Ever heard a star scream? Astrophysicists have detected the oscillating signal that heralds the last gasps of a star being sucked up by a previously dormant supermassive black hole.
The "screams," scientifically known as "quasiperiodic oscillations," occurred steadily every 200 seconds, but occasionally disappeared. Such signals have often been detected at smaller black holes and they’re believed to emanate from material about to be sucked in.
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There are WILD animals lurking in hidden places in manicured suburbs. This year, Princeton, New Jersey hired sharpshooters to cull 250 deer from the town’s herd of 550 at a cost of almost $60,000.
Columbia, South Carolina is spending $1 million to get rid of beavers and their dams in their drainage systems. After a small dog had to be put down after being mauled by a coyote in Wheaton, Illinois, a wildlife exterminator killed four coyotes and got death threats on his voicemail for doing so.
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Social factors can have a powerful effect on our intelligence. Most of us feel intelligent and amusing when talking to a particular person and feel dumb and inarticulate when talking to someone else.
In the October 7th edition of the New York Times, Annie Murphy Paul quotes psychologist Joshua Aronson as saying that we shouldn’t think of our intelligence as just a "lump of something that’s in our heads," but as "a transaction among people."
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Forgiveness is good for the soul: In the Bible, Jesus told us (NOTE: subscribers can still listen to this show) to forgive our enemies. Forgiveness is even good for our health–it lowers our cholesterol–but it may encourage whoever hurt us to do it again.
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