Vocativ

News From the Deep Web

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Meet India’s Amazing “Monkey King”

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The Vocativ Queer Index

Over the past few years, the momentum of Pride has changed. Radically. Opposition to marriage equality at state and federal levels has been crumbling in the courts and the court of public opinion. Anti-discrimination laws are being revised to include LGBT individuals. And for the generation of people in their 20s and 30s, coming out is legitimately getting better.

Still, for all the gains in rights and acceptance, it ain’t all rainbows. Let’s face it: A great many places across America are still not that welcoming of the LGBT community. But there are beacons of hope—as well as cities quietly changing—and hence, the Queer Index was born.

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South Africa's Burning Man

AfrikaBurn, a smaller and more intimate version of Burning Man in Nevada, drew some 9,000 people into the desert of South Africa’s Northern Cape earlier this month. Although the event does involve the requisite number of naked hippies dancing and getting high, it’s about much more than that. To the organizers and devoted attendees, the annual festival is also about art, self-expression and changing the world.

Vocativ sent correspondent Matthew Goldman to check out AfrikaBurn. Let’s just say he had an immersive experience.

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Next-Generation Drones Will Mimic Mother Nature

In the past few years, humans have accomplished major technological feats in the world of unmanned aviation. But in the end, winged species still have the edge. “The way creatures perform in the air is way out of reach of our current technology,” says David Lentink, a Stanford University professor who runs a bio-inspired flight lab. And for that reason, nature is having its moment with drone engineers.

In a special issue of the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics, Lentink brought together work of various research teams that looked at the aerodynamics of birds, bats, insects and even snakes to solve the common issues drones face when flying through complex aerial landscapes. “What we are seeking are solutions to improve flight control and to enable drones to fly safely in urban areas without falling from the sky,” says Lentink, who guest-edited the issue.

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5 Things You Should Know About Ukraine’s Elections

After months of turmoil, including riots and clashes with pro-Russian forces, some 36 million Ukrainian citizens eligible to vote will head to the polls on Sunday, May 25, to cast ballots in a first round of presidential elections. According to Ukrainian election rules, if one of the 17 registered candidates for president wins 50 percent or more of the vote, that person wins the presidency outright. If a majority vote falls below 50 percent, a runoff will be held in early June.

Here’s what you need to know about the vote.

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It’s Celebrity Against Celebrity at the Beverly Hills Hotel

The Gladiator is coming out swinging.

Russell Crowe popped out a string of tweets yesterday offering his support for workers at the Dorchester luxury hotel chain. Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal—it might even be applauded. But this time, he’s getting some blowback. A number of A-list actors have been calling for a boycott of the chain, the Dorchester Collection, because its owner, the Sultan of Brunei, recently announced harsh penalties for gays and adulterers, including death by stoning.

So it’s Crowe vs, Jay Leno, Kim Kardashian, Ellen Degeneres and other celebs in the battle over how best to shame the Sultan, who owns 10 swish hotels in the U.S., U.K., France, Italy and Switzerland.

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Can Animals Lose Their Minds?

“It was like dealing with a thousand heroin addicts,” Louise McKnight, a sheep farmer from Australia’s New South Wales, told the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this week. McKnight and her husband recently lost 800 of their herd after the sheep began grazing on the deceptively named “darling pea plant” that had begun growing in their pastures. As the McKnights observed, their flock had grown addicted to the noxious flower, which made them staggery, depressed and even suicidal. “They just go to a post and bang their head on it till they crack their heads open,” she said.

Local veterinarians were flummoxed by the sheeps’ erratic behavior, which one described as similar to that of a drunk, echoing another incident in Turkey from 2005 where 1,500 sheep hurled themselves off a cliff (though nearly two-thirds survived as the mounting pile of woolen bodies helped cushion their fall). Incredibly, another flock of 50 leapt to their deaths in 2010.

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The Twitter feed for China's Amazon.com is totes bonkerz

Pretty much every major company has a Twitter account.

Airlines use them for customer service. Newspapers use them to promote new content. Denny’s uses one to make jokes about fanny packs. Point is, they all have a strategy.

And then there’s JD.com.

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BREAKING: Boobs are in

Forget floral prints and exposed midriffs. According to Vogue U.K., boobs—yes, boobs—are the next big thing this season.

“If boobs are not yet an out-and-out fashion trend, they are becoming a frequent exception to the rule,” writes Violet Henderson, author of Return of the Bosom. The “rule,” of course, is the tiny size and stick shape of designer samples. Thanks to “glamazons” like Kate Upton, Laura Stone and “the boobs from Brazil” Gisele Bündchen, those touchstones for the female figure are apparently evolving “to fit a special girl.”

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This is a 15 step guide to surviving martial law, courtesy of wild speculations from the internet

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, Thailand’s military chief declared nationwide martial law. “This is not a coup,” said General Prayuth Chan-Ocha in a televised broadcast, before justifying the declaration as a move necessary to restore peace and public order. The country has been embroiled in a mounting political crisis since protesters began demonstrating against the current prime minister seven months ago, which has led to increasingly violent unrest.

So far, the public has remained relatively calm as tanks roam their streets and military personnel stand guard at key intersections and shopping malls (some citizens are even taking selfies with soliders), while the United States and other Western governments have urged the Thai people to avoid large crowds and sites of protest as a precaution. As of now, Thailand’s army has claimed the right to take up arms against rioters, forbid public gatherings, enforce curfews and detain people for up to week, in addition to other powers.

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SNEAK PEEK: Getting slizzard with horses

The Kentucky Derby is the Super Bowl for horses and a rite of passage for all Kentuckians. The unforgettable event—well, thankfully forgettable enough in some cases—drew close to 170,000 onlookers this year. Vocativ spent the day at Churchill Downs, taking in everything from the drunk exhibitionism of the infield to the fancy prancing at the Club House with ladies high on mint juleps. Those Kentucky folk definitely showed us how to drink and horse around, Derby-style.

Check out this sneak peek and look for the full version soon on Vocativ.com.

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Another Mayor Is Set to Ban Saggy Pants

Sagging pants, the kind that hang low and allow for a peek of bunched-up boxers, first made a name for themselves—at least according to Internet legend—in prisons. They soon made their way into hip-hop culture, and ultimately into mainstream fashion, drooping lower and lower until attached belts reached, in some cases at least, knee-level. But in a growing number of towns and cities across the country, said bottoms are punishable by fine, and this is probably a very bad thing for freedom of dress (and freedom of everything, for that matter).

The latest town to initiate a ban on sag: Pikeville, Tennessee. Last week, Mayor Phil Cagle approved the first ordinance to eradicate drooping pants—any bottoms that sink “more than 3 inches below the top of the hips (crest of the ilium)”—by way of $25, then $50, fines. Cagle’s reasoning: evidence that saggy pants are “injurious to the health of the wearer” and induce “improper gait.”

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Elf jousting on LSD ≈ WoW IRL

It’s been a few days since Konrad McKane lost his epic battle with the Dark Lord of Middle Earth, and he’s taking it pretty hard.

“Morgoth got the best of me,” he says from Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Beaverton, Oregon, where he is undergoing psychiatric evaluation after being arrested last week.

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Portraits of Genderqueer Nation

Sasha Fleischman fell asleep on a school bus this November and woke up in flames. The 18-year-old San Francisco native, who identifies as agender, meaning neither male nor female, was wearing a man’s shirt and a skirt when another high school student took a lighter to the highly flammable fabric. The cruel prank left Fleischman with third-degree burns, which required multiple surgeries, and catapulted agenders to the center of a national civil rights debate.

San Francisco Magazine photographer Chloe Aftel shot Fleischman just weeks after the high school senior was released from the hospital, an experience so gratifying for Aftel that she began an entire series on agenders.

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“Without our gun rights, this president would be after us pretty hard.” - Arizona congressional candidate

Political elections in Arizona are apparently now less about proving one’s ability to govern than demonstrating significant levels of paranoia and insanity.

When Governor Jan Brewer was up for re-election in 2010, she riffed on the horrors of illegal immigration, warning her constituents about beheadings in the desert. However, like the alleged weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, no severed heads were ever found.

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Exactly How Often Has “Glee” Mentioned Barbra Streisand?

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We rated America's film critics. See what the data had to say.