Opinion

The phrase ‘birdbrained’ is taking on a different meaning, as new research shows that many species of birds are far more intelligent than previously thought. Science seems to be finally catching up with the fact that other animals are always more complex than they have been given credit for. Hopefully we are now losing old-fashioned assumptions about the inferiority of other species – assumptions which surely show us more about human intelligence than that of other animals. This conversation throws...

By Marcus Solarz Hendriks Hindsight is a beautiful thing. It makes people so wise. And we are seeing plenty of wise people in the media coverage of Donald Trump’s shock election last night. Above all, commentators are beginning to understand the mistakes in their comprehension of the political climate, which resulted in practically everyone predicting a Hillary Clinton victory instead of the overwhelming one being celebrated by her opponent. As the results come in, and the priorities of the electorate are...

Yesterday the Prime Minister’s bilateral trade talks with India made a mockery of post-Brexit immigration promises in one foul swoop after Narendra Modi made it clear that the relaxing of visa laws was a requisite of any trade deal. And if you think we can expect different treatment elsewhere, think again. You see, in economics you never get something for nothing. You have supply of something and demand for something else, and those two things must coexist in order to...

By Tim Baros I’ve been watching the circus from afar and I’m kind of sorry to see it end. What circus you might ask? The circus that is the race for the presidency of the United States! I’m American and have lived in London for 13 years, and I’m getting asked quite a lot about what my thoughts are about the election. And I’m honest when I tell people that’s it’s extremely embarrassing and shocking how this election has played out....

By Marcus Hendriks Arriving in NYC just five days before Election Day makes the task of seeking an understanding of the political landscape, beyond that provided by the media back across the Atlantic, a daunting one. Walking through JFK airport, the numerous TV screens displaying 24/7 news coverage revealed just how much the country is being immured by political frenzy. It is quite literally everywhere, always. In light of this, it was inevitable that conversation with the taxi driver taking me...

Will Hayward discusses the economics of news journalism, and why Joe Media has been able to explode onto the scene.

Sat some ten hours from Manilla in rural wilderness is a tattoo parlour so renowned that hundreds of 'tattoo tourists' trek each year to get inked. The draw; a 97-year-old tattoo artist named Whang-od. The Filipino spinster, who is also known as Maria Oggay, uses an ancient tattoo method called mambabotok that was first used to mark native headhunters and warriors to celebrate killings. While the brutal tribes modernised and the practiced died out, she has carried on the tattoo tradition, using the soot and charcoal...

There's an episode of Futurama called 'Proposition Infinity'. It parodies the debates about gay and lesbian marriage in America by presenting a contentious referendum on the rights of robots to marry humans. Obviously, the idea of walking down the aisle with artificial intelligence isn't on the public agenda. But we are not so far off from another piece of lurid science fiction: robot sex slaves. The plans are already in place. Big robotics and electronics companies are investing serious money...

By Steve Banks The Daily Mail is underplaying the support it gave to Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists in the early 1930s. In a recent smear on his son Max Mosley, one of paper’s heavy-hitters Richard Pendlebury wrote: "For a brief period some of the mainstream press — this paper and the Daily Mirror included — praised the BUF's supposedly ‘conservative’ agenda. "That support soon evaporated as violence and an intolerance that was very evidently...