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Nearly every supermarket fruit carries with it a sticky, numeric tag that tells your cashier's computer what snack you're taking home with you. What you probably don't know is that these fruit stickers are edible. They're made out of food grade paper that's safe to eat. In fact, even the glue is food grade and has been approved for consumption by the Food and Drug Administration. 

Lucky and Flo are a pair of black Labrador retrievers who were trained to detect pirated and counterfeit DVDs by scent. They are sponsored by the Motion Picture Association of America as part of an initiative to combat copyright infringement. Trained to sniff out the polycarbonate used on discs, the two pups have recovered millions of pirated works and helped catch dozens of counterfeiters. 

A Norwegian news site is attempting to make an online discussion on its website more productive by having readers complete a quiz before allowing them to comment. The exam requires the person to show that they have a basic understanding of the content in the article. Their goal is to discourage age online ranting and to foster more productive and informed conversation among the readers. ​

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For most of history, women have been trying to cover up imperfections to have the appearance of a perfect complexion. The latest beauty fad goes against this trend as it involves adding marks to your skin! Freckling is a new practice wherein a tattoo artist speckles a smattering of freckles across the tops of the cheeks and nose using a semi-permanent tattooing technique. One hour-long session costs around $250, and gives you freckles that can last up to three years. 

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Toyama, a city in Japan, gets so much snowfall in the winter that the highways become snow tunnels when a path is finally cleared in March. The walls of the snow tunnels are as high as 66 feet! The routes were first cleared to get supplies to a hotel atop Mt. Tateyama, but the snow tunnels are so unique that they have now become a tourist attraction known as The Snow Valley Walk. 

It's true what they say; love does have the power to heal. Studies show that when when you have positive, loving relationships in your life, it increases your level of oxytocin. This hormone increases your pain tolerance, reduces blood pressure, and eases stress. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful three-day weekend. My weekend turned out to be a 4-day weekend, with a surprise birthday trip to Atlanta for family time and a Braves game (with a great win over White Sox). 

This week, we are focusing on annotation and characterization. We will be practicing strategies on "reading to the text" and different types of characterization seen in characters.

Random fact: Instead of a raven, Edgar Allen Poe originally wanted a parrot to quote repeat "nevermore."