PicoBlog

Last weekend I visited Istanbul for the first time. While I was there I realized one quality that Istanbul shares with truly great cities like London, New York, and Paris: when you’re there, you’re nowhere else. What I mean by that is the city is all-consuming. One’s senses of taste, smell, and hearing are swept up by the rush of Istanbul. Thoughts of my home in Izmir were as absent as vacant space on the shelves of the Grand Bazaar.

This is the sixth part of our series examining the image of water in the Bible. Over the next months, we’ll be looking at these verses to follow the image of water as it flows from Genesis to Revelation. This time we’ll look at the rivers in Eden and the other lands they flowed into. Here are the verses in focus: “And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed.

It looked like a hell of a bash. Victoria Beckham’s 50th birthday last weekend included a Spice Girls reunion, with David Beckham on cameraman duties recording a raucous dancefloor filled with a bunch of fiftysomethings having the time of their lives to “Stop”. At the end of the night Victoria exited the party at Oswald’s members club in sunglasses by way of a piggyback from her husband.  I love seeing scenes like this.

The Gospel of Matthew is believed to have been written with the Jewish audience in mind. So when Matthew writes of Jesus fasting for “forty days and forty nights” in the wilderness before the devil tempted Him (Matthew 4:1-2), what would the “40 days” have brought to the mind of the Jewish reader? They were familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures, so their minds would consider “40 days” from that perspective.

We have two questions this week that relate rather nicely. First Harisch Sood asks: “Why did Latin die out as a widely spoken language?” And the answer is that it didn’t — it slowly developed into a new language in the many places it spread to. ncG1vNJzZmikla22pLvNr5ilpJWue7TBwayrmpubY7CwuY6pZrCgqWKxqrCMpZitoZ5isaqxjKisrQ%3D%3D

Why did the wellness industry grow as big as it did? I shared my thoughts with The Guardian: “We have become a self-care nation,” Raphael writes. “Though arguably one that still lacks the fundamentals of wellbeing.” So how did we end up in this predicament? One answer lies in the demands of modern life, which, in Raphael’s assessment, land with particular force on women, and mete out further burdens depending on race, class and sexuality.

I am very concerned about declining trust in science and public health. Although there have been many polls and much talk at conferences, one big thing has been missing: listening to people whose trust we are losing. This has been really hard for me to approach. I’ve been in the trenches for the past four years, so it’s personal, still very raw, and the bruises still feel fresh. When am I ready to listen?

The other day, we learnt about how the title for the “Most Expensive Bird in the World” belongs to a young female racing pigeon, who sold for a staggering €1.6 millionin an auction. But not all pigeons are million dollar birds! Today, let’s learn more about how the other half lives - that is, the poor pigeons of the world who live in cities, scrounging for scraps, eking out a living!

Last week, I turned twenty-three and if there’s one area of my life in which I’ve undoubtedly developed a Cool Girl complex, it’s birthdays. Attempting to curb disappointment or appear overly vain, I’ve opted for “chill” birthday celebrations for the past seven years or so. No big parties, no balloons, no cakes, just me, my family, and a quiet dinner and dessert of my choosing. This has all been in an attempt to not turn into a pressure cooker of a girl on her special day, allowing nervous anticipation to fester until steam comes out her ears.