NYT: “Last spring, Conor Murphy was a hired hand who spent his days galloping racehorses, combing knotted manes and shoveling manure in a stable in Berkshire, England. Mr. Murphy, 29, knew his horses well. He was able to tell which ones were on their toes and which ones needed a little more care. He also knew his way around a betting window. On a hunch, he bet $75 on five of his favorites. It was the sort of desperate stab that only a man who loves horses would make.”
05/04/2013
Pew Research Center: “Cinco de Mayo, which comes this Sunday, has in the past few decades become widely celebrated in the United States, and not just among the 33.7 million U.S. residents of Mexican origin (It’s not, as sometimes thought, Mexico’s Independence Day — that’s Sept. 16. Rather, Cinco de Mayo commemorates the 1862 victory of Mexican forces over an invading French army at the Battle of Puebla.). Cinco de Mayo also is a good time to take a look at how Mexicans in the United States view their identity.”
http://www.pewresearch.org/2013/05/03/how-mexicans-in-the-united-states-see-their-identity/
Economist: “It was expected to do well. But the success of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in the local elections held across Britain on May 2nd was nonetheless startling. An upstart right-wing party, of ‘fruitcakes, loonies and closet racists’, according to Prime Minister David Cameron, UKIP won almost a quarter of the vote in the council wards it contested. By one reckoning, it was the biggest surge by a fourth party since the second world war.”
http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2013/05/britain-s-local-elections
ON THIS DAY IN US HISTORY
On May 23, 1911, the New York Public Library is dedicated. Today, it is the third largest public library in North America and also one of the largest research library systems in the world. The NYPL system includes 87 libraries and has a research collection of more than 50 million items, including books, videotapes and maps.
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