Новости за 09.02.2017

Harvard geneticist Dr. George Church has been using a gene editing tool called CRISPR to try to bring the woolly mammoth back from the dead, and may help slow climate change.

Chandra in, Cyrus out

PROFIT is to good corporate governance what tides are to swimming trunks: when the former is high, absence of the latter tends to go unnoticed. The ebbing of profits at Tata, India’s largest conglomerate, in recent years has prompted a power struggle that in turn has exposed the often dysfunctional relationship between several dozen businesses, holding companies, people and charities that use the Tata name. The struggle is now over: on February 6th, Cyrus Mistry... Читать дальше...

NEW YORK’s fashion week, which will start on February 9th, promises the usual show of glamour, but a more fascinating industry display came a week earlier. On February 2nd Ralph Lauren, a well-known brand, said that the executive it had hired in 2015 to overhaul its business would leave. On February 3rd the Wall Street Journal reported that Macy’s, America’s biggest department store, might be bought by Hudson’s Bay, a smaller Canadian rival. Each is an institution of American retailing. Each is a reminder of how hard it is to keep pace. Читать дальше...

AFTER Donald Trump’s victory in November, Malcolm Turnbull quickly congratulated him, having obtained Mr Trump’s telephone number from Greg Norman, the new president’s golfing buddy. Australia’s prime minister claimed a similar background to Mr Trump’s, as “businessmen who found our way into politics somewhat later in life”, and a shared “pragmatic approach” to solving problems. Another call, just two months later, has shattered this supposed solidarity. It has also prompted many Australians to question their country’s closest alliance. Читать дальше...

Usurper or heir?

ON THE various occasions that O. Panneerselvam, or “OPS”, served as the chief minister of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, he made a point of being invisible. He knew that Jayaram Jayalalithaa, the head of his party, the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) and chief minister for most of the past 15 years, had chosen him as a stand-in whenever she was battling corruption charges or illness precisely because he was so self-effacing. Even after “Amma”—“Mother”—a... Читать дальше...

Fallen friend of the forest

ISIDRO BALDENEGRO LÓPEZ, a farmer and a leader of the indigenous Tarahumara people, had spent much of his life campaigning against illegal logging in the Sierra Madre region of northern Mexico. On January 15th he was shot dead. His father died in the same way, for defending the same cause, 30 years before.

Defending nature is a dangerous occupation, especially in Latin America. According to a recent report by Global Witness, an NGO, 185 environmental activists were murdered worldwide in 2015... Читать дальше...

CROSS-DRESSING, undressing, bad taste and ribaldry are features of every Brazilian Carnival (this year’s begins on February 24th). Transgression has always been part of the point. But this year the bacchanal’s political incorrectness is provoking a backlash, especially in Rio de Janeiro, where the festival is at its glitziest. And the demand for sensitivity has created another backlash of its own. In an editorial published on February 4th, O Globo, a liberal newspaper, lamented that “to police this Rio patrimony is to leave samba behind”. Читать дальше...

GAZING out over London’s chimneys, Liverpool’s docks or Edinburgh’s spires can cloud a tourist’s judgment. Air pollution “plagues” Britain, says one UN official. The capital is particularly nasty, and compares poorly with other European cities (see chart). On some days last month particulate levels in London were higher even than in Beijing. On February 17th the mayor, Sadiq Khan, will launch a £10 ($12) “toxic charge” on the most polluting vehicles—broadly speaking those registered before 2005—to come into force in October. Читать дальше...

AS BRITAIN considers its future outside the European Union, its main target for a post-Brexit trade deal is the United States. The prospect of opening up the American market is an enticing one. Yet some in Britain worry about what might be demanded in return. Perhaps most emotive is the suggestion that America could negotiate greater access for its companies to the National Health Service. Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, has warned that a trade deal could lead to “stealth privatisation” of the NHS. Читать дальше...

ONE OF THE axioms of technological progress is that it democratises entertainment, distributing delights to the masses that were once reserved for the elites. More high-quality entertainment is available to more people on the planet than ever before. At the same time individuals across the globe can find an audience much more easily than was previously possible. The ability to access whatever entertainment people want digitally and on demand has transformed diversions in societies both rich and poor, changing the lives of billions. Читать дальше...

LATE ON A Saturday night at New York’s Madison Square Garden in November, a crowd of more than 20,000 people, including many who have flown in from far-flung places, is buzzing with anticipation. This is the first mixed-martial-arts (MMA) event held in New York state, where the combat sport was outlawed until recently. Fans have paid a total of $17.7m, a record gate for any event at this historic arena.

AT LAST YEAR’S consumer-electronics show in Las Vegas, Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, set out an ambitious goal for serving his customers: “One day we hope to get so good at suggestions that we’re able to show you exactly the right film or TV show for your mood when you turn on Netflix.”

A PARIS CAFE basement, 1896. The Lumière brothers screen their 50-second film, known as “Train Pulling into a Station”, to an audience said to have been taken aback at the sight of a train moving towards them as if it might jump off the screen. That was the beginning of movie magic. But what if the train could jump off the screen?

TECHNOLOGY HAS ENABLED people to fill every moment of their lives with a stimulus of one sort or another. It has eliminated the boredom of solitude, replacing it with a continuous need for instant gratification. Or rather, as Tristan Harris, a former product manager at Google, puts it, it is technology companies that have made this trade for humans, designing platforms, games and apps to keep them hooked.

LAST YEAR ZHAO XINLONG, aged 25, and his wife and baby boy moved from his parents’ farm into a mid-rise apartment in town. It has been a tough adjustment. Luan County is a rustbelt community on the polluted outskirts of the steel city of Tangshan in north-east China. Mr Zhao’s monthly income from driving a taxi has plummeted by more than half in the past couple of years, and he has not found it easy to make friends in his new abode.

TWO ENTERTAINMENT TITANS dominated the charts for the last few months of 2016: the mighty Walt Disney and Ryan, a five-year-old boy. Disney’s blockbuster films topped America’s box office in nine of the last ten weeks of the year. Ryan’s YouTube channel, featuring his parents’ daily videos of him at his home in California, was the site’s most watched in America for the last 20 weeks of the year. Most of his audience is made up of children in his own age group, gleefully looking at him unboxing and playing with toys... Читать дальше...

WHEN CHARLIE BROOKER, the creator of “Black Mirror”, a television series about the social impact of new technology, goes away for the weekend with his family, his young son occasionally encounters something perhaps too barbaric even for his father’s dystopian show: an old-fashioned TV set with channels and a fixed schedule of programmes. Instead of being able to watch whatever he wants at any time, he has to wait until a certain hour on a certain day on a certain channel. “It just strikes him as terrifyingly antiquated,” says Mr Brooker. Читать дальше...

Print section Print Rubric:  Politicians are hazy about how best to deal with Britain’s air pollution Print Headline:  All choked up Print Fly Title:  The environment UK Only Article:  UK article only... Читать дальше...

Print section Print Rubric:  Tata has now got rid of Cyrus Mistry. But its governance problems continue Print Headline:  Board stiff Print Fly Title:  Tata Group UK Only Article:  standard article... Читать дальше...

CROSS-DRESSING, undressing, bad taste and ribaldry are features of every Brazilian Carnival (this year’s begins on February 24th). Transgression has always been part of the point. But this year the bacchanal’s political incorrectness is provoking a backlash, especially in Rio de Janeiro, where the festival is at its glitziest. And the demand for sensitivity has created another backlash of its own. In an editorial published on February 4th, O Globo, a liberal newspaper, lamented that “to police this Rio patrimony is to leave samba behind”. Читать дальше...

Fallen friend of the forest

ISIDRO BALDENEGRO LÓPEZ, a farmer and a leader of the indigenous Tarahumara people, had spent much of his life campaigning against illegal logging in the Sierra Madre region of northern Mexico. On January 15th he was shot dead. His father died in the same way, for defending the same cause, 30 years before.

Defending nature is a dangerous occupation, especially in Latin America. According to a recent report by Global Witness, an NGO, 185 environmental activists were murdered worldwide in 2015... Читать дальше...

GOOGLE, Facebook and other online giants like to see their rapid rise as the product of their founders’ brilliance. Others argue that their success is more a result of lucky timing and network effects—the economic forces that tend to make bigger firms even bigger. Often forgotten is a third reason for their triumph: in America and, to some extent, in Europe, online platforms have been inhabiting a parallel legal universe. Broadly speaking, they are not legally responsible, either for what their... Читать дальше...

DONALD TRUMP called the North American Free-Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with Mexico and Canada the “worst trade deal ever approved in this country”. Soon it will become clearer what he intends to do about it. He has three choices: tear it up, bully the United States’ partners into making concessions that merely damage the agreement or go for a renegotiation that benefits all three. 

Print section Print Rubric:  Regulators and courts in America and Europe are chipping away at the legal immunity of internet firms Print Headline:  Eroding exceptionalism Print Fly Title:  Internet regulation UK Only Article: ... Читать дальше...