Mark Palmer

2 months ago | dailymail.co.uk | Mark Palmer

For many of us, tick tock is still the sound a trusty clock makes on the mantlepiece. But, for billions more around the world, TikTok – strictly with capital Ts – is something radically different and now competes with Google as a search engine, especially among its Gen Z loyalists.

Jan 23, 2025 | dailymail.co.uk | Mark Palmer

Height is a sensitive issue – at least it can be for those who are super-tall or demonstrably short. Towering giants want to be less conspicuous, while little people invariably wish they could miraculously add a few inches to boost their stature – in both meanings of the word. I belong to the latter category and felt a twinge (a twang, actually) of jealousy on seeing Barron Trump soaring above everyone else at his father's inauguration ceremony on Capitol Hill.

Nov 27, 2024 | dailymail.co.uk | Mark Palmer

A helicopter buzzes back and forth near Trafalgar Falls, one of Dominica’s prized natural sights. It’s putting in a shift to help build a cable car that will whisk tourists over the island’s Boiling Lake – a spectacle which normally requires a three-hour hike. Meanwhile, work continues on a new international airport (built by the Chinese and paid for via a ‘citizenship by investment’ programme), which may or may not tempt the likes of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic to fly direct.

Nov 9, 2024 | dailymail.co.uk | Mark Palmer

The Mayans believed in many gods. They were also highly literate, architecturally advanced and developed a system of mathematics that included one of the earliest examples of zero. Today, in their former Yucatan heartland – and especially along the Caribbean coast near Mexico’s heaving Cancun – the worship is focused on one thing and one lucrative thing only: tourism. The maths is all about the bottom line.

Nov 9, 2024 | dailymail.co.uk | Mark Palmer

British Airways has just produced a book called Flavour Of Flight, which chronicles the food and drink served on board its planes from 1919 until the present day. It starts with an effusive foreword by its chief executive Sean Doyle. 'We know that our in-flight meals punctuate the travel experience and are eagerly anticipated,' he says. 'In fact, customers tell us it's the part of the journey they look forward to most.'I'm not so sure about that.