George Steiner: The Gift of Memory
Has Truth a Future? George Steiner’s question may have sounded over-stated when it was first asked thirty years ago, but history has revealed the prescience of Dr Steiner’s urgent concern.
Plastics are making our oceans sick
Filmmaker Jo Ruxton talks about why she left the BBC to tell a more honest story about our seas. Once you get into your head that plastic’s not disposable, there are so many changes you can make.
The Scale of Pentagon Waste
If any other public agency had blown hundreds of billions of dollars, Congress would hold hearings. If it’s the Pentagon, it gets $80 billion more. It’s worth asking: Where does the money go?
Richard Thaler, Nobel laureate
Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago has been awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Hersh Shefrin looks at the development of three key areas of his research: people’s limited rationality, their perceptions about fairness, and their lack of self-control.
AIIB invests in Egyptian solar
It’s early days for solar power in Egypt but already the sector is attracting significant attention from big development banks, including investment by the China-backed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
The Neymar Bubble
The €222 million transfer of Neymar to PSG calls into question whether football superstars are a good investment. Using the financial details of the transfer, at the price paid, Neymar has a negative net present value. While there are other explanations for PSG’s willingness to pay, in purely economic terms his contract seems a bad investment.
Bismarck’s health insurance
The model for today’s health insurance systems was Otto von Bismarck’s compulsory health insurance, introduced in the German Empire in 1884. contemporary mortality data to show that, by extending access to healthcare, Bismarck’s health insurance significantly reduced mortality rates for blue-collar workers
Catalonia: now what?
The time has come for Europe to make its voice heard, after Madrid’s brutal repression and failure to listen to many of its own people. “Rajoy has shown himself unable to foresee the crisis which has been brewing ever since the Constitutional Tribunal invalidated the “Estatut” in 2010.”
“Nothingwood” by Sonia Kronlund
Hollywood! Bollywood! Nollywood! Nothingwood! A gem of a documentary that took the Cannes Film Festival by storm. A wry look at the Afghan film industry through the life and career of Salim Shaheen.
Erdoğan: prophetic leader or political suicide?
If Erdoğan persists in his callous quest, it will only be a matter of time before he succumbs to increasing economic pressure that will threaten to leave the country destitute.
The Desert of Forbidden Art
Docfilmfest
Wanted in Europe