In honor of the United States and others declaring independence, and in the spirit of the American cornucopia and the halftime show, the editors would like to highlight some events in our country’s recent history as seen on this website. Feel free to click through to read the articles, but also feel free to just scan the headlines, as a kind of catalog of the current shape of thlngs. And thank you, dear readers, for staying free.

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Hello, NSA

The Return of ‘OMNI’

My Friend GIF Turned 26

Why Bottled Water Is Insane

The DEA Just Seized 11 Bitcoins

Guy Almost Jumps Jeep over Pool

Notes from America’s Forever-Drought

Video: Thomas Drake Talks Leaks at MoMA

President Obama Just Declared War on Coal

I Just Spied on the NSA with Google Street View

The Most Watched Blackout in American History

It’s Official: America Is Militarizing the Mexican Border

Video: The New Drone War Is Being Waged Over America

Rock On: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Gold

Texas Is the First State to Ban Warrantless Email Surveillance

Live Stream: The Crowds of Tahrir Square Celebrate Morsi’s Exit

Finally, Face-Scrambling Glasses to Go With Your Drone-Proof Cloak

According to Google, the Heart of America is in Independence, Kansas

Judaism Is the Most Respected Religion in America and Other Revelations

‘Idiots Fighting Things’ Is a Triumphant Commentary on the Human Condition

Video: High Country: A Mind-Melting Journey Through the Silicon Valley of Weed

The GOP Aims to Slash Clean Energy Spending in Half to Expand the Defense Budget

The United States Spent $630k Buying Likes for These Pro-America Facebook Pages

Video: The Gut-Wrenching Saga of Shoenice, the YouTube Star Who Will Eat Anything

Being an Apollo Astronaut’s Wife Was Less Glamorous Than It Seemed at the Time

The World Ends with a Handshake: Unraveling the Apocalypse of ‘Southland Tales’

Congress Tells NASA to Quit Researching Climate Change and Asteroid Retrieval

Illustrations from Inside Gitmo’s Secretive Khalid Sheikh Mohammed Hearing

Video: Inside NASA’s Last Undersea Mission to Save Earth from an Asteroid

In Helping Power Africa, Why Didn’t Obama Commit to More Renewables?

Cluster Headaches: Inside the US Army’s Would-Be Mind-Control Bombs

Topiary Is Free: The Lulziest Tweets of Anonymous’s Hacker-Comedian

The Feds Made 113,664 Weed Busts on the Mexico Border in Six Years

A Dead Zone the Size of New Jersey Is Growing in the Gulf of Mexico

The White House Pledged More Support to Fight Wildlife Trafficking

A Brief History of the United States Snooping on Its Own Citizens

New Software Will Prevent You From Accidentally Printing a Gun

New York City’s Trees Saved Eight People From Dying Last Year

Video: The Most Laudable George W. Bush Supercut Ever Made

Weev’s Lawyers Are “Cautiously Optimistic” About His Appeal

The “Hold my Beer” Videos are an American Cultural Treasure

With Passion and Selfies, Bill Nye Is America’s Science Guy

RIP Frank Gilbreth Sr., Father of the Flowchart, Twelve Kids

NYC’s Mayoral Candidates Aren’t Sure What 3D Printing Is

The Energy Secretary Says the US Is Still a Fan of Coal

So Long Google Reader, and Thanks for the Memories

USC Scientists Are Working on Deleting Memories

The Biggest Dead Zones in America’s Waterways

The Surprisingly Complex Etymology of ‘Skittles’

Why Tesla Is Making Auto Dealers Nervous

What the Internet of Smells Will Smell Like

The TSA’s Instagram Feed Is Vintage PR

Video: I Was a Teenage Cryonicist

Edward Snowden Is a Gay Alien

Video: A Death on the Frontier

Does Granny Need Ganja?

We Are All the NSA Now

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Video: “Wishes,” Beach House. Dir. Eric Wareheim, 2013