Quelle Surprise...

 Canada to build LGBTQ2+ National Monument.

China’s CDC Admits

Frozen food package polluted by living coronavirus could cause infection. 

Where Loneliness Can Lead

Hannah Arendt enjoyed her solitude, but she believed that loneliness could make people susceptible to totalitarianism.

The Science of Wisdom

Psychological science can now measure and nurture wisdom, superseding the speculations of philosophy and religion.

The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist

A man walked into a bank...

Earth’s New Gilded Era

The world is getting hotter, and the divide between rich and poor is getting bigger.

Stanley Crouch (1945–2020)

The great jazz and cultural critic, soloing over changes, sang his enthusiasm for America.

James Wood

How criticism works.

Trade Me

Wellington’s old air traffic control tower has gone up for sale.

The Great Unread

 On William Deresiewicz’s ‘The Death of the Artist’.

‘Solastalgia’

Arctic inhabitants overwhelmed by new form of climate grief.

Brave New Schools

12 step recovery program for whiteness at university.

France Reports Record 30,000 Cases In 24 Hours

 As Europe tops US tally yet again.

Shouldn’t That be Woke Forest?

Wake Forest University offers new ‘antiracist use of math’ class.

T Cell Cross-reactivity

 And the Herd immunity threshold.

Algorithms of Suppression

Coming for you.

Bookselling in the End Times

Again...

American Fiction

Is it too provincial? 

The Town That Went Feral

When a group of libertarians set about scrapping their local government, chaos descended. And then the bears moved in.

The Next Casebook of Doctor Sababa

Doing Time in the Dark Underbelly of Soviet Russia

From Julius Margolin's memoir of life in the Gulag.

Nourish Your Imagination

And you will be forever free.

Hikikomori

 Japan’s Lost Generation is still jobless and living with their parents.

The Greening of Antarctica

Few have witnessed the impact of global warming more closely than this scientist.

Poem

Homage to Bashō.

The Hidden Pleasures of Book Hunting

During lockdown, piles of discarded books sprung up everywhere: outside houses, ranging along low walls, balanced precariously atop gate posts. Leafing through them set my imagination alight.

This Is My Message to the Western World

Your civilization is killing life on Earth.

Wokeness: The Return of Medieval Madness

Witch hunts, excommunication and iconoclasm are back with a vengeance.

‘We Couldn't Believe It’

Woman bleeds to death in NSW hospital with no doctors on site.

Mexico Asks Pope Francis for Apology for Church's Role in Spanish conquest

Mexico’s president says the Vatican should apologise for ‘reprehensible atrocities’ in colonisation 500 years ago.

How Psilocybin Can Save the Environment

To preserve nature, we need to open our minds to it.

I Called Everyone in Jeffrey Epstein’s Little Black Book

What I learned about rich people, conspiracy, ‘genius,’ Ghislaine, stand-up comedy, and evil from 2,000 phone calls.

Coincidences in Vancouver

 Suggest China money laundering funding disruption in US.

Who Would Have Guessed

Anti-Trump New England Journal Of Medicine Is partnered with a Chinese Communist publishing house.

Washington Watching as Beijing’s Space Power Grows

The latest U.S. Defense Department report on Chinese military power recounts Beijing’s growing space and counterspace capabilities.

Tiny Forests Are Springing Up All Around Europe, Inspired By Japan

To help restore biodiversity.

Why Won’t the Sin Wash Away?

When thinking ethically goes awry.

The Storytellers of Empire

Captivated by an image of an atom bomb falling on Japan, Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie asks American writers why “Your soldiers will come to our lands, but your novelists won’t.”