El Fajo It was beyond clear it was time to pay up. The surrounding murmur grew quiet as he reached into his pocket. He pulled out a bundle of cash, ten thousand, twenty thousand at least. He held a cigarette in his teeth, the blue smoke curling up and around the brim of his StetsonContinue reading “The Argentina Set”
Category Archives: History
Cutting Corners: OceanGate and the Titanic
Read time: 3 mins The ocean gate disaster has been widely reported as a failure of design. The submersible used a brittle carbon fibre cylinder instead of the normal titanium or equivalent steel that other deep sea submersibles used. Carbon Fibre is lightweight and cheap in comparison. But it also behaves in bizarre and unpredictableContinue reading “Cutting Corners: OceanGate and the Titanic”
Thalidomide and the problem with Isomers
Read Time: 8 mins On Christmas day, 1957, a baby was born to an employee of Chemie Gruenthal, a German pharmaceutical company. This baby was the first of nearly 10,000 infants who faced a tragedy that would change the way that the world tested, marketed and sold drugs forever. In 1956, Chemie Gruenthal developed aContinue reading “Thalidomide and the problem with Isomers”
5 Lessons to Help Save Democracy
Read Time: 5 mins History does not repeat, but it does inform. This is the key takeaway of Timothy Snyder’s book “On Tyranny – 20 lessons from the 20th Century”. Globalization was accelerating in the 1900s and its rise led to complexities that no one could have predicted. These changes were frightening and ever-present. InventionsContinue reading “5 Lessons to Help Save Democracy”
Can you gamble your way to heaven?
It has been argued that the people of France are the best protesters in the world. Since 2018, over 3 million people participated in the Gilet Jaunes movement. The point was to protest against the prices of fuel, cost of living and inequality. They bought the French government to its knees. And more importantly, theyContinue reading “Can you gamble your way to heaven?”
Logical Fallacies
Read time: 2 mins Despite what most people think, Ancient Greeks were avid perfumers. The streets of Athens were infused with the delicate herbal scents of almonds, coriander, bergamot and conifer, steeped in olive oil over many months and liberally applied to skin and hair. Compared to modern chemical and alcoholic perfumes, these scents wereContinue reading “Logical Fallacies”
Of mice and men – can mice predict the end of the world?
Read time: 2 mins In 1968, only 3 months after Martin Luther King was assassinated for his services to human progress, 8 mice predicted how humanity would end. They lived in a rodential paradise. Food was available whenever they required it. The temperature was balmy. There were no predators and plenty of materials to makeContinue reading “Of mice and men – can mice predict the end of the world?”
Beyond Food
Read time: 3 mins In October 2021, McDonald’s announced it was testing its new McPlant burger, a vegan product that was created in collaboration with Beyond Meat, a company that specialises in meat alternatives. The McPlant is an ultra-processed patty inspired by Beyond Meat’s own recipe which uses ingredients such as pea protein, oil, extracts,Continue reading “Beyond Food”
Ancient Happiness
Happiness has become the focus for huge swathes of the population, and the quest to find it fuels an industry of gurus and self-help entrepreneurs which has grown by 20% since 2020. Despite its most recent surge in popularity, seeking happiness is not a new endeavour. In fact, some of the most famous thinkers inContinue reading “Ancient Happiness”
The Pareto Distribution
Read Time: 3 mins For the most part, there’s nothing wrong with being average. Expectations are reasonable, you are liked by some, not by others. The paparazzi take a limited interest in who you snog and what colour your socks are. Being average typically means you fall somewhere towards the middle of what mathematicians callContinue reading “The Pareto Distribution”
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