The Man Who Solved His Own Murder
An account of the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy killed in London ten years ago – a story of incompetence, intrigue, criminality and authoritarianism. It’s worth listening to the audio too.
The Concept of ‘Cat Face’
A longform look at machine learning and where Google have taken it since their acquisition of the British artificial intelligence company Deep Mind.
Plastic Surgery With a Mouse Click
An article that looks at how deep the special effects industry’s abilities run in changing the way that film and TV stars appear. Beyond simply documenting how this industry works, the piece raises some questions about what viewers actually want – reality or artifice?
The enigma of Assad: How a painfully shy eye doctor turned into a murderous tyrant
A piece tracing Bashar al-Assad’s journey towards ever-greater tyranny.
Death in the Forest
Looking at mushroom foraging around the world, and the extraordinary lengths people go to secure valuable or rare varieties.
Welcome to the Dark Net
A poacher turned gamekeeper hacker acts as a guide to the clandestine world of the dark net, a home for all sorts of illegal trade.
The Religious Cult Secretly Running Japan
An article asserting that a religious organisation counting Japanese premier Shinzo Abe amongst its members is asserting its influence and may be looking to take Japan in a radically different direction.
The Hills Have I.P.s
A issue with the internet’s mechanism for identifying device locations led to millions of devices being incorrectly located in an American couple’s front garden. A funny glitch surely? Perhaps, until the FBI show up.
Who Really Stands to Win from Universal Basic Income?
This piece kicks off with an insight – “Economics is at heart a narrative art, a frame across which data points are woven into stories about how the world should work.” It then proceeds to examine universal basic income as an economic narrative, its roots in English history, and the lessons learned from its application in countries around the world.
The Syria Catastrophe
An analysis of the civil war in Syria that calls for an antimilitarist approach whilst recognising the challenges standing in the way of such a resolution.