February 2012
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“His life ended in a haze of vodka and cocaine, the self-belief perhaps slightly...”
– Jonathan Keith “Jack” Idema, American fortune hunter and confidence trickster, died on January 21st, aged 55. Our obituary remembers him.
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“The nie nie zu (the “crush-crush tribe”) are so named because they...”
– Who knew China was tribal? The diversification of Chinese society has seen a flowering of a new vocabulary. Perhaps most fascinating has been the division of people into tribes (zu in Mandarin).
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“Anyone who sees an emergency can call a central number. A smartphone app...”
– A charity in Israel is using ubiquitous gadgets to co-ordinate an army of volunteer first aiders. With sufficient backing, they say the scheme could enable them to respond to nearly any emergency call within 90 seconds.
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“Many people are just waiting to be told they can fight back”
– A young professional from Homs sums up the mood on Syria’s streets. As the country’s civil unrest looks ever more like civil war, imams preaching non-violence may be the last barrier holding back a surge to arms.
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January 2012
45 posts
The pros and cons of Moon Base Gingrich →
Our correspondent examines the practicalities of Newt Gingrich’s plan to build a colony on the moon. All things considered, it would be a rather left-wing place.
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“In a profession which specialises in hypocrisy, Mr Gingrich’s performance stands...”
– Newt Gingrich harried Bill Clinton for having sex with an intern 27 years his junior when he was having sex with a staffer 23 years younger than himself. His arrogance, meanwhile, verges on monomania. He once wrote of himself as the “definer of the forces of civilisation”.
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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.