Signs of the Thames path, weak bridge edition.

The Guardian view on Sir Ed Davey’s speech: a party that promises contrast and protest. theguardian.com/commentisfree/…

Concrete reefs encrusted with oysters shield one of Bangladesh’s most vulnerable islands from rising seas. They trap sediment up to 30 metres behind them, hold it steady through monsoons, and cut wave power. hypertextual.substack.com/p/7-things-i-l…

Signs of the Thames Path, garden edition.

A 2022 study found that a full-scale nuclear war between the US, Russia and their allies would trigger famine, killing over 5 billion people — about 63% of the world’s population. hypertextual.substack.com/p/7-things-i-l…

Waiting for Bacchae at the National Theatre.

In the 19th century, long-distance walking was a popular sport known as pedestrianism. In 1879, 10,000 people packed Madison Square Garden to watch 13 athletes walk 450 miles. The winner kept going, covering 530 miles in six days. hypertextual.substack.com/p/7-things-i-l…

I sat down with Marcus Ferrar, who spent 34 years at Reuters. We discussed life under the Stasi, how Reuters broke the Berlin Wall story, and what he thinks of today’s news culture. Our interview is out now: hypertextual.substack.com/p/inside-the-c…

Waiting for Britten Sinfonia and Jeneba Kanneh-Mason at Milton Court Concert Hall.

How did news get made in the 1970s? Sub-editors handed the copy to the telegraphists, who punched telex tape to send out on the wires at 50 baud — about 66 words per minute, really slow. hypertextual.substack.com/p/inside-the-c…

Signs of the Thames Path.

From my interview with Marcus Ferrar: “Sometimes I crossed to West Berlin through Checkpoint Charlie. I got to know the guards, and we’d chat about East German football results. These were the same guards who shot people trying to flee.” hypertextual.substack.com/p/inside-the-c…

Signs of the Thames Path, nesting birds edition.

The US these days looks more like an AI hallucination gone wrong than a real country. The same could be said for many other places, though.

“If you bump into a Russian, you don’t start talking about Putin.” Wish Rory Stewart and ALASTAIR CAMPBELL would stop talking about things they don’t understand. For years, Russians abroad have heard it all: first “Putin’s great,” then “How can Russians support him?”

It’s that time of year when science writers pretend to understand papers we’ve just googled. The Nobel Prizes are the Oscars of science, only older and with far fewer women. Let’s talk about what’s broken and how to fix it: kabanov.org/nobel25

Not a real country.