De La Soul is coming to streaming services – a brief guide to their best work: De La Soul is one of the most significant and iconic groups in the history of hip hop. Comprising three members, Trugoy The Dove, Posdnous and Maseo, De La Soul worked together for 35 years releasing innovative music, touring …
The art of balding: a brief history of hairless men: Man With a Tankard, by Frans van Mieris the Younger (1739). The Fitzwilliam Museum, CC BY-SA Balding is really common, affecting more than 50% of men. It’s also physically inconsequential (bald men live just as long as haired men). So why, in his memoir Spare, …
Roald Dahl: A brief history of sensitivity edits to children’s literature: Puffin Books have worked with the consultancy Inclusive Minds (who say they help publishers, authors and illustrators work towards authentic inclusion, accessibility, and diverse representation) to revise some of the language used in Roald Dahl’s books for children, more than 100 years after his …
Pancakes and football: a brief history of Shrove Tuesday in the UK: "Medieval football" is still played annually on Shrove Tuesday in some parts of the UK. Shutterstock/Alamy Pancake Day, or Shrove Tuesday is once again upon us. Celebrated in many countries around the world, for Christians, Shrove Tuesday marks the last day, or the …
Valentine’s Day: a brief history of the soulmate – and why it’s a limited concept: Francesca da Rimini by William Dyce (1837), depicting Dante's Francesca and Paolo. National Gallery of Scotland, CC BY-SA One of the difficult things about working on the philosophy of love is that human relationships change, but our dominant images of …
A brief history of LibreOffice: A brief history of LibreOffice italovignoli Tue, 02/07/2023 – 03:00 In early 2009, OpenOffice.org was the main competitor to Microsoft Office in the individual office productivity suites market. The popular open source office suite’s community looked forward to a November conference in Orvieto, Italy. Things were going well, and the …
The clitoris – a brief history: Christina Paliy/Shutterstock “What’s the difference between a bar and clitoris? Most men have no trouble finding a bar.” In the world of humour, the clitoris remains a mystery: supposedly small, and so inevitably difficult to locate. “Which dinosaur will never be discovered? The Clitaurus.” It sometimes seems medical science …
A brief history of statistics in football: why actual goals remain king in predicting who will win: In 2017, BBC’s Match of the Day introduced a new statistic in their post-match summaries of Premier League matches. Expected goals, or xG, is designed to tell us how many goals a team should have scored based on …
How pink became fashion’s colour of controversy: a brief history: Portrait of Madame Gely by Frederick Carl Frieseke (1907). Public Domain Review From the blush pink of royal mistresses to the hot pink of tabloid party girls, pink has gained a reputation for being a provocative colour for those who dare to wear it. You …
A brief history of Yorkshire puddings – and why they technically shouldn’t feature in a traditional Christmas dinner: shutterstock Maksym Poriechkin/Shutterstock Christmas dinner is considered by many to be the best meal of the year and yet when it comes to deciding what this meal should consist of people’s opinions often differ. For some there …
Liz Truss: a brief guide to her economic ideas and what the evidence says about them: For some, Liz Truss’s headline policies since she became the UK’s prime minister have been shocking. Markets have been shocked, voters have been shocked, and many of her own colleagues in the Conservative party seem a little uncomfortable. So …
Pi day: a brief history of our fascination with this magical number, from pies to ‘piems’: Oksana Mizina/Shutterstock Imagine a cup of tea. Wrap a piece of string around the circumference of the cup, and measure the length of the string. Then, lay your spoon on top of the cup, making sure it lies across …
A brief history of African nations at the Olympic Winter Games: Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong at the 2010 winter Olympics. OLIVIER MORIN/AFP via Getty Images) A record number of eight African countries competed at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. At the 2022 Beijing winter games, currently underway, Africa is represented by six …
Sanctions: a brief history from Ancient Greece to Vladimir Putin’s Russia: Sanctions: effective weapon or token gesture? Anton Watman via Shutterstock Faced with the imminent possibility of a Russian invasion of Ukraine and what appears to be a deteriorating diplomatic stand-off, NATO and other western allies are again turning to sanctions in the absense of …
What’s the history of foreign troops on Kenyan soil? Here’s a brief rundown: A new US report claims that China plans to open new military bases across Africa. Getty Images The presence of foreign military personnel is rarely a hot topic in Kenya, except in rare cases of transgressions such as recent reports linking a …
Labour party conference: the dispute around rule changes explained in brief: The Labour party has voted to amend the rules governing how it elects leaders at its 2021 party conference. This was a marker successfully laid down by current leader Keir Starmer – but one that only came after a battle with the Labour left. …
South Africa in the news: The world in brief: Pelosi warns U.K. on post-Brexit discord: U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Britain on Friday that there will be no U.S.-U.K. trade deal unless the British government solves post-Brexit disagreements with the European Union that risk …: “South Africa” – BingNews Swinton must adjust or see …
A brief history of FreeDOS: A master was explaining the nature of The Tao of Programming to one of his novices. “The Tao is embodied in all software—regardless of how insignificant,” said the master. “Is Tao in a hand-held calculator?” asked the novice. “It is,” came the reply. “Is the Tao in a video game?” continued …