Crossing the Border to Attend US Schools

Febe Ara lives in one country but goes to school in another.

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Shanghai Maglev - World's Fastest Train

This is the Shanghai Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) train, the world's fastest train, with a top operating speed of 431kph (268mph) - Enjoy the Ride! The train has actually exceeded 500kph in testing. It does the 19 mile journey to Pudong airport in 7 minutes!

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Russians Say They Fear Hunger, Unemployment and Nuclear War

A recent state poll asking Russians about their fears has laid bare a telling change in attitudes: more than double the number of respondents said they feared a nuclear war compared to two years ago. Russia's deteriorating relations with the West and the economic turmoil that followed sanctions imposed on Moscow for its meddling in Ukraine have had a significant impact on Russians' view on the likelihood of nuclear war or going hungry, the poll published Thursday by state-run...

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Christine Weick (Crazy Monster Drink Lady) interrupts Texas Muslim Capitol Day speaker

Controversial activist Christine Weick interrupts a speaker at Texas Muslim Capitol Day.

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Marshawn Lynch Delivers Eloquent 45-Minute Address On Privacy In The Modern Age

Explaining his position on the sociological issue during a Tuesday press conference at Super Bowl Media Day, Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch reportedly delivered an incredibly thoughtful and eloquent 45-minute address on the topic of privacy in the 21st century. “While increasingly exhaustive access to media has delivered many benefits to the American way of life, this same heightened scrutiny has simultaneously imposed progressively greater obstacles to our personal privacy...

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China says no room for 'western values' in university education

China’s education minister has vowed to ban university textbooks which promote “western values”, state media said, in the latest sign of ideological tightening under President Xi Jinping. “Never let textbooks promoting western values appear in our classes,” minister Yuan Guiren said, according to a report late Thursday by China’s official Xinhua news agency. “Remarks that slander the leadership of the Communist Party of China” and “smear socialism” must never appear in college...

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Afghan Taliban not a terrorist organisation

The US does not consider Afghan Taliban as a terrorist outfit, but conceded the tactics adopted by them similar to terrorism. "They (the Taliban) do carry out tactics that are akin to terrorism. They do pursue terror attacks in an effort to try to advance their agenda," the White House Press Secretary, Josh Earnest told reporters yesterday. The United States, he noted has designating the Taliban in such a way so as to put in place some financial sanctions against the leaders...

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Why Can't Public Transit Be Free?

About 500 subway riders in Stockholm have an ingenious scheme to avoid paying fares. The group calls itself Planka.nu (rough translation: "dodge the fare now"), and they’ve banded together because getting caught free-riding comes with a steep $120 penalty. Here's how it works: Each member pays about $12 in monthly dues—which beats paying for a $35 weekly pass—and the resulting pool of cash more than covers any fines members incur.

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Too-Low, S14 Nissan Silvia can't enter driveway, leaves without dinner

I was quite lucky to see, and capture, this super-low S14 Silvia at the local curry restaurant. Sadly, the owner had to give up on the idea of eating. Personally, the curry is so good there that I'd happily run factory ride height. It's that yummy.

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$13.5M-winning lottery ticket bought 7 seconds late invalid, top court decides

A Quebec man who bought a winning lottery ticket seven seconds too late has lost his Supreme Court of Canada bid to appeal a decision that has denied him half of the $27-million prize. "I'm going to be very very honest with you … I'm very disappointed in this decision," said Joel Ifergan of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, from Montreal's West Island.

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A carpet of cherry blossom

You can find this most unique view on a street in Bonn, Germany in spring time.

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Getting Out Of Afghanistan

By the time we thought about leaving Afghanistan, we'd been tossing gear into the country for more than a decade. This is the story of how we moved...

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Learning to Drive

Reaching middle age and still don't know how to drive. How hard could it be?

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"CSE tracks millions of downloads daily" claim Snowden documents

Canada's electronic spy agency sifts through millions of videos and documents downloaded online every day by people around the world, as part of a sweeping bid to find extremist plots and suspects, CBC News has learned. Details of the Communications Security Establishment project dubbed "Levitation" are revealed in a document obtained by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden and recently released to CBC News.

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What Silicon Valley Thinks of Women

The sexism in Silicon Valley is sordid and systemic. It’s going to take a revolution to bring it down—or a woman’s touch.

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Inside the Men's Rights Movement—and the Army of Misogynists and Trolls It Spawned

On a balmy afternoon last June, dozens of demonstrators carrying "Stop the Violence" and "Rape is Rape" placards descended on the Hilton DoubleTree in downtown Detroit. They had come to protest the first-ever national gathering of the men's rights movement, which aims to battle discrimination against men but has drawn criticism for stirring up hatred of women. Two weeks earlier, a sexually frustrated 22-year-old named Elliot Rodger had gone on a...

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Why Vending Machines Are So Popular in Japan

Right now, I am visiting New York. There are not many vending machines here, like there are in Osaka, where I live. Surely, there must be a good reason for Japan having all those vending machines. Turns out, there are several.

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Why the alleged Russian spy ring matters

They weren't exactly James Bond but the three alleged Russian spies exposed by the FBI are part of the most intense effort by Russia to infiltrate agents onto American soil since the Cold War. In an affidavit unsealed in federal court on Monday, the Justice Department accused Evgeny Buryakov, also known as "Zhenya," of posing as a Russian banker in Manhattan to funnel economic intelligence to the SVR, Russia's foreign intelligence agency.

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The Hidden Psychology of Wearing Glasses

Years ago, I noticed an old friend wearing glasses for the first time. When I asked her if she’d just decided to forgo her contacts, she replied that she had, in fact, not. She didn’t own contacts, you see, and the frames she wore held nothing but non-prescriptively bent glass. They were on her face for fashion, nothing but. As a glasses wearer of over two decades, this did not sit right with me. And I told her so, in dramatic and particularly expletive terms.

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Dolphin Cove

Dave filmed this amazing aerial vision with his quadcopter off Esperance, along south Western Australia's beautiful coastline. Huge pods of bottlenose dolphins cruise the shoreline and surf the crystal clear turquoise waves. Such intelligent and playful animals - we have a lot to learn from their lifestyle!!

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North Korea Slams Israel as a Rogue 'Nuclear Threat'

North Korea’s Foreign Ministry slammed the “shamelessness of Israel” on Friday, calling the Jewish State a “rogue group” that “poses a nuclear threat” and commits “terrorist attack(s)” against neighboring countries. On Friday the Korean Central News Agency released a statement attributed to North Korea’s Foreign Ministry that responded to comments Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made last week that were critical of the Hermit Kingdom.

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FCC says blocking wireless hotspots is illegal

The agency issues official statement that blocking an individual's personal hotspot, as hotels and convention centers have done, is against the law and subject to fines.

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Yes, this is a real bear playing hockey in Russia

Hockey is a big deal in Russia and the country has produced a host of excellent players over the years. From Sergio Federov to Pavel Bure, the Russian hockey team is currently ranked as the third best side in the world so it's no surprise to see packed stadiums week in, week out. This video above shows a Russian circus bear 'entertaining' fans during a break in play at a hockey match. And according to news reports, these circus bears playing hockey have been around for quite a while.

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36 Views of Mount Fuji

36 Views of Mount Fuji is a ukiyo-e series of large, color woodblock prints by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849). The series depicts Mount Fuji in differing seasons and weather conditions from a variety of different places and distances and includes the famous print "The Great Wave off Kanagawa." It actually consists of 46 prints created between 1826 and 1833. Thirty six were included in the original publication and, due to their popularity, 10 additional prints were added later

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How Video Game Addiction Can Destroy Your Life

The withdrawal made Brett want to die. The 12-year-old had only been cut off for a few hours, and his mind was already wandering to a dark and dangerous place. Looking out the window of his family's three-story home in Wassenaar, a suburb of the Hague, in the Netherlands, the American transplant imagined swan-diving out of his room and falling to the ground below, with his skull cracking open against the pavement.

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Lush Images of a Floral Desert

Taken in the flowering desert of Namaqualand, a region of South Africa and Namibia known for its wealth of alluvial diamonds, Francois Visser's images are like Eden before the fall; a lush playground of saturated colour and strange flora that makes urban existence seem painfully grey.

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The way we get off airplanes makes absolutely no sense

There are few things more infuriating about flying than waiting to get off an airplane. After flying across the country at hundreds of miles per hour, we spend dozens of minutes achingly close to our destinations, watching other people slowly get their bags out of the overhead bins and trod down the aisle.

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The Fight to Save Japan’s Young Shut-Ins

When the Kimura family moved here from Tokyo, their middle school-aged daughter missed her old friends. Midway into her first year in high school, she stopped going. Between 14 and 19, she barely left the house, and for one year hardly left her room, interacting only with her parents. Now 33 and recovered, Ms. Kimura says she was “hikikomori.” That’s the name of a type of social withdrawal that can be so severe, people with it don’t leave their houses for years. It’s also what those who...

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When New York City Is a Prison

A former prosecutor enters the flawed probation system he had once defended.

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Do Happy Couples Masturbate? When Masturbation Meets Cohabitation

"I have an important question about married life, which remains incomprehensible to me, but I am trying to understand,” I Gchatted my childhood friend Vanessa last week. She’s been with her husband for a decade. “When the hell do you masturbate?”

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You Can Sleep in a Tesla Hotel for $85 a Night, Plus Tip

In my college days, I slept in many a strange place: an aerobics room in a mansion in a Dayton suburb, a hotel bed with four other people after getting drunk at a haunted house, and, perhaps my favorite, on a dining room table with a paper towel blanket. Never, however, have I slept in a stranger’s car just for kicks, but, of course, I’ve never known anyone with a Tesla who’d make that offer. Until now.

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Happy Birthday, Lewis Carroll: How the Beloved Author’s Rules of Letter-Writing Can Make Email More Civil

"If your friend makes a severe remark, either leave it unnoticed, or make your reply distinctly less severe."

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Dennis Rodman Opens Up About 'The Interview,' Invites Seth Rogen to North Korea

Despite what the U.S. government says, Dennis Rodman doesn't believe that the notorious hack of Sony Pictures was caused by North Korea in response to The Interview. "If the North wanted to hack anything in the world, anything in the world, really, they are going to go hack a movie? Really?!" Rodman says to The Hollywood Reporter, in his first extensive comments about the Sony film.

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Why (Almost) Everyone Got Snowpocalypse Wrong

A high-tech weather prediction model said New York wouldn't get much snowfall. So why didn't we know about it?

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Super Sad Tiny Home Fetish

Micro-living is no longer just for the very poor and the very bohemian. But how much space do we really deserve? Is there a respectable minimum square-footage below which no one should be forced to endure?

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The Genius of Moondog, New York’s Homeless Composer

For thirty years, a lumbering, blind “Viking” roamed the streets of New York City. Armed with a six-foot, steel-pointed spear, a horned, leather-embossed cap, and a long, wispy beard, he’d find a spot along Sixth Avenue, set up his array of homemade instruments, and stand placidly for eight hours, like some ancient humanized statue. Amidst the shrill horns, screeching tires, and tumbling foot traffic of Manhattan, the sightless giant would gently rap on his drum, advertising his wares...

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I Was Arrested for Learning a Foreign Language. Today, I Have Some Closure.

Five years ago, the Philadelphia police thought that carrying Arabic-language flashcards was enough to warrant the arrest of an innocent traveler. A settlement reached today in a lawsuit I brought against the police department makes it clear that it is not.

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London’s weirdest...restaurants

London has some of the best restaurants on the planet, but if you really want to titillate your tastebuds and have a unique meal, head down to one of these weird and wonderful eateries.

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Santa Ana Winds Knock Out Power To Thousands Across Southland

Power was being restored Sunday to tens of thousands of people who lost electricity in Southern California after fierce Santa Ana winds gusting as much as 89 mph toppled trees and power poles.

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The Final Betrayal of Egypt’s Revolution

Thanassis Cambanis’s new book, Once Upon a Revolution: An Egyptian Story, follows the paths of two Egyptian activists who played prominent roles in organizing President Hosni Mubarak’s downfall four years ago this week. One is Moaz, religious but free-spirited, who grew up in the Muslim Brotherhood but firmly believed in Egypt’s future as a pluralistic and secular state. The other, Basem, is a middle-aged architect whose political awakening began in Tahrir Square.

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Students who survived Mexico’s night of bloody horror accuse army and police

Uriel Alonso Solís is an affable 19-year-old, the oldest of five children from a poor campesino family. But his grittiness shows through as he recounts the terrible night his college friends – four of whom he grew up with – were seized and hauled off to face a brutal fate that still reverberates across Mexican society. Alonso survived the horrific attack on unarmed students by state and criminal forces last September in the southern state of Guerrero...

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Life in the Sickest Town in America

I drove from one of the healthiest counties in the country to the least-healthy, both in the same state. Here’s what I learned about work, well-being, and happiness. Donald Rose has no teeth, but that’s not his biggest problem. A camouflage hat droops over his ancient, wire-framed glasses. He’s only 43, but he looks much older.

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Why Is India So Crazy for World Records?

The first time Nikhil Shukla adjudicated a Guinness world record, two million people turned up. Standing on a makeshift dais just before dawn in January 2012, Shukla gazed with bleary, incredulous eyes; he was 28, and he had never seen such a mammoth crowd in his life. Tolls on the national highway from the nearest city, Rajkot, had been suspended to accommodate the traffic, and Shukla had to trudge 20 minutes from his V.I.P. parking spot...

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The killer algae making Hong Kong’s water glow

Along a seashore in Hong Kong yesterday, a vibrant blue glow was seen emanating from the water. Beautiful photographs show the shore glimmering, with the lights of the city sparkling in the background. But this idyllic setting is potentially toxic. The luminescence is an algal bloom created by Noctiluca scintillans, nicknamed “sea sparkle.” When disturbed by currents or waves, the bloom glows. “It looks like algae and can act like algae.

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Obama: North Korea is bound to collapse

U.S. President Barack Obama said North Korea is bound to collapse and the Internet will find its way into the isolated nation and spread information that will undercut the authoritarian regime. Obama made the remark in an interview on Youtube on Thursday, stressing that a military solution is not the answer because South Korea, a key U.S. ally, will be severely affected if war breaks out on the divided Korean Peninsula.

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Can the Siberian Tiger Make a Comeback?

rom its origins in Russia’s remote Primorsky Province, the Krounovka River wends northeast, passing through ridges red with willow trees and barren stretches of grassland, before finally joining a larger river known as the Razdolnaya. By modern standards, the river valley is all but unpopulated, save the odd logging outpost, but in the winter months the region fills with amateur sportsmen who come to stalk the abundant sika deer and the freshwater trout.

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Why Japan is mocking ISIS with photoshopped Twitter memes

Maybe humour is the best weapon after all. On Tuesday, ISIS released a video of two Japanese hostages, demanding £132 million ransom from their government to secure their release. Japan has refused to pay the ransom, leaving journalists Kenji Goto and Haruna Yukawa to an uncertain fate. But the Japanese public has responded by hitting Twitter to mock the terror group with photoshopped memes.

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Chili: America's Super Bowl

Score big points on game day with Emeril Lagasse’s Navy Bean and Chicken Chili recipe

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What it's like to drive Saudi Arabian princesses around

Jayne Larson got an intimate view of the life of a Saudi princess when she worked as a chauffeur for the royal family. There was no application form; there was no paperwork at all. Jayne Amelia Larson got paid in cash and the only requirements were that she had a clean driving record and she answered one single question: “I was asked if I was a Jew and I’m not, so I got the job.”

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Why I Am Not a Maker

Every once in a while, I am asked what I “make.” A hack day might require it, or a conference might ask me to describe “what I make” so it can go on my name tag. I’m always uncomfortable with it. I’m uncomfortable with any culture that encourages you take on an entire identity, rather than to express a facet of your own identity ("maker," rather than "someone who makes things"). But I have much deeper concerns. An identity built around making things—of being “a maker”—pervades technology...

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