Gunpowder, printing, magnetic compass, silk, porcelain, as well as the breast strap and horse collar (massively improved efficiency of horse power eg for ploughing cf oxen). Not nearly as important within China – gunpowder was not developed into weapons because politically very stable, printing was the exclusive skill of the religious powers (for manufacture of…

China destroyed an old weather satellite with a missile. They have always called for an international treaty on space weapons but of course the US never wanted to play. Looks now as if they were playing a game all along. Jobs and nationalism would be the only two pillars on which Chinese communism could sustain…

Vietnam has grown its economy by 7.5% per year for 20 years since Doi Moi market reform. Only 20% of population now live in poverty cf 75%. Now exports rice, coffee, pepper. More motorbikes less bikes! Yet still very rural society. Lots of small scale projects eg loans to families for seed or cattle, local…

The IPCC report on global warming is to be published this month: it has become increasingly pessimistic.   12 of the past 13 years were the warmest since records began; ocean temperatures have risen at least three kilometres beneath the surface; glaciers, snow cover and permafrost have decreased in both hemispheres; sea levels are rising…

Joshua Greene asked participants how they would respond in two situations. In the first, they are watching five people in a trolley rolling down a railway track towards a cliff edge. They can save the five by throwing the lever of a set of points to divert the trolley—but doing so will kill a person…

Satellite images taken this year and 20 years ago show that the desert is in retreat thanks to a resurgence of trees. They are mainly ana trees (Faidherbia albida), a type of acacia. Wherever the trees grow, farming can resume. Tree planting has led to the re-greening of as much as 3 million hectares of…

Gunpowder, printing, magnetic compass , silk, porcelain, as well as the breast strap and horse collar (massively i mproved efficiency of horse power eg for ploughing cf oxen).  Not nearly as i mportant within China – gunpowder was not develop e d i nto weapons because politically very stable, printing was the exclusive skill of…