'No men, no meat, no machines': How a band of women tried to forge a female utopia on a remote mountaintop

In the 1970s a group of determined women set out to put the theory of women's liberation into practice.
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Hundreds of Hot Air Balloons over France

Hundreds of hot air balloons take part in the Great Line at the Mondial Air Ballons festival, in an attempt to break the 2017 record of 456 balloons aligning in an hour, in Chambley, France, July 29,
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3 Candles on No More Ransom’s Cake

No More Ransom is a global partnership between public and private sectors, including community involvement, 151-strong over three years.
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Why crafty Internet trolls in the Philippines may be coming to a website near you

Once known as a call-center hub, the Philippines is now a clearinghouse for social media deception. And it’s going global.    
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The true toll of the Chernobyl disaster

Covered up by a secretive Soviet Union at the time, the true number of deaths and illnesses caused by the nuclear accident are only now becoming clear.
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How lingering wounds from WWII could impact the cost of your next smartphone

What does Japan and South Korea's tech trade dispute mean for the cost of your smartphone?
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Why Navajos Love Their Country Music

An anthropologist who is also a singer-songwriter explores how Southwestern Native bands shake up the notion of “cowboys and Indians.”
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Scientists discover new Chinese firefly species

The firefly beetle is not only a new species but also part of an entirely new genus and subfamily of bioluminscent beetle.
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Hate crimes drop in Canada for first time in years

Anti-crime campaigners advise scepticism since most hate crimes are not reported to police.
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Airbus A350 software bug forces airlines to turn planes off and on every 149 hours

Patch your darn metal bird, sighs EU aviation agency
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How China's 'malign influence' is corroding democracies

The primaries for Taiwan’s forthcoming presidential election are highlighting fears over China’s political influence. Pro-Beijing media are being credited with populist Han Kuo-Yu’s victory to lead the opposition, The Financial... Read more »
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Russia Cracks Tor? Hackers Dump 7.5TB of FSB Secrets

Russia’s notorious federal security service, the FSB, has a secret project to de-anonymize Tor. Big news or nothing to see here?
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Where the Bodies are Buried

In 1910, East Texas saw one of America’s deadliest post-Reconstruction racial purges. One survivor’s descendants have waged an uphill battle for generations to unearth that violent past.
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Why an “AI Race” Between the U.S. and China Is a Terrible, Terrible Idea

We don’t need to win this nationalistic race — especially when we don’t even know what’s at the finish line.
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Latest Huawei 'Smoking Gun' Still Doesn't Prove Global Blackball Effort's Primary Justification

We've noted a few times now how the protectionist assault against Huawei hasn't been supported by much in the way of public evidence. Despite allegations that Huawei helps China spy on Americans wholesale, nobody has actually been able to prove that claim.
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Running the numbers on an insane scheme to save Antarctic ice

It would take a lot. Like a real lot.
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TikTok is China's next big weapon in the battle for Americans' personal data

Its parent company views it as an artificial intelligence platform.
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Germany’s war on coal is over. Coal lost.

Its last mine is about to close.
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Wherever You Are, There’s a State Park Nearby

There are 8,565 of them across the country, meaning a place to take a hike, fire up some s’mores or simply recharge is often just around the corner. In a year of traveling, we visited 53 of them.
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In Denmark's Train Dream, the Next Big City Is Only an Hour Away

A newly revived rail plan could see Denmark’s trains catch up with its reputation for other types of green transit.
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Chinese space station Tiangong-2 is about to fall from space

The Chinese space agency is getting ready to bring its small space station, Tiangong-2, down from orbit to splash down in the Pacific Ocean on 19 July
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The Guardian view on Xinjiang: speak out, or be complicit

Editorial: An estimated 1 million Uighurs and other minorities are held in China’s camps. But Beijing’s power has silenced many of those who one might expect to criticise it
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California’s Wildfires Are 500 Percent Larger Due to Climate Change

“Each degree of warming causes way more fire than the previous degree of warming did. And that’s a really big deal.”
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North Korea likely suffering worst downturn since 1990s famine

How much are sanctions hurting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un?
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Archaeologists' 'big bang' moment: 9,000-year-old city uncovered near Jerusalem

Israeli archaeologists reveal a huge prehistoric settlement discovered near Jerusalem, offering new insights into how civilisations developed around the end of the Stone Age.
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I wish these buildings were photoshopped, but they're not.

There's a cloning tool in Photoshop that would probably be great for creating the illusion of monstrously repetitive high-rises in a mythical megacity. Unfortunately, that tool was not used in this series of images captured by German photographer Michael Wolf in Hong Kong.
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No psychedelics needed by Martinus

Had to go out for a bit. :-)
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The history of the Wardian case, the box that changed the world

When two boxes packed with ferns and grasses survived the six-month ocean journey from London to Sydney in 1833, gardeners rejoiced.
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Pennsylvania Legislators Quickly And Quietly Passed A Law That Strips Power From Its Reform-Minded DA

The residents of Philadelphia elected Larry Krasner as their new DA in 2018. Krasner promised reforms to the criminal justice system. And he delivered. He secured 33 resignations from prosecutors and staff who didn't feel they could back his...
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A Finnish startup is making food out of carbon dioxide

It has a plan to kill two global problems with one solar-powered stone.
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The US land forever leased to England

Every May, the US Coast Guard and the Royal Navy hold a ceremony on a sliver of North Carolina land where four English World War Two soldiers are buried.
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How Catholic clergy ruled alongside the 'gay mafia', despots, and rent boys in Latin America

While all eyes are on the Catholic Church for its handling of child sexual abuse among clergy, the Latin American clergy ran fiefdoms alongside the continent's autocrats for decades.
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MH370 pilot was in control 'until the end': French investigators

"Certain abnormal turns made by the 777 can only have been carried out manually. Someone was in control," they said.
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‘We’re Almost Extinct’: China’s Investigative Journalists Are Silenced Under Xi

Reporters were once a force for accountability in China. But President Xi Jinping has brought about what critics call a “total censorship era.”
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Chinese spy ship staying just outside Australia's territorial waters ahead of Talisman Sabre war games with US and Japan.

A Chinese spy ship that is being closely tracked by the Australian Defence Force arrives off the coast of Queensland to monitor joint military exercises.
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7-Eleven's 7pay app hacked in a day due to 'appalling security lapse'

The moral of the story? Red-team your apps—before someone else does.
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Chinese air pollution dimmed sunlight enough to impact solar panels

Coal is seen by many as an enemy of renewable energy and the first fossil fuel in line for elimination as things like solar and wind generation have gotten cheaper. But counterattacks from coal can go even further than lobbying against pro-renewable policies, it seems. According to new research, China’s coal-driven air pollution is significantly reducing the output of solar panels by dimming the Sun.
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Headed on vacation? You're apt to encounter a robot

From delivering toothbrushes at hotels to acting as museum docents, robots are a big attraction—and you have a pretty good chance of interacting with a real one this summer.
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China Is Leading the Next Step in Fighting Malaria in Africa

The effort would not only ease the disease’s massive burden on Kenya’s health system, but also help change the perception in Africa that Chinese-made goods and medicine are of poor quality.
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Earth's eighth persistent lava lake found on remote sub-Antarctic island

Many of us will know what bubbling lakes of lava within volcanoes look like. After all, we've seen them our entire lives in movies and on TV. But that doesn't mean they're common. In fact, only seven lava lakes have been found so far, until now.
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Russian intel planted fake report that Seth Rich was killed by assassins working for Clinton

Russian intelligence agents spread a false report claiming assassins working for Hillary Clinton killed Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich just days after his murder, according to a new investigation.
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Beeston Birdman

Beestonbirdman has some wonderful bird photography. Go have a peek.
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Viking Grave Discovery In Sweden Leaves Archaeologists Stunned

Archaeologists in Sweden have made a "sensational" discovery of a rare Viking burial boat site north of Stockholm. The grave includes human and animal remains along with items such as combs and shields.
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How Norway turns criminals into good neighbours

Twenty years ago, Norway started focusing on rehabilitating prisoners, and sharply cut reoffending rates.
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Artificial skin trial offers hope to Pakistan's acid attack victims

A hospital in Lahore is developing a new, cost effective form of artificial skin that could revolutionize the lives of the hundreds of Pakistani women who fall victim to acid attacks each year.
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Lifting the lid on Japan's poo museum – in pictures

Japan’s culture of cute has embraced poo, which gets a pop twist at the Unko Museum in Yokohama, near Tokyo. Visitors can play a poo-themed video game and pose on a variety of WCs. All the twisty ice-cream and cupcake shapes on display are artificial, and come in a variety of colours and sizes
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Chinese border guards put secret surveillance app on tourists' phones

Software extracts emails, texts and contacts and could be used to track movements
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'Football pitch' of Amazon forest lost every minute

Satellite images show a sharp increase in clearances of trees in the first half of this year.
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For 40 Years, Crashing Trains Was One of America’s Favorite Pastimes

From 1896 until the 1930s, showmen would travel the country staging wrecks at state fairs.
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New study: Russian propaganda may really have helped Trump in 2016

The study does not prove Russian interference swung the election to Trump. But it did find Trump's poll numbers improved when Russian trolls were active.
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