Digital archaeology that has revealed the earliest signs of web-life in America. Stanford Libraries has brought to light the first websites ever uploaded in the US–genealogically part Euro-descendant, part US original. The pages are now available for browsing, and Stanford Wayback, a customized platform for accessing archived web assets, provides a third dimension for viewing the … Read more
The senses of the blind are beautifully and intriguingly captured in this series of photos taken by sightless Nepalese youths. Photo documentarian Sergey Stroitelev has created a photo project in Kathmandu unlike any other. The project was undertaken to give a new experience both to blind people, who seldom are asked to portray the visual world to sighted people, … Read more
New understanding has been gained into how densities within populations can affect outcomes for the species as a whole. Answers to how species populations can be manipulated to increase and properly manage fish yields, better eliminate unwanted pests, and other species-wide effects have been demonstrated by Princeton University researcher Anieke van Leeuwen and two European colleagues … Read more
Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis, Egypt’s most dangerous terrorist organisation, has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State via a Twitter account associated with the group, on Monday morning. In an audio clip tweeted by @4Ansar_B_Almqds, the Islamist group based in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula expressed their support of IS leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi and the IS campaign to establish … Read more
One of the most powerful weapons in the ongoing fight against Ebola is considered to be Ebola survivors themselves, who carry antibodies in their blood. Survivors in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone are signing up to work in Ebola treatment units, care for children orphaned by Ebola, and provide counselling to Ebola victims. Their fight … Read more
The warring parties in South Sudan signed a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement Sunday. The agreement was called “the real beginning” by the South Sudanese government and was welcomed by regional trade bloc IGAD, which has been mediating the negotiations since civil war broke out in South Sudan last year. Chief negotiator for the government of … Read more
An international group of protesters has been pointlessly waiting for the arrival of people oppressed by Russia–at Prague airport holding placards. The protesters are reacting to legal actions recently taken by Russia against a well-established Russian human rights society. Activists stood patiently in the arrivals area of the Prague Vaclav Havel International Airport and waited for hours holding placards displaying the … Read more
Member countries of the East African regional body IGAD have stated that if the warring parties in South Sudan do not maintain the peace, the nations will collectively interfere in South Sudan. IGAD is demanding a complete, immediate and unconditional end to all hostilities. “Any violation of the cessation of the hostilities by any party … Read more
In what is considered to be a significant step towards resuming political and economic relations between the two contentious Asian superpowers, the leaders of Japan and China have publicly admitted that each nation has a claim to Japan’s Senkaku Islands and other territory in the East China Sea which China began to claim last year. Both sides … Read more
Several top Islamic State leaders are thought to be dead, and the leader of IS has been reported wounded, after a targeted US-coalition airstrike attack on a house on the Iraq-Syria border. The leader of IS in Anbar province, as well as that leader’s deputy, are though to be killed. IS top commander Abu Bakr … Read more
A report recently published by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) has found that over half of Tanzania’s elephants have been poached in the past five years. The report also investigated the causes of the “elephant poaching crisis” affecting the relatively stable, peaceful country of Tanzania, and identified the countries that were funding the trade. “The … Read more
Radical British cleric Anjem Choudary is asking the UK government to guarantee safe passage for him to travel to the Islamic State, saying that he was willing to consider renouncing his British nationality, but only “as a last resort.” “I believe the world belongs to God and that one day, hopefully, the UK will be … Read more