Get Boris!
An insight into the latent internecine warfare ready to break out in The Conservative Party.
Dacre’s Paper
Look past the provocative headline and you find an indignant, coruscating profile of The Daily Mail and its pugnacious editor Paul Dacre.
The Detonation Detectives
The James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies is an NGO that researches weapons of mass destruction. This is the story of how they traced, identified and analysed the recent North Korean missile launch that caused concern around the world.
Doomsday Prep for the Super-Rich
If civilisation falls then many of Silicon Valley’s elite will be well prepared – this article meets some of those getting ready with ammunition, motorcycles, food supplies and other wheezes to survive the ensuing chaos.
What Happens When Millions Of People Suddenly Get The Internet
Myanmar has gone from having 0.2% of the population online in 2011 to an estimated 20% today, with most of the growth taking place in the last two years. A story covering what happens when several million people with no prior exposure to the internet all sign up at the same time. Such is its allure that print magazines called ‘Facebook’ and ‘The Internet’ are produced for those that can’t afford to make the switch.
Eyes Aloft
An insight into the world of aviation enthusiasts. Their activity is memorably described – “Their interests are so basic that they seem abstract: to appreciate planes; to record them; to appreciate them by recording them; and to record their own passion for recording.” Yet the piece shows how the information that they gather about the comings and goings of air traffic (including military and VIP flights) can fan out into public and political life.
The Rise and Fall of Gerd Bonk, World Champion of Doping
An article delving into the state sponsored doping programme undertaken by the East German government in the 1970s.
The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign Policy Guru
A fascinating peek behind the scenes in the Obama White House, through a profile of one of his key speechwriters.
This Parasite Drugs Its Hosts With the Psychedelic Chemical in Shrooms
A look at an unflinchingly brutal fungal parasite that invades the abdomens of cicadas, turning them into “flying saltshakers of death” when they then fly around releasing spores from the fungus on to their brethren on the ground. The cicadas’ obliviousness to the catastrophic loss of their bottoms is perhaps explained by the fact that the fungus has been found to contain psychedelics and amphetamines.