It’s Day 20 in our 25 Days of Exchange holiday feature. Kelsey Kennedy grew up on a Christmas tree farm in Oregon. This is her story. Art by Brian McCulloch.
With air travel comes a bombardment of fees for just about everything you might imagine. A snack that isn’t a small bag of pretzels? That’ll be $8. A blanket because your neighbor insists on keeping their air nozzle going full blast? Another $6. Then the most hated of all: the checked baggage fee. That $25 charge for the convenience of packing more may be annoying–but it also makes your air travel experience better.
It can be found in everything from toothpaste to margarine, listed as vegetable oil or a whole host of other more complex names. Palm oil and its byproducts are in high demand these days, as food manufacturers move away from trans fats and biofuels become more popular. India imported over $6 billion worth of palm oil products in 2014—and that was only 18% of total global imports of palm oil that year.
As the US presidential elections draw near, Donald Trump’s campaign shows no signs of settling down. In the last week, the campaign chairman has resigned, Trump’s poll numbers have dropped, and Steve Bannon, chairman of the far-right website Breitbart, has joined the campaign payroll. This shakeup, comedian John Oliver explained on his Sunday (Aug. 21) episode of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, shows that the Republican candidate is at a critical point in his campaign.
For professional athletes, clothing choices are a big deal. While the technical performance matters, the logos on their gear are just as important, financially speaking. So when Michael Phelps, who is endorsed by Under Armour, appeared on the newest cover of Sports Illustrated with a visible Nike logo, he committed a major sports endorsement faux pas.
Some Twitter bots are spammy and obnoxious, with eggs for profile images and misspelled suggestions of ways to get rich quick. But not all Twitter bots are bad. Some are downright brilliant. And some, like the New York Public Library’s new emoji bot, are simply delightful.
A typical weightlifter’s diet is full of animal protein–steaks, chicken, burgers. But being a meat-eater isn’t a prerequisite for becoming a world-class weightlifter. Kendrick Farris, who was the only American to compete in men’s weightlifting at the 2016 Olympics, and who lifted a combined 357 kg (787 lbs) to place 11th in the Rio games, also happens to be vegan.
Last week was probably a stressful one for Donald Trump’s campaign staffers. On Tuesday, the Republican candidate was already under fire for hinting that “second amendment people” should do something to prevent Hillary Clinton from appointing Supreme Court justices if she’s elected, and on Wednesday he was ridiculed for suggesting that president Barack Obama was “the founder of ISIS” along with Hillary Clinton. The New York Times chimed in with a deep dive “inside the failing mission to tame Donald Trump’s tongue”—itself provoking unrestrained social media ire from the candidate. And prominent Republicans spent the weekend distancing themselves from Trump on morning talk shows.
Hips swaying, arms pumping, race walkers can look a little ridiculous compared to other Olympic athletes. Their awkward gait lacks the grace of the gymnasts, the fluidity of the swimmers, and the power of the sprinters, but their sport requires serious athleticism. The men’s 20 kilometer (12.4 miles) race walk will take place this afternoon (Aug. 12) in Rio, while the women’s 20km and men’s 50km races are next Friday (Aug. 19).
Every competitive swimmer has the same nemesis, and it’s not Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky. It’s the water itself.
In 1967, Cold War tensions were running high. Five years earlier, the Cuban Missile Crisis had kept the entire United States on edge for 13 days straight, and in 1965 troops were sent to Vietnam for the first time. Since 1957, one third of the US Air Force’s bomber fleet was on alert (pdf) at any given time, ready to fire up their engines and take off in 15 minutes or less. It was in this tense, paranoid atmosphere that one of the largest solar storms of the 20th century erupted and nearly triggered an unprovoked attack on Soviet Russia.
Earth Overshoot Day isn’t one of those fun holidays, like International Cat Day or Squirrel Appreciation Day. Instead, it’s a depressing reminder that we humans are living well beyond our means. Today (Aug. 8) marks the point when humanity as a whole has used up the resources needed to live sustainably for a year.
Despite how it looks, the U.S. Olympic team has not been attacked by a gang of octopuses. Athletes like swimmer Michael Phelps and gymnast Alexander Naddour were sporting circular purple bruises during their competitions over the weekend, the result of cupping therapy.
The best of Oregon’s crops and cows will make their way to the state capital at the end of this month for the Oregon State Fair. As with most state fairs, there will be plenty of cotton candy, rickety carnival rides, and foods that probably shouldn’t be deep fried. In Oregon, though there will be one unique exhibition no other state can claim: a legal display of award-winning marijuana plants.
People are often willing to pay more for organic meat and produce, expecting higher quality products and a smaller impact on the environment. Wine is a different story. Wine lovers tend to be suspicious of organic offerings, but a new study shows they might be missing out on some high quality quaffs.
Swimmer Michael Phelps has been named as the flag bearer who will lead the US Olympic team into the opening ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games Friday. Phelps’s fellow Olympic teammates voted for him to carry the flag at what will be his fifth appearance at the Games.
Last night, I went hunting for seals in Antarctica.
The label on a bottle of sunscreen is a jumble of letters and numbers. One of those acronyms, UVA, refers to a specific range of ultraviolet light that penetrates to the deepest layers of skin and wreaks havoc on skin cells. Today’s sunscreens try to physically block UVA radiation from reaching skin cells, but scientists have developed another way of protecting skin from the inside with a new compound that works in the cells themselves.
After two grueling weeks of political conventions by America’s two major parties, the general election campaign for the White House is officially underway.
In a strikingly personal moment on the last night of this week’s Democratic National Convention (July 28), the party’s nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, recounted an upsetting experience with bullying, from when she was around 4 years old.
Twenty-one years ago, in 1995, Walmart pulled a t-shirt from its stores because it violated the company’s “family values.” It didn’t have profanity or a crude image plastered across the front of it. Instead, it was a cartoon girl proclaiming, “Someday a woman will be president!”
Looking at today’s US newspaper front pages, one could be forgiven for thinking it’s 1992. The morning after Hillary Clinton made history as the first woman to be nominated by a major political party, it was her husband, former president Bill Clinton, whose image graced the front pages of several major newspapers.
The Democratic National Convention has been described as “political bedlam,” with a vocal minority on the first night booing and chanting to express their displeasure with the party and disappointment that Bernie Sanders didn’t win the nomination. But despite the ”Bernie or Bust” contingent, a new report shows that 90% of Democratic voters that have consistently supported Sanders now back Hillary Clinton in the general election against the republican candidate, Donald Trump.
Protective clothing is critical to the health and safety of workers who handle hazardous chemicals. A new fabric coating promises to not only neutralize toxins, but also to heal tears and holes on its own while the clothes go through the laundry.
