All articles by barbara speed

barbara speed

We challenge you to look at all these leaning buildings without feeling a little sick

We’ve all heard of the leaning tower of Pisa. But around the world there are actually loads of buildings which,…

Selfies are dangerous and annoying – so more and more places are banning them

If an alien landed on Earth in the year 2016, it would be fairly difficult to explain to it that…

What would London's unlikely mayoral hopefuls do for transport?

It seems pretty certain that either Sadiq Khan (Labour) or Zac Goldsmith (Conservative) will rule the day in London’s upcoming mayoral…

Why we should install wind turbines under bridges

Wind turbines are tall, loud, and pretty expensive to install. So instead of sticking them on tall towers in the…

“I may be dead, but I’m still important”: 10 ridiculously giant statues from around the world

A huge gold statue of Chairman Mao has made headlines this week, but it’s not exactly the first of its…

Can healthy chicken shop Chicken Town change the way London eats?

“I’d give it an 11 out of ten,” eight-year-old Fenet tells me, looking thoughtfully at the piece of chicken at…

Just a map of the UK’s 1,650 branches of Greggs

What can a map of the UK’s 1,650 branches of Greggs tell us about the British high street?

No change? This app lets you pay buskers by card

Do you carry cash? No? Me neither. Well, unless you count the detritus of pennies and Euros lurking at the…

An activist group is displaying racist social media comments on billboards in Brazil

A civil rights group in Brazil has taken a rather unusual approach to tackling racist comments on social media: it’s printed loads…

How good is Isis at running cities?

Isis (or Isil, or Daesh, or whatever we’re calling it today) is best known as a radical Islamist terrorist organisation,…