Showing 1 - 10 of 71
Hedgehoppers in search of good news
Roger Crutchley, Published on 01/02/2026
» Being the very first day of February it would have been nice if there was some good news worth celebrating, but unfortunately nothing immediately springs to mind. Cheerful news is an increasingly rare commodity these days. It all seems to be gloom and doom and hardly portends a joyful 2026. It can get a bit wearying grappling with news reports featuring contradictions, cover-ups and cock-ups, often accompanied by half-truths, prevarications and porky pies. But this is the world we now live in.
When infrastructure meets AI
Oped, Bertrand Badré & Saurabh Mishra, Published on 16/01/2026
» Infrastructure investment is booming. Around the world, governments are pouring trillions of dollars into roads, power grids, data centres, water systems, and housing, with many responding to intensifying climate shocks and the growing need for adaptation. Yet the construction industry -- the single largest force physically reshaping the planet -- is among the last major sectors to unlock all the benefits that digital technology offers. As a result, it accounts for about 21% of greenhouse-gas emissions, produces half of global landfill waste, and overspends by US$1.6 trillion a year.
Artists resist repression in Thailand, US
Oped, Sally Tyler, Published on 08/12/2025
» In late August, two seemingly unrelated events occurred in Thailand and the US. The Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) altered a major exhibit it had recently opened and, a few weeks later, the comedian Jimmy Kimmel was temporarily taken off the air by the ABC television network. These events are linked as forms of artistic repression and perhaps more concerning, as examples of the growing use of intermediary censorship by authoritarian regimes.
Another day, another massacre
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 08/11/2025
» The ceasefire in Gaza, however shaky, is freeing up some bandwidth for the world's media to fret about other ongoing massacres, and UN Secretary General António Guterres wasted no time in turning the spotlight on Sudan. "The horrifying crisis in Sudan … is spiralling out of control," he said on Monday -- but he didn't explain why.
Heritage agriculture as a solution
News, Qu Dongyu, Published on 27/10/2025
» In the 18th century, a series of volcanic eruptions turned the fertile fields of Lanzarote, the easternmost of Spain's Canary Islands, into a desert of black ash. Instead of abandoning the land, farmers adapted.
Half-way there
Oped, Postbag, Published on 19/10/2025
» Re: "Biology lesson", (PostBag, Oct 16). Half an apology (or swallowing half a pill) is better than none, so kudos to Ray Ban.
FAO at 80: feeding the future
News, Qu Dongyu, Published on 16/10/2025
» This year's World Food Day marks 80 years since the founding of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), whose mandate from the outset has been to ensure humanity's freedom from want.
The loveliness of a flying beetle
Roger Crutchley, Published on 20/07/2025
» The recent cricket match between England and India at Lord's was reportedly briefly delayed by a swarm of ladybirds which were bothering the players. It is believed to be the first recorded instance of "ladybirds stopped play". More importantly, swarm is not the correct term for these flying beetles. The collective noun for ladybirds (ladybugs for our American friends) is a "loveliness".
US hard power must get harder
Oped, Todd G. Buchholz & Michael Mindlin, Published on 05/06/2025
» In Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harrison Ford gets his biggest laugh when a desert assassin twirls a scimitar with menacing bravado. Following this brief performance, Ford's character cracks a wry smile, takes out his pistol, and shoots the man dead. In a potential contest with China, the United States looks more like the medieval assassin, deploying young sailors and soldiers equipped with perilously outdated, vulnerable technology.
Recalling a world of dots and dashes
Roger Crutchley, Published on 04/05/2025
» I forgot to mention in PostScript last week that Sunday, April 27, was Morse Code Day which marks the birth of Samuel Morse, inventor of the famous communications code. The reason for my interest is that it brings fond memories of the late 1960s when I worked at Cable and Wireless (C&W) communications company in Holborn, central London.