Bizarre laws and strange cases: 10 unexpected facts about being a lawyer | Your path to career succe
Posted on June 2, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1127 words
| Kary Bruening
Your path to career successBizarre laws and strange cases: 10 unexpected facts about being a lawyerFind out why certain lawyers wear wigs made from hemp, defend dead fish in court and refuse to shake hands with each other, as we reveal some awesome facts about the legal profession
1 Lawyers can give legal counsel to fish
Defendants in a court of law don’t always need to be human. In 2010, Swiss lawyer Antoine Goetschel acted in court on behalf of a dead pike, which had “suffered excessively” after an angler took 10 minutes to land the fish when it was snared on his hook (the fisherman was subsequently acquitted).
[Read More]Dame Gillian Lynne obituary | Theatre
Posted on June 2, 2024
| 8 minutes
| 1572 words
| Chauncey Koziol
TheatreObituaryDame Gillian Lynne obituaryChoreographer and dancer who breathed new life into musical theatre with the hit shows Cats and The Phantom of the OperaSince the 1970s, British musical theatre has boasted a professionalism and audacity once thought exclusive to Broadway. Much of the credit, entrepreneurial and creative, has gone to Cameron Mackintosh and Andrew Lloyd Webber, but an equally vital force was the choreographer, director and dancer Gillian Lynne, who has died aged 92.
[Read More]It's a sin! Priests finally reveal the secrets of the confessional
Posted on June 2, 2024
| 3 minutes
| 493 words
| Kary Bruening
Pass notesCatholicismWhat’s the most common transgression people feel guilty about? Sex, of course. Now, in a controversial new French book, Catholic clergymen unveil some surprising intimate details
Name: Confession.
Age: 1,000 years old.
Appearance: Sexy.
Uh-oh, someone’s been watching Fleabag again. Of course I’ve been watching Fleabag again. Fleabag is great. But this is about actual confession.
Wait, it’s a real thing? Of course it’s a real thing. The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is a central tenet of the Catholic church, allowing believers to relieve themselves of the burden of shame and experience the healing power of God’s love.
[Read More]Only 100 metres apart: Ukrainians and Russians face off in Donetsk | Ukraine
Posted on June 2, 2024
| 7 minutes
| 1313 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
A Ukrainian serviceman is seen in the trenches in the frontline of Bakhmut in Donetsk, Ukraine. Photograph: Narciso Contreras/Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesThe eastern city of Bakhmut – where soldiers suffer bitter cold and lack of supplies – is now the war’s most violent front
Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updates by Peter Beaumont in Bakhmut areaWhen Nazar and his fellow soldiers came to the village outside the key city of Bakhmut that they had been ordered to attack, they thought they would be there for a single day.
[Read More]Richard Hickox | Classical music
Posted on June 2, 2024
| 9 minutes
| 1889 words
| Kary Bruening
Classical musicObituaryRichard HickoxVersatile conductor renowned for his interpretations of 20th-century British and choral musicThe death of Richard Hickox at the age of 60, following a suspected heart attack, deprives the musical world of one of its most energetic and indefatigable practitioners. Authoritative interpreter of vast swaths of 20th-century British and choral repertoire, one of the most recorded of all living conductors, a man capable of sustaining parallel careers on opposite sides of the world, Hickox was a ubiquitous presence.
[Read More]Solu: the Finnish pocket computer that wants to take over the world | Computing
Posted on June 2, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1081 words
| Kary Bruening
Computing This article is more than 8 years oldSolu: the Finnish pocket computer that wants to take over the worldThis article is more than 8 years oldThree ambitious engineers from Finland are bidding to change personal computing with a new portable computer and operating system
Personal computers, says entrepreneur Kristoffer Lawson, haven’t changed much in 20 years. It’s still a box, a screen and, if you’re using a desktop, a keyboard.
[Read More]Waterparks bring Palestinians summer relief from bleak reality of Israeli occupation
Posted on June 2, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1095 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
The ObserverMiddle East and north AfricaDespite strict limits on its water supply, the West Bank city of Jericho has seen a surge in aqua parks, bringing in money, creating jobs and boosting holiday home construction
The occupied West Bank city of Jericho, north of the Dead Sea, is the lowest-elevation city in the world. Temperatures in the oasis town in the Jordan Valley, flanked by the Jordanian highlands to the east and the Judean hills to the west, can exceed 40C (104F) in the summer months, making water a more precious resource than ever.
[Read More]Best quotes on banning and censoring books | Children's books
Posted on June 1, 2024
| 6 minutes
| 1137 words
| Chauncey Koziol
Children's booksChildren's booksBest quotes on banning and censoring booksFrom Neil Gaiman to Marcus Zusak to Suzanne Collins to Oscar Wilde, we share some of the best ‘dangerous books’ quotes from novels, authors and campaigners defending our right to read any book we want to, as part of our dangerous books weekend we’re running with Amnesty International
A surprising range of children’s books have faced censorship even in the 21st century. JK Rowling’s Harry Potter series has been banned in many schools in the US (and even in one UK school) and on six occasions the books were publicly burned on the grounds that they promoted witchcraft.
[Read More]Family policing system: how the US criminalizes Black parenting
Posted on June 1, 2024
| 7 minutes
| 1355 words
| Chauncey Koziol
RaceA Texas newborn’s recent removal from home illustrates the cruel treatment Black families face for their childcare decisions
Last week at a press conference, Temecia Jackson recalled the moment when police officers and child protection services agents had “stolen” her baby from her Dallas home. Her words, and her story of how her newborn baby was taken from her because she opted to follow a midwife’s recommendation over a physician’s, sparked outrage across the country.
[Read More]Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities by Bettany Hughes review
Posted on June 1, 2024
| 7 minutes
| 1291 words
| Jenniffer Sheldon
Book of the dayHistory booksReviewThis history of the queen of cities through the ages is important, entertaining and impressively researchedCities all rise and fall, wrote the French author Pierre Gilles in the 16th century. Except one. “Constantinople alone seems to claim a kind of immortality and will continue to be a city as long as humanity shall live either to inhabit or rebuild it.” There always has been something special about the glorious metropolis nestled on the banks of the Bosphorus, at the point where Europe and Asia meet.
[Read More]