Animal Instincts & Pearls of Wisdom

A false message about mercury contamination was posted in response to a physics problem on Carnegie Mellon's discussion board in 1982, which some users took seriously. The need to indicate which messages were jokes led to the creation of facial expressions using special characters. On September 19,... Sign in to see full entry.

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Causing property or bodily damage once their integrity has been compromised, exploding trees as they have been dubbed are a very real possibility in the Midwest and Northern Plains this "Snowmaggeden Winter Storm, as temperatures are forecasted to fall -20 degrees.” Although the “exploding tree”... Sign in to see full entry.

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I'm not sure about other states, but I see it way too often in my neck of the woods. There’s always that one guy who is completely oblivious, staring straight ahead, heater blasting, totally unaware he’s reenacting a low-budget winter action movie behind him because he neglected to clean ten inches... Sign in to see full entry.

Scientists studied a small group of dogs known as Gifted Word Learners, capable of learning the names of hundreds of objects. In the first experiment, owners talked about new toys with another person while their dogs listened and watched, without directly teaching them. When later tested, the dogs... Sign in to see full entry.

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The age-old question might never be solved when it comes to which one came first. New research is leaning toward the chicken. Scientists found that a specific protein (OC-17) acts as a catalyst to kickstart the formation of the shell. Since that protein is produced by the hen, the egg couldn’t exist... Sign in to see full entry.

They found the coats on Thursday morning. Fifteen winter coats. Good ones, not garbage. Hanging on the chain-link fence outside Lincoln Elementary. No note. No explanation. Just coats, zipped up like ghosts waiting for bodies. Principal Morris freaked out. Called the police. "Could be stolen," she... Sign in to see full entry.

In New York, the Binghampton firefighters found a squirrel in distress with its head stuck in a small drain hole on the side of a dumpster. Binghamton Police officers worked to stabilize the scene and through quick thinking, initiated extrication efforts before fire personnel arrived. Using... Sign in to see full entry.