- Written by Robert McCaffrey, Editorial director, Global Gypsum Magazine
I think that it all began with those cutesy ads for the Apple iPod - the ones with a funky-looking youth in silhouette, wearing a very obvious pair of white 'ear-bud' ear-phones. They glorified personal choice, while at the same time closing the user off from interaction with other people. Listening to music while walking or running somehow eradicates part of the humanity of the wearer - they become 'apart.' I know - I've said 'Keep going' or 'well done' to any number of competitors in running races and been completely ignored because they were in their own little world. Not least of the anti-social effects of the iPod and its ilk is the pernicious tinny noise that they leak into the ears of other people (and the insidious devaluation of the pleasures of the noises of the real world - for example the wonder of bird song - and of the ultimate non-noise: silence).
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Managing Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
A lost decade sounds like a throwback to the drug-addled 1970s, when rockers lost their minds and their memories through over-indulgence in drugs, booze and hookers. Some say that if you can remember the 1960s, then you weren't really there. However, the proverbial 'lost decade' of this month's Last Word is less about LSD and 'free love,' and is more about the less sexy concepts of deflation, productivity gaps and economics.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
My younger daughter Jemima (a teenager at last) has recently completed a homework assignment on hydroelectric power in Brazil (as you do). It's actually on YouTube.1 I was able to supply her with a snippet of information that I had recently gleaned, that parts of Brazil are suffering from severe drought, with some reservoirs at only 5% of their capacity. In fact, the drought has been so bad that some of the Carnival parades that take place in Brazil at this time of year have been scaled back (such as the most famous, in Rio de Janeiro) or cancelled altogether, with towns saying that they couldn't spare the water to clean the streets after the parades.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
Be careful for what you wish for - that's what they say. You may have filled-up your car with petrol ('gas' in the US) and wished that the cash numbers on the pump didn't whizz around quite so quickly. Depending on the level of petroleum taxation that you are subject to, you may be paying a lot more for your distilled petroleum products than you might pay for a barrel of Brent Crude or West Texas Intermediate.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editor, Global Gypsum Magazine
I recently saw a news article1 on The Guardian web site that literally made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. As I read it, I thought to myself, 'This changes everything.' The report, which was tucked away towards the bottom of the long Guardian site, and which was apparently not thought of as being particularly ground-breaking or earth-shattering, was about an apparent breakthrough in nuclear fusion. There's also a smooth video2 that accompanied the report.
