Yesterday I went looking for a homeless person who probably wasn’t going to accept any help. “Have you seen this person?” I asked two DPW workers doing landscaping in a nearby park. “Try the supermarket,” one of them told me. “Might be there. Walks around town all day.” “Thanks.” I’d parked my car next to […]
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for Cait
The Brimstone is back
in the woken hills of Vallombrosa,
passing the word
from speedwell to violet
wood anemone to celandine.
I could walk to you now
with Spring just ahead of me,
north over flat ground
at two miles an hour,
the sap moving with me,
under the rising
grass of the field
like a dragged magnet,
the lights of the flowers
coming on in waves
as I walked with the budburst
and the flushing of trees.
If I started now,
I could bring you the Spring
for your birthday.
Unemployment rate rose to 14.7% from just 4.4% in March as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the global economy
More than 20 million people in the US lost their jobs in April and the unemployment rate more than trebled as the coronavirus pandemic shuttered the world’s largest economy, triggering a financial crisis unseen since the Great Depression.
The Department of Labor announced Friday that the US unemployment rate rose to 14.7% from just 4.4% in March and a near 50-year low of 3.5% in February before the US was hit by the virus.
Continue reading...For a while supper and wine were sufficient; now I’m watching every adaptation that is better than its source material
I suspect I’m not alone in this but, at some point in the past two weeks, I hit my lockdown wall. Not literally, although apparently the “banging one’s head against the kitchen wall” phase kicks in on the eighth week, so that’s something to put in the diary. But last week I felt really, really over it. Enough with every day being the bloody same; enough with watching my children become increasingly fretful because they haven’t seen their friends in over a month, the equivalent of five years to a pair of four-year-olds. But unless you want to be one of those delightful people protesting the lockdown in the US, clothed in stars and stripes, AK-47s across their backs, what choice do we have? So, like Bill Murray, we grind out the same day, again and again and again.
The trick is to invent things to look forward to. For a while, “supper” and “wine” were sufficient, but repetition has dulled their efficacy. So I set myself challenges, driven on by the thrill of completion. Some people hear the word “challenge” and think, “Fitness!” Those people are not me. “Rewatch the entirety of 30 Rock” is more my speed. It is so soothing to watch a show about a luxuriantly bouffanted New York tycoon who isn’t a moron. In a just world, Jack Donaghy would be the US president instead of, well, you get the point. Then, sparked by his brilliant turn as Chris Tarrant on the ITV drama, Quiz, my next challenge was, “Watch every Michael Sheen performance in which he plays a real person”. This was deeply enjoyable, even if, in my lockdown-confused mind, I now think Brian Clough interviewed Richard Nixon on TV and Kenneth Williams was prime minister when Diana died.
Continue reading...When a group of schoolboys were marooned on an island in 1965, it turned out very differently from William Golding’s bestseller, writes Rutger Bregman
For centuries western culture has been permeated by the idea that humans are selfish creatures. That cynical image of humanity has been proclaimed in films and novels, history books and scientific research. But in the last 20 years, something extraordinary has happened. Scientists from all over the world have switched to a more hopeful view of mankind. This development is still so young that researchers in different fields often don’t even know about each other.
When I started writing a book about this more hopeful view, I knew there was one story I would have to address. It takes place on a deserted island somewhere in the Pacific. A plane has just gone down. The only survivors are some British schoolboys, who can’t believe their good fortune. Nothing but beach, shells and water for miles. And better yet: no grownups.
Continue reading...28-years-old model, Emily Ratajkowski, and her husband are the loving owners of Colombo, the cutest good boy.
They have all spent their quarantine days with their close friends, Josh Ostrovsky, founder of the Fat Jewish meme account, his wife, Caitlin King, and their dog, Happy.
On Saturday, Emily decided to hosts a special wedding ceremony for Colombo and happy - 'quarantined together so why not marry our children".
Ratajkowski shared plenty of behind-the-scenes footage on Instagram from the ceremony, including individual images of Colombo and Happy posing while wearing dog cones as the "the groom" and "the bride", respectively.
Congrats, Colombo and Happy!
This is neat! We've never given much thought as to what "sounds" languages around the world would give certain animals.
Not to sound naive but we definitely thought "meow" was universal for the sound a cat makes... turns out, not so much.
Creator of this super interesting and well-drawn graphics is freelance illustrator James Chapman. You can follow his Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook and/or Twitter to be kept up-to-date with these fanasinating graphics! Did you know, in English, we say dogs go "Woof," but in Romanian they go "Ham Ham?"
Just something to think about.
Can't think of a better way to keep oneself entertained while on a road trip, with a buddy. This is just a great portrayal of the friendship between Richard Hammond and James May.
A street performing monkey in Indonesia was caught on video trying to drag a toddler away. The toddler didn't suffer any physical injuries. If there's one lesson at least from this encounter it's that monkeys are stronger than you'd expect.
An AI-powered application lets you create real-time deepfakes during video calls, making you appear to be speaking as anyone from Albert Einstein to the Mona Lisa
We need to scale up testing efforts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, and looking for signs of virus RNA in our sewage could provide a shortcut
The Tully Monster is a famously odd 300-million-year-old fossil that looks like an alien, but a new analysis suggests it was a backboned animal like a hagfish or lamprey
For orangutans, scratching is contagious – but unexpectedly, the behaviour is transmitted more between individuals that do not know each other well
A study of brain cells in a dish adds to growing evidence that Alzheimer’s disease can be caused by herpes viruses, but antiviral treatment may help stop it
Up and angry with my mayds for letting in watermen, and I know not who, anybody that they are acquainted with, into my kitchen to talk and prate with them, which I will not endure. Then out and by coach to my Lord Treasurer's, who continues still...
Baby Johnson joins Leo Blair and Florence Cameron to become a member of a very exclusive club.
The Irish deputy PM says time is short to reach a trade deal this year, with much still to do.
Millions of people are facing pay cuts or less work, so how can you make your money go further?
Teams will be allowed to use five substitutes when the season resumes after a Fifa proposal to help with fixture congestion was approved.
Video calling technology is helping people share their special day with others during lockdown.
