37 m. ago The week in audio: Facing the Music; Tara and George: Last Rights; Why Is Amy in the Bath? and more – review

The lives of Beethoven, Haydn and co enthral; Audrey Gillan updates her award-winning rough sleepers series. Plus, a choir of cicadas and bathtime fun with Amy Adams Facing the Music Radio 3/BBC SoundsTara and George: Last Rights Radio 4/BBC Sounds)Why Is Amy in the Bath? Grab Bag Collab & Because It’s True ProductionsBetween the Ears: A Symphony of Cicadas Radio 3/BBC Sounds“It’s almost midnight,” purrs Dominic West, all honey and velvet, straight after we hear the famously doomy, four-note opening to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. The wild-eyed composer is in a cart, West tells us energetically, his latest piano sonata getting ruined by the rain, after throwing some coins at the driver and growling his preferred destination. West relishes every syllable of it: “Vi-ennnn-a!” Continue reading...

Politics

37 m. ago Waltz this way: rival venues in Vienna compete to celebrate Johann Strauss’s 200th birthday

As the Austrian capital honours the legacy of its dance king, the race is on to attract the most puntersThe music of Johann Strauss streams through Vienna like the stately Danube. Even the syllables of the composer’s name beat out the rhythm of a waltz, as all Austrian dance teachers know. In their lessons, the words “Jo-hann Strauss” are often swapped in to replace the conventional “one, two, three” step count.Viennese children learn to waltz just like they learn to ride a bike, so the muscle-memory never leaves them. Just as well, because the city is still famous as the home of a 19th-century dance craze that shaped its international image. In this 200th anniversary year of the birth of the “waltz king”, there are rival bids jostling to become the focus of the swirling celebrations. Continue reading...

Politics

97 m. ago Ludovico Einaudi: ‘The way you blend the elements you eat is similar to composing a piece of music’

The pianist and composer talks about his passion for chillies, teas and saucepans, and cooking for his dad’s remarkable literary dinner partiesI live in Torino [Turin], a town where I grew up, where I was born. There’s a famous dish from there called bagna cauda. It’s a meeting of the garlic from the area of Piedmont, the mountains, with the anchovies coming from the sea in Liguria. It’s a very simple dish, a bit like a broth, perfect in winter, and you eat it with raw vegetables of the season. But there’s so much garlic in it that, when you eat it, you need a couple of days away from other people.There is a connection between how you eat and how you make music: the way you blend the elements that you eat, the colours, it’s similar to composing a piece of music. If I take my solo piano repertoire, I would associate it with a very simple food, with few elements and few colours, not overelaborate. If I think of a piece of mine with more instruments, more orchestral, I would ...

Politics

97 m. ago World's hottest scientist finally whips her filthy toes out after vow to never show them

Reptile-wrestling boffin beauty Rosie Moore has given her fans something they've been holding out for for years – a glimpse at her rather grimy toes – despite vowing to never reveal them

Politics

3 h. ago Styling baggy jeans can be tricky – here’s how to do it at any age

The French tuck is your secret weapon

Politics

3 h. ago Scientists reveal how to pick out the cleanest cubicle in ANY public toilet (and why it is different for men and women)

It's a familiar puzzle that many of us face on an almost daily basis. When nature calls and your only option is a public toilet, which cubicle should you pick?

Politics

3 h. ago ‘The bot asked me four times a day how I was feeling’: is tracking everything actually good for us?

Gathering data used to be a fringe pursuit of Silicon Valley nerds. Now we’re all at it, recording everything from menstrual cycles and mobility to toothbrushing and time spent in daylight. Is this just narcissism redesigned for the big tech age?I first heard about my friend Adam’s curious new habit in a busy pub. He said he’d been doing it for over a year, but had never spoken to anyone about it before. He had a furtive look around, then took out his phone and showed me the product of his burning obsession: a spreadsheet.This was not a record of his annual tax return or numbers he was crunching for work (Adam is a data scientist). Instead, it was a spreadsheet recording the minutiae of his life, with dozens of columns tracking every element of his daily routine. It all started, he told me, because of a recurring argument with his boyfriend. His partner didn’t think they spent enough time together, but Adam thought that they did. There was only one way to settle this, he decided: co...

Politics

4 h. ago UK soil breakthrough could cut farm fertiliser use and advance sustainable agriculture

Research group says discovery could lead to new type of environmentally friendly farmingA biological mechanism that makes plant roots more attractive to soil microbes has been discovered by scientists in the UK. The breakthrough – by researchers at the John Innes Centre in Norwich, Norfolk – opens the door to the creation of crops requiring reduced amounts of nitrate and phosphate fertilisers, they say.“We can now think of developing a new type of environmentally friendly farming with crops that require less artificial fertiliser,” said Dr Myriam Charpentier, whose group carried out the research. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago 'New Covid' discovered in bats has a much higher mortality rate, Wuhan scientists warn

Scientists from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China have shared warnings of a new strain of Covid found in bats which has a fatality rate of 35%, amid fears of a new pandemic

Events

6 h. ago Needle drop! The world’s first sewing machine orchestra takes Munich

This weekend, a symphony of Singers (not that kind) will lead an experimental performance that stitches together feminism and fashion – and offers the audience free repairsStepping into the studio of the Brazilian-born artist and performer Lisa Simpson – no relation to the cartoon character – feels like entering a crossover between the Mad Hatter’s workshop and a postindustrial steampunk landscape with a colourful girl-power twist. The ground floor space in Berlin’s southern district of Neukölln is filled with shelves laden with old sewing machines and coat racks brimming with hats, bags and fabric scraps. Even more sewing machines propped on two tables might suggest that this is a tailor’s workshop, were it not for the tangle of cables and synthesisers connected to them. Toy sewing machines in candy colours have a purple phone receiver attached; colourful cables with knitted covers sneak out of household sewing machines and seam overlockers; pins and needles are connected to microp...

Politics

6 h. ago Gogglebox icon admits one show he'd never do as he laughs off suggestion

Gogglebox personality Joe Baggs has shared his future telly plans as he carves out a career in the world of the small screen after leaving the Channel 4 show in 2022

Politics

7 h. ago Donald trump mocked as hilariously embarrassing SNL appearance resurfaces

Donald Trump has been mocked over the bizarre and resurfaced Saturday Night Live sketch which sees him donning a vibrant yellow suit and tie, dancing and promoting chicken wings

Politics

7 h. ago Scientists give stark warning on what vapers' lungs could look like in 10 years

The government officially announced a new landmark study which will follow young vapers over 10 years and how their bodies are affected – but one doctor has sent a stark warning

Events

9 h. ago Top scientist's warning to anyone who heats up leftover food in microwave

A world-leading scientist has issued a stark warning to those microwaving their leftovers

Events

9 h. ago I'm a vintage shopping expert and these are my 8 rules for bagging a great bargain, including the one mistake you MUST avoid

Serious savings can be made shopping for previously owned fashion online. Savvy second-hand seller April Salsbury reveals the eight tips every buyer needs

Economics

10 h. ago Plastic bags and chicken bones: the fossils scientists believe will become our eternal legacy

Fast fashion and drinks cans among technological-age matter most likely to endure as fossils, say scientistsAs an eternal testament of humanity, plastic bags, cheap clothes and chicken bones are not a glorious legacy. But two scientists exploring which items from our technological civilisation are most likely to survive for many millions of years as fossils have reached an ironic but instructive conclusion: fast food and fast fashion will be our everlasting geological signature.“Plastic will definitely be a signature ‘technofossil’, because it is incredibly durable, we are making massive amounts of it, and it gets around the entire globe,” says the palaeontologist Prof Sarah Gabbott, a University of Leicester expert on the way that fossils form. “So wherever those future civilisations dig, they are going to find plastic. There will be a plastic signal that will wrap around the globe.” Continue reading...

Science

10 h. ago ‘Technofossils’: how humanity’s eternal testament will be plastic bags, cheap clothes and chicken bones

Fast fashion and drinks cans among technological-age matter most likely to endure as fossils, say scientistsAs an eternal testament of humanity, plastic bags, cheap clothes and chicken bones are not a glorious legacy. But two scientists exploring which items from our technological civilisation are most likely to survive for many millions of years as fossils have reached an ironic but instructive conclusion: fast food and fast fashion will be our everlasting geological signature.“Plastic will definitely be a signature ‘technofossil’, because it is incredibly durable, we are making massive amounts of it, and it gets around the entire globe,” says the palaeontologist Prof Sarah Gabbott, a University of Leicester expert on the way that fossils form. “So wherever those future civilisations dig, they are going to find plastic. There will be a plastic signal that will wrap around the globe.” Continue reading...

Science

10 h. ago What channel is England vs Scotland Six Nations? Free live stream, TV, ref and team news for Calcutta Cup clash

Gregor Townsend's men will be looking to get one over on their eternal rivals once again

Politics

10 h. ago Yale scientists who risked careers to publish bombshell Covid vaccine study issue message to shot's victims

Researchers at Yale University have issued a message to Covid vaccine victims following a bombshell study published earlier this week detailing 'post-vaccination syndrome.'

Events

11 h. ago How to turn leftover cooked pork into a classic Spanish bean stew – recipe | Waste not

Leftover cooked pork and bones are essential ingredients in this hearty Asturian winter stewFabada Asturiana is classic Spanish cooking at its simplest and best. This stew of creamy white beans cooked slowly with pork and cured meat is traditionally made with fabes de la Granja (or judion beans), morcilla (Spanish black pudding), chorizo and lacón (cured pork shoulder, and similar to pancetta); it’s also the perfect dish for using up leftover roast pork. Continue reading...

Society