Looking at the Earth from above Jun 15th 2019 / San Francisco and Didcot In May 1999 a group of researchers from the Technical University of Berlin launched an unusual satellite. At a time when most of the machinery in orbit weighed thousands of kilograms, TUBSAT was a petite 45kg. A box that measured 32cm on each side, it carried three video cameras, the idea being to test whether such a titchy..
Swiss drugmaker, Roche was hoping to tie up the acquisition of gene therapy firm, Spark Therapeutics for $4.8 billion by the second quarter of this year, but a request for additional information and documentary material from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) may have put paid to those hopes. Both companies stated that, in spite of the second request, they remained committed to the deal and..
viaduct, no disputing, microscopic cog, play two-up, wakes devils up, a prescription for, for a bit, turn the place upside down, the scum of the Earth, clear out, stable the horse, tell you the odds, parley, having a fire, chuck them on, give us a bit of room, disloyal to the King, interfere with our women, has troubled me, cause embarrassment, the King's likeliness, go for a wee, are on strike,..
sequence, centrist, All those are, be prepared, critiques, diffusion, push back, well-prepared to be, argument to be made, wrapped up, going further than necessary, at the time of, a set of policies, so to speak, serious case from, will differ, versus, additional coverage, way better than, I'm against medicare system, easy access, dismissed, hurts my head, regular person, housing, transportation..
arse, tits off, betting shop, lying around, stallion, copper, clean up the city, payroll, strike at, bloody fought for, smite the unholy, judgement is coming, hide from, get off with, have ten minutes, work at the BSA, was meant to be routine, as agreed, export bay, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, threw them in the cut, bookmaker, dump them somewhere, contraband under, got tickets for, sneaking abo..
Austria's trademark dessert was the subject of a seven-year legal battle Vienna's coffee houses are places "where time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill". So reads the UNESCO description of these institutions. Time and space may satisfy a Viennese philosopher but for most, a wedge of cake complements caffeine far better, and none more so than sachertorte. According..
The practice gives a micro dose of jet lag, and can even be harmful Sometimes the decision to change a country's time zone can be political. Despite its vastness, all of China runs on Beijing time - a decision taken by Mao Zedong in 1949 to instil unity. (Pity the poor people of Xianjang province in China's far west, where sometimes the sun does not rise until 10am, and lunch is taken as the sha..
But avoiding it means tough policy choices For the first time in history, the Earth has more people over the age of 65 than under the age of five. In another two decades the ration will be two-to-one, according to a recent analysis by Torsten Sløk of Deutche Bank. The trend has economists worried about everything from soaring pension costs to "secular stagnation" - the chronically weak growth th..
High-growth companies are big believers in artificial intelligence All workers must have days when they wonder whether their managers possess any intelligence at all. But next time you are puzzled by a boss's decision, consider this possibility: the manager relied on artificial intelligence (AI) when considering their options. A survey by Microsoft of 800 business leaders drawn equally from eigh..
The latest bubble invites comparisons with past financial manias "Be more Brenda," said the ads for CoinCorner, a cryptocurrency exchange. They appeared on London's Underground last summer, featuring a cheery pensioner who had, apparently, bought some Bitcoins in just ten minutes. It was bad advice. Six months earlier a single Bitcoin cost just under $20,000. By the time the ads appeared, its va..
Not yet. But precautions are needed "Be afraid. Be very afraid," says a character in "The Fly", a horror film about a man who turns into an enormous insect. It captures the unease and disgust people often feel for the kingdom of cockroaches, Zika-carrying mosquitoes and creepy-crawlies of all kinds. However, ecologists increasingly see the insect world as something to be frightened for, not frig..
Bad news for Canadian conservative and an Ulster liberal Here are two stories about religion, free speech and higher education in the United Kingdom. Both make troubling news for anyone who thinks that students should be exposed to a broad range of ideas, including some they won't agree with. One concerns a global celebrity, the other a man who is relatively little known outside his own speciali..
An old paradox lives on Philosophers from Aristotle to the Beatles have argued that money does not buy happiness. But it seem to help. Since 2005 Gallup, a pollster, has asked a representative sample of adults from countries across the world to rate their life satisfaction on a scale from zero to ten. The headline result is clear: the richer the country, on average, the higher the level of self-..
Jorden Peterson and Slavoj Zizek debate on April 19th in Toronto The combatants are world famous, with legions of supporters. The venue, on April 19th, is Toronto's Sony Centre, which seats over 3,000 people. Tickets sell on eBay for more than $300. But it is not a boxing match or rap battle - it is a debate between a Lacanian psychoanayst and a Jungian clinical psychologist. The theme? What pro..
Theresa May gets her extension. But it could be only two weeks before a no-deal Brexit looms again It was meant to be sorted out before dinner. In fact the European Council discussion on March 21st over whether to extend the Article 50 deadline of March 29th went on to almost midnight. That was partly because European Union leaders wanted to resolve the issue, not to be dragged back to Brussels ..