 21 July, 2021 In the headlines France will double the number of police patrolling its beaches, using £54m from the Home Office, after 287 migrants made it to England in 12 boats yesterday. The number of people heading across the Channel this year has now overtaken the total for 2020, including 1,000 in the past three days. Calm, sunny seas are encouraging crossings. Jeff Bezos went to the edge of space for 11 minutes yesterday afternoon. "Best day ever," he said as he left his capsule. More than a million children missed school last week because of Covid, and the British Meat Processors Association has warned the Today programme that Britain's "pingdemic" is threatening food supply chains.
Comment of the day  We'll all benefit from Bezos's jaunt to space When Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos announced that they would be "rocketing into space", it was inevitable that "resentment and carping" would follow, say Greg Autry and Laura Huang in Foreign Policy. Bernie Sanders tweeted that in "the richest country on the planet", people live "paycheck to paycheck", struggling to feed their families, "but hey, the richest guys in the world are off in outer space". These billionaire games are "dangerous stunts", moan critics, a "contest of egos" wasting hundreds of millions of dollars that could be better spent here on Earth. Of course this is the ultimate contest of egos, but "egos exist for a reason". Without egotism you don't get innovation and human progress. New industrial trends have always required "self-promoting entrepreneurs" such as Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs. While hard work should speak for itself, "it doesn't": bombast and self-promotion are "prerequisites for success". Branson, Bezos and their fellow space pioneer Elon Musk are masters of these "essential tools". And the public benefits of this showing off could be "limitless". Would we rather see billionaires using their cash to build a new industry, creating high-paying jobs, and finding resources for humanity in asteroids and so on, or watch them buying another superyacht? We should "enjoy the show, and savour the possibilities". Why it matters Read the full article here (paywall).
Why Japan won't cancel the Olympics The Tokyo Olympics is a ticking "global time bomb", says Stephen Alomes in The Sydney Morning Herald. There are at least 60 infected athletes and staff in Tokyo, even before Friday's opening ceremony. And the daily infection rate in Japan is 4,000 a day. Just as returning troops from the First World War spread Spanish flu in 1918-19, the Covid fallout from the Olympics will "spread across the world like a "global tsunami". The money-grabbing International Olympic Ceremony has the Japanese government in a bind. If Japan cancels at the 11th hour, the contractual cost will be enormous. It could pull the Games in the interest of public health and fight the matter in the courts, but it won't. Japan has "always had an obsession with putting itself on the map" in a world once shaped by western empires. It has been battered by punitive trade treaties in the 1850s, its minor role at the Versailles peace conference and the "bombing destruction" of the Second World War. That's not all. In the wake of the Fukushima disaster, an independent Japanese investigation said "our reflexive obedience; our reluctance to question authority; our devotion to 'sticking with the programme'; our groupism; and our insularity" all played a part. The investigation concluded that Japan's cultural traits can lead the country to sleepwalk towards disaster. The tragedy of this Olympics could be avoided by brave leaders. But it won't be. Read the full article here (paywall).
Noted  A "tornado" of mosquitoes has been captured on film in eastern Russia. In recent years temperature increases attributed to climate change have intensified the "giant pillars" of frenzied mozzies looking for a mate on the Kamchatka peninsula. "Move over, Sharknado," says the New York Post.
Zeitgeist Jeff Bezos went to space and back yesterday – but how did his ex-wife, MacKenzie Scott, feel about the journey? Pretty positive, one Twitter user thought: "Hard to imagine a better divorce outcome than getting 50 billion dollars and then your ex literally leaves the planet."
Snapshot 
Tomorrow's world Invasive feral pigs pose a bigger climate risk than a million cars. Australian researchers estimate that, over five continents, 4.9 million metric tons of trapped carbon dixoide are released each year by pestilent pigs digging for food. That's the equivalent of the annual carbon emissions from 1.1 million passenger vehicles.
Love etc  The Birth of Venus (by Botticelli, not Pornhub). Universal History Archive/Getty Images Pornhub has made an unexpected entrance into the art world by "re-enacting" masterpieces with adult movie stars. Botticelli's Venus is played by Cicciolina (a porn star and former Italian MP who married artist Jeff Koons), and the Renaissance portrait morphs into an orgy. Titian's Venus of Urbino suddenly starts masturbating. Sex-crazed art fans may be won over, but museums aren't happy – the Louvre and the Uffizi are suing Pornhub for reproducing the images without permission.
Snapshot answer It's Sajid Javid. The Health Secretary, who tested positive for Covid on Saturday, is celebrating his 24th wedding anniversary with his wife, Laura – in isolation. Javid shared a wedding picture on Twitter with the caption: "To the love of my life. Happy 24th wedding anniversary! (Not quite how we planned to spend it)."
Quoted "Happy is what you realise you are a fraction of a second before it's too late." Author Ali Smith That's it. You're done. Been forwarded this newsletter? Sign up here to receive it every day Click here to register for full access to our app and website Download our app in the App Store Follow us on Instagram
Unsubscribe from the newsletter |
July 21, 2021
We’ll all benefit from Bezos’s jaunt to space
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment