Showing 1 - 10 of 11
Those were the days, my friend...
Oped, Roger Crutchley, Published on 14/01/2024
» A fortnight ago I enjoyed Thai hospitality on a very pleasant New Year's Eve at a small gathering in our neighbour's garden in Chaiyaphum. There were about 10 of us and although I was the only non-Thai the hosts insisted on playing western music rather than the mor-lam they almost certainly would have preferred.
'Generation Dupe': Why Gen Z loves knockoffs
News, Erin Lowry, Published on 23/12/2023
» Parents of Gen Z might be surprised to find knockoffs on their children's wish lists this holiday season. More affectionately called "dupes", cheap imitation purses, beauty products and other items have become all the rage with Gen Z and younger millennials. Buying knockoffs is a tradition going back generations, but the new twist is publicly outing yourself as owning and wearing them.
Vilfredo Pareto and the roots of political theory
Oped, Alberto Mingardi, Published on 22/08/2023
» Many political disputes in recent years have been framed as battles between economic rationality and eruptions of irrationality that we label populism. But cognitive psychologists and economists would point out that political irrationality is hardly confined to populist insurgents. As a general matter, most political leaders are focused on practical matters and do not necessarily think deeply about the ideas they expound.
Why malaria still persists in much of Africa
News, Bjorn Lomborg, Published on 12/06/2023
» We think of malaria as a problem faced only by humid, hot countries. But just over a century ago, the disease thrived as far north as Siberia and the Arctic Circle, and was endemic in 36 states of the US. We don't have specific data that far back for Thailand, but back then, malaria is estimated to have killed 2.5 million people each year in the Western Pacific, Middle East and South Asia.
There have probably been better years
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 26/12/2021
» Well we've just about scraped through the Year of the Ox. It was a strange time, rather like living in a vacuum, not entirely sure what would happen next. Nothing could have been worse than 2020, but 2021 wasn't far off. At the start of the year there was hope that the cloud of Covid could be shaken off and we would all become happy folks in the Land of Smiles again, but it didn't quite work out that way -- it's the hope that kills you.
Lipstick query shows gender aspect to Covid-19
Oped, Sarah Hawkes and Kent Buse, Published on 14/07/2021
» 'Is my lipstick protecting me against Covid-19?" ranks as one of the more intriguing email queries we have received from a member of the public since we began coordinating the world's largest tracker of sex-disaggregated data on the pandemic. In fact, the question points to an important universal truth regarding public health.
The eyes have it in the big cover-up
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 09/05/2021
» Coming from our Not Particularly Surprising News Department is a report that owing to the Covid pandemic lipstick sales have slumped quite markedly. With most people wearing masks there seems little point for the ladies to bother with lipstick.
European Union is free at last
News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 31/12/2020
» Blaming the victims is never a good look. As Britain finally leaves the European Union, 1,651 days after the Brexit referendum of 2016, we should try to remember that 48% of the turkeys didn't vote for Christmas.
The Thai Blob is spreading its wings
News, Roger Crutchley, Published on 27/01/2019
» Many readers will be familiar with the long-running Adventures of the Blob on certain Thai TV channels in the war against cigarettes. When movies are shown, the blob races around the screen in pursuit of rogue cigarettes and attempts to blob them out to protect defenceless viewers. Unsurprisingly, the ridiculous blob only succeeds in irritating the TV audience. The absurdity of it all was highlighted recently during a gangster movie in which nearly everyone in the room was smoking. This prompted a squadron of blobs to go whizzing across the screen, fighting a losing battle and reducing a supposedly serious scene into a foggy farce.
Electric nightmares
News, Postbag, Published on 19/08/2018
» Re: "Electric taxis launch next month", (BP, Aug 17).