My Recent Work
The Rhetoric Dilemma
The U.S. Presidential election is upon us, and the world is questioning how voters could possibly give their backing, again, to Donald Trump despite his role in the 2021 Capitol attack and the inflammatory language he and his supporters routinely bandy about. Whether it be his attacks on his political enemies as “vermin” who he will “root out”, his claims that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of the United States, or his recent musings on how Liz Cheney would feel when “the guns are trained...
Why Labour should avoid the temptation to extend cuts to sport
This summer showed the unifying power of sport and its potential to inspire, if anything this sector should receive more investmentLast week, The Times broke the news that Labour has frozen a £35m funding package for English cricket agreed by Rishi Sunak in April. This will remain on hold in the lead up to the Autumn spending review, while Olympic sports and the Football Foundation may also receive cuts.The new Labour government has emphasised the mess the previous Conservative government left t...
Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs are the closest thing to the peak Poch era, but with one gaping hole
And we’re back. It didn’t really feel as though we were ever away. With the Euros followed by the Olympics there was barely a chance to catch a breath before the Premier League hit our screens again and attention turned to whether anyone can stop the Pep juggernaut.For most, if any team can do it, it would be Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal, fresh off a second consecutive runners up finish. Liverpool no doubt have the players, but can they adjust to life without Klopp? So far, so good for Arne Slot’s men...
Lex Fridman’s Interview with Donald Trump illustrates the limitations of conversational podcasts
Dissecting the recent Donald Trump interview on the Lex Fridman podcast highlights the limitations of the new age conversational podcast format. Podcasts have exploded in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic, emerging as a platform for thinkers to discuss and promote their ideas, reaching a potentially limitless audience.This has particularly benefited academics, providing opportunities to speak in-depth about their area of expertise, rather than relying on short quotes in a journalist’s artic...
Slow Horses Series 4 Episode 1 Review: Lamb and his merry band of rejects return in Apple's flagship hit
Jackson Lamb and his merry band of ‘rejects’ are back for the fourth instalment of the brilliant Slow Horses series based on Mick Herron’s spy novels. The show has become known for its witty, sarcastic humour and the grotesque anti-hero Lamb, played by Gary Oldman, who returns with all the gruesomeness the character has become known for, as well as a new penchant for Jaffa Cakes. Oldman must be having a ball playing Lamb, who farts and insults his way through a frantic 45 minutes of television.A...
This Olympics provided an antidote to the UK riots
And so it came to a close. After two weeks of sporting drama in the form of photo finishes, somersaults and breaking, the Paris 2024 Olympics wrapped up with Tom Cruise descending from the roof of the Stade de France and a tragic pun from IOC President Thomas Bach. In the blink of an eye, we all forget about our new found obsessions with speed climbing, synchronised diving and the keirin, before we’ll inevitably do it all over again in four years time.On Monday morning, I was left with a sort of...
Is wastewater analysis the future of virus surveillance?
Wastewater in Scotland is being analysed for traces of COVID-19, with 8,086 samples tested in 2023. But what is the purpose of this process and is wastewater virus analysis an effective tool to guard against future virus outbreaks?An FOI sent to the Scottish Environment Agency (SEA) revealed over the past four years wastewater testing for COVID-19 has risen from 870 samples analysed in 2020, to 8,086 in 2023, with the process having seen a surge in funding and interest since the...
Why virtual reality ‘inception attacks’ are particularly malicious
The concept of the ‘metaverse’ exploded into the public discourse when Facebook changed its company name to Meta in October 2021, to signal a shift in its focus from primarily social media to incorporating virtual reality (VR) commercial products. This has included its ‘Meta Quest’ VR headsets which are now on their third iteration.But after recent reports that researchers have exposed potentially major security flaws in the Quest VR headsets, by hacking in via ‘inception attack...
Does OpenAI’s Sora threaten the reliability of visual media?
Late in 2022, ChatGPT grabbed the attention of the world and provoked discussion around where AI technology might head. Since its inception, the chatbot became the fastest-growing consumer application in history and inspired the creation of competing services from tech giants.Yet despite ChatGPT’s impressive capabilities compared to previous Large Language Models (LLMs), a basic understanding of how the technology works diminished concerns around dystopian visions of sentient AI...
Polish opposition parties begin to formalise coalition deal, but “it will not be easy”
Three opposition parties have begun the process of formalising a coalition agreement for the scenario the ruling Law and Justice party (PiS) cannot form a government, but experts believe difficulties over policy compromises lie ahead.The Civic Coalition, led by Donald Tusk, Third Way and Left parties have put together a special negotiating team, in which each group has its own representative, to find an agreement on policies their government would look to enact. Tusk is likely to be chosen as Pr...
Tenet Revisited: Nolan’s most ambitious film remains impressive, while lacking an emotional punch
Tenet returns to the BFI IMAX this week for a special screening, including an introduction from Christopher Nolan, to mark the British director being awarded a BFI Fellowship for “extraordinary achievements and enormous contribution to cinema.”As is customary with Nolan’s films, Tenet immediately throws us into the action. The opening opera scene sets a frantic pace which continues until the story’s climax. There are similarities with the opening “dream-heist” scene in Nolan’s I...
The Netflix effect — F1’s ‘Drive to Survive’ illustrates the risk documentaries pose to live sport
As sports viewership declines across Gen Z, might the storylines that play out on streaming services become a bigger draw than the event itself?By Jasper GoddardSports documentaries aren’t a new phenomenon. They date back as far as Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia (1938), created as a piece of Nazi propaganda to document the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Classics such as Hoop Dreams (1994), When We Were Kings (1996) and many more have provided fascinating insights for fans and a gateway for newcomers to sport...
Christopher Gardner — The power of science communication in the new media world
Documentaries and podcasts have provided a gateway into the world of science for the uninitiated, while providing a stage for the researchers who dedicate their lives to the subject.Christopher Gardner is no stranger to interviews. But for the Stanford University Professor in Nutrition Science it wasn’t always this way.“It was a decade ago that some of the communications folks at Stanford were holding meetings for the faculty saying social media is here, you’re going to have to participate beyon...
The New Space Economy: Will Europe Be Involved?
In the early hours of January 20th, Japan became the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the Moon, when its Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) touched down on the lunar surface.It seems the “Space Race 2.0” has kicked into gear, as countries around the globe step up their Space programs. Recent books, such as Tim Marshall’s The Future of Geography aim to explain the coming geopolitical battle for control of the Space economy, as nations aim for the Moon and beyond.You...
Why so many people vote for authoritarian leaders - Count Magazine
Donald Trump will re-run for president later this year, despite his role in the Capitol Hill attack of 2021, but what leads people to vote for authoritarian-style leaders, and how can we have better conversations around the topic?
So you know someone voting for Donald Trump. Viktor Orban, maybe? Or perhaps, they voted for Jair Bolsonaro. All these political figures have exhibited authoritarian traits, despite governing democratic countries. But what leads voters to back such individuals? It i...
So you know someone voting for Donald Trump. Viktor Orban, maybe? Or perhaps, they voted for Jair Bolsonaro. All these political figures have exhibited authoritarian traits, despite governing democratic countries. But what leads voters to back such individuals? It i...
Zelensky's election dilemma - Count Magazine
Four years ago, Volodymyr Zelensky pulled off a shock victory in the Ukrainian presidential elections. As the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues into its third year, 31 March 2024 – the date set for the next election – came and went without any votes being cast in a country still under martial law.
For Oleg Kolesnik, a student at Donetsk National University, elections are far down the list of concerns.
“This is not the time for elections, because every Ukrainian, every politician and so...
For Oleg Kolesnik, a student at Donetsk National University, elections are far down the list of concerns.
“This is not the time for elections, because every Ukrainian, every politician and so...
The Capture series two review: In the disinformation age, the Capture serves a timely reminder that…
Once again, it provides engrossing viewing, while also prompting its audience to consider the effects artificial intelligence is beginning to have over the media we consume and the potential moral consequences of this.Series 1 set the scene of a somewhat ‘cold war’ between the intelligence services of the U.S., U.K., Russia, and China, in which CCTV is manipulated in order to put away suspected enemies of the state. As Gemma Garland puts it in 1984-esque terms: ‘We only ever reproduce images of...
The Morality of Prey
In Prey, Arkane Studios’ 2017 Sci-fi mind-bender, we play as Morgan Yu, having been recruited by our brother, Alex, to join TranStar’s research team on Talos I. We awake in a swanky high-rise apartment with the instruction of going to the lab to complete some tests including the famous ‘Trolley problem’ thought experiment and the Rorschach test (the significance of both tests later becomes apparent). However, during this process one of the testing scientists is attacked by a shapeshifting creatu...
Bioshock and the downfall of Andrew Ryan’s libertarian utopia
In my previous piece, I discussed the video game SOMA and the philosophical issue of the duplication problem. In this article, I will focus on another gaming narrative masterpiece, Bioshock.We awake in the sea, swimming towards a lighthouse after being involved in an apparent plane crash. On entering the lighthouse, we find a capsule, and travel down to an underwater society named Rapture. As we descend, we’re introduced to Andrew Ryan, the creator of this submerged society. We learn he grew up...
SOMA and the Duplication Problem
SOMA is video game storytelling at it’s best. Games provide a fascinating medium for narratives, as the ability to play your part in the story adds another layer of immersion. I’m particularly fond of games which provide choices which aren’t consequential to how the main story plays out and so instead exist purely to make the player consider either the ethical implications of their decisions, or how powerless they are in the grand scheme of things despite appearing to have a ‘choice’. These sort...
Gattaca: The Importance of Mentality
The film Gattaca addresses the impending real-life moral dilemma of ‘gene-editing’ and how this may adversely affect society. This is the main commentary of the film, however it also provides a discussion on whether there is ‘something’ more to us than just our genetic makeup, IQ, etc. That perhaps our mindset can overcome our other limitations and allow us to overcome challenges those who were set up to succeed cannot. This article will focus on this theme.When Vincent challenges Anton to swim...