Along with French elections, and with a rising tide of anti-austerity sentiment across Europe, Greece’s vote is expected to have a clear impact on the future of the euro.
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Greeks Expected to Make Old Guard Pay for Turmoil
Richard Taylor reports on how virtual reality has made James May fear for the future of his presenting career.
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VIDEO: James May meets his virtual self
Politicians and Vatican at odds over Sean Brady’s future
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Cardinal Brady: Political leaders and Vatican at odds
Politicians and Vatican at odds over Sean Brady’s future
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Cardinal Brady: Political leaders and Vatican at odds
W hen Jonathan Frederick Will was born 40 years ago — on May 4, 1972, his father’s 31st birthday — the life expectancy for people with Down syndrome was about 20 years. That is understandable. The day after Jon was born, a doctor told Jon’s parents that the first question for them was whether they intended to take Jon home from the hospital. Nonplussed, they said they thought that is what parents do with newborns. Not doing so was, however, still considered an acceptable choice for parents who might prefer to institutionalize or put up for adoption children thought to have necessarily bleak futures. Whether warehoused or just allowed to languish from lack of stimulation and attention, people with Down syndrome, not given early and continuing interventions, were generally thought to be incapable of living well, and hence usually did not live as long as they could have. Read full article > >
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Jon Will’s gift
Chefs with Issues is a platform for chefs, writers and farmers we love, fired up for causes about which they're passionate. Michael W. Twitty is a culinary historian, living history interpreter and Jewish educator from the Washington D.C. area. He blogs at Afroculinaria.com and thecookinggene.com . As the originator of the Cooking Gene Project, he seeks to trace his ancestry through food. Edward Booker, Hattie Bellamy and Washington Twitty didn’t know what an organic farm was, but nearly everything they ate was organic. They enjoyed wild caught, sustainable fish; they were no strangers to free range chickens, and they ate with the seasons with almost nothing originating more than a mile or two away from their cabin door. They had gardens, composted, and ate no processed foods. Their food was fairly simple, often meatless; and it was a fusion cuisine, with ingredients drawn from five continents. They were not culinary revolutionaries living out of the foodie playbook – they were three enslaved individuals living among the over 4 million held in bondage before the Civil War, and they were my ancestors. In the upcoming months I will return to the fields, forests and waterways of the Old South in search of my culinary version of Roots, tracing my family tree through food from Africa to America and from slavery to freedom. The project is called The Cooking Gene: Southern Discomfort Tour . Slavery is not just a practice or moment in American history; it is a metaphor for our relationships to lifestyles and food systems that many of us view as beyond our control. Most of us are enslaved to food systems that aren’t sustainable, but eat we must. And because we must eat, food is a natural vehicle for telling the kinds of stories about historical slavery and the impact of “race” on how we eat , even as we critique and question our contemporary food politics. Food is our vehicle to move beyond race and into relationships and use those relationships to promote the kind of racial reconciliation and healing, our nation desperately needs. Food is not an afterthought in the story of race, class and power. It is the founding element in our American story. In human no enslaved people have transformed the food habits, tastes and relationship with the table of those who enslaved them, as Africans did in the Americas. We are – all of us Southerners – the products of a strange and painful, joyous and regret-free cuisine that is the confluence of mothers and men speaking over 100 languages struggling over the means to express a common culinary love in the middle of a heartbreaking and irrevocable exile. This is the heritage I am thrilled to carry in my DNA but like many of us, terrified to reclaim and own. Why now? In the words of one my faith’s greatest sages, “If not now, when?” We need this conversation because we have tired of our ancestors being referred to anonymous “slaves” lingering in the background of Southern culinary and cultural history even as children of color could be actively engaged in growing the heirloom crops of their ancestors in urban community gardens. We feel locked out of the epic story of barbecue, revised to erase its African/Diaspora ancestry. Our farmers are struggling to hold onto land purchased after the Civil War, when they could be producing quality organic food. Many of us are crying for a culinary voice that respects and embraces the best of our contributions rather than devaluing them with buzzwords centering on contemporary food practices which aren’t as healthy or wholesome as classic early African American cuisine actually was. As my team and I wind our way from Maryland to Louisiana and back we hope to find ourselves using this story to remedy these ills of historical and cultural obfuscation and overall lack of access to the contemporary food scene. Most of all I am hoping to sit down with the descendants of the families who owned my ancestors,and in some cases are my blood relatives. If nothing else, our names, the land, shared histories and Southern food bond us and connect us in ways other Americans are not. I’ve caught the DNA bug, and want to trace these tree lines back to West and Central Africa, Europe and Native America to understand where it all comes from so that we know where we’re going. American food culture today is an inquisitive and contested landscape in search of values, directions, and its own indigenous sense of rightness and self-worth. It is a culture looking towards American ecology, seasons and opportunities for new ways to invigorate and color the national palette. It is concerned with health, sustainability, local economies, environmental integrity and social justice. We could not ask for a better season to harvest the fruits of our common food Ancestors: the cooks of kitchens high and low in the Old and Deep South. It is these men and women who I hope to champion and elevate not just because the past needs us, but because we need the past; and the future needs us now. Follow Michael on his journey at thecookinggene.com and learn more about the fundraising effort at indiegogo.com . More on Southern Food : Old world ingredients you should know and use from the South Why it's different in the South Why diversity matters in a restaurant kitchen Hugh Acheson: Southern food, beyond the butter Why eating grits doesn't automatically make you a Southerner 5@5 – Overlooked Southern ingredients Mehepyewpleez? A love letter to K&W Cafeteria Boiled peanuts She-crab soup, shrimp and grits, benne seed wafers and the lowdown on Lowcountry cuisine 5@5 – Virginia Willis – Southern is a state of mind Talk with your mouth full – what is Southern food? Reclaiming the soul of Southern food Southern food: more voices from the field
In the year since the world watched Kate Middleton glide into Westminster Abbey and emerge Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, the wife of Britain’s future king has wowed Hollywood , been named to best-dressed lists and charmed the recession-weary by sharing outfits with her mother . She divides her time between a cottage in windswept Wales, where the Royal Navy has stationed Prince William, and Kensington Palace, where an apartment is being renovated to their specifications. She smiles, rarely speaks and looks princess-perfect in a hat. Read full article > >
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Kate Middleton, the commoner who saved the queen
Arsenal are yet to propose a date for contract talks with Robin van Persie as he considers delaying any decision on his future.
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Van Persie may delay Arsenal date
Championship clubs agree to implement Financial Fair Play regulations from next season to “lay foundations” for the future.
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Clubs vote for financial changes
It’s possibly the cruelest joke a brain can play: One minute you’re devouring a delicious ice cream sundae in delight, the next you’re holding a palm to your forehead in excruciating pain. For the next 10 seconds, what you laughingly refer to as “brain freeze” (when other people get it) is no laughing matter. Researchers induced such pain in 27 healthy volunteers in a new study presented at the Experimental Biology 2012 conference in San Diego this week. Lead author Jorge Serrador and his team were trying to identify exactly what causes brain freeze. They hoped that by pinpointing the cause they would influence future research on migraines or post-traumatic headaches. Read – Searching for the cause of 'brain freeze'
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Aaaaggghhh! Brain freeze! Researchers seek an explanation
A sharp rise in the number of deaths in the Syrian uprising casts fresh doubt on the future success of a UN ceasefire monitoring scheme.
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Syria violence tests UN mission
A company has plans to mine asteroids that zip close by Earth, both to provide supplies for future interplanetary travelers and to bring back precious metals.
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In Pursuit of Riches, and Travelers’ Supplies, in the Asteroid Belt
Researchers create artificial DNA and RNA molecules that interact with their natural counterparts, hinting at future “synthetic genetics”.
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Evolution seen in ‘synthetic DNA’
The future of the U.S. economy, apparently, is hot sauces and self-tanning creams. Last week, we looked at the nation’s top 10 dying industries — everything from DVD rentals to, uh, newspapers. But now IBIS World is out with a new report (pdf) on the 10 fastest- growing industries: Read full article > >
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The top 10 fastest-growing U.S. industries (Hint: Think hot sauce)
In Pursuit of Riches, and Travelers’ Supplies, in the Asteroid Belt
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012The top 10 fastest-growing U.S. industries (Hint: Think hot sauce)
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
