Plan Won’t Be Complete Without Gratitude
Budgeting is all about solving a math problem, right? Nope. It’s about psychology. It’s about happiness. Your budget is more complex than just numbers. And it’s hard to find balance without practicing gratitude.
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China passes controversial anti-terrorism law to access encrypted user accounts | The Verge
China’s legislature unanimously passed a controversial anti-terrorsim law on Sunday despite months of objections from major tech firms and Washington alike.
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Eighteen months ago the Tour de France raced down Mytholmroyd high street. This weekend it was the Calder that rampaged down the road, the river having burst its banks during the wettest Boxing Day ever recorded in the West Yorkshire town.
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens Reaches $1 Billion Globally | Vanity Fair
Though it feels as far away as another galaxy, it was just last weekend that Star Wars: The Force Awakens hit theaters and utterly destroyed all previous opening-weekend box-office records by raking in $247 million domestically in its first three da…
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Marco Rubio and the Problem of the Political Natural – The New Yorker
For the past quarter century, a stock character has been just about ever-present in American politics: the Natural.
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Moment when a tornado hit Texas – BBC News
Eleven people are reported to have been killed in tornadoes in Texas, raising the death toll to 29 in a week of storms across several US states. At least eight people died in Garland, near Dallas, five of them when their cars were blown off a motorw…
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Family members of two people killed by Chicago police on Saturday demanded answers after police acknowledged that one of the victims was killed accidentally. Chicago police fatally shot Bettie Jones, 55, and Quintonio Legrier, 19, around 4.
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Given the GOP field’s collective decision to go for Bushonomics squared, it seemed like a good time to update this chart.
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Haskell Wexler, Oscar-Winning Cinematographer, Dead at 93 | Rolling Stone
Haskell Wexler, the director of the cult classic Medium Cool and one of Hollywood’s most revered cinematographers, passed away Sunday at the age of 93.
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The Moon Is A Devastating Mistress In Ian McDonald’s Luna: New Moon
Science Fiction authors have made the Moon a popular destination for centuries now: our closest celestial neighbor is home to hundreds of stories. Ian McDonald’s latest novel, Luna: New Moon, is probably one of the best set there.
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WASHINGTON — This month, John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, voted to repeal major provisions of the Affordable Care Act and to end its expansion of Medicaid, arguing that the health law was “unpopular and unaffordable.”
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Cybernetic Police Dogs, the DNC Data Breach, and More | Motherboard
Now that 2015 is almost over we can begin to wonder: what was the most viral meme of the year? It’s almost certainly the black and blue/white and gold dress, which generated a ridiculous amount of traffic. But what is it like being the person who to…
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Wales centre Jamie Roberts will make his Premiership debut for Harlequins against Gloucester at Twickenham. Roberts, who scored in last week’s European Challenge Cup win over Calvisano, is part of a team with 11 changes, including starts for Mike Br…
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Conservative gets convicted, dodges prison time, and is convinced the liberals are behind it all
Yet there were patent mitigating circumstances, starting with the fact that few people actually get prosecuted at all for this offense.
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Find the Perfect Safety Razor Blade for You with a Sampler Pack
Safety razors are a great way to get a cheaper, less irritating shave. But unlike cartridge razors, there are a ton of different blades out there, and which one you like best will depend on your razor and your skin. Try a sampler pack to find the pe…
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The secret to finding the best mobile apps: try everything | The Verge
One of the more popular posts to pop up in my Facebook News Feed last week was a friend’s request for advice on whether he should quit Apple Music and just go back to Spotify.
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The Guardian view on the UK floods: they will be back | Editorial | Opinion | The Guardian
The floods return, bringing with them the increasingly familiar pictures of distress: the debris of scoured-out houses, and the empty phrases of a hollow politician.
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The former director general of Russia’s anti-doping agency has admitted the country has “a serious problem”, and says 40% of its drug-test violations have come in youth sports. Russia was suspended from international athletics over doping, and must …
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so my sister got goalie gloves for christmas from her boyfriend for ‘being a keeper’… : funny
She looks used to disappointment. Read the caption again if you’re not a redneck.
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Israel Advances a Bill Critics Say Stifles Dissent | Al Jazeera America
Israeli Cabinet ministers on Sunday gave preliminary approval to a bill that imposes restrictions on nonprofit groups that receive foreign funding, drawing accusations it is meant to crack down on government critics.
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Cuban migrants: Pope Francis urges quick solution – BBC News
Pope Francis has called for Central American countries to show generosity in dealing with the rising numbers of Cuban migrants stranded in the region. Several thousand Cubans are stranded at the border between Costa Rica and Nicaragua, hoping to rea…
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Tina Fey, Jon Hamm, and Pharrell in the New Sesame Street trailer | Vanity Fair
Back in August, The New York Times told us how to get, how to get to Sesame Street: Via HBO.
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Women Roar: The Story of the Year at the Intersection of Sports and Politics | The Nation
This past year saw no shortage of people who tried to leverage the sports world to boldly speak-out on issues beyond the field of play.
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LONDON — He was the youngest of the participants in the Paris terrorist attacks, a baby-faced 20-year-old whose attention had drifted from soccer, cigarettes and girls to the venomous messages of extremist Islam.
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As a presidential candidate, Gov. Chris Christie has sought to differentiate himself by spotlighting his tenure as the United States attorney for New Jersey, framing it as a time when he spent his “life protecting our country” against terrorism. The…
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Storm troops are no answer to the likes of Eva (or Iqbal) | Letters | Environment | The Guardian
Is it not time to think beyond the use of sandbags (Troops called into Cumbria, 26 December) and consider flood-defence systems that have worked elsewhere and have stood the test of time? We cannot just keep building higher banks and walls to keep e…
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Simon Clark obituary | Environment | The Guardian
Simon Clark, a relative of mine, who has died aged 84, was a botanist of desert and upland plants, a leading authority on apple and pear varieties, a long-distance walker, gardener, photographer and bon vivant.
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Watch Crows Engineering Their Own Tools | Motherboard
When you think of cognitively adept animals, the first thing to come to mind is probably not a crow. But crows, according to new research, are some of the most skilled engineers in the animal kingdom.
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Flood-hit northern England told to expect further rainfall | Environment | The Guardian
Heavy rain is expected to hit the flooded north-west again this week, accompanied by gales, according to forecasters.
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Iraq Declares Victory Over Islamic State in Ramadi | VICE News
Iraqi security forces said on Sunday they had defeated Islamic State fighters in the city of Ramadi, after taking control of a government complex that was the militants’ last stronghold in the city.
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Will America’s 100 Year-Old Female Spy Finally Be Recognized for The Hero She Is? – The Daily Beast
Capt. Stephanie Czech arrived at the U.S. embassy in Berlin wearing civilian clothes, as always, and delivered the report she’d been carrying to the intelligence section. The war may have ended, but Czech was still working, undercover. Berlin was no…
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US hits Isis targets with 17 airstrikes on Christmas Day, says Pentagon | World news | The Guardian
The Pentagon says the United States hit Islamic State group targets in Iraq and Syria with 17 airstrikes on Christmas Day. The strikes targeting Islamic State fighters, facilities and vehicles were carried out by fighter aircraft, bombers and remote…
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Two Palestinians killed in West Bank violence – Al Jazeera English
Israeli forces have shot dead two Palestinians at the Huwara checkpoint as violence continues in the occupied West Bank.
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Transgender sex workers are mistreated by the institutions that are supposed to help them – Vox
Transgender people, especially trans people of color, face devastating levels of discrimination in all walks of life. They experience dramatically higher rates of poverty, homelessness, mental health problems, harassment, and discrimination than oth…
Transgender sex workers are mistreated by the institutions that are supposed to help them https://t.co/SiqNgzy4YF https://t.co/6GZulygUbl -
The Earthquake That Brought an Empire to Its Knees – The Daily Beast
It was a calamity of Biblical proportions, akin to Sodom and Gomorrah or Egypt in Exodus. In 1755, Lisbon, the capital of the extensive Portuguese empire and the third-busiest port in the world, was in the midst of its second golden age.
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Israel missile defence chief Yair Ramati sacked – BBC News
The head of Israel’s missile defence programmes has been sacked for a “grave breach of information security”, the defence ministry has said. The ministry gave no further details of Yair Ramati’s offence.
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China rubberstamps two-child policy – CNN.com
“China will fully implement the policy of ‘one couple, two children’ in a proactive response to the issue of an aging population.” 100 million couples According to Lu Jiehua, a sociologist at Peking University, the policy will affect 100 million cou…
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Unreleased Aaliyah Track “Shakin” Featured on Timbaland’s New Mixtape | Vanity Fair
Yesterday, we broke down all of the new/depressing/weed-centric songs released over Christmas from the likes of Miley Cyrus, Radiohead, LCD Soundsystem, Green Day, and The Weeknd. Turns out an unexpected musical icon also dropped a new track this we…
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The public University of California (UC) school system will no longer invest in private prison companies.
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Here’s How Complicated It Is To Don A Kylo Ren Costume
Kylo Ren has a pretty neat costume for The Force Awakens, and there’s a lot of costumers out there who are looking to replicate it for their own fun. While it looks simple, the costume is way more intricate than you’d think.
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The 44 games we can’t wait to play in 2016 | The Verge
2015 was a good year for video games — with new releases that ranged from startling teen dramas to gritty post-apocalyptic RPGs — and 2016 is shaping up to be just as impressive.
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‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Pushes Past $1 Billion at Box Office | Rolling Stone
‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Pushes Past $1 Billion at Box Office ‘Episode VII’ topples ‘Jurassic World’ to become fastest to billion-dollar box office
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Aerial footage of Texas tornado damage – BBC News
Eleven people are reported to have been killed in tornadoes in Texas, raising the death toll to 29 in a week of storms across several US states. At least eight people died in Garland, near Dallas, five of them when their cars were blown off a motorw…
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From some of the worst floods ever known in Britain, to record-breaking temperatures over the Christmas holiday in the US and and forest fires in Australia, the link between the tumultuous weather events experienced around the world in the last few …
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Iraqi forces ‘seize key base in Ramadi from Isis’ | World news | The Guardian
Iraqi troops have regained control of a government complex in Ramadi, drawing closer to ousting Islamic State militants from the Sunni heartland city conquered last summer.
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Room-Temperature Superconductivity Could Change the World as We Know It
It was mid-May of last year when we realized we were onto something. We were measuring the electrical properties of a pellet squeezed between two diamonds in an anvil. The anvil could apply 2 million atmospheres of pressure, or about half the pressu…
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No end in sight as repair work on California’s sinking land costs billions | US news | The Guardian
A canal that delivers vital water supplies from northern California to southern California is sinking in places. So are stretches of a riverbed undergoing historic restoration. On farms, well casings pop up like mushrooms as the ground around them d…
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Star Wars: The Force Awakens becomes fastest to take $1bn – BBC News
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has become the fastest film to take $1bn (£674m) at the global box office. JJ Abrams’ film achieved the feat in 12 days, beating the previous record of 13 days set by Jurassic World in June.
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The lacrosse ball is a hard, dense ball that is an awesome self-massage tool for MANY different parts of your body. I love it so much I made a tutorial (and looping GIFS to save you time!) (self.Fitness) What is a lacrosse ball? How does it work?
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The Best Games of 2015 I Had Time to Play | Motherboard
2015 has been an incredible year for game releases, and a terrible year for my free time. This is both because life is a Sisyphean list of chores that keeps growing until a little bit after you die, and because 2015 saw a glut of what of I like to c…
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Wisdom from one of the 15 best books of 2015. https://t.co/69C6RavZoJ https://t.co/sN7MeI1RgQ https://t.co/3bWLBLGRZK
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Techno-skeptics’ objection growing louder – The Washington Post
Astra Taylor’s iPhone has a cracked screen. She has bandaged it with clear packing tape and plans to use the phone until it disintegrates. She objects to the planned obsolescence of today’s gadgetry, and to the way the big tech companies pressure cu…
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Sudan’s new gold rush: on the artisanal miners who risk their lives | World news | The Guardian
It’s a little before 7am on a bright, airless morning and already Abdullah Idriss Isaac has been hard at work for hours. Swishing his aluminium pan back and forth through a waist-deep pool of brackish water, he wearily scrutinises its contents for g…
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Republican Governor Says Its Time To ‘Eliminate Gerrymandering’ | ThinkProgress
Four years after he signed into law some of the most gerrymandered congressional maps in the country, Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) wants a truce in the redistricting wars. “I think we need to eliminate gerrymandering,” he told a gathering in a Columbus…
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Trial starts of suspects in ISIL massacre in Iraq – Al Jazeera English
The trial has begun in Iraq of 36 men accused of involvement in one of the worst atrocities carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.
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Facebook’s FUDdy, full-page anti-Net-Neutrality Indian newspaper ads / Boing Boing
Facebook is desperate to ensure that the Internet never takes hold in developing nations — they want a walled garden that they get to own and operate.
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Weekend Matinee: Santa Claus Conquers The Martians
The holiday season is just about over, but for this weekend’s Weekend Matinee, lets go back to 1964’s Santa Claus Conquers The Martians, just got get one last bit of cheer out this weekend. Or something like cheer.
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PaleontologyNew species of jawless fish unearthed in China; it swam in Devonian period seas 410 million years ago, had a big head-shield, a mouth-hole on top and a sword-like nose (sci-news.com)submitted 52 minutes ago by loading…
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Why Disney stock is down even as Star Wars crushes box office records – Vox
Why Disney stock is down even as Star Wars crushes box office records https://t.co/vKiskOmMrQ https://t.co/cHssSjqdXQ
Star Wars: The Force Awakens has crushed the competition at the box office, making the $4 billion price Disney paid for ownership of the Star Wars franchise look like an enormous bargain — especially when you consider that even more money will come … -
There are still many unanswered questions about a Friday night last September when at least 43 students disappeared after coming under attack in the Mexican city of Iguala. One of the most basic is, Why?
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Boy Scout Merit Badges and the Paradoxical Digital Future of Being Prepared | Inverse
The Boy Scouts of America are this country’s best-known lobbying group for preparedness.
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First Official Image from ‘Assassin’s Creed’ : movies
I heard this game is capped at 24 FPS. Hardly playable. I really dislike the microtransactions though. 5 bucks for a soda? Come on, that’s a rip off.
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Alabama Governor Uses BP Spill Money To Fix Up A Second Mansion For Himself | ThinkProgress
Ralph Gilges walks his dog Dixie outside Alabama’s abandoned beachfront governor’s mansion in Gulf Shores, Ala. Work began earlier this month to fix the 7,500-square-foot gubernatorial mansion that wasnt repaired after Hurricane Danny in 1997. A sp…
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Bernie Sanders: I can win the backing of Donald Trump supporters | US news | The Guardian
Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders said Sunday that he believes he can boost his own standing in the race by swaying supporters of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump’s supporters to back his campaign.
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Chicago Police Kill Two One a Mistake | Al Jazeera America
Relatives said Bettie Jones lived downstairs from Quintonio LeGrier, the 19-year-old who prompted the initial call to police and who also was killed about 4:25 a.m. Saturday in a West Side neighborhood.
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Army called in as floods continue to devastate northern England | Environment | The Guardian
The army and emergency services were deployed in towns and cities across the north of England on Sunday to lead recovery efforts as devastating floods continued to bring chaos to thousands of homes and businesses.
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It came suddenly from the distant reaches of the Constellation Sagittarius, some 50,000 light years away. For a brief instant, a couple of tenths of a second, on December 27, 2004 an invisible burst of energy the equivalent of half a million years o…
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Top 10 news stories that did not appear in 2015 (but I really wanted to read)
In November 2015, just in time for Thanksgiving dinner, President Barack Obama welcomed the first of what will be 250,000 refugees from the war-torn Middle East.
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2015: The events that shaped a turbulent economic year – Al Jazeera English
In 2015, we witnessed a number of game-changing developments in the world of business, with the continuing advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) causing both humanitarian and financial crises; Greece’s debt crisis threatening to…
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Design Advance Could Mean Commercial Light-Based Processors Within a Few Years | Motherboard
A team of engineers from MIT, UC Berkeley, and the University of Colorado have overcome a major barrier to light-based computers, offering a means to move beyond the increasingly limited world of electricity-based computing without moving too far be…
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BBC Sport – Heart of Midlothian v Celtic
Hearts striker Juanma Delgado is suspended for Sunday’s Premiership meeting with Celtic following last weekend’s red card at St Johnstone. Winger Jamie Walker and striker Soufian El Hassnaoui have both returned to training following knee problems bu…
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COLUMBIA, S.C. — After decades of debate in South Carolina over the Confederate battle flag, it seemed the matter had been settled in July, when state officials stopped flying the flag on State House grounds and relegated it to a museum for “appropr…
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How to customize Facebook Messenger with chat colors and emoji
The company rolled out a handful of updates to Messenger recently, including Photo Magic, the feature that uses facial recognition in your phone’s camera roll to identify friends. Since each conversation is customized, you can switch things up from …
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Well, Look At This Incredible Goal – Digg
Third-string Southampton defender Cuco Martina marked his first start in the Premier League with an absolutely gorgeous strike against Arsenal from way, waaaay outside the box. Just in time for 2015 Goal of the Year honors?
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Tornadoes kill at least 11 in Texas – video | World news | The Guardian
At least 11 people have been killed in the Dallas area from a storm system packing torrential rains and unleashing a string of tornadoes that toppled homes, cut power lines and snarled transport for people returning from the Christmas holidays.
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Iran’s Rouhani urges Muslims to fix Islam’s global image – BBC News
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Muslims should strive towards improving the world’s opinion of Islam, which he says has been tarnished by violence. Mr Rouhani, a religious moderate, said Islamic principles opposed violence.
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The Verge Review of Animals: the goldfish | The Verge
It’s been 73 days and so far I haven’t killed Lincoln. Lincoln is a tangerine-colored fantail goldfish, who whizzes to the top of the tank when he notices humans approaching.
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Wasps centre Alapati Leiua makes his first start of the season after injury and Dan Robson plays at scrum-half. Injuries to George Smith and Nathan Hughes mean captain James Haskell is joined by Thomas Young and Guy Thompson in a new-look back row.
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Dallas area tornadoes leave 11 dead and dozens injured | US news | The Guardian
Tornadoes that swept through the Dallas area caused substantial damage and at least 11 people died either from the storm or related traffic accidents. Dozens of people were injured in the storms as well.
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Everything good and bad about the 2005 King Kong remake in one scene – Vox
In the last decade, Peter Jackson’s 2005 remake of King Kong, which turns 10 years old this Christmas weekend, has come to represent everything that’s gone wrong with the Lord of the Rings director’s career since that trilogy was an audience and cri…
Everything good and bad about the 2005 King Kong remake in one scene https://t.co/6zgeRzMLO5 https://t.co/Dratoc7anK -
The Freelancer Generation: Why Startups And Enterprises Need To Pay Attention | TechCrunch
Gone are the days of the 40-hour work week that kept us at work eight hours a day (I find that most startup founders or business owners in Silicon Valley work 50-60 hours a week). Freelancing is becoming the accepted norm of the startup world.
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When more than 1,800 people died in the wake of the 1953 North Sea flood in the Netherlands, the national reaction was: never again. The resulting Delta programme to close off the south-western river delta from the sea was so bold that its name beca…
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Organisers of Iglesias Sri Lanka gig ‘should be whipped’ – BBC News
Sri Lanka’s president says the organisers of an Enrique Iglesias gig should be whipped as punishment over the behaviour of some female fans. Maithripala Sirisena said scenes of local women running on stage to kiss the singer and throwing their under…
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TIL San Diego County Inspectors, through the use of ‘Secret Shoppers’, found that Target overcharges customers on 10.3% of the items they ring up; Brookstone: 10.6%; Sears: 15.7% (sandiegouniontribune.com)submitted 1 hour ago by 37loading…
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DOTHAN, Ala. — On a humid summer day in 1972, Hillary Rodham walked into this town’s new private academy, a couple of cinder-block classrooms erected hurriedly amid fields of farmland, and pretended to be someone else.
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The Force Awakens Was Almost Shared The Name With This Expanded Universe Novel?
Well, this could have drastically changed the conversation about how The Force Awakens fits into the rest of the Star Wars saga: it almost shared the same name with one of the novels from the Expanded Universe.
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Stuart Broad took 3-16 to give England the edge on the second day of the first Test against South Africa. Bowling with superb skill and control, Broad removed Stiaan van Zyl, Hashim Amla and AB de Villiers as South Africa struggled to 137-4, trailin…
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Storm death toll in southern US rises above 25 | Al Jazeera America
Tornadoes swept through Dallas area, leaving substantial damage and at least 11 people dead either from the storm or related traffic accidents, increasing the death toll from harsh weather in the southern United States this week to 29.
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Searching for Steele – Al Jazeera English
Sparked by Wikileaks’ release of classified US military documents, this investigation uncovers how the Pentagon sent James Steele, a US veteran of the ‘dirty wars’ in Central America, to oversee sectarian police commando units in Iraq that set up se…
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NYPD Officer Arrested for Allegedly Framing Man in 2014 Altercation Captured on Surveillance Cameras (nbcnewyork.com)submitted 24 minutes ago by loading…
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If you want to understand how the Senate has functioned since Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) took over as Senate Majority Leader last January, the number 11 offers a clear window into McConnell’s entire philosophy of governance — or perhaps, non-govern…
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The notion of “making a good match,” a staple of the writings of Jane Austen and Henry James, continues in contemporary romance novels. At the same time, income inequality commands increasing attention from economists.
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Video captured by Twitter user @mrconfidential shows the moment flooding causes a footbridge to collapses in Radcliffe, Greater Manchester on Saturday.
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Paris attacker Samy Amimour buried in unmarked grave – BBC News
One of the men who attacked the Bataclan music venue in Paris on 13 November was buried on Christmas Eve in a northern suburb, reports say. Samy Amimour was one of three suicide attackers who killed 90 people at a rock concert.
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Kurdish forces raid ISIL base in Iraq’s Hawijah – Al Jazeera English
Kurdish forces in Iraq have launched a raid against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group in the town of Hawijah.
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Iranian football matches postponed as air pollution soars | World news | The Guardian
Iran postponed two premier league football matches on Sunday as air pollution more than twice the acceptable level persisted in the capital.
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Militia Beheads Four Islamic State Fighters in Eastern Afghanistan | VICE News
Local village militia members loyal to a powerful Afghan lawmaker beheaded four Islamic State fighters and placed their severed heads on the side of a main road in eastern Afghanistan, local officials said on Sunday.
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A scared panda holds onto a police officer after an earthquake. (X-Post r/Mildlyinteresting) : aww
Please officer I don’t want to go extinct. Lol idk why but that made me giggle and ive been puking all morning feelin like shit so thanks for that man haha.
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Should Cards Against Humanity Turn an Original Picasso Into Tiny Squares?
Cards Against Humanity is known for its original approach to viral marketing, which this year is a particular kind of evil choice: internet voters will decide if an original Picasso is preserved for history, or chopped into 150,000 tiny mementos.
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Anonymous takes credit for cyberattacks crippling Turkey
Whether or not Anonymous is primarily responsible isn’t certain. While a site address administrator says that the attacks stem from “organized sources” outside of Turkey, there is the concern that this may be Russian retaliation for Turkey shooting …
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Inside North Korea’s Totalitarian Operating System | Motherboard
The goal of a totalitarian regime is to control everything in a country: information, resources, and power. In the 21st century, that even includes omnipotence over the code that the country’s computers use.
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The best video games of 2015, as picked by the Ars editors | Ars Technica
Before we get on with the list, I want to make sure you don’t miss this year’s Ars Technica Charity Drive sweepstakes. You can win one of over 100 prizes, including limited edition gaming collectibles, all while helping out a good cause.
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Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley – review | Children’s books | The Guardian
Lies We Tell Ourselves is a book about labels and how a person looks at you and instantly decides who you are.
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Hopeful security signs in CAR – Al Jazeera English
BANGUI – The new commander of the UN peacekeepers in Central African Republic (CAR) is a Senegalese general with a no-nonsense reputation. Bela Keita arrived in Bangui about a month ago.
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Taco Shop Turns Break-In Footage Into Ad – The Daily Beast
A couple of crooks got more than they bargained for when they broke into Frijoles and Frecas Grilled Tacos in Las Vegas recently, winding up not just wanted by the law, but Internet sensations as well.
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‘Come Together’ Tops Beatles’ Most Streamed Songs List | Rolling Stone
The Beatles made their legendary catalog available to streaming services on Christmas Eve, and after two days of streaming, Spotify offered up some preliminary numbers focusing on the Fab Four’s most played tracks on the service.
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Curiosity Shows You Useful Wikipedia Articles Right When You Need Them
iOS: If you’ve ever seen an interesting landmark or building and wanted to learn more about it, Curiosity is perfect for you. The app uses geolocation to float Wikipedia articles based on what’s near you, and suggests articles related to trending to…
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The Chicago Police Department Is Under More Scrutiny After 2 Fatal Shootings – The Atlantic
Two people were shot dead by Chicago Police on Saturday, including a woman who police say was “accidentally struck,” raising more questions about the conduct of a police department that’s already under intense scrutiny.
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Evidence suggests 2015 will be a record year for gun sales – Vox
In 2015, the FBI will likely process a record number of background checks for people looking to buy guns and get permits. Background checks are a good proxy for measuring how gun sales are changing, even though one background check does not necessar…
Evidence suggests 2015 will be a record year for gun sales https://t.co/U0pMwNRYYF https://t.co/dZ2bXSBbi7 -
Bridge over water. (imgur.com) There are two types of people…
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Massive bug at Steam store on Christmas day exposes users’ private data
The bug, attributed by Valve to a caching problem, surfaced as users tried to access their accounts at Steam’s online store. The site began “behaving erratically,” on Friday afternoon, according to HD Moore, chief research officer at Rapid7, a Texas…
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Sprinter Sacre continued his return to form with a thrilling win over Sire De Grugy in the Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton. The 2013 Queen Mother Champion Chase winner, ridden by Nico de Boinville, has had health issues including a heart problem in t…
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Sunday’s Best Deals: Gaming Peripherals, Wake-Up Light, 3-in-1 Griddler, and More
An incredibly popular alarm clock, a versatile griddler, and a $28 Logitech gaming mouse highlight today’s best deals. Bookmark Kinja Deals and follow us on Twitter to never miss a deal.
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Slack gave me a Klingon name | The Verge
Slack is an all-encompassing collection of chat rooms where I talk about news and cat photos and the very story you’re about to read.
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How to Avoid Immediately Destroying Your New Drone | WIRED
So you’re one of the more than one million lucky souls the FAA estimates got a drone this Christmas. Congratulations! Now what? With most consumer drones these days, you can head straight out the door and have your new toy in the air in a matter of …
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The case for quitting your job–without a backup plan – Quartz
Come the new year, we often vow to go on a diet, get our finances straightened out, learn a new language or take up a new hobby. This year, I recommend focusing on one very important resolution: Quit your job in 2016.
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Open Source Software Went Nuclear This Year | WIRED
Open source software—software freely shared with the world at large—is an old idea. A guy named Richard Stallman started preaching the gospel in the early ’80s, though he called it free software.
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CHICAGO — The police fatally shot a man and a woman on Chicago’s West Side early Saturday, setting off a new flurry of questions about a department already under intense scrutiny.
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It’s The Jons 2015! | TechCrunch
Merry Christmas! 2015 was a truly great year in technology, bringing us self-driving electric cars, reusable orbital rockets, the rise of precision gene editing… and some lesser achievements.
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Homeless for the holidays—and every other day of the year
Homeless Youth and Teen Statistics & Facts Approximately 1.7 million young people call the streets home every year. Nearly 20,000 homeless people 24 years old and younger live in New York City. Children under 18 accounted for 39% of the homeless pop…
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Aliens, bunny-killing rovers, and a Moon base: What all is NASA “hiding”? | Ars Technica
Spend any time around NASA public affairs specialists, as I do, and you’ll eventually get the eye roll. It comes when someone inquires about aliens or faked moon landings or all manner of other nonsense.
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The innovators: US scientists harness the power of evaporating water | Business | The Guardian
A small device on the shelf of professor Ozgur Sahin’s office in Columbia University could open up the possibility of another form of renewable energy, one that is much cheaper than solar and wind.
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The most ridiculous health claims of 2015 – Vox
‘Tis the season to reflect on the year that was. So to celebrate, I took a look at the most wildly off-base health claims of 2015. A few of the highlights:
The most ridiculous health claims of 2015 https://t.co/bSwBt1l1SM https://t.co/jL54MNUB5s -
British prime minister David Cameron says on Sunday that emergency services were dealing with “an incredibly serious situation” as they tackle flooding in the north of England.
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DoJ shuts down asset forfeiture program after Congress slashes its budget / Boing Boing
In America, your belongings can be confiscated by the police without warrant or evidence as proceeds of a crime, and then the government sues your possessions (not you), in lawsuits like “Township of East Bumblefuck vs $50,000 in $100 bills.
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TurboFlix: 3-Yr Subscription | Digg Store
There’s more to Netflix than meets the eye. In fact, they’re thousands of awesome movies and shows that you’ve yet to binge watch. TurboFlix fixes this. By breaking geographical barriers, TurboFlix grants access to thousands of new videos offered in…
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BBC – Earth – The woman who gave her life to save the gorillas
It is now 30 years to the day since the mysterious death of Dian Fossey, the primatologist who transformed the way we see gorillas. Before Fossey’s work, gorillas had an appalling reputation as violent brutes that would kill a human on sight. Fossey…
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Homeless people not welcome in airports as US officials tighten rules | US news | The Guardian
They’re warm. Safe. Open 24 hours. Accessible by public transportation. Uncrowded at night. And don’t have limits on carrying your possessions with you.
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TPP is a giftwrapped wealth-transfer to China / Boing Boing
Writing in the Globe and Mail, University of Toronto Munk Chair of Innovation Studies Dan Breznitz explains how the TPP — negotiated in secret without any oversight or accountability — will enrich a few multinationals at the expense of US and Cana…
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The Dark Side: Secrets of the sports dopers – Al Jazeera English
Inside a hotel room in Austin, Texas a pharmacist is advising a British athlete on taking performance enhancing drugs. “One anabolic, and I can give you something to use right now is this Delta 2 stuff. It’s a steroid. There’s a bunch of football pl…
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DebtFor the first time in my 20+ years of being an adult, I have $0 in credit card debt after Christmas. (self.personalfinance) I know this may seem a bit crazy to have just now broken that barrier, and in the end we still spent far too much as a wh…
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Flooding in northern England – in pictures | Environment | The Guardian
With more than 200 flood warnings and alerts in place across England and Wales, the army have been called in to bolster flood defences and assist people in northern England. Hundreds more homes were evacuated on Sunday as further flooding was expect…
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How Drug-Resistant Parasites in Asia Could Lead to a Global Comeback for Malaria | VICE News
This story is part of a partnership between MedPage Today and VICE News. A two-hour drive outside Cambodia’s bustling capital of Phnom Penh, at a market with dozens of tiny storefronts open to the tropical heat, Rung Bunkok’s patients patiently sit …
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DALLAS — At least eight people were killed in the Dallas area Saturday night when as many as 11 tornadoes swept North Texas, officials said.
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Robot panic peaked in 2015 – so where will AI go next? | Technology | The Guardian
Ever since IBM’s Deep Blue defeated then world chess champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game contest in May 1997, humanity has been looking over its shoulder as computers have been running up the inside rail.
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Crackle goes pop: how Stockhausen seduced the Beatles | Music | The Guardian
Shortwave radio. Strange stuff. Not much of it around these days. However, before the days of the internet, it was the window on the world.
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Deep sea gold rush – Al Jazeera English
Oceans cover 70 percent of the earth’s surface, but only a fraction of the undersea world has been explored. On this episode of TechKnow, Phil Torres joins a team of scientists on a special expedition to explore and uncover the mysteries at the bott…
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Smell Tests Could One Day Reveal Head Trauma and Neurodegenerative Disease – Scientific American
Name that smell—if you can’t, it could be an indicator of a problem somewhere in your brain. New research suggests that scratch-and-sniff smell tests could become an easy and cheap way to detect signs of traumatic brain injury and neurodegenerative …
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Zuism, a Religion That Believes in Less Taxation – The Atlantic
In America, where there is separation of church and state, the government neither taxes nor funds religious organizations (beyond occasional grants for certain social services and a few other exceptions).
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How the Internet Led to the Decline of Female Film Critics – The Atlantic
When the Golden Globe Award nominations were announced earlier this month, many writers took the opportunity to assess how well women were represented.
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The Fifteen Most-Read Magazine Stories of 2015 – The New Yorker
How much time do people spend reading New Yorker stories? That’s the metric we care most about here at newyorker.com. It’s not perfect by any means (it may create an incentive to add extraneous parentheticals) but it’s not as bad as the other ways y…
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BACK in 1993, the misanthropic art critic Robert Hughes published a grumpy, entertaining book called “Culture of Complaint,” in which he predicted that America was doomed to become increasingly an “infantilized culture” of victimhood.
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Peyton Manning strongly denied a report set to air on Al Jazeera that contends the Denver Broncos quarterback received human growth hormone through his wife during his recovery from neck fusion surgeries in 2011 in Indianapolis.
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The omnibus spending bill Congress passed this month includes several explicit mentions of the military campaign against the Islamic State and a $58.
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Czech leader’s anti-refugee rhetoric slammed – Al Jazeera English
The Czech president’s comments describing the refugee crisis as an “organised invasion” on Europe and his call on Syrians and Iraqis to stay at home and fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group are harmful from both political and …
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John Beeden becomes first non-stop solo Pacific rower – BBC News
John Beeden, 53, set off from San Francisco on 1 June and rowed for an average of 15 hours a day. He had hoped to reach Cairns in north-east Australia weeks ago, but was slowed down by bad weather.
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Muslims in Kenya offer a Christmas present to the world – Al Jazeera English
After a year marred by violence that has led some people to suppose that confrontation is inevitable among humanity’s religions, a busload of Muslims in northeast Kenya has given us all a gift beyond measure for Christmas and the New Year.
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Syrian FSA defies threats over Moadamiyah pullout – Al Jazeera English
Syrian armed opposition groups have rejected the government’s demand to lay down their arms and withdraw “unconditionally” from a Damascus-area town by Monday, a spokesman for the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has told Al Jazeera.
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At Least 8 Killed as Tornadoes Strike Dallas Area – The Atlantic
At least eight people are dead and thousands without power as powerful tornadoes struck the north Dallas area on Saturday night. Five of the deaths occurred in Garland, Texas, near the intersection of Interstate 30 and Bush Turnpike. Photographs pos…
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Not any old curlew, this, but the slender-billed variety, a white and gold creature with a scientific name, Numenius tenuirostris, “the slim beak of the new moon”, as evocative as its cry.
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A conflict of faith between Russia and Ukraine – Al Jazeera English
Father Sergei Dmitriev meets us at a hospital in Kiev where he has been admitted for two weeks suffering from kidney problems. We suggest holding our interview in the garden of the hospital’s church, just a few metres away. The Father refuses, stern…
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Crime Blotter: Elephant Ivory, Rhino Horn, a Giraffe Skull, and More
Every Sunday, Wildlife Watch notes some of the previous week’s wildlife crime busts and convictions around the world. RHINO HORN SMUGGLING: A North Korean diplomat was expelled after he was arrested for illegal rhino horn trading, reports the Associ…
Love Everyone Often 12/28/2015
Israel warns Brazil in row over settler ambassador – BBC News Israel has warned Brazil it will downgrade relations unless it accepts a former head of the Jewish settlement movement as its ambassador in Brasilia. Argentine-born Dani Dayan was appointed four months ago but his nomination has not yet been…
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