Inside India's sand mafia

In India, a construction boom is fueling a criminal enterprise around one of the most ubiquitous substances on Earth: Sand.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images
  • India's construction industry is booming, which means that demand for concrete is very high.
  • Sand is a crucial ingredient in concrete, but mining it can cause significant environmental damage.
  • The Indian government has therefore regulated the mining of sand, but doing so is an easy way for many Indians to earn some extra money. As a result, illegal sand mining has become a commonplace activity, leading to corruption and sometimes violence.
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Politics & Current Affairs

The world's watersheds, mapped in gorgeous detail

Hungarian cartographer travels the world while mapping its treasures.

Image: Grasshopper Geography
  • Simple idea, stunning result: the world's watersheds in glorious colors.
  • The maps are the work of Hungarian cartographer Robert Szucs.
  • His job: to travel and map the world, one good cause at a time.
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Strange Maps

10 of Europe's weirdest laws

Amongst other things, you can't get away with handling a salmon suspiciously in Scotland.

Photo credit:Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images
  • While a few of the laws on this list are holdovers from long ago, some laws are as recent as 2011.
  • While marrying a dead person or handling salmon suspiciously might sound morbid or hilarious, these laws have historical context.
  • Some of today's laws might seem as antiquated as these in 100 years, too.
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Politics & Current Affairs

'Aquatic life is bathing in a soup of antidepressants,' says marine biologist

Antidepressants are destroying underwater ecosystems, which we in turn eat.

  • A new British study has discovered that "our aquatic life is bathing in a soup of antidepressants."
  • Entire ecosystems are being negatively affected by our pharmaceutical use.
  • The drugs re-enter our bodies when we consume seafood from these areas.
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Surprising Science