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Languages need advocates: people who speak up for them and get others interested in speaking them. “Each new course we add to our platform is made because someone pushed for it,” says Luis Von Ahn, founder of the language learning app, Duolingo. Today (March 3), Duolingo, which already had courses in 22 languages, released its […]

Today Nintendo launched something it never has before—a single video game console that you can play while you’re out just as easily you can from your living room television. If you’re thinking of picking up one of Nintendo’s new machines, or you’ve just gotten your pre-order in the mail, this guide is for you. How […]Read More

Uber’s fortnight of scandal just got a whole lot worse: The New York Times just revealed the existence of an uber-creepy company tool called “Greyball” that tracks the phones of police and hostile local government officials. The company has been known to push the boundaries of tracking users. It alarmed privacy watchdogs late last year […]

After repeatedly bashing undocumented immigrants on the campaign trail and deporting hundreds of them in his first weeks in office, US president Donald Trump is floating a new approach. He now wants a compromise on immigration policy, a goal that eluded both his Democrat and Republican predecessors. Trump has provided few details on how to […]

Another top executive is out at Uber. Uber VP of product and growth Ed Baker stepped down today after more than three years with the company. His departure was first reported by Recode and confirmed by Uber. From Recode: [Baker’s] resignation also comes at a time when Uber employees have also complained about questionable behavior […]

It’s a bull market for famous fungus. A preserved specimen of the mold that led to Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin just sold at auction in London for £11,875 (about $14,500). The winning March 1 bid at Bonhams was nearly three times the estimated sale price. Yet in the strange and fascinating world of mold […]Read More

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil rig, owned by BP, exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to killing 11 crew members, it unleashed about 3.19 million barrels of oil a mile below the ocean surface over the course of 87 days before the leak could be contained. Five years later, BP […]

US president Donald Trump’s pending executive order on entry to the United States is likely to include a provision to avoid the airport chaos of the earlier version—a five- to seven-day window between when the order is announced and when it goes into effect, according to an official who has been briefed on a draft […]

You wouldn’t have guessed from the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange today that Snap, parent company of Snapchat, lost more than half a billion dollars in 2016. As Thursday’s opening bell ushered in the social giant’s first day of trading as a public company, Snap founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy mingled […]Read More

Teens are obsessed with Snapchat. So it’s apt that the market debut of parent company Snap is making one high school very rich. Saint Francis High School, a private Roman Catholic school in Mountain View, California, disclosed today that it invested $15,000 in Snap’s seed round of financing in 2012. The school made the investment […]Read More

In a recent Economist Intelligence Unit study of internet inclusiveness, India ranked first among 75 countries when it comes to having policies in place to ensure connectivity. That, according to the report, is in part because India already has put in place a fund dedicated to expanding baseline levels of telecommunication to all citizens. In […]

US attorney general Jeff Sessions, responding to mounting pressure from Democrats and from his own party, announced that he is recusing himself from any current or future investigations into the 2016 US presidential campaigns. The decision followed reports that he had spoken twice last year with Russia’s ambassador to the US. Russia, of course, is […]