BIG Scoop

The tumultuous years of the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a long-overdue shift in mental health conversations across Africa. For decades, mental health had been a taboo subject on the continent. It was only whispered about in private family conversations, rooted in colonial-era myths of African intellectual inferiority that wrongly suggested Africans were less prone to mental illness. These harmful stereotypes, shaped policies and perceptions, with mental health laws even being weaponized to suppress dissent. In Kenya...

I recently stumbled upon a surprising headline for a LinkedIn post that has sparked considerable engagement for its “Clean Energy Strategist” author: “Engineers Just Solved Winter’s Biggest Energy Problem (And It’s Better Than Anyone Thought Possible)” Wow! Fantastic! All that fussing and hand-wringing about people having sufficient energy to heat their homes in the winter, and presto! Those brilliant engineers have just solved the problem! And there is no doubt keeping warm in winter is a big...

Dear media friends, Please stop pretending that every time there is a severe weather event somewhere on the planet, it is because of anthropogenic climate change. You are embarrassing yourselves. Earth's climate was changing long before humans came along, and the frequency and ferocity of storms have not changed in a meaningful way over the last 100+ years. Climate science is a deeply nuanced subject (Real climate science – uncertainty and risk), and it is silly to suggest that...

Sometimes when one dives into the data, there are assumptions about anticipated findings that are completely overturned by the raw numbers. On other occasions – as is the case on this project – the data confirms the original assumptions, but provides clarification and deeper understanding. It is unlikely to surprise anyone to learn that house prices in larger cities are typically more expensive than in smaller cities. It is widely known that your average homebuyer...

As much of the western world anxiously awaits the U.S. midterm elections on Nov. 8, political rhetoric and irresponsible media coverage are amping up. While ill-informed (or ill-intentioned) media reporters and editors continue to use phrasing such as "baseless", "bogus" and "false claims" – and perhaps the favourite: "conspiracy theories" – to describe any insinuation that it is possible that a U.S. election could be tampered with significantly, sensible humans are simply hoping for a fair...