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India just set a scary new heat record. It should be a warning.

To say that it was "shorts weather" in Rajasthan, India, yesterday would be ... a bit of an understatement.


That's 51 degrees Celsius. Which is 123.8 degrees Fahrenheit. Which is not only the hottest temperature ever recorded in that country — it's not all that far off from the safe internal temperature for a cooked chicken.

That's ... more than a little alarming.


OK, but just because it was super hot in one place at one time doesn't prove that global warming is a thing.

A man splashes cold water on himself in Kolkata, India. Photo by Jorge Royan/Wikimedia Commons.

True! Single extreme weather events can't prove or disprove global climate trends. What can prove them is actual long-term data. And that, unfortunately, keeps piling up.

January 2016 was the hottest single month on record.

Alright! Warm January! Heck yeah. I can get down with that. Photo via iStock.

Until it was beaten by...

February 2016, which smashed January's record like a particularly smashy bug.

This is getting a lil' weird, though. Photo via iStock.

February had a nice run, until it ran into...

March 2016, which totally owned February, ate its lunch, and kicked it out the door.

Now it's a little scary. Photo via iStock.

You can guess where this is going next. March's temperature record lasted all of no days at all before it was bested by...

April 2016, which was actually the 12th consecutive hottest month of all time.

Today's forecast: Angry sun. Photo via iStock.

Dang.

The good news is, for the first time in forever, we have something resembling a plan.

World leaders, cheering. Photo by Francois Guillot/Getty Images.

Last year in Paris, delegates from 195 countries, including top polluters the U.S. and China, signed the most comprehensive climate agreement of all time, each pledging to limit emissions in order to keep the total global temperature increase under 2 degrees Celsius.

Great, right? Pretty great.

But there's a hitch on the horizon.

Namely, this guy:

Photo by Mark Lyons/Getty Images.

Donald Trump told Reuters reporters yesterday that as president, he'd "re-negotiate" the Paris Agreement "at minimum."

"At a maximum, I may do something else," he warned.

Do we really want to find out what "something else" is, America?

Trump is, of course, free to say what he wants (and boy, does he know it, see his comments on women, Muslims and immigrants as evidence).

Given, however, that his approach to one of the most serious issues of our time is at best vague and at worst an implicit threat to human civilization, it's important that Americans who care about global warming exercise our freedom to not vote for him or any other politician that doesn't promise to take serious steps to combat climate change.

There's simply too much at stake.

Not just sea level rise. Not just massive population displacement. And not just worldwide crop devastation or extreme weather — but the loss of countless lives.

The good news? We still have a chance to vote that future down.

Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images.

Let's not waste it, 'kay?

Education

A school assignment asked for 3 benefits of slavery. This kid gave the only good answer.

The school assignment was intended to spark debate and discussion — but isn't that part of the problem?

A school assignment asked for 3 "good" reasons for slavery.



It's not uncommon for parents to puzzle over their kids' homework.

Sometimes, it's just been too long since they've done long division for them to be of any help. Or teaching methods have just changed too dramatically since they were in school.

And other times, kids bring home something truly inexplicable.
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Teacher Bret Turner thought he'd kick off the morning with his first-grade students using a little riddle.

On the whiteboard in the front of the class, he scrawled it out in black marker:

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One student raised their hand, the first to venture a guess.

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Identity

Non-Americans are sharing the ‘dead giveaway’ someone is American and they are pretty right

The dead giveaway is when they call me "honey" or "sweetie" or "darling."

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Three American tourists enjoying the sights.

One of the most interesting things about traveling the world is noticing how people from your country are a bit different from the place you’re visiting. In America, you’re mostly around fellow countrymen so it’s hard to notice the things that make us stand out.

But when you travel abroad, you quickly notice that no matter how hard you try to blend in, there are a lot of dead giveaways that show people you’re from the states that go way beyond your accent.

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Parenting

Teenage girl shamed for her ‘distracting’ outfit fights back in a very funny way

“[Because] she has a figure she was told she had to change.”

Photo from Facebook page.

A clever message written on her T-shirt.

A Lawton, Oklahoma, student who goes by the Facebook user name Rose Lynn had the last laugh after being sent home from school for wearing an outfit deemed "distracting." Rose Lynn believes her outfit attracted the attention of school officials because of her figure.

She proved it by posting a photo on Facebook of her modest outfit, which consisted of black leggings, a t-shirt, long cardigan, and boots. In her post, she wrote that she was sent home "because I'm developed farther than the average girl my age," and because she's a "CURVY woman." Rose Lynn also thinks the appropriate response shouldn't have been to tell her to cover up, but to teach boys to "to respect the boundaries of young ladies."

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Science

She tattooed half her face and you'd never know it. Her skills are just that good.

This incredible medical tattoo technology is giving renewed hope to burn victims.

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Basma Hameed runs a tattoo shop, of sorts...


Meet Samira Omar.

The 17-year-old was the victim of a horrific bullying incident.

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Taylor Swift at 2022 Toronto International Film Festival Red Carpet Day 2.

The wordsmiths over at Merriam-Webster have announced their official “Word of the Year for 2023,” they say it’s something we are “thinking about, writing about, aspiring to, and judging more” than ever.

The word is authentic.

According to the dictionary, the most common definitions of authentic are “not false or imitation,” “being true to one's own personality, spirit, or character,” and “worthy of acceptance or belief as conforming to or based on fact.”

Merriam-Webster says the word saw a “substantial increase” in lookups this year. That’s probably because we now live in a world where artificial intelligence, deepfake technology and questionable memes challenge our basic notions of reality.

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