Mattel’s and the Chinese cyber-thieves

The email seemed unremarkable: a routine request by Mattel Inc’s chief executive for a new vendor payment to China. It was well-timed, arriving on Thursday, April 30, during a tumultuous period for the Los-Angeles based maker of Barbie dolls. Barbie was bombing…
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How New York Gets Its Water

Nine and a half million people consume what has been called the champagne of drinking water. We took a look at its journey from source to tap.
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George Orwell in Spain: Where the Writer Fully Found His Voice

Adam Hochschild, author of "Spain In Our Hearts," explains how George Orwell - unlike any other writer of his time - best captured the Spanish Civil War.
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Is This the End of the Era of the Important, Inappropriate Literary Man?

In public, everyone says that Thomas Sayers Ellis, 52, formerly of Case Western and Sarah Lawrence, a visiting professor at the Iowa Writers Workshop this semester, is brilliant. Even the people who find him off-putting and unprofessional tend to agree.
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Revealed: how Associated Press cooperated with the Nazis

The Associated Press news agency entered a formal cooperation with the Hitler regime in the 1930s, supplying American newspapers with material directly produced and selected by the Nazi propaganda ministry, archive material unearthed by a German historian has revealed. When the Nazi party seized power in Germany in 1933, one of its first objectives was to bring into line not just the national press, but international media too. The Guardian was banned within a year...
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The App That Will Tell You Exactly What You're Flying Over

Learn about the glaciers and lakes you pass by during those long-haul flights.
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Incredible Photos & Videos of Hoopstad Sandstorm

The following dramatic photos were taken by Hoopstad farmer Petrus Roux during a massive sandstorm in the Freestate, South Africa.
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Recent video shows doctor hitting patient in China

The footage, filmed secretly in a Chinese hospital, shows a doctor hitting a patient who is lying on the operating table. According to Chinese media, the patient refused to pay supplementary fees for her operation. Three hospitals in Hohhot closed because of the video.
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The Birth of G-SHOCK, Casio’s “Revolutionary” Watch

A conversation with legendary engineer Kikuo Ibe
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Using Adblock Plus to block ads is legal, rules German court—for the fifth time

Adblock's whitelisting scheme for advertisements also acceptable, Munich court says.
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Raw: Mexico's Popocatepetl Volcano Erupts

Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano spewed a large column of ash and vapor Tuesday afternoon. (March 30)
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California’s $15-an-hour minimum wage may spur automation

For many California business groups, the state's decision to gradually raise its minimum wage to $15 by 2022 is a terrible thing. But for its technology industry, it may be a plus. Higher wages, says the California Restaurant Association, will force businesses to face "undesirable" options, including cutting staff, raising prices and adopting automation.
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Can an Outsider Ever Truly Become Amish?

One of the rarest religious experiences you can have in America is to join the Plain.
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North Korea pushes missile investments while telling citizens to brace for famine

The hermit state continues to arm itself, while warning its people of tough times ahead.
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Baby dying video sparks outrage over poor Mexican healthcare

An amateur video posted online that shows a doctor trying in vain to save the life of a baby has sparked public outrage over Mexico’s poor health facilities. The author of the footage explains why he filmed the devastating scene.
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The Cracks Ripping Earth Apart

In a remote and desolate landscape, the rocks are tearing themselves in two beneath your feet and new land is being born
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Old Man River

Watching a changing nation from a single waterway in the wilds of northeast Scotland.
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Disappearing tribes of Ethiopia: Incredible images of the Surma people

The Surma people are made up of the Suri tribe and the Mursi tribe. These images were taken in Ethiopia by Louisa Seton, who wanted to photograph them before they disappeared.
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The strange case of a Nazi who became an Israeli hitman

On September 11, 1962, a German scientist vanished. The basic facts were simple: Heinz Krug had been at his office, and he never came home. The only other salient detail known to police in Munich was that Krug commuted to Cairo frequently. He was one of dozens of Nazi rocket experts who had been hired by Egypt to develop advanced weapons for that country. HaBoker, a now defunct Israeli newspaper, surprisingly claimed to have the explanation...
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The dinky-di Aussie animals that have Asian names

It is hard to get more Australian than the word cockatoo, which makes it surprising the name originates in Asia.
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China proposes foreign domain name censorship

A new draft law in China could increase domain name restrictions, limiting domestic access to foreign websites.
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Seasons of Castelluccio

Scattered like a crown at the foot of the mountain range, the medieval abbeys and ancient hilltop villages are witness each year to the most spectacular seasonal transformation in Sibillini National Park — from riotous carpets of flowers to deep snow.
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The Path to Death: How EU Failures Helped Paris Terrorists Obtain Weapons

Where did the weapons used in the 2015 terror attacks in Paris come from? Files from the ongoing investigation now make it possible to follow the trail. Years of EU shortcomings helped the firearms on their way. By Stefan Candea, Jürgen Dahlkamp, Jörg Schmitt, Andreas Ulrich and Wolf Wiedmann-Schmidt.
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Women having tea in Napier, New Zealand (ca.1890)

An animated GIF created from a stereoscopic photograph featured in the collection of the National Library of New Zealand.
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Australia: Meet Patrick, the oldest and biggest wombat in the world!

A zookeeper had her hands full on Wednesday tending to what is believed to be the world's "oldest" and "biggest" Wombat in captivity at the Ballarat Wildlife Park in Victoria. The wombat, known as Patrick, was hand-raised after being orphaned as a baby and sadly remains a virgin. He has lived nearly his entire life in captivity at the Ballarat Wildlife Park as he couldn’t defend himself against other wombats in the wild.
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Antarctic Birds can Recognize Individual People, and Attack Intruders

The birds often chase intruders and claw their heads.
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In Japan - 2015

This film is a collection of audiovisual moments and memories of a 3-week railway journey through Japan in 2015. Filmed by: Vincent Urban, Alex Schiller, Alex Tank. "We were whizzing through the country with the Shinkansen visiting Tokyo, Osaka, Hiroshima and Kyoto as well as lots of wonderful little places along the way, meeting the most friendly people and experiencing a culture that somehow balances its rich tradition with a very futuristic present."
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Pharmaceutical Companies Hiked Price on Aid in Dying Drug

The drug’s price went from $200 in 2009 to $3,000 today. Doctors and patients want to know why. By April Dembosky.
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Russia's Drone Tank Looks Cool In Videos But...

In recent years, the Kremlin has touted its development of unmanned ground combat vehicles.
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Summer traffic: Photos of frustrated London drivers in the 1980s

Vivid color photos capture the '80s fashions of extremely frustrated motorists.
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The Case of the Counterfeit Eggs

In 1999, while taking a break from my PhD to try to get rich in the fine jewellery business, I nearly became the world’s largest counterfeiter of Fabergé eggs. It all started in Arlington, Texas, where my brothers and I owned several jewellery stores. Boris, an alcoholic Russian ex-pat who’d been with us for years, came into my office one January morning... By Clancy Martin. (Feb. ’09)
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Security failures leave SAT scores in question

Leaks of the SAT have been far more pervasive than acknowledged, documents show. The new SAT is vulnerable to a security hole that's widely exploited in Asia.
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How Hollywood Changes Movies to Appease Foreign Censors

To profit from China's huge movie market, Hollywood producers have to get past the country's censors. And the censors have some suggestions.
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A photographer captured these dismal photos of life in North Korea on his phone

What it's like to live in North Korea, through the lens of a tourist's cell phone.
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When our culture’s past is lost in the cloud

In "When We Are No More: How Digital Memory Is Shaping Our Future," Abby Smith Rumsey explores the pitfalls of digital life for preserving our past for the future. Reviewed by Nicholas Carr.
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There Used To Be Canals In Downtown Manhattan

Just like in Venice, and that other Venice in Los Angeles, Manhattan once had canals.
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After I am hanged my portrait will be interesting

Colm Tóibín tells the story of Easter 1916 and the Rising in Ireland.
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Florence Nightingale Saved Lives by Creating Revolutionary Visualizations of Statistics in 1855

A data nerd who changed the world for the better.
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My Father and the Wine

“Here is what no one admits in their gleeful reports on the year of planting their own vegetables, baking their own bread, and brewing coca-cola with self-harvested cane sugar and home-grown cocaine: some undertakings require absolute, unyielding dedication, and not every member of the family or community can match it.” By Irina Dumitrescu. (April ’15) [PDF]
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Next Time You See a Taxi, Ask Yourself, Is This a Cop?

In 2013, a few friends and I were walking to a party in the Lower East Side when a taxi pulled quickly up to the curb alongside us. Two cops, both in plain clothes and unrecognizable as police with the exception of small earpieces, jumped out of the cab and frisked one of us. One year later, I witnessed something strange while I walked up Second Avenue. A taxicab had pulled over another taxicab. The vehicle to the rear was indistinguishable from the cab in front of it with the one notable...
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Inside Romania's Happy Cemetery

Where people are remembered with humour and happy goodbyes.
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The Secret River, silences and Australian history

The stage version of The Secret River gives us a deeper sense of our history. But can understanding the past from different perspectives help us confront the inequalities that linger in our present?
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A city framed: the doors and windows of Transylvania's Cluj-Napoca – in pictures

In the unofficial capital of Transylvania, Mihail Onaca wanders the streets to capture the Romanian city’s magnificent windowframes and doorways
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Please Stop Saying You Want to Go to Cuba Before It’s Ruined

An Op-Ed By Natalie Morales. (Mar. 1)
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“We are the People“: The Rise of The German Right

AfD, which rarely commanded more than 5 or 6 percent of the vote since its founding in 2013, has over the past few months grown into the nation’s third largest political party.
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Why Vultures Need Saving

Vulture populations are rapidly declining in South Africa as the birds of prey fall victim to poaching and poisoning. Farmers and poachers alike lace carcasses with pesticide to kill predators, but vultures often get to the carcasses—and the poison—first. Poachers then sell vulture body parts to witch doctors and traditional healers for medicinal use, and they in turn though unknowingly give their patients the very poison that killed the vultures...
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The abandoned mansions of billionaires

While most of Shekhawati’s havelis have crumbled and remain abandoned, a small window into the world of these painted mansions is being preserved.
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A year's worth of sunrises (2015/2016)

This time-lapse was created by Tobias Hoerburger, who took a photo looking due east over the German city of Regensburg 10 minutes after sunrise each day between 21 March 2015 and 20 March 2016.
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These three factors explain why US men have a shorter life expectancy

A big part of why men in various countries have very different life expectancies can actually be attributed to causes of death that affect people under 50.
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Is Lagos the Most Dangerous Party City on the Planet?

“This was Lagos after all, and one conceit is that everybody here has three hustles: An oil mogul may also own a restaurant while bankrolling a recording session with an up-and-coming MC. On the street level it’s no different. In this export-dependent, corrupt, dangerous city, whether you’re living high or low, one job never feels like enough...” By Adam Skolnick.
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