Новости за 06.05.2015

Few rulers can match the House of Saud’s strategy for quelling discontent. They simply lack the funds for it. When King Salman came to the throne in January, he initiated a public giveaway that will ultimately total more than £21bn. Public sector workers received two months’ salary as a bonus; literary and sports clubs were blessed with plentiful grants. The last time Saudi citizens were shown such largesse coincided with the 2011 Arab uprisings, and its effect this time seems likely to be much the same as ever... Читать дальше...

Just one actor in 10 comes from a working-class background according to new research which appears to back up claims by stars such as Julie Walters, David Morrissey, Samuel West and Judi Dench that their profession is becoming increasingly closed to the less affluent.

To listen to the World Health Organisation, you would think that Ireland was going to sink into the sea by the year 2030, under the sheer weight of its growing population of fatties. Allowing for a degree of hyperbole, though, the rich-world epidemic of obesity is real, in the sense that it is upon us already, and far from a laughing matter. In this country it will add to the already inexorable demands on the NHS from a population living longer, or rather living longer in poorer health, kept going by astonishingly effective ... Читать дальше...

An editorial in a national newspaper is seldom considered a suitable arena for discussing the relative popularity of Rick “Never Gonna Give You Up” Astley vis-à-vis the rap stylings of Trevor “Busta Rhymes” Smith Jr. But it is not every day that the history of popular music is subjected to scientific analysis by Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London using “cutting-edge methods including signal processing and text mining” to assess the “musical properties” of songs.