All posts tagged: life

Still life by long-forgotten painter Clara Peeters could fetch £700,000 | Art

Published by Sam

A lustrous painting of a basket of flowers by an early 17th-century female artist who was written out of art history for centuries is to be sold at auction in December. The untitled still life by the Flemish painter Clara Peeters has not been seen in public for almost 100 years and has never appeared in any books. Little is known about Peeters’ life. The painting shows roses, carnations, tulips and other flowers in a wicker basket sitting on a ledge, with a butterfly and a cricket in the foreground. Peeters painted the still life on copper, which gives the painting an “enamel-like lustre”, said Chloe Stead, of Sotheby’s, which is selling the painting with an estimate of £500,000 to £700,000. “Peeters was forgotten for such a long time. There is a remarkable lack of detail known about her life, which is tantalising given the extraordinary quality of her paintings,” Stead said. Peeters’ paintings were recorded outside Antwerp, where she lived – for example, in the royal collection in Madrid – indicating that she was …

Having a single parent doesn’t determine your life chances – the data shows poverty is far more important

Published by skeptic

Numerous research studies have suggested that children from a single-parent family are worse off than those who have two parents at home. These findings chime with decades of stigma that have painted coming from a single-parent home as undesirable. Understandably, you may find this worrying if you are a single parent – or if you’re thinking of embarking on parenthood alone. But it’s worth looking at the detail behind the stats. I reviewed the most up-to-date evidence for my book Why Single Parents Matter, and found that conclusions that suggest significant negative outcomes as a result of coming from a single-parent family are often not supported by strong data. For example, a 1991 meta analysis – a research paper that reviews the findings of numerous scholarly studies – is often cited as evidence of a negative impact. However, the study concludes that the “effects are generally weak, with methodologically sophisticated studies and more recent studies tending to find even smaller differences between groups”. Should I have children? The pieces in this series will help you …

Happy, faithful and tied to nature: life adapting to the climate crisis – photo essay | Fiji

Published by Sam

When Poiongo Lisati returned to her home of Kioa after decades away, she welcomed the shift in the pace of life. The 58-year-old left the busyness of Fiji’s capital Suva for the island of about 400 people, who live off the land they are deeply connected to. But some changes she noticed were stark. “When I left the island, a good part of the beach was there,” Lisati says. “But when I came back after 40 years … around six metres or more had been washed away.” Lisati saw other changes: king tides now swept to the flats of the island and the water reached closer to the villages. Coconut and pandanus plants, relied on for food and medicine, no longer grew on the beachfront. Months that were once hot and dry had become colder and windier. Above: Kioa island, Fiji, at sunrise.Below: A resident of Kioa strips the thorny edges from the fronds of pandanus palms. It is one of many steps in the process of preparing the fronds to be woven into traditional …

The Sadness of Seamus Heaney’s To-Do List

Published by skeptic

What is the opposite of poetry? What slows the spark and puts sludge in the veins? What deadens the language? What rears up before you with livid and stupefying power—in the middle of the night, in the middle of the day—to make you feel like you’ll never write a good line again? Stuff. Not physical stuff, but mental stuff. You know: things you should have taken care of. The unanswered email. The unpaid bill. The unvisited dentist. The undischarged obligation. The unfinished job. The terrible ballast of adulthood. “In the last two days I have written thirty-two letters … The trouble is, I have about thirty-two more to write: I could ignore them but if I do the sense of worthlessness and hauntedness grows in me, inertia grows and, fuck it, I’m going to get rid of them before I board the plane on Thursday.” This is Seamus Heaney in 1985, writing to his friend Barrie Cooke. Heaney, at this point in his career, in his life, is a poet of established greatness, a professor …

Kai Havertz springs to life and floors Brentford to send Arsenal top | Premier League

Published by Sam

Whatever happens to Arsenal this season, Mikel Arteta will know that this victory courtesy of substitute Kai Havertz’s late header could be priceless. A lacklustre display against a committed Brentford that had seen Aaron Ramsdale endure a shaky return between the posts looked like ending in disappointment as the game ticked into the 89th minute. But after a testing start to his career in north London, Havertz ensured his place in Arsenal folklore when he ghosted in at the far post to steer home Bukayo Saka’s cross. The victory means Arteta’s side go top of the table for the first time this season, with the manager pumping his fist at the final whistle after a testing evening that had frayed the nerves of his goalkeeper in particular. With David Raya ineligible to face his parent club, Ramsdale made his first appearance since the start of September in the Premier League as Arsenal also welcomed back Gabriel Jesus and Martin Ødegaard to their starting line-up for the first time in five weeks. Manchester City’s draw against …

‘Scarred for life’: the families still seeking dead amid Gaza rubble | Israel-Hamas war

Published by Sam

On the 45th day of the bombing of Gaza, eight-year-old Waseem Abedrabou and his father Husam, left the family home for a night to stay with Husam’s mother. “[His mother Abeer] doesn’t let Waseem sleep a metre away from her, but she let him sleep in that house that day,” said Dina Safi, Waseem’s aunt. “Husam wanted to see his family and Waseem wanted to see his grandma.” Abeer would never see either of them again. An Israeli airstrike hit the house Waseem and Husam were staying in, devastating the large home, which housed five units of their extended family in Nuseirat refugee camp – south of the point in Gaza where the enclave’s population were ordered to evacuate. Waseem Abedrabou, eight years old, who died when his grandmother’s house was destroyed in an airstrike. His father’s body has not been recovered. Waseem’s uncle pulled the boy’s lifeless body from the rubble and carried him to his mother. But Husam’s body was buried beneath tonnes of heavy concrete. Safi said Abeer screamed and collapsed when …

Rejuvenated Martha Thomas ‘on a roll’ and savouring life at Tottenham | Tottenham Hotspur Women

Published by Sam

When in July 2021 Martha Thomas joined Manchester United from West Ham, it’s fair to say that her new club’s fan base was underwhelmed by the signing. They did not have a problem with Thomas, but she was part of a cohort that were not considered the world-class talent needed to boost their bid for Champions League football, unlike the exiting Tobin Heath and Christen Press. It was somewhat inevitable that the now Tottenham striker would underwhelm in Manchester – not because it was expected, how she would fit in was unknown, but because she was not really given a chance to flourish. The Scotland forward made 38 league appearances and scored six goals in her two seasons under Marc Skinner but started just nine games in her first season and once in her second. Unable to build any consistency, she struggled. So her exit did not come as a surprise but at her new club she is showing what happens if you properly cultivate a player. The Women’s Super League player of the month …

Weekend podcast: what’s happened to The Crown? Surviving a shipwreck, how Aldi and Lidl changed British shoppers, and Philippa Perry on loneliness | Life and style

Published by Sam

How The Crown went from prestige drama to TV disaster (1m26s); what happened when one man’s boat sank in the dead of night – and he had to save my seven-year-old son (11m19s); how discount supermarkets changed the way we shop (25m21); and Philippa Perry shares advice on how to overcome loneliness and isolation (40m08s) How to listen to podcasts: everything you need to know Source link

UK’s new back to work plan will make life even harder for disabled people

Published by skeptic

The UK chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, has unveiled new rules for welfare benefit claimants. Under the government’s back to work plan, £2.5 billion of funding is to be allocated to employment support schemes with the aim of getting over 1 million people with long-term health conditions or disabilities, as well as those who are long-term unemployed, back into work. As part of these plans, the government is planning to implement tougher sanctions for people who are judged to not be taking appropriate steps to secure work. The proposed punitive measures include suspending benefit claims altogether and stopping access to free medical prescriptions and legal aid. Alongside this, the government intends to make significant changes to the work capability assessment, which is used to decide whether or not someone is fit for work. These changes would take effect from 2025 and could result in over 370,000 people receiving less benefit. Additional support to help people find and stay in work should always be welcomed. However, disability charities have expressed significant concerns. James Taylor, director of strategy at …

A Napoleon Biopic Short on Emotion and Big on Action

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Ridley Scott’s take on the French leader is a sample platter of big battles and bristling insecurities. Apple TV+ November 22, 2023, 8 AM ET When it comes to battle tactics, Napoleon Bonaparte (as played by Joaquin Phoenix) is very gun forward. There are few conflicts he marches into that don’t involve the firing of many cannons, an instinct befitting his status as an artillery commander in the French military—the organization he quickly transcended to become the leader of his country by the age of 30. But it also mirrors his rash, preening, sometimes awkward charm in Ridley Scott’s new film, Napoleon, a biography that fast-forwards through the major events of Napoleon’s life and presents him as equal parts confident and arrogant, making for a roller coaster of the ego that’s surprisingly full of laughs. Making a movie about Napoleon is the kind of consuming effort that drives even the greatest filmmakers to ruin. Stanley Kubrick spent half of his career trying to make a Napoleon and never succeeded; the best-regarded biopic remains a 1927 …