Life Style

In the early afternoon of March 28, 2025. a 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck near Mandalay, in central Myanmar, followed by a 6.7-magnitude aftershock moments later.Within minutes, social media and the internet were deluged with videos of the earthquake, many of which originated in Bangkok, Thailand, about 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) from the epicentre of the quake.We saw frightening scenes of swaying skyscrapers, water cascading from rooftop swimming pools and panicking people in the streets in the Thai capital.A building under construction near the popular Chatuchak Weekend Market collapsed, killing and trapping dozens of workers in the rubble.Workers spray disinfectant to sterilise the rubble of a collapsed building in Mandalay, days after a major earthquake struck central Myanmar. Phot...

Cancer patient Jessica Ainscough, an Australian wellness entrepreneur, made the wrenching choice to turn her back on prescribed oncology treatment – amputating her arm. She had epithelioid sarcoma, a rare form of the disease. The Netflix series Apple Cider Vinegar is loosely based on her story.Ainscough instead turned to Gerson therapy, an alternative cancer treatment that involves patients following a strict two-year organic juice regimen – drinking up to 13 glasses of fresh juice a day, taking dietary supplements and having daily coffee enemas.The theory which underlies it, and which has no scientific backing, is that disease can be cured by removing toxins from the body, boosting the immune system and replacing excess salt in the body with potassium.Ainscough – the inspiration for the c...

Fresh dung. Tracks in the sand of the Namib desert. The black rhinoceros cannot be far away. Wildlife rangers Stefanus Ganuseb, 42, and Fritz Hoeb, 45, are patrolling on foot, equipped with binoculars and a camera, and accompanied by an armed policeman.Then they discover the young male rhino named Arthur on a distant crest.The rangers check the direction of the wind so that their scent will not be detected, and creep toward the animal. Normally they get no closer than 100 metres (330 feet), but today, Arthur is coming closer, not noticing the men and peacefully grazing on juicy stalks of spurge bushes.The men take pictures and fill out a form of the sighting for the animal protection group Save the Rhino Trust.A photo of a black rhino taken by the Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia. Photo: In...

If you are in Hong Kong this long weekend, then there are a few things you might want to check out, including an Oscar-winning animated film, a full-length ballet on Mexican painter Frida Kahlo and a craft beer event.1. FlowWhen director Gints Zilbalodis accepted his Oscar win for best animated feature last month for his ethereal animated film Flow, he thanked his parents and his “cats and dogs” – fitting, given that the charming cartoon follows a feline and other animals as they survive a huge flood.Then he added a rallying cry for the industry: “I’m really moved by the warm reception our film has had … and I hope that it will open doors to independent animation filmmakers around the world.”Flow’s success in beating huge American studio animations like Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot to t...

Yodellers of the world, you never stood a chance: monkeys will always be better at yodelling than humans because they have a “cheap trick” hidden in their voice box, scientists revealed this week.When monkeys howl – or yodellers yodel – they rapidly switch back and forth between low and high frequency sounds.This is in contrast to opera singers, who are trained to precisely control how they gradually move from note to note, in a way that is pleasing to listen to.Yodellers and monkeys, however, make bigger jumps far more abruptly, creating vocal breaks that sound like Tarzan’s yell.When yodelling, a human might be able to jump an octave, which doubles the frequency.

Britain’s spy agency MI5 is revealing some secrets.In collaboration with host The National Archives and prepared over several years by the agency’s own archivists, “MI5: Official Secrets” is giving the public the chance to see equipment and methods used by real-life James Bonds and their colleagues over the agency’s 115-year history.Ken McCallum, director general of MI5, said the agency wanted to be more transparent.While TV fiction showed the dramatic side to spying, real intelligence work was about “ordinary human beings together doing extraordinary things”, he said at an event this week launching the exhibition.A 110-year-old lemon that was used by German spy Karl Muller to write secret messages with its juice is displayed at the exhibition. Photo: ReutersOne of the featured items is a ...

Every time I open the container in which I keep most of my dried spices, the scent of cloves is overwhelming. I have a long, multistrand “necklace” of them, given to me a few years ago at a shop in Istanbul, Turkey, where my husband and I had made a purchase.As much as I cook, I’ll never make it through the entire necklace, because cloves are powerfully strong and aromatic, despite their small size.Cloves are the immature flower bud of a tree in the myrtle family. They’re used, whole or ground, in sweet and savoury dishes, to which they add a warm, intense flavour; if you bite into one, though, they numb the tongue.They’re also used in cigarettes, essential oils and holistic medicine, where they’re said to work as an antioxidant and antiseptic, help relieve toothache, stimulate the senses ...

Bruce Springsteen knows what Bruce Springsteen fans want. And that is more Bruce Springsteen.The singer, also known as The Boss, will release seven new studio albums, as a “Tracks II: The Lost Albums” set, on June 27. It will contain material written and re-recorded between 1983 and 2018.The news arrived this week via Instagram. The 83-song collection is mostly previously unreleased tracks, 74 of them never-before-heard songs, in a box set that includes a 100-page hardcover book.In a video, the 75-year-old American explained on Thursday: “I often read about myself in the 90s as having some lost period or something. Really, I was working the whole time.I built up a small collection of full albums that, for one reason or another, never got put out.Bruce Springsteen announcing the Tracks II r...

A vaccine to fight dementia? It turns out there may already be one – shots that prevent painful shingles also appear to protect ageing brains.The research, published in the journal Nature, is part of growing understanding about how many factors influence brain health as we age – and what we can do about it.“It’s a very robust finding,” said lead researcher Dr Pascal Geldsetzer of Stanford University in the US state of California. And “women seem to benefit more”, important as they are at higher risk of dementia.The study tracked people in Wales who were around 80 when receiving the world’s first-generation shingles vaccine over a decade ago. Now, Americans 50 and older are urged to get a newer vaccine that has proven more effective against shingles than its predecessor.The new findings add...

This article contains spoilersBy Park Jin-haiIn the recently concluded Netflix sensation When Life Gives You Tangerines, singer-actress IU delivers a captivating performance by seamlessly embodying two distinct characters – the spirited young Ae-sun and, later, her ambitious daughter Geum-myeong – in a multigenerational story of life, love and resilience.Despite the challenge of playing dual characters, IU, real name Lee Ji-eun, skilfully captures the intricate nuances of both their lives.Viewers have praised the 31-year-old for setting a new milestone in her acting career – in which her breakout role was in the 2018 drama My Mister – and once again expanding her acting spectrum.IU in a still from My Mister (2018). Photo: IMDBExpressing her joy and disbelief upon receiving the script for W...