“Over the last 50 years, as our telescopes have got bigger and better, we have started to learn a little bit about our cosmic neighbors. And astronomers have found a huge array of planets out there, with some startling characteristics, certainly worthy of a mention in an intergalactic version of the Guinness Book of Records. For instance there’s the fastest planet – SWEEPS-10 – which flies around its sun at a distance of just 740,000 miles – about three times the moon’s distance from Earth – meaning a year lasts just 10 hours… With more advanced telescopes reaching out into ever greater expanses of space and picking up new planets every month, the question is: What fantastic discoveries the next fifty year will bring?” w/ photos

“It is a question that has long puzzled scientists. What made our ancestors break away from apes and advance so dramatically? Now researchers believe they may have explained the missing link – a duplicated gene. Researchers believe that a copy of gene SRGAP2, which appeared in ‘ape men’ around 2.5million years ago, helped our brain cells move faster and make more connections – enabling the brain to become more complex… In addition to providing insight into the origins of the modern human brain, the findings offer clues to the neurological brain disorders including autism, epilepsy and schizophrenia in which development of cell connections is affected.” w/ photos

“Good comments can turn an OK story into a great one. Great comments can easily eclipse the post they’re attached to. We’re not here to talk about those. We’re here to talk about the dregs, the scum, the poison. We’re here to talk about the reason most people don’t read the comments, and even fewer people bother writing them. We’re here to figure out who has the worst comments on the internet.” w/ photos

“Every little bit helps… even if that means cutting down amount of paper towels used by one person EACH time they use the restroom… seems to make sense to me. Cut down trees to plant more, yes, cut down on the need to cut and keep the trees we have? (and then plant more) Yes please.” — KateMHarris

“A 3-minute journey through the last 250 years of our history, from the start of the Industrial Revolution to the Rio+20 Summit. The film charts the growth of humanity into a global force on an equivalent scale to major geological processes.” — arlindbosh

“He is already recognized as one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance period. Now a stunning new exhibition at Buckingham Palace demonstrates how Leonardo da Vinci was also one of the most ground-breaking anatomists of all time. Indeed his findings dating from the late 1490s and early 1500s were so revolutionary that some could not be conclusively proved until the development of MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanners in the 1980s, which use radio waves to take detailed pictures of the body. Da Vinci’s fascination with the human body began through his desire to be ‘true to nature’ in his paintings and led him to embark on what can only be described as a campaign of dissection in hospitals and medical schools throughout Florence.” w/ photos

“Have you been drinking tonight, sir? Oh. Crap. If you’re in a car, that’s not a question you want to hear from a man in uniform. And if the answer is yes, you’re in for the worst pop quiz of your life: the field sobriety test. Look, you should not drive drunk. Ever. No, seriously, not ever. The goal of this piece is not to show you how to beat a field sobriety test — in most cases, no amount of preparation can help you anyway. But you know what? They make for one hell of a drinking game. Try ‘em out for yourself — from the comfort and jail-free safety of you own home. May the best drunk win!” w/ photos

“These brainy marine mammals can ‘read,’ plan ahead, and communicate in astounding ways. Off the coast of Honduras, on Roatan Island, a legendary experiment in dolphin communication is being attempted for the first time in 20 years — one that could prove that dolphins can, in effect, ‘speak’ with one another to coordinate their behavior. Other studies reveal that these playful marine mammals can plan ahead and problem-solve in ways few other animals can.”

“Meet an extraordinary Border collie and other dogs that are changing our view of canine intelligence. New discoveries are revealing that ‘man’s best friend’ is smarter than we ever thought, with a brain that resembles our own in ways we never imagined. Travel to Wolf Park, where scientists are tracing the evolutionary path that turned wild animals into our cuddly companions, and meet a superdog with a vocabulary of over 1,000 words. This brilliant border collie understands 1,022 nouns.”

“Since Pulp Fiction, it seems safe to argue, Jackson has been the busiest actor on the planet too. This year he has four movies, his annual average since 1994, coming out, including ‘The Avengers’ next month, based on the Marvel comic book. He’s been in big-budget films like ‘Jurassic Park’; low-budget movies like ‘Black Snake Moan’; blockbusters like ‘Star Wars’ and bombs like ‘The Long Kiss Goodnight.’ He’s been the star, played the sidekick, filled bit parts. His acting has been critically acclaimed and panned as ‘lackluster’. But one thing remains constant: Samuel L. Jackson works. It’s all but impossible to turn on a TV set any night of the week without happening on one of his movies. Hence his anointment by Guinness World Records as ‘the highest-grossing film actor’ of all time. His movies have taken in more than $7.4 billion, most of which, he pointed out, ‘didn’t end up in my pocket.’ Maybe not, but the residuals alone earn him about $300,000 a year. ‘I get paid all day, every day,’ he said — ‘which is almost too much for a sensitive artist.” w/ photos