Simon Ings

4 weeks ago | thespectator.com | Simon Ings

In 1941, as it entered World War Two, the US Army barely bested Bulgaria’s for size and combat readiness. Nor did US forces have very much idea of what conditions were like in their new theaters of operation. In the winter of 1942, hot-weather gear and lightweight machinery landed in the deserts of North Africa where hot and dry conditions were assumed to persist throughout the year. Men froze half to death, even as their digging equipment foundered in winter mud.

1 month ago | spectator.com.au | Simon Ings

Sand, Snow and Stardust: How US Military Engineers Conquered Extreme Environments University of Chicago Press, pp.400, 30 In 1941, as it entered the second world war, the US Army barely bested Bulgaria’s for size and combat readiness. Nor did US forces have very much idea of what conditions were like in their new theatres of operation.

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Simon Ings

In 1941, as it entered the second world war, the US Army barely bested Bulgaria’s for size and combat readiness. Nor did US forces have very much idea of what conditions were like in their new theatres of operation. In the winter of 1942, hot-weather gear and lightweight machinery landed in the deserts of North Africa where hot and dry conditions were assumed to persist throughout the year. Men froze half to death, even as their digging equipment foundered in winter mud.

1 month ago | telegraph.co.uk | Simon Ings

Rather than moving beyond disposability, however, manufacturers simply tried to make plastics recyclable (or at least compostable). The problem, as Chaudhuri explains, is that it's extremely difficult to recycle plastic; and commercial logic reduced much of that effort to little more than a giant marketing campaign for the supposedly virtuous companies using plastics - what she brands "a get-out-of-jail-free card in a situation otherwise riddled with reputational risk".

1 month ago | newscientist.com | Simon Ings

The EndJoshua Oppenheimer (Streaming on MUBI)Life on the planet’s surface has become nigh-on unbearable, but with money and resources enough, the finest feelings and highest aspirations of our culture can be perpetuated underground, albeit only for a chosen few. In Joshua Oppenheimer’s unearthly drama , Michael Shannon plays the father, an oil magnate who, years ago, brought his family to safety in an old mine.