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The $120,000 Art Basel Banana, Explained
So, uh, whose banana is it?
Art Basel Banana is catchy, but it’s not actually the work’s name. Titled Comedian, it’s by Maurizio Cattelan. Cattelan is an Italian artist and an absurdist—in 2016 he replaced a toilet at the Guggenheim with a fully functioning gold one. He called the read more

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Like a Zumwalt Class Destroyer meets leftover Blade Runner prop, Tesla’s truck looks like none the world has ever seen before.
Its design is deceptively simple. Its profile is diamondlike, with five simple lines. Its nose is wedge-shaped, its sheetmetal quickly merging with a single massive pane of windshield glass—“bulletproof,” Elon read more

Then and now: the Spencer Dam near Spencer in November 2013, top, vs. March 2019, after the dam came crashing dow during a flood (below)

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America’s aging dams could put tens of thousands of people across 44 states at risk of deadly floods as 1,700 are rated ‘poor or unsatisfactory’
Built for flood control, irrigation, water supply, hydropower, recreation or industrial waste storage, read more

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The way hospitals respond to a cyberattack can result in a slower response to critical heart patients.
After an attack, corrective actions to improve security in hospital information technology systems may “disrupt care processes” and reduce the quality of care, according to a study published by researchers at Vanderbilt University and read more

“Two women work in hut 6 at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, during the Second World War. Cryptographers deciphered top-secret military communiques between Hitler and his armed forces, which ultimately aided the victory of the Allied forces”

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The ‘Codebreakers’ poppy has special meaning for Kate because her paternal grandmother Valerie Glassborow was among those who worked to decipher the secrets of the German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park during the war.
It was the first time the royal has worn the elegant brooch, read more

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A Viking bridge that took three years to build in Denmark is finally done.
The bridge, which is now considered to be the world’s longest Viking bridge, was built using the tools and methods that Vikings would have used. More than 1,000 people, including craftspeople and children, helped build the bridge throughout read more

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Some fifty years before the Mayflower left port, a band of French colonists came to the New World.
Like the later English Pilgrims, these Protestants were victims of religious wars, raging across France and much of Europe. And like those later Pilgrims, they too wanted religious freedom and the chance for a new life. But they also wanted to read more

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Next year, French company Agripolis is opening a 150,000-square-foot urban farm in Paris, where, according to The Guardian, it will grow more than 2,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables every day during high season. The farm is located in the 15th arrondissement, where it will occupy the rooftop of a sprawling entertainment complex that’s currently read more

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Brazil has banned most legal fires used to clear land for 60 days in a bid to stop the spread of burning which has destroyed parts of the Amazon rain forest. The ban coincides with the dry season in Brazil, which is when most fires are usually set.

There has been more than an 80 per cent increase in the number of fires read more

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Endless federal red ink may doom Social Security recipients
According to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the average federal deficit is now expected to hit an eye-popping $1.2 trillion per year between 2020 and 2029—a total of $12.2 trillion over that period.

The new deficit figures read more

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Charles Santore, 84, nationally known illustrator from South Philadelphia was born into an Italian-Irish family. He began his career in 1956 working as a freelance illustrator for local advertising agencies and publications such as the Saturday Evening Post, Life, Redbook, and the Ladies’ Home Journal. read more