Jay Caspian Kang on Australia’s social-media ban for young people under sixteen, on free speech, and on the U.S. movement to restrict kids’ access to technology.

Free-speech norms and powerful tech companies make legal restrictions unlikely—but social changes are already taking place.

One group noted "the irony of a billionaire being in charge of collecting pennies from debtors."

Billions of years ago, a day on Earth did not last 24 hours. New research suggests that for about one billion years, each day stayed fixed at roughly 19 hours because of a balance between the oceans, the atmosphere, and the pull of the Moon.

Normally, Earth’s spin slows very gradually as tides raised by the Moon sap rotational energy, so day length creeps upward over time. 

A NASA overview estimates this process lengthens each day by roughly two thousandths of a second per century.

Ancient genetic data from central Argentina reveal a previously unknown human population that endured there for millennia before vanishing.

The finding shows that one long-lasting group stayed rooted in its homeland while cultures, languages, and technologies shifted around it.

Researchers read this story in DNA taken from human remains representing hunters, fishers, and farmers who once lived across the region.

The study turns a blank spot on South America’s genetic map into one of its best documented chapters.

Libraries are indispensable not only for climate and informational literacy but also as valuable hubs for creating community solutions to our planet’s most pressing problems.

A charter school “shitstorm” in Florida shows how the industry intends to take over public education. 

The letters started coming in October 2025. In the first wave, according to the Florida Policy Institute (FPI), “at least 22 school districts in Florida” got letters alerting them them that charter school operators, including a for-profit charter school management company based in Miami, intended to use a state law recently enacted to open new charter schools on the campuses of existing public schools beginning August 2027.

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Once the charter occupies part of the public school, Dollard explained, it operates rent free, and the public school district becomes responsible for much of the charter’s costs, including those for services charters don’t customarily provide, such as bus transportation and food service, as well as costs for school support services like janitorial, security, library, nursing, and counseling. Even any construction costs the charters might incur have to be covered by the public school.

This new law will force some public schools to convert to charter schools, said Damaris Allen, “and that’s intentional.” Allen is the executive director of Families for Strong Public Schools, a public schools advocacy organization that is rallying opposition to the law.

Astronomers have used the James Webb Space Telescope to confirm the first runaway supermassive black hole, one of the fastest bodies ever seen, pushing a galaxy-worth of material ahead of it and forming stars in its wake.

What if a portrait didn’t just represent someone, but remembered them?

𝑮𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘𝒆𝒓 𝒅𝒊𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒕𝒍𝒚, 𝒇𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒚 𝒂 𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒐𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒃𝒍𝒐𝒄𝒌𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒔𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒈𝒍𝒂𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒇𝒂𝒄𝒆. 𝑯𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒂𝒊𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒆𝒅 𝒔𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒇 𝒑𝒍𝒖𝒈 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒖𝒄𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒔𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒇𝒊𝒈𝒖𝒓𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒃𝒂𝒄𝒌𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 𝒐𝒏𝒆 𝒄𝒊𝒓𝒄𝒖𝒊𝒕. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒆𝒍𝒇-𝒑𝒐𝒓𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒕 𝒒𝒖𝒊𝒆𝒕𝒍𝒚 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒔 𝒊𝒕𝒔 𝒑𝒐𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: 𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒔𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒐 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒕𝒔 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒘𝒏 𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒔𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒆𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒐𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒍 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒖𝒍𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒔𝒚𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒎𝒔 𝒔𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉, 𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒊𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒈𝒊𝒏.

Dr. Nettrice R. Gaskins is a digital artist, educator, and cultural critic whose practice bridges algorithmic art, Afrofuturism and STEAM learning. She holds a BFA in Computer Graphics (Pratt Institute, 1992), an MFA in Art & Technology (School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1994) and a PhD in Digital Media (Georgia Tech, 2014). Her work includes AI‑generated portrait series exhibited at the Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building and large‑scale murals in Brooklyn.

In a AI market flooded by generative portraits, emotional rarity is the new blue chip. Nettrice R. Gaskins doesn’t generate faces—she constructs legacies. Each portrait she creates becomes a vessel of symbolic memory, not just an AI artifact.

The most affordable of all the federal repayment programs is ending sooner than planned after Trump conspired with red-state attorneys general to kill it.

The SAVE Plan is ending and repayment options will change dramatically in the new year.

If we want to get responsible media that does its job in reporting on the deeds and misdeeds of the rich and powerful, we need to look to fundamentally restructure the media.

The exhibit features more than a dozen maps of Boston, New England and North America made before, during and after the American Revolution.

They tell the story of how Boston and its landscape made the region a powder keg for revolutionary ideas.

It’s hard to imagine, but less than 200 years ago, Boston was surrounded by water. The city was basically an island, connected to the rest of the state only through a tiny spit of land.

Neighborhoods like Back Bay and parts of the South End didn’t exist until Bostonians dumped landfill into the water over the course of decades.

Following the removal of four dams from the Klamath River, which flows through California and Oregon, a group of young indigenous people are paddling from source to sea.

(CNN) — Ruby Williams’ birthday was not your average 18th. She celebrated it on the Klamath River, with a group of young people making a historic journey paddling from the river’s headwaters in southern Oregon to its mouth in the Pacific Ocean, just south of Crescent City, California. It marked the first time in a century that the descent has been possible, after the recent removal of four dams allowed the river to flow freely.

Williams, together with fellow paddler Keeya Wiki, 17, spoke to CNN on day 15 of their month-long journey, which they are due to complete on Friday. At this point, they had just 141 miles (227 kilometers) of the 310-mile (499 kilometer) journey left to go and had already passed through some of the most challenging rapids, such as those at the “Big Bend” and “Hell’s Corner” sections of the river.

Both were exhausted and hadn’t showered in days — although they promised they “aren’t completely feral.” However, despite tired minds, they were steadfast in their commitment.

There’s plenty of dazzling eye candy tucked away in a corner of the Gems and Mineral Hall inside the American Museum of Natural History.

Look at sparkly diamonds, rubies, emeralds, turquoise, and every other polished gem you can think of as you contemplate the mysteries of stars, planets, and distant galaxies in Cosmic Splendor: Jewelry from the Collections of Van Cleef & Arpels, on view through January 4, 2026.

Barbara Rose Johns was 16 when she led a walkout at her high school, credited with helping end school segregation. Her statue replaces Robert E. Lee's, which was removed in 2020.

Traipsing through entire clearings of trees may sound like it does more harm than good, but every time elephants pluck their favorite fruit and trample trees, they’re contributing to a cleaner environment. 

In a Saint Louis University study, Stephen Blake — an assistant professor of biology at SLU — collected data on the ecological impacts of megaherbivores and found that “the role of forest elephants in our global environment is too important to ignore.”

“Elephants are the gardeners of the forest,” Blake wrote, explaining that when elephants eat the fruit from high carbon density trees, they then disperse the seeds of new trees through their dung. 

And they do this all while trampling lower density trees, and thinning forests for the better. 

Astronomers have observed a Jupiter-sized planet more than 700 light years from Earth that is unlike anything spotted before and defies explanation.

Known as PSR J2322-2650b, the exoplanet is shaped like a lemon, boasts baffling skies, and may have hidden troves of diamonds in its belly. The distant world closely orbits a pulsar, a type of hyper-dense dead star that is tugging on the gassy planet, giving it the distended shape. 

Pulsar companions are normally other stars. These are called “black widow” systems because winds from the pulsar weather down the stellar companion, eventually destroying it, similar to the deadly embrace of the namesake spider. It is very rare to see a black widow system with a planet as the pulsar companion.

From child labor to trafficking—and even foster care, sports, and detention—institutions meant to protect children often cause the greatest harm. 

There’s an invisible emergency in America: children toil in slaughterhouses, factories, and fields—night and day, unseen, unprotected, and endangered. A century ago, reforms such as compulsory schooling and restrictions on child labor marked a historic advance, shielding children from exploitation—a model still emulated worldwide. Yet today, austerity budgets, systemic neglect, and the ideology of “rugged individualism” are eroding those protections.

Amazon Business is billed as a convenient one-stop shop for schools. Reality is more expensive.

For over two decades now, Amazon has been seen as a one-stop shop to buy virtually anything, and get it delivered in no time flat. It’s been estimated that the platform has over 310 million active users, and just in the U.S. during 2023, sold over 4.5 billion items.

Amazon claims to be guided by four principles: “customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking.” Certainly there is a very large quantity of retail items for sale on the platform, even if their quality or identity may be questionable.

But in another much more obscure part of the business, Amazon’s supposed obsession with its customers and “commitment to operational excellence” falls flat.