Simon Wilson

1 week ago | moneyweek.com | Simon Wilson

Is it possible to colonise Mars? In 1964, Nasa’s uncrewed Mariner 4 spacecraft made its first successful fly-by of Mars. Then, in July 1976, a craft (Viking 1) made the first successful landing on its surface. In the half-century since, many similar missions have been accomplished, and some have failed. But as yet, no crewed mission has been attempted. Various visionaries have long wanted to change that. The late Stephen Hawking is one. SpaceX’s Elon Musk famously has Mars in his sights.

2 weeks ago | moneyweek.com | Simon Wilson

Is UK energy really dearer? It is. Last week saw an “awful April” jump in the price cap on domestic energy bills. That’s bad enough. But the deeper fear is that the UK’s continuing high energy costs are crippling whole sectors of the economy – notably manufacturing – and posing a clear threat to future national prosperity. In the US in 2023 (the last full year for which reliable figures are available), one kilowatt hour of industrial electricity cost about 6.5p. For Sweden, the figure was 8p.

3 weeks ago | msn.com | Simon Wilson

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.

3 weeks ago | moneyweek.com | Simon Wilson

What’s the Covid pandemic’s legacy? For around two million people in the UK and an estimated 400 million worldwide, the pandemic’s legacy is serious and, in some cases, involves ongoing debilitating, Covid-related illness – including breathlessness, exhaustion, brain fog and multi-organ damage. For millions more, the legacy is grief and loss: more than 225,000 people died in the UK with Covid listed on their death certificate.

3 weeks ago | newstalkzb.co.nz | Simon Wilson

Tom Irvine from Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei kicked things off. “What a wonderful day to celebrate such a boring machine,” he said. “I’ve been saving that up since 2019.” No rain in sight. The boring machine (TBM) Hiwa-i-te-Rangi, named for a Matariki star, is Watercare’s 200m engine with a revolving diamond-head cutter. On Friday, it broke through the last section of a new 16.2km sewage tunnel from Māngere to Herne Bay. A celebration was held at the end point in the park at Point Erin.