Nearly 4 million public school students have been affected by the bans. Pexels In honor of annual Banned Books Week, writers’ group PEN America released a new study breaking down the nation’s troubling censorship resurgence within public school districts. The statistics are pretty stark. Over the past year, PEN America documented 1,648 different book titles…
Monthly Archives: September 2022
The real-life Mount Doom. NASA Earth Observatory When an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) snapped an eerie photo of a real volcano atop New Zealand’s Mount Ruapehu, unfortunately no dwarves, elves, or hobbits were in sight. However, this active volcano in the center of New Zealand’s North Island was the filming location for…
TikTok is rolling out its comment dislike button globally to all users, the company announced on Friday. The short-form video app started testing the dislike button in April as a way for users to identify comments they believe to be irrelevant or inappropriate. If you click the dislike button on a comment, the dislike won’t be…
It’s not Prime Day, but Amazon has some killer deals on Echo devices as of Sept. 23. Here are our favorites: OUR TOP PICK: The Echo Show 8 (2nd gen) features an upgraded 13 MP camera — $79.99 $129.99 (save $50) BUDGET PICK: This deal on the Echo Show 5 (2nd gen) matches the lowest…
The comments section on any social media platform can be a cesspool, but on TikTok it’s especially hard to parse through all of the unhelpful and tasteless comments to find actual discourse. Now, the platform is making it easier to dictate which comments you see first by introducing a dislike feature. The new dislike button…
Netflix has announced the release date for Wednesday, its revival of beloved comedy-horror franchise The Addams Family. But fans holding out hope for a pre-Halloween arrival should prepare to be disappointed. Ahead of the streamer’s upcoming Tudum 2022 event, Netflix revealed that the new series will begin streaming on Wednesday, November 23. Frustratingly, that’s a…
Amazon’s freight safety chief says its goal is “zero accidents, zero fatalities.” Paul Hennessy/Getty Images A driver for a company used by Amazon was convicted of driving while high after crashing into a ditch. The Wall Street Journal unearthed from public records that the driver was caught with a crack pipe. Amazon said it would…
South Sea pearls can grow to over 20 millimeters, more than double the size of an Akoya pearl. It can take five years for a Pinctada maxima oyster to produce a single pearl. The Pinctada maxima oyster is farmed in its natural habitat: the South Sea. South Sea pearls are the largest cultured-pearl variety, sometimes…
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis waves during a press conference, Thursday, September 22, 2022, in Miami. Rebecca Blackwell/AP Photo A state senator has sued Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after he directed flights to Martha’s Vineyard. The lawsuit accuses DeSantis of improperly using state funds by picking up migrants in Texas. A Florida Democratic state senator has…
The average Chinese citizen is now worth over $26,000. Catherine McQueen/Getty Images Credit Suisse found China’s median wealth outpaced Europe’s in its 2021 Global Wealth Report. The average Chinese citizen has a wealth of $26,752, around $60 more than the average European. Chinese wealth has surged in the past two decades, with median wealth per…