k

UK coronavirus death toll among Covid-19 hospital patients rises by 256




k

Police 'fighting losing battle' over lockdown as 'hundreds' gather for picnics in east London sunshine

Police say they are "fighting a losing battle" over enforcing the lockdown after "hundreds" turned out in parks across east London to enjoy picnics in the sunshine.




k

Official UK coronavirus death toll rises by 346 to 31,587

The UK's official coronavirus death toll has risen by 346 to 31,587.




k

Focaccia, the choose-your-own-adventure flatbread, is ideal for lockdown baking

Sourdough has exploded in popularity during lockdown, but focaccia is experiencing its own modest rise





k

Elon Musk and Grimes can’t seem to agree on the pronunciation of baby X Æ A-12’s name

Is the Æ supposed to sound like 'eye' or 'ash'? We're just as confused too





k

Seinfeld stand-up special suffers from a pandemic of bad timing, says Chris Knight

Comedian takes on air travel, restaurants, ball games and other pastimes of the distant past that was 2019

















k

'We're Out There' So Protect Us, Protesting Workers Tell Amazon, Target, Instacart

Workers at Amazon, Target and other companies walked off the job on Friday to demand safer working conditions and transparency about how many front-line workers have gotten sick during the pandemic.




k

The Tie That Binds These Grandparents In Isolation? TikTok

NPR's reporter in Nairobi finds his parents connecting with his kids through TikTok. Formerly the realm of Gen Z, the app's now a family board game where Grandma and Grandpa reveal their silly selves.




k

Airbnb Cuts 1,900 Jobs, 25% Of Its Workforce, As Pandemic Freezes Travel

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky described the global pandemic as the "most harrowing crisis of our lifetime" and said the coronavirus has cut the company's anticipated revenue in more than half.




k

Facebook Oversight Board On Removing Objectionable Content Announces Members

The company has faced criticism in recent years for its handling of issues ranging from user privacy to policing hate speech to stopping the spread of disinformation.




k

Why Fake Video, Audio May Not Be As Powerful In Spreading Disinformation As Feared

"Deepfakes" have received a lot of attention as a way to potentially spread misleading or false information and influence public opinion. But two specialists say that might not be a huge concern.




k

Zoom To Crack Down on Zoombombing, In Deal With NY Attorney General

The company has agreed to launch a new internal data security program and will take other steps to combat hacker disruptions.




k

Some Companies Are Turning To Tracking Technologies To Ensure Safe Reopening

Companies are trying to figure out how to welcome back employees to their offices, and keep them safe once they return. The new normal might involve smartphone apps and badges to track employees.




k

Karissa Sanbonmatsu: What Can Epigenetics Tell Us About Sex And Gender?

We're used to thinking of DNA as a rigid blueprint. Karissa Sanbonmatsu researches how our environment affects the way DNA expresses itself—especially when it comes to sex and gender.




k

Your Boss May Soon Track You At Work For Coronavirus Safety

Companies around the country are figuring out how to safely reopen office during the pandemic. The new normal might involve smartphone apps and badges to track employees.




k

Google Says Most Of Its Employees Will Likely Work Remotely Through End of Year

The tech giant announces it is extending its previous work-from-home plans for most of its staff and will begin reopening offices this summer.







k

Little Richard, Founding Father of Rock Who Broke Musical Barriers, Dead at 87

Pianist-singer behind “Tutti Frutti,” “Good Golly Miss Molly” and “Long Tall Sally” set the template that a generation of musicians would follow

The post Little Richard, Founding Father of Rock Who Broke Musical Barriers, Dead at 87 appeared first on My Site.










k

Rocket Report: Military space plane returns to pad, SLS engine costs soar

LauncherOne to cap eight years of development with upcoming flight.





k

Fully booked

Eric Newby, former travel editor of the Observer, became hooked on travellers’ tales when he was eight. Here he recalls his favourite anecdotes and lists his top travel books

Just as top men in Levi Strauss are said to wake up in San Francisco wondering whether anyone is going to want to buy their jeans any more, so booksellers must have begun to wonder whether the apparently insatiable demand for travel books will suddenly end, never to return.

It is unlikely. Travel is one of the principal activities of the human race. If the sales of travel books falter, it will be because the sale of books generally is in decline. There are so many reasons for travelling, so much to record: commercial travellers selling arms to the Iraqis, Pepsi plants to the Chinese, Protestant Bibles to Catholics, as Borrow did in Spain, Catholic Bibles to Protestants, then wondering why they get put on the rack, or fried; commercial travellers such as I was - now known as reps - tottering up the back stairs of stores with armfuls of large-size dresses, only to find that the buyer had 'gone to coffee'. All worth a book if the travellers know how to write.

Continue reading...




k

On the trail of Patrick Leigh Fermor in Greece

Ahead of a new Patrick Leigh Fermor biography, our writer visits the Mani peninsula, home of the great man and unsung resting place of another British travel writing giant, Bruce Chatwin

To read an extract from Leigh Fermor's book, Mani, Travels in the Southern Peloponnese, click here

Old Mr Fotis turned my question over in his mind while sipping his morning coffee. Below the veranda some youths had been playing noisily on the harbour wall, but now they all dived into the turquoise sea and set off on the long swim to the rocky island in the bay. It had a fragment of crenellated wall on top of it, the ruins of a Venetian fortress. Fotis watched them go, half-smiling.

"We do seem to attract a lot of writers," said the old man eventually. "But that's a name I don't remember."

Continue reading...




k

Big in Japan: why Tokyo is top

The travel writer Pico Iyer has known Tokyo - Guardian readers' favourite non-European city - for decades but is still captivated by its curiosities and contradictions

It makes perfect sense that Tokyo is Guardian readers' favourite overseas city. Now that Shanghai looks in parts like Beverly Hills and Delhi is lighting up with Thai restaurants, there are few cities on the planet that are less western than Tokyo – even if it's not necessarily a part of any east that you might recognise. The abiding allure of Japan's huge network of tiny details is that, like something in a Salman Rushdie novel, it seems to blur all notions of high and low, east and west, old and new into one state-of-the-art global amusement park that is wildly fresh and novel in its best incarnations, and at least zany in its worst.

I've lived at a safe distance from Japan's capital for 23 years now, in Kyoto and Nara, three or four hours away by train and several centuries away in terms of their antique pasts. But if I were going to Tokyo tomorrow, I would, on arrival, hold off on the "maid cafes" in the nerds' electronic hive of Akihabara, on the Hysteric Glamour fashions around Harajuku, even on the gleaming shops of the Ginza that have long made Tokyo seem an early visitor from the 23rd century. Instead I'd begin by looking for the old.

Continue reading...




k

Uzbekistan's magnificent cities: where Soviet style meets Islamic heritage

From Tashkent to Samarkand and Bukhara, travel writer Caroline Eden believes Uzbekistan offers a dazzling mix of traditional style and a modern outlook

Twenty five years after the fall of the USSR, it’s interesting how the Soviet-era hangover lingers in Uzbekistan. Hulking apartment blocks are gradually being upgraded, and while you won’t spot statues of Lenin (they’ve been replaced by the nomadic conqueror Tamerlane and celebrated medic Ibn-Sina) you will see plenty of samovars (Russian kettles) and Soviet military medals for sale in the markets. But you will also see master ikat weavers reviving weaving traditions, and many musicians and artists are now turning to their Islamic heritage for influence. This mix of Soviet legacy and Uzbek Islam is one of the things that makes the country so fascinating.

Continue reading...




k

‘Kathmandu is still a place of magic’: Sir Chris Bonington

Despite much change, the Nepalese capital’s staggering views and warm memories are as vivid as ever for the veteran mountaineer and leader of 19 Himalayan expeditions

My first sight of Kathmandu and the Himalayas was in 1960 as part of Lt Col Jimmy Roberts’s expedition – we made the first successful ascent of Annapurna II. At 7,937 metres, it’s a superb peak that’s just short of what mountaineers see as the magical height: 8,000 metres.

Arriving in Kathmandu was extraordinary. There was only one hotel, the Royal, an old palace run by a wonderful, eccentric Russian called Boris. There was also just one guesthouse, and practically no tourists.

Continue reading...




k

Ranger Betty Soskin, 93, on the Rosie the Riveter national park, California

The oldest national park ranger in the US tells us why she’s proud of the second world war home front park in Richmond, just across the bay from San Francisco

I settled in the greater Bay Area as a six-year-old in 1927. When I graduated from high school in 1938, my two opportunities for employment were working in agriculture or being a domestic servant. At that time, labour unions weren’t racially integrated and, during the war, I worked as a clerk for the segregated boilermakers’ union.

Continue reading...