Hong Kong must-eats: Iconic Cantonese dishes and where to try them

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Hong Kong must-eats: Iconic Cantonese dishes and where to try them     With around 17,000 places to eat in Hong Kong, you're never far from a steaming bowl of something delicious. The city's culinary landscape features world-class Michelin-starred tasting menus and fine dining, but the majority of restaurants are humble, local spots where the prices are low and the proudly Cantonese dishes are comforting.The combination of cramped home kitchens and expensive groceries means that for many, dining out is more cost-efficient than cooking at home. Consequently, brightly lit tea houses and noodle shops, busy takeaway stands and full-service restaurants all compete for an annual dining market where diners spend the equivalent of almost £9.2bn. Continued here

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Why are those lost to COVID not formally memorialised? How politics shapes what we remember     Every Friday, volunteers gather on the Albert Embankment at the River Thames in London to lovingly retouch thousands of red hearts inscribed on a Portland stone wall directly opposite the Houses of Parliament. Each heart is dedicated to a British victim of COVID. It is a deeply social space – a place where the COVID bereaved come together to honour their dead and share memories.The so-called National Covid Memorial Wall is not, however, officially sanctioned. In fact, ever since activists from COVID-19 Bereaved Families for Justice (CBFFJ) daubed the first hearts on the wall in March 2021 it has been a thorn in the side of the authorities. Continued here

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Cash-Strapped DeSantis Forced to Sell Beloved Go-Go Boots     TALLAHASSEE (The Borowitz Report)—Faced with mounting campaign bills and dwindling donations, Ron DeSantis revealed on Friday that he had been forced to sell his beloved white go-go boots.The Florida governor appeared anguished by the loss of his go-go boots, which aides disclosed were by far the most cherished footwear he owned. Continued here

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Greece's record rainfall and flash floods are part of a trend - across the Mediterranean, the weather is becoming more dangerous     Recent images of the devastating flash floods caused by Storm Daniel in Greece hit close to home literally and figuratively. As a Greek who has completed a PhD and worked for the past eight years on flash floods, the scenes unfolding across my homeland are painfully real: a stark reminder of the broader environmental challenges we face both on a local and a global scale.These unprecedented flash floods were triggered by rainfall from the arrival of Storm Daniel on Monday September 4 which also affected Turkey and Bulgaria. The following day, in the village of Zagora, a record-breaking 754mm of rain fell in just 18 hours, leaving parts of the region of Thessaly in crisis and unable to respond. Continued here

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'Robo-Taxi Takeover' Hits Speed Bumps     Self-driving cars are expanding their ranges in a handful of U.S. cities, but the reality doesn’t yet match the hypeSelf-driving cars are hitting city streets like never before. In August the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) granted two companies, Cruise and Waymo, permits to run fleets of driverless robo taxis 24/7 in San Francisco and to charge passengers fares for those rides. This was just the latest in a series of green lights that have allowed progressively more leeway for autonomous vehicles (AVs) in the city in recent years. Continued here

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What to Stream: Paul Schrader's "Hardcore" Is About Much More Than Pornography     Paul Schrader's second feature, "Hardcore," from 1979, is his version of John Ford's "The Searchers." Both movies are dramas of an isolated, stoic, rigidly principled man who takes it upon himself to rescue a young female family member from a way of life—captivity, or something like it—that he deems unfit for her. But Ford's film, from 1956, is a Western, a philosophical drama set just after the Civil War, in a place and a time far removed from the director's birth in Maine, in 1894, whereas Schrader's is contemporary—set in his home town of Grand Rapids, Michigan (where he was born in 1946), and in the religious community of rigorous Calvinists in which he was raised. Built on the very bedrock of Schrader's being, "Hardcore" is one of the key works of his career, a cinematic declaration of identity and principle that echoes throughout his body of work. It's now streaming on the Criterion Channel and is also available on other sites.In Ford's film, John Wayne plays a former Confederate soldier who spends years searching for his niece (Natalie Wood), who, as a child, was abducted by Native Americans who killed her parents. Schrader's drama is the story of a Michigan businessman, Jake VanDorn (George C. Scott), whose teen-age daughter, Kristen (Ilah Davis), vanishes during a church-run trip to California. Jake flies out there; consults with the police, who offer little help; and hires a private detective named Mast (Peter Boyle), who discovers a pornographic film in which Kristen performs. One of "Hardcore" 's exemplary scenes involves the cynical yet professionally dedicated Mast renting out a Grand Rapids adult theatre in order to give Jake a private viewing. The footage, which Jake has to look at but can't bear to see, lacerates his soul, and his raving agony propels him to take matters into his own hands. He takes a leave of absence from the furniture factory he owns, heads to Los Angeles, fires Mast, and searches for Kristen in the city's XXX-rated shadow world. Continued here

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David Grann on Turning Best-Sellers Into Movies     Two nonfiction books that topped the best-seller list this summer—“The Wager” and “Killers of the Flower Moon”—were both written by David Grann, a staff writer for The New Yorker and one of the most lauded storytellers of our time. Martin Scorsese has adapted “Killers of the Flower Moon” into a film opening in October, and is at work on an adaptation of “The Wager.” Grann talks with the editor of The New Yorker, David Remnick, about his beginnings as a writer, and about his almost obsessive research and writing process. “I’m not actually interested in making a film,” Grann admits. “I’m really interested in these stories, and so I love that somebody else with their own vision and intellect is going to draw on these stories and add to our understanding of whatever this work is.” Plus, as Netflix finally ends its two-decade DVD-rental business, the critic and passionate cinephile Richard Brody explains why owning a physical copy of a cherished film matters.The author of “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “The Wager” on his writing and reporting process, and adapting his work to the screen. Continued here

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Will the Rains Extinguish Burning Man?     Last Thursday was a typically atypical day at Burning Man—the last before a series of atypically atypical days. It began, for me, with a bike ride with some friends to the Temple for an orchestral performance. Burning Man is named after a large effigy that burns in a raucous extravaganza on Saturday night; the next night, most of the same crowd sits in silence watching a wooden temple, of a different design each year, go up in flames. Beforehand, people fill the Temple with messages, writing on the walls and stapling photos and personal effects to the structure. I wandered inside and perused the community’s contributions. Many of them memorialized lost loved ones, but the ones that hit me hardest addressed the search for self-love. “To my past self,” one message read. “You are more amazing than you realize. We’ve made it.” The note ended with a hint at the future: “See you there. xoxo.”I was in a receptive mood, and tears streamed down my face. I spent an hour reading. Then I headed to Burning Man’s makeshift airport, where I needed to reschedule a volunteer shift. The airport is a somewhat contentious spot: earlier in the week, climate protesters had blocked off the road leading to Burning Man to protest, among other things, the increasing number of private planes flying into the temporary metropolis that we call Black Rock City. For years, the community has struggled with how to deal with the influx of money. Wealthy individuals contribute to some stunning art, mutant vehicles, and theme camps on the playa, but the cash also allows people to insulate themselves in R.V.s set up by hired hands. In an official newsletter, the Burning Man Project reported that they “took action” last year against seventy camps for selling accommodations, amenities, or services. “Convenience camping (formerly described as turnkey or plug-and-play camping) is not permitted in BRC, and runs totally counter to the values of our community,” its Web site reads. Burning Man is supposed to be hard. Continued here

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G20 summit's plan to scare off monkeys by mimicking their 'natural enemies' may work - but not for the reasons it's supposed to     The hosts of this year’s G20 summit in New Delhi, India, face a unique challenge: keeping monkeys from interfering with the event. The area’s rhesus macaques are bold and curious, but can be aggressive.The municipal council’s strategy is to hire humans to imitate langur monkeys and scare off the macaques. The langur is traditionally believed to frighten macaques as they are supposedly “natural enemies”. It may work, but not for the reasons it’s supposed to. Continued here

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You Need to Watch the Most Unfairly Forgotten Cult Thriller on Amazon ASAP     There are few things writers and directors love doing more than throwing a bunch of distrustful people in a room together and planting various seeds of doubt between them. Some of the most memorable thrillers of all time have followed that formula, including Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and John Carpenter’s The Thing. In some cases, those movies work in spite of their forgettable locations. In others, it’s the marriage between their central setting and their characters’ shared dilemma that makes them so interesting.That’s certainly the case for Bad Times at the El Royale. The 2018 film from Cabin in the Woods writer-director Drew Goddard is a 1960s-infused, single-location thriller that traps an assortment of intriguing, diametrically opposed people in a fictional hotel that is just as much of a character as any of them. When it was originally released, the film received mostly positive reviews, but it made little of a mark at the box office. Continued here

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Hurricane Fiona's legacy: How studying storm impacts can help us better prepare for future events     PhD student, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University Hurricane Lee became the busy 2023 hurricane season’s first Category 5 storm and one of the most intense hurricanes on record in the Atlantic Ocean. As hurricane Lee’s uncertain storm track could potentially take it towards the Canadian Maritimes, it provides a timely opportunity to reflect on hurricane Fiona, one year after. Continued here

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Anemia afflicts nearly 1 in 4 people worldwide, but there are practical strategies for reducing it     Anemia is a major health problem, with nearly 2 billion people affected globally. It afflicts more people worldwide than low back pain or diabetes – or even anxiety and depression combined. Despite this, investments in reducing anemia have failed to substantially reduce the massive burden of anemia globally over the last few decades. Continued here

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The perks and incentives coaxing workers back to the office     In August, when Zoom ordered its workers back to the office, shock rippled across the internet. The video conference platform, which has now become nearly synonymous with remote work­, seemed to be flying in the face of the very thing they represented. The company now requires employees living within 50mi (80.5km) to work from the office at least twice a week. Zoom is just one of the latest businesses to issue an office return ultimatum. Amazon sent a warning email to employees they believed were disobeying its three-days-in-the-office rule. Google released a memo giving managers permission to factor unexcused absences from the office into performance reviews. Advertising network Publicis bluntly told US workers that failure to come into the office three times a week could impact salary increases, bonuses and promotion opportunities. Continued here

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How to dye clothes at home - naturally     Natural dye specialist Babs Behan laughs when asked about her favourite natural dye plant. "Like people, they all have such a beautiful variety of different characteristics," she says. "But, if I had to choose one, indigo stands out. It's not like any other dye. It's not water soluble – so you have to go through this charming, alchemical, almost mystical process, to make it bond with the fibre. Then you take the fabric out of the water and you'll see it turn from green to blue as it oxidises. There's something so special about that because it's the colour of our planet. It's the colour of the sky and the sea – and we can't capture it from anywhere except from this one indigo pigment." Behan, a pioneer in UK-based large-scale natural dye productions, is one of a cohort of committed natural dye specialists seeing a resurgence in their craft: the dyeing of fabrics with colours derived from plants. Online courses and communities have blossomed, with more and more practitioners wanting to share their skills. Bella Gonshorovitz's book Grow, Cook, Dye, Wear was a surprise hit in 2022, combining instructions on natural dye with plant-based recipes, vegetable growing and zero-waste clothing design. After her first successful publication Botanical Inks in 2018, Behan has just released a second, Botanical Dyes.  Continued here

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Biden's Complicated Path to Reelection     President Joe Biden is attending the G20 gathering of world leaders in Delhi and meeting with Vietnamese leaders in Hanoi this week with the goals of strengthening key relationships and countering China’s influence in the region. His trip comes after National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan warned that North Korea would pay “a price” if it supplies arms to Russia.Back home, Biden’s path to reelection is complicated by voters’ concerns about his age, and his son Hunter’s possible indictment at the end of the month. Some congressional Republicans are also threatening impeachment. Continued here

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How to Increase Your Ship Storage and Carrying Capacity in 'Starfield'     Starfield has dozens upon dozens of weapons, items, and resources you’ll need to collect on your lengthy adventure through the galaxy. Because Bethesda’s new game has a focus on crafting and building outposts, on top of all your unusual items, it’s extremely easy to become over-encumbered preventing you from fast travel. One of the first things you’ll want to do is increase your personal storage and carrying capacity, as well as the amount of storage you have available. Here’s everything you need to know about increasing your storage in Starfield. The simplest way of increasing your storage is to invest in the Weight Lifting skill. You’ll need four skill points to upgrade the skill completely, and the first level only grants 10kg of extra carrying capacity. Once you unlock the skill you’ll need to spend a certain amount of time running with at least 70 percent of your carrying capacity full, in order to unlock the next tier. Once you have every tier unlocked, you’ll be able to carry a total of 100kg extra, which will absolutely help. Continued here

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Ireland's Yellowmeal Griddle Bread     Yellowmeal has been a cupboard staple of Irish kitchens for nearly 200 years. Its prevalence in Ireland is little known outside the country, as is the fact that it became a staple as a direct result of its use during the Great Irish Famine of the mid 19th Century.Yellowmeal, or yellermeal, also known as maize or cornmeal, is made of dried corn kernels that have been ground into a fine, medium or coarse texture. It was used as a bulking agent whenever flour was in short supply or too expensive. But unlike the potato, its association with famine times has persisted without stigma; anyone under 40 is surprised the same yellowmeal that makes their Instagrammable taco was the same shipped to Ireland to stem the tide of famine-related disease and death. Continued here

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Past Lives: a luxurious and lingering portrayal of lost love and identity in the Korean diaspora     Senior Teaching Fellow in Centre for Korean Studies, SOAS, University of London Past Lives is Celine Song’s debut film about Nora and Hae Sung who were deeply connected in childhood. The film focuses on them reuniting as adults after a long separation. Continued here

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Johannesburg fire: there was a plan to fix derelict buildings and provide good accommodation - how to move forward     Writing fellow at the African Centre for Migration Studies, University of the Witwatersrand Centennial Postdoctoral Fellow, School of Architecture and Planning, Centre for Urbanism and Built Environment Studies, University of the Witwatersrand Continued here

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A Departure from Reality     In order to re member yourself and your mother, you examine the paper fragments of your past. Sometime before the fall of 1990, you visit your mother in what you remember as the Asian Pacific Psychiatric Ward. In a fitful, fragmentary journal you keep in college, you describe yourself as feelingNone of the patients, your mother included, appears to be a member of your reality. Seven or eight months later, while you are a sophomore at Berkeley, you try to write about the Asian Pacific Psychiatric Ward in a seminar led by Maxine Hong Kingston. In your essay, you describe how a woman named Trinh rolls on the floor before a ward attendant, a Black woman, gently picks her up. Then Continued here

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Oyster Insomnia is Real     In several quiet rooms in a marine lab in southwest France, dozens of Pacific oysters sit in glass tanks, quietly living their oyster lives. Each morning, the lights come up slowly, carefully mimicking the rising sun, but at night the test groups’ rooms never fully darken. The dim glow simulates the light pollution that plagues many marine species—even in natural habitats.The results of the experiment, which were recently published, found that artificial light at night can disrupt oyster behavior and alter the activity of important genes that keep the animals’ internal clocks ticking. Continued here

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Bharat: why the recent push to change India's name has a hidden agenda     The invitations to a state dinner to mark India’s hosting of this year’s G20 came not, as you’d expect, from the office of the president of India, but from the “president of Bharat”. This has prompted speculation from observers both at home and abroad about whether this signifies an official government intention to rename the country.Some have suggested that the ruling BJP (Bharatiya Janata arty) is rattled, and is responding to the adoption of the acronym INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) by a group of more than two dozen opposition political parties ahead of the general elections in 2024. Continued here

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The UK has joined the EU's Horizon science funding scheme - but if we want the UK to lead, the hard work has just begun     It’s been a tortuous journey to associate membership. There was a collective sigh of relief in December 2020 when the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA), which established arrangements for EU-UK cooperation post-Brexit, included a commitment on UK association. However, its implementation was delayed because of tensions between the UK and EU over the Northern Ireland Protocol. With these largely resolved following the Windsor Framework agreement in February 2023, the path was theoretically cleared for joining Horizon. Continued here

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How unions could help reality TV cast and crew win better pay and working conditions     “Just because you can exploit young, doe-eyed talent desperate for the platform TV gives them, it doesn’t mean you should.” Original Real Housewives of New York star Bethany Frankel recently issued this rallying call for unionisation of reality TV. She hopes to instigate a “reality reckoning” that will help other unscripted TV performers realise their rights to better pay and working conditions.And so just as actors and screenwriters are going on strike in the US, reality TV stars are asking whether it’s their time to demand better protections and rights as workers. Continued here

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The Boy and the Heron review: Miyazaki's 'last' film is a masterpiece     Hayao Miyazaki is one of the great masters of cinema, whose work happens to be animated, in hand-drawn films of exquisite delicacy and beauty. They are grounded by  thoroughly believable young heroes and heroines who often find themselves in otherworldly landscapes, like the girl in Spirited Away (2001), who wanders into a country of ghosts, or the young woman in Howl's Moving Castle (2004), with its house that floats through time and space.The Boy and the Heron, the 82-year-old Miyazaki's first film in a decade, amounts to a summing up of many strands of his long career, with a magical castle, forays into the spirit world and the weighty reality of World War Two. Told through the eyes of a boy named Mahito, whose journey takes him from a bombing in wartime Tokyo to a land where he is menaced by pink parakeets bigger than he is, this may be Miyazaki's most expansive and magisterial film. If it is not the most instantly stunning, that might be because he takes the time to deliver worlds within worlds, layers under layers, to create an overwhelming experience by the end. Continued here

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Zimbabwe elections 2023: a textbook case of how the ruling party has clung to power for 43 years     University of Johannesburg provides support as an endorsing partner of The Conversation AFRICA.Few were surprised as, near midnight on 26 August, the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission announced incumbent president Emmerson Mnangagwa’s reelection in yet another of Zimbabwe’s tendentious contests. His inauguration on 4 September sanctified his return to power. Continued here

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'Ahsoka' Episode 4 Easter Egg Reveals a Tragic Star Wars Romance     Given that Ahsoka is a direct continuation of Rebels, it’s safe to expect the latest series to reference the animated show whenever possible. And it’s not like all these nods to Rebels aren’t warranted: while Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) only played a minor role in the animated show, her supporting cast in live-action were the heroes of that story. Sabine Wren’s (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) tenure as a Mandalorian warrior will eventually come into play, and references to Hera Syndulla’s (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) lover, Kanan Jarrus, are all but inevitable, especially now that their son Jacen (Evan Whitten) is old enough to participate in Hera’s adventures.Episode 4 of Ahsoka sees Hera taking Jacen along for what could be a particularly risky mission. She and a handful of New Republic pilots are headed to the planet Seatos, which has become a temporary base of operations for Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and the Eye of Sion, the massive hyperspace ring that will allow her to rescue Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) from a distant galaxy. The hunt for the Imperial Grand Admiral is driving the first half of Ahsoka, and “Fallen Jedi” brings Hera, Ahsoka, and Sabine closer to their goal. Continued here

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Why Persuading People to Give Up Meat Is So Hard     Scientists have made impressive breakthroughs in lab-grown meat, but consumption of the real thing is more popular than ever.This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Continued here

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Ignore Jack Smith's Critics     Several distinguished individuals have recently expressed grave reservations about the prosecutions of former President Donald Trump. Notably, they appear to have no dispute about the seriousness of his wrongdoing. Rather, their main concern is that “terrible consequences” may result, because the prosecutions “may come to be seen as political trials … and play directly into the hands of Trump and his allies.” Although many Trump supporters will view the situation in just this way, any suggestion that prosecution is therefore unwise misconceives what is at stake here and, sadly, is evidence of America’s diminished national spirit.For a free society wishing to preserve its governmental system, the prosecutions of Donald Trump for trying to overturn our democracy and willfully mishandling national secrets is not optional. They are the essential step that must be taken if America’s rule of law is going to survive, and be worthy of the trust that is essential to that survival. More hopefully, they offer the nation its single best chance of escaping from the appalling thrall of Trump’s lies and insults since he came down that escalator eight years ago. Continued here

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Olivia Rodrigo's Guts proves she's far more than just a Gen Z star     Every decade has its pre-eminent pop stars – from The Beatles in the 1960s to Madonna and Michael Jackson in the 1980s, and on to Taylor Swift in the 2010s. At just 20 years old, California-born Olivia Rodrigo is already a defining voice of the 2020s. Her spiky, emotionally heightened pop-rock songs resonate not just with the singer's Gen Z peers, but older generations too. "Part of her appeal is that she gives you permission to feel everything and not to have to dilute anything, which is very necessary after the last few years," music writer Rhian Daly tells BBC Culture, pointing to our collective need for post-pandemic release.Out today, Rodrigo's second album Guts is comfortably among this year's most anticipated pop records. Consistently catchy and often stingingly witty, it demonstrates her range by blending deceptively delicate ballads including Lacy, in which Rodrigo eyes up a rival who's a "dazzling starlet, Bardot reincarnate", and retro-leaning guitar tunes. The alt-rock-flavoured Ballad of a Homeschooled Girl offers a crisply unsentimental account of social awkwardness that draws from Rodrigo's own experience of homeschooling as a teenager. Continued here