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No, drinking water doesn't kill coronavirus
First there was the bizarre suggestion that it can be cured with cocaine. After the erroneous idea circulated widely on social media, the French government had to quickly issue a statement saying that it’s definitely pas vrai.
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Tips for how to stay happy in troubling times
With the unfolding global coronavirus pandemic leading to people being confined to their homes, borders being shut and economic instability, it can be hard not to feel overwhelmed by the state of the world at the moment.
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Coronavirus: How can we stay in virtual touch with older relatives?
As the government encourages "social distancing" in the fight against coronavirus, older people are facing the prospect of being told to stay at home for weeks. But what if a parent or older person in your life, doesn't already have access to video calling tech?
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How Pretty Woman erased sex from its story
A middle-aged businessman pays a much-younger prostitute to be his live-in lover for a week. It’s a sordid premise for a feel-good romantic comedy, but that didn’t stop Pretty Woman being one of the biggest hits of 1990.
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Uganda's Kanungu cult massacre that killed 700 followers
Judith Ariho does not shed any tears as she recalls the church massacre in which her mother, two siblings and four other relatives were among at least 700 people who died.
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How to argue with a racist: Five myths debunked
Stereotypes and myths about race abound, but this does not make them true. Often, these are not even expressed by overt racists. For many well-intentioned people, experience and cultural history has steered them towards views that aren't supported by human genetics.
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The actor who was really stabbed on stage
When he was cast as Hamlet at age 24, Conor Madden thought his stage career was about to take off - but then an accident during a sword-fighting scene left him with serious injuries. No-one knew whether he would ever act again.
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Coronavirus: How to work from home, the right way
Google, Microsoft, Twitter. Hitachi, Apple, Amazon. Chevron, Salesforce, Spotify. From the UK to the US, Japan to South Korea, these are all global companies that have, in the last few days, rolled out mandatory work-from-home policies amid the spread of Covid-19.
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Wasp-76b: The exotic inferno planet where it 'rains iron'
Astronomers have observed a distant planet where it probably rains iron. It sounds like a science fiction movie, but this is the nature of some of the extreme worlds we're now discovering.
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Bill Clinton claims Monica Lewinsky affair was to 'help anxieties'
Former President Bill Clinton says his affair with Monica Lewinsky was a way of managing his anxieties. He made the remarks as part of a documentary series titled "Hillary" which looks at the public life of 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.
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Is it okay to tell a dirty joke at work?
On her first day in a new job in the City, Kate (not her real name) didn't know what to expect. Now a successful executive, she remembers being ready to roll with the punches, anything in order to get ahead. What she didn't expect was unrelenting sexual innuendo.
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Tattoos: 'The more I have, the more confident I feel'
You probably know Post Malone for two things: massive hit singles and having loads of tattoos - some on his face. He's been chatting about his body art in a new interview, saying his tattoos come from "a place of insecurity".
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Australian thief uses fishing rod to steal Versace necklace
Australian police are attempting to catch a thief who used a fishing rod to steal a Versace necklace from a high-end designer store in Melbourne. The thief was caught on CCTV trying to hook the A$800 (US$529; £414) jewellery off a mannequin's neck.
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Coronavirus: What can we learn from the Spanish flu?
One hundred years ago, a world recovering from a global war that had killed some 20 million people suddenly had to contend with something even more deadly: a flu outbreak.
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Why hasn’t AI changed the world yet?
When Kursat Ceylan, who is blind, was trying to find his way to a hotel, he used an app on his phone for directions, but also had to hold his cane and pull his luggage. He ended up walking into a pole, cutting his forehead.
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How the humble potato changed the world
In his 1957 essay collection Mythologies, the French philosopher and literary critic Roland Barthes called chips (la frite), a food that comes from a crop native to the Americas, “patriotic” and “the alimentary sign of Frenchness”.
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Vatican opens archives of Holocaust-era Pope Pius XII
The Vatican has opened its archives on the wartime papacy of Pius XII, kept secret for decades amid accusations that he turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. Critics say Pius XII, sometimes labelled "Hitler's Pope", knew Nazi Germany was murdering Jews but failed to act.
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Should we give up on the dream of space elevators?
Elon Musk is considered by many to be visionary – a pioneer of private exploration, and the man behind the Hyperloop concept to shoot people from Los Angeles to San Francisco in a metal tube in only 35 minutes. But there are some ideas that even he believes are too far-fetched.
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Why working from home might be less sustainable
Car engines running, office heaters pumping – work as we know it has a substantial carbon footprint. Shouldn’t workers ditch the drive to a large office building and trade it in for the commute from their bed to their computer?
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The simple maths error that can lead to bankruptcy
As we head into 2021, Worklife is running our best, most insightful and most essential stories from 2020. Read our full list of the year’s top stories here. Fifteen years ago, the people of Italy experienced a strange kind of mass hysteria known as “53 fever”.
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Why the vegan diet is not always green
It has all the makings of a delicious smoothie – a dollop of almond butter, an avocado, a few slices of mango, a handful of blueberries, a sprinkle of cocoa powder and perhaps a glug of soya milk.
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Can a blood pressure drug help ease the painful memory of an ex?
image copyrighteternalcreative via Getty ImagesA Montreal researcher says he has found a way to take the emotional sting out a bad breakup by "editing" memories using therapy and a beta blocker.
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The research centre dedicated to the science of cracks
Whatever their size, cracks can be bad news. They make planes fall out the sky and bridges fall down. On a more mundane level they trip you up on a badly-maintained pavement. Now Strathclyde University in Glasgow is claiming a world-first with a centre dedicated to a new science of cracking-up.
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'My silent retreat obsession changed my life'
Then a friend recommended a book on meditation. The 26-year-old started meditating at home in Nottinghamshire, before deciding she wanted to take things up a level.
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The silent epidemic of America’s problem with guns
Mass shootings dominate the national conversation on gun control, but two thirds of gun deaths are suicides. How do you solve a problem hardly anyone talks about? The night Brayden died was a cold, clear night in Helena, in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Montana.
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