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Obama’s first veto override will allow victims of terror attacks to sue foreign governments
The US Senate and House voted overwhelmingly today, Sept. 28, to override president Obama’s veto of a controversial bill about the victims of terror attacks.<p>Now officiated, the “Sept. 11” bill allows victims and their families to sue the Saudi government in a US court, for its alleged role in the …
GovernmentElon Musk is continuing a long tradition of tycoons attempting to save us from ourselves
In laying out his insanely ambitious plan to colonize Mars, SpaceX’s CEO Elon Musk joins a long line of businessmen who dream of building new societies to help humanity perfect itself.<p>Musk, in a presentation Sept. 27, called for a permanent colony within 40 to 100 years, with millions of immigrants …
Elon MuskWhat happens to marijuana use when states legalize it
The debate over marijuana regulation has been picking up steam, and 2016 may be a landmark year for marijuana legalization in the United States. In November, five states–Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, and Nevada–will consider measures to legalize marijuana for recreational purposes on …
MarijuanaMexicans have 300 different ways of referring to corruption
Language is shaped by a people’s environment. Inuits famously have more than 50 words for snow, while Hawaiians have 65 to describe fishnets. In Mexico, there are 300 terms to refer to corruption.<p>They are compiled in a new book, the “Mexican Corruptionary,” a tongue-in-cheek effort to get Mexicans …
CorruptionCats colonized most of the planet by boat
Dogs may be man’s best friend but cats too have earned a place in our hearts and homes. Cats, it seems, colonized the planet by doing odd jobs for farmers and hitching rides on sailing ships. Or, at least that’s what new research on feline DNA suggests.<p>The most comprehensive study of cat DNA ever …
DNA486 reasons to vote, visualized by American graphic designers
For many Americans, elections are spectator sports. Despite the huge numbers who tuned in to this week’s presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, historical data suggests that on Nov. 8, more than 40% of eligible voters will skip the polling stations and just watch the dramatic …
VotingShould Facebook fix this security bug if it means losing a little functionality and a lot of influence?
Yesterday, we wrote about a security bug on Facebook and Twitter that exposes users to phishing attacks when they click a link and it opens in a new tab or window. That newly-opened page has some access to the source page that the user clicked <i>from</i>. The access is limited, but it’s enough to force …
FacebookOur dangerously low expectations for Donald Trump could help him ride to victory in November
There can be no real doubt about who “won” the US presidential debate on Sept. 26. For 90 minutes, Hillary Clinton cheerfully dismantled a stammering Donald Trump, who admitted to stiffing his workers and dodging his taxes while ruminating on the threat of 400-pound, bedridden hackers to American …
Donald TrumpHow internet companies delete your right to own your digital purchases
When you purchase a book from a bookstore your rights to that particular stack of paper are pretty intuitive. It becomes your personal property, not much different from a t-shirt, a diamond ring, or anything else you might carry around. You can sell your book, lend it to a friend, or toss it in the …
CopyrightHow do we know when we’ve fallen in love? My informal survey reveals three big patterns
Two months and one day after our first date, a man I’ll call Daniel asked to come over to my place and talk about our relationship.<p>“I like you very much,” he said after he’d arrived at my apartment in Washington, DC, “but I don’t know that this is a long-term thing.” He wanted to keep dating me for …
LoveWells Fargo is forcing its CEO to give up $40 million—a quarter of his pay over the past decade
John Stumpf, the chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo, is giving up more than $40 million in pay as punishment for widespread wrongdoing at the bank he has run for nearly a decade.<p>At an emergency meeting of the bank’s board late yesterday (Sept. 27), the independent directors said they launched an …
Wells FargoElon Musk detailed his ambitious plan to put humans on Mars for under $200,000 per ticket
Guadalajara, Mexico<p>Elon Musk wants a ticket to Mars to cost less than $200,000. It’s an ambitious goal, but then so is establishing a viable human presence on the Red Planet.<p>On Sept. 27, the SpaceX CEO laid out his blueprint for putting a colony on Mars, which he says would need at least a million …
SpaceWill body cameras reduce police violence? The US Justice Department is about to spend $20 million to find out
The amount of video footage capturing US police officers on the job is about to grow exponentially.<p>The Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Sept. 26 that it is giving $20 million to police departments in 32 states for body cameras. The awards are part of a 24-month program announced last year …
PolicingMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella on artificial intelligence, algorithmic accountability, and what he learned from Tay
Microsoft is quickly pivoting to position itself as a leader in artificial intelligence. In his second keynote on the subject this year, CEO Satya Nadella yesterday (Sept. 26) stood in front of IT professionals and reiterated the company’s commitment to infuse every part of Microsoft’s business, …
Artificial IntelligenceThe SpaceX of China aims to commercialize a mysterious rocket on the world stage
Guadalajara, Mexico<p>The US, Russia, and European Union all have private rocket companies staking a claim in the burgeoning commercial space business. And now, the first private space company in China plans to add its country’s launch technology to the mix .<p>Landspace, founded in 2015, says it will …
ChinaA brief history of the term “glass ceiling”
Last night (Sept. 26) the first presidential debate of 2016 was also the first gender balanced debate in history: for the very first time, a woman was on the stage, and the way the debate unfolded—with Donald Trump interrupting Hillary Clinton 51 times, and being openly sexist towards her—was a …
Glass CeilingsHackers created a $30 DIY version of the EpiPen
The EpiPen is a potentially life-saving device for those with severe allergies or asthma. The problem is that it costs $600 in the US.<p>For those with or without respiration woes, the EpiPen represents what’s wrong with drug manufacturing nationally, namely high prices and manufacturer monopolies. …
DIYThe Nigerian super-highway project that threatens a million people’s homes
Almost anyone who visits Nigeria as a tourist or for business will soon realize that, after years of neglect, the country is in dire need of significant transportation and road infrastructure upgrades to help open up Africa’s largest economy.<p>Yet, despite the poor road network, a proposed …
EnvironmentalismThe Mexican peso says Hillary Clinton won the first US presidential debate
For the best polling on the US presidential election, watch the Mexican peso. The currency has become a proxy to gauge who the financial markets think is winning the race.<p>The peso suffers in particular when Trump’s chances of becoming president appear to increase because of the damage his policies …
Hillary ClintonThanks to stem cells, some totally paralyzed patients can now move their arms again
Following separate, nasty car accidents, Kris Boesen and Lucas Lindner were left with paralyzing spinal-cord injuries. Doctors thought they both would be unable to use any of their limbs for the rest of their lives. Luckily, that grim future hasn’t become a reality because of a radical new …
Stem CellsThis ride-sharing startup is succeeding in South Korea where Uber failed, by making the taxi union happy
While Uber failed in South Korea, one ride-sharing startup is succeeding—by providing buses to take late-night revelers home.<p>Seoul-based Call Bus officially launched two months ago, after a bumpy process fighting government red tape and powerful taxi unions. Since then, the app-linked bus service …
StartupsSome of Donald Trump’s biggest whoppers during the US presidential debate were about China
It didn’t take long for US Republican candidate Donald Trump to start saying things that were factually incorrect during his debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton. Some of the most obvious, and easy to check, were about one of the candidate’s favorite punching bags, China:<p><i>Clinton: Some country is</i> …
ChinaTrump says US cyber attacks could have been committed by a 400-pound person “sitting on a bed”
US intelligence agencies and private experts say that Russia is probably responsible for major cyber attacks on the American political system. But, in tonight’s debate, Republican nominee Donald Trump—who has been accused of cozying up to Russia—said that “no one knows” who committed the attacks. …
Cyber-attacks“I think Donald just criticized me for preparing for this debate”: The moment Hillary Clinton beat Trump
Picking a president is always about personality, when you get right down to it. And this contest is between a candidate who wins votes by boasting about his business genius, and a woman whose headline quality is her nerdy work ethic. So the question going into tonight was, can the rich guy breeze …
Hillary ClintonDonald Trump bragged at the debate about not paying taxes and taking advantage of bankruptcy laws
Hillary Clinton suggested during tonight’s US presidential debate that Donald Trump hasn’t released his federal income tax returns at least partly because he hasn’t paid federal taxes.<p>The assertion kicked off a round of sparring. The Republican candidate released returns in 1981 when he applied for …
Donald TrumpSecretive Silicon Valley firm Palantir is being sued for discriminating against Asians
Palantir Technologies, the secretive Silicon Valley data analysis company that does work for the FBI and companies like JP Morgan, is being sued by the US Department of Labor for bias against Asian job applicants.<p>The company “discriminated systematically” in both its hiring process and its referral …
Silicon ValleyNASA’s Hubble telescope found even more evidence for water on Europa
The first step to finding aliens is finding water.<p>Scientists have known that Europa, one of Jupiter’s 67 moons, could be covered in a frozen ocean—suggesting that it could possibly harbor some kind of extraterrestrial life. But it will probably take years to develop the technology needed to …
NASAHow to fact-check tonight’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in real time
Long considered one of the least sexy jobs in journalism, fact-checking is finally having its day in the sun.<p>It was perhaps inevitable, given both the sheer number of falsehoods peddled during the US presidential race and the high-profile examples of journalists giving candidates a pass on their …
Donald TrumpForensic scientists are burning pigs and flying laser planes to find Mexico’s 43 missing students
It’s been two years since 43 students from a teacher’s college in the Mexican state of Guerrero went missing and there’s still no trace of them.<p>On Sept. 26, 2014 they disappeared on their way to a protest. A few months later, the government claimed they were killed and burned at a dump by a drug …
MexicoIf you live in the US, it’s a great time to look for a new job
Bored with your work? Think you’re worth more? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, as of July there were fewer unemployed people per job opening than at any time in the past decade. That’s bad news for employers struggling to capitalize on a rebounding economy, but could be great news for …
Employment