On:

Huge mining companies are bulldozing into the rain forests of Brazil, one of the world’s most environmentally sensitive regions.

They expect to spend $24 billion in the next 4 years to dig up iron ore, bauxite (used to make aluminum) and other metals found there. The Brazilian Amazon is where one-fifth of the world’s mining in going on.

Scientists are worried–they say that preserving the world’s largest remaining rain forest–an area the size of Western Europe–is critical to stave off climate change. They predict that cutting this forest down in order to build roads that lead to the mines could change the weather in a way that would kill off one-tenth of the world’s animal species.
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On:

Here’s an odd one picked up by New York Magazine: there’s a black object with a small red light on top floating in the surf near President Obama in this publicity shot of him vacationing in Hawaii. Your Out There editor has no idea what this may be, except that it appears to be a device, not a shark or some other sea creature.
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On:

Before the Knights Templar even announced their formation to the pope, they traveled thousands of miles to Portugal where they created the first European nation-state. Why did they do this? Why did they build such strange buildings in Portugal as a church without doors? The church was used by them until the destruction of the order, when a door was added. So how did they get in and out? In his new book, the First Templar Nation, Freddy Silva explores these and other mysteries.read more

On:

In the August 31st edition of the New York Times, Douglas Quenqua writes: "The idea that race or ethnicity might help determine how well people sleep is relatively new among sleep researchers. But in the few short years that epidemiologists, demographers and psychologists have been studying the link, they have repeatedly come to the same conclusion: In the United States, at least, sleep is not colorblind. "

Non-Hispanic whites get more and better-quality sleep than people of other races, studies repeatedly show. Blacks are the most likely to get shorter, more restless sleep.
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