Новости за 24.07.2017

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The sky is a crowded place. In June 2017, there were on average 33,000 flights every day over Europe alone.

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The international trade secretary Liam Fox is once again baying for BBC blood, claiming the public broadcaster has nothing positive to say about Brexit. It’s not the first time Fox has got his blood up about perceived bias at the Beeb. But it must have come as something of a surprise to Robbie Gibb who, until a few weeks ago, was the BBC’s head of political programmes.

The BBC has been almost universally savaged since its latest annual report exposed significant disparities in how it pays its male and female staff. The public broadcaster revealed that its highest paid male star, Top Gear presenter Chris Evans, took home more than £2m while its highest female earner, Claudia Winkleman, received between £450,000 and £499,999.

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“Won’t somebody please think of the children!?” The UK government seems to be using this catchphrase from The Simpsons as the basis for its proposed new pornography laws. Its recently announced plan to force pornographic websites to verify users’ ages suggests it thinks it can use a blunt technological tool to stop under 18s watching online porn. Anyone as tech-savvy as the average teenager will tell you how unlikely this is.

Should convenience come at a cost? nevodka / Shutterstock.com

Convenience often comes at a cost. As consumers, many of us are resigned to seeing a surcharge or “processing fee” on goods and services when we pay by credit or debit card. At present, it is lawful for businesses to charge consumers these fees although the amount should be limited to the actual cost to the retailer of the transaction.

Food glorious food -- not for all children. pexels.

The school holidays, the best times of your life, right? Maybe not if you’re one of many families struggling to cope with the extra costs of food, activities and childcare. In fact for many families, rather than a summer spent frolicking in the sun, sea and sand, the school holidays are faced with dread.

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In recent years we have seen a rise of what has been termed “artivism”: the bringing together of art and activism. Artivists see art as a social practice. They address particular societal concerns or inequalities and involve communities and activists, as well as other artists. For many of these artivists, new media technologies have provided particularly fruitful ways to engage in this. Different groups and collectives are variously promoting “tactical media”, “electronic civil disobedience”... Читать дальше...

Chap-style! ©Clayton Hartley, Author provided

Earlier this month, I attended the Chap Olympiad, an annual event which takes place in London’s Bedford Gardens. The brainchild of a handful of self-proclaimed eccentrics and writers associated with The Chap periodical, it has grown from a small gathering in a corner of Regent’s Park to something that now attracts international attention.

4000 km wide view of Mars' (colour-coded topgraphy) Coprates Chasma. NASA/USGS/ESA/DLR/FU Berlin (G Neukum), CC BY-SA

It may seem that Mars was once a much more exciting planet. True, there are dust storms and possible water-seeps occurring today, but billions of years ago it was a dramatic place with huge volcanoes, a giant canyon system and branching river valleys being formed.

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There are lots of productive ways to analyse Brexit – why it happened, how it’s developing, and how it might turn out. One of the most interesting is to use the idea of an identity to understand both why the process is proving so painful for the UK, and also why the rest of Europe still seems so confused about why the UK is engaging in this process at all.

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Eye floaters – those little cobweb-like strings that randomly sail across your vision – can be successfully treated with a laser, according to a new study. Researchers in Boston, Massachusetts used a yttrium-aluminum-garnet (YAG) laser to treat floaters in a small group of patients.

Only a few years ago, both Venezuela and Brazil were racing towards heavyweight status in Latin America and beyond. Each of them was the force behind the creation of a major regional group – and both forged important alliances within and beyond the Americas. But today, both countries’ governments are struggling to hold on to power at home.

Mine's a Star-opramen. Studioloks

A cold beer on a hot day or a whisky nightcap beside a coal fire. A well earned glass can loosen your thinking until you feel able to pierce the mysteries of life, death, love and identity. In moments like these, alcohol and the cosmic can seem intimately entwined.

It was a summer evening in 1954 and the home secretary, David Maxwell Fyfe, was travelling on the Liverpool to London sleeper train. His accompanying security detail passed him a note from a man called John Wolfenden. Fyfe had been due to meet with Wolfenden the following week but Wolfenden – on seeing Fyfe on the passenger manifest – suggested that he might pop by his compartment and have the conversation now. A half-dressed Fyfe put on an overcoat and invited Wolfenden in.