Author
Editorial Team
The Shipping Container Standard Was a Committee Fight
The committee that wrote the shipping container standard threw out Malcom McLean’s 35-foot box, and the two pioneers of container shipping fought the result.
The Internet Is Mostly Wet
Ask someone how a message gets from Stockholm to Tokyo, and most will describe something vertical — up to a satellite, across, back down. It…
Lloyd’s Is Not An Insurance Company
You have probably encountered the name twice: once on a document, if you have ever been involved in a large or unusual claim, and once…
GPS Only Works Because Someone Accounted For Relativity
Your phone tells you where you are to within a few meters, indoors, in a city, while you are walking. It does this by listening…
Why Time Zones Exist, And Why They Are Political
Send a calendar invitation to someone in another country, and it resolves itself. Their morning, your afternoon, no negotiation. It is one of the few…
Why Every Sheet of Paper in the World Is the Same Shape
There is a button on every office photocopier that shrinks an A3 page down onto A4. It works perfectly. Nothing is cropped, nothing is stretched,…
The 1961 Convention That Quietly Runs International Paperwork
Somewhere in the process of getting married abroad, taking a job in another country, enrolling a child in a foreign school, or registering a company…
Why Your Plug Does Not Fit
Most households have a drawer with adapters in it. Not one adapter — several, accumulated over years, none of them quite the one you need.…
What Happens in the Four Seconds After You Tap Your Card
You hold a card near a terminal. It beeps, a green light appears, and you leave. The whole thing takes a few seconds and feels…
