John Knight, journalist, August 28, 1929–March 20, 2019.

John Knight was in the front row for the Pope’s weekly audience at the Vatican. As John Paul II approached, Knight let out an audible sigh and appeared to stumble. The Holy Father grabbed him by the shoulders to prevent him from falling. In return Knight grabbed the papal shoulders and clung on.

“Are you all right, my child?” inquired the Pope. “Yes, thank you, your holiness, but . . .” replied Knight.

“Yes, my son?”

“You will come to England, Holy Father, won’t you?”

The Pope beamed and replied: “Yes, my son. I will come to England.”

Within an hour pictures began to drop in London of the Pope and Knight, hands on each other’s shoulders, in earnest conversation. The rest of Fleet Street was in uproar. How had John Knight of the Sunday Mirror — was he even a Catholic? — landed the exclusive story of the first visit to Protestant Britain by a reigning pope?

(…)

Knight belonged to Fleet Street’s finest tradition of bons vivants. Once he disappeared for lunch for three days. Upon his return he was asked where he had been. “On the piss,” he said. “Oh, thank goodness,” replied his editor. “We were worried in case you were ill.”

(…) He danced the pavane with Cecil Beaton at a nightclub in St Tropez, befriended John Ward, whose daughter, Julie, was killed in Kenya in 1988, and checked into the Betty Ford Clinic under a pseudonym to write a series of exposés.

While covering the Cyprus emergency in the late 1950s Knight woke to find that his breakfast had not been delivered and set forth in his pyjamas to investigate. The housemaid’s room was empty and the lift was not working, so he walked downstairs to reception where he was met by a squaddie who asked: “What the hell are you doing here?” “I’m looking for my newspapers,” Knight replied. “You can’t be,” said the soldier. “The place was evacuated at five o’clock and it blew up at six!”

(…)

An enthusiastic curator of his own mythology, Knight recalled how on one occasion he was in South Africa to write a feature on the Mandelas and was staying with Winnie, who was an outrageous flirt. Admiring the Evelyn Waugh novels in her library, he asked which was her favourite. “Black Mischief, of course,” came the reply.

From The Times, 06/05/2019: John Knight – a Fleet Street character who danced with Cecil Beaton and claimed to be responsible for John Paul II’s historic visit to Britain in 1982

Font: https://www.mirrorpensioners.co.uk/obituary/john-knight/

According to our capitalist overlords,... by Jamie Peck

According to our capitalist overlords, you're broke because you eat lunch

Jamie Peck Thu 9 May 2019 15.00 BST

In an article published in USA Today, the newspaper claimed that Americans are indulging in too many ‘nonessential’ expenditures ... like having a midday meal

We live in what feels like permanently lean times. Forty-two per cent of American adults are at risk of retiring broke, a whopping 60% don’t have enough money saved to cover a $1,000 expense and the majority don’t expect their lot to improve in 2019. But fret no more, for the Nobel-worthy economists at LadderLife.com (“we make life insurance simple”) have figured out what’s holding you back from getting ahead, saving for retirement and taking out a lavish life insurance policy: lunch.

According to a study commissioned by the altruistic insurance website and reported by USA Today, the average American spends nearly $1,500 a month on “nonessential items” such as takeout or delivery, gym memberships, rideshares and “buying lunch”. So, food, exercise, transportation and ... um, food. Also on the chopping block: personal grooming (because hiring managers love an unkempt dirtbag), bottled water (think of your thirst as God’s way of punishing you for your poor financial planning) and TV or movie streaming services (forget “Netflix and chill”, it’s time for “stare at the wall and drool”). But who has time to watch movies anyway when you get up at 4am to walk to work because they defunded public transit in your area? Oh well, at least that takes care of exercise. Meeting a friend for drinks or coffee? Whatever you say, Warren Buffett.

Concludes Ladder cofounder Laura Hale said: “Trading off a couple of smaller short-term purchases per month can support a monthly policy payment. It can give you the longer-term satisfaction that comes from making sure your family is protected.” By “family”, I assume she means whatever pets you’re allowed to keep in the pods we will all soon live in, because those are the only kids a person with your budget and grooming habits is having. (Then again, maybe I shouldn’t underestimate the erotic potential of “stare at the wall and drool”.)

While this is obviously well-funded PR designed to shame you into buying insurance from LadderLife.com, legitimate outlets such as USA Today are uncritically presenting “the tendency to splurge consistently on nonessentials” as what’s “causing Americans to neglect their near-term savings” and “skimp on other important items” like – Jesus Christ – “life insurance”. (I hope the paper at least got some money for this.) The embedded ideological message: if you’re broke, it’s your own fault, so suck it up, make some air sandwiches, and whatever you do, don’t blame the system. Bootstraps! John Wayne! Horatio Alger!

(...)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/09/capitalist-overlords-lunch-usa-today

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd.

VOCABULARY

Lean: Adjective. If you describe an organization as lean, you mean that it has become more efficient and less wasteful by getting rid of staff, or by dropping projects which were unprofitable.

Retiring broke: Retirement is the time when a worker retires. If you are broke, you have no money.

Whopping: If you describe an amount as whopping, you are emphasizing that it is large. If you refer to something as a whopper, you mean that it is an unusually large example of the thing mentioned. Synonyms of whopper: giant, monster, jumbo [informal], mammoth.

Note this adjective only has one ‘o’ and two ‘p’. If you use two ‘o’ and one ‘p’ you have a swan (Cygnus Cygnus).

Fret: Verb. If you fret about something, you worry about it.

Figure out: Phrasal verb. If you figure out a solution to a problem or the reason for something, you succeed in solving it or understanding it.

Holding you back from getting ahead: (lo que te impide avanzar)

Lavish: Adjective. Prolific, abundant, or profuse

Takeout: USA. A takeout is a store or restaurant which sells hot cooked food that you eat somewhere else. In BRIT, use takeaway

Rideshares: Ridesharing is the practice of sharing a car with other commuters as a means of lessening traffic congestion or pollution

Buying lunch: It’s the opposite to bring your own lunch to work. I don’t see the difference between takeout and buying lunch…

Chopping block: A thick wooden board used for chopping vegetables, meat etc on. The Spanish translation would be “en el tajo”.

Personal grooming: Grooming refers to the things that people do to keep themselves clean and make their face, hair, and skin look nice.

Unkempt dirtbag: If you describe something or someone as unkempt, you mean that they are untidy, and not looked after carefully or kept neat. A dirtbag is a filthy or disreputable person

Netflix and chill: Netflix and chill is how you end up with chill-dren. Code for two people going to each others houses and fucking or doing other sexual related acts:

Brad: "Hey Julia wanna come over and watch Netflix and chill"

Julia: "Sure I'll pick up the condoms"

Brad: "Wait I thought we were just gonna watch Netflix and chill?"

Julia: "Netflix and Chill means we fuck, dumbass"

Drool: If a person or animal drools, saliva drops slowly from their mouth.

Defund: To remove the funds from (a person, organization, or scheme)

Trade off: Phrasal verb. If you trade off one thing against another, you exchange all or part of one thing for another, as part of a negotiation or compromise.

Pod: A pod is a seed container that grows on plants such as peas or beans. In this case is talking about the place where you live.

PR: Public relations

Outlet: 1. countable noun. An outlet is a shop or organization which sells the goods made by a particular manufacturer. Synonyms: shop, store, supermarket, market,…

2. countable noun. An outlet or an outlet store is a place which sells slightly damaged or outdated goods from a particular manufacturer, or goods that it made in greater quantities than needed.

In this case is a synonym of organizations.

Splurge | splɜːʳdʒ |: If you splurge on something, you spend a lot of money, usually on things that you do not need.

The paper: In this case, it references to the newspaper.

Suck it up: (Informal) To accept an unpleasant fact or situation

Bootstraps: To improve your situation by your own efforts, without help from anyone else

Horatio Alger (1832-1899): Was an American writer of young adult novels about impoverished boys and their rise from humble backgrounds to lives of middle-class security and comfort through hard work, determination, courage, and honesty. His writings were characterized by the "rags-to-riches" narrative, which had a formative effect on the United States during the Gilded Age.

Onus for hardship: Onus is the load, the charge. Hardship is a trouble.

Stagnant wages: “Salarios estancados”

Increasing reliance on rising rents: “Creciente confianza en el aumento de las rentas”

The trolley problem: would you kill one person to save many others? by Molly Crockett

The trolley problem: would you kill one person to save many others?

A decades-old thought experiment reveals our inconsistent moral intuitions. What would you do?

In the 2015 British thriller Eye in the Sky, a military team locates a terrorist cell preparing an attack expected to kill hundreds. They command a drone that can drop a bomb on the terrorists, preventing their attack. As the team readies the bomb, their cameras spy a little girl selling bread within the blast radius. Should they go through with their mission – killing the girl in order to prevent the deaths of many others?

This modern-day moral dilemma has its roots in a classic philosophical thought experiment known as the trolley problem. Introduced in 1967 by Philippa Foot, the trolley problem illuminates the landscape of moral intuitions – the peculiar and sometimes surprising patterns of how we divide right from wrong.

Try it at home

Consider one version of the trolley problem:

A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward five workers who will all be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. Adam is standing next to a large switch that can divert the trolley onto a different track. The only way to save the lives of the five workers is to divert the trolley onto another track that only has one worker on it. If Adam diverts the trolley onto the other track, this one worker will die, but the other five workers will be saved.

Should Adam flip the switch, killing the one worker but saving the other five? Write down your answer.

Now consider a slightly different version:

A runaway trolley is heading down the tracks toward five workers who will all be killed if the trolley proceeds on its present course. Adam is on a footbridge over the tracks, in between the approaching trolley and the five workers. Next to him on this footbridge is a stranger who happens to be very large. The only way to save the lives of the five workers is to push this stranger off the footbridge and onto the tracks below where his large body will stop the trolley. The stranger will die if Adam does this, but the five workers will be saved.

Should Adam push the stranger off the footbridge, killing him but saving the five workers?

Did you give the same answer to the first and second versions – or different ones? (…)

Molly Crockett     Mon 12 Dec 2016 16.49 GMT

https://www.theguardian.com/science/head-quarters/2016/dec/12/the-trolley-problem-would-you-kill-one-person-to-save-many-others#comment-89328222

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd.

Blast: Detonation

Runaway: Out of control

Footbridge: A footbridge (also a pedestrian bridge, pedestrian overpass, or pedestrian overcrossing) is a bridge designed solely for pedestrians.

Miserable. Quarta accepció.

Es copia la ressenya, el suspenen i encara es queixa!

If universities sacrifice philosophy on the altar of profit, what’s next? by Julian Baggini

La Universitat de Hull s’està plantejant no acceptar nous estudiants de filosofia el 2019 perquè no consideren que sigui rentable ni pels seus estudiants ni pels seus benefactors. El “esto pa’ qué sirve” o “con eso se gana pasta?” s’estan imposant cada cop més.

A casa  nostra tenim els punts de vista divergents d’en Jordi Llovet, que va abandonar la Universitat, i de l’ex-conseller de salut – i per tant Honorable- Boi Ruiz format a EADA: “Si vol estudiar filologia clàssica per plaer, s'ho pagarà vostè". "L'Estat ha de facilitar les coses a qui vulgui estudiar per raons de mercat."

https://kezdonetblog.blogspot.com/2017/10/jordi-llovet.html

https://kezdonetblog.blogspot.com/2017/09/visca-la-cultura.html

If universities sacrifice philosophy on the altar of profit, what’s next?

Hull says the subject doesn’t meet the needs of ‘business partners’. Try telling that to Thales of Miletus

Julian Baggini

Fri 21 Dec 2018 09.00 GMT Last modified on Fri 21 Dec 2018 10.34 GMT

You might think that a university philosophy department facing closure in Hull is of as much interest to the average person as the shutting of a butcher’s in Wolverhampton is to a vegetarian in Totnes. There are almost as many universities as high streets now, and for every closure here there’s an opening somewhere else.

But the events unfolding on Humberside are symptomatic of a deep malaise affecting not just universities but the wider culture. The crude pursuit of what is “practical”, “efficient” or “useful” is threatening everything of value that isn’t evidently profitable.

Philosophy has been taught at Hull ever since the University opened in 1928. The department has no problem with recruitment and has a good faculty. Because humanities courses are so cheap to teach and student fees so high, there is no conceivable way it could be losing money. In a letter to colleagues, Kathleen Lennon, emeritus professor of philosophy, insisted: “Philosophy at Hull is financially viable – providing a healthy return for the university.”

So why is the university not accepting any more joint honours students and publicly entertaining the possibility “that we will not be recruiting new students” in 2019? A statement by Jeanette Strachan, the university’s registrar, to the local newspaper suggests some worrying answers. Strachan said the university sought to offer students “a high-quality academic experience and ensure that their qualification holds value over time”.

The word that screams out of that sentence is “value”. The implication seems to be that a philosophy degree does not provide a sufficient financial return for those who “invest” in it. This impression is reinforced by Strachan’s statement that the university “meets the needs of our students, research and business partners”. The inclusion of that third party would baffle the thousands of people who have graduated with philosophy degrees without ever catching a sniff of a “business partner”, let alone receiving any help from one.

(…)

The threat at Hull reflects a lamentable shift in education towards precisely this functional view of what universities are for. But it also reflects a crudely utilitarian worldview that infects much, much more. You see it manifest whenever arts funding is under threat or when the evident inability of GDP growth to capture what most matters fails to translate to concrete steps to replace it with better metrics. That’s why Hull’s fate is all our fates. Today, they’re coming for philosophy. Tomorrow, they’ll come for something else that isn’t designed to turn a profit.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/dec/21/universities-philosophy-profit-business-partners

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd.

VOCABULARY

Malaise: Disease, illness,…

Joint honours: An honours university degree in which a student studies two separate subjects, as opposed to a single subject: Dr Ellis holds a first class joint honours degree in Russian and German from the University of Bristol.

Statement: Declaration, speech.

Baffle: If something baffles you, you cannot understand it or explain it. An apple tree producing square fruit is baffling experts. Not in this case: Also called: baffle board, baffle plate: A plate or mechanical device designed to restrain or regulate the flow of a fluid, the emission of light or sound, or the distribution of sound, esp in a loudspeaker or microphone

Sniff of: If you get a sniff of something, you learn or guess that it might be happening or might be near.

Let alone: “Y mucho menos”

Sought-after: Something that is sought-after is in great demand, usually because it is rare or of very good quality.

Bean-counters: You can describe people such as accountants and business managers as bean counters if you disapprove of them because you think they are only interested in money.

Fed up: If you are fed up, you are unhappy, bored, or tired of something, especially something that you have been experiencing for a long time: He had become fed up with city life. [+ with] I'm just fed up and I don't know what to do. To be upset.

Bumper olive harvest: “abundante cosecha de aceitunas”

Killing: In this case it refers to a financial success.

Pull off: If you pull off something very difficult, you succeed in achieving it.

Stunt: A stunt is something interesting that is done in order to attract attention and get publicity for the person or company responsible for it.

Flaw: Fault, mistake.

Hold | held | held: In this case, to consider. Other senses: When you hold something, you carry or support it, using your hands or your arms; “deparar”: You will never know what life holds for you.

Heeding: Following

Yields: Incomes

Dumber: If you call a person dumb, you mean that they are stupid or foolish.

Pleading: The act of presenting a case in court, as by a lawyer on behalf of his or her client. (“Predicamento”, “aplica”)

Cringe: If you cringe at something, you feel embarrassed or disgusted, and perhaps show this feeling in your expression or by making a slight movement.

Is not worth: “No merece la pena”

Churning out: To churn out something means to produce large quantities of it very quickly.

GDP: In economics, a country's GDP is the total value of goods and services produced within a country in a year, not including its income from investments in other countries. GDP is an abbreviation for 'gross domestic product'.

Between The Rock and Vin Diesel is a very hard place by Marina Hyde

I have been feeling that I have been improving my English, but this article from Marina Hyde has returned me to the sad reality. Her magnificent style is combined with expressions that a poor English learner like me find extremely difficult. To make it worse, I’ve no idea about Fast & Furious, The Rock and all this stuff…

Between The Rock and Vin Diesel is a very hard place

The world of Fast and Furious is a deeply serious one, if the social media outpourings of its stars is anything to go by

Marina Hyde @MarinaHyde Thu 2 May 2019 17.23 BST Last modified on Thu 2 May 2019 17.45 BST

It is never without pleasure that this column turns to the Fast and Furious film franchise, which shits money like there’s no tomorrow and takes itself just as seriously as you would hope. Frankly, it has to, if it wants to continue to make important movies about muscle cars, the families we choose and the families we lose, and what it might feel like to jump from one Dubai skyscraper to another in a Lykan Hypersport.

Not so long ago it was franchise star The Rock letting us into his process, posting a picture of the table in his trailer. “Secret weapon,” the former wrestling legend revealed. “Many productive meetings and big business deals have been sealed with a handshake at my GSD (Get Shit Done) table that’s inside my trailer. This table holds a lot of great mana (spirit/power) and energy. And if these wood slabs could talk … well, it’s best they can’t talk for national security purposes.”

This was too much for his co-star Tyrese Gibson, who shot back at The Rock: “If you move forward with that #Hobbs movie you will have purposely ignored the heart-to-heart moment we had in my sprinter. I don’t wanna hear from you until you remember what we talked about. I’m on your timeline cause you’re not responding to my text messages. #FastFamily is just that a family … We don’t fly solo.”

Alas, it turns out that we do, as The Rock has indeed been spun off into a distant galaxy in the Furiousverse to make Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw. Thus it falls to Fast and Furious big daddy Vin Diesel to make the next move. Diesel – formerly dissed as a “candy-ass” by The Rock – has duly taken to his Instagram with a gym-based video. According to Vin, someone has been sent to him as a Fast co-star by the spirit of the late Fast and Furious star Paul Walker (whom he calls Pablo). “Guys as you know I’m always thinking fast,” he begins. “And thinking about the responsibility. I’m thinking something iconic and deserving of your loyalty. I know this sounds crazy, but every blue moon I feel like Pablo up there sends me someone. Another soldier for the fight for truth.” Wait, are we still talking about the car franchise? Yes. Yes, I think we are. “And today, someone came by … that speaks to what Pablo would have brought me.” And with that, Diesel reveals former wrestling legend – and major Rock rival – John Cena.

Well. Could there BE any more angles? History suggests the answer to that is yes, and we must duly wait for The Rock’s super-chilled passive-aggressive response.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/lostinshowbiz/2019/may/02/between-the-rock-and-vin-diesel-is-a-very-hard-place

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd.

Expressions:

It is never without pleasure

…which shits money like there’s no tomorrow

Vocabulary

Get shit done: Things you have done. Your GSD table is your work place table.

Wood slabs: It refers a wood table made by slice tree logs (mesa de listones)

Hobbs movie: Hobbs is a character of Fast & Furious universe.

Heart-to-heart: A heart-to-heart is a conversation between two people, especially close friends, in which they talk freely about their feelings or personal problems.

Sprinter: The Mercedes-Benz Sprinter is a van.

To timeline: To inform someone that what they just referenced/presented/discovered and showed others as something new and awesome is in fact older than crap.

Alas: / əlæs / Used to express sadness or feeling sorry about something: I love football but, alas, I have no talent as a player.

Spun off: Is the past participle of spin off: spin | spun | spun. To spin off something is also to form a separate company from parts of an existing company. It’s very common in the series world.

Thus it falls to: So it’s time to

Candy-ass: A person who is not brave; a timid or cowardly person; wimp

Duly: Properly

Every blue moon: The same than “once in a blue moon” it’s to say rarely.

Related words

Hart: / hɑːʳt/ vs Earth: /ɜːʳθ/

By hart: If you know something such as a poem by heart, you have learned it so well that you can remember it without having to read it.

How China spies on Muslim minority by Simina Mistreanu

‘Seldom uses front door’: report reveals how China spies on Muslim minority

Authorities use an app to collect personal data on Uighurs as part of a vast surveillance network, Human Rights Watch says

Simina Mistreanu Wed 1 May 2019 22.00 BST

Using too much electricity or having acquaintances abroad are among a list of reasons that prompt authorities in China’s western Xinjiang region to investigate Uighurs and other Muslims who might be deemed “untrustworthy” and sent to internment camps, according to a Human Rights Watch report.

The report, released on Thursday, analyses a mobile app used by authorities in Xinjiang to collect personal data from ethnic minorities, file reports about people and objects they find suspicious, and carry out investigations.

The app is connected with the integrated joint operations platform (IJOP), a Xinjiang policing program that aggregates people’s data and flags those deemed potentially threatening. IJOP is part of a vast surveillance network currently employed in the restive region that includes frequent checkpoints equipped with face scanners, so-called “convenience” police stations, and surveillance cameras inside homes.

Besides the pervasive surveillance, human rights groups estimate about one million Uighurs and other Turkic Muslims are being held in political re-education camps, where they are taught communist propaganda and forced to renounce their religion. China calls the camps voluntary “training centres” and has likened them to boarding schools, but survivors speak of brainwashing, torture and abuse inside the facilities.

Data collection, including people’s blood type, height and religious practices, has been central to the crackdown, which started in late 2016, the rights group says.

(...)

“People’s freedom of movement is restricted to varying degrees depending on the level of threat authorities perceive they pose, determined by factors programmed into the system,” the report says.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/02/report-reveals-how-china-spies-on-muslim-minority-xinjiang-uighur

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd

Vocabulary:

Acquaintances: Connections

Prompt to: To prompt someone to do something means to make them decide to do it.

Deemed: Considered

Untrustworthy: “No de fiar”

Restive: If you are restive, you are impatient, bored, or dissatisfied.

Convenience: “De comodidad”

Surveillance: Surveillance is the careful watching of someone, especially by an organization such as the police or the army. “Vigilancia”.

Pick out: Selecting

Mistrusts: “Desconfiar”