Beijing Mass arrests: In one of the biggest crackdowns on civil society groups in decades, Chinese authorities have detained and questioned at least 238 lawyers and human rights activists over the past two weeks. At least 20 activists remain incarcerated, and the whereabouts of six of them are unclear. Maya Wang, a researcher with Human Rights. Watch, said those still […]
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Climate change is killing off Bees In India. A lethal combination of climate change and human interference is helping to wipe out colonies of the giant honeybees on which many plants and trees in India depend for their survival. The precise cause of colony collapse disorder (CCD) is not known, but researchers say that the loss of the bees will […]
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A crew of goats brought in to devour invasive plants at a popular park in Oregon’s state capital, Salem, have been fired because they ate indiscriminately, cost nearly five times as much as human landscapers and smelled far worse, a city official said on Friday. The 75 billy and nanny goats were supposed to eat Armenian blackberry and English ivy […]
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On Aug 12, two blasts ripped through a warehouse in Tianjin Port, where large amounts of toxic chemicals were stored, including around 700 tonnes of sodium cyanide. Death toll from the blasts exceed 160. Thousands of dead fish washed up on a riverbank near the site of the explosions last week. White foam filled the streets during the first rain […]
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Simple statement: 13 of the 15 warmest years ever recorded have occurred within the first 15 years of this century. Complicated question: what is the probability that this happened purely by chance? The latest calculated answer: it could be one in 5000, or it could be as unlikely as one in 170,000, or it could be somewhere in between. Conclusion: […]
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It’s “ a fascinating irony of the pro-life movement,” said David Frum. Abortion rates are plummeting in the U.S., largely because of prolifers’ efforts. But at the same time, out-of-wedlock births are soaring—and among the poor and the lower middle class, are actually becoming the norm. There were 730,000 abortions in 2011, according to the latest official tally—the smallest number […]
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With temperatures in excess of 800 F, Mercury is one of the last places in the solar system you’d expect to find ice. But when NASA’s Messenger spacecraft transmitted its first optical images of the closest planets to the sun, that’s exactly what scientists discovered. Mercury sits about 36 million miles from the sun, which is roughly 57 million miles […]
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A wild elephant went on a rampage in a village in India’s eastern West Bengal state on Wednesday, damaging around 100 structures, villagers said. Video taken in the village of Ektiasal showed the beast wandering around and knocking over flimsy huts. The elephant strayed into the village early in the morning and woke up villagers with its roaring. “The elephant […]
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America’s earthquake epicenter was once California. Now it’s Oklahoma. In 2014 there were nearly 300 times as many magnitude 3.0 and greater earthquakes as there were in 2008—and more quakes of that magnitude than in the prior 30 years combined. The cause? Scientists can’t say definitively, but new research funded by the U.S. Geological Survey notes that as quakes increased […]
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■ Residents of New York City’s SoHo neighborhood are now paying a delivery service $100 for a single “Cronut”— a trendy new combination of a croissant and donut.The line at the bakery that makes the coveted pastries begins forming at 5 a.m., with a limit of two per customer. So Premium Cronut Delivery sends employees to stand on line.The price […]
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