The Conversation Nov. 26, 2016 11:39AM EST By Chip Colwell This summer, Tim Mentz Sr. told the world via a YouTube video, which has now been removed by the user, about the destruction of his cultural heritage. A former tribal historic preservation officer of the Standing Rock Sioux, Mentz wore a…

(Eric Miller/Reuters) Hundreds of local police departments across the United States have collectively spent about $4.75 million on software tools that can monitor the locations of activists at protests or social media hashtags used by suspects, according to new research. The research, by the Brennan…

Pat Boyle, a Denver-based journalist, was shot in the abdomen last Sunday by a rubber bullet as he reported from North Dakota on a clash between demonstrators and police that would end with 26 protesters sent to hospitals and 300 requiring other medical treatment. One woman was severely injured and…

The giant zeppelin Hindenburg, pictured in Lakehurst, New Jersey, was so big that its tail stuck out of the hanger built for it in Santa Cruz, near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.Photograph: AFP/Getty Images The last time a giant swastika flew above the Americas , it was on the zeppelins that pioneered…

O n a muggy Thursday morning in June, I drove through the gates of the Federal Correctional Institute in Tallahassee to meet a convicted criminal who, as far as I can tell, is the only person connected to two huge environmental contamination cases in Mississippi to ever serve prison time. Yet,…

The factors contributing to Donald Trump’s election are legion — racism, nativism, and misogyny; social media’s growing power as a political instrument and a source of misinformation ; economic malaise caused by Republican and Democratic administrations’ neoliberal economic policies . But the news…

Lorraine Chow Nov. 23, 2016 10:46AM EST Hundreds of veterans are preparing to join the Water Protectors at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota early next month to peacefully protest the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). A Facebook page for the event, Veterans Stand for Standing Rock ,…

One of the many alarming facts that came to light with the release of the executive summary of the Senate Torture Report in 2014 was that the Justice Department’s Bureau of Prisons had sent a “delegation of several officers” to Afghanistan to conduct an assessment an infamous CIA detention site and…

Earlier this month, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department briefed the public via Facebook on the scope of law enforcement presence that was helping confront protesters of the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock. Tell the DOJ to Demilitarize Standing Rock The help was made possible by a bill…

November started out pretty normal for the Arctic. The sun had set for the season, temperatures were dropping, ice was growing rapidly. Winter was coming, right on schedule. And then, a few days ago, everything came screeching to a halt. Ice stopped forming. And then it actually started to melt,…

Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. pauses as he speaks to media at Trump Tower in New York, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) I was a young lawyer in the civil rights division at the Justice Department in 1981 when I first encountered Jeff Sessions. At the time, Sessions was the new U.S.…

His improbable run for the presidency sharpened Hillary Clinton and awakened a new generation of voters, but has Bernie Sanders got what it takes now to turn his moment into a movement? In a presidential campaign that was less about hope and change and more about resignation and horror, there was,…

During Sunday night’s confrontation with police. Photo by Rob Wilson. A couple of weeks ago, as I stood before climate scientists, advocates, and world policy leaders at the COP22 in Morocco, I felt the increased importance of my message as climate denier Donald Trump was voted into office. My…

A pair of elephants kept as slaves for up to 80 years have finally been released to roam free in Thailand. Boonme and Buabaan have spent most of their lives working in the logging industry and elephant-trekking trade, where they were forced to work until exhaustion while being bound by chains. But…

Email The race to put humans on Mars has been dealt a reality check, with experts from NASA and ESA insisting a successful mission is still decades away. A new space race of sorts is in full swing, with corporations like SpaceX, Boeing and Mars One competing to be the first to mount a manned mission…

(CNN) — Something's happening at the lowest point on our planet, some 1,388 feet below sea level. The Dead Sea, a salt lake nestled by Israel, Jordan and the West Bank, is shrinking at an alarming rate -- about 3.3 feet per year, according to the environmentalist group EcoPeace Middle East . And…

Michael Chabon Is An Underdog On Top Of The World

Stephen DeWitt has had the kind of career that used to end with a gold watch, a comfortable retirement, and a slow decline into old age. He’s held senior positions at HP, Cisco, and Symantec, and took Cobalt Networks through one of the highest flying IPOs of the late 1990s. But instead of retiring,…

I didn't know why I had been arrested, and no one would tell me, but the really scary part happened when I was in the elevator with the guard on the way up to cell 5C. I was in my oranges and blue rubber flip-flops. I had my mattress under my arm. It was about 10 AM. I had been arrested in my…

Why Catholics Built Secret Astronomical Features Into Churches to Help Save Souls

11/13/16 | ESPN THE MAGAZINE The Charmer Robert Gagno is a pinball savant, but he wants so much more than just to be the world's best player. By Chris Koentges Photo Illustration by Andrew Cutraro The kid begins each game the same way. Black headphones over his ears, he cocks the plunger and looks…

Superheroes are democratic ideals. They exist to express what's noblest about us: selflessness, sacrifice, a commitment to protect those who need protection, and to empower the powerless. Superheroes are fascist ideals. They exist to symbolize the notion that might equals right, that a select few…

Only days before the enforcement was to begin, Texas federal judge Amos L. Mazzant III has blocked the imposition of the Obama administration’s egregious overtime regulations that have already had a terrible effect on American businesses and workers. It’s just a change in one number, but it…

Credit Illustration by Sam D’Orazio Seventy-eight years ago, on November 25, 1890, in one of a long row of red brick two-story houses in Brooklyn that had five gray stone steps leading up to the front doors, coal stoves for heat, and toilets in the back yards—each house exactly like the other houses…

Science 2 min read Collaborating scientists grow jellyfish proteins in E. coli cells to create a polariton laser capable of functioning at low temperatures. William McKinney Nov 22 InsectWorld | Shutterstock.com As our knowledge of the natural world expands, so do our technological opportunities.…

MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty When one candidate loses a close election, it’s pretty common for his or her supporters to come up with some reason why the election was “stolen.” It happened for Democrats after John Kerry lost the 2004 presidential race , it happened for Republicans after Norm Coleman…

(Wang Xiaoli) Fossils of ancient bird, Eoconfuciusornis , revealed microscopic evidence of pigment within its feathers, which were preserved for 130 million years. An international team of U.S. and Chinese scientists analyzed the color of the bird, the oldest known avian after the proto-bird…

A leading ad exchange has blacklisted Breitbart News, which until recently was run by one of US President-elect Donald Trump's closest advisers. AppNexus said it would no longer allow Breitbart to sell ad space via its platform, after determining that the site had broken its code on hate speech and…

A Cellebrite engineer explains the technology used to unlock smartphones and pull data It only takes a few seconds for an employee of one of the world's leading hacking companies to take a locked smartphone and pull the data from it. Israeli firm Cellebrite's technology provides a glimpse of a world…

The impacts of climate change, from shrinking lakes and glaciers to crop failure. CREDIT: (From left) USGS via AP; AP Photo/Manuel Valdes; AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File The physical impacts of climate change are numerous, terrifying, and well-documented. Warming temperatures will likely drive more…

Chile’s Communist Party Rejects Intervention in Venezuela Nigeria: Early Tally Shows Buhari in Lead, Opposition Rejects 86% Votes For New Constitution in Cuba US VP Pence Leads Lima Group, Pushes for More Severe Blockade Venezuela: EU Spurns Violent Intervention for Peaceful Solution Campaign…

Under Donald Trump’s proposed tax plan, the most wealthy Americans will recive an average annual tax cut of $215,000.Photograph: Peter Foley/EPA President Donald Trump is set to give America’s richest 1% an average annual tax cut of $214,000 when he takes office, while more than eight million…

Google New live data shows how busy a store or venue is before you set off, just in time for Black Friday’s shopping crush and the festive period Samuel Gibbs Last modified on Tue 21 Feb 2017 12.09 EST This article is over 2 years old The feature uses anonymised location data from other Google…

Now that Tesla has officially acquired SolarCity , it's not wasting any time showing what the combined entity can do. Tesla has revealed that it's running the island of Ta'u (in American Samoa) on a solar energy microgrid that, at 1.4 megawatts, can cover "nearly 100 percent" of electrical needs.…

Telegram, the security-focused messaging app, has launched its own take on blogging platforms. If you’re among Telegram’s 100 million-plus active users then the new Telegraph service will be much as you’d expect. It’s minimalist and anonymous — you can add your name if you wish — with support for…

Fiona Godlee , editor in chief , Richard Hurley , features and debates editor The BMJ, London, UK Correspondence to: R Hurley rhurley{at}bmj.com Evidence and ethics should inform policies that promote health and respect dignity People have always consumed psychoactive substances, risking harm. 1 2 A…

Plans to keep a record of UK citizens' online activities face a challenge from tech firms seeking to offer ways to hide people's browser histories. Internet providers will soon be required to record which services their customers' devices connect to - including websites and messaging apps. The Home…

The Last Unknown Man

A Nasa Earth photo shows the Bruckner and Heim glaciers where they flow into the Johan Petersen fjord in southeastern Greenland.Photograph: Jeremy Harbeck/AFP/Getty Images Donald Trump is poised to eliminate all climate change research conducted by Nasa as part of a crackdown on “politicized…