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How Paul Kagame uses culture to keep Rwandans on message
The uses and abuses of the arts 30 years after the genocide When kizito mihigo was 12 years old he fled from his home. His father, a Tutsi, had been butchered by their Hutu neighbours. It was one of hundreds...
In the Premier League, data help minor clubs take on the mighty
A new book analyses Brentford’s statistical shrewdness At most football clubs, the equation is simple: you put in (vast amounts of) money, and you get out star players and trophies. Take Manchester City, the Premier League’s reigning champions. Before its...
How to make money from the Bible
Donald Trump has entered a competitive and unusual market America’s 45th president has excellent taste in Bible translations. When deciding which one to endorse this Easter, Donald Trump chose the King James version, widely considered to be one of the...
On his 70th birthday, Godzilla has roared back to relevance
The monster made his first appearance in 1954 as a symbol of nuclear weapons At the age of 70 some might think about retiring, if they have not done so already. Not Godzilla. Since the giant lizard made his screen...
What would nuclear war look like in the 21st century?
Two books examine atomic weaponry and the global annihilation it could bring about In 1960 america had around 18,000 nuclear weapons. It also had detailed plans for how to use them. Had it implemented them, 275m people in the Soviet...
A stealth attack came close to compromising the world’s computers
The cyber-scare shows why the internet’s crowdsourced code is vulnerable In 2020 xkcd, a popular online comic strip, published a cartoon depicting a teetering arrangement of blocks with the label: “all modern digital infrastructure”. Perched precariously at the bottom, holding...
Why robots should take more inspiration from plants
They would be able to grow, grip and move in more useful ways The enormous titular robots of the “Transformers” universe, a popular franchise spanning toys, tv series, video games and films, move along the ground in one of two...
Could weight-loss drugs eat the world?
Scientists are finding that anti-obesity medicines can also help many other diseases The gila monster is a poisonous North American lizard that measures around 50 centimetres and sports a distinctive coat of black and orange scales. This lethargic reptile, which...
Daniel Kahneman was a master of teasing questions
How a psychologist transformed economics Winners of the Nobel prize in economics tend to sprinkle their papers with equations. Daniel Kahneman, who died on March 27th, populated his best-known work with characters and conundrums. Early readers encountered a schoolchild with...
How to build a global currency
India is the latest country to try. Painful reforms are required Seventy years ago the Indian rupee was often found a long way from home. After India gained independence from Britain, the currency remained in use in sheikhdoms across the...
Will FTX’s customers be repaid?
As Sam Bankman-Fried is locked up, his erstwhile depositors await their fate In the days after the fall of his crypto exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried opened a Google Doc and began to type. Beneath the title “probably bad ideas” he listed...
The Federal Reserve cleans up its money-printing mess
It wants to avoid upsetting markets, and is so far succeeding At this point, almost everyone in global markets is familiar with the notion of higher-for-longer interest rates. Soon, they are likely to meet another concept as important for understanding...
How Xi Jinping plans to overtake America
Digital twins, nuclear fusion and the small matter of fixing China’s economy Last year Xi Jinping, China’s president, paid a visit to Heilongjiang in the country’s north-east. This province, part of the industrial rustbelt, exemplifies the problems besetting China’s economy....
Why Japan Inc is no longer in thrall to America
As the home of capitalism turns protectionist, Japan is opening up One of the most chilling moments in America’s post-war relationship with Japan occurred in Detroit in 1982. Two American car workers clubbed a Chinese-American man to death, mistaking him...
The six rules of fire drills
Please display this somewhere in your office where no one will read it. Thank you Rule 1. The fire drill must never feel useful. It may be a proven way to help save people’s lives, to say nothing of being...
Meet the French oil major that balances growth and greenery
TotalEnergies has pulled off something its rivals haven’t “Texas is an El Dorado for us, an energy El Dorado,” declared Patrick Pouyanné, boss of TotalEnergies, last month at ceraWeek, the energy industry’s annual shindig in Houston. He unveiled an expansion...
Will GE do better as three companies than as one?
How to dismantle an industrial icon “The difficulties inherent in such a reorganisation were many and serious.” In 1893 that was how Charles Coffin, the first chief executive of General Electric (ge), described merging three businesses into what became the...