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Pagan News Beagle: Earthy Thursday, May 19

Scientists debut a new agricultural technique to boost food yields. Suburbs look to add communal farms to their design. And comedian John Oliver takes down the way the media often deals with science. It's Earthy Thursday, our weekly segment on science and Earth-related news! All this and more for the Pagan News Beagle!

As the world's population continues to grow, concerns rise as well about the capacity of the world's farms to keep up. But a new agricultural technique might boost productivity considerably. Perhaps by as much as 50%. You can read more about the innovation over at Gizmodo.

Centuries ago, most people grew at least some of their own food. Today, very few do. But could sustenance farming make a comeback? Apparently there's a movement afoot to add communal farms to the suburbs.

Anyone who's studied psychology knows that memory is a lot more unreliable than is generally assumed. Far from the perfect snapshot of the past we often wish it was, memories can be filled with gaps, recall details imperfectly, and be prone to bias or suggestion. But there's some good news. The idea that our memories are dissolved and imperfectly reconstructed each time we recall them may actually be bogus.

Lots of people love science. Capitalizing on that, the media often likes to share stories about science. But sometimes, the way media sources tackle scientific studies is ephemeral and deeply flawed. Comedian John Oliver recently aired a take down of the media's skin-deep approach to scientific research and now astronomer Phil Plait has his own 2 cents to add.

When it comes to rivers, there's a few that stick out in people's memories: the Nile, the Amazon, the Mississippi. But perhaps the most legendary river is the Ganges, which draws millions of pilgrims to northern India every year. In many ways, the Ganges is the heart of India. Which means the threats to it are in many ways an existential threat to India itself.

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Aryós Héngwis (or the more modest Héngwis for short) is a native of the Pontic-Caspian steppe, born some 5000 years ago, near the village of Dereivka. In his youth he stood out from the other snakes for his love of learning and culture, eventually coming into the service of the local reǵs before moving westward toward Europe. Most recently, Aryós Héngwis left his home to pursue a new life in America, where he has come under the employ of BBI Media as an internet watchdog (or watchsnake, if you will), ever poised to strike the unwary troll.

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