Ryder Cup Cigar Guy photo shoots unknown man to internet fame |

 Posted on May 24, 2024  |  1 minutes  |  188 words  |  Delta Gatti

CardiffRyder Cup Cigar Guy photo shoots unknown man to internet fameA photo taken from the Ryder Cup has shot to internet fame - but do you know the anonymous man who's face is going global?A picture of Tiger Woods firing a golf ball straight at a Daily Mail photographer in the Ryder Cup would be remarkable in its own right – but the appearance of 'Cigar Guy' - a cigar-chewing moustachioed man has rocketed the picture to internet fame. [Read More]

The internet didn't kill Tallulah Wilson, but nor did it do much to help her | Children

 Posted on May 24, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  930 words  |  Brenda Moya

The ObserverChildrenThe internet didn't kill Tallulah Wilson, but nor did it do much to help herIn the rush to blame websites for teenage suicides, we risk losing sight of the real causes of these deaths"Her eyes look sad," is one Twitter user's post beneath Tallulah Wilson's photograph. The image of a striking, unsmiling 15-year-old with disarmingly large eyes accompanies almost every article on last week's inquest into her suicide. We don't know when it was taken; perhaps Tallulah was perfectly content then. [Read More]

Here be monsters

 Posted on May 23, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1233 words  |  Barrett Giampaolo

BooksReviewAS Byatt is entertained yet baffled by Umberto Eco's latest novel, Baudolino, an uneasy mixture of history and fantasyBaudolino by Umberto Eco 522pp, Secker & Warburg, £18 Italo Calvino described a "deep-rooted tradition in Italian literature... the notion of the literary work as a map of the world and the knowable, of writing driven on by a thirst for knowledge that may in turns be theological, speculative, magical, encyclopaedic..." He was talking about Dante the visionary and Galileo the cosmographer, but he himself, and Umberto Eco, also work from the same impulses. [Read More]

If masterpiece means anything, it means Cats Cradle: the Kurt Vonnegut novels everyone shou

 Posted on May 23, 2024  |  7 minutes  |  1353 words  |  Delta Gatti

BooksOn his centenary, there are many glories to honour, not least Slaughterhouse-Five. But his best book is this pocket epic in which the world ends to the tune of the false religion of Bokononism, thinks John Self The books of Kurt Vonnegut, who was born 100 years ago this Friday, are funny, unflinching, soft-hearted, stark, imaginative and approachable – and just as relevant now as when he published his debut novel 70 years ago. [Read More]

Investors convert totally worthless NFTs into tax write-offs | Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

 Posted on May 23, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  952 words  |  Brenda Moya

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) This article is more than 1 year oldInvestors convert ‘totally worthless’ NFTs into tax write-offsThis article is more than 1 year oldA new service offers a way to offset losses from NFTs during a grim crypto winter that saw demand for digital collectibles vanish Just a year ago, Washington DC’s Hirshhorn art museum – the capital’s preeminent contemporary art museum – was asking whether non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were “fad or the future of art”. [Read More]

James IV: Queen of the Fight review Rona Munros knotty latest Stewart dynasty play

 Posted on May 23, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  364 words  |  Delta Gatti

The ObserverTheatreReviewTheatre Royal, Glasgow; and touring A racist ode by the court poet William Dunbar is the problematic inspiration for the fourth of Munro’s James plays exploring Scotland past and present Rona Munro’s sequence of plays about Scotland’s Stewart kings was launched at the Edinburgh festival in 2014. Like its three predecessors, covering the reigns of James I, II and III, this latest uses real historic events to ask audiences to consider the nature of Scottish identity past and present. [Read More]

Masquerade: The Lives of Nol Coward by Oliver Soden review the man in the ironic mask

 Posted on May 23, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1111 words  |  Merlyn Hunt

Observer book of the weekBiography booksReviewA lively, affectionate but far from adulatory new biography of the playwright marks the 50th anniversary of his death and draws on unpublished letters and diaries to expose a painful private life obscured by success As a 12-year-old child actor, Noël Coward featured in a dance number at the Savoy theatre in London playing the part of a mushroom. A photograph of him in his fungal finery – “grey silk skin tights, a large grey silk hat like a gargantuan muffin, and a diaphanous frill round my middle” – was put on display by his proud mother at whichever house the family were billeted in. [Read More]

Republican Lauren Boebert compares Ukraine to Canadian truckers convoy | Republicans

 Posted on May 23, 2024  |  3 minutes  |  520 words  |  Merlyn Hunt

Republicans This article is more than 1 year oldRepublican Lauren Boebert compares Ukraine to Canadian truckers’ convoyThis article is more than 1 year oldCongresswoman says ‘our neighbors to the north need to be liberated’, prompting widespread condemnation The Republican congresswoman Lauren Boebert was condemned for comparing the Russian invasion of Ukraine to the clearing of a truckers’ protest in Ottawa, saying: “We also have neighbors to the north who need freedom and who need to be liberated. [Read More]

Jimmy Carter, Biden and Clintons pay tribute at Rosalynn Carter memorial | Jimmy Carter

 Posted on May 22, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  763 words  |  Brenda Moya

Jimmy Carter This article is more than 1 month oldJimmy Carter, Biden and Clintons pay tribute at Rosalynn Carter memorialThis article is more than 1 month oldJimmy Carter, 99, left hospice care at home for service for his late wife, but Trump, Obama and Bush did not attend A tribute service for Rosalynn Carter took place on Tuesday, as politicians and public figures gathered to celebrate the former first lady’s life following her death last Sunday. [Read More]

John Oliver on child labor in the chocolate industry: It is worse than you may realize

 Posted on May 22, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  920 words  |  Merlyn Hunt

John Oliver recapJohn OliverFor Halloween, the Last Week Tonight host delves into the long-lived child labor practices in the world’s chocolate supply On the eve of Halloween week, John Oliver focused his main segment of Last Week Tonight on the abuses of the chocolate industry, which rakes in about $140bn a year. Oliver acknowledged that a segment on chocolate sounds like it could be pleasant: “You might be sitting at home thinking ‘Hold on, I’ve seen this show before, this feels like this could be one of those fun stories but is it about to take a turn? [Read More]