June 2020

NOTE FOR 2020 READERS: This is the 12th in a series of open letters to the next century, now just 80 years away. The series asks: What will the world look like at the other end of our kids’ lives? Dear 22nd Century, Is there life on Mars? Human life, I mean. Or does a pioneering percentage of you have your heads in the clouds of a closer planet instead? It’s not the sort of… Read More »Welcome to Cloud City: The case for going to Venus, not Mars

President Donald Trump has been saying covertly and overtly racist stuff since before he became the president.  Now, after protests against police brutality and systemic racism swept the country, some social media companies are finally doing something about it.  In May, after Trump called for violence against protesters, Twitter took (mild) action. More companies acted after the president retweeted, and later removed, a video in which someone yelled “white power,” and more than 20 companies… Read More »Every platform that took action against Trump accounts and groups so far

A slew of major far-right video personalities just lost their online home. On Monday, YouTube banned a half dozen white nationalist channels from its platform for continually violating its policies. The accounts belonged to a range of far-right groups and personalities. “We have strict policies prohibiting hate speech on YouTube, and terminate any channel that repeatedly or egregiously violates those policies,” said a YouTube spokesperson. “After updating our guidelines to better address supremacist content, we… Read More »YouTube bans David Duke, Richard Spencer, and other white nationalist personalities

Journalist Linda Tirado lost her eye to a foam bullet during the Minneapolis George Floyd protests. Now, she’s being attacked by trolls online.   Read more… More about Watercooler, Twitter, Mashable Video, Donald Trump, and Mashable Originals

The spaceship, “Spaceship Neptune,” may begin test flights starting in 2021. Read more… More about Space, Transportation, Mashable Video, Space Balloon, and Future Blink

She’s back. And majorly transformed. The 2019 Fat Bear Week champion, bear 435 “Holly,” returned to Katmai National Park and Preserve’s Brooks River a few days ago, hundreds of pounds lighter — and with a cub. Her dramatic weight loss underscores that these wild Alaskan bears — while regularly seen peacefully munching on salmon or sleeping on the explore.org live-streamed bear cams — live harsh lives and often exhibit what us humans might call impressive… Read More »Fat bear champ returns with a major transformation