We’re enjoying a rather good late autumn here in Rome, and the hibiscus are still blooming. The strange thing, as The Squeeze’s trained eye noticed, is that they’ve changed colour. The top image is the gray variety photographed in late August. The middle one is a flower on the same bush photograph...

Ok, so this morning's idle fantasy has all the hallmarks of a sixth-form debating society also-ran. But like many crazy notions, maybe it isn't completely crazy. One reason why sending US$ 2.50 to one of the hungry billion is so appealing is that it is direct. You have money, you send money, they spend money. No middle men, no overheads, no opportunity for graft or corruption or impact assessment studies.

No hope.

There's something mesmerizing about being at a Very Important Meeting of Very Important People and listening to all the Very Important Utterances. They are, by and large, so utterly meaningless and yet are uttered as if pregnant unto term with meaning. I write some down, just to keep my hand in. I share a few of those, to general amusement. And I give thanks that I don't have to produce copy.

This is tricky. I watched Itay Talgam's wonderful TedTalk on the way to a day of meetings at work. Lead like the great conductors is a fine, inspiring talk that Talgam has honed to perfection. A joy to watch, a joy to listen to, a joy to learn from. His main point is that the great conductors of g...

From yesterday's New York Times:

As many as 25 percent of the American farmers growing genetically engineered corn are no longer complying with federal rules intended to maintain the resistance of the crops to damage from insects, according to a report Thursday from an advocacy group.

No w...