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This article, along with others celebrating 110 years of the Greatest Show on Earth, is featured in Newsweek's Special Edition: The Circus . It would be an understatement of gargantuan proportions to say P.T. Barnum enjoyed publicity. The entertainer reveled in the attention his ambitious antics drew to his person and shamelessly reached out to every author and newspaperman he felt could promote his image to the wider public. In 1855, Barnum decided to cut out the middleman of the press and published his own autobiography titled The Life of P.T. Barnum . "I have been repeatedly urged within the last few years to write my life, being assured by publishers that such a work would have an extensive circulation, and by personal friends that it would be a readable book," Barnum writes in the preface to his autobiography. "In these pages I have given the true history of my many adventures, and the numerous enterprises in which I have been engaged." Contemporary reviews did not look … [Read more...] about A glimpse into P.T. Barnum’s mind through his own words

Dear Trolls, George Bernard Shaw once advised us: “Never wrestle with a pig. You will get dirty. And the pig loves it” This often comes to the mind of most tweeple whenever they are hounded by trolls like you. Your guerilla style cyber warfare and sniper attacks, one realises, stem from Dutch courage. Just like fungus needs moisture, you need anonymity to survive. Most of you wear your cowardice on your handles with weird user names like crooks, scarecrows, vampires, devils and so on. You follow and attack a large number of public figures. You have just a handful of followers, probably fake. And your arsenal comprises the choicest invectives, most of them unprintable and vocabulary as sparse as your followers. Now that your generic introduction is complete, let me make a ‘doomed to fail’ attempt to open your eyes. A psychologist friend recently told me about a disturbing spurt in the incidence of depression and suicidal tendencies linked to cyber bullying and trolling. Cyber Crime … [Read more...] about An open letter to trolls

Bow your heads and say a prayer over the separation of church and state, may it rest in peace. Who knows, doing so may someday entitle you to a government subsidy. During a week in which much of our focus is on the public assault on our democratic values that took place on Jan. 6 —and just as a looming Supreme Court decision seems all-but-certain to strip away the federal guarantee of reproductive rights at any moment—that same court may have more stealthily put the dagger in another principle on which our nation was founded. In the case of Carson v. Makin , the court ruled that public funds intended to support the education of students for whom a public education option was not available must be made available to parents who wished to use them to pay for religious schools’ tuition. In so doing, the court’s conservative majority essentially ordered that taxpayer funds be used to support religious institutions. The decision is fraught with problems. In his dissent, … [Read more...] about Separation of Church and State Is Crumbling Before Our Eyes

If you feel like splurging on creative cocktails, handcrafted beverages or a cup of sake, Bukit Damansara in Kuala Lumpur offers them all for adventurous drinkers. Bars have been mushrooming there over the years, especially around Plaza Damansara. Despite the fact that finding a parking spot can be tricky at times, the place continues to attract night owls who want a drink or two with their friends and family. This week, StarMetro explores some of the bars there that offer a wide selection of cocktails, spirits and sake. JungleBird Established in March 2017, JungleBird celebrates what makes tropical South-East Asia unique. Last year, along with its move to its current location, the watering hole expanded its concept to include Latin Caribbean influences.Patrons can expect delicious bites such as Cubano Sandwich, Dominican Albondigas Guisadas and Tobagoan Curried Crab Dumplings on the menu. Its latest cocktail menu pays tribute to key rum-producing nations, with … [Read more...] about Exploring eclectic watering holes in Bukit Damansara

Ever heard of the saying ‘love is blind’? This woman’s story will make you believe in love all over again. A 32-year-old woman from the UK named Laura O’Sullivan is set to marry the love of her life, Terrell Ravon Reese, next year. Sounds normal, right? But, there is a twist. Reese is a jail convict and Lara is a mother of four children. She has been in contact with Reese since 2021. As per a report by Times Now, she fell in love with Reese because she was impressed by how honest and open he was to her about his criminal past and she truly liked reading the poems and letters that Reese used to send her. The couple have never met in person. However, they have solitarily interacted over the phone. Lara met Reese on a mobile application that helps people connect with prisoners, in other words, the application is mainly for the convicts. The relationship between the two is now supported by Laura’s mother and sister. However, their wedding will take place in prison which will also be … [Read more...] about Love No Bar? UK Woman Set to Marry a Prisoner Who She Has Never Met

On June 6, Ilya Shapiro, the executive director of Georgetown University Law School’s Center for the Constitution, announced his resignation—and immediately became the right’s new cause célèbre in the campus free-speech wars . Some context: Back in January, Shapiro posted a tweet about President Joe Biden’s announcement that he would select a Black woman to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. “Objectively best pick for Biden is Sri Srinivasan, who is solid prog & v smart. Even has identity politics benefit of being first Asian (Indian) American,” it read. “But alas doesn’t fit into latest intersectionality hierarchy so we’ll get lesser black woman. Thank heaven for small favors?” In the aftermath of the tweet, Shapiro was the subject of a four-month investigation by Georgetown’s Office of Institutional Diversity, Equity and Affirmative Action (IDEAA). IDEAA’s report cleared Shapiro on a technicality: He had posted the tweet three days prior to his official start date … [Read more...] about Georgetown’s Got a Serious Free-Speech Problem

Paloma Faith has published a powerful statement about the representation of women in the media following TV presenter Caroline Flack ’s death. On Wednesday, the “Warrior” singer shared a letter to her Instagram account which she titled: “Shut up and look pretty”. In the note, Faith addressed the inequalities between men and women, particularly when it comes to those who live their lives in the public eye. “We live in a patriarchal society which means that it was designed and is managed by heterosexual men," Faith wrote. "All of our pressures and our business and our media are cultivated to appease the male gaze. Even us as women are becoming more male in our criticism of each other.” The Voice UK coach went on to compare the recent death of Flack, who died by suicide on 15 February, with other famous women including Amy Winehouse and Princess Diana , before calling on people to think before they speak. Recommended Caroline Flack's family … [Read more...] about Paloma Faith shares powerful statement about gender equality following Caroline Flack’s death

L egend says the diver drowned retrieving the pearl. Trapped in a giant Tridacna clam, his body was brought to the surface by his fellow tribesmen in Palawan, a province of the Philippines, in May 1934. When the clam was pried open, and the meat scraped out, the local chief beheld something marvelous: a massive pearl, its sheen like satin. In its surface, the chief discerned the face of the Prophet Muhammad. He named it the Pearl of Allah. At 14 pounds, one ounce, it was the largest pearl ever discovered. To hear more feature stories, see our full list or get the Audm iPhone app. A Filipino American, Wilburn Dowell Cobb, was visiting the island at the time and offered to buy the jewel. In a 1939 article that appeared in Natural History magazine, he recounted the chief’s refusal to sell: “A pearl with the image of Mohammed, the Prophet of Allah, is earned by devotion, by sacrifice, not bought with money.” But when the chief’s son fell ill with malaria, Cobb used … [Read more...] about Chasing the Pearl of Lao Tzu