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11-12 March

Tomorrow’s world

Don’t let Big Tech inside your head

Many of us blithely allow any old app to track what we’re up to, says Camilla Cavendish in the FT, despite that “vague, creeping feeling” our electronic devices are working against us. But “we need to wise up”, because a new challenge is coming: “how to protect our brain data”. Investment is pouring into “neurotechnology”, which can “record and analyse electrical impulses” from our minds. Brain-computer interfaces have enormous potential benefits, such as helping paralysed people communicate freely or “aiding the recovery of stroke patients”. Gamers could use them to control on-screen characters.

Eating in

Knowing what should and shouldn’t be stored in the fridge is a nightmare, says Sarah Rainey in the Daily Mail. So here are some rough rules. Keep soft veg – tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers and aubergines – out, but stick root vegetables such as carrots and parsnips inside, preferably “in a container filled with cold water”. Opened tomato ketchup is fine in the cupboard. Nuts and flour last longer if they’re kept chilled. Final tip: if your fridge starts to pong, just stick a peeled potato on the middle shelf. “The starchy flesh sucks bad odours out of the air.”

Love etc

In 1992, Sarah Graham-Moon became “the patron saint of dumped wives”, says The Daily Telegraph. After discovering that her husband Peter, a baronet, was having an affair with a “blonde down the road”, she drove to the woman’s house in the middle of the night and “poured five litres of white gloss paint” over his car, then speared a pair of his boxer shorts with the aerial. Back home, she cut “one sleeve from each of five cashmere coats and 32 bespoke Savile Row suits” – explaining later that “he only needs one arm for what he does best” – before emptying his Havana cigars into the horse trough. Finally, she drove around their village in Berkshire handing out the contents of his wine cellar to neighbours, “including bottles of Château Latour 1961 worth £300 apiece”. Unsurprisingly, they divorced soon afterwards.

Quoted

quoted 11.3.23 Schopenhauer

“Wealth is like seawater; the more we drink, the thirstier we become.”

German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer

Life

Interviewing Arnold Schwarzenegger is quite the ordeal, says Mark Leibovich in The Atlantic. The former bodybuilder likes journalists to see his morning routine, in particular the three-mile bike ride to Gold’s Gym in Venice, Los Angeles. It’s a “terrifying expedition”. The 75-year-old doesn’t bother with a helmet and can be “selective in his observance of traffic signals”. As he zips through intersections with cars “screeching behind him”, drivers angrily honk and yell – right until they realise who he is. As one man in a landscaping van shouts, “Heyyyy, Mister Arnold!”

Property

The townhouse

This four-bedroom former post office sits at the heart of Saxmundham, a pretty market town in Suffolk. With more than 3,000 sq ft of living space across four floors, the light-filled home has a cosy and historic charm. Original features include shop lettering, corbelled details, exposed brick chimney breasts and stripped floorboards. The coast is a 15-minute drive and Saxmundham station is a two-minute walk, with trains to London Liverpool Street via Ipswich taking around two hours. £695,000.

The castle

This 10-bedroom, Greek-revival Scottish manor is set in 16 acres of grounds near the fishing town of Fraserburgh. Dating back to the late 18th century, it has seven large reception rooms, an “Egyptian room” inscribed with hieroglyphics, and a wealth of period features including multiple fireplaces. Outside, there’s an arboretum of around 150 young trees, and a two-bedroom holiday cottage in a converted gate lodge. Aberdeen is a 45-minute drive. £1.25m.

Weather

Quoted

quoted 11.3.23

“Good judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.”

Mark Twain