Fact on fiction

Posts on social media suggested that the mother of a Nevada teenager was cut off at a school board meeting for reading "pornographic" material that her daughter was supposedly "required" to recite in class. The video, which was shared by the Twitter account Libs of TikTok and spread widely on Tuesday, claims the student was "required" to read from "a graphic assignment," which the mother began to cite before being "cut off" for inappropriateness. The incident added fuel to broader debate over the censorship of books and educational material across the United States. The Claim On May 17, 2022, Twitter account Libs of TikTok posted a video that it claimed showed a mother of a Nevada student being "cut off" while reciting a "graphic assignment" given to her daughter at school. In the video, the woman says "I'm going to read you an assignment given to my 15-year-old daughter at a local high school. This will be horrifying for me to read to you but that will give you … [Read more...] about Fact Check: Was Clark County mom silenced over “graphic” school assignment?

This article was featured in One Story to Read Today, a newsletter in which our editors recommend a single must-read from The Atlantic , Monday through Friday. Sign up for it here. “T hink of this as a travel piece,” she might have written. “Imagine it in Sunset magazine: ‘Five Great California Stops Along the Joan Didion Trail.’ ” Or think of this as what it really is: a road trip of magical thinking. I had known that Didion’s Parkinson’s was advancing; seven or eight months earlier, someone had told me that she was vanishing; someone else had told me that for the past two years, she hadn’t been able to speak. I didn’t want her to die. My sense of myself is in many ways wrapped up in the 40 essays in Slouching Towards Bethlehem and The White Album . I don’t know how many times I’ve read Democracy . “Call me the author,” she writes in that novel. “Let the reader be introduced to Joan Didion.” There are people who admire Joan Didion, and people who … [Read more...] about Joan Didion’s Magic Trick

When I tried searching “krypton” on the Internet, the top ten results almost alternated between two topics. While one set corresponded to krypton the chemical element, the other set referred to the fictitious planet Krypton – from which the comic book superhero Superman hails from. Back in the 19th century, a Scot by the name William Ramsay and his Englishstudent Morris Travers were searching for gases in the helium family. The two Brits believed that a lighter chemical existed to fit the gap left in the Periodic Table between argon and helium. In that sense, their discovery was in fact an accident. Their process involved boiling a sample of liquified air to get rid of the water, nitrogen, oxygen, helium and argon and finding a lighter element that they expected would fill the gap. The researchers, however, overdid the evaporation, leaving only a heavy gas sample behind. The residue was placed in a Plucker tube connected to an induction coil to produce a spectrum with bright … [Read more...] about Discovering krypton… much before Superman

The hotel name Zoetry (in Zoetry Montego Bay Jamaica) has an umlaut mark over the letter “e.” For some travelers, all-inclusive hotels conjure up images of flavorless food served under a heat lamp in lush and vibrant destinations where guests never actually leave the resort grounds. Lower-tier liquor flows freely (the good stuff will cost you more), as the few overindulgers put a damper on the trip. That image is changing, as hotel companies expand their offerings, while redefining what all-inclusive means. HOTELS ARE GROWING THEIR ALL-INCLUSIVE BRANDS Many hotel companies are rapidly adding all-inclusive resorts to their portfolio. Hyatt’s acquisition of Apple Leisure Group in November 2021 made it one of the largest owners of luxury all-inclusive resorts in the world. That acquisition included the luxury-focused AMR Collection, which has beachfront properties in Mexico and Central America. That means there are now more than 100 new resorts for visitors (and where World of … [Read more...] about 2022 is the year of all-inclusive travel, and here’s why

When a shooter attacked a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, over the weekend, its security guard tried to stop him. At least one of his shots hit the gunman, but it didn’t stop the deadly rampage because the gunman was wearing body armor. Ten Black people died in the racist massacre, including security guard Aaron Salter, a retired Buffalo police officer hailed as a hero. It’s the latest mass shooting in which the gunman apparently came prepared for anyone trying to stop him with a gun. At least 21 mass shooters over the last four decades have worn some kind of body armor — and the majority of those were within the last 10 years, according to a database maintained by The Violence Project, a nonpartisan research group that tracks gun violence. Among them: A massacre that killed 12 people and injured dozens more at a crowded movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, in 2012, and another in nearby Boulder that left 10 people dead at a supermarket last year. The shooter in Texas’s deadliest … [Read more...] about Buffalo is latest mass shooting by gunman wearing body armor

After a crowded primary night, some of North Carolina and Pennsylvania ’s races are still too close to call this morning. Former president Donald Trump saw many of his preferred candidates triumph in both states, but others flopped or are in races that are too tight to call; we can expect plenty of arguments about who triumphed and who truly lost. Meanwhile in some races, progressive and moderate Democrats duked it out while in others, the field was clear. Here are some of the top takeaways from the events of last night. Firstly, it’s clear that while Trump’s endorsement helps, it isn’t a guarantee. As of Wednesday, it is still too early to determine whether Dr Mehmet Oz , the former television host that Trump endorsed, won or lost the Senate primary in Pennsylvania. But the fact that the ex-president’s backing failed to slingshot him far ahead of the pack shows that a Trump endorsement won’t override reservations conservatives have about a candidate – as many did with Dr Oz, … [Read more...] about From Madison Cawthorn to Dr Oz, who really won and lost on Trump’s big primary night

Pakistani billionaire Mohammad Zahoor has given Ukraine fighter jets to aid in their battle as Russia's invasion of the country continues, according to his wife. Zahoor's wife, the Ukrainian singer Kamaliya Zahoor (known professionally as simply Kamaliya), said that her husband and other wealthy friends had been quietly helping Ukraine in its fight against Russia, Ukraine's TSN reported on Wednesday. "[Mohammad] gave me the green light to tell this. Because they hid these [actions]. They gave two fighter jets to Ukraine and help Ukraine," she said during the program Morning with Ukraine . It is not clear when Kamaliya made these comments. Since the Russia-Ukraine war broke out in late February, Zahoor, who used to live in Ukraine and was the former owner of the Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post , has been pushing to ensure the safe evacuation of Ukrainian citizens, according to a Khaleej Times report. The report said that the Karachi-born billionaire had been attempting … [Read more...] about Pakistani billionaire buys fighter jets for Ukraine, his famous wife says

ribal activist-turned-politician Soni Sori, who was recently attacked with acid in Chhattisgarh, said her face as it is today reflected the fight in Bastar. “My face today is the face of the fight in Bastar, the condition is the same. I was also jailed in a fake case of being associated with Naxalites, the same way he (Kanhaiya) has been framed for his so called terror links,” Ms. Sori said on Monday while addressing JNU students. Showing solidarity with the students, Ms. Sori said: “I am happy to be among you all. It is good to see how you all are fighting for your rights. Your struggle is not very different from that of the tribals in Chhattisgarh.” “We tribals, adivasis also want azadi , we want azadi from the government oppression, from the way we are targeted by the state. We cannot sleep peacefully at night inside our houses. There is always this fear that we will be picked up by the CRPF men and framed as naxals,” she said. She further added that after Kanhaiya’s … [Read more...] about My face today is the face of Bastar’s fight: Soni Sori

On the first day of the second part of the Budget session, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented a ₹1.42-lakh-crore budget, along with proposals for supplementary demands of grants for Jammu and Kashmir. This was followed by members of the Lower House taking up the bill for discussion. In today’s session, the House is discussing the Demands for Grants under the control of the Ministry of Railways for 2022-23. Union Ministers Rajnath Singh has made a statement on the issue of the inadvertent missile firing, while Minister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar has briefed the Lower House about the situation in Ukraine, detailing the rescue of Indian nationals from conflict zones. Here are the latest updates: 12.00 a.m. Lok Sabha proceedings adjourned for the day Speaker Om Birla adjourns the Lok Sabha proceedings until 11.00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 16, 2022. 11.51 p.m. Get rid of rate of return system used by British: Nishikant Dubey to Railway Minister BJP MP … [Read more...] about Lok Sabha updates | March 15, 2022

The time is 6 am, and the sun is just about to rise from behind the horizon. There is a nip in the air that is unusual for this time of the year. I am seated on the super-plush seat of the Indian Roadmaster Dark Horse, as its massive 1,890cc V-twin chugs at a relaxed pace. The deep burbles from the twin-exhausts intermix with Coldplay’s riveting music playing through the quad speakers of the 200W music system. I am not sure about the American Dream, but riding a big, American touring machine is an incredible experience that will be etched in my memory for a long time. Here is the reason why: Take a stance To me, the first word that comes to mind on seeing the Roadmaster is ‘elegant’. The enormous fairing is beautifully shaped, with its curves and creases, and since this is the Dark Horse version, it does away with the chrome outline around the LED headlight and the twin aux lights that flank it. Instead, the LED aux lights are placed on the indicators, outside the fairing, which … [Read more...] about Indian Roadmaster Dark Horse: Black beauty on the road