Today’s Big Story

The Great Ape Screen Debate

Gorillas have become interested in watching videos of themselves on the phones of visitors

Who can resist that selfie screen? Not me. Put it up to me and my eyes scan the glowing rectangle before me, assessing my digital reflection. Sound familiar? It’s the same for our closest biological relatives in the animal world. Across North America, zoos have grappled with, and sometimes embraced, primates taking an interest in screen time.

The interactions speak to man’s age-old attraction to gorillas, which share 98% of our DNA, and a desire to connect with them. “They are a window to ourselves, they really are,” said Ron Evans, general curator at the Louisville Zoo. “Except for their superhuman strength.” But even these great apes can’t fight the pull of a smartphone.

At the Louisville Zoo in Kentucky, a 27-year-old gorilla named Jelani has been enamored with phones for years, flicking his finger or tapping the glass when he’s ready for a visitor to swipe to the next shot. But at the Toronto Zoo, keepers have hung signs to dissuade showing screens to gorillas, citing disruption to their family dynamic.

The same goes for the famed San Diego Zoo. A spokesperson for the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance told the Wall Street Journal that they “do not condone and strongly discourage” the practice. Instead of trying to connect with apes through technology meant for humans, guests should passively observe them “as they behave like gorillas.”

One of the best things to happen to zoos over the past 30 years was the slow and steady change from random enclosures and human-raised animals to more thoughtful and natural environements where the animals’ well-being improves from letting them raise their young, in sprawling enclosures that gave an option to roam away from the glare of visitors. But now, gorillas like 16-year-old Amare in Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo are so enthralled and distracted by their secondhand screentime, that they’re changing their natural behavior. Just another typical teenager glued to a phone …

Netanyahu Dismisses Critics in Fiery Speech

The Israeli prime minister vows ‘total victory’ in Gaza and denounces U.S. protesters

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged in a scathing speech to Congress on Wednesday to achieve “total victory” against Hamas and denounced American opponents of the war in Gaza as “idiots,” taking a combative stance in a visit the Biden administration has hoped will yield progress in negotiations to end the fighting.

Addressing a packed House chamber, Netanyahu displayed his penchant for intervening in American politics honed over decades, delivering pointed jabs at Democrats and sometimes lavishing praise on Trump. He thanked President Biden for supporting Israel in its nine-month war, but also sought to put the White House on the defensive, calling for the U.S. to “fast track” additional weapons shipments. He also urged the U.S. to help counter a growing threat from Iran.

According to the Washington Post, his speech—which spanned nearly an hour—occurred as his far-right government nears the start of its tenth month of war in Gaza, where local authorities say 39,000 Palestinians have been killed amid daily bombardment and famine, and as a majority of Israelis say they want him to leave office. “He encountered a Congress sharply at odds over the conflict, with Republican leaders upbraiding the dozens of Democrats who boycotted his appearance, and many Democrats appalled by the decision to platform a foreign leader accused of war crimes.”

About That Surprise Yellowstone Eruption

What does a geyser explosion mean for the future?

As Mashable succinctly reminds us: Yellowstone is an active volcano—it's not Disneyland with bison. It's a park teeming with over 500 spewing geysers, in addition to many boiling hot springs. On July 23, one of Yellowstone National Park’s thousands of thermal features, near a hot spring called Sapphire Pool, exploded. Understandably, the park has temporarily closed the area.

But the type of explosion is less common and understood, and potentially more hazardous given that they happen without warning. The upside of a sudden eruption of steam and hot mud (which sent people scrambling for safety as beachball-sized rocks flew overhead and landed on the walking path) is that it’s helping scientists figure out how to predict it someday. The hydrothermal explosions are believed to result from clogged passageways in the extensive natural plumbing network under Yellowstone. A clog could cause the heated, pressurized water to turn into steam instantly and then explode.

Despite the size of the explosion seen on the video, the park and the USGS characterized it as a small one. Hydrothermal explosions can reach more than one mile high and leave craters a mile in diameter. Larger explosions happen every 700 years on average.

Our Apartments Are Getting Smaller

Americans feel the squeeze as most units have 10% less space than a decade ago

It isn’t just that the rent is too damn high, the apartments being rented likely feel too damn small. And the numbers back up this sentiment: The average size of new apartments was 887 square feet, a drop of 54 square feet over the past 10 years as developers increasingly focused on putting up more studios and one-bedroom apartments. That’s according to a recent report from Realtor.com, which shows how the surging demand for rentals continues to play out across the nation.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the average size of studio units has shrunk by 54 square feet to 445 square feet since 2014, making them 10% smaller today than they were a decade ago. Developers, meanwhile, can rent more units per building if they are smaller, which also helps cover growing construction costs. It all depends on where you live, of course. Brooklyn one-bedroom rentals built over the past 10 years lost a “whopping 70 square feet”, while DC renters actually gained an extra five square feet as a result of slightly larger apartments being built in the city’s newer neighborhoods.

Retailers are taking note, too. In January, IKEA launched a space-conscious collection of exercise products for use in small homes, including a soft-topped bench with drawers. It serves as an exercise bench, coffee table and storage space in one. And residents are adapting too. The Journal says that instead of hosting gatherings in their apartments, young people are increasingly entertaining guests at bars and restaurants.

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