A history of Singapore, explained in 10 dishes

Laksa. Kaya toast. Stew of diced pig offal. Fish head curry: a culinary history of Singapore, and where to eat each dish.
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Is Japan losing its umami?

Soy sauce is one of the most important ingredients in Japanese cooking, but chances are you've never tasted the real thing.
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What Is Gumbo? A Look at Origins, Types, and Recipes

Got questions about this Southern classic? We've got answers. From gumbo recipes to ingredients, here's everything you've ever wanted to know about this New Orleans favorite. 
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Jokers please: first human Mars mission may need onboard comedians

Researchers are working with Nasa to see if clowns help team cohesion on long space missions
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588 Reasons Why There Are No Excuses For All Male Tech Panels In The UK

This is just a tiny sample of the thousands of women working in tech in the UK, including startup founders, vendor executives, CIOs, security experts, developers, technologists, lawyers and academics.
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A quiet revolt: Female monks work to undo Thailand's 90-year ban

Buddhist authorities in Thailand do not accept the female monks of Nakhon Pathom. But one woman, Dhammananda, is hoping to change that one ordination at a time.
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An Archaeologist Says He's Figured Out The Secret of The Pyramids' Peculiar Alignment

For centuries, the pyramids of Giza have puzzled researchers - not just their mysterious voids and hidden chambers, but exactly how ancient Egyptians built such impressive structures without modern technology.
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Is a More Generous Society Possible?

Generosity helps communities manage risk and cope with disasters. New research untangles the factors that lead people to help neighbors in need.
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Climate change officially claims its first mammal: The Bramble Cay melomys is declared extinct

In 1978, researchers estimated several hundred rodents lived on the island, but the numbers dropped to the double digits by 1998. Just 12 were caught in November 2004.
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Talking to a Man Named Mr. Cotton About Slavery and Confederate Monuments

A writer explores the nation’s divide over its Civil War past. He finds that some Confederate monuments cannot be moved.
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Where Robert E. Lee's portrait belongs

Ultimately, Robert E. Lee fought for the preservation of slavery, James A. Gagliano says. For that, there can be no equivocation. And removing homages to slavery's defenders sets us on the right path.
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Warsaw’s Middle Eastern Failure

Recently, the Polish government agreed to host a gathering in Warsaw on the Middle East that was held the day before the Munich Security Conference, which typically brings together all the sides of major conflicts in the world; however, the Polish conference would be exclusively focused on an anti-Iranian agenda and based on the current narratives espoused by the Trump administration and Israel.
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An editor and his newspaper helped build white supremacy in Georgia

Henry W. Grady wanted to promote northern investment in the South – and he was willing to ignore lynchings and the exploitation of black labor.
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Progress in Play: Board Games and the Meaning of History

Players moving pieces along a track to be first to reach a goal was the archetypal board game format of the 18th and 19th century. Alex Andriesse looks at one popular incarnation in which these pieces progress chronologically through history itself, usually with some not-so-subtle ideological, moral, or national ideal as the object of the game.
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Some American Airlines In-Flight TVs Have Cameras In Them

American Airlines told BuzzFeed News that the camera hardware “has never been activated.”
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Nine men at imminent risk of execution in Egypt

Egyptian authorities must halt the execution of nine men convicted after unfair trial
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The Supreme Court Case That Enshrined White Supremacy in Law

How Plessy v. Ferguson shaped the history of racial discrimination in America.
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The Rest of Us Always Knew Churchill Was a Villain

His record in Britain’s former colonies more closely resembles that of a war criminal than a defender of democracy and freedom.
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Researchers have answered a 200-year-old mystery surrounding Australia's iconic cassowary

After years of speculation, researchers from La Trobe University believe they know what the hard growth on the cassowary's head is used for.
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9 Polish Movies That Almost Won an Oscar

Close, but no cigar! There was always something – politics, money, or the works of the great masters of cinema – that stood in the way of a Polish triumph at the Academy Awards. Culture.pl presents nine Polish movies in which almost won an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
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Return of wolves to Germany pits farmers against environmentalists

EU regulations outlaw killing of wolves unless people are in danger or there is ‘no satisfactory alternative’
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When India Kicked Out Coca-Cola, Local Sodas Thrived

Some still reign today.
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The Vatican’s Gay Overlords [Opinion]

Marveling at the mysterious sanctum that his new book explores, the French journalist Frédéric Martel writes that “even in San Francisco’s Castro” there aren’t “quite as many gays.” He’s talking about the Vatican. And he’s delivering a bombshell. Although the book’s publishers have kept it under tight wraps, I obtained a copy in advance of its release next Thursday. It will come out in eight languages and 20 countries, under the title “Sodoma,” as in Sodom, in Western Europe and “In the Closet of the Vatican” in the United States, Britain and Canada.
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Father at centre of measles outbreak didn't vaccinate children due to autism fears

The man whose family is at the centre of a measles outbreak in Vancouver said he didn't vaccinate his children because he distrusted the science at the time.
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'Not Muslim enough': Religious fervour over Indonesia's election pits families against each other

One Indonesian woman details her experience of not meeting the Islamic standard expected by her aunties and uncles.
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The Little House on the Prairie Was Built on Native American Land

Yesterday was Laura Ingalls Wilder's 150th birthday. It's time to take a critical look at her work
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The magical thinking of guys who love logic

Ian Danskin, who makes videos under the moniker Innuendo Studios, has made a name for himself on the internet for his YouTube series on the techniques and beliefs of the alt-right. His most recent video, “The Card Says Moops,” is worth watching in full, but there was one particular line in it that struck me. Danskin points out that, even when their beliefs skew towards the bizarre and conspiratorial, people on the online right often identify as “rationalists.”
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You are horrible people

Scott Gilmore: This is the point all the whiners need to understand after Thursday's Amber Alert—if you want to live in a province that protects its children, occasionally you have to roll over in bed and check your phone.
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When Brad Pitt Tried to Save the Lower Ninth Ward

His Make It Right Foundation built 109 homes in New Orleans, but critics say many of them are badly flawed.
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Want to know what China's thinking? Look to its science fiction

Aliens, robo-nannies and folding cities: A new wave of Chinese science fiction authors offer a unique perspective on the country, and the future of technology.
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Bluegrass Guitar - Irish Folk Music

Where it came from.
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Why Does It Feel Like Everyone Has More Money Than You?

In 2011, my parents gave me a sum of money that was both outrageous and, in the real estate terms of major cities, quite reasonable: 10 percent down on the 250-square-foot apartment I still own in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. While I was conflicted about taking it, there wasn’t much of a question about whether I’d accept. My writing career (any writing career!) was inherently unstable; having a roof over my head that I could not only count on but would also help me build equity meant everything.
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India set to adopt China-style internet censorship

New rules limiting internet freedom could be imposed by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government any time after Thursday night.
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Sweden investigates its Beijing ambassador over 'strange' meetings

Daughter of Swedish bookseller jailed in China says Anna Lindstedt set up meetings in Stockholm
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Chernobyl: The end of a three-decade experiment

The abandoned Chernobyl exclusion zone could be about to change for the first time since the world's worst nuclear disaster.
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African-American Civil War Memorial

The first memorial dedicated solely to the African-American troops who fought for the Union.
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The ‘Loyal Slave’ Photo That Explains the Northam Scandal

The governor’s yearbook picture, like many images before it, reinforces the belief that blacks are content in their oppression.
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Inside the illegal world of dogfighting

A BBC investigation into dogfighting discovered an illegal trade stretching from Eastern Europe to Wales.
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China gets its first blockbuster sci-fi film

Wandering Earth on track to be one of highest-grossing films in country’s history
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The Future of Politics Is Coming to Poland

Promising newcomers are threatening to tear apart the country’s two-party system in every direction.
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Why China is obsessed with numbers

The Chinese fascination with numbers – and how much they are part of both online and offline lives – is a societal quirk that baffles long-term tourists and expats alike.
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Are All Instances of Blackface Alike?

Perhaps there is a difference between donning it to mock black people and donning it to resemble someone, as Mark Herring did.
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Reddit, Banned In China, Is Reportedly Set To Land $210 Million Investment From A Chinese Censorship Powerhouse

Who really thinks about where the money is coming from as long as you get the money?
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The mysterious case of Japan's ‘dancing zombie squid’

Katsu ika odori-don came to global attention in 2010 thanks to a YouTube video that went viral. But how did this unique phenomenon come about?
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She Could Get Millions to Turn This Factory Into Condos. She’s Not Selling.

Flavia Galuppo just inherited her father’s building, home to Etna Tool & Die. It’s now surrounded by boutiques and luxury condos, but she is determined not to sell.
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The complicated truth about China's social credit system

China's social credit system isn't a world first but when it's complete it will be unique. The system isn't just as simple as everyone being given a score though
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A hole big enough to fit two-thirds of Manhattan has formed under an Antarctic glacier

Scientists say if Thwaites collapses, it could trigger a catastrophic rise in global sea levels, flooding coastal cities around the world.
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Russian-Style Kleptocracy Is Infiltrating America

When the U.S.S.R. collapsed, Washington bet on the global spread of democratic capitalist values—and lost.
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Hitler Loved Speed Limits

Germany’s unregulated highways might be the most irrational aspect of its modern identity—but you can’t blame it on the Führer.
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In China, eating pufferfish is no longer a dance with death

A prized delicacy in Japan, where poisonous varieties are prepared by skilled chefs, pufferfish are giving spicy crayfish a run for their money in Beijing
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