This essay was first published at The Pathos of Things newsletter. Subscribe here. As I am making the final edits to this article, the media are reporting that Chinese fighter jets are flying along the narrow strait separating China from Taiwan. This dramatic gesture, along with other signals of military readiness, raises the spectre of a catastrophic … Continue reading How We Got Hooked on Chips

This article was originally published by The Critic magazine in November 2022. Read it here. n Friday the saga of Elizabeth Holmes will move one step closer to its conclusion. Holmes, founder of the ill-fated health tech company Theranos, was convicted of fraud and conspiracy at the start of this year, and she will now receive … Continue reading Fake It ‘Til You Break It

This essay was first published at The Pathos of Things newsletter. Subscribe here. The 1937 World Fair in Paris was the stage for one of the great symbolic confrontations of the 20th century. On either side of the unfortunately titled Avenue of Peace, with the Eiffel Tower in the immediate background, the pavilions of Nazi … Continue reading Design for Dictators

This essay was first published at The Pathos of Things newsletter. Subscribe here. One of my favourite artefacts is a series of banknotes designed by Herbert Bayer in 1923, during Weimar Germany’s famous hyperinflation. This was the period when, as you might recall from the images in your school history textbook, the German currency devalued … Continue reading Crisis and Heroic Design