It looks like President Donald Trump might get his stupid wall after all. Last week, the House approved a $1.6 billion spending bill that funds the construction of a “contiguous and impassable wall” along the Mexican border, and just yesterday the Department of Homeland security issued an environmental waiver to…
We’re only a few days into the Trump era and it’s becoming painfully clear that the new president is mobilizing for a war on science. This situation is eerily reminiscent of attempts to suppress science in Canada during Stephen Harper’s tenure as Prime Minister, from 2006 to 2015. Here’s what Canadians say American…
Dozens of scientists have signed a letter to President-elect Donald Trump asking him to honor the Iran Nuclear deal, saying it’s the country’s best chance at preventing Tehran from developing the bomb.
The European Union isn’t a country. But you can jump between different countries in the EU without having to go through immigration, work between the countries in the EU without any sort of special visa, and use the same currency anywhere within the EU. The countries that make up the EU are like the states that make…
In 2015, 86,212 more Americans died than the year before. That means life expectancy in the United States is heading in the wrong direction—something that hasn’t happened since 1993.
In what’s being seen as a huge step forward in the effort to curb climate-warming emissions, the United States and China have ratified the Paris global climate agreement. Other countries are now expected to follow suit.
This is a barren time in the sports calendar. We are in a desolate trough between the international intrigue of the Olympics and the drama and nonsense of football season. I’m goddamn bored. Coincidentally, the National Parks Service turns 100 years old today. Unlike late August, the National Parks are good, and as…
Immigration is a hot topic in the United States right now, thanks in part to a rather blustery presidential candidate. But as this animated map created by Metrocosm reminds us, migrants have been a defining aspect of the U.S. for centuries.
Hey, remember back when the US allocated $305 billion for roads we almost certainly don’t need? It’s no secret that the US needs a total overhaul of its transportation finance system, and a new movement wants a moratorium on all road-building projects until we get it under control.
Fifteen years ago, the U.S. wasn’t just the top producer of the world’s corn, it was the corn market. As of today, it’s less than half. What happened?
A couple months ago a friend of mine approached me with something that sounded insane. Did I want to kayak from Cuba to Florida? I hadn’t paddled in a year, it was just a month away, and I’d just broken a rib. It was almost certainly a very, very stupid idea. So I said yes.
Anyone who’s ever stared glass-eyed at a Netflix video that won’t load or stuttered through a glitchy Skype call knows that the United States leaves its citizens starving for bandwidth. But the latest data in Akamai’s annual “State of the Internet” report presents some prettypretty depressing statistics about…
Confused about what's been going on between Russia and Ukraine? You're not alone. And that's sort of the point — this conflict serves as a case study in the effectiveness of shadowy, "hybrid" warfare, which is hard to understand from the outside. And the effectiveness of this strategy means it could be the future of…
Looking at this picture it is hard to believe that the United States and Australia were in a bloody no quarter war against Japan only 70 years ago: Spot the Mitsubishi F-2 escorting a Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, the direct heir of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress bombers that obliterated Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Bill Gates has an incredible statistic: According the USGS' cement statistics, China has used more concrete from 2011 to 2013 (6.6 gigatons) than the United States in the entire 20th century (4.5 gigatons). It blows my mind but, then again, as Gates point out, look at Shanghai's evolution in just 20 years...
Remember the Cold War? We basically spent half a century on the precipice of worldwide nuclear annihilation. Well, like it or not, the Cold War is back. In fact, it never really ended.
Called Topaz, it's located in San Luis Obispo County, California. The plant recently completed its final 40-megawatt phase, making it the first 500-plus megawatt solar farm to come online in the United States — and the largest online plant in the world.
According to the United States Census Bureau "the average travel time to work in the United States is 25.4 minutes." This interactive map by WYNC maps shows you all the average commuting times for each zip code in the entire country. Check out some of the main urban areas:
When we think about where hackers come from, China is probably the first country that comes to mind—for good reason, too. Russia's maybe next in line. But a controlled experiment by cyber security researchers shows that the vast majority of attacks actually come from a very familiar place: the United States.
Some of the most haunting images of the U.S. were captured from 1935 to 1945, as the country emerged from the depths of the Great Depression and rallied for World War II. A team from Yale has collaborated on one of the most visually stunning interpretations of the era, called Photogrammar: 170,000 photos from the…
