#Wildfires dominate headlines more than ever, yet globally less land is burning. A key reason is Africa, where the total area burned has been steadily declining. New research looks at trends over the past two decades:

The Conversation

Wildfire disasters are increasingly in the news, yet less land is burning globally – here’s why

Even though you may mostly hear about fires in the US, Canada, Europe and Australia, it’s Africa that has far and away the most acreage burned an...

Ever walked face-first into a spiderweb? 🕷️ These delicate traps are masterpieces of engineering, honed over millions of years. Here’s how different spider species design their webs — and why (thread) ⬇️

The Conversation

Spiderweb silks and architectures reveal millions of years of evolutionary ingenuity

7 distinct types of silk allow different spider species to build webs with various jobs – including to catch prey, tether themselves and protect ...

#spiders #science

As Europe and Asia adopt strict human rights due diligence laws, the U.S. just cut the very State Dept. team that helped American firms keep up, comply, and compete successfully.

The Conversation

State Department layoffs could hurt US companies’ ability to compete globally – an economist explains why

The elimination of the Business and Human Rights team strips US companies of critical guidance just as new international laws raise the stakes.

Labor Day and May Day both have roots in the 19th-century America, and the battle to limit working to 9 hours a day. “The call for shorter hours was rooted in a big idea: that workers’ days belonged to them, even if employers owned the workplace and paid for their work.” https://buff.ly/ZVeD4Od

More people than ever are in wildfire danger zones – about 440 million. But the total area burned worldwide has actually declined over the last 20 years https://buff.ly/VnYrUcT

The first stars may not have been as uniformly massive as astronomers thought https://buff.ly/gr3Bn4M