This day, 12 July, in 1937, Zhang Hanhui, an early underground member of the Communist Party of China, composed “Along the Songhua River” in Xi’an. Zhang wrote...
This is the era of big data. There was more digital data created, stored and shared in the past 2 years than all of the digital data existing before that.
What used to be a computer thing is now a watch and fridge and spy-camera thing. Lots more ones and zeroes flying around.
Yes, but this 2-year rule has been true for far longer than 2 years. The “big data” term is 800 bytes, which has somehow survived that exponential data churn unharmed, used by humans for decades, most continually...
Especially here in Asia, it’s common to hear how smoking is good for stress. Men, particularly, face stress in their lives which needs a remedy. Tobacco, though not intrinsically healthy, at least helps to assuage that greater health threat; stress. Or so the logic goes.
Well, smoking does greatly reduce stress, if you are a nicotine addict overdue a nicotine fix. If one of the significant sources of your stress is chemical withdrawal then, yes, a cigarette will greatly alleviate that.
But if you are a never-smoker who has...
Alcohol makes you mellow and unconstrained. And then it makes you boisterous and shouty. Caffeine banishes fatigue from the limbs and the brow, then makes you arrogant and shouty. Such are the devils we know.
There’s a huge variety of delivery methods to these legal, reality distorters; some fast, some slow, some calorific, some less so. And it’s the flavours and occasions which influence how we choose to take them; chocolate or yerba matte, sake or champagne.
Urban legend suggests that lining up licquors in the right order may prevent...
In last month’s Strainer, I wrote to you from Wales.
Well, I’m back from Wales.
But I’m not quite done with the Welsh theme yet. That’s because, you see, this is the month of St. David’s Day; 1 March, precisely.
When St. David’s Day comes around, children in Wales hold a talent show called an Eisteddfod. And every child has to dress themselves as Welsh for the day.
In most cases, that means wearing either a daffodil or a leek in the pocket of a blazer. Sometimes it’s just a daffodil, or a...
