The longest war in American history has ended. On
August 31, 2021, a US aircraft carrying the
remaining US officials in Afghanistan lifted off from
Kabul, ending the nation's almost 20-year presence
in the country. The chain of events leading to the
long, drawn-out war began early on September 11,
2001.
The countdown to the 2020 Summer Games has
begun. On July 23, 2021, about 11,000 athletes
from 206 countries will gather at the Olympic
Stadium in Tokyo, Japan, for the opening ceremony
of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad. Here are a few
contestants to keep an eye on at the world's most
prestigious sporting event.
Given that white was one of the first colors used in
art in the 15th century, one would think that there is
little room left to improve its "whiteness." It turns
out that is far from the case. A team of researchers
led by Xiulin Ruan, a professor of mechanical
engineering at Indiana's Purdue University, recently
revealed an "ultra-white" paint that they believe co...
Since landing on Mars on February 18, 2021, NASA's
Perseverance rover has achieved numerous "firsts,"
including beaming audio sounds from the Red
Planet's surface. It also made history as the first
spacecraft to record sounds from another spacecraft
— the Ingenuity helicopter — on another planet.
On April 22, 2021, for the second consecutive year,
the US House of Representatives voted 216-208 to
make Washington, DC, the nation's 51st state.
Though the symbolically titled H.R. 51 bill is identical
to the one passed on June 26, 2020, the legislation
was never put to the vote in the then
Republican-controlled Senate. However, this time a...
Every April 22, over a billion people around the world
celebrate Earth Day by participating in
neighborhood clean-up activities and environmental
teach-ins. The planet's largest civic event began in
1970 when twenty million Americans poured out
onto the streets to urge lawmakers to take action to
protect the environment before it was too late. No...
Fifteen US states, including New York, Illinois,
Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, New Jersey, as well as
Washington D.C., will soon be buzzing with billions,
and perhaps even trillions, of cicadas. The noisy,
red-eyed members of Brood X, which have been
hibernating underground for the past 17 years, will
emerge unannounced as soon as the conditions ar...
For the more than a billion Muslims worldwide, there
is nothing more sacred than the month of Ramadan,
or Ramazan. It was during this ninth month of the
Islamic lunar calendar that Jibril (the Archangel
Gabriel in the Judeo-Christian faith) revealed the first
verses of the Quran — Islam's holy text — to the
prophet Muhammad. The auspicious month's start...
When Christie's set out to auction its first-ever
digital-only artwork — "Everydays: The First 5000
Days"— on March 1, 2021, they had fully expected
it to fetch more than the minimum bid of $100.
However, the 255-year-old British auction house had
never in its wildest dreams envisioned that the
unique masterpiece, minted by Mike Winkelmann, ...
