National Geographic explorers create dive lab after finding too few black film-makers telling African wildlife stories
When Pragna Parsotam-Kok and Noel Kok made a wildlife series for South African TV in 2015, they were struck by how challenging it was to access animals to film and how few other African wildlife documentary makers there were.
Their response was to set up the not-for-profit Nature Environment and Wildlife Conservation Trust (NEWF) and to host a conference for African wildlife film-makers, the first taking place in 2017.
Continue reading...Foreign ministers will discuss options on Monday but decision on imports is not expected for months
The EU has been accused of dragging its feet over upholding international law, on the eve of a long-awaited debate about banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday will discuss a possible ban on imports from the settlements, against an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where a UN inquiry found Israel to be committing a genocide, and surging state-backed violence in the occupied West Bank, which has killed at least 235 children.
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К 2013 году американская журналистика пять лет как падала в яму. Кризис 2008-го обрушил рекламную модель прессы; газетные ньюсрумы США за следующее десятилетие потеряли больше половины сотрудников — десятки тысяч профессионалов с опытом, связями и портфолио оказались на улице (ничего не напоминает?). Куда идёт уволенный журналист? Во фриланс — больше некуда. Одновременно университетские программы научной журналистики (MIT, Нью-Йоркский, Санта-Круз) продолжали исправно выпускать молодых, потому что профессия-то престижная (ничего не напоминает?). Плюс третий поток, самый неожиданный: учёные, бегущие из академии, — постдок, не получивший позицию, обнаруживает, что писать о науке приятнее, чем умирать в грантовом цикле.
Итого: три полноводных потока продавцов — и пересыхающий ручеёк покупателей. У Science или Smithsonian — 10-20 фрилансерских заказов в месяц. А заявок на них — десятки в день.
Что из этого получилось?: провести аналогии с наймом в IT можно уже сегодня.
Читать далееI love busting out a French subjunctive in pursuit of better restaurant service, so it’s a joy to discover there’s a neuroscientific upside to being multilingual
It’s hard to pick a favourite PG Wodehouse line, but the one I’m perhaps most fond of is this: “Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty hangdog look which announces that an Englishman is about to speak French.”
It’s funny, but it also succinctly captures something that I have long felt about language acquisition, which is that in order to truly embrace learning another tongue, you have to be prepared to look foolish and vulnerable. (Why that can be so difficult for the English – a monoglot minority on a largely bilingual planet – is another article entirely.) More people will perhaps be prepared to endure that humbling process now, as new research has found that learning another language can slow ageing in the brain by up to 13 years. Multilingualism, it is thought, promotes brain connectivity and slows its decline with age.
Continue reading...Replays suggested goal-kick struck a camera cable
Fifa says ball sensor showed no evidence of contact
Norway’s head coach, Ståle Solbakken, complained that England had benefited from the ball hitting an overhead cable before Jude Bellingham equalised in the World Cup quarter-final.
Replays appeared to show a Norway goal-kick hitting a cable in the buildup, although Fifa released a statement saying a sensor in the ball showed no evidence it had touched.
Continue reading...The build-up to the semi-finals began earnest and Senegal sacked their head coach
Sidebar, Whatever bears such a striking resemblance to Neil Innes’ I’m Free to be an Idiot that the former Monty Python collaborator received a songwriting credit and a share of the royalties in an out of court settlement.
Wonderwall might be the England team’s Oasis song of choice, but surely they change it up to this more apposite (and far better imo) number.
Continue reading...Sudden shift may be linked to affinity for Erdoğan but what might be consequences of erratic behavior towards alliance?
Donald Trump’s relationship with Washington’s Nato allies is nobody’s idea of a happy marriage.
But the US president’s volatile performance at the western military alliance’s annual summit in Ankara this week seemed extreme, even by Trumpian standards. As commentators sought toexplain what happened, their usually capacious stock of Trump-fitting cliches was at risk of exhaustion.
Continue reading...You and your husband need to have a frank discussion and decide whether you want to negotiate the next stage of life together or apart
I’m 55 and, after being a dutiful wife for 30 years, my sex drive declined after a traumatic hysterectomy eight years ago. My husband was patient and kind throughout. I love him dearly, but sex was never really the same afterwards, which I attribute to the surgery.
I’ve now been through menopause and suddenly find my libido returning. However, my husband no longer desires me due to weight gain. He can’t maintain an erection for long, and is very critical of my sexual performance. He’s seen a doctor, but nothing came of it, and he refuses couples counselling.
Continue reading...From Hollywood movies to confessional memoirs, three-person relationships are everywhere. But is it really possible to keep everyone satisfied? Happy trios, bruised couples and rejected lovers tell all
Priscilla can pinpoint the moment she realised that her throuple was falling apart. Her fiancee, Kiara, had started kissing their shared girlfriend, Olivia, in a way that went on for just a little too long. One night, after the three of them had gone out for a romantic dinner in Savannah, Georgia, where they live, Olivia and Kiara started kissing in the front seats of the family car and it seemed as if they were never going to stop. About 10 minutes in, Priscilla tried to reach out and touch her fiancee’s shoulder, but her seat belt was buckled. Unbuckling and leaning forward felt intrusive. And, anyway, Kiara and Olivia seemed to have forgotten all about her. Watching the kiss unfold, squashed into the back with all the baby seats and toys, Priscilla thought about how by rights it was her turn to sit up front. She was always in the back seat. She felt a flicker of something competitive. “I worried, am I desired less than her?” she recalls now. “Will I be replaced?”
In the early days, Priscilla felt giddy with the excitement of being in a throuple. She and Kiara had been together for eight years, and adding a third person to their relationship felt like a way of exploring non‑monogamy without losing one another, because every new romantic experience would be shared. Olivia was an old friend, so Priscilla and Kiara’s children were comfortable with her. When the kids were in bed, they would walk to the beach holding hands as a three, to watch the sunset. At night, they would curl up to sleep together, and form a kind of cuddle chain. Priscilla would cuddle Olivia, and Olivia would cuddle Kiara.
Continue reading...Discontent with Trump-backed government mounts as Chávez heirs struggle to respond to disaster for which they seem ill-prepared
Even before two powerful earthquakes reduced the OPPE 25 government housing project to an anarchy of shattered concrete and broken lives, the foundations of Hugo Chávez’s populist “Bolivarian” revolution were shaking in what was once a hotbed of support.
Gabriel González remembers his elation when, in 2013, he received the keys to his freshly completed apartment in one of the 12-floor tower blocks El Comandante had ordered to be built in an affluent corner of the resort town of Caraballeda.
Continue reading...Sudden shift may be linked to affinity for Erdoğan but what might be consequences of erratic behavior towards alliance?
Donald Trump’s relationship with Washington’s Nato allies is nobody’s idea of a happy marriage.
But the US president’s volatile performance at the western military alliance’s annual summit in Ankara this week seemed extreme, even by Trumpian standards. As commentators sought toexplain what happened, their usually capacious stock of Trump-fitting cliches was at risk of exhaustion.
Continue reading...Foreign ministers will discuss options on Monday but decision on imports is not expected for months
The EU has been accused of dragging its feet over upholding international law, on the eve of a long-awaited debate about banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday will discuss a possible ban on imports from the settlements, against an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where a UN inquiry found Israel to be committing a genocide, and surging state-backed violence in the occupied West Bank, which has killed at least 235 children.
Continue reading...Discontent with Trump-backed government mounts as Chávez heirs struggle to respond to disaster for which they seem ill-prepared
Even before two powerful earthquakes reduced the OPPE 25 government housing project to an anarchy of shattered concrete and broken lives, the foundations of Hugo Chávez’s populist “Bolivarian” revolution were shaking in what was once a hotbed of support.
Gabriel González remembers his elation when, in 2013, he received the keys to his freshly completed apartment in one of the 12-floor tower blocks El Comandante had ordered to be built in an affluent corner of the resort town of Caraballeda.
Continue reading...Jodie Foster hated her 6am starts, Parker couldn’t stop swearing, Dexter Fletcher was traumatised by his haircut … There was as much drama off-screen as on during the making of this classic movie
When Bugsy Malone was released 50 years ago, no one had seen anything like it. The wise-talking, rip-roaring spoof poked fun at gangster films with extravagant musical numbers, a cast made up entirely of child and teen actors, and “splurge guns” shooting cream instead of bullets. It was hilarious, startlingly original and a delight to watch.
Scott Baio played plucky Bugsy, a broke boxing promoter who gets tangled up in a turf war between two rival gangs led by Fat Sam (John Cassisi) and Dandy Dan (Martin Lev). Jodie Foster, the most experienced of the cast, played the femme fatale Tallulah. Most of the other young actors were unknown, although many would go on to become celebrated TV and film stars.
Continue reading...Expect bloody chaos in this drama about a real-life 80s Irish-American gang – featuring JK Simmons as a gang leader – and their dealings with an Italian-American crime family
The Peaky Blinders effect lingers on. More than a decade after Tommy Shelby’s debut, TV still loves a real-life gangster crew, especially with Blinders creator Steven Knight having recently repeated the based-on-truth trick with A Thousand Blows. What other IRL historical crime crews are still available? All this time, the Westies, an Irish-American gang operating in 1980s New York in a fractious alliance with the Italian-American Gambino crime family, were right there. It’s the Irish mafia and the actual mafia in a two-for-one deal.
Along with co-creator Michael Panes, the man to score this apparent open goal by making Peaky Sopranos is Chris Brancato, a showrunner whose resume includes Narcos and the quietly excellent Godfather of Harlem. With some sturdy players in the cast, The Westies is … OK. It’s fine. It’s good! Whaddaya want from me, uh? I said it was fine.
Continue reading...Did anyone think they would do it the easy way? If Argentina are to win this World Cup they will only get there via rollercoaster. A seemingly straightforward night’s work against Switzerland became their tournament in microcosm, threatening to squander it all before finding salvation through a moment of unfettered genius.
Just this once it did not come from the left boot of Lionel Messi. In fact, with his side labouring towards penalties midway through the second period of extra time, Messi had just been denied by Gregor Kobel when the decisive thunderbolt was unleashed. Switzerland were unable to clear their lines and the recently introduced José López, taking possession on the left, passed backwards to a hitherto anonymous Julián Álvarez.
Continue reading...Excited to be away from home for the first time, we spent a riotous week partying, while the owner and his elderly parents understandably – and often audibly – seethed
Twenty British 16-year-olds rent a remote Sicilian villa for a week of partying and late-night binge drinking. It sounds like a holiday host’s nightmare. Well, anyone’s nightmare. Add in the fact that the host was staying on site with his elderly Italian parents, as the teenagers partied on without a care for their own welfare or anyone else’s. This wasn’t a holiday from hell for my teenage self, but I’m pretty sure it was for our hosts.
It was 2013 and, for many of us, it was the first time we had been away just with friends. Let loose from familial constraints, it was easy to get carried away. I arrived a few days later than the others but was the main contact with our host, Pablo. This meant that, before I even set foot in the villa, I received a string of messages threatening to kick us out. The police had apparently already been called after two late nights of nonstop boozing.
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Julian Alvarez sent defending champion Argentina into the World Cup semifinals with a long-range strike in the 112th minute against Switzerland.
(Image credit: Abbie Parr)