Showing 1 - 10 of 147
What happens when Christmas loses its soul to AI?
News, Timothy Snyder, Published on 23/12/2025
» While trying to work at a café the other day, I experienced the real war on Christmas. Hoping for the familiar hum of conversation and music, I was surprised upon entering that no one was talking. Still, I sat down with my notebook and attempted to focus my thoughts, but something was playing havoc with my concentration. The music seemed eerie. I lifted my head, listened, and became disturbed.
Trio wins Nobel Prize for chemistry
News, Published on 10/10/2025
» Stockholm: Three scientists won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday for developing a method of designing molecular structures.
The air war: plywood and Styrofoam
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 20/09/2025
» 'Nato is responding with unity and strength," said British defence secretary John Healey. "If you've got drones that are putting Polish lives at risk, then Nato will take them out. There's no firm confirmation on intent, but in the end that's not the point. It's still reckless. It's still dangerous."
Terminal volunteers can save lives
News, Peter Singer & Benjamin L Sievers, Published on 13/09/2025
» At the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), a programme called Last Gift offers terminally ill patients the opportunity to help create more effective treatments. Their special circumstances transform the usual risk-benefit calculus of joining a clinical study of an untested drug. Researchers can ask them to consider consenting to being research participants in ways that they would not ask healthier people with long life expectancies, and terminally ill patients may choose to give that consent when others would be less likely to do so.
Trump's deals are weakening the rule of law
News, Richard K Sherwin, Published on 09/08/2025
» European Union trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic described the recent US-EU trade agreement in unvarnished terms. Agreeing to a 15% tariff on most exports to the United States and promising to purchase $750 billion (24 trillion baht) worth of American energy over three years and to invest another $600 billion in the US (not including an unspecified amount in additional orders of US-made military hardware) was "clearly the best deal we could get."
Central banks caused own woes
News, Otmar Issing, Published on 02/08/2025
» US President Donald Trump's fierce attacks on Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell have attracted global attention, rattled markets and, perhaps most importantly, sparked debate about the wisdom of central-bank independence -- a complex issue with constitutional and economic implications.
Trump is not entirely wrong about China
News, Yi Fuxian, Published on 31/05/2025
» President Donald Trump's embrace of tariffs has been met with criticism, and for sound reasons. But Mr Trump's diagnosis of the global trading system -- and, specifically, its impact on US manufacturing -- may not be entirely wrong. The problem, instead, is the treatment: rather than using a chainsaw, which would probably kill the patient, he should reach for a scalpel.
Feb 28 was the day diplomacy died
News, Philip Cunningham, Published on 03/03/2025
» What do we make of the Oval Office meltdown that led to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky being politically ambushed and then rushed out of the White House? How do we best interpret Donald Trump's rude, bullying behaviour, reinforced by his trusty sidekick Vice President JD Vance?
Afghan women's rights draw little attention
News, John J Metzler, Published on 07/11/2024
» Afghanistan's tragedy continues. Since the chaotic end of the Afghan war in August 2021, the country is now again ruled by the Islamic fundamentalist Taliban, which has literally turned the clock back on any hints of modernisation and civil and human rights advancements. The rights of women, and especially girls, have plummeted into a medieval miasma.
I'm with the band -- how music made me British
News, Howard Chua-Eoan, Published on 31/08/2024
» 'Wonderwall' is all I remember. The rest of Oasis is a blur to me. I was still living in New York City when the band had their global breakthrough -- and that song was everywhere. From the album (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, it's one of the few mid-1990s songs whose lyrics this Boomer can remember. I admired its Beatles-like off-kilter poetics, its love-will-save-the-day (if not, maybe it'll just save me) sentimentality. And Liam Gallagher's voice, while not beautiful, was pure plaintive Britpop, a plangent inflexion echoing from as far back as 1962's Love Me Do by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.