Lady Gaga will make history when she performs at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival this weekend, marking a decade since a solo woman has been billed as a headliner on the prestigious musical stage.   Beyonce had been slated to headline the festival in Indio, California, but backed out because she’s pregnant with twins. Bjork was the last solo female to headline Coachella in 2007, so it begs the question: Why has it taken so long?   Women have always performed at Coachella, which began Friday, since it …

Julian Lennon is looking to nurture a new generation’s commitment to the environment, with a little help from a white feather.   The firstborn son of the late John Lennon has co-authored “Touch the Earth,” a picture book for kids as young as 3 about the world’s water problems, from polluted oceans to the need for clean drinking water in the developing world.   Out later this month, the book from Sky Pony Press has a group of kids loaded into a plane called the White Feather Flier as they …

More than a decade after it was proposed, India’s most ambitious tax reform measure is set to roll out in six weeks following the passage of a law that will replace a plethora of confusing levies with a single, nationwide tax.   The new goods and services tax (GST) will unite the world’s fastest growing economy into a common market of 1.3 billion people. The measure is seen as a major achievement for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who struggled for two years to build a political consensus.  The government says …

The so-called “Mother of All Bombs,” may be the biggest conventional weapon in the U.S. arsenal, but it’s not the biggest non-nuclear bomb in the world. That title goes to Russia’s “Father of All Bombs,” which is reportedly four times heavier than the 10,300-kilogram Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), the official name of the U.S. GBU-43/B. FOAB is also quite a different kind of bomb. While the MOAB is conventional, the FOAB is thermobaric, meaning it uses oxygen in the atmosphere to increase the damaging effects. According to Business Insider, …

Texas has a wealth of oil and gas production facilities, hundreds of ranches … and 14 national park sites that protect and preserve some of America’s most precious natural, cultural and historic land and waterscapes. National parks traveler Mikah Meyer, who’s on a mission to visit all of the more than 400 sites within the National Park Service, crossed into Texas via its eastern border, eager to begin his ambitious adventures across the vast state. Magical moments First stop, Big Thicket National Preserve, which protects almost 45,780 hectares (113,121.96 acres) …

Three university engineering graduates in Uganda are taking on one of the leading killers of young children in Africa – pneumonia. They say the prototype of their invention, a “smart jacket”  they have named Mama’s Hope, can diagnose the illness faster and more accurately than the current medical protocol. Four-month-old Nakato Christine writhes on a hospital bed, breathing fast. On the other end of the bed is her twin sister, in the same condition. Nakato coughs as Senior Nurse Kyebatala Loy adjusts the nasal gastric tube. “They have been put …

The local publisher of Vogue Arabia has announced Manuel Arnaut as its new editor-in-chief a day after the surprise exit of its former editor. Arnaut is currently the editor-in-chief of Architectural Digest Middle East, which like Vogue Arabia, is a publication of Conde Nast International.   In a statement released Friday, Dubai-based publisher Nervora said Arnaut, who hails from Portugal, will begin as editor-in-chief of Vogue Arabia May 7.   The fashion magazine’s new edition for the Middle East had published just two print issues when it was reported Thursday …

People living in arid, drought-ridden areas may soon be able to get water straight from a source that’s all around them — the air, American researchers said Thursday. Scientists have developed a box that can convert low-humidity air into water, producing several liters every 12 hours, they wrote in the journal Science. “It takes water from the air and it captures it,” said Evelyn Wang, a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and co-author of the paper. The technology could be “really great for remote areas where …