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The Lost Art Of Passenger Comfort

Long Branch Mike | London Reconnections | 13th September 2024 | U

Designing a train interior is hard. It must meet safety standards, repel vandals, cope with rush hours and last a couple of decades — all while offering passengers a comfortable place to travel. These notes from an industry conference reveal the extent of the challenge. Have you ever thought about air filtration, socket placement, or lighting brightness while on a train? You will now (6,700 words)


Oligarchs Vs The UK Fraud Squad

Tom Burgis | Guardian | 12th September 2024 | U

Financial thriller. A private detective takes a case, investigating an attack on a geologist who died when his car was set alight and became a raging fireball. The trail leads into the murky financial affairs of a mining multinational and an alleged case of bribery and fraud over a mine acquisition in Congo. The oligarchs involved took on the UK's Serious Fraud Office — and they have triumphed (9,000 words)


How To Monetise A Blog

Tyler | Modem | 6th September 2024 | U

Don't be fooled by the asinine title. The very format of this article is a clever piece of satire about the parlous state of the ad-supported internet. Once the text flips sideways, the banners close in, and you have clicked "no" on a push notifications pop up for the fifth time, you have entered the doom-spiral of internet commerce and there is no escape. Just keep scrolling, if you dare (3,100 words)


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“It’s a Silent Fire”

Gary Baum and Carolyn Giardina | Hollywood Reporter | 15th March 2024 | U

We naively assume that "lost" films, such as Alfred Hitchcock’s second feature The Mountain Eagle, are a phenomenon consigned to the silent era. Surely digital files are future-proof? Absolutely not: archivists "find issues with every single show or film that we try to preserve". Hard drives fail or are lost; files corrupt. Behind closed doors, Hollywood bigwigs are tearing their hair out over this (1,300 words)


from The Browser eight years ago:

Reflections On The Fall Of Constantinople

Branko Milanovic | Global Inequality | 26th May 2016 | U

Since Ricardo, economists have treated trade as an activity freely undertaken by consenting parties for mutual benefit. That view cannot survive the briefest study of the Eastern Roman Empire, or of colonialism. “If trade were all about peace, there would be no reason why city-states such as Venice and Genoa had to maintain large naval fleets, fight battles and conquer islands” (1,350 words)


Podcast: What It Means To “Make It” | This is Uncomfortable. Series addressing awkward, unpalatable topics around money. Here, writer Hanif Abdurraqib — a MacArthur Genius Grant recipient — talks about the moral judgements people make about the success of others (36m 22s)


Video: Will You Look At Me | Vimeo | Shuli | 20m 09s

A film about intergenerational tensions in China, as a filmmaker returns to his hometown and reconnects with his mother.


Afterthought:
"Youth is a condition defined by the fact that you don't know what you don't know until it's too late"
Beth Gutcheon


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