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The Perks And Pitfalls of Being a Famous Tree

A notable tree in southeast Alaska (Photo: Joseph/Flickr)To be recognized as a Great Tree, in New York City, is not just a matter of having the correct heritage or coming from the right family.There's...

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The World-Famous Researcher Who Tried to Find the Loch Ness Monster with...

Dr. Robert H Rines at Loch Ness in Scotland. (Photo: Elijah T. Ercolino)  The 2009 New York Timesobituary of Robert H. Rines logs enough accomplishments for the eulogies of several people. An M.I.T....

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The Lesser-Known History of the Confederate Flag

Some designs "as unlike as possible the Stars and Stripes," nonetheless rejected by the Committee on the Flag and Seal in 1862. (Image: WikiCommons/Public Domain)“We are not going to allow this symbol...

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FOUND: Is This a Photo of Camera-Shy Vincent van Gogh?

(Photo: Jules Antoine/Romantic Agony Auction)This photo—technically, a melainotype—was taken in 1887, likely by the amateur photographer Jules Antoine. A few years ago, a couple of European art...

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On Tour with The War on Drugs: Rochester's Church of Gear

The church of gear: Rochester's House of Guitars. All photos by Jon Natchez.For the next few weeks, The War on Drugs' Jon Natchez is going to be sharing his adventures on a current tour. Like any...

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Smile! It's the Fish With Human Teeth

 A sheepshead fish. (Photo: Andrea Westmoreland)Over the weekend, a fisherman in New Jersey caught a fish that he described to local news as "different." He'd "never seen anything like that before in...

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Why the 'Sixth Extinction' is Always in the News

Remains of the dodo, a relatively well-known victim of this latest extinction. (Photo: Semihundido/Flickr CC BY 2.0)As you may have heard, humans are killing everything. According to a study published...

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The Photographer Who is Getting Inside Abandoned Rural America

The abandoned Island Grove Methodist Church, built circa 1885 in North Florida. (Photo: Kelly Micheau)Photographer Kelly Micheau started out as, in her words, an “armchair explorer.” After watching a...

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FOUND: A 3-Mile-Tall Pyramid Mountain, in Space

 See, there at the bottom? (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UCLA/MPS/DLR/IDA)Since NASA's Dawn probe arrived in March at Ceres, a dwarf planet in our asteroid belt, it's been seeing some strange stuff. Bright...

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These Skiers Don't Need Mountains

 Ahmet Dadali in Utah. (Photo: Brent Lafleur/Flickr)The freestyle skiers of the 1990s were incredibly jealous of snowboarders. By that time, skiing competitions had become highly regulated affairs,...

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FOUND: A Fossil That Shows How Turtles Got Their Shells

Meet Pappochelys. (Image: Rainer Schoch, Stuttgart Natural History Museum)Turtles, if you stop to think about it, are really strange and amazing creatures. They're like mini-dinosaurs that have somehow...

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The Elaborate Case for Where the Best Birds in the World Live

 A view of a beach on an island in New Caledonia. (Photo: By my LifeShow, CC BY 2.0)Ornithologists are very helpful in helping the public understand birds. These scientists have taught us how they...

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Burn It? Crush It? The Historic Problem of Seized Ivory

Confiscated ivory in Times Square on June 19th. (Photo: Heidi Ruffler/FWS/Flickr CC BY 2.0)Last Friday, Times Square, usually a center and symbol of commerce, hosted an event dedicated to the opposite....

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This Computer Dreams of Electric Sheep (If You Tell It To)

Hey, we all have dreams about badger head slinkies sometimes. It's normal. (Image: Jonas Degrave/Twitch.tv)Think of everything computers do for you. Great news—you can finally give back. Mouse over...

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The Vortex of Lake Texoma

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers posted this video of the vortex on June 5th.Like a scene straight out of a sailor's worst nightmare, an eight-foot wide vortex opened up on Lake Texoma, Texas earlier this...

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Forgotten Heritage: Subterranean Cisterns of Victorian England

A Victorian cistern beneath North London. (All photos: Forgotten Heritage Photography)The word "cistern" conjures a rather humble image: toilet tank. But to residents of Victorian England, the term had...

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The 'Unfathomable' Pursuit of Personal Tunneling

Why dig a tunnel? (Photo: Eugene Sergeev/shutterstock.com)When Leanne Wijnsma digs a tunnel, it needs to be in a public place. She marks the spot where it will begin and the spot where it will end, and...

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FOUND: Deep in the Sea, There Are Corals That Glow

 Corals glow deep (Photo: Prof. J Wiedenmann)Deep in the sea near Eilat, at the southern tip of Israel, a team of scientists found color—corals glowing an array of green, orange, yellow and red. At...

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See 12 Miniature Stage-Sets With Vintage Barbies as Models

(All photos: David Parise/Vintage Barbie and Ken Photos)Barbie and Ken on the beach, doing yoga. Barbie and Ken with snorkels, underwater. Barbie and Ken in black tie, in the lobby of Miami’s...

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The First Evidence of Recognized Same-Sex Relationships is 4,500 Years Old

(Photo: Michael Ruiz)Today, the Supreme Court of the United States decided that the Constitution guarantees the right to marriage, and ordered that same-sex marriages be recognized in all 50 states in...

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