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Cape Of Good Hope

Good Is
By Good IsMar 15, 2006
Good Is
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South Africa, apparently, is a really successful African democracy that you hardly hear anything about. What's actually going on there? And why isn't it held up more as an example of democracy at work? Open Democracy delves into South Africa.

elections and politics

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Culture

5 movies that you can just listen to like a podcast

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Culture

In Germany, find the 500-year-old “Bridegroom Oak,” and you could fall in love.

A corgi dog with a rear-leg wheelchair gets ready for a "race" on a basketball court
Heroes

Heroic senior Corgi in a wheelchair competes in halftime dog race

Joseph Medicine Crow
Heroes

A Native American became war chief of the Crow tribe through his WWII service

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Why mass shootings spawn conspiracy theories

While conspiracy theories are not limited to any topic, there is one type of event that seems particularly likely to spark them: mass shootings, typically defined as attacks in which a shooter kills at least four other people.

When one person kills many others in a single incident, particularly when it seems random, people naturally seek out answers for why the tragedy happened. After all, if a mass shooting is random, anyone can be a target.

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Satanists put up a billboard in Florida promoting state's abortion law loophole

This article originally appeared on 12.30.20.



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If you ask people what they think the “perfect" body looks like, you're sure to get a range of answers, depending on where the person is from. Last year, Superdrug Online Doctor created a project, “Perceptions of Perfection" that showed what people in 18 countries think the “perfect" woman looks like. The project was a viral hit.

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It's not revolutionary news that smoking wreaks havoc on your body in different ways. More often than not, however, the focus of anti-smoking campaigns is on your internal health, citing emphysema, heart disease, and lung cancer, to name just a few consequences.

While the superficial effects may not be as lethal, appealing to people's sense of vanity can have a powerful effect as this clever gallery below shows. Twins, only one of whom smokes, sit side by side, showing the profound damage smoking can cause to your face, hair, and teeth.

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