Funeral home accused of losing woman’s body.

Bull semen canisters fall off bus, close highway ramp.

Study finds bacteria from dog feces in winter sky above Detroit.

Hoax sign warns Arizona drivers of panda rampage.

When sheriff’s deputies raided a suspected meth house in Loma Linda, the drugs, guns and pipes were there, as expected. But the discovery of about two dozen granite tombstones had them stumped.

Drunk Gerard Depardieu kicked off plane after peeing on floor. Passengers shocked, but friends of beloved French actor insist he urinated in a bottle.

Police Chief Jim McDonnell has confirmed that detaining photographers for taking pictures “with no apparent esthetic value” is within Long Beach Police Department policy.

Why Earthquake Shook NYC Skyscrapers, But Not Streets.

Will Hurricane Irene Destroy NYC?

A New York Hurricane Could Be a Multibillion-Dollar Catastrophe.

Women are more likely to gain weight after they get married, while men are more likely to put on pounds after a divorce, researchers found.

Warren Buffett Bails Out Bank of America.

Mortgage Rates Hit 50-Year Low.

Steve Jobs, in multiple stages of his business career, changed global technology, media and lifestyles in multiple ways on multiple occasions. Related: The 313 Apple patents that list Steven P. Jobs among the group of inventors.

Believe it or not, one thing that predicts how well a CEO’s company performs is the width of his face.

Computers will be able to tell social traits from the face.

Modified ecstasy could one day have a role to play in fighting some blood cancers after researchers increase its effectiveness 100-fold, scientists say. [Thanks Aj!]

Article on the current ongoing trial testing whether ‘ecstasy’ could be useful in treatment to address combat trauma.

Psychologist James Pennebaker reveals the hidden meaning of pronouns.

How Do I Remember That I Know You Know That I Know?

More people means more ideas. In the long run.

Five myths about memory.

When it comes to mental illness, the sexes are different: Women are more likely to be diagnosed with anxiety or depression, while men tend toward substance abuse or antisocial disorders, according to a new study.

Less depression for working moms who expect that they ‘can’t do it all.’

Climate cycles are driving wars, says study.

Stars as cool as the human body discovered.

Life-carrying rocks ejected from Earth by asteroid impacts could have made their way to Jupiter and beyond, say astronomers.

Lava, not water, may have carved the biggest channels on Mars.

If we can’t see black holes, how do we know they’re there? Well, orbits, for one thing.

Japanese scientists successfully restored fertility in sterile mice using sperm cells that were originated in the lab.

Researchers discovered a new species of titi monkey on a recent expedition to the Brazilian amazon.

The way bees hunt for food is more complex than biologists thought.

Conjoined twinning is a rare congenital abnormality.  We know of old historical cases, of course, like Chang and Eng, whose birthplace gives us the term Siamese twins.  Solving the Mystery of Conjoined Twins at Angel Mounds.

Billie Holiday sings about the phenomenon of seeing meaningful patterns in vague or non-connected visual information in her well-known track The Very Thought of You. Scientifically, these effects are known as pareidolia or apophenia.

As researchers explore using psychedelic drugs to treat mental illness, a powerful Amazonian hallucinogen is gaining the most devoted followers of all.

Do You See What I See? BBC on the Subjectivity of Color Perception. Why you should wear red on your next date, or what an African tribe can teach us about the color of water.

Why Fallacies Appear to Be Better Arguments than They Are.

If religion makes you happy, why are people turning away from it?

What is risk, and how can it be expressed? Should risk be defined through probabilities or should risk be defined through uncertainties?

The question of whether the world is finite or infinite has bedeviled us for a long time.

How Computational Complexity Will Revolutionize Philosophy.

Merkle Puzzles in a Quantum World. In 1974, Ralph Merkle proposed the first unclassified scheme for secure communications over insecure channels.

It is useful to think of conspiracy theorizing as a meme, a cultural invention that passes from one mind to another and thrives, or declines, through a process analogous to genetic selection.

The Voynich Manuscript: will we ever be able to read this book?

Grue and bleen are artificial predicates, coined as two portmanteau of “green” and “blue” by philosopher Nelson Goodman. The words are used to illustrate what Goodman calls “the new riddle of induction.”

While living in Rio de Janeiro in 1999, I saw something that caught my attention: a television broadcast of a Carnival parade that paid homage to a plastic surgeon, Dr. Ivo Pitanguy.

The evolution and function of crime commissions, from Argentina’s National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons in 1983, to the United Nations commissions in East Timor and Sierra Leone in the last decade.

The business of writing about the business of roller coasters.

How Vodka, the flavorless, colorless, odorless spirit, became a billion-dollar business.

Making potato chips is people in hairnets peeling potatoes, slicing them up, dropping them in a fryer, putting them in a bag somehow, and selling them.

Why Reindeer Don’t Go Snowblind.

Does the average American use more energy than a blue whale? The New York Times says it’s true. Is it?

How Ayrton Senna Car Crash Saved Formula One Racing.

How To Deal With Salespeople.

How Do You Count 7 Billion People?

What did people use before toilet paper was invented?

A lot / Alot / Allot. First the bad news: there is no such word as “alot.” “A lot” refers to quantity, and “allot” means to distribute or parcel out. 7 Spelling and Grammar Errors that Make You Look Dumb.

Created in 1997, the Taco Bell Chihuahua was the fast-food chain’s big attempt to establish a mascot for their brand. Common logic must have been the driving force here, as Taco Bell is a fake Mexican restaurant, and the Chihuahua is a fake Mexican dog. 5 Famous Ad Campaigns That Actually Hurt Sales.

Left: 100-year-old logo for a defunct company called S & Co. Right: Goodby Silverstein & Partners new logo. Appropriation is a big part of our culture.

When he returned his landlord was freaking out because Bukowski had painted a large cock and balls on Chris’s door.

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Black smoke.

Toasted bread portraits. Related: Mother-in-law recreated with huge toast portrait.

A bee and a bird.

Shark alarm. [video]

every day the same again | August 25th, 2011