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Rising temperatures have allowed ice to melt and moss to grow in the frigid continent. Google Antarctica and your screen will be filled with images of icy blues and unblemished white. But that might change soon: Antarctica is turning green. In recent years, researchers have discovered banks of mosses encroaching rapidly across the continent’s northern peninsula. “People will think of Antarctica quite rightly as a very icy place, but our work shows that parts of it are green, and are likely to be getting greener,” Matthew Amesbury, the lead author of a new study on the matter, told The Washington Post....

According to the study’s predictions, 1.4 billion Facebook users will have died before the year 2100, leaving precious personal data behind. Jaap Arriens/NurPhotoThe study brings up ethical considerations about what to do with one’s personal data once they die. If you use the internet even a little bit, you likely have digital footprints everywhere, some of which are probably in the form of personal profiles on social media. But what happens to all these footprints of personal information after you die?...

Despite its name, Chinese water deer are found across Europe and possess remarkable survival tactics that allow them to thrive in varied climates. Wikimedia CommonsChinese water deer have unique tusks instead of antlers. When you look closely at the Chinese water or “vampire” deer, it is obvious that they are different from any other type of deer you’ve seen. The most noticeable aspect of its appearance is the two robust tusks that protrude from the edges of the Chinese water deer’s mouth followed by a relatively adorable set of teddy bear-like ears....

If it weren’t for the neighbor who called the police to investigate a fellow tenant’s whereabouts, the man’s body might still be leaking blood into the kitchen below. Siam Corner Thai KitchenOfficer Ryan Wilder was on his way to check on a missing person when an employee of the restaurant asked him to investigate a strange liquid dripping from the ceiling. When Officer Ryan Wilder responded to a call in Windsor, Connecticut in May, initial reports seemed rather innocuous: a woman said she hadn’t seen her neighbor in a few days, and was concerned....

Piel Island spans just 50 acres and is home to a crumbling castle as well as a 300-year-old pub — and now it’s in need of a new “monarch.” Simon Ledingham/Wikimedia CommonsPiel Island is located a half-mile off England’s northwestern coast and its year-round population is typically just two. Always dreamed of being royalty? Now’s your chance. Tiny Piel Island off the northwest coast of England is looking for a full-time “king” — and 190 people have already applied for the post....

Although Frances Perkins was the first woman cabinet member in U.S. history and the principal architect of the New Deal, her story remains widely overlooked to this day. Wikimedia CommonsFrances Perkins When Frances Perkins was born, women did not yet even have the right to vote in the United States. Nevertheless, Perkins herself went on to have a successful career in the overwhelmingly male-dominated realm of U.S. government as the first woman to serve on a presidential cabinet....

“I don’t know what happened in the squirrel monkey enclosure,” the judge told him during his hearing. “The squirrel monkeys know.” Wikimedia CommonsSquirrel monkeys A man who tried to steal squirrel monkeys from an enclosure at a New Zealand zoo has been sentenced for his crime. Back in April, John Owen Casford broke into the Wellington Zoo under cover of night and attempted to steal a monkey and bring it home to his girlfriend, according to the New Zealand Herald....

“I didn’t even realize I took him down the way I did until I saw the video afterward.” A 21-year-old waitress and college student in Georgia emerged as a new figure of female empowerment when a video captured her tackling a customer after he groped her. On June 30, Emelia Holden was working at the pizzeria Vinnie Van Go-Go’s in Savannah, Ga. when 31-year-old customer Ryan Cherwinski walked behind her and casually groped her butt as he passed by....

He was arrested after he contacted two children on Facebook and asked them for sex and naked pictures. A dwarf who solicited sexual acts from teenage girls is avoiding serving any prison time due to his height. The Sun reported that Bryan Anthony Bowen, a man with dwarfism from Powys, Wales, has avoided prison time due to his small stature after being convicted of inciting two underage teenage girls to carry out sex acts....

Decades after he lost the Civil War, Confederate General Robert E. Lee got his own holiday in 1889. Some Southern states — especially Alabama and Mississippi — still honor it. Robert E. Lee and Martin Luther King Jr. couldn’t be more different. While the former was a Confederate Army general who defended the enslavement of black people, the latter dedicated his life to fighting for civil rights and basic equality for people of color....

On October 29, 1969, at 10:30 PM, internet history was made with the transfer of one simple message. On October 29, 1969, the world was humbly changed forever. At 10:30 PM, a student programmer at UCLA named Charley Kline sent the letter “l” and the letter “o” electronically more than 350 miles to a Stanford Research Institute computer in Menlo Park, California. The letters stood for “login,” and the effort led to a system crash immediately afterward....

Image Source: Photobucket At their best, scientists represent the best in humanity: intelligence, curiosity, and skeptical rigor. This allows scientists to do things that ordinary people wouldn’t be allowed to get away with. If a random person burst into your house with a bubbling test tube and shouted “Quick! Drink this!” you’d call the police. Put that person in a white lab coat, though, and you’ll only delay long enough to thank them for coming in the nick of time....

Mysterious shipwreck found on a Latvian beach, date of Vikings’ arrival in the Americas uncovered, oldest-known depiction of a ghost found on an ancient tablet. 200-Year-Old Shipwreck Uncovered Just Beneath The Sand On A Beach In Latvia Rīgas Brīvosta/FacebookJust after archaeologists began digging, it became clear that a vessel measuring in at a whopping 40 feet was sitting just below their feet. Archaeologists in Latvia just uncovered a shipwreck right under the sand along the Baltic Sea right near the capital of Riga....

“Spanish Stonehenge” revealed by drought, remains of Russian city sacked by Mongols uncovered, Civil War cannonballs found washed up on beach. Drought Uncovers ‘Spanish Stonehenge’ Hidden Underwater For Decades Ruben Ortega Martin/Raices de PeraledaThe Dolmen de Guadalperal, also known as the “Spanish Stonehenge,” has been completely exposed for the first time in 50 years following the drought. Severe changes in weather, particularly across Europe, have been a curse for farmers whose crops are suffering and who are losing millions of euros because of it....

It’s just the latest example of religiously-motivated unusual behavior involving airports and planes. A group of young Hasidic Jewish men was seen traveling through an airport blindfolded, apparently so they would not be exposed to the potential sight of ‘immodestly’ dressed women. Reddit user ‘thenewyorkgod’ posted the image Monday morning, which has since amassed over 5000 comments. Most of the commenters expressed shock over such conduct, but some of the users have been posting their own similar experiences or pointing out how common these occurrences are....

The unidentifiable blob-like animal is likely a decomposing sea creature, but some locals see it as a bad sign of things to come. Viral Press/The SunLocals think the creature is a warning sign of something bad to come. The carcass of a strange, 20-foot-long sea creature washed up on a beach in the Philippines over the weekend. Except for massive amounts of shaggy grey hair and a reported putrid smell, the unidentified creature lacks features....

Although the kayaker may not have done anything to deserve the hit, there’s a simple explanation as to why it happened. Screenshot/Carter News AgencyThe seal wrestles with an octopus. Footage of a seal spontaneously slapping the face of a kayaker with an octopus has gone viral — and for good reason: it’s hilarious. The incident happened off the coast of Kaikoura on New Zealand’s South Island, which has a large population of fur seals....

The story of George Lincoln Rockwell, the man whose legacy of hate lives on to this day. When future American Nazi Party founder George Lincoln Rockwell first heard that Senator Joseph McCarthy was embarking upon a witch hunt to ferret out suspected communism and homosexuality in the U.S. government during the 1950s “Red Scare,” he reacted differently than most. “I began to pay attention, in my spare time, to what it was all about,” Rockwell later wrote in his 1961 book, This Time the World....

Although Valak is depicted as a habit-wearing spirit, the real demon appears as a child riding a two-headed dragon — at least according to a 17th-century demon-hunting manual. Skeptics are quick to dismiss the veracity of horror movies that claim to be based on real events, but references to the demon Valak — the one at the center of The Nun — stretch back centuries. Valak or Valac appears in a variety of medieval grimoires, which were basically manuals on demons and spells....

The study’s analysis of top science-related YouTube channels revealed that women are more than twice as likely to be the target of negative comments. BrainCraft/YouTubeVanessa Hill, the creator behind the BrainCraft science channel on YouTube. It’s not uncommon for YouTube hosts to deal with trolls leaving negative comments on their videos. But a new study from Australian National University published earlier this month dove deep into the comment sections of the platform’s top science-related channels and revealed exactly how much the negative and positive comments left on those channels differ between female and male hosts....