Earlier this month during Holi, the Indian festival of colors, more than three million Twitter followers of the Indian prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi received a personalized greeting from him. Others received celebratory recorded phone messages that concluded with an appeal to vote. In another online campaign, supporters of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) were urged to donate a tweet or Facebook status to the newly formed anti-corruption party. Social […]

Injected with fresh hope and urgency after the discovery Tuesday of more signals that appear to be from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370’s so-called black boxes, investigators began looking Wednesday toward what new challenges may await if that proves true. A raft of new questions awaits: How sure are experts that the detected signals are, in fact, from the pingers? Pretty darned sure, but not certain. One of two signals detected […]

In 1913, a man named Richard Platz threw a bottle into the sea carrying a message that would later be found and presented to his granddaughter last Tuesday … 101 years later.Angela Erdmann, 62, never met her grandfather, Platz, as he died before she was born. But receiving the bottle on Tuesday was an extraordinary moment for her. The bottle was found last month by fisherman Konrad Fischer off the […]

Life is a series of calculated risks – nothing more. Everything that you decide to do has a margin of risk. No outcome is ever 100 percent certain and, therefore, any attempt at anything has a chance of complete failure. We risk everything, every day of our lives without knowing it. There is always a chance that walking outside will kill us. There’s a chance that we’ll never make it […]

The face-off between the West and Russia over its annexation of Crimea and threat to invade eastern Ukraine has raised calls for the expansion of shale gas production and hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian gas. While the Obama administration is pushing to begin exporting natural gas to Europe, the call for Europe to start fracking operations of its own is being spearheaded in Europe by […]

It’s not everyday archaeologists uncover a lost, ancient city, let alone one of such importance and significance.  A city shrouded in myths and legend, the lost city of Heracleion (Pronounced “Hera-klee-on”… or perhaps “Hera-see-lee-on”… which is more fun, but probably less accurate) has recently been found 30 feet under the surface of the Mediterranean Sea in Aboukir Bay, near Alexandria. The city was first rediscovered by French Archaeologist Dr. Franck Goddio and his […]

Russia warned Tuesday that any use of force inUkraine‘s eastern region could lead to civil war, as Kiev seeks to regain control after pro-Moscow uprisings in three cities. Pro-Russian protesters seized government buildings in the cities of Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv on Sunday. Rebels occupying Donetsk’s regional government building Monday declared a “people’s republic” and called for a referendum on secession from Ukraine to be held by May 11. There […]

For the next six months, Martin Kastner will be climbing trees on the remote Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. He’ll net birds and collect eggs and perhaps track a rare reptile or two.  It’s all part of a diploma program in species recovery, and there are few better places to do it than Mauritius. Once home to the extinct dodo bird the island still has one of the most diverse […]

The only reason to live is to travel and the only reason to travel is to learn how to live. Imagine yourself walking along the cobblestone streets of a remote village in the Netherlands, waking up to French-pressed coffee and danishes that change everything you know about the word. Imagine swimming in a warm ocean that looks onto sprawling mountains and colorful houses, with coves that enclose caves of crystal […]

Almost a month after Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 disappeared, searchers say pulse signals detected in the Indian Ocean provide the best hope so far for finding it. However, those same officials warn it will take time to confirm if the sonar pings come from the missing plane, meaning nothing is certain yet. The new information raises more questions about what the pulse signals mean and what happens now. Is this it? Maybe. […]