X-Men: Apocalypse review: James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender can’t salvage this incoherent X-jumble May 19, 2016 X-Men: Apocalypse takes the franchise’s hard-won chips and bets them all on tumbling pyramids and slo-mo explosions. It sells the X-Mansion for a bag of CGI beans. It’s an incoherent jumble, lacking any kind of authoritative vision; a collection of disparate elements that rub uncomfortably against each other, more closely resembling a fan-made super-cut than [...]
“Password”, “123456” and “qwerty”: These are the world’s 25 worst passwords of 2015 January 20, 2016 If you thought we might have stepped up our collective password game in the light of a slew of high-profile cyber attacks… think again. Amazingly, “123456” is still the world’s most popular password, followed by meta favourite “password”. The unfortunate passwords most loved by public and cyber crooks have been uncovered by SplashData’s annual ranking [...]
So meta: Amazon just opened an online store on Alibaba March 6, 2015 Amazon and Alibaba may be a hair away to declaring themselves official arch-nemeses, but that hasn't prevented the US online retail giant from making the most of the opportunities presented by its rival. Amazon has opened a shop on Alibaba's Tmall, the Chinese tech giant's equivalent of, er, Amazon. What does it all mean? Amazon's [...]
The Night Before review: A festive buddy comedy lacking in Christmas cheer December 4, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★☆☆☆ A festive tumbling barrel of semi-improvised dick and drug jokes, The Night Before is a semi-funny Christmas buddy comedy in which lifelong friends Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) hoof it around Manhattan in an attempt to recreate their once honoured annual traditions. Ethan is a developmentally arrested [...]
The cost, by degrees, of a cold office: Chilly temperatures hit GDP harder than snow or heat-waves January 26, 2016 In the heights of summer and the depths of winter, control of the office thermostat is a high privilege indeed. A 2014 study by One Poll found that only 24 per cent think that their office is the right temperature for working throughout the year, indicating how divisive the issue can be in many workplaces. But [...]
Better start for the FTSE 100 after Asia rally as Shanghai shares soar August 27, 2015 Are things finally calming down on the markets? The FTSE 100 opened almost two per cent higher, taking heart from a rally in Asia, where the Nikkei closed one per cent higher, the Hang Seng closed three per cent higher – and Chinese markets leaped, with the Shanghai Composite gaining more than five per cent [...]
Crimson Peak movie review: Guillermo del Toro’s gruesome gothic fairytale brings the art of darkness to the screen October 15, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Guillermo del Toro set out to create a haunted house drama to rival the very best in the genre – the Exorcists and the Shinings of the world. He succeeds with the haunted house part, but not so much the drama. Part gothic horror story, part ethereal fairytale, Crimson Peak follows Edith Cushing [...]
Know-it-alls know the least when it comes to spotting fake terms July 21, 2015 Pre-rated stocks, fixed-rate deduction, annualised credit – all of these are completely made up financial terms, but if you consider yourself an expert you'd probably be easily tricked into thinking they were real, according to new research published in the journal Psychological Science. Read more: One in 10 parents think their children are "too clever" [...]
Film review: Straight Outta Compton August 27, 2015 Cert 15 | ★★★★☆ Ice Cube spitting F**k Tha Police in front of a jumping Detroit crowd, and the subsequent stage invasion by armed cops, is one of the most exhilarating moments in film this year. That it never actually happened – the band were calmly arrested at their hotel later that night – is largely [...]
Why practice doesn’t make perfect: Rote learning has limited uses in the world of business September 9, 2015 From times tables to French verbs, we are told by our teachers that practice is the key to success. This old bromide was given scientific endorsement in 1993, when psychologist Anders Ericsson produced a study claiming that success owes more to toil than talent. But research by Princeton last year put paid to the [...]