American ride share company Uber announced Monday it has created 15,000 jobs in Australia since UberX launched in April 2014, with drivers serving the 1 million or so riders who have signed up to the platform.

This means the company is on schedule to deliver 20,000 new jobs in Australia by the end of 2015, as Uber's Chief Advisor David Plouffe promised in February.

The numbers don't make Uber one of Australia's biggest employers, however. A company spokesperson told Mashable Australia that drivers remain independent contractors or "driver-partners," in their words, and are not employed by the company. This means they don't receive the rights associated with full-time employment in Australia, including paid leave and maximum hours. Read more...

A tense standoff between protesters and authorities on West Florissant Street in Ferguson, Missouri turned chaotic Sunday night when gunfire rang out. St. Louis County PD later reported it was an officer-involved shooting; at least one person was reported hospitalized

KTVI Fox in St. Louis reported at least one person was shot but had no word on their condition.

As new interim #Ferguson police chief talks to us shots ring out. Listen. Tears and screaming after pic.twitter.com/mY7zbKXOoO

— Sara Sidner (@sarasidnerCNN) August 10, 2015

Confirmed one person taken to hospital after multiple shots fired near W Florissant#Ferguson pic.twitter.com/vXMonudMAC

— Casey Nolen KSDK (@CaseyNolen) August 10, 2015 Read more...

A rare white humpback whale has been spotted off the coast of Queensland on Monday, and whale watchers are hoping it is Australia's famous whale Migaloo

Migaloo, a name giving by Aboriginal Elders that means "white fella," is one member of a rare group of white whales that have been spotted swimming in Australian waters

On Monday, the white whale was first spotted by a Seven News television helicopter at around 11 a.m. If confirmed, this would be the first sighting of Migaloo since his migration up the east coast of Australia last year Read more...

The remains of World War II are still a very visible part of the European landscape

One unique example is a torpedo testing station that still stands in the Bay of Puck on the north coast of Poland. Dubbed “Torpedownia,” it served as a testing facility for the German military during the war

It was later taken over after the war by the Soviet Union and had also been used as training area for divers. It’s since been completely abandoned, though tourists who can swim or boat out to it are able to explore what remains.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. Read more...

On Sunday, the city of Nagasaki marked the 70th anniversary of its 1945 atomic bombing with calls to abolish nuclear weapons and halt the Japanese government's push to loosen restrictions on what its military can do.

With Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the audience, a representative of Nagasaki bomb survivors told a group gathered for the annual ceremony that security legislation introduced by Abe's government goes against the wishes of the survivors and "will lead to war."

"We cannot accept this," 86-year-old Sumiteru Taniguchi said, after describing in graphic detail his traumatic injuries and how others died in the Aug. 9, 1945, attack on Nagasaki. Read more...

NEW YORK — After two Olympic gold medals and years of being the face of women's soccer, Abby Wambach is finally a World Cup champion.

At 36 years old, Wambach is still deciding if she will participate in next summer's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. "In my mind, I have to believe that if I'm asked to be on the team, I don't know if I can say no," Wambach told media members before a Citi Kids event at Citi Field in New York last Thursday. "But I also know that a lot's got to happen between now and then."

Whether she continues her participation on the field, Wambach recognizes the impact that the USWNT's World Cup win can have for women's soccer — and women's sports in general. "It's hard to believe but I really think that we did something big. And to try to define what it is and to try to put words to it, I think, kind of does it an injustice. I'm just so excited that we won." Read more...

The message here is: Don't annoy fisherman trying to have a pleasant afternoon with your flying gizmos.

Tice Ledbetter was flying his drone over the pier at Pacific Beach, San Diego when he got a little too close to a group of men fishing

After noticing their airborne spectator, one of the men cast his line and hooked the drone in one spectacular, long distance shot. Although he didn't seem able to reel it in, footage from after the encounter shows a length of fishing line being unwound from what appears to be a quadcopter.

Here's a video of what the drone was trying to film before it got snagged. Read more...

The airport in the capital of Australia, Canberra, has turned rainbow in support of same-sex marriage.

Not far from Parliament House, lighting up Canberra Airport is a prominent way to show support for marriage equality as politicians fly in for the next parliamentary session. Australian businessman Terry Snow, who owns the airport, and his family, are corporate sponsors of the #WeCanDoThis campaign by the Australian Marriage Equality group

On Sunday, the airport became a beautiful display of pride and hope. It will remain lit up for the week, with a cross-party bill to support gay marriage expected to be introduced to the House of Representatives in the next fortnight. Supporters hope this bill will encourage debate in parliament that leads to a conscience vote — where politicians are able to vote due to their personal preference rather than their party's official line. Read more...

William Shatner, who's quite the social media savant, has no unveiled his latest crowd-sourced masterpiece: a mosaic of selfiies that forms an image of Shatner's close friend and Star Trek co-star, Leonard Nimoy. Nimoy passed away at the age of 83 in February.

Why did I ask for all those #LLAP selfies? For a @gishwhes task as a tribute to Leonard. Thank you! pic.twitter.com/3NQZ5siINe

— William Shatner (@WilliamShatner) August 9, 2015

Shatner began his project at the beginning of August when he sent out a request on Twitter for users to send him selfies while making the famed Vulcan salute. He gave users four days to send in their shots. Read more...

Sydney-based online graphic design company Canva is shaping up to be one of the Australian startup scene's biggest success stories.

Founded in 2012 by Melanie Perkins, who started the company with Cliff Obrecht, as well as technical cofounder Cameron Adams, the company recently announced it had reached more than 4 million users.

With around 70 staff and offices in Sydney and Manila, the company launched Canva for Work on Monday — a new service that will help brands create tailored graphic design solutions.

You might not be familiar with The International 2015 or Dota 2, but here's a sentence that makes sense regardless of your relationship to esports: a U.S.-based team of five pro gamers won themselves a $6.6 million prize on Saturday for proving themselves as the best of the best.

The winning team, Evil Geniuses, bested dark horse competitor CDEC in The International 2015's best-of-five Grand Finals, taking the largest share of this year's $18 million prize pool. CDEC, which made it to the final set of events by competing in qualifiers (as opposed to scoring an official invite), can't be too sad, however; they walked away with a not-insignificant $2.8 million haul. Read more...

Sunday marked the one-year anniversary of the shooting death of Michael Brown at the hands of Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson. Hundreds gathered peacefully in Ferguson, Missouri at the site of Brown's death, listening to speeches made by Michael Brown, Sr., Brown's father, and other supporters

The crowd observed a four-and-a-half minute silence — a minute for each hour Brown's body was left in the street after he was killed — at 12:02 p.m., the time at which he was shot and killed. Afterwards, Brown, Sr., and other family members, led a march through Ferguson.

LOS ANGELES — The Mindy Project Season 4 officially has a premiere date at its new home

Hulu announced Sunday that Mindy Lahiri and Co. will make their debut Sept. 15, with all 26 new episodes rolling out weekly

Yes, weekly

In fact, all Hulu originals will be rolling out episodes on a weekly basis, according to Hulu's head of content Craig Erwich

The move is a noted rejection of the binge watch model that has become the signature tactic of competitor Netflix

Erwich told reporters in attendance at Hulu's presentation at the Television Critics Association press tour that the service "values" the conversation that comes with the weekly model Read more...

UPDATE: 8:55 p.m. ET: The trailer has been released! Check it out below.

Before all the secrets of True Detective's second season come spilling out on Sunday night, HBO's got another surprise: Westworld.

The upcoming sci-fi drama will be the subject of a short, first look special immediately before True Detective's season two finale airs. After that, HBO will be blasting the same content out on its social media channels, namely Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Westworld is an hour-long format series set in a future world where artificial intelligence is just achieving consciousness. HBO has assembled a cast of big stars for this one, including Anthony Hopkins, Evan Rachel Wood, Ed Harris, James Marsden, Thandie Newton, Jeffrey Wright and an assortment of others. Read more...

The European Space Agency has delivered the space goods once again, this time showing us an amazing view of Mars from space

Captured by the Visual Monitoring Camera (VMC), loosely referred to as the Mars Webcam, the series of images are seen from the view vantage point of the ESA's Mars Express from May 25 to May 26

What makes the video unique is that, unlike many impressive Mars imagery that focuses on close-ups, this latest view takes us on a full orbit ride around the planet, reminding us of what the red planet looks like in comparison to similar views of Earth from space

Now we have yet another reason to pine for a trip to Mars, no matter how many decades away that reality may be. Read more...

Pro Football Hall of Famer Frank Gifford has died. He was 84.

In a statement released by NBC News on Sunday, his family said Gifford died suddenly at his Connecticut home of natural causes that morning. His wife, Kathie Lee Gifford, is a host for NBC's "Today."

A versatile star on both offense and defense in an era when NFL players were starting to specialize, Gifford went on to a successful second career as a broadcaster on "Monday Night Football."

Deeply grateful to all 4 ur outpouring of grace. We r steadfast in our faith & finding comfort in knowing where Frank is. Phillippians 4:13.

— Kathie Lee Gifford (@KathieLGifford) August 9, 2015 Read more...

No one's saying the world needed any reminders of just how wretched Pixels is, but at least this one serves as an object lesson in how broken anti-piracy laws and policies are.

Entura International, an anti-piracy firm representing Columbia Pictures, served Vimeo with takedown notices for a number of videos with the word "pixels" in the title. While the move was ostensibly aimed at eliminating pirated versions of the recent film from the video-hosting site, Entura only managed to inconvenience a number of independent artists.

Forget the "mass hysteria" of dogs and cats living togetherBill Murray is going to appear in Paul Feig's reboot of Ghostbusters.

The beloved actor and star of the original films has been against — or seemed to be against (Murray's a weird cat) — the idea of another chapter in the series for almost as long as the possibility of a new Ghostbusters has been discussed. But with a seemingly softened stance in light of Feig's all-female, modern-day recasting of Hollywood's premier paranormal investigation service, Murray has finally committed, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

If an abysmal critical consensus and huffy director hadn't already made it clear, the record-low box office should: Fantastic Four is pretty terrible.

The latest Marvel superhero flick from 20th Century Fox set the tone early on Friday, with a reported $11.3 million in ticket sales. The weekend nosedive continued into Sunday morning's numbers report, which estimates a total take of just over $26 million for the film's opening weekend. That puts it behind Impossible Mission: Rogue Nation, which hangs onto number one at the box office for its second week in release, with a weekend take of $30 million. Read more...

I thought I knew Donald Trump. I was wrong

The Donald was scheduled to appear on all three of the major Sunday political talk shows — “Meet the Press,” “This Week” and “Face the Nation” — as he continues to deal with the fallout from his debate appearance and its aftermath. And boy did I learn some stuff about Donald Trump

Trump, who dominated much of the debate, was fresh off having clashed with Megyn Kelly, one of the three Fox News anchors moderating the first Republican presidential debate. He took umbrage with some of her tougher questions, heaving his usual insults. He even went as far as seeming to insinuate that Kelly was menstruating during the debate, causing her to be in a foul mood Read more...

White-water rafting? Child's play. Rock climbing? You've got to be kidding. When you're Elon Musk, settle for nothing less than "wing walking."

The SpaceX and Tesla Motors founder and his wife, actress Talulah Riley, both took leisurely strolls on top of a soaring bi-plane for a little weekend fun. Sorry to say it, but their weekend is inherently better than your weekend now. Check out the high-flying antics, as captured on Riley's Instagram feed.

And here is @elonmusk wing walking!!

A photo posted by Talulah Riley (@talulahrm) on Aug 8, 2015 at 9:08am PDT Read more...

Hail smashed in the nose and seriously damaged the windshield of a Delta Airlines flight on Friday, forcing the pilots to divert the flight

Images posted to Twitter showed that the nose cone, which houses the plane's radar, had almost entirely collapsed and the paint had been shredded off. The windshield also appeared to have been shattered. The flight was on its way to Salt Lake City from Boston when it was caught in a storm

The plane, Delta flight 1889, an Airbus A320, ended up making an emergency landing at Denver International Airport despite major visibility issues for the pilots due to the damaged windshield Read more...

Singapore's come a long way in a relatively short span of time. "The Violin" shows the country in the 1930s when it was part of the British empire, in darker times during the Japanese Occupation in World War II, and up to its present-day metropolis.

The animated short movie was directed by Ervin Han, who runs an animation firm in Singapore. Read more...

Summer isn't just about long sunsets, cool air conditioning and frosty margaritas

It's also about corn. The indigenous crop of America, sweeter-than-candy summertime corn

If you're still boiling it and topping it with plain butter, you're missing out on all corn has to offer. Here are some ideas to kickstart your corn game:

1Corn ravioli

Pre-made wonton wrappers make this homemade pasta a breeze. Round out your fresh corn with some canned creamed corn, add a rich cilantro lime cream sauce and you will be in corn nirvana Read more...

SINGAPORE — The country's bonanza for its 50th year of independence promised to be a big one. For this year's National Day Singapore splurged S$20 million (US$15 million) on the parade, which had 12,000 performers and saw a turnout of 26,000 spectators.

Today's party was fun. #ndp2015 #jubileeyear @ndp2015

A photo posted by ϧÄBÊLLÈ ÇHÉØK (@isa.belle.xx) on Aug 9, 2015 at 5:29am PDT

Happy Birthday Singapore !!!

A video posted by ~♡~정안안~♡~ (@an1101) on Aug 9, 2015 at 2:52am PDT

Soooo glad t be able t watch the NDP parade LIVE this yr!! Rejoice It's even much significant as it's our little red dot's Jubilee year!! Looking forward t the night of programmes lined up. HAPPYYYY BDAAAAY SINGAPORE!!! #sg50 #ndp2015

A photo posted by Jasmine (@daryjenne_) on Aug 9, 2015 at 3:30am PDT Read more...

One year ago, the St. Louis suburb became the focus of national attention when 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed by police officer Darren Wilson on a sunny Saturday afternoon. His body lay on the pavement in the blistering heat for hours, as news of his death spread and ignited outrage in the community.

Brown was black. Wilson is white.

The shooting and the violent protests that followed cast a light on the epidemic of police violence in black communities across America, catalyzing a national conversation on race.

But Ferguson, whose name alone carries huge weight, survived. A local politician, a library director and a small-business owner reflect on how they and their city have changed and shed light on the work that still needs to be done. Read more...

It's the "cutting season" — and that's just as terrifying as it sounds.

The practice of female genital mutilation, also known as female genital cutting or FGM, is defined by the World Health Organization as any procedure that intentionally alters or causes injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons — and summer is when the practice thrives

Young girls are out of school, giving them more time to heal before the next school session. It's a time of year many young girls in Africa and the Middle East, where FGM is most prevalent, dread.

Riders of the Q train rejoice: The best cell service on the New York City subway is yours.

But riders of the 4, 5 and 6 trains, which run on a line along the eastern side of Manhattan, have little to celebrate: All three of the trains ranked terribly in a study of cell service, both with mobile data connections and on station Wi-Fi, on the city's different lines.

“Our data shows a number of trends that inform what type of mobile experience commuters are having throughout the borough of Manhattan," said Paul Carter, CEO at Global Wireless Solutions, which performed the study. Read more...

Your desk could be a little groovier.

There are a few supplies you can't live without when it comes to school or work like highlighters, pens, paper or your computer. But your space also needs something eye-catching to keep your creative juices flowing — like a lava lamp.

While you're cramming for exams or working on tomorrow's big presentation, it's always good to take a minute to lose yourself in hypnotizing wonder of floating bubbles of color. And you don't need to rummage through a thrift store or your grandma's attic to get it. Read more...

How often do you feel distracted at work? All the time, right? I bet those distractions keep you from getting a lot of stuff accomplished on a regular basis

In a 2013 study, nearly 50% of surveyed workers in open office settings cited the lack of sound privacy as a significant problem from day to day. Luckily, technology's made it easier than ever to block out those distractions, manage your schedule more efficiently, and re-focus your priorities.

If that all sounds like Heaven to you, here's what you need to download.

1Isolator

This one helps minimizes distractions by keeping your focus on your active window. Based on the settings you choose, Isolator completely hides windows other that your active window, blurs the windows behind your active window, hides your dock bar, and more. Read more...