Viral Stories

22 Views A young girl’s note to the police department asked to test for evidence of Santa. Cumberland Police Department/Screenshot by NPR A local police department in Rhode Island has received an unusual query: running a DNA test on evidence to prove the existence of Santa Claus. The authorities in Cumberland, north of Providence, received…

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39 Views Pedestrians cross Houston Street as students wearing masks leave the New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math (NEST+m) school in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan on Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021, in New York. Brittainy Newman/AP People are less likely to wear masks to prevent COVID-19 if they see themselves as good-looking, according…

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36 Views Amiry the serval was rescued from a tree in Cincinnati in January. A DNA test confirmed his species, while a narcotics test confirmed his exposure to cocaine. Ray Anderson/Cincinnati Animal Care You’ve probably heard of Cocaine Bear, the box-office hit about a black bear’s drug-fueled feeding frenzy. But have you heard of “cocaine cat?”…

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324 Views This black Jeep was almost entirely submerged in Lake o’ the Pines in Marion County, Texas. It wasn’t until a tow truck started to pull it from the water that a woman was spotted inside. Marion County Sheriff Office It started with a call from a fisherman, who said he saw what looked…

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36 Views The Velella velella, a name so nice you gotta say it twice. Who are they? The tiny disc-like critters are colonial hydrozoans, classified under the phylum of cnidaria, and their eponymous genus of Velella (not a Game of Thrones reference). Formally titled the Velella velella (say that five times fast) you may know them as by-the-wind sailors. The sailors are a…

Read More “Thousands of little blue creatures are washing up on California beaches” »