January 2012
41 posts
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“Mr Dotcom went out of his way to attract attention—and not just by changing his...”
– It’s in print.
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“Mongolia is being dug up and sold to China”
– Our correspondent travels to Ulaanbaatar, capital of the country likely to grow faster than any other in the next decade. Mongolia has a chance of becoming a Qatar or a Brunei: a country that has only a small population but almost all of it, in global terms, loaded.
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“Parenting is just one part of a French mother’s life, alongside stilettos and a...”
– Ever since “French Women Don’t Get Fat” became a bestseller in America a few years ago, a new genre has emerged devoted to the failings that French women don’t possess. Now a new book turns attention to the impossibly well-mannered offspring of these impossibly chic women.
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“One sure giveaway of quack medicine is the claim that a product can treat any...”
– As doctors never tire of reminding people, exercise protects against a host of illnesses, from heart attacks and dementia to diabetes and infection. Just why it has such magical properties is, at last, being understood.
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“We’re doing it for the kids”
– A fourth-grade teacher in Chester, Pennsylvania, explains why teachers and other school staff have agreed to work for nothing. The local school district’s bank account is almost empty, but it owes suppliers $4m.
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“Remember the old joke about the dim tailor who makes a loss on each piece of...”
– That describes the market for flat-panel screens for televisions. Why do none of the firms that produce liquid crystal display (LCD) panels make money from it?
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“Teachers in black state schools work an average of 3.5 hours a day, compared...”
– Officially, 25% of South Africans are unemployed; the real figure is probably nearer 40%. Some accuse the country’s education system of churning out candidates that are largely unemployable.
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“The SNP leader has a right to argue for Scottish independence. But to make that...”
– In his determination to dismember Britain, Scotland’s leader has allies among English Conservatives. But there are reasons sharply to distrust Alex Salmond’s vision of the Scots and English shaking hands over the corpse of Great Britain.
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“Bed-bugs can drink seven times their own weight in blood in a night, leaving...”
– Neither five-star hotels nor top-notch apartments have been spared bed-bug infestation in New York, and hoteliers from London to Los Angeles are getting nervous. Now two researchers have come up with a bed-bug trap baited with something the bugs find irresistible—the smell of their own droppings.
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“Lucifer, V8, Anal, Christ: these are among the baby names rejected by New...”
– Few decisions are more personal than the naming of offspring. Yet laws regulating parents’ choices are common around the world.
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“Kodak, along with many a great company before it, appears simply to have run its...”
– The former giants of photographic film have diversified into cosmetics, pharmaceuticals and flat screens, with differing degrees of success. Why is Fujifilm thriving while Kodak is at death’s door?
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“Emil Krebs, an early-20th-century German diplomat who was also credited with...”
– Hyperpolyglots (those who speak very many languages) can be tricky characters. Some seem near-autistic. What drives people to learn 20, 30 or 40 languages, and what kind of extreme intelligence is required?
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“America spends five times as much on defence as China does, and even though...”
– While America still tops a few league tables, the year when the Chinese economy will truly eclipse America’s is in sight. It would be a mistake for American leaders to try to block China’s rise—it is better to be number two in a fast-growing world than top dog in a stagnant one.
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“Most commentary on social media ignores an obvious truth—that the value of...”
– Social media provides huge opportunities, but will bring huge problems, says our Schumpeter columnist. Everyone will need better filters—editors, analysts, middle managers and so on—to help them extract meaning from the blizzard of buzz.
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“I don’t envy the boy ruler. I just don’t think he’s going to die in bed.”
– Bradley Martin, an expert on North Korea, puts forward a grim prognosis for the country’s new ruler. It seems unlikely that Kim Jong Un will want to reform the rogue state, writes our correspondent, but even less likely that the regime can go on resisting change.
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“Had communists not seized power in his homeland in 1948, Vaclav Havel would have...”
– Our briefing tells the story of Vaclav Havel—the unassuming man who taught, through plays and politics, how tyranny may be defied and overcome.
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“He learned to walk in three weeks, to talk in eight; he wrote six operas and...”
– Our obituary of Kim Jong Il, dictator of North Korea, reveals a film fanatic who played his own role to the bitter end.
December 2011
31 posts
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“Imagine that you are French. You are walking along a busy pavement in Paris and...”
– Understanding and modelling how pedestrians behave is a youngish field for researchers. Anticipating pedestrian flows makes crowd events smoother and safer, and accounting for the peculiar propensities of different nationalities is key to getting it right.
“How did a nation that, aside from its mussels and chips, renowned chocolate and...”
– Belgium, a small, unremarkable country, brews world-reknowned beer. The country also makes a bigger range than any other—1,131 at the last count. Its hybrid history and culture are part of the reason why.
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“People smoke, Dichter explained, because it is both a sign of virility and a...”
– In America in the 1930s a Viennese psychologist named Ernest Dichter implored advertisers to explore consumers’ unconscious desires. His insights revolutionised marketing and brought sex to advertising.
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“In one survey a fifth of Korean middle and high school students said they felt...”
– Every year South Korea comes to a halt on the day of the university entrance exams, for it is the most important day in most South Koreans’ lives. The single set of multiple-choice tests that students take that day determines their future. But the “one-shot” society carries a heavy...
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“The Buddha tells the people he can fulfil only one of their wishes. Someone...”
– Why does China fail at football?
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“One cold morning in 1591 an English sailor found himself shivering on the island...”
– Master Anthony Knivet left behind a memoir of his strange fortunes, featuring sea monsters, savage tribes and years of slavery. Some of it might be true.