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They're undeniably cute, but they'd also be a pretty annoying pet. Last fall, a study of raccoons found that these city-dwelling trash pandas are beginning to look different than their rural cousins in the U.S.—they appear to be domesticating themselves. It wouldn’t be the first time a wild animal species manipulated humanity for its own benefit. Dogs did it at least 14,000 years ago, discovering that befriending garbage-producing humans resulted in tastier, more abundant scraps and less arduous lives on their own. New genetic data indicates that cats feeding off the abundant rodents plundering human food stores domesticated themselves for...

Prosecutors have given more details about how Peter Murrell embezzled goods worth more than £400,000 using the SNP's money.What stands out from the narrative is the persistence, cynicism and devious tactics used by the man who was the party's chief executive for more than two decades.The Crown revealed how he used his privileged access to the SNP's accounting system to feather his own nest in a whole range of ways - with credit cards, SNP charge cards and direct transfers of money.That may go some way towards explaining how the SNP's auditors, party officials and his estranged wife Nicola Sturgeon...

Schools are letting out, and whether you've got kids or not, something about this time of year still hits differently. Summer stopped being a vacation for most of us a long time ago — but try telling that to the part of your brain still wired to Press Your Luck ("No Whammys!") and the smell of a freshly opened Slip 'n Slide. Core memories are funny that way. Once they're in, they're in for good. '80s Summers Meant Home By the Streetlights, Gone By Morning For a solid ten weeks a year, you roamed your little universe without anyone —...

'Nude isn't lewd': World Naked Bike Ride returns to Madison this June The 12-mile ride is a protest against oil dependency — and a statement that every body has a place in public. MADISON, Wis. -- Whether you love it, hate it or just tolerate it, the World Naked Bike Ride will return to Madison later this month. Organizers said the ride will begin at 11 a.m. on June 20. Madison is one of dozens of cities holding a ride worldwide. Organizers expect 160-200 people to join this year's event. The annual ride serves as a protest against oil dependency...

Raised in the rural Montana community of Big Sandy, Jeff Ament got hooked as a teenager on skateboarding at a time when not much more than only a handful of ramps were available in the state. Ament's first love was a “terrible” clay wheel skateboard and his passion blossomed on a family trip to California, where he skateboarded and felt the g-forces on urethane wheels on paved asphalt streets and then poured through the pages of Skateboarder magazine on the 20-hour drive home to Montana. Ament found pictures of decks and ramps that he used as inspiration for designs that...

Mole people? Crocodile catchers? Mario brothers? A series of bizarre sightings of people popping in and out of New York City’s vast subterranean sewer system has the city wondering what exactly is going on, with police now probing the underground mystery. Some wore headlamps and carried what appeared to be shovels and other tools. One narrowly missed getting run over by a vehicle as they pulled themselves out of the ground. “They look like they were looking for something important, like money, or for doing some type of hurting,” he said. “Ain’t no fun and games. I mean, seven grown...

We updated this list as part of the the Best of the Best Books Reading Challenge! Join the challenge now! Very short novels have a special magic—not least because, not to be morbid, you can simply read more of them before the inevitable heat death of the planet (or similar). I previously wrote about great contemporary novels under 200 pages, but now it is time to turn my attention to my favorite short classics—which represent the quickest and cheapest way, I can tell you in my salesman voice, to become “well-read.” A few notes: Because the “contemporary” list surveyed novels...

Nvidia is fully committed to transforming Windows on Arm into an agentic AI platform. Along with its first-generation RTX Spark platform for desktop and laptop PCs, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang revealed the company's commitment to future generations of those platforms on its future roadmaps. The company is committed to producing at least two additional generations of Spark platforms for its partners. Beyond the Grace Blackwell RTX Spark chips (the top-end RTX Spark Superchip and an as-yet-undetailed smaller chip), Huang promised that every future generation of the company's platforms will include a Spark chip. That means there will be a Vera...

The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

Proposal to ban hunting, fishing in Oregon met with backlash Anthony Broadman, Oregon state senator, joined 'Fox & Friends First' to discuss why the proposal has been met with scrutiny and the possible legal challenges surrounding the measure. A controversial Oregon initiative seeking to ban hunting and fishing advances, drawing criticism from Democratic State Senator Anthony Broadman who highlights economic harm and conservation concerns. The proposal, part of a new animal cruelty law, has surpassed 120,000 signatures.

The long-held idea that language learning is better before adulthood is up for debate... Lourdes Ortega, a professor of linguistics at Georgetown University...says factors beyond age, like immersion, make a bigger difference in language learning success. “Without the opportunity to be exposed to the language, there's no learning that can happen, early or late..." The FSI [Foreign Service Institute] says languages that native English speakers would find similar to their own, such as Spanish or French, can be taught relatively quickly in about 24-30 weeks. In contrast, languages that have significant cultural differences from English, like Greek or Russian, will...

A wannabe spy convinced the CIA to give him $40 million in gold bars by claiming it was for “work-related expenses” — and it was just the latest in a lengthy career full of increasingly brazen lies, according to federal prosecutors. When the FBI raided his Virginia home on May 18, they found $2 million in greenbacks, 35 luxury watches — “many of which” were Rolexes — and more than 300 one-kilogram gold bars worth over $40 million. The investigation further uncovered that Rush has claimed 744 hours of military leave on his official timesheet since his discharge more than...

Yes, you can build your very own nuclear fusion reactor in your house! But first, a few warnings: -This project includes lethal voltage levels. Make sure you know your high voltage safety or have a qualified electrical advisor. -Potentially hazardous levels of x-rays will be produced. Lead shielding of viewports is a must! -Deuterium, an explosive gas, will be used. Make sure to check for fuel leaks. -All the other inherent dangers of a home engineering project of this degree (a wide gamut of potential injuries, damage to the checking account, and the loss of general sanity) ========================================================================================== Here are...

Charlotte Heimann, a 27-year-old mother with ties to Clermont County, Ohio, disappeared on Oct. 30, 1981, after leaving the Rochester Psychiatric Center in New York. More than four decades later, her granddaughter, Shyla Jump, is working to uncover what happened. "I didn’t actually know the story behind it. I didn’t actually know my grandmother. I didn’t know who she was until now," Jump said. Charlotte left her 4-year-old daughter, Jump’s mother, with her own mother in Ohio while she moved to New York to be closer to her father and attend Monroe College. Records and family accounts describe Charlotte's struggles...

You can’t spell “graduation” without “gator.” A graduating McNeese State University student is shocking the internet with a senior photoshoot with a 14-foot alligator named Big Al — including one shot where she’s planting a smooch right on the gator’s snout, her face mere inches from its wide-open jaws. The photo is nuts — but not quite as nuts as it might seem. Kat Daley, 22, who helps run Gator Country in Beaumont, Texas, with her fiancé Eddie said she wasn’t frightened during the shoot — and that it wasn’t her first time being face-to-face with an alligator. “I really...

AKRON, Ohio (WJW) – Two people are dead after a small aircraft crashed into an Akron residence on Thursday afternoon. VIDEOS AT LINK..... The crash happened in the 2200 block of Canterbury Circle around 3:45 p.m. Crews responded to reports of heavy black smoke coming from the building. “We got a call that residents saw a plane going down into the house. We got more calls that people heard explosions and we arrived to heavy smoke coming out of the house,” District Chief Sierjie Lash said. The Ohio State Highway Patrol confirmed that the two people aboard the aircraft died...

Shedding pounds while building strength can feel like a delicate balancing act. Forget high-intensity training sessions that leave you drained for days (despite a high calorie burn). There’s a smarter approach: rucking. Walking with a weighted backpack burns calories, builds muscle, and boosts endurance all at once, bridging the gap between cardio and strength training. Low-impact and easy to scale, it’s an ideal way for men to stay lean and strong as they age. Rucking has long been a pillar of military training, moving heavy loads efficiently to build both physical and mental endurance. But you don’t have to be...

Bordeaux-no! A Michigan woman was arrested and then rushed to the hospital after she stole a bottle of wine and hid it inside a “body cavity,” cops said. The 48-year-old was allegedly caught by shopkeepers drinking a bottle of alcohol in a Traverse City liquor store without paying for it, and returned the next day to nab a bottle of Chardonnay. Employees attempted to stop her, but were unable to find the pilfered tipple. That is, until police arrested her and found it stashed inside an unnamed bodily orifice at the jail, at which point she was brought to Munson...

Now, he's back to rethink fast food entirelyWill Young wasn’t even sure his order was possible. He’d heard rumors, of course, but as a kid who’d grown up on the internet of the 1990s, he knew that website whispers didn’t always translate to the real world. He and his buddies, out for a meandering night in Las Vegas, would just have to ask. So, around dinner time on Halloween night in 2004, Young’s laid-back group, including the late Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, stepped up to the counter of a Nevada In-N-Out to test their fate. Would it be possible,...