Essay Posts
The forgotten history of Pearl Harbor
Japan’s attack on the US 70 years ago was not a surprise, but rather the culmination of imperial rivalry.
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1968: North Vietnam strikes back
In January 1968, Vietnamese communists launched the world-changing Tet Offensive
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China’s leap forward on patents
How groundbreaking are China’s patents? How innovative really is China?
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The greening of the ivory towers in education
A National Association of Scholars report interrogates the tyranny of sustainability in education.
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Chinese innovation assessed
Can China innovate? How might its innovations change the rest of the world?
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Transport: breaking through the impasse
ESSAY: Six arguments for innovation in transport.
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IT’s not the future
The Second Machine Age sacrifices sense at the altar of technology
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Seven reasons we should celebrate manufacturing
Commentators bemoaning the rise of ‘stuffocation’ miss the benefits manufacturing provides.
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Time for some high-street innovation
Britain’s retail sector needs to stop worrying about the greens and learn to love new technology
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Big Pharma’s little critics
One defence of drug manufacturers, and three attacks on modern medicine, offer much. But none quite explains Big Pharma’s crisis of scientific and technological innovation.
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The fuzzy front end of product design projects
In innovation, the simple transfer of knowledge isn’t enough – but uncertainty isn’t all bad
Read the full article...Innovation in energy: expressions of a crisis
Using academic, journalistic and statistical sources, this paper situates energy innovation in historical context before describing the current sclerosis of Western energy R&D.
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The craze for design thinking
The historical and social reasons why hip designers talk of little else. Plus: elements of an alternative.
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The Next Trend in Design
Given the alacrity with which design managers uphold and then forget about future trends, it’s worth asking: Where do such trends really come from?
Read the full article...The causes of Fukushima: report of Annual symposium of the World Nuclear Association, 2011
The power of the nucleus had little to do with What Went Wrong at the TEPCO nuclear reactors in 2011
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Clausewitz after 9/11
The Prussian master’s brilliant analytical method in On War provides richer insights into the contemporary wars against terrorism than anything his glib critics have come up with
Read the full article...Come, friendly bombs, fall on Brown’s eco-towns
With his plans to erect zero-carbon homes in zero-car suburbs, Gordon Brown builds on the Blairites’ small-minded approach to housing
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Futures and trends: foresight, forecasting or futurology
In brief, the market launch of a new product or service takes place months, and usually years, after its original conception and design.
Read the full article...Computer games and sex difference
The suspicion exists that there are not enough computer games being programmed by women for women. Yet women do play computer games.
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Why don’t women play computer games?
The fact that these are boys’ toys has been theorised as evidence for the ‘politics of difference’
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Homes 2016: Blueprint Broadside
Too many blueprints for the home of the future begin from the interior. They should start from the factory, argues James Woudhuysen and Ian Abley
Read the full article...Play as the Main Event in International and UK Culture
Play has become a dominant trend in the culture of Western adults. This chapter of Cultural Trends looks at its prevalence and growth
Read the full article...Brands demystified
Throughout the world of business, people believe in the magic of brands
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Digital Visions: Cult IT
Are the claims made for Digital Technology accurate? And if not, why is the arts world so anxious to embrace IT as the latest must-have fashion accessory?
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The Battle for the Living Room
Where many see excitement and promise, the reality of consumer electronics is confusion and a focus on digital minutiae
Read the full article...Before we rush to declare a new era
The doctrine that the world has entered a new Age of Information has plenty of precedents. It is wrong.
Read the full article...Report on design for Glasgow Development Agency, 1994
Glasgow Development Agency (GDA) wants quickly and visibly to help Glaswegian firms improve the calibre of their design.
Read the full article...How the East was won: Japan in the 20th century
The West usually attributes Japanese industrial success to innate national characteristics such as feudal loyalty, hard work and passivity
Read the full article...Knee-jerk reactions: exercise and personal health
In exercise and personal health, ‘one must now mix egoism with electronics’
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Going down for the third time
As the 100th anniversary of the First World War approaches, let’s remember that Empire was the root of Britain’s industrial decline.
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A new kind of nationalism in design
The geopolitics of design: it is emerging as a highly tangible form of economic aggression
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#IOPC IN THE NEWS AGAIN. Pix: DG Rachel Watson; Acting Deputy DG Kathie Cashell;
Amanda Rowe and Steve Noonann, both Acting Directors, Operations.
That's a lot of acting! No wonder the IOPC's report never saw the light of day.
Are we a bit flaccid, perhaps?
A dubious editorial decision by the Daily Mail that risks glorifying one of the most evil men in history. Who cares about his air fryer recipes?