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If you’re reading this, it means several things:
1. You can still breathe after a month of smoke soiling Florida’s collective lungs.
2. You can see the screen after a month of love bugs obscuring Florida’s collective view.
On behalf of the staff here at In Case You Missed It, we offer hearty congratulations.
Here are a few stories you might have missed during the past month while your view was partially obscured.
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New research indicates that even small amounts of physical activity, approximately 75 minutes a week, can help improve the fitness levels for postmenopausal women who are sedentary and overweight or obese.
In Case You Missed It: Does pushing a husband’s lazy butt off the couch qualify as exercise?
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For small- and large-stature adults, automobile airbags may do more harm than good, new research indicates. A detailed look at crash data spanning 11 years for over 65,000 front seat passengers found that while airbags are “modestly” protective for people of medium stature (5 foot 3 inches to 5 foot 11 inches), they appear to increase the risk of injury to people smaller than 4 foot 11 inches and taller than 6 foot 3 inches.
In Case You Missed It: Unsafe at any height?
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Scientists are breeding cows that can produce skimmed milk and butter that is so soft it spreads straight from the fridge. A team in New Zealand have identified a cow, named Marge, which naturally produces lower levels of saturated fat in her milk.
In Case You Missed It: I’ll have a half-calf capuccino.
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Scientists have found four new genes that may play a role in breast cancer—a finding which could one day improve screening for the disease, which strikes one in nine women.
In Case You Missed It: See you later, mammogram.
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Dolphins living off the coast of Wales whistle, bark and groan in a different dialect from dolphins off the western coast of Ireland, scientists have discovered. Different physical environments might have contributed to the mammals developing distinctive sets of vocalizations or “dialects”, said Simon Berrow from the Shannon Dolphin and Wildlife Foundation.
In Case You Missed It: May you blow the last air through your dorsel a half hour before the devil knows your dead.
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Israeli scientists have discovered what is believed to be the world’s oldest wooden anchor. The anchor was discovered during excavations in the Turkish port city of Urla, the ancient site of Liman Tepe, by researchers from the Leon Recanati Institute for Maritime Studies at the University of Haifa. The anchor was submerged, imbedded approximately 5 feet under the seabed.
In Case You Missed It: Question: How do you get a wooden anchor to sink?
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Researchers have learned that ocean surface currents can be chaotically changeable. Two identical items released at the same location and at the same time can end up in vastly different areas. Severe storms that alter normal weather patterns also play an important role in the movement of drift items.
In Case You Missed It: Everyone knows it’s windy.
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Bacteria found at Los Angeles’ Rancho La Brea tar pits survive and grow in heavy oil and natural asphalt. Trapped in soil that was mixed with heavy oil nearly 28,000 years ago, the bacteria have uniquely adapted to the pits’ oil and natural asphalt and contain three previously undiscovered classes of enzymes that can naturally break down petroleum products.
In Case You Missed It: Fred Flintstone would be impressed.
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Some people’s features match their monikers so well that it makes them instantly more memorable. For example, when people hear the name Bob they picture a large, round face, but when they hear the names Tim or Andy they imagine someone far thinner.
In Case You Missed It: Hello, my name is...
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Scientists have concluded Mercury has an earth-like molten core because it wobbles like a raw egg does when a chef spins it on a countertop to determine if it is hard-boiled or uncooked.
In Case You Missed It: The incredible, inedible planet.
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A group of American scientists have discovered how to make the skin of laboratory mice grow new hair follicles, complete with hair, by using a protein that stimulates follicle generating genes in skin cells under wound conditions. They hope this discovery may one day lead to treatments for baldness and abnormal hair growth.
In Case You Missed It: Mice get all the good stuff first.
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A new species of sea anemone has been discovered in the deepest parts of the Pacific, living in the unlikeliest of habitats - the carcass of a dead whale that had sunk some 1.8 miles below sea level in a region of the Pacific Ocean called Monterey Canyon, roughly 25 miles off the coast of Monterey, California.
In Case You Missed It: Anemone, ba-doo-bee-doo-bee.
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Scientists have discovered particles of cocaine and marijuana, as well as caffeine and tobacco, in the air of Italy’s capital, they said on Thursday. The concentration of drugs was heaviest in the air around Rome’s Sapienza university, though officials warned against drawing conclusions about students’ recreational habits.
In Case You Missed It: Friends, Romans, Columbians...
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Wild herds of African elephants communicating by vibrations in the ground can determine which animal produced the vibrations. The seismic system is so sophisticated, scientists describe the elephants as having their own version of “caller ID.”
In Case You Missed It: Next thing you know, they’ll want giant wireless earpieces.
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Electronic noses used in the food industry and for sniffing out explosives can perform better with the addition of artificial “snot.”
In Case You Missed It: You may think it’s funny, but it’s snot.
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