From the category archives:

Random & Interesting

Qur’an etched in Saddam Hussein’s blood poses dilemma for Iraq leaders

December 20, 2010

It was etched in the blood of a dictator in a ghoulish bid for piety. Over the course of two painstaking years in the late 1990s, Saddam Hussein had sat regularly with a nurse and an Islamic calligrapher; the former drawing 27 litres of his blood and the latter using it as a macabre ink [...]

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The Mysterious Fate of Flight 007, Shot Down by the USSR in 1983 [Google Maps]

December 14, 2010

In 1983, a Korean Air 747 strayed into soviet airspace and was shot down, killing 269 people, including a member of Congress. Different groups claim that the plane was sacrificed to test soviet defences, that the Rockefeller’s wanted to assassinate congressman Larry McDonald, and that the plane actually survived and that the passengers are still being held [...]

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This beautiful island is (probably) Amelia Earhart’s Resting Place [Google Maps]

December 12, 2010

Nikumaroro Island, Kiribati, is about as South Pacific as it gets. Its notable mainly as being the place where a lot of people suspect that Amelia Earhart and her navigator Fred Noonan crashed (out of gas), survived, and later died. Evidence? A skeletal body found in the forties, since lost (can you believe that filing [...]

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Extra healthy apples on the way as scientists crack genome for Golden Delicious

August 30, 2010

“…Apples that suppress appetite could also be in the pipeline, with the first varieties on shelves within five years.” via Extra healthy apples on the way as scientists crack genome for Golden Delicious | Mail Online.

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What’s It Like to Be a Tourist in North Korea?

August 17, 2010

“North Korea is a real place to me. For most of us, I think, North Korea occupies the same imaginary plane of existence as Mordor. But it is real, and one thing I came to appreciate is that most North Koreans are normal people living in abnormal conditions…” What’s It Like to Be a Tourist [...]

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Aren’t you glad mosquitos don’t transmit HIV?

May 25, 2010

From the CDC: “The results of experiments and observations of insect biting behavior indicate that when an insect bites a person, it does not inject its own or a previously bitten person's or animal's blood into the next person bitten. Rather, it injects saliva, which acts as a lubricant so the insect can feed efficiently. [...]

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Uber Creepy Tour: Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans [69 Pics]

March 24, 2010

The title says it all. After Katrina, Six Flags never reclaimed their park, which was built over a swamp to begin with. Its now been rusting and decaying for years, making it a fascinating subject for Urban explorers. Uber Creepy Tour: Abandoned Six Flags New Orleans [69 Pics] | Design + Ideas on WU.

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Red Menace: Ug99 Fungus is Going to Destroy the World’s Grain

March 15, 2010

Indeed, 90 percent of the world’s wheat has little or no protection against the Ug99 race of P. graminis. If nothing is done to slow the pathogen, famines could soon become the norm — from the Red Sea to the Mongolian steppe — as Ug99 annihilates a crop that provides a third of our calories. [...]

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