Simon Parry
VerifiedArticles by Simon Parry
We Are Not Alone
Space exploration has become a national priority for China – and a Hong Kong scientist appointed to an international body searching for alien life says he is confident many of us will live to see the first evidence of extra-terrestrial life. It was at the opening of the General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union in Beijing that it dawned upon Professor Sun Kwok, the University of Hong Kong’s dean of science, just how seriously China takes the quest for space exploration.
A guide to understanding AI in the trade union context
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the fastest growing area in technology right now. Most new tech trend will cause confusion, but with AI this is accentuated. The challenge lies in its flexible and adaptive nature. AI doesn’t simply do one thing. Instead, it’s the most versatile technology ever invented. It can be used for everything from discovering the cure for disease to writing and recording a complete song in the style of Led Zeppelin.
Temperate Soils Exposed to Drought-Key Processes, Impacts, Indicators, and Unknowns
All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess.
Electric ships are here. But how to charge them?
Ports need to supply ships with megawatts of power to charge in under two hours. The BlueStor consortium is developing batteries for the job. Forward: features are independent pieces written for Mewburn Ellis discussing and celebrating the best of innovation and exploration from the scientific and entrepreneurial worlds. Catch the Stena Line Jutlandica ferry from Gothenburg to northern Denmark and you’ll enjoy the latest in diesel-electric hybrid transport.
Cyber security for unions
I’ve recently released a free guide to cyber security for trade unions through the TUC’s Digital Labs. The threats are very much real and ongoing, and the impact can be devastating. The guide aims to give practical advice on steps unions can take and can be downloaded from digital.tuc.org.uk/cyber-security-for-unions. Many cyber-attacks go unreported, but there have been a number in recent years targeting unions around the world.
Major developments in the UK offshore wind farm industry
October has been a busy and exciting month for offshore wind news in the United Kingdom. Oxford University’s Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment released research which indicates that wind and solar power have the ability to provide enough energy to ‘vastly surpass’ the UK’s current needs.
Is the future in the wind? Pyxis Ocean sets sail!
This week we have seen the bulk carrier Pyxis Ocean set sail (literally!) for the first time with its new retro-fitted “WindWing” sails, marking a significant step in the race to demonstrate the effectiveness of WASP (Wind Assisted Ship Propulsion) systems. And our specialist Marine Engineering team at Mewburn Ellis have been particularly excited to see this development picked up by technology reporters from mainstream news outlets such as the BBC.
New LRD Website
I’ve been leading on the development of the new Labour Research Department (LRD) website, working closely with LRD colleagues. As well as providing a next-generation platform to showcase the organisation, this recently launched site will be further developed in phases to incorporate more of the LRD’s online services. A priority was to make the site easier to navigate, and so the entire information architecture of the site has been overhauled.
ANALYSIS: Dry UK summer pushes river flows to the brink of 1976 drought
Dr Simon Parry, a hydrologist at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH), explains how the current drought compares with past events and how it may evolve in the near future UKCEH had previously highlighted the precarious hydrological situation following a very dry spring and early summer. Low groundwater levels, reservoir stocks and especially river flows were already prompting concerns around the water resources situation. Fast forward a few weeks, and drought is now officially upon us.
City in new James Bond movie No Time to Die is 'Shame of Italy' no more: How Matera left its dark days behind
When James Bond performed a death-defying motorcycle jump for No Time to Die in front of the cave home where her ancestors had lived for centuries, Dora Cappiello rushed to tell her 92-year-old father. “One of the most spectacular scenes for the film was shot outside the place where my father was born,” she says, proudly. “I tried to explain what was happening but he didn’t really understand.” His bewilderment is understandable.
Mike Tindall admits he told lies to wife Zara Phillips over drunken night with blonde
He went onto second bar with smooching girl There was no cover-up says England manager England rugby star Mike Tindall was last night facing a fresh inquisition from his wife Zara Phillips after admitting that he lied about his drunken night out with a mystery blonde in New Zealand. Tindall - newly married to the Queen’s granddaughter - had insisted he went back to his hotel alone after CCTV captured him canoodling with the young woman in the Altitude bar in Queenstown.
Youngest victim of paedophile pop star Gary Glitter to sue for millions
World / 5 January 2020, 1:33pm / SIMON PARRY IN VIETNAM Former British singer Gary Glitter at Southwark Crown Court in Central London. File picture: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA A woman sexually abused by Gary Glitter when she was just ten years old is suing the paedophile pop star for compensation.
The long tentacles of the law
By Simon Parry (HK Edition) Updated: 2011-01-06 07:19 Octopus cards have become a key weapon in the war against crime in Hong Kong, helping detectives crack a number of high-profile cases. But are people compromising their privacy by relying so heavily on the ubiquitous smart cards? Simon Parry reports. As he sits in his prison cell serving out the first months of his 13-year jail term, acid attacker Lo Ching-ho might well rue the day he bought an Octopus card.
Life on death row: British grandmother awaits firing squad
Chatty, cheerful and brimming with mischievous gossip, Lindsay Sandiford sits cross-legged, knitting a pink baby blanket, and talks affectionately about her sons and the granddaughters she dotes on, whose faces smile out from pictures stuck on the walls around her bed. "They are a joy - a real joy," she beams, gazing at the photos of the young cousins, aged one and six. "The younger one is marvellously bonkers. She's such a character.
Pollution on a disastrous scale - Environmental Cost of Wind Turbine Manufacturing
In China, the true cost of Britain's clean, green wind power experiment: Pollution on a disastrous scale By SIMON PARRY in China and ED DOUGLAS in Scotland Villagers Su Bairen, 69, and Yan Man Jia Hong, 74, stand on the edge of the six-mile-wide toxic lake in Baotou, China that has devastated their farmland and ruined the health of the people in their community This toxic lake poisons Chinese farmers, their children and their land.
Trade Union Website League Table 2018
Every June, I update the league table of trade union websites. The 2018 edition can be seen below (Previous results can be seen for 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 and 2012 . It’s important to note that the league table doesn’t attempt to review and score the quality of each site directly. Rather, I use industry leading metrics to measure the influence of each site. These metrics look at how many back links a site has across the internet to judge how often the site is being mentioned.
Hong Kong priest’s mission to save drug mules - ASEAN/East Asia | The Star Online
In the hustle and mayhem of a downtown Bangkok street teeming with prostitutes, sex tourists, garish bars and counterfeit-goods stalls, a grey-haired priest stops beneath a pedestrian footbridge to talk to two cocaine dealers from Ghana. “It’s 4,000 baht [US$130] a gram,” one of the dealers mumbles, rummaging in his jacket pockets and shuffling nervously from foot to foot.
Hong Kong dishes out severe punishment for drug mules while gang leaders remain free - ASEAN/East Asia | The Star Online
Low-level drug mules are convicted at a rate of more than one a day in Hong Kong’s High Court while only one gang organiser or senior syndicate member is sentenced every eight months, a study provided to Post Magazine shows.
Hong Kong dishes out severe punishment for drug mules while gang leaders remain free
Low-level drug mules are convicted at a rate of more than one a day in Hong Kong’s High Court while only one gang organiser or senior syndicate member is sentenced every eight months, a study provided to Post Magazine shows.
Hong Kong priest’s mission to save drug mules from a system that favours kingpins
In the hustle and mayhem of a downtown Bangkok street teeming with prostitutes, sex tourists, garish bars and counterfeit-goods stalls, a grey-haired priest stops beneath a pedestrian footbridge to talk to two cocaine dealers from Ghana. “It’s 4,000 baht [US$130] a gram,” one of the dealers mumbles, rummaging in his jacket pockets and shuffling nervously from foot to foot.
Macau bets on a bridge
The former Portuguese colony wants to break free of its dependency on gambling. It is hoping that some new – and expensive – infrastructure will help bring in the tourists. China has a passion for big infrastructure projects – the Great Wall, the Three Gorges, the One Belt, One Road venture. And now the finishing touches are being put to one of the world’s longest sea crossings in the hope of giving Macau’s roller-coaster, gambling-dependent economy a bit more stability.
A mammoth challenge[1]- China Daily Asia
Hong Kong is sitting on one of the world’s biggest stockpiles of smuggled ivory with more than 20 tons seized in the last five years — but the government is resisting appeals to destroy the ivory. Simon Parry reports on the secret mountain of ‘white gold’ that conservationists warn could put Hong Kong at threat from international criminals.
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with Simon
Contact Simon, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack