National Geographic
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Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich
Steve Huffman, the thirty-three-year-old co-founder and C.E.O. of Reddit, which is valued at six hundred million dollars, was nearsighted until November, 2015, when he arranged to have laser eye surgery. He underwent the procedure not for the sake of convenience or appearance but, rather, for a reason he doesn’t usually talk much about: he hopes that it will improve his odds of surviving a disaster, whether natural or man-made. “If the world ends—and not even if the world ends, but if we have trouble—getting contacts or glasses is going to be a huge pain in the ass,” he told me recently...
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Farm Antibiotics: Still Headed In The Wrong Direction
New federal data released at the end of last week indicates that sales of antibiotics for use in food animals in the United States are still rising, despite public pressure to change the practice and condemnation by medicine that farm misuse and overuse is contributing to antibiotic resistance that threatens human health. That’s not good. It’s especially not good because the numbers just released cover the year 2014—the first year in a voluntary three-year period, set by the Food and Drug Administration, during which use of farm antibiotics is supposed to be reduced. If agriculture and the veterinary pharma industry didn’t manage reductions in Year 1, they have a hard task ahead of them to create significant change in Years 2 and 3...
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The Congo Mines That Supply "Conflict Minerals" For the World's Gadgets
Most people who own a smartphone-or a laptop, or a new car-aren't familiar with tantalum, the rare, blue-gray metal that conducts electricity through these devices. But thanks to skyrocketing demand from electronics makers, tantalum-along with a handful of other rare minerals-is now one of the most sought-after metals on Earth. And it's fueling the ongoing conflict in Congo.
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The Future Of Open Access: Why Has Academia Not Embraced The Internet Revolution?
More than any other technology, the web has revolutionized access to the world’s information, putting everything from recipes to encyclopedias to books to news at the fingertips of anyone with an internet connection anywhere on the planet. The web’s role in democratizing access to global information has made it a poster child for the power of technology to advance society. Read More »
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