Franco & Spain, Manicures, election, Clothes, Riots
Facing Up To Franco
Tobias Buck | Financial Times | 9th May 2015 | | Read with 1Pass
Historians may rank Francisco Franco as a Fascist dictator alongside Mussolini and even Hitler, but forty years after his death there there is no settled consensus among Spaniards on the merits of his régime. To denounce his memory would be too divisive, so Franco continues to be honoured by default. The State maintains his monumental tomb; streets and squares still carry his name; an annual mass is said for his soul (3,530 words)
The Price Of Nice Nails
Sarah Maslin Nir | New York Times | 9th May 2015 | | Read with 1Pass
The number of nail salons in New York City has tripled in 15 years, while prices have been driven down to half the national average, thanks to ruthless salon owners who exploit new immigrant workers by paying them next to nothing and sometimes charging them for the privilege of working. Your obliging manicurist may well be earning $10 a day, if she is new to the job — before deductions for training and rent. Tip well! (5,870 words)
Chasms David Cameron Will Find Hard To Bridge
Jonathan Freedland | The Guardian | 8th May 2015
The British general election turned out to be a political earthquake. As seismic change usually does, great cracks have opened in the political landscape. The already difficult relationship between England and Scotland will dominate the life of the next parliament in London. David Cameron's Conservatives have won a majority, but will struggle to contain differences over the structure of the United Kingdom and the country's membership of the European Union. (1,565 words)
Clothes That Ignore Gender
Marc Bain | Quartz | 26th April 2015
There's a new fashion in high fashion: gender-neutral clothing. Some designers have been making such clothes for years, but recently design houses like Prada and Gucci have been showing clothes that are simultaneously his and hers. Distinct sets of garments for men and women evolved only gradually through history. Designers are discovering that customs which reserve tiaras or tuxedos for one sex can be gradually dismantled (1,951 words)
Our Demand Is Simple: Stop Killing Us
Jay Caspian Kang | New York Times | 4th May 2015 | Metered paywall
Demonstrators angry at the behaviour of policemen have become familiar sights on the streets of American cities such as St Louis and Baltimore. The catalyst was the disturbances in Ferguson, Missouri, over the fatal shooting last August of a black man, Michael Brown. The chronicler of the protests has been a 29-year-old school administrator DeRay Mckesson, armed not with a pen but with an iPhone and a social network of followers. (6,673 words)
Video of the day: The Fermi Paradox: Where Are All The Aliens?
What to expect: Cartoon explainer of the Fermi Paradox: If there are so many planets, why no aliens? (6'08")
Thought for the day
To great evils we submit; we resent little provocations
William Hazlitt