Thought

Press release - “The Teachers’ Lounge” wins the LUX Audience Award 2024

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 18, 2024

“The Teachers’ Lounge” wins the LUX Audience Award 2024

Key Points: 
  • “The Teachers’ Lounge” wins the LUX Audience Award 2024
    “The Teachers’ Lounge” by German director Ilker Çatak won the 2024 LUX European Audience Film Award on Tuesday, in a ceremony in Parliament’s hemicycle in Brussels.
  • The film, produced in Germany, tells a story about Carla, a young high school teacher, distinguished from her colleagues by her idealism.
  • When a series of unsolved thefts sour the atmosphere among the teaching staff, Carla decides to investigate.
  • Press conference and related events
    You can watch the press conference with the winner Evelyn Regner and Mike Downey after the ceremony on EbS and EP Live.

Illmatic at 30: how Nas invented epistolary rap – and changed the hyper-masculine world of hip hop forever

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 18, 2024

At the time, these lines were seen as just another gem in a long line of highly sophisticated, literary Nas lyrics.

Key Points: 
  • At the time, these lines were seen as just another gem in a long line of highly sophisticated, literary Nas lyrics.
  • In many ways a verbal successor to Nas, Lamar controversially won an actual Pulitzer prize for music.
  • Like Lamar, Nas is as highly esteemed in the street as he is in academic circles.

One Love breaks new ground

  • The Illmatic track One Love (1994) introduced the “epistolary narrative”, or written letter technique, to the rap genre.
  • As journalist, educator and author Dax-Devlon Ross explains, One Love contains “a series of prison letters set to song”, which “effectively began the epistolary sub-genre” of rap.
  • Notable advocates of the technique include one-time rival of Nas, Tupac Shakur, releasing Dear Mama a year after One Love.

Illmatic’s legacy

  • Released two years after One Love, Xzibit utilised rap’s newly established epistolary sub-genre to pen an emotive open letter to his young son.
  • The Foundation addresses themes prevalent in the male African American experience, such as lineage, loyalty, masculinity and the paternal bond.

Nas today

  • In recent years, Nas has reached a purple patch of creativity, and released a flourish of well received albums, including both the King’s Disease (2020) and the Magic series.
  • When brought into the running of “top five dead or alive” rap debates, Nas is often quick to deflect from comparison, stating that there “ain’t no best”.
  • As Nas said himself in 2022: “I probably don’t need a therapist because I have music.” It’s hard to think of another rapper of his generation who has opened up so many doors for the artform.


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Paul Stephen Adey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Why universities shouldn’t mark down international students for using non-standard English

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 18, 2024

This process has created not one English, spoken around the globe, but many Englishes.

Key Points: 
  • This process has created not one English, spoken around the globe, but many Englishes.
  • This has implications for universities that teach in English, and may have many non-native English speakers as students.
  • Universities and lecturers should consider what their approach should be to marking work written in non-native or non-standard varieties of English.

Hierarchies of English

  • For some, native speaker English is still seen as the “correct” variety, with native speakers seen as holding sole authority on how the language should be spoken.
  • Even within England, regional dialects may be seen as inferior to “standard” English.
  • In our current research, we focus on a specific world English – China English.
  • While based on standard English, China English has its own specific and identifiable use of grammar and vocabulary, which is predictable and systematic.
  • China English has its own expressions, such as “paper tiger”, meaning something that appears powerful but is in fact weak.
  • This predictability distinguishes China English from “Chinglish”, which refers to translation errors from a Chinese language (usually Mandarin) into English.


Nothing to disclose Alexander Baratta and Paul Vincent Smith do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Is this the dawn of a new era in women’s sports?

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, April 10, 2024

The women’s Final Four garnered higher television ratings than the men’s Final Four.

Key Points: 
  • The women’s Final Four garnered higher television ratings than the men’s Final Four.
  • And more than 90,000 fans attended the 1999 FIFA Women’s World Cup final in Pasadena, California.
  • Many fans, journalists and scholars are wondering if this is the dawn of a new era of women’s sports, with more coverage, increased viewership, heightened interest and bigger investments continuing in the future.

The long eclipse of women’s sports

  • We’re in the middle of collecting data for the eighth time, the results of which will be published in 2025.
  • Hundreds of studies on the routine coverage of sports have similarly found that media coverage of women’s sports rarely exceeds 10% of total sports coverage.
  • This is a recurring pattern across media platforms – print, TV, radio, social – in English-speaking countries.

Leapfrogging the gatekeepers

  • Podcasts like “Hear Her Sports,” “The Gist of It,” “Tea with A & Phee” and “Attacking Third” directly appeal to women’s sports fans.
  • They can simply directly engage with them on social media, producing and pushing content that bypasses traditional media gatekeepers.

Leveraging feminism

  • But my colleague Dunja Antunovic and I observed an important shift in sports media starting in the mid-2010s: the mobilization of feminism and principles of equality to promote and sell women’s sports.
  • In one chapter of our latest book, “Serving Equality: Feminism, Media, and Women’s Sports,” we focus on how women’s sports leagues and teams, as well as their corporate sponsors, have used the imagery, language and slogans of feminism and social justice movements to sell merchandise and tickets.
  • The video accompanying the campaign interspersed scenes of WNBA games with scenes from the 2017 Women’s March on Washington.

Being the change they want to see

  • While corporations and leagues deserve credit for highlighting the value of women’s sports, it’s also important to acknowledge how female athletes themselves have been driving change.
  • The activism of women athletes through the years has also created visibility for women’s sports.
  • In March 2019, the U.S. women’s national team players sued the U.S. Soccer Federation for gender discrimination.
  • Last year was the first year since the 1980s that the women’s tournament was broadcast on network television.


Cheryl Cooky has received funding and support from the Women's Sports Foundation. She consults on gender equality issues in sports and has partnered with Gatorade, Nike and Buick.

The Bank of Thailand reaffirms its adherence to integrity and principles to build confidence - good governance in Thailand

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Anything we do or think, we have to be able to explain why we act or think this way," she noted.

Key Points: 
  • Anything we do or think, we have to be able to explain why we act or think this way," she noted.
  • The Bank of Thailand also vows to create transparency in the decision-making process and make it auditable.
  • The decision-making is transparent because there is a data storage and communication system so that it can always be traced back.
  • The NACC is supervised by the NACC Board and has the Office of the NACC as its administrative agency.

Thailand’s Anti-Corruption Commission initiates an Anti-Corruption Education curriculum to educate Thai children and instill integrity value in society

Retrieved on: 
Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Corruption in Thai society during the past period has had enormous negative effects on the country and is a major obstacle to the country's development in all dimensions.

Key Points: 
  • Corruption in Thai society during the past period has had enormous negative effects on the country and is a major obstacle to the country's development in all dimensions.
  • However, nowadays it has changed to become more complex which is involved with a conflict of interest and policy corruption.
  • "Children and youth are the future and hope of the country we can instill the idea that corruption is an unusual thing in society.
  • All of those are considered challenging goals of the NACC in driving the anti-corruption education curriculum toward future achievement.

PaperTyper.net Presents New AI Essay Writing Tool for College Students

Retrieved on: 
Friday, March 22, 2024

New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - March 22, 2024) - Recently, PaperTyper.net launched an AI essay writer tool to help students manage papers of various types.

Key Points: 
  • New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - March 22, 2024) - Recently, PaperTyper.net launched an AI essay writer tool to help students manage papers of various types.
  • Juli Sheller, a former student who struggled with writing essays, created and improved this AI essay writer to support students in the USA and Europe.
  • "Naturally, the team wanted to offer students a tool that could lighten their burden in researching, writing, and proofreading stages.
  • AI Essay Generator provides only the necessary support that students can use for their own work.

Paulo Ucha Longhin wins the Superyacht Chef Competition in Monaco

Retrieved on: 
Friday, April 5, 2024

MONACO, April 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Paulo Ucha Longhin (M/Y Hercules – 50m) is the winner of the 5th Superyacht Chef Competition.

Key Points: 
  • MONACO, April 05, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Paulo Ucha Longhin (M/Y Hercules – 50m) is the winner of the 5th Superyacht Chef Competition.
  • Paulo Ucha Longhin has been cooking for 25 years and he started his journey on yachts after Covid.
  • He won the competition with a main course of lobster and a dessert of strawberries and mascarpone cream.
  • Participating in this fifth edition were: Paulo Ucha Longhin (M/Y Hercules – 50m), Joelyanne Lefaucheur (M/Y Artemis – 33m), Mateusz Mitka (M/Y Lady Britt – 63m), Margot Laurent (M/Y Leonardo III – 43m), Enzo Di Garbo (M/Y L.A.U.L.

New Report Shares Trends, Insights, and Actions to Shift Power

Retrieved on: 
Thursday, April 4, 2024

“ Operationalizing Locally-Led Development: Cultivating a Healthy Global Development Ecosystem ” also includes findings from Humentum’s second annual Equitable, Resilient, Accountable (ERA) 2023 Index .

Key Points: 
  • “ Operationalizing Locally-Led Development: Cultivating a Healthy Global Development Ecosystem ” also includes findings from Humentum’s second annual Equitable, Resilient, Accountable (ERA) 2023 Index .
  • The report also includes specific recommendations for how to make progress in each area:
    Trends: Changing partnership policies and frameworks.
  • Anticipated Actions: Testing new approaches, with multiple options gaining traction but no “one way” surfacing.
  • Anticipated Actions: More examination of culture, as leaders realize the key role it plays in living out organizational policies and values.