In its recent opening weekend, Twisters marked the biggest start ever for a natural disaster movie with US$80.5 million in North American box office revenue. The popularity of the film indicates disaster movies remain an important popular culture phenomenon. As an associate professor of disaster and emergency management, I recently was a panellist at a Natural Hazards Workshop on a session titled, Now Streaming: Representations of Disasters in Film and Television. Disaster studies scholars have considered disaster movies from many perspectives including their value for teaching people about disaster management and how these films shape the meaning and experience of…
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The inflation figure due to be released to is different than most. It’s focusing the minds of politicians as well as economists. Inflation has been falling for the past five quarters, getting closer and closer to the Reserve Bank’s target band. At the last quarterly read, three months ago, it wasn’t far away. Inflation came in at 3.6%, well down from the peak of 7.8%, and within sight of the 2-3% band. There had been talk about a cut in interest rates, soon. It’s a good idea to ease rates before inflation is actually in the band, for the same…
India vs Ireland Live Score, Men’s Hockey Olympics 2024India vs Ireland Live Score, Men’s Hockey Olympics 2024: Harmanpreet Singh strikes again as this time he converted a penalty corner into a goal to put India 2-0 in the Quarter 2. Earlier, the Indian skipper held his nerves inside the box and converted the penalty stroke into a goal to open the scoring in Quarter 1. The India hockey team will be back in action a day after playing a 1-1 draw against Argentina on Monday. Harmanpreet Singh and Co. will now take on Ireland in their next Pool B match,…
“Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we will do [something] similar exactly to them,” Erdoğan said, referring to Turkey’s past military interventions. His saber-rattling sparked a furious response from Israel and contributed to fears of a wider regional conflict. Dutch far-right leader Geert Wilders, whose party is the largest in the Netherlands, called Erdoğan an “Islamofascist” and “totally nuts” in a social media post on Sunday, adding that Turkey “should be kicked out of NATO.” Wilders has long proposed expelling Turkey from the alliance. The Netherlands, unlike Israel, is also a NATO member. Turkey joined NATO…
Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. How do you define love? Is it a choice or a feeling? – Izzy, age 11, Golden, Colorado Love is confusing. People in the U.S. Google the word “love” about 1.2 million times a month. Roughly a quarter of those searches ask “what is love” or request a “definition of love.” What is all this confusion about? Neuroscience tells us that love is caused by certain chemicals in the brain. For example, when you meet…
Findings of a Treasury spending audit reveal £22 billion of unfunded pledges inherited from the previous Government this year. Chancellor takes “difficult decisions” to find £5.5 billion of savings this year and £8.1 billion next year. A set of non-negotiable fiscal rules will be confirmed at Budget on 30th October, alongside further difficult decisions on tax and spending. Finalised departmental budgets for this financial year and the next will be confirmed in October and a multi-year Spending Review will conclude in Spring 2025 to embed mission-led government and transform public services. Addressing the House of Commons today (Monday 29th July)…
In one particularly appalling attack, a hospital was struck last Friday alongside residential areas and a livestock market in North Darfur state that killed or injured at least 97 civilians. Attacks against medical facilities, personnel and supplies, which violate international human law and have left healthcare system in Sudan “hanging by a thread”, the UN agency warned. “Hospitals, health facilities, ambulances and other health assets are a lifeline to Sudan’s people, who endure relentless fighting and frequent displacement due to the ongoing war,” it said in a statement. “Yet their tenacity and dedication are rewarded with bombardment, harassment, intimidation, injury…
Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Julieta Valls Noyes will travel to the Republic of Cyprus and the United Kingdom from July 30 to August 2, 2024. In Nicosia, Assistant Secretary Noyes will meet with senior government and international organization officials and visit sites involved in the delivery of humanitarian assistance for refugees, asylum seekers, and other vulnerable people in the region. The Republic of Cyprus is a valued humanitarian partner, and the United States continues its close collaboration with the Government of the Republic of Cyprus, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), and others…
The new romantic comedy Fly me to the Moon tells the story of how, in the run up to the Apollo 11 mission, Nasa hired a high-flying marketing specialist to bolster public support. The history books tell us this isn’t quite what happened, but I believe modern science communicators could still learn from this irreverent revision of Nasa’s history. In the opening scenes of Fly Me To The Moon, Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson), is recruited by shady government officials to sell one of the biggest thing one can sell: the Moon. The premise may seem far-fetched. After all, who doesn’t…
To emphasize the importance of an election, presidential candidates often predict that the next president will have an opportunity to fill one or two vacancies on the U.S. Supreme Court. But in the case of a hypothetical President Kamala Harris, this may not be true. Even if Harris were to win in November 2024, and then win reelection in 2028, she may not have a chance to reshape the court by filling the seat of a departing justice, especially a conservative one. Jimmy Carter was the only one-term president who didn’t fill a Supreme Court vacancy. No president who won…