Archive - backstory

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and answers to last week's quiz

Mar 18

and the answers to last week's quiz

Mar 11

Mar 4

February 2023

The big European art show of the year is undoubtedly Vermeer at Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum (runs until June 4) - best combined with Vermeer's Delft at the…

Feb 25

The power of teachers, good and bad

Feb 18

UK government approves bee-killing pesticide

Feb 4

January 2023

In Sudan during the 1980s there was a comment you used to hear a lot whenever bad news arrived. “When God made the Sudan,” someone would say, “He…

Jan 21

Friday 13 January. Indian officials announce the start of the world’s longest river cruise, from Varanasi to Assam via Kolkata. Environmentalists have…

Jan 14

November 2022

Some tortures devised by humans are fiendishly clever. I don’t mean the type you can find in the Museo de la Tortura in Toledo. That institution holds…

Nov 19, 2022

How is it that human groups frequently divide into two competing factions, neither of which ever quite manages to achieve full destruction of the other…

Nov 12, 2022

In the 1970s in the UK, the best day of my childhood year came on November 5th. Using earnings from my newspaper delivery round I would secretly buy…

Nov 5, 2022

October 2022

27 October 2022: The seven largest oil companies in the world have reportedly made over $150 billion in profits so far this year. 25 October: A UN…

Oct 29, 2022

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