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: Lifestyle
Swiped: How stealing ideas made Dating Apps millions
Read Time: 25 mins Swiping. A word that used to be used to describe a theft (or a sudden and vicious attack), has taken on an entirely new meaning. Swiping left, swiping right. People are now swiping to decide their reproductive future (or not, as the case may be). Recent perspectives on dating apps areContinue reading “Swiped: How stealing ideas made Dating Apps millions”
Would you…um?
In 1998, a Jazz group called Touch & Go composed an earworm that shot to number 3 in the UK charts. Its saxophone riff is iconic – the link is below if you’d like a quick boogie: One of the most distinctive aspects of this song is the sample. A dulcet female voice simply says:Continue reading “Would you…um?”
Sugar and spice and everything nice: The Elfbar
The first thing that you notice from a distance is usually the colour. Bright but tasteful, tipped with a futuristic blue pinpoint glow. As you get a little closer, it begins to scintillate your other senses. Sweet clouds billow across the space and fill your nose with fruity aromatics. When you take a drag, thereContinue reading “Sugar and spice and everything nice: The Elfbar”
Sweet Dreams Are Made of This: Tips to help you sleep
Read Time: 1 min Do you want to be a millionaire? You need to wake up at 5am. Otherwise, you’re doomed to destitution. Countless posts on Tiktok will advise that the only way to be successful is to wake up before the sun rises. But rewinding several millennia, our ancestors had different ideas. The ancientContinue reading “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This: Tips to help you sleep”
On Tolerance
Read time: 3 mins Don’t look down. Classic advice when someone is crossing a threadbare rope bridge strung up over an abyssal crevasse. Looking down immediately inspires a stress response. Clammy hands mean you’re less likely to grip if you fall. Adrenaline fuels your panic, making a misplaced step ever more likely. In 1974, aContinue reading “On Tolerance”
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”
Madrid
Read time: 1 min Madrid is different from other cities. In the grey drizzle of London, the sounds are often rushed and raucous. Car horns bark at wayward pedestrians. Deafening sirens blaze through the streets, as police cars and ambulances tear by, casting the brutalist concrete in brief and cold blue light. The irritation ofContinue reading “Madrid”
Hanlon’s Razor
Read time: 2 mins Prefer Listening? Find the podcast here Everyone has been in a situation where people have made mistakes. Some people have genuinely had people out to get them. Hanlon’s Razor offers a way to be both kinder to ourselves and to others by suggesting that the chance of an action being genuinelyContinue reading “Hanlon’s Razor”
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