Monthly Archive

June 2012: Lost and Found
2012: The German babywiege, or “baby box,” is making a comeback in Western Europe. A hatch attached to hospitals and orphanages, the baby box is designed to give needy mothers of newborns a safe space to leave the infants should they not wish to parent. Some hail the baby box... ...; Order Status
2012: Queen Elizabeth II has, for the second time in a decade, updated the strict (and convoluted) Order of Precedence, the set of rules that governs the royal family’s presentations to one another. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (better known as Kate Middleton), must curtsey to “blood princesses” unless her husband... ...; Head Wounds
2012: A Florida teenager was accidentally shot in the head with a fishing spear while on an excursion with his friends. The spear pierced his skull of Yasir Lopez after being loaded into the gun improperly. Doctors worked quickly to remove the spear, and the boy never lost consciousness, though... ...; Under the Influence
2012: A hypnotist performing a show at a Montreal high school was forced to call his mentor for help after a group of teenaged girls couldn’t be awoken from his trance. One student at Collège du Sacré-Coeur was reportedly under the spell for more than five hours before the senior... ...; Pick-a-Little, Talk-a-Little
2012: A new study suggests gossip, the bane of any social existence, might serve an important function. Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, concluded that gossip allows humans to communicate warnings that might not otherwise be transmitted. The New York Times reports:

The study, “The Virtues of Gossip,”...
...; Brain Pickers
2012: A freezer malfunction at a research hospital associated with Harvard University has compromised some 54 brains being held there in connection with an autism study. The oldest “brain bank” in the country, the facility is undertaking an investigation to determine why alarms didn’t go off as temperatures in the... ...; Water, Water Everywhere
2012: The state of Texas has begun to invest heavily in form of alchemy that has nagged at mankind since the days of ancient civilization—the conversion of saltwater into a drinkable beverage. Forty-four plants currently exist in the state with plans to open more as demand for water increases in... ...; Out, Damned Spot!
2012: A recent discovery of artifacts possibly belonging to the vanished aviatrix Amelia Earhart has given researchers new clues as to her fate—and exposed her weakness for beauty products. Discovery News reports:

A small cosmetic jar offers more circumstantial evidence that the legendary aviator, Amelia Earhart, died on an...
...; Jubilation!
2012: This weekend, Elizabeth II celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, the sixtieth anniversary of her ascent to the throne, with a series of parades, events, and much fanfare from the public. Only the second Diamond Jubilee in the history of the United Kingdom, one of the weekend’s highlights was a floating... ...

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