Things to help the community

The group biography has been around for centuries: There was Plutarch’s Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans , written some 1,900 years ago and a staple of classical education ever since; the Bishop Gregory of Tours’ sixth-century biography of the four distasteful sons of the Frankish King Clovis I; a swarm of medieval hagiographies that bind together the lives and miracles of saints. In addition to being foundational to the biographical genre, modern group biographies are excellent sources of historical trivia, ideas, and, happily, gossip. The questions that make these biographies sing—what makes this group of people actually interesting, not just noteworthy? Why, of all the relationships in a life, were these so particularly influential?—take real searching to answer. To read a good group biography is to come out with a different level of appreciation for the ways, trivial and tremendous, that humans influence one another. The canon is overwhelmingly white and Eurocentric, … [Read more...] about Nine Books About Groups That Changed the World

On Friday, June 26, 2015, the Supreme Court of the United States delivered its decision in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges. The court had voted — narrowly, 5-4 — to legalize gay marriage nationwide. At the time, it felt as though the court had offered a gift to San Francisco, which that same weekend was celebrating Pride. Seven years later, almost to the day, the Supreme Court once again set the tone and tenor for Pride Weekend, ruling on Friday that there is no constitutional right to abortion, stripping millions of women of a bodily autonomy they had known for nearly half a century. On Friday morning, San Francisco Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, whose district includes the Castro, came to the steps of City Hall for a special LGBTQ+ Pride Marriage Celebration. Couples had been invited to celebrate their nuptials before a rainbow balloon altar. A photo booth had been set up, too, full of silly costume props. The undertone, though, was one of mixed emotions. “The fact that we’re … [Read more...] about ‘Pride started with a protest’: Abortion ruling reminds LGBTQ people why they march in S.F.

Google is taking part in International Women's Day by transforming its home page into a beautiful art display of quotes by inspiring women in the form of art also created by women. The Doodle slideshow featured on the home page Friday was made by women in honor of women and features quotes from 13 pioneering women around the world. The quotes come from architects, astronauts, novelists and more and were transformed into pieces of art by talented women around the globe. "Today's interactive, slideshow Doodle is told by and made by women," said Google. The guest Google artists who helped make the doodle are as unique as the women quoted in it. The doodles are even showcased in the native languages of the women who originally said the quotes. "The process of choosing the 13 quotes was extremely difficult, but we aimed to include a diverse representation of voices on a day which celebrates the past, present, and future community of diverse women around the world," said Google. … [Read more...] about Google Doodle honors women for International Women’s Day

Monsoon brings freshness to the air and relief from the searing summer. The weather before and after the rain is priceless. However, as much as we love this beautiful season, the monsoon brings along several communicable diseases including mosquito-borne like dengue or food and waterborne illnesses like typhoid. In a recent interview with the Hindustan Times, Dr Vishal Parmar, who is a consultant and a paediatrician at Wockhardt Hospitals, shared certain things that people should be mindful of in order to prevent themselves from getting sick during this season. “Ensure that your drinking water is safe (use boiled water, especially for infants below one year). Avoid eating uncooked food like chutneys or salads and fresh juices/water from outside. Wash fruits and vegetables well before consumption,” he said. The health expert recommended people to take extra care of their hygiene and said, “Wash your hands and feet well after having stepped out. Nails to be always kept trimmed and … [Read more...] about Precautions You Must Take to Keep Monsoon Diseases at Bay

With President Obama vacationing this week on Martha’s Vineyard, the White House released his reading list , which includes David McCullough’s John Adams . That news, naturally, sent John Adams rocketing up the Amazon sales list . Like so many journalists, I have some ambitions in the field of presidential biography (unwritten, but I’ll get around to it), or at least for some of those presidential-sized royalties. After all, look what happened after the election when Obama read Alter’s FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope and Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln — huge sales boosts. If ever there was a time to jump into the crowded field of presidential biography, it’s now. And after baseball season, I may have some time. Until then, I see no reason not to share my expertise on writing one of these tomes. First, not every president is “presidential,” if you know what I mean. That is, the average American can only name four or five … [Read more...] about So You Want to Write a Presidential Biography

A 'bullying' cheesemake r which helps produce Cathedral City has been hit with a whopping fine after discharging waste into a river over a number of years brought misery to locals. The creamery's actions lead to the death of hundreds of fish and left furious residents with a lingering foul odour in their homes. The stench was so bad residents suffered headaches and couldn't use their gardens, Cornwall Live reports. The company that owns Davidstow Creamery, Dairy Crest Ltd - now known as Saputo Dairy UK - have been fined £1.5m after dumping the waste in River Inny. They were found responsible for discharges over several years from 2016. The company was sentenced at Truro Crown Court after entering guilty pleas to 21 charges relating to pollution and odour incidents and permit breaches at Davidstow Creamery. An Environment Agency employee inspects the outfall at the River Inny ( Image: Cornwall Live/BPM MEDIA) Eleven of the charges admitted by the firm are … [Read more...] about Cheesemaker behind Cathedral City fined £1.5m for killing fish and stinking out homes

On the heels of their greatest victory, antiabortion activists are eager to capitalize on their momentum by enshrining constitutional abortion bans, pushing Congress to pass a national prohibition, blocking abortion pills, and limiting people's ability to get abortions across state lines. At the National Association of Christian Lawmakers conference in Branson, Mo., on Friday, several dozen state legislators from across the country brainstormed ideas -- all in agreement that their wildly successful movement would not end with Roe v. Wade. "It's not over," said Oklahoma state Rep. Todd Russ, R, who attended the conference. At this point, Russ said, the ideas are like "popcorn in a popcorn popper." "There are all kinds going around." The Supreme Court decision has already transformed America, immediately ending abortion care in eight states, with many more states poised to ban the procedure in the coming weeks and months. By the end of the year, abortion could be outlawed … [Read more...] about Roe’s gone. Now antiabortion lawmakers want more.

We should have been packing for our Easter trip to Mallorca about now. Having had a number of foreign holidays cancelled in 2020 and 2021, this was supposed to be the year that things began returning to normal. Instead, days before we were due to fly out from Gatwick, we received a notification from Thomas Cook that easyJet has cancelled our flight home. There is a flight available the next day, but as our resort won’t have rooms for the extra night we’d need to find accommodation at our own expense. Even if we were willing to fork out extra to solve a problem not of our own making, staying an extra day would mean my wife missing work and my son missing school, so we had to cancel. We are not alone. As Simon Calder describes , the scenes at Manchester airport are already chaotic, and Heathrow and Gatwick – our departure point – are almost as bad, and it’s still a week to Easter. Meanwhile, the RAC is advising motorists to avoid the M25 and A303 near Stonehenge, which … [Read more...] about Why didn’t airlines and holiday companies see the Easter travel chaos coming?

Not many are aware that National Award winning filmmaker Hansal Mehta is also an excellent cook and is equipped with culinary skills that are par excellence. And chef Ranveer Brar vouches for his culinary expertise. The Lucknow-born chef, who has been a popular face on TV and digital platforms with his cooking shows, makes his acting debut in Mehta’s short Baai along with Pratik Gandhi, which is a part in the upcoming Amazon Prime Video anthology Modern Love Mumbai. Talking about his experience on the sets, Brar says, “We had a joke that Pratik is vegetarian and everything that I cook for him in the film is non-vegetarian. So Hansal sir worked on the script and on the other he also worked on the menu for what he would ask to me cook. I feel he cast me as he wanted all my recipes,” he quips. Brar, who plays a chef in the film, reveals that the one dish over which he bonded with his director and his co-actors was Nalli Nihari. “There was a lot of cooking which happened on the sets … [Read more...] about Ranveer Brar on Acting Debut with Hansal Mehta’s Baai: ‘This was the Perfect Opportunity, the Right Time’ | Exclusive

O n a bright spring afternoon in Glasgow, the blood ran picturesquely down our goalkeeper’s neck. He’d accidentally snagged one of his earrings in the net and torn open his left earlobe. Really he should have gone straight to the hospital, but such was the level of commitment inspired by this football match—Scotland’s Writers versus England’s Writers—that he stayed standing tall between the sticks. We were on Astroturf in a sports complex, being watched by tens and tens of fans or, as they preferred to be known, family members. And though later in the evening both teams would gather together for good-natured readings of Gaelic and Ukrainian poetry and crime fiction and candid essays about our mental health, in this moment nothing mattered more than seeing each other lose. The original idea of the Writers’ League—as conceived in 2005 by the Italian novelist Alessandro Baricco—was to prove that athletes could be intellectuals, and intellectuals athletes. We saw ourselves in a direct … [Read more...] about The Sociopolitical Significance of One Very Clumsy Soccer Match