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Tag: discoverynews

  • July 8th, 2012 7:32pm

    discoverynews:

    humansofnewyork:

    I found this man on 7th Avenue in Park Slope. He was leaning heavily on his cane, looking down, wearing a grimaced face. I felt bad for him, so I smiled and waved when I walked past. His face changed completely. He lit up, smiled wide, and gave me a cheery greeting. There was nothing forced about it. He seemed like a man who went through life looking for the smallest excuses to be happy.

    I walked 50 feet down the sidewalk, turned around, and walked back to him. “I want to take your photo,” I told him, “because of how big you smiled when I walked by.”

    He said: “Well I saw someone smiling at me who I didn’t even know. So I thought: ‘By God! I Better do something!’”

    Love everything about this

  • July 5th, 2012 2:09pm

    discoverynews:

    How Heat Kills

    Last month, more than 3,200 temperature records were broken or tied around the United States, with mercury readings including a scorching 114 degrees Fahrenheit in Yuma, Ariz., 94 in Lincoln Neb., and 98 in Queens, NY.

    In the last two weeks, a third of Americans have endured a heat advisory or excessive heat warning. And temperatures from the Great Plains to the Atlantic coast are running a good 10 to 15 degrees above average.

    The human body can actually tolerate high temperatures quite well. In experiments, people have withstood temperatures as high as 215 F for as long as 30 minutes. And with training, athletes often compete in long-distance running and biking races in desert conditions without dangerously overheating.

    but, here’s how it can be deadly.

    Really interesting. 

  • June 29th, 2012 1:03pm


    calysto-du-masque:

    Two Faces

    Take a close look at the man and woman pictured here before reading further. ………. ………. …….. …….. …………. ………. ………… ……….. …………. ……….. You probably noticed a resemblance. But it’s more than that. These two pictures are the same face, unaltered, no make-up, nothing. They’re actually the same picture. The only difference is that different contrast was applied. This demonstrates how just a subtle shading alters our assumption of gender.

    Weirdly interesting. 

  • June 28th, 2012 1:29pm

    To again quote Bradbury, what optimal behaviors should we be taking to slow climate change or end wasteful oil subsidies or improve the health of our citizenry or protect the integrity of our food supply?

    We all want change on these issues, but it won’t come without action. When we look back in a year, we will want to be pleased with the sum of our work. We will want to see our hope create change through action. The Republicans continuously prove the method works. When will we do the work required to win?

    —

    While the individual mandate was found to be constitutional, a key lesson in the fight over health care reform is to realize how Republicans helped create this moment. In a post published prior to the today’s ruling, Chris Tackett argues that the environmental and sustainability movements need to think about creating situations or “realities” in which their goals can be politically feasible. 

    Read the rest: Whether Obamacare is Constitutional or Not, Republicans Created This Reality. A Lesson We Can’t Afford to Ignore

    (via treehugger)

  • June 28th, 2012 11:32am


    discoverynews:

    Sniffing Out the Stench of Life on Mars

    The search for life on Mars trundles on and, beside a few tantalizing hints, we still don’t know if the Red Planet could ever have played host to the most basic of life forms.

    Why are we having such a hard time? Well, potential abodes for tiny Martians are (or were) likely deep underground, so we need to be smart and look for secondary indications of microbial alien life. And what better way to find aliens than to sniff them out, literally?

    keep reading

  • June 13th, 2012 3:10pm

    discoverynews:

    valuablelesson:

    Wood and leather prosthetic toe used to facilitate walking, dated 950-710 BC. Found on a female mummy near Luxor. Source: (BBC)

    Ancient Egyptians were at the forefront of medicine. They are regarded as the first formal civilization to document practiced medicine. The Egyptian word for doctor is “wabau”(meaning ritually pure). There were many specialities in Egyptian medicine, including what is known as modern day dentists, ophthalmologists, and proctologists.

    whoa

  • June 12th, 2012 2:35pm


    discoverynews:

    theatlantic:

    Dystopia: What a Game of Civilization II Looks Like After 10 Years

    Here’s what happened. Some human being kept playing the same game for a decade and then posted screenshots to Reddit along with a narrative explanation of where the gameworld stands. Lycerius, the user, begins his history of the future:

    • The world is a hellish nightmare of suffering and devastation.

    • There are 3 remaining super nations in the year 3991 A.D, each competing for the scant resources left on the planet after dozens of nuclear wars have rendered vast swaths of the world uninhabitable wastelands.

    Read more.

    Amazing