redfiona99

Economics:

The Real Cost of Fast Fashion - https://www.buzzfeed.com/saraspary/these-asos-workers-are-paying-the-true-price-of-your-order?utm_term=.cyOe4kYOA#.xpdW0N15b

Ford and other firms to miss Paris Motor Show - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37486174

Healthcare:

Young women at 'highest mental health risk' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-37504679

History:

World War Two spy's row with wife 'almost ruined D-Day' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37483023

Miscellaneous:

The reality of life as a disabled clubber - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37383822

US presidents can have everything - except the car keys - http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-presidents-can-have-everything--except-the-car-keys-20140506-zr5we.html

A world without Down's syndrome? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37500189

What's it like to be the child of a survivor? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37434266

Teesside's last blast furnace closure made men cry - what happened next? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37488281

Journalist Noor Tagouri to become first Muslim to appear in Playboy with a hijab -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37483996/journalist-noor-tagouri-to-become-first-muslim-to-appear-in-playboy-with-a-hijab

Eight times Terry Wogan made us cry with laughter -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2pWR5yl7srfqNWYHwHj0Nsq/eight-times-terry-wogan-made-us-cry-with-laughter

Why the story of body-swapping teenagers has gripped Japan - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-37469662

Counterfeit drugs: 'People are dying every day' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37470667

News:

Colombia Farc ceasefire: The man who photographed a little-pictured war - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37494029

California ends statute of limitations for rape over Cosby case - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37504919

Thai women take dip in the road in pothole protest - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-37485461

Syria war: The toy smuggler bringing bags of joy to children - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-37481761

Will and Kate's Canada tour highlights First Nations fury - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37489827

Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi: The vandal of Timbuktu - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-37438360

South Asia's 'disposable women' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37472233

Politics:

The transgender Republican trying to change her party - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-37256151

Science:

Hawaiian bees are first on US endangered species list - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-37530284

First 'three person baby' born using new method - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-37485263

Sport:

Football:

Arsene Wenger's 20 years at Arsenal: An imperfect love story - http://www.eurosport.co.uk/football/premier-league/2015-2016/arsene-wenger-s-20-years-at-arsenal-an-imperfect-love-story_sto5883781/story.shtml

Arsene Wenger's 20 years at Arsenal: How will he be judged? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/37408155

Golf:

Arnold Palmer: How golfer defined sports marketing - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37472934

Technology:

Customers 'bewildered and fearful' about use of their data - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37476335

Books/TV:

Game of Thrones: Discover the real Westeros - http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2014-04-29/game-of-thrones-discover-the-real-westeros Or the Northern Ireland tourism board now has consultant dragons. Link care of nwhyte.

Films:

Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan Speculate On Their Characters' Futures 25 Years after 'When Harry Met Sally' - http://www.nerve.com/entertainment/billy-crystal-and-meg-ryan-speculate-their-characters-futures-after-when-harry-met-sally

Science:

The strange case of the 'time travel' murder (and other tales from the UK Forensics service) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26324244

Antibiotic resistance now 'global threat', WHO warns - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-27204988 That sound you can hear is lots of scientists going "we've been trying to tell you this for years."

History:

The Man Who Made South Africa's Flag - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27155475

Music/Music Industry:

Cee-Lo Green Originally Recorded 'Happy' (and other could have beens) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/27234842

Politics/Economics:

Legal aid row leads to halting of serious fraud trial - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27238201 Where the Prime Minister's brother is on the side of right and good.

UK Cost Of Living Changes Over 10 Years - http://www.politicshome.com/uk/article/97214/cost_of_living_.html

Sport:

World's oldest surviving Olympian, and sharp-shooting FBI agent, dies aged 106 - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/olympic-games-worlds-oldest-olympian-sharp-shooting-fbi-112828806--spt.html

Snooker:

World Snooker Championship: How to survive Crucible marathon - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/snooker/27048713

Football:

Crystal Palace: How Tony Pulis achieved Premier League survival - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27253266

Footballer Fabrice Muamba launches defibrillator campaign - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-27237737

Rodney Marsh cleans Stoke City players' boots after losing online argument - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-27210196

Formula 1:

Senna's death: Hill still full of disbelief 20 years on - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/formula-1-sennas-death-hill-still-full-disbelief-074615188--f1.html The whole article is worth reading, because Damon Hill is honest and capable of great insight.

Senna's death: The practical joker whose laughter is still missed - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/formula-1-sennas-death-practical-joker-whos-laughter-074245068--f1.html

Formula 1/Football:

Brazilian footballers pay tribute to Ayrton Senna by wearing helmets - https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/world-of-sport/brazilian-footballers-honour-ayrton-senna-wearing-yellow-helmets-031717505.html

Most people classed as being in poverty 'have job' - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25287068 - which given the state of inflation and the minimum wage doesn't surprise me.

As the imprisoned Nelson Mandela became the face of a global campaign against apartheid, within South Africa a ban on his image meant people weren't sure what he looked like - and he became a mythological figure, recalls author William Gumede. - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25256818 I have to admit this interested me because I'm old enough to remember when you couldn't hear Gerry Adams's voice on TV, which I didn't understand at the time and still don't. Mostly because the replacement voice was so much nicer than Adams's real voice when it finally got revealed.

In 1994 I voted for Mandela over a thousand times as prisoners in Rooigrond wispered his name in my ear - https://medium.com/p/836adb04333e from nwhyte

UK news - Working parents in Britain "simply do not earn enough to escape poverty", the government's social mobility tsar Alan Milburn has warned - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24553611

Science - Where Drug Names Come From - http://cen.acs.org/articles/90/i3/Drug-Names-Come.html via @chemjobber / chemjobber.blogspot.com

International news - Azerbaijan's election has been tainted by a host of bizarre events, crowned off by a mystical smart phone application. - http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/10/azerbaijan-appgate-2013101314326460795.html via nwhyte

I'm watching England v France. There is a rumour there was another match on, but I've reached an agreement with a friend that, if I'm nice about England, he won't mention the other match. I spent the entire night tossing and turning having nightmares about Wales beating Ireland, and I wake up to find out I have remarkably prophetic dreams. If only I could dream up the lottery numbers.

A sign of how bad the recession is - the most recent Waitrose advert trying to rebrand Waitrose as a value retailer.

~~~~

The Much-Delayed Book Meme - Day 10 - Favourite Classic Book

With my usual complaints that this is a difficult question, and I'm also deliberately not giving one answer because I plan to use that book as an answer for a different question.

So I shall give another of my favourites as the answer to this.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Ignore all your preconceptions, because 9/10ths of what people who haven't read it imagine as being prototypically Dracula is from the Bela Lugosi film.

It's not a gothic horror, if anything it's the forces of late 19th/early 20th century engineering and progress versus old feudalism and superstition. For some unknown reason, very few of the adaptations play upon that.

And then you have the Count himself. While he does have a bit of a tragic line about being the last of his clan, it's also made quite clear that's because he's an agent of the devil who sold his soul / forfeited it at what basically amounts to a demonic seminary.

Also, it's quite clear that the reason he's in the state he's in is that the local peasants know how to protect themselves, and the only people he and the brides can attack are the aged and babies. This is not a heroic demon, he's a monster. The reason he wants an English country house is because the locals in England don't know the rules to keep him and his out, because one of the downsides of progress is that it consigns local knowledge to the dustbin of superstition without considering whether it might be useful.

It's very much of it's time but in a good way, and it's full of interest and it moves forward and the different character who write the different parts of it all sound different.

It's also quite a quick read if anyone's interested.

( The Other Days )