Sentinel Lifestyle
Cambodian villagers honor guardian spirits to pray for rain and good fortune
PHUM BOEUNG, Cambodia | Hundreds of Cambodians on Thursday morning honored their village’s guardian spirits by holding a colorful centuries-old ceremony to pray for good fortune, rain and prosperity. The “He Neak Ta” ritual has been celebrated annually for several hundred years by the villagers in Phum Boeung, about 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of […]
Six tax tips you should start thinking about now
Here are six common ways taxpayers get off track and the questions they should ask themselves during the tax year. Don’t assume the answer is the same as last year Taxpayers often default to “same as last year” thinking. But tax outcomes depend on variables that shift constantly, like income, markets, tax laws, interest rates, […]
Memorial Day: Higher fuel prices have some Americans scaling back their travel plans
As someone who is “not the best person with bugs and stuff,” Stephanie Bernaba never imagined herself becoming an outdoorsy mom. But the mother of three is getting more daring as gas prices and other travel costs make vacations more expensive. Bernaba, 47, has been steering her family toward local beaches, bike rides and hiking […]
A new Swatch model is introduced, and a case study in overexcited ‘drop culture’ plays out
LONDON | In Paris, police deployed tear gas. In Milan, Italy, a fistfight erupted. In London, Singapore and New York, all-night queues snaked from the doors of Swatch stores — the latest examples of status-symbol “drop culture” to flash across the globe when status symbols and resale value collide. The company at the center of […]
Lettuce introduce you to the live frog found in this grocery store salad bag
MELBOURNE, Australia | When Australian farmer Rhys Smoker announced he’d found a live frog in a bag of lettuce, his housemates didn’t believe him. Smoker had been preparing a steak and salad dinner on Saturday for the three people who share his house in Esperance in Western Australia state when he spotted the frog among […]
Animal welfare groups say 3 South African zoo elephants are depressed and sue to move them
CAPE TOWN, South Africa | The mental well-being of three elephants in a zoo in South Africa is the subject of an unusual court case, with animal welfare groups saying they are depressed and should be moved to a larger conservation park where they can be happy. The case this week will ask a South […]
Demand for cruises appears undimmed despite hantavirus and other onboard outbreaks
Recent outbreaks of hantavirus and norovirus on cruise ships are making headlines, but they’re unlikely to dim the growing popularity of vacation cruises, according to industry representatives and travel experts. In fact, many within the industry still expect a record number of people worldwide to take cruises this year despite three passengers aboard the MV […]
Walmart and Amazon race to win over rural America with speedier deliveries
PEA RIDGE, Ark. | Walmart and Amazon are racing to speed up online order deliveries in rural areas of the U.S., a rich source of untapped sales that major retailers long wrote off as too sparsely inhabited, too remote or too impoverished to serve profitably. Walmart has a running start in the contest to build […]
Bam! Pow! Krakoom! The everlasting allure of the American comic book
BARCELONA, Spain | Pick one up. Be seduced by its glossy cover. Gaze upon the impossibly muscular body clad in a skin-tight suit. Our hero or heroine will surely be soaring, shouting, blasting a villain into next week. They are ridiculous. They are addictively great. Comic books, of the superhero variety, are 100% American. Compare […]
Created as IDs, dog tags became a crucial link between military families and fallen troops
Family members often clench them as if they were still clasping their fallen loved one’s hands. Companions-in-arms have broken down reading them. More than a century after a U.S. Army chaplain pushed for “dog tags” to become standard issue for troops, they remain one of the most powerful links for grieving military families to their […]