A man is judged by the company he keeps, but it’s not always clear what the verdict will be when he chooses to retain a friend who behaves abominably. Consorting with rogues is hardly the hallmark of an honourable gent but, at the same time, someone who doesn’t stand by his pals when the chips are down is not considered much of a mate. So what’s a true friend to do?
ReadGrowing up brings a sense of perspective and with it an escape from the infantile solipsism that makes children see themselves at the centre of time and space. It might seem odd, then, that many people have come to see this progression as a kind of degeneration and have advocated a return to childlike simplicity…
ReadSeventy-five years ago, the tinkling of a spoon in a cup signalled the dawn of a new cultural epoch. After seven years of research at a laboratory in Switzerland, the scientist Max Morgenthaler had perfected the technique of spray-drying liquid coffee into a soluble powder. And so on 1 April 1938, the world’s first instant coffee, Nescafé, was launched and from then on instantaneity came to permeate almost every aspect of our lives…
ReadOur faults are no less real for being unchosen. What distinguishes us from machines is that we can do something about them, not that we created them in the first place.
ReadAs long as something remains logically possible, some people can’t help but wonder if their dream might become a reality, given enough desire or effort. This is exacerbated by the fact that our culture encourages people to dream big and believe that “impossibility” is simply the hobgoblin of negative minds…
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