Once again, Bill Gates is putting his money where his mouth is — but this time, the funds are coming from his own bank account. The Microsoft co-founder announced Nov. 13 he’s personally donating $100 million toward fighting Alzheimer’s disease. The gift does not involve efforts through his foundation, which has primarily focused on dire global health…

Over seven inches of snow fell on Kansas City, Missouri between 7am and the 1:35pm kickoff for the Chiefs versus Indianapolis Colts AFC divisional playoff game last Saturday.  While cold temperatures made for tough conditions on the field, it was a problem before the game as well. Chiefs offensive guard Jeff Allen got stuck in…

A few months back, Instagram user uglysxegirl created a viral video where she used henna to create freckles on her face. After applying the dye, she added a layer of foundation, and her freckles looked not only beautiful but natural, too. Henna is a vegetable-based dye that has been used since antiquity in Southeast Asia, the Middle…

THE GOOD NEWS: Child malnutrition in Peru has hit an all-time low thanks to a combination of local and international efforts.   Identifying stunting — otherwise known as failing to meet an average height by a certain age — is just one way that researchers and health advocates are able to measure a child’s overall well-being….

Ferguson’s Municipal Public Library weathered the streets swelled with protesters and officers alike. The death of Michael Brown tipped the scales in the town 10 miles from St. Louis, skulking the lid off decades of questionable practices from city and state administrators. What erupted was an outpouring of outrage and fright, as residents marched, pleaded,…

Though Charlie Hall has garnered attention playing for Northwestern in previous seasons, his notoriety has been mostly due to the presence of his famous mom, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, cheering him on from the stands. The forward hadn’t actually scored a bucket for his team going into his junior year campaign, but that dubious distinction went by the wayside when…

In a blip in time, marijuana’s image has been rebranded from sketchy to consumer-friendly, largely thanks to female executives disassociating the plant’s positive attributes from its historically bad rap. Women dominate from a consumer standpoint, too—from Apothecanna’s ganja-infused moisturizers to Whoopi & Maya’s THC-laced bath soaks, it seems there are no lucrative opportunities left unturned. In…

It is looking very, very likely that Filipino citizens are about to vote their first out trans person into public office. As the polls closed on Monday evening (local time), Geraldine Roman had a commanding lead over her opponent, Danny Malana, to become the lower house representative for the first district of the Bataan province,…

This story is part of an ongoing campaign called the Alphabet of Illiteracy. By using letters themselves—the foundation of reading and writing—Project Literacy examines the ways illiteracy underpins some of the greatest challenges facing the world today. Below, we explore the letter P for “performance.” Three years ago, eleventh-grader Pathum Madigapola was on the verge of dropping out of school. “I…

When Shawn Jones joined the Navy in 2008, he wanted to be an air rescue swimmer, jumping out of helicopters to save soldiers in choppy waters. Jones didn’t make the program—instead spending his five years of service as a crane operator, event planner, and weapons specialist—but in his retirement, he has found another way to help soldiers struggling to swim. Jones…