********** TRAVEL **********
return to top
The Acolyte review – Star Wars gets a thrilling new hero
Wed, 05 Jun 2024 11:16:20 GMT
Amandla Stenberg plays both a maverick Jedi – and the deadly ninja she must eliminate. She’s a fresh, subversive presence for the galaxy far, far away
When you are trying to craft compelling new stories within a well-established fantasy franchise, it can help to ditch the baggage and put some clear water between your baby and the existing mythos. Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon jumped back a couple of centuries. Lord of the Rings rewound Middle-earth thousands of years for streaming series The Rings of Power. Now Star Wars – the inescapable space opera that, for good or ill, has fully embraced prequels since The Phantom Menace in 1999 – has boldly opted to travel further into the past than it has ever gone before on-screen.
An opening title card confirms that The Acolyte takes place a longer time ago in a galaxy far, far away: a hundred years before the rise of the malevolent Empire. Peace has flourished across the Galactic Republic thanks to a cosmos-spanning religious order who dress in monkish robes but wield laser swords and psychic superpowers via their cult’s mastery of the Force. In this harmonious era, no one messes with a Jedi. But The Acolyte’s creator, Leslye Headland – who previously co-wrote the fiendish time-loop comedy Russian Doll – poses a juicy question: what if someone did?
Continue reading...It’s one of the evolutionary puzzles of our species. Why (oh why) do we do it?
The last hurrah? A collective show to the world of anarchic solidarity? A time to take stock, to be joyful, to be maudlin – perhaps all three? What is it about the stag do? They are mainly awful. More often than not, it’s a random group of men, “off the leash” from their families, who act like incapable children and – as soon as booze is on the menu – neanderthals. And things get worse when the dos are held abroad, usually somewhere sunny or a European city – any European city. Before long, you’re not exactly sure what country you’re in anyway.
This means the drinking can start at the airport. Then the sun, cheap beer, language barrier and the sense of invulnerability can kick in, fuelling our terrible reputation as Brits abroad.
Continue reading...One man is trying to revive zero-carbon cargo routes by sailing produce along England’s eastern seaboard – and taking paying passengers along for the thrilling ride
The water glitters, rippled by a rising wind, and Victorious glides silently on three huge, maroon sails. We’re the only boat in sight, surrounded by grey sea and vast sky. Every direction offers a subtly different picture: patches of blue and fluffy clouds, billowing blue-black clouds, occasional rays of sunshine beaming into the Wash. A flock of Brent geese flies across our bows.
“It just feels like she’s made for these waters. It’s magical,” purrs one of my five fellow sailors, . We’re taking potatoes from the Fenland channel of Fosdyke to make chips in Norfolk, and the hold of our immaculately restored 42ft shrimping smack will be packed with extra goods when we reach King’s Lynn.
Continue reading...Work your way in for a free pass, club together with friends for gear – and don’t forget the toilet rolls and wet wipes
You can get into festivals for free by offering to work during the event. Websites such as Festaff offer easy ways to volunteer for roles such as stewarding.
Continue reading...Did you know that Croydon used to attract Hollywood stars? Or that grotesque sculptures once welcomed patients to Bedlam? Such things you’ll learn visiting the capital’s more bijou exhibitions
The V&A? The Science Museum? I’m sure, during childhood visits to the capital, that my parents must have shown me some of London’s biggest attractions, but the memory that’s really stayed with me is of something much smaller. We had called in at a Georgian townhouse late one dusky afternoon – and once inside were invited to climb up on to the roof. There, as evening fell over the skyline, I found a scaled-down railway station with a miniature train, steam pouring from its chimney, that skated over a pond and occasionally plunged into a tunnel. It was the stuff of Mary Poppins. Anything is possible in London, I thought.
That rooftop train ride helped ignite my fascination with the capital and its cornucopia of museums. The London Toy and Model Museum, as I later found out it was called, was only open from 1982 to 1999. And yet it was the start of a journey that wound up with me writing for Londonist, a website that enlightens people on the best – and often more unexpected – things they can get up to in this city.
Continue reading...Interesting story of breaking the security of the RoboForm password manager in order to recover a cryptocurrency wallet password.
Grand and Bruno spent months reverse engineering the version of the RoboForm program that they thought Michael had used in 2013 and found that the pseudo-random number generator used to generate passwords in that version—and subsequent versions until 2015—did indeed have a significant flaw that made the random number generator not so random. The RoboForm program unwisely tied the random passwords it generated to the date and time on the user’s computer—it determined the computer’s date and time, and then generated passwords that were predictable. If you knew the date and time and other parameters, you could compute any password that would have been generated on a certain date and time in the past...
Trump fans say his conviction is an overreach. But a close look at another recent fraud trial shows his case was run-of-the-mill.
The post To Understand the Trump Verdict, Look at the Case Against Shukhratjon Mirsaidov appeared first on The Intercept.
Ahead of the election in India, the Guardian’s video team travelled through the country to explore how fake news and censorship might shape the outcome.
Almost one billion people are registered to vote. The country's prime minister, Narendra Modi, has been in power for more than 10 years, and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is seeking a third term.
But critics of Modi and the BJP say his government has become increasingly authoritarian, fracturing the country along religious lines and threatening India’s secular democracy. At the same time, the space for freedom of speech has been shrinking while disinformation and hate speech has exploded on social media.
Brian Krebs reports on research into geolocating routers:
Apple and the satellite-based broadband service Starlink each recently took steps to address new research into the potential security and privacy implications of how their services geolocate devices. Researchers from the University of Maryland say they relied on publicly available data from Apple to track the location of billions of devices globally—including non-Apple devices like Starlink systems—and found they could use this data to monitor the destruction of Gaza, as well as the movements and in many cases identities of Russian and Ukrainian troops...
Is this what the “pro-life” movement wanted?
The post Sterilization, Murders, Suicides: Bans Haven’t Slowed Abortions, and They’re Costing Lives appeared first on The Intercept.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors. You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
From biking adventures to city breaks, get inspiration for your next break – whether in the UK or further afield – with twice-weekly emails from the Guardian’s travel editors.
You’ll also receive handpicked offers from Guardian Holidays.
Continue reading...Scrambled tofu? Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. Just follow a few simple steps for the best texture and flavour
If you’re one of the many non-vegans currently screwing up your nose in disgust at the idea of scrambling tofu, I confess that no one was more sceptical than me … until I actually tried making some. After all, though it’s not so difficult to substitute plant-based ingredients in more complex recipes such as meringues or custards, scrambled eggs offer no place to hide. But, actually, eggs, like tofu, are more about texture than flavour, so get that right, and you’ll be surprised how well this plant-based version works.
Continue reading...Education about the risks of being overweight means nothing if people have no access to healthy food or places to exercise
Type 2 diabetes used to be a condition linked to ageing and getting older. It’s the most common metabolic chronic condition in elderly people in the UK, and the likelihood of developing diabetes increases dramatically after the age of 45. People of south Asian heritage have a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes, and I’ve grown up watching my grandparents and elderly relatives develop it, one after another. India is often referred to as the “diabetes capital of the world”, accounting for 17% of the total number of diabetes patients worldwide.
But in Britain, recent data has shown a major change in the profile of who is getting diabetes: it’s now young people. The number of under-40s being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has risen 39% in the past six years. This was especially the case for people from deprived areas and those from black and south Asian backgrounds. In 2022, Diabetes UK highlighted that the number of children receiving treatment for type 2 diabetes in England and Wales had increased by over 50% over the previous five years.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
Continue reading...Most scientists say no, but some want ultra-processed foods, with sky-high sugar amounts, to count as addictive substances
Psychologist Ashley Gearhardt remembers one type 2 diabetes patient who acknowledged that eating pillowy Krispy Kreme doughnuts is devastatingly bad for her. Knowing that the donuts could worsen her disease didn’t stop her from driving out of her way to secure a box of the sweets.
“Clearly, compulsivity is happening,” said Gearhardt, a University of Michigan professor and one of the creators of the Yale Food Addiction Scale, a self-reporting tool that helps people find out whether they are at risk for food addiction. In her view, that inability to control an urge helps make the case that sugar is addictive.
Continue reading...Andrew Bailey’s office has a losing record of fighting against exonerations recommended by local prosecutors — but it’s not giving up.
The post Missouri’s Attorney General Is Waging War to Keep the Wrongly Convicted Locked Up appeared first on The Intercept.
Work your way in for a free pass, club together with friends for gear – and don’t forget the toilet rolls and wet wipes
You can get into festivals for free by offering to work during the event. Websites such as Festaff offer easy ways to volunteer for roles such as stewarding.
Continue reading...A selection of winning images from this year’s Pink Lady food photographer of the year awards. The overall winner was the Chinese photographer Zhonghua Yang for an image of a woman making new year dim sum. The judging panel was chaired by the food photographer David Loftus and included Fiona Shields, the Guardian’s head of photography
Exclusive: Scientists at MIT hope talking to 60-year-old self will shift thinking on health, money and work
If your carefully crafted life plan has been scuppered by sofa time, bingeing on fast food, drinking too much and failing to contribute to the company pension, it may be time for a chat with your future self.
Without ready access to a time machine, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have built an AI-powered chatbot that simulates a user’s older self and dishes out observations and pearls of wisdom. The aim is to encourage people to give more thought today to the person they want to be tomorrow.
Continue reading...Taiwan is the target of more disinformation from abroad than any other democracy, according to University of Gothenburg study
Charles Yeh’s battle with disinformation in Taiwan began with a bowl of beef noodles. Nine years ago, the Taiwanese engineer was at a restaurant with his family when his mother-in-law started picking the green onions out of her food. Asked what she was doing, she explained that onions can harm your liver. She knew this, she said, because she had received text messages telling her so.
Yeh was puzzled by this. His family had always happily eaten green onions. So he decided to set the record straight.
He put the truth in a blog post and circulated it among family and friends through the messaging app Line. They shared it more broadly, and soon he received requests from strangers asking to be connected to his personal Line account.
Small and medium-sized firms badly hit as huge drop in apparel sales helps fuel 18% slide in all-non food exports
UK exports of clothing and footwear to the EU have dived since Brexit, according to a new study that shows the extent to which complex regulations and red tape at the border have deterred firms from sending goods across the Channel.
Exports of clothing and footwear sold to EU countries have fallen from £7.4bn in 2019 to £2.7bn in 2023, helping fuel an 18% slump in sales of all non-food goods exports to countries covered by the EU single market, according to the consultancy Retail Economics and online marketplace Tradebyte.
Continue reading...Technology was once simply a tool—and a small one at that—used to amplify human intent and capacity. That was the story of the industrial revolution: we could control nature and build large, complex human societies, and the more we employed and mastered technology, the better things got. We don’t live in that world anymore. Not only has technology become entangled with the structure of society, but we also can no longer see the world around us without it. The separation is gone, and the control we thought we once had has revealed itself as a mirage. We’re in a transitional period of history right now...
You might be able to stand the heat, but does your spice knowledge live up to your tolerance level? Answer these questions to find out …
Find out more about Encona’s hot sauces at enconasauces.co.uk
Continue reading...A weekly email from Yotam Ottolenghi, Meera Sodha, Felicity Cloake and Rachel Roddy, featuring the latest recipes and seasonal eating ideas
Each week we’ll send you an exclusive newsletter from our star food writers. We’ll also send you the latest recipes from Yotam Ottolenghi, Nigel Slater, Meera Sodha and all our star cooks, stand-out food features and seasonal eating inspiration, plus restaurant reviews from Grace Dent and Jay Rayner.
Sign up below to start receiving the best of our culinary journalism in one mouth-watering weekly email.
Continue reading...Michelle Roach bought a used ice-cream van in order to bring cheap, affordable food to Liverpool's struggling communities. She wanted a vehicle with freezers built in for frozen food, and also something cheerful that was able to break down stigmas around food poverty. Using a '10 items for £5' model, Michelle sources discount food from supermarket surplus and donations.
The Guardian's Christopher Cherry follows Michelle and the van on its rounds, with the service struggling to meet overwhelming demand as the cost of living crisis deepens, and the UK's general election fast approaches.
Continue reading...Khaled Al Serr, a young surgeon, vanished from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis two months ago. He hasn’t been heard from since.
The post Hundreds of Palestinian Doctors Disappeared Into Israeli Detention appeared first on The Intercept.
South Africa's case against Israel over allegations of genocide before the international court of justice has raised a central question of international law: what is genocide and how do you prove it? It is one of three genocide cases being considered by the UN's world court, but since the genocide convention was approved in 1948, only three instances have been legally recognised as genocide. Josh Toussaint-Strauss looks back on these historical cases to find out why the crime is so much harder to prove than other atrocities, and what bearing this has on South Africa's case against Israel and future cases
What is the genocide convention and how might it apply to the UK and Israel?
‘Famine is setting in’: UN court orders Israel to unblock Gaza food aid
On the last day of his Huginn mission, ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen takes us on a tour of the place he called home for 6 months: the International Space Station. From the beautiful views of Cupola to the kitchen in Node 1 filled with food and friends and all the way to the science of Columbus, the Space Station is the work and living place for astronauts as they help push science forward.
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, direct to your inbox every Thursday
Style, with substance: what’s really trending this week, a roundup of the best fashion journalism and your wardrobe dilemmas solved, delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday
Explore all our newsletters: whether you love film, football, fashion or food, we’ve got something for you
Continue reading...Imagine a world in which you can do transactions and many other things without having to give your personal information. A world in which you don’t need to rely on banks or governments anymore. Sounds amazing, right? That’s exactly what blockchain technology allows us to do.
It’s like your computer’s hard drive. blockchain is a technology that lets you store data in digital blocks, which are connected together like links in a chain.
Blockchain technology was originally invented in 1991 by two mathematicians, Stuart Haber and W. Scot Stornetta. They first proposed the system to ensure that timestamps could not be tampered with.
A few years later, in 1998, software developer Nick Szabo proposed using a similar kind of technology to secure a digital payments system he called “Bit Gold.” However, this innovation was not adopted until Satoshi Nakamoto claimed to have invented the first Blockchain and Bitcoin.
A blockchain is a distributed database shared between the nodes of a computer network. It saves information in digital format. Many people first heard of blockchain technology when they started to look up information about bitcoin.
Blockchain is used in cryptocurrency systems to ensure secure, decentralized records of transactions.
Blockchain allowed people to guarantee the fidelity and security of a record of data without the need for a third party to ensure accuracy.
To understand how a blockchain works, Consider these basic steps:
Let’s get to know more about the blockchain.
Blockchain records digital information and distributes it across the network without changing it. The information is distributed among many users and stored in an immutable, permanent ledger that can't be changed or destroyed. That's why blockchain is also called "Distributed Ledger Technology" or DLT.
Here’s how it works:
And that’s the beauty of it! The process may seem complicated, but it’s done in minutes with modern technology. And because technology is advancing rapidly, I expect things to move even more quickly than ever.
Even though blockchain is integral to cryptocurrency, it has other applications. For example, blockchain can be used for storing reliable data about transactions. Many people confuse blockchain with cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.
Blockchain already being adopted by some big-name companies, such as Walmart, AIG, Siemens, Pfizer, and Unilever. For example, IBM's Food Trust uses blockchain to track food's journey before reaching its final destination.
Although some of you may consider this practice excessive, food suppliers and manufacturers adhere to the policy of tracing their products because bacteria such as E. coli and Salmonella have been found in packaged foods. In addition, there have been isolated cases where dangerous allergens such as peanuts have accidentally been introduced into certain products.
Tracing and identifying the sources of an outbreak is a challenging task that can take months or years. Thanks to the Blockchain, however, companies now know exactly where their food has been—so they can trace its location and prevent future outbreaks.
Blockchain technology allows systems to react much faster in the event of a hazard. It also has many other uses in the modern world.
Blockchain technology is safe, even if it’s public. People can access the technology using an internet connection.
Have you ever been in a situation where you had all your data stored at one place and that one secure place got compromised? Wouldn't it be great if there was a way to prevent your data from leaking out even when the security of your storage systems is compromised?
Blockchain technology provides a way of avoiding this situation by using multiple computers at different locations to store information about transactions. If one computer experiences problems with a transaction, it will not affect the other nodes.
Instead, other nodes will use the correct information to cross-reference your incorrect node. This is called “Decentralization,” meaning all the information is stored in multiple places.
Blockchain guarantees your data's authenticity—not just its accuracy, but also its irreversibility. It can also be used to store data that are difficult to register, like legal contracts, state identifications, or a company's product inventory.
Blockchain has many advantages and disadvantages.
I’ll answer the most frequently asked questions about blockchain in this section.
Blockchain is not a cryptocurrency but a technology that makes cryptocurrencies possible. It's a digital ledger that records every transaction seamlessly.
Yes, blockchain can be theoretically hacked, but it is a complicated task to be achieved. A network of users constantly reviews it, which makes hacking the blockchain difficult.
Coinbase Global is currently the biggest blockchain company in the world. The company runs a commendable infrastructure, services, and technology for the digital currency economy.
Blockchain is a decentralized technology. It’s a chain of distributed ledgers connected with nodes. Each node can be any electronic device. Thus, one owns blockhain.
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, which is powered by Blockchain technology while Blockchain is a distributed ledger of cryptocurrency
Generally a database is a collection of data which can be stored and organized using a database management system. The people who have access to the database can view or edit the information stored there. The client-server network architecture is used to implement databases. whereas a blockchain is a growing list of records, called blocks, stored in a distributed system. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, timestamp and transaction information. Modification of data is not allowed due to the design of the blockchain. The technology allows decentralized control and eliminates risks of data modification by other parties.
Blockchain has a wide spectrum of applications and, over the next 5-10 years, we will likely see it being integrated into all sorts of industries. From finance to healthcare, blockchain could revolutionize the way we store and share data. Although there is some hesitation to adopt blockchain systems right now, that won't be the case in 2022-2023 (and even less so in 2026). Once people become more comfortable with the technology and understand how it can work for them, owners, CEOs and entrepreneurs alike will be quick to leverage blockchain technology for their own gain. Hope you like this article if you have any question let me know in the comments section
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER
Education about the risks of being overweight means nothing if people have no access to healthy food or places to exercise
Type 2 diabetes used to be a condition linked to ageing and getting older. It’s the most common metabolic chronic condition in elderly people in the UK, and the likelihood of developing diabetes increases dramatically after the age of 45. People of south Asian heritage have a higher prevalence of type 2 diabetes, and I’ve grown up watching my grandparents and elderly relatives develop it, one after another. India is often referred to as the “diabetes capital of the world”, accounting for 17% of the total number of diabetes patients worldwide.
But in Britain, recent data has shown a major change in the profile of who is getting diabetes: it’s now young people. The number of under-40s being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes has risen 39% in the past six years. This was especially the case for people from deprived areas and those from black and south Asian backgrounds. In 2022, Diabetes UK highlighted that the number of children receiving treatment for type 2 diabetes in England and Wales had increased by over 50% over the previous five years.
Prof Devi Sridhar is chair of global public health at the University of Edinburgh
Continue reading...Technology was once simply a tool—and a small one at that—used to amplify human intent and capacity. That was the story of the industrial revolution: we could control nature and build large, complex human societies, and the more we employed and mastered technology, the better things got. We don’t live in that world anymore. Not only has technology become entangled with the structure of society, but we also can no longer see the world around us without it. The separation is gone, and the control we thought we once had has revealed itself as a mirage. We’re in a transitional period of history right now...
British Paralympians have been urged to help record the forgotten history of disability sport, with the message that “knowing where we come from helps us figure out where we’re going in the future”.
ParalympicsGB announced on Tuesday the creation of a new Athlete Community, which any British Paralympic athlete from the winter and summer Games can join. As well as offering a network for former and current athletes, the governing body hopes to use the group to start piecing together a history that is shorter than that of its Olympic sibling but far less commonly documented.
Continue reading...‘Surprising’ results in tests could change assumptions about female athletes’ abilities during their period, says author
Women make fewer mistakes and have better mental agility while on their period despite feeling worse than at any other time during their menstrual cycle, research suggests.
The research, conducted by the UCL Institute of Sport, Exercise and Health (ISEH), found that women’s reaction times, accuracy and attention to detail were heightened while menstruating, challenging current hypotheses regarding how women perform in sports during their period.
Continue reading...RSS Rabbit links users to publicly available RSS entries.
Vet every link before clicking! The creators accept no responsibility for the contents of these entries.
Relevant
Fresh
Convenient
Agile
We're not prepared to take user feedback yet. Check back soon!