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For 20 years, Whole Foods has enjoyed the honor of being on Fortune magazine’s list of the top 100 best places to work. But if recent comments by co-founder and CEO John Mackey are any indication, that all might change soon. That’s because Amazon is buying Whole Foods, and Mackey thinks the company should take…
I am so sick of this damn toe. There is news, fake news, and Weird Viral News. That last category includes treats like the story about the Italian court that ruled live lobsters should not be frozen before they’re boiled to death because it causes too much suffering, or the one about the dead bat…
The gene-editing technique CRISPR is often touted as an eventual cure-all for all that ails us, from fatal genetic diseases to food shortages. But when it comes to disease, it’s likely that it will have the most impact on disorders caused by mutations in one single gene. New research published this week in the Journal…
Lionfish have very low standards and will eat anything in sight. Although they’re originally from the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans, these vacuum cleaners have been flopping around the Atlantic for the last 25 years, probably because people dumped them from their home aquariums. They’re so stupidly hungry and abundant that sometimes, they just eat…
If you’re daydreaming about buying a home or need to lower the payment on the one you already have, you might pay a visit to the Quicken Loans mortgage calculator. You’ll be asked a quick succession of questions that reveal how much cash you have on hand or how much your home is worth and…
For decades, scientists have dreamed of how electricity might be used to change the human brain. By altering its firing patterns using currents, scientists hope to not only treat mental illness, but improve human cognition. Trouble is, so far the most successful of these enterprises have relied on implanting electrodes deep into the human brain.…
Have you seen Oliver Stone’s latest documentary, The Putin Interviews? The four-part series is getting a lot of flack in the American press for being a love letter to Vladimir Putin. But there’s one scene in particular that’s now getting extra scrutiny. Putin appears to be helping spread fake news. The third part of the…
For years, Uber drivers have complained that the app doesn’t prompt riders to tip them. It’s the first complaint drivers often voice about driving on the platform. Uber clarified its policy on tipping after being sued in California and Massachusetts, telling drivers and riders that tips were acceptable. But that’s changing today. Uber announced that…
Over the weekend, six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) resigned in protest of the American Health Care Act bill, saying Trump “doesn’t care” about people living with HIV. Founded in 1995, PACHA advises the president and the Secretary of Health and Human Services on healthcare policies that will combat the spread…
A South Korean web hosting company will reportedly shell out a million dollars to resolve a ransomware crisis at its data center, the highest such payout publicly known to date. According to a series of blog posts on the company’s website, Nayana CEO Hwang Chil-hong has agreed to pay 397.6 Bitcoin to recover the data…
It’s assumed that when robots one day replace humans in boxing and ultimate fighting bouts, the ensuing battles will be like watching a real-life Transformers movie play out. But these tiny sumo robots tell a different story, with lightning fast fights that are over almost as quickly as they begin. YouTuber Robert McGregor spliced together…
A dad in Colorado bought his tweens smartphones and now he regrets it. This is not an uncommon sentiment from parents. My mom regretted buying my brother a Nokia in 2001, buying my sister an old car in 1997, and on more than on occasion she’s regretted bringing me into the world. But most parents…
Banana slugs are slow. Like, ridiculously slow. Watching them eat is tantamount to watching paint dry, which is why Canadian photographer R. Jeanette Martin wisely set her phone to record in timelapse mode when she encountered a particularly hungry mollusk in her garden. Martin, who hails from Garbiola Island in British Columbia, was walking her…
Each year, thousands of wildebeest drown while making their annual migration through the Serengeti. New research shows how the resulting two million pounds of rotting flesh performs a crucial role in maintaining the region’s vibrant ecosystem. In what is the largest remaining overland migration in the world, some 1.2 million wildebeest make the yearly trek…
The next time NASA releases spectacular footage from a flyover of a distant planet or moon, you’ll have good reason to wonder if what you’re watching actually came from a spaceship, or from a microscope in a studio filming oil, paint, and liquid soap all mixed together. Galaxy Gates, directed by Oilhack and Thomas Blanchard,…
With a mind-blowing display of precision and timing, 14 students from the Fuji Municipal Harada elementary school in Fuji, Shizuoka, Japan, set a new Guinness World Record for the most skips over a single rope. In just 60 seconds, the students managed to skip 225 times without a single mistake. Watching these kids in action…
Four British schoolboys had just been called from class. They were ten days away from their A-level exams, the ones that determine the direction the rest of their lives would take, but they’d been interrupted from their studies to discuss the deepest secrets of the universe—their work hunting for the magnetic monopole at the Large…
Predictions about driverless cars became incredibly popular in the 1950s and 60s. But the idea is nearly as old as the automobile itself. One example? This short film from 1911, featuring a robot chauffeur. The word “robot” wasn’t even invented until the 1920s, but the mechanical man in this film followed in the tradition of…
Federal police in Argentina recently discovered a time capsule of evil, hidden inside a house near Buenos Aires. Roughly 75 Nazi artifacts, including everything from a large knife to Nazi medical devices to a photo negative of Adolph Hitler, were uncovered in a secret room. Police are investigating when and how the items entered the…
Steve Jobs was legendary for knowing what he wanted and leaning on his designers until he got it. But according to a new book on the history of the iPhone, he insisted that it should have a back button. After one of his people presented a good argument for the distinctive single home button, he…
