By Daniel McGroarty TES GeoPolicy Editor “Ceci n’est pas une pipe.” The iconic impact of Rene Magritte’s most-posterized work is due not to the painting itself, but to the sophomoric witticism in the subscript: It is a painting of a pipe, and not the pipe itself. But that’s not the painting’s […]
Author: Publisher
BAN IT ALL! New plastics rule doesn’t go far enough
Writing for Bloomberg, Leonid Bershidsky applauds the European Parliament’s new rules restricting commercial use of plastics — forks, straws, coffee stirrers, balloon sticks and the like — but argues they won’t go far enough to have a meaningful impact on the environment. The phase-outs should have hard deadlines. Plastic bags should be […]
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — and measles
An alarming editorial in The Lancet Infectious Diseases shows how outbreaks spread when social bonds become frayed. Measles increased in 98 countries last year, with 229,000 cases reported. It’s a worsening global health crisis, even though measles can be prevented easily with the vaccine. The spread of disinformation, which is turning parents against vaccines, is driving new […]
Tech can take out TB
In Devex, Michael Reid makes an optimistic argument that new technology will finally help end the global epidemic of tuberculosis—an airborne infection that kills the most people of any germ. 3.6 million people go without TB treatment each year, mostly due to barriers preventing people from accessing health services. Technology can turn that […]
Zuckerberg: I’m doing everything — everyone should too.
Internet god and would-be humanoid statesman Mark Zuckerberg took to the Washington Post’s op-ed page to unveil some exciting new rules that should govern our sense of self worth and hasten our evolution into politically reflexive, image-obsessed automatons. Purporting to have learned, Mark (friends use his first name) calls for regulation in four areas: […]
“The end of the internet as we know it.”
Matthew Lesh, writing a barnstormer for CapX, argues that the European Parliament’s new Copyright Directive will permanently split the Internet in two. Europe will enjoy a severely restrictive, heavily-censored version of digital reality — crippling free expression and suppressing the democratic values it aims to promote. Everyone fortunate enough not to live […]
Do early risers have a leg up on the rest of us?
From FT: In his new book The 5 a.m. Club: Own Your Morning, Elevate Your Life, “leadership guru” Robin Sharma lays out an intense daily regimen for personal success, which starts at 4:45 a.m. He says “there’s something magical” to waking before 5 a.m., when the heart is “more open and pure.” Could be—and leaders from […]
NHS wields social influence to bolster health
In the British Medical Journal, Mike Simmons makes the case for using complexity science to improve group performance. To reduce the risk of hospital-borne infections in the NHS, Mike’s group used storytelling and emotional narratives based on the lives of real patients to nudge health workers to improve behaviors—like hand washing—that reduce infections. […]
Marijuana linked to more violent crime (…are you high?)
Psychologists and marijuana researchers Carl L. Hart and Charles Ksir assail writer Alex Berenson in The Guardian for his making alarmist claims about cannabis. In a new book and accompanying op-ed in the NY Times, Berenson claims legalizing cannabis has led to an increase in murders and violent crime in the US. Hart and Ksir […]
“The legislation was drafted, in my opinion, quite poorly.” — Twitch(ing) CEO
Emmett Shear, CEO of Twitch, the popular Amazon-owned interactive live-streaming service, poured cold water on the EU’s hot new Copyright Directive. The law only creates confusion for companies like his, which earn money from ads on live-streams of people playing games they don’t own. “It’s totally unclear what we have to do […]