MICK MCSHANE is roused by a band whose socialism laces every line of every song with commitment and raw passion
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Space Dogs: The Story of the Celebrated Canine Cosmonauts
Fascinating account of the Soviet dogs who conquered space
A 1960’s wood-mounted clock/barometer, a desk calendar from 1957 with rotary dial for changing the days and months, and commemoratory plate
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ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
UNLIKE the US space-flight pioneers — monkeys who couldn’t handle the pressure and were nervous wrecks on their return — Soviet scientists found that Moscow’s stray dogs were far more amenable and relaxed about the whole extra-planetary experience.
Street-wise ruffians, they displayed intelligence, enterprise and solidarity. Each candidate was observed for weeks before snatch squads stepped in and scooped them up and then they were put through rigorous training.
Space flight was not the first time dogs contributed to science in Russia — they were the research material of Nobel prize-winning psychologist Ivan Pavlov when developing his theories on conditioned response.
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