Paying taxes is, for most people, both unavoidable and irksome. But how much hard-earned pay is taken by governments varies considerably across the world. Among the rich countries of the OECD, Germans shell out the most, with a worker earning an average income giving 43% of their gross pay to the state, with nearly half […]

You are securely belted into the driver’s seat of your new startup and you are about to smash down on the gas pedal to get it launched. You have gone through the steps all startup leaders take in those first few months, and then you realize that there is no road ahead. You smile as […]

Yes, buying this French maid PC case is as good as admitting that you have not yet had, and likely never will have relations with the opposite sex. And if your first reaction was wood, followed by a burning desire for an upskirt shot in the hopes of finding your new favorite USB port, I […]

Neuroanatomist Jill Bolte Taylor had an opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: One morning, she realized she was having a massive stroke. As it happened — as she felt her brain functions slip away one by one, speech, movement, understanding — she studied and remembered every moment. This is a powerful story about how […]

Perhaps the most engaging way to create a good community archive is through the development of a “Time Capsule Room” in the library.
Most libraries will find that the Time Capsule Room takes on a personality of its own, as local people begin to participate in populating the spaces. Ideas about […]

 
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin
At the end of February, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) held a public hearing at Harvard University, investigating claims that the cable giant Comcast had been stifling traffic sent over its network using the popular peer-to-peer file-sharing protocol BitTorrent. Comcast argued that it acted only during periods of severe network […]

Not enough room in your frig crisper? No space on the counter? Well, one alternative for fruit storage is your kitchen wall! The fruit in the “Still Life,” by Umamy Design Group, is so tempting, it says, “Go ahead! Take me off the wall.”
Fruit should be stored in single layers, so keeping it in crispers […]

Late last year, a new company in the United Kingdom announced their plans to build an all electric supercar sporting 700hp (equivalent). The Lightning Car Company unveiled the Lightning GT at Geneva, bringing it one step closer to production.

Wasabi, or Japanese Horseradish, has a particularly pungent taste and scent. Now researchers in Japan are using wasabi’s overpowering odor in a new type of smoke detector / fire alarm that wakes the deaf through scent instead of sound.

RateMyCop.com — a site where the general public can comment on police officers — has been shut down by its hosting company, GoDaddy. The company claims his site had been engaged in “suspicious activity.” Various police departments and organizations have spoken out against RateMyCop, arguing that it would reveal the identities of undercovers (undercovers are […]

 
Brother and sister, and lovers with four children.
Patrick and Susan from Leipzig.
Must consensual sex between close relatives be punished? Germany’s highest court is about to rule whether incest will continue to result in a jail term. It is referring to the case of a brother and sister who have already had four children together.

Inhaling diesel exhaust triggers a stress response in the brain that may have damaging long-term effects on brain function, Dutch researchers said on Tuesday.
Previous studies have found very small particles of soot, or nanoparticles, are able to travel from the nose and lodge in the brain. But this is the first time […]

More than one in four U.S. teen girls is infected with at least one sexually transmitted disease, and the rate is highest among blacks, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.
An estimated 3.2 million U.S. girls ages 14 and 19 — about 26 percent of that age group — have a […]

Mulberry Street Unicorn
Seuss embarked on an ingenious project in the early 1930s as he evolved from two-dimensional artworks to three-dimensional sculptures. What was most unusual for these mixed-media sculptures was the use of real animal parts including beaks, antlers and horns from deceased Forest Park Zoo animals where Seuss’s father was superintendent. More photos […]