India's headhunter warriors sever past, fret over future
Once, the way to get ahead among India's Konyak warriors was by chopping off an enemy's skull. Today, the last survivors of a past age mourn the changing times -- and...
2023-07-05 10:45
This millionaire is selling his private jet to help the environment
Millionaire Stephen Prince is selling his private jet -- because of his concerns for the environment. The vice-chair of the Patriotic Millionaires group is also calling for higher taxes on top earners.
2023-07-11 18:48
Microsoft, Sony Among AI Winners in Games, Morgan Stanley Says
Game platforms including Microsoft Corp.’s Xbox and Sony Group Corp.’s PlayStation will be “the most clear-cut beneficiaries of
2023-10-23 14:24
Brazil's Embraer to start building flying taxis
Brazilian aeronautics company Embraer and its urban mobility subsidiary Eve said Thursday they would build a factory near Sao Paolo to manufacture flying taxis that could...
2023-07-21 04:52
More than 1,700 US flights delayed or canceled due to severe storms
Disruptions for air travelers continued Tuesday with more than 1,600 flights across the United States delayed or canceled after powerful storms ripped through the parts of the country, including in the Mid-Atlantic and parts of the Northeast where many busy hubs are located.
2023-06-27 19:56
UK Retail Sales Fall More Than Expected in Spell of Warm Weather
UK retail sales tumbled more than expected as unusually warm weather deterred shoppers from spending on clothes for
2023-10-20 14:56
Jonnie Peacock on Strictly Come Dancing representation: ‘It’s important to break people’s perceptions’
BBC One’s Strictly Come Dancing has been “fantastic” for disability representation, says Jonnie Peacock MBE – the show’s first amputee contestant. The sprinter and paralympian, who was partnered with professional dancer Oti Mabuse in 2017, helped pave the way for celebrities with disabilities, including presenters Rose Ayling-Ellis and JJ Chalmers. The new 2023 series sees cyclist and swimmer Jody Cundy – who, like Peacock, had his right leg amputated just below the knee – compete with Jowita PrzystaÅ‚, who lifted the glitterball trophy last year with Hamza Yassin. “For me, going on Strictly was important to attempt to break people’s perceptions and make them realise the reason that I would be a bad dancer would absolutely not be my leg,” says the 30-year-old. “My leg is actually one of my strong suits! “Rhythm,” he laughs, “That was more the problem.” Peacock – who became a household name after smashing the world record and claiming gold in the 100m T44 final at London 2012 Paralympic Games – said by appearing on the popular dancing show, he was “trying to get people to understand that we look at someone and we instantly judge what they’re able to do, and put them in a box”. The World Health Organisation estimates that 16% of the world’s population is disabled. “But when you look at your TV – especially 20 years ago – it [looked like] 0.1%, and the same with race and gender,” notes Peacock. “Now people are starting to realise that we want our world to be reality, and we want our [TV] world to encompass what it actually looks like. “It’s not just Strictly, pretty much all of the reality TV shows have disabled contestants in [now]. It’s so important. It’s a way to show that we are an individual, and that we have something to give.” Peacock was recently made an ASICS ambassador (“It’s really cool to be working with a brand who actually care about a lot of the things I care about – that it’s so much more than sport,” he says). And after a difficult summer on the track, he’s looking ahead to the indoor winter para season and the Paris Paralympics next summer. “I felt the worst I’ve felt in years, as soon as I got past 50 or 60 metres [during Paris Para Athletics World Championships in July],” says the sprinter, who later discovered he had hamstring tendinopathy. “I’d kind of lost the love of the event. Even though I love training, I didn’t enjoy competing too much. Even though I love doing it, it was bringing me a lot of misery.” As well as injury niggles, he’s been having issues with the alignment of his prosthetic blade. For para athletes, this technical side of the sport adds additional complication. “I used to love that, but there was a couple of years where I just felt off balance and didn’t realise why,” he says. “We had to play with so many different settings… that was the moment where I was constantly [thinking], ‘I wish I had a foot there where it should be, I wish I didn’t have to worry about setting this up and could just go for it’.” Peacock was five when he almost died from meningitis and his right leg had to be amputated – a time he has few memories of (“I have one flashback in the back of the car being rushed to hospital, with my Power Rangers duvet wrapped around me”). Growing up, he had several bone revision surgeries – “because once you’ve had an amputation, the bone will carry on growing,” explains Peacock. Now though, he’s showing no signs of slowing down, even though sprinter careers are notoriously short. For the next Paralympics, “It’s gold or nothing – Felix [Streng of Germany] has got it now [after Tokyo 2020], but my plan is to hopefully make him the shortest Paraylmpian champion ever.” After being so dominant in the 100m for so long (he’s a two-time Paralympic gold medalist, two-time world champion, and two-time European Championship gold medalist), what keeps him motivated to win? “It’s probably greed,” he laughs, “It’s just never enough, you just want more, it’s an addictive feeling. It’s like you’re just constantly chasing to try be a better athlete – a better version of you.” And with age has come a better understanding of how his own happiness and mental health is tied to his physical health. “I don’t exercise for a period of time, I can get a little bit almost, not depressed, but edging on that, just not happy, very lethargic,” he reveals. Youth comes with a blissful naivety about health, he says. Before, “I never really realised that every time I exercised, I felt better afterwards. Now [my body] is more sensitive. I don’t feel fantastic 24/7, creaks and aches start to appear, grogginess, fatigue…” These days, when he’s not feeling his best, he’ll start a day with a 15-minute indoor bike session at home, where he lives with para athlete girlfriend Sally Brown. “I hate it, I literally hate it!” he laughs. “I want to sit on the sofa and watch TV [instead]. I feel atrocious for 10 minutes afterwards, but then I bounce up so high for the rest of the day, I’m so happy. “The closest thing that affects my mental health is my [physical] health. If I eat like crap, if I sleep like crap, if I don’t exercise, I will be in a bad mental health space. If I exercise, even just a little bit, if I eat well, if I sleep well, I don’t feel like that. It’s understanding there’s a cause and effect relationship to a lot of things.” He swears by the feel-good endorphins of a freezing cold shower everyday. “My friend told me about Wim Hof [the Dutch endurance athlete known as The Iceman] six or seven years ago. I hate hot showers now, to the point where I was in a hotel once and had to get the engineer to come up because the shower didn’t go cold [enough].” Peacock says he tries to remember that “life is a game” and “a gift”. He continues: “We waste it because we take it too seriously. And we’ve been forced to take it too seriously by the outside world – we’ve been given pressures, we’ve been given expectation, and you end up allowing the stress to enclose you and take you away from that childhood mentality of just going out and having fun. “When you’re dead, you’re not going to be sitting there going, ‘Oh, I wish I’d kept my boss a bit happier’.” Jonnie Peacock is sponsored by ASICS. To find out more visit asics.com. Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live What you need to know about depression during menopause – as Carol Vorderman opens up Autumn pests to look out for and how to get rid of them in your home and garden How can I tell if my child has ADHD?
2023-10-04 15:17
'Cult of the Lamb' meets 'Don't Starve Together'. It's real.
It's the glorious game crossover you never knew you needed: Cult of the Lamb meets
2023-08-22 21:23
What to stream this weekend: 'Asteroid City,' Lukas Nelson, 'Quarterback' and 'Secrets of Playboy'
This week’s new entertainment releases include albums from Lukas Nelson and Kool & The Gang, the return of the silly, witty, Emmy-nominated comedy “What We Do in the Shadows” and Wes Anderson’s stylish and star-studded “Asteroid City” comes to premium video on demand
2023-07-15 00:28
Best Pre-Prime Day 2023 Mesh Networking Deals: Up to 69% Off for eero Products
Imagine a perfect world in which lightning-fast Wi-Fi 6 is available to all your devices
2023-06-23 22:55
Lewis Hamilton gives blunt response to Felipe Massa’s legal action over 2008 F1 title
Lewis Hamilton insists he is “not focusing on what happened 15 years ago” when questioned on Thursday about Felipe Massa’s legal action over the 2008 Formula 1 title. Massa is seeking substantial damages following the 2008 Crashgate scandal and a subsequent alleged “conspiracy” after comments earlier this year by former F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone. Hamilton, now a seven-time world champion, won his first F1 title in 2008 on the final lap of a dramatic final race in Brazil, with Massa missing out by a single point. A formal eight-page ‘Letter Before Claim’ was sent to F1 boss Stefano Domenicali and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem last Tuesday from London-based Enyo Law with the firm, acting on Massa’s behalf, alleging that the 42-year-old has been “the victim of a conspiracy committed by individuals at the highest level of F1 together with the FIA and Formula One management”. Yet Hamilton, when asked about the case ahead of this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix, remained tight-lipped. “I’ve got a really bad memory,” Hamilton said. “I’m really just focused on the here and now and helping the team get back to the championship. I’m not focused on what happened 15 years ago.” Massa’s lawyers stated in their letter that the ex-Ferrari driver has lost out on tens of millions of euros in lost earnings and bonuses as a result of missing out on the 2008 title. What was the ‘Crashgate’ scandal? Crashgate rocked Formula 1 when the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix saw Renault’s Fernando Alonso win the race before it emerged that his teammate Nelson Piquet Jr had deliberately crashed to bring out a safety car that played into Alonso’s hands. That safety car prompted a Massa pit stop that Ferrari mishandled, with Massa eventually finishing the race 13th while Hamilton came home third – a difference of six points, a swing which ultimately impacted the title result. While Renault and team boss Flavio Briatore were punished in 2009 for Crashgate, the result of the race stood despite Massa’s protestations, with the FIA’s statutes making clear that overturning the classification from each season is impossible once the FIA Awards Ceremony for that year is complete, a rule set in the FIA International Sporting Code. Ecclestone revealed in March that both he and then-FIA president Max Mosley knew of the Crashgate scandal in 2008, but refused to publicise the chain of events to avoid the sport a “huge scandal”. The 38-year-old also gave a simple “no” response when asked about any contract updates, with his current Mercedes deal set to expire at the end of the season. Hamilton has not won a race since Saudi Arabia in 2021, but he came close this time last year at Zandvoort before Max Verstappen came through to win his home race for the second year running. Verstappen, who has won 10 of the 12 races so far this season and is looking to equal Sebastian Vettel’s record of nine consecutive victories this weekend, has a “high chance” according to Hamilton of winning every race until the end of the 2023 campaign. The Mercedes star himself, however, is targeting second place in the world championship. He is currently in fourth place, 41 points behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez in second. “I think P2 [in the constructors’] is a huge achievement and something that has been overlooked if I’m completely honest,” he said, with the Silver Arrows the next-best behind Red Bull. “Ultimately we want to win, but I’m really proud of the team and the steps we’ve made with the car. “My goal is to make sure the team keep second in the championship and try to hunt down second in the drivers’ championship. That’s my goal – that’ll be fun.” Verstappen has a 125-point lead in the championship heading into his home race this weekend, with 10 races remaining this season. Read More Felipe Massa starts legal action over 2008 F1 title loss to Lewis Hamilton Lewis Hamilton would be taking gamble by leaving Mercedes, says former rival F1 Dutch Grand Prix: When is practice on Friday in Zandvoort? F1 takes steps to prevent use of flares at Dutch Grand Prix F1 Dutch Grand Prix: When is practice on Friday in Zandvoort? F1 2023 race schedule: When is the Dutch Grand Prix?
2023-08-24 23:22
New congressional bill addresses food insecurity on the picket line
Members of the U.S. Senate are supporting the pro-labor movement sweeping across the nation, introducing
2023-07-29 02:45
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