Smart News

There’s a Universal Law of Urination in Mammals

They all take an average of about 21 seconds to empty their bladders, nearly regardless of how big they are

Yetis Were Probably Just Polar Bears

A recently discovered "Yeti corpse" was likely nothing more than a poor polar bear who many years ago found itself at the wrong end of a spear or a sword

Children stand near a memorial at Cambodia’s killing fields

The Trial of Cambodia’s Genocidal Leaders Is Nearing a Verdict

More than 30 years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge, trials of the group's genocidal leaders are inching closer to a verdict

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Some Seemingly Harmless Snakes Possess a Secret Venom Gland

These attacks are extremely rare, however, and victims were probably doing things they should not have been doing

This Man From Calgary Spent 23 Years on the Road, Visiting Every Country in the World

While many other people have also managed to visit more than 190 countries, in Bown's book those visits don't count

Up to 31,000 People in Britain Carry the Prion for Mad Cow Disease

What this means for the people who silently carry the abnormal protein, however, remains unknown

Glitches in the Common Application Have Seniors Pulling Their Hair Out

Should the Common App fall down entirely, we'll probably hear the collective wail millions of high school seniors all over the country

The GeoEye-1 satellite

This App Tells You When Satellites Are Watching You

For the paranoid among us, an app that says when you may be being watched

The Youngest Winner of the Booker Prize Also Wrote the Longest Book

Eleanor Catton is 28, and her book The Luminaries is over 800 pages long

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Zombie Corals Can Come Back From the Dead

Killed by bleaching, this weird kind of coral can regrow from cryptic tissue

There Are No More Landlines in This Town

Residents, however, are not pleased and demand their landlines to be reinstated

These Scientists Are Trying to Take the Internet Underwater

Have you ever been underwater and thought, "man I really wish I could watch some YouTube videos right now?"

Vote for the Next Inductees Into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

So far, Nirvana is winning the fan vote with 15 percent, followed closely by Kiss at 14.33 percent

Hungry Animals Would Take Down a Zombie Invasion

If large creatures were overwhelmed by the bounty of food available, the microbes and insects would not be

Part of the city of Mohenjo Daro

The 4,500-Year-Old City of Mohenjo Daro Is Crumbling, And No One Is Stopping It

The ruins had been preserved for thousands of years, but now they're fading fast

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You Can Visit the World’s Oldest Zero at a Temple in India

Indian mathematicians were the first to treat zero as an equal

Luke Skywalker’s prosthetic hand from The Empire Strikes Back

Advances in Prosthetic Limbs Brings Back a Sense of Touch

This new prosthetic mimicked rhesus macaques' sense of touch

Oarfish model in a museum

A Giant Oarfish Just Washed Up in California

Every time an oarfish washes up on the beach, the world freaks out. Here's the most recent one

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Ridley Scott Reused Footage From The Shining at the End of Blade Runner

From sets to props to entire sequences, Hollywood is actually really good at recycling

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Music Makes Working Out Hurt Less

Music doesn't solely work by distracting us or syncing our motions up with its encouraging beat

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