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Step into the heart of eastern Oregon, where the night sky unveils a spectacle so mesmerizing that it’s officially been crowned the world’s largest International Dark Sky Sanctuary.
Imagine a canvas stretching over 2.5 million acres in Lake County, twinkling with stars, a wilderness so vast it’s just the beginning of a dream to shield 11.4 million acres from the ever-encroaching glow read more

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Finland Tops Happiest Countries List for the Seventh Time
For the seventh year running, Finland has been named the happiest country in the world by the United Nations’ World Happiness Report. The Nordic nation has long been known for its sauna culture, but the Finns’ enduring well-being goes beyond warm rooms and cold plunges. Some Finns have told the press that their citizens read more

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An international team of scientists may have found more than 100 new species, during a mission to explore seamounts off the coast of Chile. These creatures who look like they come from a sci-fi novel call the 1,800-mile-long Salas y Gómez Ridge home.

Seamounts are large underwater mountains that are often formed by volcanic activity and can be found in every ocean basin on Earth. They are a critical read more

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This Italian Airport Will Have A Vineyard On Its Roof
From their window seats, future visitors landing at the Amerigo Vespucci Airport in Florence (sometimes called Peretola Airport) will catch the view of a 19-acre vineyard gently sloping upward toward the new international terminal.

This remarkable feature will visually reflect Tuscany’s integral read more

Mulan’s Lunar New Year Procession, Los Angeles, USA
London, England
Lion dance, Edinburgh, Scotland
Dragon dance, Manila, Philippines
Traditional stilt walkers, Beijing, China
Sydney, Australia
Barcelona, Spain
Auspicious Dragon Lego set 2024

Image courtesy Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images, Leon Neal/Getty Images, Ezra Acayan/Getty Images, Kevin Frayer/Getty Images, Axel Miranda/SOPA Images/Sipa/Reuters, Disney and Lego

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Sea Otters Returned to a Degraded Coastline Ate Enough Crabs to Restore Balance and Cut Erosion by 90%
Against all odds, a distressed California coastal ecosystem is on the mend, in large part, thanks to the insatiable appetite sea otters have for crabs.

In a groundbreaking study published this week in Nature, scientists revealed that the return of sea otters read more

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“Our request is simple: tax us, the very richest in society,” they write in an open letter.
“If elected representatives of the world’s leading economies do not take steps to address the dramatic rise of economic inequality, the consequences will continue to be catastrophic,” the letter writes.

Among the letter’s signatories: Valerie Rockefeller, heir to the American read more

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Tough crowd? Feds putting end to ‘humorous’ highway signs to prioritize safety
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is cracking down on “humorous” digital signs that have been cracking smiles on drivers all across the US.

The days an Ohio highway tells drivers to “slow down” to arrive at the in-laws late or a New Jersey road advising Halloween read more

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‘Steamboat Willie’ is now in the public domain. What does that mean for Mickey Mouse?
An early Walt Disney movie featuring the first appearance of Mickey Mouse is among the copyrighted works from 1928 moving into the public domain on Jan. 1, 2024.

“You know, he’s evolved so much and become more 3D and colorful,” observes Ryan Harmon, a former Disney read more

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NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope and Hubble Space Telescope have united to study an expansive galaxy cluster known as MACS0416. The resulting panchromatic image combines visible and infrared light to assemble one of the most comprehensive views of the universe ever taken. Located about 4.3 billion light-years from Earth, MACS0416 is a pair of colliding galaxy read more

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California has ordered the company Cruise to immediately stop operations of its driverless cars in the state. The Department of Motor Vehicles said on Tuesday that it was issuing the indefinite suspension because of safety issues with the vehicles. “When there is an unreasonable risk to public safety, the DMV can immediately suspend or read more

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Last year’s techwide reckoning continues. The tech industry has seen more than 240,000 jobs lost in 2023, a total that’s already 50% higher than last year and growing. Earlier this year, mass workforce reductions were driven by the biggest names in tech like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, Meta and Zoom. Startups across many sectors also announced cutbacks through the first half of the year. And while read more

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Well, bless their hearts — Gen Z is killing the Southern drawl, y’all.
That’s according to a new study published in Language Variation and Change, which claims the classic Southern American accent has been slowly fading over time — with the younger generation now helping to hammer the final nail into the proverbial pine box.

“Today’s college students don’t read more