Tag: news

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Engineering towards mega projects

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Chinese-Canadian, Technology analyst, Dan Wang, from Stanford University, has been living through China’s astonishing messy progress. China’s towering bridges, gleaming railways, and sprawling factories have improved economic outcomes in record time. Rapid changes also meant pain throughout the Chinese society, controlled by political repression ending in astonishing growth, a feature of China’s engineering mindset. In Breakneck, Wang, reveals a provocative new framework for understanding China – one that helps us see America more clearly. While China is an engineering state, relentlessly pursuing megaprojects, the United States has stalled. America has transformed into a lawyerly society, reflexively blocking everything good and … Continue reading Engineering towards mega projects

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Boeing accused of putting the pursuit of profit over passenger safety 

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The Aircraft Accident investigation Bureau in India is focusing on engine thrust. Investigators have discovered in the preliminary investigation into the Air India Flight 171 crash which killed 260 people on 12th June 2025. Just seconds after take-off both of the 12-year-old Boeing 787 Dreamliner’s fuel-control switches abruptly moved to the “cut -off” position, starving the engines of vital fuel and triggering total power loss. Switching to “Cut-off” is a move typically done only after landing. The Cockpit voice recording captures one pilot asking the other why he “did the cut-off”, to which the other pilot replies that he didn’t. The … Continue reading Boeing accused of putting the pursuit of profit over passenger safety 

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Britain’s flagging corporate economy

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The CEOs of Britain’s largest companies wield immense power, but we know very little about them. How did they get to the top? Why do they have so much power? Are they really worth that exorbitant salary?  Two academics from Queen’s Business school, Belfast, Michael Aldous and John Turner lift the veil on Britain’s corporate elite and provide the answers by telling the story of the British CEO over the past century. From gentleman amateurs to professional managers, entrepreneurs, frauds, and fat cats, they reveal the characters who have made it to the top of the corporate ladder, how they got … Continue reading Britain’s flagging corporate economy

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Raindance Festival 2025: The Last Grail Hunter

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Dystopian and dark, the story of this saga cemented to Lee in a dream. He talked to John Altman ( remember Eastenders fame Nick) and the film took a mere four days to film on an iPhone and a drone using the film app Black Magic. Lee is in a band called The Pocket Gods and atmospheric angry music accompanies the story of this “esoteric road trip which is a bit fucked up” adding gravitas from the band. Guerrilla-style filming and work was intrinsic. The book Holy Blood And Holy Grail which apparently inspired some of the writings in The … Continue reading Raindance Festival 2025: The Last Grail Hunter

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Turtle Walker: Discovery of Turtles nesting and habitats

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Raindance 33 Film Festival- The Vue, Lower Regent Street, London. UK Taira Malaney’s Turtle Walker, a 2024 heartwarming documentary film produced over seven years, presenting a  lovely portrait life of a curious conservationist, Satish Bhaskar, who lived alongside rare sea turtles for 19 years to unravel the mysteries that surround them in the late 1970s. The life of Satish Bhaskar born in Vypeen, Kochi, Kerala, southern India, is addressed following his conservationist investigation, when he ventured to the spectacular Andaman and Nicobar Islands and other surrounding islands for turtle surveys which actually saved these sea turtles from extinction, as most turtle’s … Continue reading Turtle Walker: Discovery of Turtles nesting and habitats

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Challenging expectations

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Eric Schmidt, former CEO of Google thinks why Britain has much more global influence than it thinks. Ever since the global financial crisis, Britain has been through a difficult period, leading many to conclude the country is doomed to inevitable decline. Jeremy Hunt was at the top of government as both Foreign Secretary and Chancellor, in the last two Tory governments, and he rebuts those who think Britain is no longer capable of shaping the world we live in. There is a real urgency, in that the UK’s need for growth and security through foreign policy is clear. Hunt writes … Continue reading Challenging expectations

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Transformation of the World’s largest democracy

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Indira Gandhi’s ascent as prime minister in 1966, and ruled for fifteen years, which was unforeseen and soon emerged as one of the most powerful political leaders of her times, who transformed the world’s largest democracy.  Historian Srinath Raghavan, tells the story of Indira Gandhi’s political career and the momentous changes that India experienced under her leadership. From her tentative start in high office to her remarkable electoral victories, the dark days of the Emergency of 1975-1977, and her assassination at the hands of her Sikh bodyguards in 1984. Raghavan sheds new light one her politics and government, as well … Continue reading Transformation of the World’s largest democracy

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Britain hands Chago Islands to Mauritius to address historical grievances

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UK signs  £101 million-a-year deal to hand over Chagos Island, a Joint UK-US military base in the archipelago , Diego Garcia, to Mauritius. The British government felt that without ceding sovereignty to Mauritius, the operation of the base would become unworkable which would pose a great threat to UK security. Defence Secretary John Healey told MPs that “without this deal, within weeks, we could face losing legal rulings and within a few years the base would become inoperable”. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “following a comprehensive interagency review, the Trump Administration determined that this agreement secures the long-term, stable … Continue reading Britain hands Chago Islands to Mauritius to address historical grievances

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Prada buys Versace for $1.4bn

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Luxury fashion brand, Prada Group has acquired crosstown Milan fashion rival, Versace from the U.S. luxury group, Capri Holdings Ltd, (parent company of Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo) for $1.38 billion. Capri Holdings is restructuring after a failed merger with Tapestry (owner of Coach, Kate Spade and Stuart Weitzman), which was blocked by the US Federal Trade Commission in last November. The deal includes Versace’s debt, is a big discount to the $2.15 billion debt that Capri, then known as Michael Kors, paid for Versace in 2017 when the Versace family and Blackstone sold it.  The acquisition strengthens Italy’s position in … Continue reading Prada buys Versace for $1.4bn

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Media Circus: Golden age of Magazines

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Graydon Carter’s brilliant raconteur of his own life of how he made his mark as one of society’s most talented editors and shapers of culture. Carter born in 1949, arrived in New York from Canada with little more than a suitcase, a failed literary magazine in his past and a keen sense of ambition. He landed a job as a floating writer at Time magazine in New York, selling 4 million copies a week, with salaries and expenses to match. After five years he was reassigned to Time’s sister magazine, Life, which “had become a zombie monthly, close to dead”. He … Continue reading Media Circus: Golden age of Magazines