Aida Edemariam
Guest Author
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/ 28 February 2008

The true cost of war

In 2005, a Nobel prize-winning economist began the painstaking process of calculating the true cost of the Iraq war. In his new book, he reveals how short-sighted budget decisions, cover-ups and a war fought in bad faith will affect us all for decades to come.

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/ 13 August 2007

Bullets on the brain

Brains being our centres of personality, vision, hearing, motor control, consciousness and, in short, everything that makes us functioning and human, there is a reason why they are encased in very hard bone. And why it is reasonable to assume that breaching that bone is catastrophic.

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/ 8 June 2007

Lamestreaming the English language

Once, you might have been stuck for the word to describe an unsightly tummy bulge protruding over low-rise jeans. But “muffin top” is one of hundreds of new words and phrases, along with “wag”, “size zero” and “hoodie”, that have entered the language and are listed in the Collins English Dictionary‘s 9th edition, published recently.

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/ 5 March 2007

Blood ties

In public, at least, they seem remarkably unfazed by what they have done. And in some senses, of course, they needn’t be. They are a loving couple, who have been together for seven years and want to be with no one else. They have had four children. Beyond these details, however, the story gets more troubling. Patrick and Susan Stubing, who live in Zwenkau, near Leipzig, Germany, are brother and sister.