RedHanded

Critically lauded dance troupe, or sinister, human-trafficking, brainwashing, child-abusing cult? However you slice it, there is a lot more going on to Shen Yun than the glitzy public posters let on.
This week we open the curtain on Shen Yun, and the cult behind it, Falun Gong – whose founder Li Hongzhi believes he can levitate, predict the future and read his followers’ minds. So: what does Falun Gong want to achieve? What do we make of their claims of torture, at the hands of the Chinese government? And HOW exactly how do they sell out shows of traditional Chinese dancing in every major city across the world?
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A deadly virus that causes hydrophobia, frothing at the mouth and delirious aggression might sound more like science fiction than real life. But that’s what awaited 15-year-old Jeanna Giese when she was bitten by a rabid bat in 2004. This is the history of one of the oldest and most deadly viruses known to man – and how a 15-year-old girl and her doctor managed to overcome it, against all odds. This is the ShortHand.
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When the body of 18-year-old newlywed Michelle Schofield was found in a canal in Bone Valley, Florida, all eyes turned to her guitar-playing, heavy-metal husband, Leo Schofield.
But despite his protestations of innocence (and rock-solid alibi), the facts of this case couldn’t help but muddy those waters. Namely: a nosy neighbour with ever-changing stories; a hot-shot southern lawyer with exactly nothing to prove; and the body’s location being revealed through a message from God…
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Party favours full of drugs, a hose-down rubber sex balcony, and Bianca Jagger on a real horse. It’s often said that the brightest flames burn for the shortest time – and by god did Studio 54 burn bright. 
Under the helm of Steve Rubell and Ian Schrager, 254 West 54th was the single coolest place on the planet – and set the blueprint for exclusive nightclubs to this day. Bowie, Warhol, the Jaggers, and every other celebrity you could think of felt lucky to set foot on its gigantic dance floor. 
But what comes up, must come down, and it only took three years for the greatest club on earth to come unstuck. This is the story of sex, drugs, and disco – the rise and fall of Studio 54.
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Zombies, incantations and dolls full of pins… the version of voodoo that most of us get has been suffused with decades of Hollywood magic, and a dusting of light xenophobia.
But the reality of Haitian vodou is much more complex – and way more fascinating. So, how did slaves reconcile their own folklore and religions, with the Catholicism that colonisers were forcing down their throats? Who are the main lwa – or spirits – of vodou? And how can an offering of black coffee, rum and cigars help you to commune with the dead?
Find out in this week’s ShortHand!
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