Month: November 2013
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Google’s Mystery Barges Confirmed As ‘Technology Demo Space’
from abcnews.go.com: One of Silicon Valley’s greatest mysteries has been solved… after weeks of speculation Google confirmed today that the barges spotted in Portland and San Francisco are owned by the company and will be used to demonstrate technology products. “Google Barge … A floating data center? A wild party boat? A barge housing the…
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Mexican Coke Shipped To US Will Still Use Cane Sugar
from ap.org: Fans of “Mexican Coke” in the U.S. need not worry about any sweetener changes. Americans who buy the glass bottles of Coke exported from Mexico may have been dismayed by recent online reports that a Mexican independent bottler planned to switch from sugar to fructose to cut costs. Unlike the exported bottles of…
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Illinois Lawmakers Vote to Allow Same-Sex Marriage
from washingtonpost.com: Illinois is set to become the 15th state and largest in the heartland to allow same-sex marriage, after both chambers of the state legislature have approved a measure legalizing gay weddings. Gov. Pat Quinn (D) said in a statement Tuesday that he would sign the bill into law, although he did not specify…
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Washington Rejects GMO Labels, With Help From Food Companies
from businessweek.com: An expensive fight in Washington state over whether to label foods with genetically modified ingredients appears to have been decided largely by arguments that such labels would lead to higher grocery costs. With most of the votes counted, it appears Initiative 522 to require GMO labeling will lose by a 10-point margin. The…
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One in five suns has habitable world
from bbc.co.uk: Astronomers have estimated how many of the 100 billion stars in our galaxy hosts a potentially habitable planet. Using data from Nasa’s Kepler space telescope, they argue that one in five stars like the Sun hosts an Earth-sized world located in the “habitable zone”. This zone is the region around a star where…
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What is a Grimoire?
Internet Sacred Text archive supplies definition and full description of term “grimoire.” “The name ‘Grimoire’ is derived from the word ‘Grammar’. A grammar is a description of a set of symbols and how to combine them to create well-formed sentences. A Grimoire is, appropriately enough, a description of a set of magickal symbols and how…
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India launches its first mission to Mars
from redicecreations.com: India will aim today to become the first Asian nation to launch a space probe to the planet Mars. (Update: The rocket carrying the probe successfully lifted-off at 09.08 UT). The cut-price mission is due to blast off carrying an unmanned craft to orbit the Red Planet, studying its geology, climate, atmosphere and…
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Yes On 522 – Washington state votes on GMO-labeling initiative
from @RTAmerica: Election Day in Washington state focuses on a ballot initiative that would require labels on genetically modified foods, or GMOs. If Initiative 522 passes, Washington would be the first state in the country to require packaging to list GMO ingredients. Last year, California voted down a similar ballot proposition. It is believed that…
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Nestlé: Stop trying to patent the fennel flower
from sumofus.org: Nigella sativa — more commonly known as fennel flower — has been used as a cure-all remedy for over a thousand years. It treats everything from vomiting to fevers to skin diseases, and has been widely available in impoverished communities across the Middle East and Asia. But now Nestlé is claiming to own…
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Food delivery app Zesty cuts the grease and guilt from takeout
from venturebeat.com: A world where we could eat takeout every single night, without the consequences of cost or calories, would be a wonderful world. Alas it is not the world we live in, but Zesty is working to make takeout food less terrible for you. The company launched out of beta today, which lets people…
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Supreme Court to hear new case on religion in public life
from washingtonpost.com: The chairman of the local Baha’i congregation concluded his prayer with “Allah-u-Abha,” which loosely translates to “God the All-Glorious.” A Jew offered a prayer speaking of “the songs of David, your servant.” And a Wiccan priestess, mindful of her venue in the town of Greece, N.Y., thought that Athena and Apollo were apt…
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‘Triple Suns’ Appear in Mongolia
from digtriad.com: Chinese residents rushed out of doors to marvel a rare astronomical illusion of “triple suns” in the sky over Chifeng, in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Friday morning. The sun accompanied by two smaller twins suddenly popped up in the sky at around 09:00, and the triple appeared surrounded by an arched…
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Athens loses landmark restaurant made famous by R.E.M.
from eatocracy.cnn.com: Earlier this morning, Dexter Weaver announced on his Facebook page that his namesake restaurant will close its doors at the end of this month:”Weaver D’s Fine Foods is announcing that we will be closing the restaurant for good 2-3 weeks from today. The restaurant is for sale along with it’s contents. Come and…
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Glow-in-the-dark ice cream the next food craze?
from cbsnews.com: Novelty foods are all the rage. Just look at the cronut craze that hit New York earlier this fall, with fans shelling out upwards of $100 and waiting hours in line for a taste of the new twist on the breakfast staple. Now, a British foodie has unveiled what might become the next…
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Take Charge of Your Health Now (Before the Government Does)
from ActivistPost.com: Radical changes to health insurance coverage in America have brought issues of health to the nation’s collective attention. Millions are now asking: Will I have health insurance? Will I be able to afford it? How will a nationwide doctor shortage impact me? There are few things that you have direct control of in…