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Photo by Richard Loader on Unsplash
Depending who you know, that’s entirely possible. Nearly half of Americans think they’re a better person than EVERYONE they know!
For almost half of all Americans, modesty may not be their best quality. A new study finds nearly one in two people believe they’re the best person they know.
In a recent survey of 2,000 U.S. residents, 81 percent say they believe that humankind is inherently good. Three in four believe they themselves are fundamentally a good person. When researchers asked respondents how they would compare themselves to others in their lives, 46 percent went a step further, admitting (in their eyes) they’re “better” than everyone else they know.
I guess all that “self-esteem” building is starting to work.
And you thought Venice had problems. Mexico City Is Sinking at an Alarming And Largely Unstoppable Rate, New Data Finds
Mexico City, the most populous metropolis in North America, has sunk too low for us to save it, according to new research.
After centuries of water drainage from underground aquifers, the lake bed on which this city sits has grown increasingly dry, causing the clay sheets to compress and crack at a largely unstoppable rate.
The Aztec gods of the underworld continue to wait patiently for their revenge.
Come on, Russia. Let’s maybe NOT do this. Russia Is Going to Try to Clone an Army of 3,000-Year-Old Scythian Warriors
In an online session of the Russian Geographical Society last month, [Defense Minister of Russia] Shoigu, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested using the DNA of 3,000-year-old Scythian warriors to potentially bring them back to life. Yes, really.
At first I thought the headline was overblown and “Russia” meant “an idea by some random kook in Russia.” But it’s a random kook who happens to be the Russian defense minister. And now this sounds like the set up for a bad movie on SyFy.
The Scythian people, who originally came from modern-day Iran, were nomads who traveled around Eurasia between the 9th and 2nd centuries B.C., building a powerful empire that endured for several centuries before finally being phased out by competitors. Two decades ago, archaeologists uncovered the well-preserved remains of the soldiers in a kurgan, or burial mound, in the Tuva region of Siberia.
So the Russians can dig up some Scythian DNA, no problem. And I’m sure human cloning will be developed at some point in the not too distant future. So this nightmare B-movie plot “Day of the Scythians” is something that could actually happen. If the apes enhanced with human DNA that the Chinese are working on don't take over first, that is.
Speaking of the undead, Dracula Daily is doing something fun with Bram Stoker’s classic vampire novel:
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is an epistolary novel - it’s made up of letters, diaries, telegrams, newspaper clippings - and every part of it has a date. The whole story happens between May 3 and November 10. So: Dracula Daily will post a newsletter each day that something happens to the characters, in the same timeline that it happens to them.
If you want to get Dracula emailed to you bit by bit on the appropriate dates between now and November 10, you can subscribe to the free newsletter. You can catch up by reading the entries since May 3 at the Dracula Daily site and then enjoy the rest of the novel in “real time”.
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