Category Archives: Promoting giving

Every Sunday, BBC Radio 3 has a ‘Sounds of the Earth’ collage: a recording of nature (birds, trees, frogs, the sea, etc.) interspersed with relevant music. It’s fabulous. Caroline submitted such a recording of the brilliant laughing frogs of Dungeness … Continue reading →

I made a stone sculpture! Basically I’m interested in cathedrals so wanted to know how one gets made. The answer is: slowly and with a ton of work. The video below shows shows how it emerged, which I think is … Continue reading →

UK Prime Minister famously – and rather patronisingly – said that there’s no magic money tree. Actually there is one! I wrote about it in The Economist, no less. Normally, my letters there are about actually important things, such as … Continue reading →

I collect a particular type of word. They are multi-syllable words, in English, which are verbs if the stress is on one syllable but nouns if the stress is on a different syllable. For example, prod-UCE is a verb, meaning … Continue reading →

Every Sunday, BBC Radio 3 has a ‘Sounds of the Earth’ collage: a recording of nature (birds, trees, frogs, the sea, etc.) interspersed with relevant music. Caroline submitted such a recording of birds in the Sine-Saloum delta in Senegal, which … Continue reading →

10 months into the epidemic of video-conference calls, and evidently we haven’t all figured out how to do them well. There are doubtless lots of other tips on the web, but here are mine: In short, think about what the … Continue reading →

Wow: ALL the books that The Economist cites by its own writers in its year-end ‘what to read’ section are by men! Clean sweep. Good work, boys. I’ve all but ceased* reading books by white men. I realised earlier this … Continue reading →

I have pretty much quit Facebook. I can no longer stomach its willful disregard for democracy: by enabling user data to be used to (eg) influence elections, and its refusal to even show up when requested by parliaments (now several … Continue reading →

I am driven mad by having meetings to discuss poor people in eateries owned by (often very) rich people. There doesn’t seem to be an easy list or map of social enterprise eateries, so I am collating a list: it … Continue reading →

I do masses of public speaking. These are my ‘golden rules’, which might help you. (If you have other good ‘golden rules’ to add to this list, do get in touch.) 1. Assume the technology will fail It fails more … Continue reading →