I'm Wes Wei.

Notes

• Did War Cut the World's Emissions?

  November 13, 2026

  Fossil CO2 is set to fall 0.4 per cent in 2026, but the drop was bought with a closed Strait of Hormuz and doubled oil prices, and total emissions still hit a record 43.3 billion tonnes.

• A World Repriced by Technology

  November 6, 2026

  Guano, nitrate, rubber, uranium, lithium, rare earths, and now the electricity under a data centre: each technological turn made something worthless strategic, and left the bill with the place that supplied it.

• Why Does a Film Take Years to Reach Another Country?

  November 1, 2026

  Gone with the Wind waited thirteen years for Japan, fourteen for Germany and fifty-one for the Soviet Union.

• Why Does Technological Progress Sometimes Make the World More Dangerous First?

  October 24, 2026

  A locomotive killed a Member of Parliament on the opening day of the world's first intercity railway, 233 steamboat explosions killed 2,563 people between 1816 and 1848, and the pattern keeps repeating: the benefits of a new technology arrive at once, its dangers only once it is in everyone's hands.

• Why End Credits Keep Getting Longer?

  October 17, 2026

  The end titles of The Wizard of Oz listed eleven names, one of them a dog, Avengers: Infinity War lists 5,109 people, and today's median end credits run 5 minutes 43 seconds.

• Why Unreasonable Things Persist?

  October 13, 2026

  The gauge of 4 feet 8½ inches came from a colliery's horse-drawn wagons, Excel made twenty-seven genes change their names, and one leap second took Reddit offline.

• Flattening the Threshold: What People Have Done to Make the World Accessible

  October 10, 2026

  Braille is six dots, tactile paving began with 230 blocks one engineer paid for himself, and curb cuts were smashed out at night with sledgehammers. Things designed for a few keep ending up helping almost everyone.

• Left, Right, Down, Up: A History of Which Way Writing Goes

  October 9, 2026

  Writing has been arranged in almost every direction there is: down a column, right to left, bottom to top, even back and forth like an ox plough.

• Why Food That's Safe for Us Can Kill Animals?

  October 8, 2026

  Chocolate, grapes, xylitol, onions, salt: everyday food to us, potentially deadly to a pet.