Sunrise at Bryce Canyon

Photography by Louis Kamler

 

New Hampshire Has Too Many Wolf-Dogs

A surplus of unwanted wolf-dogs—hybrids that are more domesticated than wild wolves but less tame than dogs—is overwhelming authorities in New Hampshire. It's technically illegal, New Hampshire Public Radio reports, to sell wolf-dogs in the state, but no one seems to be making sure that law is upheld. NHPR: Basically, right now, they are treated like domestic dogs: they have to be licensed with local authorities. The Department of Agriculture has rules that require wolf-hybrid owners to neuter, vaccinate, and keep them in pens with tall fences. But Ag says it has never enforced these rules, because it doesn’t have the resources to do so, and it should be up to Fish and Game. However, at a recent hearing over a proposed bill to switch the authority to that department, Fish and Game said it too has money problems. It's still legal to import the animals from out of state and seems to be one of the reasons why so many wolf-dogs wind up in New Hampshire. But owners often abandon or hand over the large animals when their unpredictable nature proves too much to handle. But last year, a large sanctuary in New Hampshire closed due to money problems, and many wolf-dogs were euthanized or shuffled between shelters. A shelter in Chatham, which took in many of those wolf-dogs and currently houses 69 animals, is hoping to make things work by hiring war veterans, NHPR reports.via

This Land Is Your Land

Feeding nine billion—and eventually 10 billion—means growing crops faster, smarter, and in new places. Find out if we need more land

 

Happiness Is a Warm Sun

Photograph by Kersti Kalberg, National Geographic Your Shot

 

Japanese cafe seats solo diners with stuffed animals to ward off loneliness

At the Moomin Café chain, which is dedicated to a series of popular picture books from Finland that are also very popular in Japan, it is apparently the policy to seat a large stuffed animal at the tables of unaccompanied guests. The Moomin characters are cute and hippopotamus-like, and the cafe is decorated in the style of the book series. The characters are awfully damn cute, and have names like Moomintroll, Moominpappa, Moominmamma, Sniff, Snufkin, and so on.

 

Feeling Bored?

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Death E-mails Google

To: questions@google.com
From: d.death2@aol.com
 Subject: Questions!
 Hey!
 Death here. Just writing to see if we can’t do anything about my Web presence. When I type my name (“Death”) into Google, some of the related searches that pop up are things like “death poems,” “death quotes,” “Death of a Salesman,” etc. Super depressing stuff! Not to be braggy or whatever, but I’m pretty fun. This is just a suggestion, but maybe we can change those links to things like “Surprise! Death looks good in a bathing suit!” or “Has anyone heard Death freestyle rap?” I’m not all business all the time! I mean, sure, I usher people into the land of silence and despair every few seconds, but in general I’m pretty easygoing. continue

 

Snoopy, Garfield And Friends Go Bald For Kids With Cancer

It's not easy having cancer, especially when you're a kid. And it's even harder when that bald chemo head tells the whole world that you're sick. So Garfield, Hello Kitty and the fine-feathered cast of the movie Rio 2 are going bald, too. Cartoonists around the world are de-fuzzing their creations as part of a Brazilian project that aims to reduce the stigma of cancer treatment.
 The Bald Cartoons concept started in Brazil back in November, when characters in cartoons and comic books popular there, such as Monica's Gang, started taking a bit off the top. This month it's going international, with about 40 characters from across the globe including Garfield, Snoopy, Hello Kitty and Finn from the TV show Adventure Time. continue

 

Mom’s Taxi

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word on the street

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A Seal Encounter Brings a Change of Heart

A photographer tells the incredible tale of the "bite she'll remember" while swimming with a mother seal and pup. See pictures and get the story.

 

Here's A Water Bottle You Can Actually Eat

Instead of creating a bottle and then filling it with water, Rodrigo García González, along with fellow Imperial College London students Pierre Paslier and Guillaume Couche, used a process that allows the bottle to take shape as it coalesces around the liquid. González and his team first took a frozen ball of water and dipped it into a calcium chloride solution, which formed a gelatinous layer. Then, the ball soaked in another solution made from brown algae extract, which encapsulated the ice in a second squishy membrane to reinforce the structure. Keeping the water in the algae solution for long periods of time allows the mold to become thicker and stronger. continue

 

My terms are simple

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Scientists Confirm That Cats a) Are Pretty Smart, b) Don't Really Care What You Want

Yes, your cat is very special, and your dog is very cute. Millions of years of evolution, however—tens of thousands in the company of humans—have instilled cats and dogs with some particular traits and mental skills. And while cat people and dog people love to debate the superiority of their preferred pet, pet lovers who really want to compare and contrast species-wide superiority would do best to turn to the science of animal cognition.
 One problem: According to David Grimm, writing at Slate, there's oodles of research on how dogs think. Not so for cats.

 

Tiger on the Prowl

Photography by Porus Khareghat

 

Gabriel García Márquez Left An Unpublished Manuscript

Gabriel García Márquez left behind an unpublished manuscript when he died last week at age 87, Cristobal Pera, editorial director of Penguin Random House Mexico, told The Associated Press. Pera added that Marquez's family has not yet decided whether to publish it. Meanwhile, the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia published an extract of the work, tentatively titled We'll See Each Other in August (En agosto nos vemos). In the excerpt, a middle-aged woman named Ana Magdalena Bach has a fling during her annual trip to a tropical island to put flowers on her mother's grave. She stays at a hotel overlooking a lagoon full of herons. Ana, though she's married, meets a man at the hotel and begins an affair with him. The excerpt has a strong sense of place — García Márquez's descriptions are lush with flowers and tropical life – and a ripple of eroticism travels through it, from the touch of perfume Ana puts behind her ear at the beginning of the chapter to the thunderstorm during her encounter with the man from the hotel.via NPR

 

MOTHER JONES: Sit down and read

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Unique Views of America’s National Parks

Grand Teton National Park by Abelardo Morell

Upper Mammoth Springs, Yellowstone National Park  by Peter Essick

 In this edition of Conversations, photographers Abelardo Morell and Peter Essick each discuss their personal approach to photographing in National Parks. The two are exploring contemporary versions of early photographic processes in order to reenvision vistas that are so familiar they have become part of public consciousness, Morell using a camera obscura and Essick through a wet-plate collodion process.

 

I'm Been Waiting All Day For You!

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Every Man's Best Friend

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The 20 biggest summer blockbusters

Will Godzilla smash the competition? Will superheroes win again? Or will Pudsey the dog charm Britain again? A guide to the 20 films you need to know about this summer. 

 

Stormy Texas Panhandle

Photography by Mike Olbinski

 

VHS Cover Junkie

In this small selection, you will find some curiosities like James Spader in the cheesy Tuff Turf—“where reputations are earned”; The Band’s Robbie Robertson alongside Jodie Foster and Gary Busey in The Carny; Ethan Coen’s The Naked Man; Harry Dean Stanton and Sean Young in Young Doctors in Love, and Motel Hell where “it takes all kinds of critters to make Farmer Vincent’s fritters.” Immerse yourself in the gaudy world of VHS Cover Junkie.

 

Nowzad Dogs in Kabul

Pen Farthing, founder of Nowzad Dogs in Kabul, pets a dog named Barfi, or "Snowy," who was rescued from an Afghan army base. After rescuing a number of dogs during his tour, Farthing came back to Afghanistan to establish a shelter and clinic that's been able to transport about 700 cats and dogs out of the country. continue

 

Here I come...there I go

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