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Leap of imagination: how February 29 reminds us of our mysterious relationship with time and space

<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/emily-ohara-874665">Emily O'Hara</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137">Auckland University of Technology</a></em></p> <p>If you find it intriguing that February 28 will be followed this week by February 29, rather than March 1 as it usually is, spare a thought for those alive in 1582. Back then, Thursday October 4 was followed by Friday October 15.</p> <p>Ten whole days were snatched from the present when Pope Gregory XIII issued a papal bull to “restore” the calendar from discrepancies that had crept into the Julian calendar, introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 BCE.</p> <p>The new Gregorian calendar returned the northern hemisphere’s vernal equinox to its “proper” place, around March 21. (The equinox is when the Earth’s axis is tilted neither toward nor away from the sun, and is used to determine the date of Easter.)</p> <p>The Julian calendar had observed a leap year every four years, but this meant time had drifted out of alignment with the dates of celestial events and astronomical seasons.</p> <p>In the Gregorian calendar, leap days were added only to years that were a multiple of four – like 2024 – with an exception for years that were evenly divisible by 100, but not 400 – like 1700.</p> <p>Simply put, leap days exist because it doesn’t take a neat 365 days for Earth to orbit the Sun. It takes 365.2422 days. Tracking the movement of celestial objects through space in an orderly pattern doesn’t quite work, which is why we have February – time’s great mop.</p> <h2>Time and space</h2> <p>This is just part of the history of how February – the shortest month, and originally the last month in the Roman calendar – came to have the job of absorbing those inconsistencies in the temporal calculations of the world’s most commonly used calendar.</p> <p>There is plenty of <a href="https://theconversation.com/leap-day-fixing-the-faults-in-our-stars-54032">science</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-the-science-behind-leap-years-and-how-they-work-54788">maths</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-seasonal-snarl-up-in-the-mid-1500s-gave-us-our-strange-rules-for-leap-years-132659">astrophysics</a> explaining the relationship between time and the planet we live on. But I like to think leap years and days offer something even more interesting to consider: why do we have calendars anyway?</p> <p>And what have they got to do with how we understand the wonder and strangeness of our existence in the universe? Because calendars tell a story, not just about time, but also about space.</p> <p>Our reckoning of time on Earth is through our spatial relationship to the Sun, Moon and stars. Time, and its place in our lives, sits somewhere between the scientific, the celestial and the spiritual.</p> <p>It is <a href="https://shop.whitechapelgallery.org/products/time">notoriously slippery, subjective and experiential</a>. It is also marked, tracked and determined in myriad ways across different cultures, from tropical to solar to <a href="https://www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/300062097/matariki-and-the-maramataka-the-mori-lunar-calendar">lunar</a> calendars.</p> <p>It is the Sun that measures a day and gives us our first reference point for understanding time. But it is the <a href="https://librarysearch.aut.ac.nz/vufind/Record/1145999?sid=25214690">Moon</a>, as a major celestial body, that extends our perception of time. By stretching a span of one day into something longer, it offers us a chance for philosophical reflection.</p> <p>The Sun (or its effect at least) is either present or not present. The Moon, however, goes through phases of transformation. It appears and disappears, changing shape and hinting that one night is not exactly like the one before or after.</p> <p>The Moon also has a distinct rhythm that can be tracked and understood as a pattern, giving us another sense of duration. Time is just that – overlapping durations: instants, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, lifetimes, centuries, ages.</p> <h2>The elusive Moon</h2> <p>It is almost impossible to imagine how time might feel in the absence of all the tools and gadgets we use to track, control and corral it. But it’s also hard to know what we might do in the absence of time as a unit of productivity – a measurable, dispensable resource.</p> <p>The closest we might come is simply to imagine what life might feel like in the absence of the Moon. Each day would rise and fall, in a rhythm of its own, but without visible reference to anything else. Just endless shifts from light to dark.</p> <p>Nights would be almost completely dark without the light of the Moon. Only stars at a much further distance would puncture the inky sky. The world around us would change – trees would grow, mammals would age and die, land masses would shift and change – but all would happen in an endless cycle of sunrise to sunset.</p> <p>The light from the Sun takes <a href="https://www.skyatnightmagazine.com/space-science/how-take-light-from-sun-reach-earth">eight minutes</a> to reach Earth, so the sunlight we see is always eight minutes in the past.</p> <p>I remember sitting outside when I first learned this, and wondering what the temporal delay might be between me and other objects: a plum tree, trees at the end of the street, hills in the distance, light on the horizon when looking out over the ocean, stars in the night sky.</p> <p>Moonlight, for reference, takes about <a href="https://www.pbs.org/seeinginthedark/astronomy-topics/light-as-a-cosmic-time-machine.html">1.3 seconds</a> to get to Earth. Light always travels at the same speed, it is entirely constant. The differing duration between how long it takes for sunlight or moonlight to reach the Earth is determined by the space in between.</p> <p>Time on the other hand, is anything but constant. There are countless ways we characterise it. The mere fact we have so many calendars and ways of describing perceptual time hints at our inability to pin it down.</p> <p>Calendars give us the impression we can, and have, made time predictable and understandable. Leap years, days and seconds serve as a periodic reminder that we haven’t.<img style="border: none !important; box-shadow: none !important; margin: 0 !important; max-height: 1px !important; max-width: 1px !important; min-height: 1px !important; min-width: 1px !important; opacity: 0 !important; outline: none !important; padding: 0 !important;" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224503/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" /></p> <p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/emily-ohara-874665"><em>Emily O'Hara</em></a><em>, Senior Lecturer, Spatial Design + Temporary Practices, <a href="https://theconversation.com/institutions/auckland-university-of-technology-1137">Auckland University of Technology</a></em></p> <p><em>Image credits: Shutterstock </em></p> <p><em>This article is republished from <a href="https://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/leap-of-imagination-how-february-29-reminds-us-of-our-mysterious-relationship-with-time-and-space-224503">original article</a>.</em></p>

Technology

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A dystopian or utopian future? Claire G. Coleman’s new novel Enclave imagines both

<p>I was reading Noongar author Claire G. Coleman’s third novel, <a href="https://www.hachette.com.au/claire-g-coleman/enclave" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Enclave</a>, a few days after the US Supreme Court <a href="https://theconversation.com/us-supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade-but-for-abortion-opponents-this-is-just-the-beginning-185768" target="_blank" rel="noopener">overturned</a> the Roe v Wade judgement, a political victory for a conservative project many years in the making.</p> <p>As Michael Bradley argues in <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2022/06/27/trumps-activist-supreme-court-abortion-us-christian-theocracy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">his recent article in Crikey</a>, those driving this project “want to live in the America of their small imaginations: white, straight, patriarchal, Christian and mean”.</p> <p>Such small imaginations also inhabit the world of Enclave. Divided into two parts, the novel opens in a dystopian society just enough like our own to be disconcerting.</p> <p>The third-person narrative is told from the perspective of Christine, who is soon to turn 21. She has recently completed her undergraduate degree and is about to enrol in a Masters of Pure Mathematics. She has grown up in a walled town ruled by a Chairman and controlled by an Agency full of identity-less men in charcoal suits, backed up by security forces. People are led to believe that the widespread <a href="https://theconversation.com/big-brother-is-watching-how-new-technologies-are-changing-police-surveillance-115841" target="_blank" rel="noopener">camera surveillance</a> and armies of <a href="https://theconversation.com/eyes-on-the-world-drones-change-our-point-of-view-and-our-truths-143838" target="_blank" rel="noopener">drones</a> keep them safe.</p> <p>The world is hotter than our own, so everyone lives indoors in temperature-controlled environments. Opening a window in your own home is enough to alert the security forces. Light does not illuminate – it sneaks up, heats up, blinds and glares. It is violent and ugly bright, not unlike the “blank and pitiless” gaze from W.B. Yeats’ poem <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/the-second-coming" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Second Coming</a>.</p> <p>Christine lives a life of seemingly immense privilege. Servants are bussed in from outside the wall each day to serve her every whim. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/algorithms-can-decide-your-marks-your-work-prospects-and-your-financial-security-how-do-you-know-theyre-fair-171590" target="_blank" rel="noopener">algorithms</a> of the Enclave’s social network anticipate and manufacture desires that are met before Christine is even aware she has them.</p> <p>The Safetynet’s news service feeds residents a constant stream of images of the terror, violence and chaos outside the wall, from which the Agency is protecting them.</p> <p>The people of the Enclave live in uncannily similar homes that all seem new – even the faux old buildings of the University. They present perfectly manicured and curated lives on Safetynet socials. The town is nominally Christian, but no one goes to church.</p> <p>Christine is just starting to wake up to the reality of her situation. Her family is cold and loveless. Her father is a callous and unfeeling patriarch who works for the Fund, which controls the finances of the town. He wants Christine to do the same, at least until she gets married.</p> <p>Her mother drinks herself numb during endless long lunches with empty women who all share the same cosmetic surgeon. She exhorts her daughter to do the same, which is both menacing and hangover-inducing.</p> <p>Christine’s brother Brandon, a clone of her father, is a business student preparing to work for the Fund. He is, as she suggests, a real dick.</p> <p>Christine is also mourning the mysterious disappearance of her best friend Jack who, in a dig at the handful of controversially well-funded programs in the Australian university system, studied in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/western-civilisation-history-teaching-has-moved-on-and-so-should-those-who-champion-it-97697" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Western Civilisation Studies</a> department. She is awaiting a message from him through a secret channel. It never arrives.</p> <h2>Becoming illegal</h2> <p>Life in the Enclave is deeply oppressive, not to mention boring. Questioning the status quo is not tolerated. The lonely, loveless and listless descriptions of Christine’s world are enervating.</p> <p>Although she is meant to be rather smart, Christine has a remarkable lack of curiosity – an effect, one supposes, of the world in which she is raised. But for the first time in her life, she is starting to notice that all of her servants are brown-skinned or darker. Though they move around her home silently, catering to her every need, she doesn’t know any of their names.</p> <p>Things come to a head when she sees for the first time that one female servant in particular is breathtakingly beautiful. She feels desires that she wasn’t aware were even possible, and kisses her. They are caught on one of the many surveillance cameras. Her family is appalled, not only because Christine is attracted to a woman, but to a dark-skinned woman. According to her father, this makes her a “dyke, race traitor, bitch”. (I was more concerned about the power dynamics between master and servant.)</p> <p>Christine is cut off from everything – money, accommodation, communication – and taken into custody. She thus learns that Safetown, the name of her walled Enclave, is actually a private facility, so being without support is trespass. She is, in effect, illegal.</p> <p>Safetown, it transpires, is one of several organisations that established walled enclaves made possible by earlier government policies and laws. It is an economic and socio-political enclave started by extremely wealthy people, to produce and sustain a homogenous society.</p> <p>Christine is cast into the world outside Safetown: a hellish liminal zone where sunburned white exiles, dressed in rags and living off soup kitchens, slowly go mad. In this violent and dangerous place, people survive by trapping rats and pigeons with discarded wire. This wasteland is littered with corpses, evidence of prior occupation of the land on which Safetown was built.</p> <h2>Utopian and dystopian</h2> <p>Coleman’s vision is both utopian and dystopian. The world of the Enclave is a dystopia created in an attempt to realise an exclusive utopian vision: a homogenous world of straight white people served by a coloured underclass. In Safetown, everyone believes themselves to be protected from the chaos and violence outside the wall.</p> <p>Part two reveals Safetown as the walled dystopia the reader already knows it to be. And it offers a revised postcolonial and queer utopia – a place of radical inclusivity, in the form of a more technologically advanced version of Melbourne.</p> <p>Buildings are covered in plants to combat climate change. Trains are free to keep cars off the road. There is a universal income. Education is free and world-class. There is no surveillance or drones. Food is multicultural and always delicious; the coffee uniformly good (in that sense, not too different from Melbourne today):</p> <blockquote> <p>It was like a fever dream of a civic heaven, all light and beauty and people in connection with the natural world, which appeared to be invited into all human spaces […] And everywhere there were people, men, women, people she could not determine either way, every spectrum of skin colour from darker than Sienna to lighter than her.</p> </blockquote> <p>Like all literary utopias, Coleman’s idealised city reminds us that change is possible if we can imagine an alternative vision that makes change worth fighting and hoping for. But the novel also falls prey to the dangers of all utopias with its ideological certainty, its lack of nuance, the totality of its vision, and its dehumanisation of those who don’t share it.</p> <p>Surely, I’m not the only reader who is suspicious of a <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-our-utopia-careful-what-you-wish-for-165314" target="_blank" rel="noopener">utopia</a> in which everyone is beautiful. And a place where everyone is happy all the time has its own sinister and coercive feel, flying in the face of the human condition as it does.</p> <p>Having said that, Enclave is a novel that inclines towards hope. It touches on many of the issues of our own world – the ecological crisis, the scourge of racism, Australia’s treatment of refugees, greed and the manufacture of algorithm-driven desires, our acceptance of widespread digital surveillance and stolen attention, and the refusal to adequately acknowledge prior occupation and dispossession. It also reminds us of the dangers of the othering politics of fear.</p> <p>Enclave’s epigraph and some of its section titles are taken from Yeats’ The Second Coming, which describes a strange alternative to the prophesised return of Jesus. The poem opens in a world spiralling into chaos where</p> <blockquote> <p>The best lack all conviction, while the worst<br />Are full of passionate intensity.</p> </blockquote> <p>The Second Coming proposes a catastrophic and apocalyptic vision for a world on the brink of self-destruction that seems all too apt for the present moment. Coleman’s novel offers us an alternative: a world in which people, in meeting the demands of the present with curiosity, courage and conviction, can bring about a more just and inclusive future.</p> <p><em><strong>This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-dystopian-or-utopian-future-claire-g-colemans-new-novel-enclave-imagines-both-182859" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.</strong></em></p> <p><em>Images: Goodreads</em></p>

Books

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John Lennon’s son performs Imagine for the first time

<p dir="ltr">Julian Lennon has performed his late father John Lennon’s legendary song <em>Imagine</em> for the first time. </p> <p dir="ltr">Taking to Instagram on Saturday, the singer-songwriter shared a video of him performing the 1971 hit song in a candlelit room accompanied by acoustic guitarist Nuno Bettencourt.</p> <p dir="ltr">In the caption, Julian explained that by delivering his own rendition of the song, he was breaking a vow that he would only perform the song "if it was the end of the world".</p> <p dir="ltr">He shared the video during a benefit for Ukrainian refugees, closing out a televised European Union pledge drive that raised $10.1 billion in grants and loans for the cause.</p> <blockquote class="instagram-media" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CcGJArDlNdK/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" data-instgrm-version="14"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"> </div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <div style="padding: 12.5% 0;"> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; margin-bottom: 14px; align-items: center;"> <div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(0px) translateY(7px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; height: 12.5px; transform: rotate(-45deg) translateX(3px) translateY(1px); width: 12.5px; flex-grow: 0; margin-right: 14px; margin-left: 2px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; height: 12.5px; width: 12.5px; transform: translateX(9px) translateY(-18px);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: 8px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 20px; width: 20px;"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 2px solid transparent; border-left: 6px solid #f4f4f4; border-bottom: 2px solid transparent; transform: translateX(16px) translateY(-4px) rotate(30deg);"> </div> </div> <div style="margin-left: auto;"> <div style="width: 0px; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-right: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(16px);"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; flex-grow: 0; height: 12px; width: 16px; transform: translateY(-4px);"> </div> <div style="width: 0; height: 0; border-top: 8px solid #F4F4F4; border-left: 8px solid transparent; transform: translateY(-4px) translateX(8px);"> </div> </div> </div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center; margin-bottom: 24px;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 224px;"> </div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 144px;"> </div> </div> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;"><a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none;" href="https://www.instagram.com/tv/CcGJArDlNdK/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading" target="_blank" rel="noopener">A post shared by Julian Lennon (@julespicturepalace)</a></p> </div> </blockquote> <p dir="ltr">"Today, for the first time ever, I publicly performed my Dad's song, <em>Imagine</em>," the 59-year-old wrote. "I had always said that the only time I would ever consider singing Imagine would be if it was the End of the World…”</p> <p dir="ltr">"The war on Ukraine is an unimaginable tragedy... As a human, and as an artist, I felt compelled to respond in the most significant way I could."</p> <p dir="ltr">Of the track, Julian said, "Within this song, we're transported to a space, where love and togetherness become our reality, if but for a moment in time...The song reflects the light at the end of the tunnel, that we are all hoping for."</p> <p dir="ltr">“I’m calling on world leaders and everyone who believes in the sentiment of <em>Imagine</em>, to stand up for refugees everywhere!”</p> <p dir="ltr">The fundraiser drive, called Stand Up for Ukraine, closed on April 9th, however international humanitarian organisations are still taking donations to help with the ongoing crisis of the Russian invasion. </p> <p dir="ltr"><em>Image credits: Instagram @julespicturepalace</em><span id="docs-internal-guid-6e975720-7fff-2c99-f31d-f4dd8072848f"></span></p>

Music

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“Imagine being attacked for everything you do”: Ellen DeGeneres hits back at Harry and Meghan’s critics

<p>Ellen DeGeneres has joined Elton John and a number of other celebrities in voicing support for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex amid growing criticism of the royal couple’s use of private jets.</p> <p>Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan have come under fire after the British press reported on their trips and<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/08/19/citing-princess-dianas-death-elton-john-blasts-britains-media-coverage-meghan-harry/?noredirect=on" target="_blank">use of private planes</a>. The couple was accused of being hypocritical for going on luxury flights while proclaiming to support environmental causes.</p> <p>DeGeneres defended the royal pair in a statement on her social media accounts.</p> <p>The 61-year-old TV host wrote that she “met Prince Harry and Meghan in England to talk about their work on wildlife conservation”.</p> <p>She wrote, “They were the most down-to-earth, compassionate people. Imagine being attacked for everything you do, when all you're trying to do is make the world better.”</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">Portia and I met Prince Harry and Meghan in England to talk about their work on wildlife conservation. They were the most down-to-earth, compassionate people. Imagine being attacked for everything you do, when all you’re trying to do is make the world better. <a href="https://t.co/226pRO1fj1">pic.twitter.com/226pRO1fj1</a></p> — Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheEllenShow/status/1163551594526343168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2019</a></blockquote> <p>DeGeneres’s comment came after<span> </span><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.oversixty.com.au/travel/international-travel/deeply-distressed-elton-john-defends-harry-and-meghan-against-malicious-tabloids/" target="_blank">singer Sir Elton John slammed the “distorted and malicious account” of the Duke and Duchess’ trips</a>.</p> <p>John said he provided a 12-seater Cessna plane to allow the couple to travel to his home in Nice, France.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">After a hectic year continuing their hard work and dedication to charity, David and I wanted the young family to have a private holiday inside the safety and tranquility of our home. To maintain a high level of much-needed protection, we provided them with a private jet flight.</p> — Elton John (@eltonofficial) <a href="https://twitter.com/eltonofficial/status/1163479335585701889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2019</a></blockquote> <p>“After a hectic year continuing their hard work and dedication to charity, [husband] David and I wanted the young family to have a private holiday inside the safety and tranquillity of our home,” he wrote in a series of Twitter posts.</p> <p>“To maintain a high level of much-needed protection, we provided them with a private jet flight.</p> <p>“To support Prince Harry’s commitment to the environment, we ensured their flight was carbon neutral, by making the appropriate contribution to Carbon Footprint™.”</p> <p>John said he felt obliged to provide a private travel option for the royal couple due to the scrutiny that the royal family faces. “Prince Harry’s Mother, Diana Princess Of Wales was one of my dearest friends. I feel a profound sense of obligation to protect Harry and his family from the unnecessary press intrusion that contributed to Diana’s untimely death.”</p> <p>Singer Pink and polo player Nacho Figueras have also come to the Sussexes’ defense.</p> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">I’m happy to see people coming to the defense of The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. The way people treat her is the most public form of bullying I have seen in a while. It’s out of control. Let’s all be a bit kinder, huh? Let’s show our children that it’s cool to be kind.</p> — P!nk (@Pink) <a href="https://twitter.com/Pink/status/1163658843554893826?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 20, 2019</a></blockquote> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"> <p dir="ltr">The couple’s close friend and <a href="https://twitter.com/Sentebale?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Sentebale</a> ambassador <a href="https://twitter.com/nachofigueras?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nachofigueras</a> has also spoken out: “The press focuses on attacking them and trying to find problems where there are not. I will defend them and what they do and who they are for as long as I live.” <a href="https://t.co/qxfQuP4xEa">pic.twitter.com/qxfQuP4xEa</a></p> — Omid Scobie (@scobie) <a href="https://twitter.com/scobie/status/1163530192024932352?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 19, 2019</a></blockquote> <p>“The way people treat her is the most public form of bullying I have seen in a while. It’s out of control. Let’s all be a bit kinder, huh?” Pink wrote in a Twitter post on Tuesday.</p> <p>Figueras, a friend of the couple and an ambassador for Prince Harry’s charity Sentebale, wrote on his social media accounts: “The press focuses on attacking them and trying to find problems where there are not. I will defend them and what they do and who they are for as long as I live.”</p>

International Travel

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"Beyond anything you can imagine": The brutal truth of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster

<p>The launch of HBO miniseries <em>Chernobyl</em> has once again brought attention to the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Discussions have emerged as to whether the five-part show provided a realistic depiction of the catastrophe.</p> <p>While some details in the story have been contested, most experts and survivors agree that the portrayal of the radiation effects is true to life.</p> <p>Oleksiy Breus was an engineer at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in the then-Soviet Union. Following the 1986 explosion at the fourth reactor, he took part in a dangerous operation to drain water from under the power station to prevent further explosion.</p> <p>The 59-year-old told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48580177" target="_blank"><em>BBC</em></a> that the physical impacts of acute radiation syndrome (ARS) were shown well in the series through the character of firefighter Vasily Ignatenko.</p> <p>Breus said he met with shift leader Oleksandr Akimov and operator Leonid Toptunov – both of whom were featured prominently on the show – hours after the incident.</p> <p>“They were not looking good, to put it mildly,” he said. “It was clear they felt sick. They were very pale. Toptunov had literally turned white.”</p> <p>Akimov and Toptunov died two weeks later from ARS. Breus said his other colleagues who worked at the ill-fated night died in hospital after their skin turned to “a bright red colour”.</p> <p>He said, “Radiation exposure, red skin, radiation burns and steam burns were what many people talked about but it was never shown like this. When I finished my shift, my skin was brown, as if I had a proper suntan all over my body. My body parts not covered by clothes – such as hands, face and neck – were red.”</p> <p>This was in line with the testimony from Lyudmilla Ignatenko, wife of the fallen firefighter. In the book <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2005/apr/25/energy.ukraine" target="_blank">Voices from Chernobyl</a> by Russian journalist Svetlana Alexievich, Lyudmilla said she witnessed her husband’s condition exacerbate as he began experiencing serious diarrhea, hair loss and skin cracking and discolouring.</p> <p>She recalled, “I tell the nurse: ‘He’s dying’. And she says to me: ‘What did you expect? He got 1,600 roentgen. Four hundred is a lethal dose. You're sitting next to a nuclear reactor’.”</p> <p>Archaeologist and Chernobyl expert Robert Maxwell also vouched for the show’s accuracy in showing how nuclear radiation affects the human body.</p> <p>“The skin of the tongue sloughs off; the skin of the body turns black and peels way upon touch... eyes blister. The colon is covered in third degree burns,” Maxwell told <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.mamamia.com.au/chernobyl-radiation-poisoning/?utm_source=Mamamia.com.au%20-%20All%20Newsletters&amp;utm_campaign=e78d678868-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_06_17_06_53&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_9dc62997a2-e78d678868-211561537&amp;mc_cid=e78d678868&amp;mc_eid=c10f87c072" target="_blank"><em>Mamamia</em></a>. “Their depiction of ARS and its treatment during the Soviet 1980s is highly accurate.”</p> <p>The show’s creator Craig Mazin said he and his team took great care to show “total respect” to Vasily and his family in the series.</p> <p>“We had to be really careful in episode three when we showed the final stage of Vasily Ignatenko's body,” Mazin told <em><a rel="noopener" href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/chernobyl-finale-explained-creator-craig-mazin-interview-1215670" target="_blank">The Hollywood Reporter</a></em>. “It was the most extreme thing that we showed, and our makeup and prosthetic designer Daniel Parker did a brilliant job — so brilliant, in fact, that there was a concern that we lingered on it a bit.</p> <p>“We shortened that shot by quite a bit, because the last thing we wanted was to feel like we were trading on this man's sad fate for sensationalist points on a TV show. What we wanted was for people to see the truth of what happens…</p> <p>“Those were the things we were dealing with all the time, because that man was a real person, and his wife is still alive, and the last thing we want to do is show anything other than total respect.”</p> <p>134 people were <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18049222" target="_blank">diagnosed with ARS</a> in the aftermath of the explosion. 28 of them died within months.</p> <p>The number of people affected by the disaster remains disputed, with many suspecting that the radiation may be the reason behind other health problems such as cancer and birth defects.</p>

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Prince Harry gushes over baby Archie: “Can’t imagine life” without him

<p>Prince Harry has revealed what life as a father has been like since the arrival of his first-born Archie.</p> <p>The Duke of Sussex paid a visit to local residents at the Barton Neighbourhood Centre in Oxford, where he said that he can’t imagine a life without his son.</p> <p>The 34-year-old was met with plenty of well-wishers, all eager to know more about the newborn.</p> <p>Speaking to <a rel="noopener" href="https://www.hellomagazine.com/royalty/2019051473024/prince-harry-gives-meghan-markle-mum-update/" target="_blank"><em>Hello!</em></a>, Mrs Sheikh said that she asked the Prince about his son.</p> <p>“I asked him how Archie was, and he said he is doing well,” she said. “I asked him if Meghan was well and he said, ‘Yes, she is fine.'”</p> <p>Others were told of the sleepless nights he was facing from Harry himself.</p> <blockquote style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);" class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxcqa2dJHEO/" data-instgrm-version="12"> <div style="padding: 16px;"> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: row; align-items: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 50%; flex-grow: 0; height: 40px; margin-right: 14px; width: 40px;"></div> <div style="display: flex; flex-direction: column; flex-grow: 1; justify-content: center;"> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; margin-bottom: 6px; width: 100px;"></div> <div style="background-color: #f4f4f4; border-radius: 4px; flex-grow: 0; height: 14px; width: 60px;"></div> </div> </div> <div style="padding: 19% 0;"></div> <div style="display: block; height: 50px; margin: 0 auto 12px; width: 50px;"></div> <div style="padding-top: 8px;"> <div style="color: #3897f0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 550; line-height: 18px;">View this post on Instagram</div> </div> <p style="margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a style="color: #000; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxcqa2dJHEO/" target="_blank">Today, The Duke of Sussex visited Oxford to highlight the positive work being done in the city for young children, disabled people and the community at large. The Duke started his day meeting young patients at the Oxford Children’s Hospital. In 2016 at the @WellChild Awards, The Duke promised awardee Mikayla Beames he would visit her at hospital. Today, HRH was able to fulfill that promise and spend time with Mikayla and other patients and their families, along with the some of the extraordinary staff and teachers in the Hospital School who are on hand to support the young patients as they continue their studies whilst in hospital. Afterwards, The Duke of Sussex, in celebration of its 30th year, re-opened the OXSRAD Disability Sports and Leisure Centre, a facility first opened by his mother, Diana Princess of Wales in 1989. His Royal Highness felt honoured to pay tribute to her work and meet some of the people his mother met 30 years ago. This centre supports people with disabilities through sport and physical exercise – an area The Duke is particularly passionate about. HRH has seen the transformative effect sports, teamwork and exercise can have on people, not just physically but also for their mental fitness. The Duke’s final stop was at Barton Neighbourhood Centre to see the work of Thrive Teams, an initiative that supports at risk youth with access to education and employment. The Barton Centre includes a cafe, doctor’s office, sports hall, local police centre and food bank. The team there save nearly one tonne of food per day from being wasted and whip up some incredible meals for those that can’t afford to sustain themselves. Serving as a hub for this close-knit community, where 1 in 4 grow up in child poverty, this centre truly is a lifeline for its roughly 5,000 residents, but also an example of what can be achieved when we all come together.</a></p> <p style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 17px; margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 8px; overflow: hidden; padding: 8px 0 7px; text-align: center; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap;">A post shared by <a style="color: #c9c8cd; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: 17px;" rel="noopener" href="https://www.instagram.com/sussexroyal/" target="_blank"> The Duke and Duchess of Sussex</a> (@sussexroyal) on May 14, 2019 at 8:23am PDT</p> </div> </blockquote> <p>When presented with posters from school children, the royal said that he looks forward to reading them at “4 o’clock in the morning” when his son is wide awake.</p> <p>The Duke also took a trip to Oxford Children’s Hospital and spoke to Amy Scullard, a mother-of-two, who was cradling her 10-week-old daughter.</p> <p>Presumably looking for advice from someone experienced, Harry had asked if her daughter was over her grumpy period which occurs throughout the first 10 weeks.</p> <p>“He said he’s getting used to the baby and how Archie has fitted into family life,” said Ms Scullard. “He said he just feels part of the family and he can’t imagine life without his son.”</p> <p>Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor was born on May 6.</p>

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Inside the most magnificent bookstores imaginable

<p>With the introduction of online shopping and digital e-readers, you might think the time of the bookstore has passed. But for us die-hard real-book fans, nothing beats the feel of entering a bookstore full of that old book smell and possibilities. To satisfy such avid readers, here are some of the most beautiful bookstores still standing the test of time.</p> <p><img width="500" height="334" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/10340/1_500x334.jpg" alt="1 (91)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p><img width="499" height="325" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/10341/2_499x325.jpg" alt="2 (96)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/10343/4_500x333.jpg" alt="4 (86)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="339" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/10344/5_500x339.jpg" alt="5 (82)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/10345/6_500x333.jpg" alt="6 (77)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p><img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/10346/7.jpg" alt="7 (71)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p><img width="499" height="330" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/10347/8_499x330.jpg" alt="8 (66)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p><img width="499" height="319" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/10348/9_499x319.jpg" alt="9 (53)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p> <p><img width="499" height="290" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/10349/10_499x290.jpg" alt="10 (40)" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"/></p>

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Reinvent your home with just a bucket of dye and oodles of imagination

<p>A simple bucket of dye is a great way to breathe life back into everyday objects from around the home. The best part is that it is a very straightforward process that anyone can do. Why not experiment to make your own colors, and then let your imagination be your guide for how and where to use it.</p> <p><strong>Find a colour theme</strong></p> <p>You don’t have to stick to just dying fabric. Try other materials such as paper, wool, raffia, feathers, rice and even stones. The fun part is you just never know how it will turn out. Often one bucket of dye can produce a vastly different result for different items. You can also vary how long you keep the items in the dye.</p> <p><strong>Vintage linens</strong></p> <p>If you’ve got classic vintage table linens, consider dying them for a modern new look. You can choose colours to complement your kitchen, or go for a variety of colours to use at an outdoor lunch.</p> <p><strong>Bowls and cups</strong></p> <p>Grab some good quality disposable bowls to use as a fun introduction to playing around with dyes. They can look as good as ceramic bowls and can be put in pride of place on shelves or windowsills to store your bits and pieces.</p> <p><strong>Buttons</strong></p> <p>You can customise your wooden, fabric or mother-of-pearl buttons with dye for your clothes or craft projects.</p> <p><strong>Linen clothing</strong></p> <p>When white linen clothes have aged and discoloured, dye can come to the rescue. Breathe new life into a dress or shirt by dying it, along with your accessories such as beads and a linen shopping bag.</p> <p><strong>Bed sheets</strong></p> <p>If you’re a bit tired of the classic white or cream sheet sets, customise to your heart’s content by dying them. It could be a classic contrast such as yellow and green; or go for varied shades of blue or pink. </p>

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