Month: April 2020
Five corona-themed song parodies to cure your quarantine blues
What do you get when you combine a billion people under coronavirus lockdown with an unprecedented range of cheap or free software tools to make and record music, and shoot and edit video? You get a welcome relief from the dismal drumbeat of deaths and infections with an epidemic of hilarious and quite brilliant coronavirus-themed […]
The emotional rollercoaster of Covid-19
Covid-19 has wrought havoc across the world, but even for those spared the worst physical and economic brunt, riding the pandemic has been an emotional rollercoaster: fear of death and uncertainty through anger and bravado to empathy and hope. Combination image from https://th.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%B9%84%E0%B8%A7%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%B1%E0%B8%AA%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%84%E0%B9%82%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B2 and https://pixabay.com/photos/california-adventure-roller-coaster-886581/ Speaking to Dr Sanjay Gupta on April 14, CNN anchor […]
Gallery: Typhoon batters Boracay
On Christmas Day, 2019, Typhoon Phanfone pummelled the Philippines and left a trail of destruction across the resort island of Boracay. I arrived the following day to witness a scene of devastation. Read article
Typhoon dramatizes our machine-learned helplessness
A collapsed building is seen on the Boracay Mount Luho Road in the wake of Typhoon Phanfone, on Boracay, Aklan, Philippines, on Dec 26, 2019. (Photo: Dave Kendall) In psychology, “learned helplessness” is the result of repeated exposure to an aversive event, rendering a person unable to control their environment even when the tools are […]
Economist urges ‘blanket’ rescue
Handouts of “helicopter money”, blanket debt repayment postponements and massive fiscal stimulus programmes are needed to keep Thailand and the rest of the world afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, according to Bangkok Bank’s chief economist. Speaking via a live stream at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand in Bangkok on Wednesday, Burin Adulwattana painted a […]