Articles
Vultures
In the breeding centre in Haryana, near the town of Pinjore, Vibhu Prakash needs a hundred goats a day to feed his 360 vultures. During the pandemic, to source these goats, Prakash and his colleagues had to work until they wilted.
Data Disappeared
The Trump administration corrupted, erased and degraded data with great deliberation. By gutting federal statistics, the government burned away its capacity to regulate. By attacking numeracy, it attacked democracy.
Inside the Aviation Meltdown of 2020
Airlines stashed most of their planes in boneyards, flew relief flights, and wondered when travel would recover—and how they’d cope with the costs of meeting emissions targets.
Over And Over And Over Again
At 38, Jimmy Anderson, Test cricket’s most successful fast bowler, is running farther than ever. This year, he picked up his 600th wicket in a strange, locked-down summer of cricket, in which he practised into a golf net, kept his spit off the ball, and tried not to hug his teammates.
Tracking The Vaccine
Even before Covid-19, companies and nonprofits had been promoting the benefits of digital and biometric IDs. The need for a speedy and comprehensive vaccination campaign has emboldened them, to the point that privacy campaigners are increasingly discomfited.
All The Vaccine Essentials
Without vials, needles or adjuvants, a vaccine is just a fine formula, a cure in search of its disease. When a Covid-19 vaccine is finally approved for manufacture, the rush to stock up on ancillary products will be unprecedented.
Family Secrets In Colombo
Two wealthy brothers took part in the Easter Sunday bombings in Sri Lanka in 2019. Most of us associate violence with desperation. What did the Ibrahim brothers have to be desperate about?
Our Addiction to Prediction
Our economies are addled; our psyches are shaken from the spate of tragic deaths; our abilities to deal with unexpected events have been shown, in many countries, to be flimsy. This may not be the time to sketch out, with great confidence, what the new normal will look like.
The New Witch Burnings in Europe
All over Europe, 5G telephone towers are being set on fire. These acts feel as if they’ve been imported from the past, and not just because of the atavism of destroying mankind’s newest technology with mankind’s oldest.