Today is Endangered Species Day, which is hardly cause for celebration, as ideally no such occasion would exist. This is not an ideal world, however. That was clear earlier this month when the UN’s biodiversity and ecosystem arm IPBES reported that one million species worldwide are threatened with extinction.
Free speech is a fraught concept because, legally speaking, it exists to protect the things we least want to hear. But on social media platforms, companies decide what falls within their guidelines, and they don’t need to protect the freedom to inflame.
Moms are great. I have one. She is super cool and gave me the impression that kids are the ultimate art project. So I thought I’d want some, too.
Sometimes David beats Goliath. And that’s what happened on May 3 in India, when PepsiCo withdrew its intellectual property lawsuits against subsistence farmers in Gujarat who were, it claimed, infringing on a potato patent.
The Eurovision Song Contest is being held in Israel this year, starting on May 14. Shocker: It’s being overshadowed by political controversy.
You might imagine that an administration intent on making America great again would be sure to display homegrown flowers in the White House.
Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme weather events, which means we need to figure out how to deal with severe tsunamis and storms when they become the norm. How can human lives be saved in places where the roads are washed out and driving is impossible? Is there some kind of technology that might help?
You’ve likely tried pad Thai, wherever you may be from. The stir-fried noodle dish from Thailand, with shrimp, eggs, vegetables, and peanuts, has become ubiquitous around the world. The late Plaek Phibunsongkhram—Thailand’s third prime minister—would no doubt be pleased with this development.
Uncle Sam wants you… to take some property off its hands.
K-pop is an international sensation, the great South Korean musical export that has taken the world by storm.
You might be forgiven for thinking that the writer Danielle Steel employs an army of scribes. Her productivity certainly gives that impression.
Dusty “the Wildman” Crum is a freelance snake hunter in Florida. He tracks down and wrangles Burmese pythons, which can grow longer than 17 feet, wandering the mangroves barefoot because, Crum says, “If you have a rubber sole between foot and Earth, you can’t absorb what nature is telling you.”
Anna Delvey used to hang out in all of New York’s finest restaurants and stay in the city’s best hotels while she wooed high-society investors and pretended she was a German heiress. Now, Delvey—real name Anna Sorokin—is facing a much less glitzy existence.
Kim Kardashian makes up to half a million dollars each time she lets her fans know how much she likes a product, like a meal replacement shake or an appetite-suppressing lollipop. And she’s not above using the law to ensure it stays that way.
You might be forgiven for thinking that Japanese women are not quite free and equal, if you judge the country by its rules of royal succession. After all, even in the Reiwa era, which began on May 1 with the coronation of Emperor Naruhito, women cannot ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne.
After 22 years, the US Department of Commerce just terminated the Tomato Suspension Agreement, which governs fresh tomatoes from Mexico. With the trade deal’s end on May 7 comes a 17.5% tariff on the fresh fruit, a tax that will likely be passed on to American consumers.
Life is trying. Every time you have something figured out, some other thing seems to fall apart. Even the best days are threatened with countless frustrations and irritations, while on bad ones we’re faced with disasters. And troubles have a clever way of coming in an array of new sizes and shapes, which means we can’t ever really master existence.
Genetic editing could theoretically help farmers grow the most delicious food. Using CRISPR technology, which allows scientists to cut and paste desired or unwanted traits, researchers could design ideal crops—great-tasting, nutritious, aesthetically beautiful, and better than anything previously known.
Nellie Bly was many things: a fearless reporter, an innovative industrialist, an intrepid world traveler. But her greatest asset, and the one thing that made all her successes possible, is what she wasn’t.
Imagine a massive raft tethered to a coastal city. On it, is an apartment building. And linked to that raft are more of the same, a chain of floating structures that serve as “suburbs.”
Humans have been sculpting nature to our tastes on a small scale for thousands of years. Now, however, we’re contemplating change on a much bigger scale, thanks to a growing understanding of genetics.
The US Marshals Service has work for those with the training and experience to join agents cracking down on dogfighting rings.
The whole world loves Game of Thrones. Everyone is betting on who will die next in the treacherous tale of life in the fictional Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, where any character might be felled at any moment. The fantasy show seems to be influencing everything from baby naming to fashion to office dramas—and now global politics.
Electric car maker BYD is speeding ahead of Tesla with respect to profitability. The Chinese company today (April 28) reported a 632% jump in profits in the first quarter from a year ago. Days earlier, the US car company led by Elon Musk announced one of its worst quarters ever.
