The $1m challenge: If the Turin Shroud is a forgery, show how it was done | Christianity

 Posted on June 6, 2024  |  6 minutes  |  1088 words  |  Aldo Pusey

The ObserverChristianity This article is more than 1 year oldThe $1m challenge: ‘If the Turin Shroud is a forgery, show how it was done’This article is more than 1 year oldExpert on revered relic calls on British Museum to back up the results of its disputed carbon dating tests It was one of the most eagerly awaited scientific announcements of all time, and it pitted the world of faith against the world of rational thought, under the glare of the media. [Read More]

The 100 best female footballers in the world 2023 | Women's football

 Posted on June 6, 2024  |  1 minutes  |  122 words  |  Aldo Pusey

The 100 best footballers in the worldWomen's footballThe 100 best female footballers in the world 2023 Aitana Bonmatí, Sam Kerr and Salma Paralluelo top the list of female footballers in the world in 2023 according to our judges Putellas tops 2022 list | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | Meet the judges Spain and Barcelona lead the way after year of success Subscribe to our free women’s football newsletter Football Next Generation 2017: 20 of the best talents at Premier League clubs The Guardian picks the best prospect from each club born between 1 September 2000 and 31 August 2001, an age band known as first-year scholars. [Read More]

The Life and Lies of Charles Dickens by Helena Kelly review great speculations

 Posted on June 6, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  982 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

Charles DickensReviewA new biography suggests everything we know about Dickens is wrong Two years after Charles Dickens’s death in 1870, his closest friend, John Forster, published the first volume of his Life of Charles Dickens. Based on letters Dickens had written to him and stories he had told him, it was, in effect, an authorised biography. For Dickens buffs, it has always been both a matchless source and an untrustworthy narrative. [Read More]

Women in Dark Times review a wilfully obtuse feminist study

 Posted on June 6, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  711 words  |  Aldo Pusey

The ObserverSociety booksReviewJacqueline Rose wants her book to be a clarion call for a new feminism. But it is long-winded, precious and paradoxicalIn non-academic circles, Jacqueline Rose, who teaches at the University of London, is best known as the author of the 1991 book, The Haunting of Sylvia Plath, a feminist analysis of the poet’s work that drove Ted Hughes halfway round the bend. As Janet Malcolm wrote when she revisited the saga in The Silent Woman, her own book about Plath and Hughes, Rose, whose interests include psychoanalysis, is “an adept of a theory of criticism whose highest values are uncertainty, anxiety and ambiguity”. [Read More]

'How many more people have to die?': what a closed rural hospital tells us about US healthcare | Mis

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  11 minutes  |  2313 words  |  Kary Bruening

Cindy Anderson with a photo of her late husband ‘Butch’ in her home in Kennett, Missouri. The city has been without a hospital since Twin Rivers regional medical center closed in 2018. Photograph: Brandon Dill/The GuardianCindy Anderson with a photo of her late husband ‘Butch’ in her home in Kennett, Missouri. The city has been without a hospital since Twin Rivers regional medical center closed in 2018. Photograph: Brandon Dill/The GuardianMissouri This article is more than 4 years old'How many more people have to die? [Read More]

Dust of a nation

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  901 words  |  Chauncey Koziol

The ObserverBooksReviewArtist Ma Jian's account of his trek through China to Tibet, Red Dust, is a beautiful, disturbing read - a new Wild SwansRed Dust: A Path Through China Ma Jian Chatto & Windus £12, pp324 On 18 August 1983 the Chinese poet and painter Ma Jian turns 30. His ex-wife has just pronounced him a political criminal and forbidden him to see his daughter. His girlfriend has taken up with a convict and betrayed him to the police. [Read More]

How can I cope with my manipulative mother?

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  977 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

Ask Annalisa BarbieriFamilyI am doing my best, but sometimes I feel overwhelmed by guilt about not doing enough. Annalisa Barbieri advises a readerI am a woman in my 50s looking for advice on how to cope with my needy and manipulative mother, who is in her 80s. Physically, she is in really good shape: she is active, has a good social life, lives independently in a retirement property and drives a car. [Read More]

Mad Men, series two, episode nine: Six Months' Leave | Mad Men

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  5 minutes  |  974 words  |  Valentine Belue

TV and radio blogMad MenMad Men, series two, episode nine: Six Months' LeaveMarilyn Monroe is dead, Freddy Rumsen is fired and Betty Draper is confused. Our episode-by-episode blog of Man Men continues …Spoiler warning: Don't read on if you haven't seen any of the first series of Mad Men, or the first eight episodes of series two. Watch Six Months' Leave on iPlayer. Last week left us with Betty telling Don to remove himself from the Draper family home, Joan being gazumped by Harry's ignorance and Peggy still keeping it all in. [Read More]

Mirror sued by Holden | Newspapers & magazines

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  2 minutes  |  291 words  |  Aldo Pusey

Newspapers & magazinesMirror sued by HoldenTV actress Amanda Holden is suing the Daily Mirror for libel over two articles that appeared in the tabloid's 3am gossip column alleging she had kicked up a fuss over her accommodation arrangements during the filming of BBC1 hairdressers' drama Cutting It. Her lawyers confirmed today Ms Holden has issued high court proceedings for defamation against Mirror Group Newspapers in respect of two articles about her published in the Mirror on September 28 and October 8. [Read More]

Opera singers | Money | The Guardian

 Posted on June 5, 2024  |  4 minutes  |  733 words  |  Jenniffer Sheldon

Wage slaves: careers profiledMoneyOpera singersBarbara Oaff finds out what it takes to do other people's jobs and how much they are paid.Denise Leigh and Jane Gilchrist have just had the chance of a lifetime. Last Saturday, as joint winners of Channel 4's docu-competition Operatunity , the two thirtysomething mothers got to sing leads with the English National Opera. As the curtain fell, everyone beamed. But, apart from the winning warblers, few of the people on stage had reason to smile. [Read More]