Like most things, Harvard is what one makes of it — and this can include experiences rooted in faith and friendship. Harvard is often seen as the archetypal American university, offering a model that many others seek to emulate. So, as a new school year and new application season begin, it seems fitting to ask: […]
Nope. All computers only execute algorithms. Technology leaders from Bill Gates to Elon Musk and others have warned us in recent years that one of the biggest threats to humanity is uncontrolled domination by artificial intelligence (AI). In 2017, Musk said at a conference, “I have exposure to the most cutting edge AI, and I think […]
Many of the world’s leading journals are condemning the US Supreme Court’s decision to scrap Roe v. Wade. On June 24 the US Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade and declared that there was no right to abortion in the American Constitution. Ever since, the world’s leading scientific and medical journals have been campaigning not just against […]
This satirical film reveals a disturbing truth about modern mainstream journalistic standards. We all love the literary motif of the unwilling prostitute who, at the end of the story, does virtuous deeds to save herself and others. In Crime and Punishment, Sonya is instrumental in Raskolnikov’s redemption. Director Robert Davi uses the same formula to […]
The killing of our offspring is far worse than genocide. The word “genocide” is rooted in the Shoah. A Polish Jew named Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959) first used it in 1944 as a way to describe the systematic murder of European Jewry by the National Socialists. Lemkin’s concept of the slaughter of a people — although […]
A recent article in Nature Biotechnology reports on the risks and benefits of the therapeutic use of CRISPR-Cas9 “gene scissors” technology. A comment on the article in the Jerusalem Post explains, “CRISPR – an acronym for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats” – allows genetic material to be added, removed or altered at particular locations in the genome… [The […]
U.S. experts have published six bold policy ideas. Is social media harmful to kids? Some people are still sceptical about this: a few experts, the American Civil Liberties Union, and Big Tech itself, of course. Put a smart little device in the hands of teenagers, hook them up to platforms they find irresistible, and what […]
Is binary sexuality really a way of subjugating women? Sexual dimorphism—one of the most fundamental concepts in human biology—is a myth invented by 18th century bigots. That is the wild claim made by Scientific American last week in a tweet thread promoting its new documentary series, “A Question of Sex”. “Before the late 18th century, Western science recognized only one […]
Shia LaBeouf says that he has become a Catholic. One half of the latest news about the scandalous career of actor Shia LaBeouf is that he has converted to Catholicism. In a long interview with Bishop Robert Barron the always-in-hot-water Hollywood star says that he was drawn into the Catholic faith by preparing to play the Italian […]
Augustine’s Confessions has travelled with me for decades, bringing meaning and insight. Before me as I write lies a book — or should I call it a relic? Augustine’s Confessions in the Oxford paperback edition, translated by Henry Chadwick. There are layers of different notes in the margins — black ink next to blue ink next to pencil, […]
Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas will host a discussion of bestiality. When it comes to taboos, straight talk about bestiality is right up there with supporting Israel Folau and voting for Donald Trump. Which must be why Sydney’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas has welcomed Joanna Bourke, a distinguished British historian, to its shindig on the weekend of […]
What would the collapse of a free and open society entail? The speed with which the universal rights and liberties characteristic of the open society were suspended in deference to speculative, unorthodox, and unsubstantiated theories of disease control should serve as a stark warning to us that the hard-won achievements of the open society can be bartered […]
STORY AT-A-GLANCE The documentary “Uninformed Consent” takes a deep dive into the COVID-19 narrative — who’s controlling it and how fear was used to push novel, unproven gene transfer technology onto, and into, people of all ages Weaving in and out of the heart-wrenching story of one man’s loss, interviews with doctors and scientists […]
Queering the Maid of Orleans shows an impoverished imagination. A new play about Joan of Arc, I, Joan, opens in London next week. After all the plays, poetry, novels, and biographies published since she was burned at the stake in 1431, it’s difficult to imagine that anything fresh can be said about the Maid of Orleans, […]
Same-sex relationships keep popping up in Disney’s movies. Although I enjoyed Dr Strange: Into the Multiverse of Madness, I was disconcerted. Some aspects of wokism don’t concern me. However, one of the new Marvel superheroes introduced in this instalment of Dr Strange has two mums. Eternals, released late last year, features the first gay couple in the […]