Scandinavia may be a seemingly idyllic land of superior prisons and gender equality, but its countries aren’t exactly one happy family. Danes, for example, complain that Swedes are obsessed with political correctness and multiculturalism, while Sweden often accuses Denmark of being xenophobic.
America’s political pundits have been uncomfortably confused by Donald Trump’s surge to lead the field of Republican presidential candidates. Now the Democrat candidate Bernie Sanders is presenting another head-scratcher, as he shows signs of presenting a legitimate challenge to frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
This post has been corrected.
Tinder’s board members have evidently been doing some soul-searching lately, and announced today (Aug. 13) that current CEO Christopher Payne is stepping down. Payne, who was hired as CEO in March, will be replaced by Sean Rad, one of the company’s co-founders and its current president. Greg Blatt, an executive at Tinder’s parent company, IAC, is the new executive chairman.
Much of what biologists know about octopuses—or what they knew until recently—is captured beautifully in “Deep Intellect,” an essay by Sy Montgomery, published in Orion Magazine in 2011. Montgomery learned that not only are these aquatic invertebrates highly intelligent, but also surprisingly charismatic.
The team behind Tinder, the mobile dating app that lets users swipe right or left on pictures of potential matches, is all fired up about its portrayal in the September issue of Vanity Fair. Last night (Aug. 11), via its official Twitter account, the company published a barrage of defensive statements aimed at the magazine and Nancy Jo Sales, who wrote “Tinder and the Dawn of the ‘Dating Apocalypse'”.
Police arrested several protesters last night in Ferguson, Missouri during demonstrations to mark the anniversary of Michael Brown’s death. Brown was the unarmed black teenager fatally shot by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson on Aug. 9, 2014, in an incident that brought long-standing racial tensions to a head throughout the United States and helped launch the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
Whale-watchers were treated to a unique sight in the waters off of Queensland, Australia, yesterday (August 10): a white humpback whale swimming close to the surface.
New Zealand is getting ready to choose a new national flag, per the wishes of its prime minister John Key, who ordered a binding referendum on a new design despite public indifference and political opposition to the idea.
Hampton Creek,a San Francisco-based food startup best known for its egg-free mayonnaise spread and cookie dough, has garnered attention at every step of its recent development. There were lengthy profiles in Mother Jones and Wired in 2013 and highly publicized investments from Bill Gates and Li Ka-Shing, followed by rave reviews of its Just Mayo products, and a lawsuit from Hellmann’s mayonnaise-maker Unilever.
The US coast guard says it seized $181 million worth of cocaine in a high seas drug bust on July 18, after a navy pilot spotted a 40-foot-long, blue semi-submersible 200 miles off the coast of Mexico. Such vessels, nicknamed narco-submarines, have become increasingly popular for drug trafficking in the Americas over the past decade.
Less than a month after hackers demonstrated that they could remotely take control of a Jeep Cherokee as it was being driven, a pair of researchers has achieved a similar—though slightly less scary—feat with a Tesla Model S.
Eighty-six New Yorkers have been diagnosed this summer with Legionnaire’s disease, a severe form of pneumonia, and seven have died, making it the city’s worst outbreak of the illness in recent history.
Aviation experts in France have finished their investigation of an airplane wing piece, or flaperon, that was found on Réunion Island last week, far outside the original search zone for Malaysia Airlines flight 370. They concluded the debris is in fact from the doomed flight.
Elon Musk may be the world’s most demanding boss, but the SpaceX and Tesla CEO is a bit more flexible in his private life. Musk has just called off plans to divorce Talulah Riley, whom he already divorced and re-married once before.
Seljord Folk High School, a private institution in Norway that offers year-long continuing education courses, is now attracting students who want to live like vikings.
When California governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency this weekend (Aug. 1), he said that severe drought and recent extreme weather have turned the state into a “tinderbox.” There are 21 wildfires raging throughout California today (Aug. 3), with many of them sparked by lightning strikes.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially recognized the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), which governs ultimate frisbee and other sports involving flying discs.
A private jet crashed and exploded on the grounds of a car dealership in Hampshire, England, yesterday afternoon, killing the pilot and all three passengers on board.
Jacques Rougerie says he has a special affinity for the sea, which makes sense—his life’s work has been designing aquatic architecture. Rougerie’s SeaOrbiter ship, a fantastical roving laboratory that has been described as ”a starship Enterprise for the water,” is currently under construction. And his next design, for a floating city where up to 7,000 ocean-loving humans can live, is an even more extreme demonstration of his passion for the underwater world.
An ideal combination of sunny and stormy weather in different parts of Germany on July 25th allowed the country to meet 78% of its energy needs from wind, solar, and other renewable sources, a new national record.
What to watch for today and this weekend
Rangers discovered the tusk-less carcasses of five endangered elephants in Kenya’s Tsavo West National Park on July 28th. The elephants, reportedly an adult female and her four offspring, had been killed by poachers the previous evening—a crime even more brazen and damaging than the recent murder of a beloved Zimbabwean lion named Cecil.
Primatologist Jane Goodall has released a statement about Cecil, the Zimbabwean lion that was killed by an American on a $50,000 hunting vacation:
