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You Can Now Take Your Pot To The Skies In Oregon

 An aerial view of Portland's airport and the Columbia River. (Photo: Bring Back Words/Flickr)The Portland International Airport in Oregon just gave a whole new meaning to the term "getting high."Since...

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100 Wonders: The Walking Sausage Comes Home

This is Ball's Pyramid. The world's largest sea stack, it is taller than the Empire State Building—and all that is left over a 7 million year-old volcano. But hidden on its sheer rock walls was...

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Haunting Photos Of An Abandoned Air Force Base

Inside the abandoned Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois. (All photos: Walter Arnold Photography)Walter Arnold has spent the last six years photographing abandoned sites across America. His...

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Dark Crystal: The Secrets of Swarovski

A Swarovski crystal. (Photo: Alexander Baxevanis/flickr) There are gems, there are crystals, and then there’s Swarovski.The improbably successful Austrian crystal manufacturer is the epitome of...

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FOUND: Evidence of Prehistoric Dentistry

The tooth in question (Photo: Oxilia et al/Scientific Reports)For millennia now, the human diet has cursed people with cavities. But a team of European scientists have now found indications that humans...

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I Scream, You Scream. But Why?

Edvard Munch's 1893 painting The Scream. (Image: Munch/Public Domain)Edvard Munch knew it, Wes Craven knew it, and no one knows it better than newborn babies—if you want to cut through the noise of the...

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How Do You Speak American? Mostly, Just Make Up Words

John F. Kennedy knew how to speak American. (Image: NASA/Wikimedia)Nearly a century ago, just after World War I had ended, there was a groundswell of linguistic patriotism in America. All of a sudden,...

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FOUND: Giant, Eerie Hermaphroditic Sea Slugs

A sea hare out of water (Photo: Michael L. Baird/Wikimedia)Earlier this week, a beach-goer in the East Bay came across something odd. It was large, brown, and gooey-looking, and she thought it might be...

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Here Comes Santa, That Sexy Shaman

The cover to 'Klaus', illustrated by Dan Mora. (Photo: Courtesy Boom Studios)If you’ve ever heard an origin story for Santa Claus, it likely went something like this: kindhearted, immortal, elfin old...

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Photos of the World's Religions, By Missionaries Who Knew Nothing About Them

(All images: Special Collections, Yale Divinity School Library)In the 19th and 20th centuries, one particular class of explorers traveled overseas not to gain new knowledge, but to spread ideas they...

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The Gift America Didn't Know It Wanted: Florida

An engraved map of Florida by artist Jacques les Moyne, from 1591. (Image: Library of Congress/Public Domain)There’s no arguing it—Florida is kind of nuts. Pull on that lever sticking out from the...

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Exit Interview: Melissa Auf der Maur

The rockstar in her current job. (Photo: Eve Alpert/Used with Permission)How do you escape being a world-famous touring musician? Proud Montreal native and ultra-badass bassist Melissa Auf der Maur...

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The Art of Quitting

(Photo: Akos Nagy/shutterstock.com) The thing about Ellen Pao, or any high-profile quitter before her, is that, ultimately, you reach a limit of what you can do—or more importantly, desire to do—in a...

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Battles, Batman, and Liberace: A Cultural History of Capes

Ever Wonder how capes came to be Thor-t of as superheroic? (Photo: randychiu on Flickr)Simple in design, yet evocative of the utmost drama and intrigue, capes are sartorial shorthand for imminent...

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FOUND: Pluto's Icy Plains

The plains of Pluto (Image: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI)New Horizons has already blown past Pluto, but it's going to be sending back data for years. Scientists have already found amazing mountains on the planet's...

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The Obsessively Detailed Map of American Literature's Most Epic Road Trips

I am a freak for the American road trip. And I'm not alone, as some of this country's best writers have taken a shot at describing that quintessentially American experience. “There is no such knowledge...

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There's an Escape Release in Car Trunks Due to One Woman Kidnapped and Locked...

(Image: Chris Dlugosz/Flickr)Above the mantlepiece in the living room of Janette Fennell's home, there's a painting in whites and pinks and sweeping blues and yellows. At the center, an angel is...

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100 Wonders: Town on Fire

There is an inverse world of tourism—the antithesis to Sandal's resorts and Carnival Cruises. Called dark tourism, ruin tourism, urban exploration, or simply travel, depending on the context, it...

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Punching Out: The Story of Ejector Seats

(Photo: U.S. Navy on Wikipedia)Your instruments are frozen. You’re losing altitude. It’s inevitable. You’re going to crash. But wait! There’s one more option. The ejector seat!In a split second...

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FOUND: A Network of Tunnels Under the White Cliffs of Dover

The tunnels were reinforced with metal (Photo: National Trust/Chris Tapley)The stark face of the White Cliffs of Dover faces France, across the famous Strait of Dover, and during World War II, Winston...

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