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Politics has recklessly downplayed the significance of the local inn, but the hard right has cottoned on – and its opponents better follow suit
Nigel Farage thinks poor families should be denied benefits and the cash go to their local pub. When he runs the country, he says, he will cut child benefit for those with more than two children and switch the £3bn saved to keep down the price of beer.
The art of populism lies in headlines. It is about the way you tell it. Farage also says he would still give benefits to “British working families”, meaning about 3,700 households with two British-born parents who both work full-time. It seems a gratuitous discrimination. As for cutting VAT on pubs to 10%, it would apply not just to pubs but to the entire hospitality sector. It was for effect that he decided to make the announcement in a pub rather than McDonald’s.
Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnist and the author of A Short History of America: From Tea Party to Trump
Continue reading...Investigation exposes ‘corrosive’ reach of organized crime in Canada, with links to bribes, drug trade and a murder plot
At least eight current and former Toronto police officers have been arrested following a sweeping investigation that officials say exposed the “corrosive” reach of organized crime into Canada’s largest municipal police service.
Police allege fellow officers accepted bribes, aided drug traffickers, leaked personal information to criminals who then carried out shootings and helped members of organized crime in a plot to murder a corrections officer.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Luxury aircraft owned by property tycoon close to US president’s family has twice flown Palestinian men from Arizona to Tel Aviv
On the morning of 21 January, Israeli authorities left eight Palestinian men at a West Bank checkpoint. Disoriented and cold, they were dressed in prison-issued tracksuits and carried their few belongings in plastic bags.
Hours earlier, they had been sitting with their wrists and ankles shackled on the plush leather seats of a private jet owned by the Florida property tycoon Gil Dezer, a longtime business partner of Donald Trump.
Continue reading...The hosts managed to just about get the Santagiulia arena ready for Italy’s win over France – and the locals responded
“Ladies and gentlemen! The women’s preliminary Group B match between Italy and France will get under way in five minutes! And the question is: Are! You! Ready! For! Hockey?!” Well, quite.
That had been the question for the last five months, as it happens, ever since it first became obvious that construction of Milan’s new Santagiulia arena was running massively behind schedule. At the test event last month the ice was grey because there was so much building dust in it, and midway through the match a man had to come on to the rink to repair a melted patch with a watering can.
Continue reading...Furnish says he and his husband felt ‘violated’ by the Daily Mail, who allegedly used information gained unlawfully
David Furnish has said it is “an abomination” that the publisher of the Daily Mail was able to write “narrow-minded” stories about him and his husband, Elton John, using information allegedly secured by unlawful means.
In evidence submitted to the high court, Furnish said he and John had been “violated” by the Mail, after being told that it had worked with private detectives to intercept their phone calls and personal details.
Continue reading...
Completed in 1972, the innovative 48-story building known as the Transamerica Pyramid Center quickly became an indelible icon of the San Francisco skyline. Its modernist features include blocky elements, uniform rows of windows, and it’s namesake pyramidical shape, but its design also took its surroundings into consideration, as its tapered shape meant that more sunlight could reach the ground level around it.
Inside, the light-filled Annex Gallery is currently home to the similarly towering works of Tara Donovan’s Stratagems series. Made from thousands of recycled CDs that are wrapped around steel supports and placed on concrete plinths, these swirling, reflective spires directly reference skyscraper architecture. “I am always fixated on the ways that sculptures transform space and experience, and in this context, an intention of these sculptures to engage the understanding of urban architecture can be fully realized,” Donovan says.
Donovan is known for her large-scale sculptures that assume architectonic or geologic forms using huge quantities of everyday materials such as buttons, plastic cups, straws, or tar paper. Assembled or stacked into freestanding sculptures and broad installations covering entire walls or floors, she transforms uniform, mundane items into ethereal interactions of light, texture, scale, and space.
Donovan’s Stratgems pieces are also an elegant examination of the evolution of technology. CDs emerged as a dominant commercial medium for music in the 1990s but were eventually usurped by digital formats like the MP3, then streaming services. Placed within the context of the modernist Transamerica Pyramid Center—an iconic structure that is nevertheless a product of the past—we’re prompted to consider how our attitudes and values evolve over time.
The skyscraper is positioned as a collaborator in Donovan’s exhibition, which is presented by the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICA SF). The show marks an initiative by the museum to nomadically exhibit in different places in order to increase access, situate pieces in unique contexts, and bring artists directly into dialogue with the city.
Stratagems remains on view through July 31.
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $7 per month. The article Tara Donovan’s ‘Stratagems’ Tower Within a San Francisco Architectural Icon appeared first on Colossal.
We houden onszelf graag voor dat lichamelijke achteruitgang pas echt begint als we oud zijn. Maar nieuw onderzoek zet dat idee op losse schroeven. We bereiken onze fysieke piek namelijk al als we rond de 35 zijn en dat geldt zelfs voor mensen die trouw blijven sporten.
Uit een grootschalige Zweedse langetermijnstudie blijkt dat spierkracht, uithoudingsvermogen en conditie hun hoogtepunt bereiken ergens tussen het eind van de twintig en het midden van de dertig. Daarna volgt een gestage daling, die met het ouder worden steeds sneller gaat. In eerste instantie gaat het om een afname van enkele tienden van een procent per jaar, later kan dat oplopen tot meer dan twee procent. Tegen de tijd dat mensen begin zestig zijn, is hun fysieke capaciteit met 30 tot bijna 50 procent afgenomen ten opzichte van hun piek.
Dat klinkt somber, maar er is ook goed nieuws. Veroudering is onvermijdelijk, maar hoe snel het verval gaat, blijkt wél beïnvloedbaar. De onderzoekers analyseerden gegevens uit de Swedish Physical Activity and Fitness-studie, waarin honderden Zweden sinds 1974 worden gevolgd, vanaf hun zestiende tot ver in de zestig.
Wat blijkt? Mensen die al jong fysiek actief waren, behielden hun hele leven een hoger niveau van spierkracht en conditie. Maar ook wie pas later in beweging kwam, had profijt. Deelnemers die in hun volwassen leven meer gingen bewegen, zagen hun fysieke capaciteit alsnog met zo’n tien procent toenemen.
Opvallend is dat mannen en vrouwen grotendeels hetzelfde patroon laten zien. Spieruithoudingsvermogen en aerobe capaciteit pieken bij beide seksen rond dezelfde leeftijd en nemen daarna in vergelijkbaar tempo af. Alleen spierkracht bereikt bij vrouwen gemiddeld iets eerder een hoogtepunt.
Volgens hoofdauteur Maria Westerståhl van het Karolinska Institute is de boodschap helder: bewegen blijft zinvol, op elke leeftijd. “Het is nooit te laat om te beginnen. Lichaamsbeweging kan het verval niet volledig stoppen, maar wel aanzienlijk vertragen.”
Bron: Science Alert
MADRID (ANP/RTR) - Ongeveer 2 miljoen vaten aan Venezolaanse olie gaan naar raffinaderijen in Spanje om te worden verwerkt door het Spaanse olie- en gasconcern Repsol. Dat meldt persbureau Reuters op basis van scheepvaartgegevens. Repsol heeft de olie gekocht van grondstoffenhandelaar Trafigura, aldus Reuters. Dat bedrijf is samen met branchegenoot Vitol door de Amerikaanse regering ingeschakeld om olie uit Venezuela op de markt te brengen.
Trafigura en Vitol hebben vergunningen gekregen van de Verenigde Staten om miljoenen vaten olie uit Venezuela te exporteren naar de VS en andere bestemmingen. De bedrijven hebben sindsdien Venezolaanse olie opgeslagen in terminals in het Caribisch gebied om later verder te transporteren.
De VS hebben de controle genomen over de Venezolaanse olie-industrie nadat president Nicolás Maduro vorige maand bij een militaire actie door de Amerikanen was opgepakt.
The idea is that you install it on your MAGA relative’s computer and then sit back and watch the fun. It even works when you copy/paste text or on pre-existing text. Free to download on Haddican’s website. (via @kylevanhorn)
Tags: Abby Haddican · design · Donald Trump · ICE · politics · typography
