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The Feds Just Gave Amtrak $2.4 Billion. This Is Why It Needs the Money

Amtrak Joe did it, you guys. In the waning days of his vice presidency, Joe Biden returned to the station—his home state station in Wilmington, Delaware—to announce the largest Department of Transportation loan in history: $2.45 billion dollars to buck up Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor. Joe is so hyped about the future of American rail, he broke out his hanky and wept.

The struggling passenger rail…

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Say Bye to Those Awesomely Clackety Train Station Displays

You hear it before you see it—the whirring clack of plastic flaps as they turn over to display a new set of numbers and letters. For more than three decades, a mechanical flip board made by the Italian company Solari has guided passengers as they travel through Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, but things are about to sound (and look) a lot different. The station is the latest, and among the…

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A Chopper Just Projected Video Onto a Giant Screen Towed by Another Chopper

If you watched the night skies over New York City on Wednesday, you might have seen a UFO. It zoomed over the Hudson River like a colossal ghost—a ghost that looked like Ariana Grande.

Here’s the weirdest part: You weren’t hallucinating. To promote the upcoming MTV Video Music Awards, a pair of helicopters cruised over the Hudson. One towed a 250-foot-wide banner, and a second flew alongside it,…

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Meet the Swankiest People of America’s Swankiest Car Competition

For one week every August, the center of the car world shifts away from Detroit, from Germany, from Silicon Valley, and settles on California’s Monterey Peninsula. In the space of a few days, auction houses sell off hundreds of fantastic vehicles for absurd amounts of money. Historic cars race at the nearby Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca track, while the intentionally terrible cars of the Concours de…

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Retired Chicago bus driver wins $2M lottery jackpot while riding the bus

CHICAGO, Aug. 26 (UPI) — A retired Chicago bus driver revisiting his past with a ride on public transport ensured he would stay retired by scratching off a $2 million lottery ticket.

Roy Pittman, 71, a lifelong Chicagoan who recently retired from his job as a Chicago Transit Authority bus driver, said he was riding a bus home from the store when he decided to scratch off his Illinois Lottery…

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Israeli artist crystallizes dress in Dead Sea salt

LONDON, Aug. 27 (UPI) — Israeli artist Sigalit Landau drew inspiration from an old Yiddish play for her new project "Salt Bride," which involved using salt to crystallize a dress.

Landau, partnered with photographer Yotam From, submerged a traditional Hasidic dress in the salt-rich water of Israel's famed Dead Sea for two months and photographed the transformation process.

The series of eight…

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Owl rescued from barbed wire fence

CANON CITY , Colo., Aug. 26 (UPI) — Wildlife officer in Colorado helped rescue an owl which became stuck after its wings got caught on a barbed wire fence.

Fremont County Sheriff's Office shared photos of Division of Wildlife Officer Holder carefully removing the trapped owl from the fence.

"Officer Holder responded and was able to get the owl out of the fence and it was taken to a local rehab…

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The Mystery of How Cancer Cells Barrel Through Your Body

In 1995, while he was a graduate student at McGill University in Montreal, the biomedical scientist Peter Friedl saw something so startling it kept him awake for several nights. Coordinated groups of cancer cells he was growing in his adviser’s lab started moving through a network of fibers meant to mimic the spaces between cells in the human body.

Quanta Magazine

About

Original story reprinted…

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Forget Self-Driving Cars. Let’s Make Self-Driving Living Rooms

The imminent arrival of the self-driving car will change how people move around city streets, but they could do so much more.

The Tridika is a conceptual driverless electric vehicle I created to change how we use cars in our ever-growing cities, where space is expensive and limited. Inspired by Thyssenkrupp’s Willy Wonka-esque Multi elevator, the Tridika works like a self-driving car you can…

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Washington lottery flashback ad recalls 1970s Seattle Seahawks greats SEATTLE, Aug. 27 (UPI) -- An ad for the Washington state lottery turned back the clock to the late 1970s to promote special Seattle Seahawks-themed lottery prizes.

Snake freed after week stuck in Canada drain

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Aug. 26 (UPI) — A 5-foot long corn snake in Canada was finally captured after city crews spent more than a week trying to remove it from a drain.

The City of Victoria shared a photo of a worker holding the infamous snake which defied several attempts to be removed from the drain.

"It's official, no more snake in the drain," the city wrote. "The snake has been…

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Texas utility worker finds viral fame for dirty job

ACTON, Texas, Aug. 26 (UPI) — A Texas utility worker is being praised online after a viral photo showed him submerged head-first in a filthy puddle to plug a burst pipe.

Andrea Adams said she snapped the photo about a week ago when Acton Municipal Utility District worker Jimmie Cox, 23, submerged himself from the waist up in dirty water to plug a one-inch pipe that burst in her yard.

Adams said…

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Australian prospector finds 8-pound gold nugget

VICTORIA, Australia, Aug. 26 (UPI) — An 8-pound gold nugget valued at about $190,000 was discovered by a seasoned prospector in Australia.

According to metal detector manufacturing company Minelab, the anonymous prospector found the nugget while using his metal detector in a worked-over area in the far southern edge of Central Victoria's Golden Triangle.

"I thought it was rubbish at first, maybe…

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Woman uses CPR-like rescue breaths to resuscitate 'dead' baby horse

Woman uses CPR-like rescue breaths to resuscitate ‘dead’ baby horse

WARRALL, Australia, Aug. 26 (UPI) — A woman in Australia was recorded successfully resuscitating a "dead" baby horse using a CPR-like lifesaving technique.

Suzanne Hall, who runs the North West Equine Rescue in Warrall, New South Wales, said she found the foal, Esmeralda Sparkles, unresponsive in her stall early Wednesday morning.

Hall was recorded giving the foal mouth-to-nose rescue breaths and…

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Australian charter boat has unexpected whale encounter

SYDNEY, Aug. 26 (UPI) — A charter boat in Australia accidentally got an up close encounter with a trio of humpback whales.

Barefoot Charters shared video of the "once in a lifetime encounter" to their Facebook page as the large whales swam beneath one of the company's boats traveling from New South Wales to Sydney.

"As we sailed back to Sydney we had some very special visitors," they wrote.

The…

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British Olympians return home to matching luggage puzzle at baggage claim

LONDON, Aug. 26 (UPI) — British Olympians returning from Rio found themselves faced with a challenge as daunting as the Games themselves — identifying their luggage.

The Team Great Britain members landed Tuesday at London's Heathrow Airport and headed to baggage claim, where they quickly learned the downside of their team's matching red luggage.

"Mine's the red one!!" windsurfer Nick Dempsey…

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Police probe mystery of live shark found in roadside puddle

ONE TREE HILL, Australia, Aug. 26 (UPI) — South Australia police said they have "ruled out the possibility of a Sharknado" in the mystery of a shark found in a roadside puddle.

Police said a member of the public contacted authorities Friday morning to report finding a small shark partially submerged in a roadside puddle in the town of One Tree Hill.

Fauna Rescue South Australia responded to the…

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