Death rates correlate with education levels, urbanization rate, alcohol consumption, car size, driving laws, speed cameras, and road design.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBPkI3CCY8o

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Cox_(police_officer)

In the early 1990s when Cox joined the Boston Police Department (BPD), crime was high in minority neighborhoods, and among BPD officers, loyalty overruled training, resulting in widespread brutality and a code of silence. BPD officers frequently used stop and frisk tactics on black men and women, and beat black men with impunity. Lying under oath was common. A mayoral blue-ribbon commission to reform the police and a permanent injunction placed by a judge had both failed to change police culture. As a plainclothes officer, Cox was mistaken for a suspect and briefly beaten while still in training, and once purposefully hit by a police vehicle and pinned to a wall. He recovered quickly both times so did not file complaints.

In 1995, Cox's car was at the front of a high-speed chase which had involved several cars from the BPD and other departments. Cox continued the chase on foot, but was again mistaken for a suspect and this time badly beaten by four officers and hospitalized, suffering a serious brain injury. After the officers realized his identity, they quickly abandoned him to bleed on the sidewalk, and he learned only from newspaper reports that they had failed to report the incident. Cox began receiving harassing phone calls from other officers even before he had decided whether to file a complaint. A lawsuit ultimately led to BPD settling with Cox for $900,000 in damages, as well as $400,000 in attorneys' fees. No officer admitted to the beating. Following the battle in court, three of the officers were eventually fired, but one, Dave Williams, successfully sued for unjust termination and was returned to the service in 2006. Williams was again fired for brutality in 2009, and again reinstated.

In July 2022, Cox was announced as the incoming commissioner of the Boston police by Mayor of Boston Michelle Wu. He was officially sworn in on August 15, 2022.

What an absolute shitshow.

Edit: More info:

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2023/boston-police-commissioner-michael-cox/ (Boston University Alumni Magazine)

Wow this is just...

Idk how people even put up with this.

I hope this guy tries to do some actual reform with his position, given what he went through, but I don't have high hopes given that... gestures broadly at US law enforcement nationwide

Brilliant name. Here's a small video for those interested: https://www.reuters.com/video/watch/idRW273417062025RP1/

As part of a secret initiative called Operation Paperclip, the U.S. government recruited former Nazi engineers, many of whom had worked on the V-2 rocket program, to help lead America’s postwar scientific efforts — especially in space and missile technology.

Von Braun, a member of the SS, played a central role in developing rockets for Nazi Germany using forced labor, and later became a key figure at NASA, leading the development of the Saturn V rocket that sent Americans to the Moon.

The moral complexity of this decision is still debated today: Can scientific progress built on unethical foundations ever be truly separated from its origins?

📽️ A source that dives deeper (documentary): “What if NASA's space race was built on buried secrets — and Nazi scientists?” ➡️ Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY0JMjJp-yc

In the 1950s and 60s, the CIA launched a covert program called Project MKUltra to explore mind control techniques. Under the guise of science, they tested LSD, hypnosis, sleep deprivation, and psychological torture on unsuspecting people — often without their consent.

Victims included psychiatric patients, prisoners, and even soldiers. Some experiments took place in hospitals and military bases like Edgewood Arsenal. Much of the documentation was destroyed in the 1970s, and the full extent of the program is still unknown.

It’s a disturbing reminder of how science can be misused when oversight disappears.

Pictured here is Brookesia nana, discovered in 2021 in Madagascar

Photo by Frank Glaw (herpetologist)

Measuring just shy of 14 millimetres, B. nana can perch cozily on an aspirin tablet.

For nine years, Brookesia micra, a cousin of B. nana described in 2012, clung to the title of tiniest chameleon. B. nana is smaller than B. micra in body size, measured from snout to cloacal opening at the base of the tail. But it sports a longer tail. Differences in how size is determined make it complicated to definitively claim that a species is the planet’s littlest.

Read more here: https://india.mongabay.com/2021/03/newly-described-chameleon-from-madagascar-may-be-worlds-smallest-reptile/

Also, that the Sterling is the longest continuous use currency in the world.

Hyperaccumulators are able to grow in contaminated soil and remove large amounts of toxic metals from the enviroment. The plants themself can later even be used to extract said toxic metals like quicksilver or lead.

The operation, known as Operation Lunik, involved CIA agents—with help from Mexican intelligence—temporarily acquiring a Soviet Luna 2 probe that was on display as part of a goodwill space exhibition.

Over the course of a single night, U.S. agents:

Transported the probe to a secure location

Disassembled and photographed its internal components

Reassembled it perfectly and returned it before morning

The Soviets never realized it had been tampered with. This mission provided valuable intelligence on Soviet space technology and contributed to U.S. advances in the early space race.

What seemed like a bizarre natural incident near the Aral Sea turned out to be a leak from Aralsk-7—a top-secret Soviet biological weapons facility. Known today as Plague Island, the site was used to develop weaponized smallpox, plague, anthrax, and other deadly pathogens in violation of international treaties.

The outbreak was quickly suppressed and hidden from the world, but the truth eventually emerged through declassified CIA reports and testimony from Soviet defector Ken Alibek.

This Cold War relic was once one of the most dangerous places on Earth—and almost no one knew it existed.

This happened twice in the 80s in Africa killing around 1700 people.