American Police Killed More People in March Than UK Cops Have Since 1900

"The White House Task Force on 21st Century Policing issued a report last month recommending that the police focus on tactics that would 'de-escalate' a situation to make it less likely that someone would end up getting shot and killed."

The divine witches of cyberspace

"Stone originally conceived Techno Tarot as an intentional criticism of our unquestioning faith in computers, but the response to it surprised even the artist: Users were thrilled by the accuracy of their readings, and found as much meaning in the randomly-assigned digital cards as they might in a real face-to-face reading with a practitioner."

Kill Bigfoot, and prepare to be prosecuted

"Sixth Judicial District Attorney Todd Risberg said while offing Bigfoot would be a criminal act as well as ethically reprehensible, he didn’t yet know how he would charge such a slaying.
 
'If Bigfoot is a human, it would be murder. If Bigfoot is an animal, that might be more of a Division of Wildlife question,' he said. 'I don’t know what Bigfoot is.'"

During Surgery, Cats Prefer Listening To Classical Music Over AC/DC

"Up next, the team wants to investigate how music affects cortisol and catecholamine levels--which provide a more direct way of measuring stress--in both cats and dogs. Eventually, the researchers hope that the right kind of music could lower the dose of anesthesia pets need to stay calm during operations, which could make surgery safer for our furry friends."

Using Google makes people overestimate their own intelligence

"One of the experiments involved showing one group of people the answer to a question via the internet and another group the answer via a printed page with the same information on it. After absorbing this data, the groups were asked a second question on a completely different topic. Despite neither group being able to search for the answer, the people who previously read their info online believed they were smarter than the non-internet group did."

Is this ET? Mystery of strange radio bursts from space

"If the result holds up, says Hippke, 'there is something really interesting we need to understand. This will either be new physics, like a new kind of pulsar, or, in the end, if we can exclude everything else, an ET.'

Hippke is cautious, but notes that remote possibilities are still possibilities. 'When you set out to search for something new,' he says, 'you might find something unexpected.'"

Atheists are being hacked to death in Bangladesh

"For many in Bangladesh, this is the crux of the matter. The target of these killings and crackdowns is not just atheism, but the very idea of questioning received wisdom and authority."