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Under the Milky Way

Network TV in 1967 imagines the 21st century.

The king of Soviet TV commercials.

Hillary Clinton’s inner circle.

Washing machines improve school attendance.

“From a human rights perspective ... there has never been a successful Olympics.”

The late Gawker.com’s 2007 style guide.

What are the worst airports in the world?

Nicholas Carr: “The idea of the computer network as an engine of liberation is an innocent fraud.”

Laser cleaning.

Why we need darkness.

31 August 2016 · Weblog

And So to Bed

Bare life in a state of emergency.

May plans to make life harder for international students.

Battery status can be used to track you.

“Police surveillance destroyed my life.”

The NSA target a pro-democracy campaigner from Fiji.

The terrifying airport shooting that wasn’t.

Capital letters out, swearwords in.

Cycles of violence.

Himmler’s diaries.

Fears of a yellow fever epidemic.

Melting ice could expose hazardous Cold War waste.

How millions of trees brought a Midlands landscape back to life.

17 August 2016 · Weblog

Burning Down the House

Trump’s ghostwriter tells all. Trump exposes Trump. Too good to check.

Trump and Putin, in a tree. “Putin could not have been nicer.” Putin’s trolls are posing as Trump supporters.

Why Trump’s supporters think he’ll win. Republican Party burns down one last institution: itself. How American politics became so ineffective.

The real reason that so many Americans hate Hillary. A plea for reason. How a Hillary Clinton presidency could transform America.

Melania Trump stumbles upon dozens of her husband’s haunting, macabre self-portraits.

Our kids are watching, Donald.

17 August 2016 · Politics

Motivational Mumbo-Jumbo

Brexit blues. “The cod-psychology of self-help and motivational mumbo-jumbo has seeped into the Brexit debate.” Brexiteers are becoming ever more incoherent—could it be they don’t know their own minds? “If this money doesn’t go to the NHS, I will go mad.”

Like it or not, Europe has a say on how Brexit will happen. The EU should offer Britain a binary choice. Liam Fox’s department entertains leaving the single market for the WTO wilderness. Losing single market membership would cost the UK £75 billion. Brexit could see the whole of Whitehall grinding to a halt under its own weight.

Upset by Brexit, some British Jews look to Germany. Delighted by Brexit, Nigel Farage looks to Germany.

17 August 2016 · Politics

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