The power of networks
In 1989 I answered my first mobile phone call on Oxford Street using a brick-sized Motorola borrowed from work. Several…
Calculated risks
Classes of people at moderate risk from Covid-19. Addenda to current NHS guidelines. Those at risk from coronavirus now include…
The Covid challenge
The Covid problem lies as much in the delayed action of the virus as in the virus itself. Since symptoms…
The road to new realities
Here’s the quandary. How in future can we make the kind of rapid advances we have made during the Covid…
Have big cities had their day?
About 15 years ago I noticed a few surviving chattel houses in Barbados and wondered what they were. As it…
Remote workers of the world, unite!
A few nights ago on Twitter, I quipped that I was planning to launch a trade union for remote workers.…
Certainty is overrated
I have decided to divorce my wife after 31 years on scientific grounds. Though perfectly happy, on reassessing my original…
Believing the hype
People often tell me I have a strange way of looking at the world. Obviously, it doesn’t seem strange to…
Patently wrong
In the past 30 years, I have driven about 8,000 miles in France in right-hand-drive cars. And I would be…
Progress is painful
One of my long-held beliefs is that evolutionary biology should be taught extensively in schools. There may be some objections…
Now you’re talking
This week’s Wiki Man may read a bit oddly. You see, I haven’t ‘written’ it at all; I’ve dictated it…
Network failures
You can’t discuss racial inequality without using the N-word. And you can’t debate social justice without adding the C-word and…
Speed talking
When I first heard Abba’s magnificent 1982 swansong ‘The Day Before You Came’, I’d never come across the Americanised use…
Full stream ahead
From time to time, every industry must adapt to some inconvenient technological advance. Suddenly, some part of what you offer…
Garden tools
Hours of googling have left me unable to find the essay on domestic horticulture, written by a Victorian aristocrat, which…
Small wonders
The Tesla Model 3 is an astounding achievement, but one thing baffles me: why do electric cars lack even the…
When actions speak louder than words
For all the abuse heaped on the Behavioural Insights Team early in the crisis, let’s not forget that the only…
Have you caught the remote-working bug?
One of the few benefits to emerge from this pandemic is that the world’s population has been given a crash…
Anyone for a self-isolation Olympics?
In Mr Alton’s absence, I thought readers might want a column about sport. The problem is that I’m largely indifferent…
Travelling lite
The brother of a friend in Durban was once given a generous donation by a wealthy aunt. ‘I hate to…
The illusion of certainty
The newspapers are full of stories about how small groups of engineers from Formula 1 teams have been able to…
Ad infinitum
200 years of Spectator adverts show how little changes
Introverts, your country needs you
Once we’ve flattened the curve of infection with mass self-isolation, the next debate will concern how to soften the restrictions…
The bottom line
Compared with every other household chore, progress in bum-wiping has been glacially slow. It’s only in living memory that schools…
The rocketing success of Zoom
Next time there is a highly deserved round of public applause for NHS workers, do add one additional clap for…
