How One NASA Image Tells Dozens Of Stories
In 2016, NASA used the Suomi NPP weather satellite to create a high resolution image of the earth at night. It can help us better understand the current developments and conflicts underway. The amount of light pollution is most severe in heavily populated areas, as well as in regions of high prosperity.
Robot Baby Gorilla Captures Never-Before-Seen Wildlife Behavior
Infiltrating a pack of Silverback Mountain gorillas might seem like an impossible task, but a team of filmmakers did just that with the help of a robot baby gorilla. Nicknamed “spy gorilla,” the lifelike replica recorded never-before-seen footage of apes singing, fighting, and even farting in the jungles of Uganda.
Start-up Spots Gap In Market For Ethical ‘Chick-Culling Free’ Eggs
Seleggt, a German start-up, is attempting to find a commercial use for its solution to the issue of chick culling in the farming industry. The eggs are marked with a ‘respeggt’ stamp, and customers know they are buying eggs produced free of chick culling.
How The English Language Is Taking Over the Planet
English is everywhere, and everywhere, English dominates. From inauspicious beginnings on the edge of a minor European archipelago, it has grown to vast size and astonishing influence. Almost 400m people speak it as their first language; a billion more know it as a secondary tongue. Is there any point in resisting?
The Story Of World’s First Floating Hotel Abandoned In North Korea
In October 2019 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un ordered the demolition of the world’s first floating hotel. Docked in North Korea, the hotel is currently owned by a South Korean company that bought it from a Japanese one. It was a major hit in Vietnam but it was originally made for Australia, designed in Sweden and built in Singapore.
Russian Startup Wants To Put Huge Ads In Space
The first of StartRocket’s space-based ads could go up by 2021. The ads — a bit like skytyping, only in low-Earth orbit rather than in the atmosphere — would be visible only at night but could be seen from just about anywhere on the planet.
The Tragedy On Great Slave Lake
Paddling alone on the 31st day of his expedition, Frenchman Thomas Destailleur tried to “attack the waves” of mercurial Great Slave Lake. But the planet’s 10th-largest lake struck back, soaking Destailleur and flooding his 13-foot kayak with ice water, forcing the paddler ashore.
The Story Of A German Conman
It was one of the biggest white-collar scams in German history. In the 1990s, Manfred Schmider and his company FlowTex took investors for more than two billion euros. Today, the conman himself can’t believe how easy it was to get away with a major fraud.
Total Recall: The People Who Never Forget
Around 60 people in the world share a condition called “highly superior autobiographical memory”. They remember absolutely everything. The extremely rare condition may transform our understanding of memory.
Chasing Colombia’s ‘Cocaine Hippos’
After the Colombian National Police killed Escobar in 1993, zoos and private collectors acquired the animals, all except the hippopotamuses. They are only hippos in the wild outside Africa. Escobar started with four hippos. Today, a UC San Diego biologist estimates there are 80 to 100.
Donald Trump’s Worst Deal
The President helped build a hotel in Azerbaijan that appears to be a corrupt operation engineered by oligarchs tied to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. The Trump Tower Baku never opened.
The Unhackable Email Service
Ladar Levison built an encrypted email service called Lavabit that counted a prominent figure among its users: Edward Snowden. When the FBI demanded Levison decrypt Snowden’s communications, he had two options, either hand over the encryption key or destroy his servers. He chose the latter.
Inside London’s £18BN New Railway
Join Fred Mills inside London’s new Tottenham Court Road (TCR) station – part of the £18BN Elizabeth Line that is being constructed by Crossrail beneath the UK’s capital.
The Remote ‘Democratic’ Oasis Of Soviet Russia
The academic town of Akademgorodok in Siberia was created by Russian mathematician Mikhaïl Alekseïevitch Lavrentiev, who wanted to install a safe haven for scientists in the middle of Siberia. Such isolation from Moscow created a fertile scientific and cultural nest away from the influence of the State and its politics.
The Strange Persistence Of First Languages
Czech was the only language I knew until the age of 2, when my family began a migration westward, from what was then Czechoslovakia through Austria, then Italy, settling eventually in Montreal, Canada. Along the way, a clutter of languages introduced themselves into my life.
“Jahre Viking”, The World’s Biggest Ship Ever Built
She was nearly twice the length of the Titanic, and her lesser-known history is no less epic. She’s been called by many names like Seawise Giant, Happy Ginat, Jahre Viking, Knock Nevis and Oppama & Mont. She was the biggest moving object that mankind has ever built.
The Benefits Of Playing Music Help Your Brain More Than Any Other Activity
Science has shown that musical training can change brain structure and function for the better. It can also improve long-term memory and lead to better brain development for those who start at a young age. Furthermore, musicians tend to be more mentally alert, according to new research.
“Coyote”, Award-Winning Animation Short Film
A coyote loses his wife and children from an attack of wolfs. Anguished from human emotions he‘s trying to process the experience. Besides grief and delusion, evil takes up more and more space. Directed by Lorenz Wunderle.
Wild Juxtapositions Of Saudi Arabia Modern And Ancient
Few countries in history have experienced as sudden a transformation as Saudi Arabia. The discovery and exploitation of oil brought an unprecedented influx of wealth. Photographer Peter Bogaczewicz captures the past and present of the oil-rich kingdom as it undergoes dramatic transformation.
Kidney Stone Drug Found To Starve Pancreatic Cancer Cells To Death
A research team at Columbia University has made an exciting discovery, finding that a compound currently under development for a rare kidney stone disease can starve pancreatic cancer cells of a key amino acid they depend on, a technique that proved to stop tumor growth in mice.
Where Oil Rigs Go To Die
The world has a problem with its oil rigs. There are too many of them. When a drilling platform is scheduled for destruction, it must go on a thousand-mile final journey to the breaker’s yard. As one rig proved when it crashed on to the rocks of a remote Scottish island, this is always a risky business.