Chinese propaganda has launched an international offensive of fake news to counter “enormous evidence” that the virus came from a Wuhan laboratory. On March 17, 2020, Bitter Winter told the story of how a paper on the virus responsible for COVID-19 by two respected Chinese scientists, Dr. Botao Xiao from South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, and Dr. […]
Both countries and companies have taken advantage of the misery of the Covid-19 pandemic, the lockdowns, the loneliness and the misery of millions to burnish their image. China has donated masks and ventilators; companies have offered free stuff like online yoga lessons, audiobooks, museum tours, movies and software. Great PR! But the most audacious offering […]
Mary Shelley is famous for one novel – her first, Frankenstein (1819). Its extraordinary career in adaptation began almost from the point of publication, and it has had a long afterlife as a keyword in our culture. Frankenstein speaks to us now in our fears of scientific overreach, our difficulties in recognising our shared humanity. But her […]
There is an interesting European collaborative mortality monitoring activity among 24 European countries called Euromomo (website: euromomo.eu). They collate and analyse weekly mortality statistics which are published on their website. The project has weekly mortality data since the beginning of 2016 and the mortality statistics are published below for the full period data is available. […]
Back in the far-off days of pre-lockdown the mantra that was repeated to us in order to secure our compliance in one of the biggest voluntary surrenders of civil liberties in history was “flatten the curve”. The idea behind it was that we need to ensure that the infection spreads more slowly than it would […]
The Covid-19 pandemic has brought the best and the worst in us; it has also shone a light on our contradictions. Coming up with a vaccine may be the solution; but that’s still several months away, too long to wait out in a lockdown as many countries have been for almost two months now, with […]
A month and a half ago I wrote that Ireland was not getting to zero anytime soon and that the exit strategy for the coronavirus pandemic in Ireland was not clear at all. Despite the government announcing a Roadmap for reopening society and business, and many hailing it is a providing light at the end […]
Right now, Coalition talks are taking place between Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green party with a view to forming the next government. VOTE in our Poll below and leave us your comments on our social pages and on our website
A transgender man working for The Guardian has failed in his attempt to be described as the father of his child on the birth certificate. Freddy McConnell, 34, was born female but started to live as a man about 10 years ago. He began taking testosterone in 2013 and had a double mastectomy in 2014. His passport […]
Sorry to disappoint, but today will feature news not of the Wuflu variety. Instead, I wanted to bring you another update in Japan’s steady population decline. Perhaps it is no surprise, but for the ninth year running the Japanese population has declined. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, at the beginning of October last year […]
Easter Rising leaders: Pádraig Pearse, Thomas Clarke and Thomas MacDonagh were executed by a firing squad in Kilmainham Gaol. #gript
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed startling failures of leadership across much of the Western world but could the increasingly harmful strategies abopted by various Western nations be redirected to achieve a sustainable response? It is perhaps time to accept that the proverbial horse has bolted, with the near certainty that tens of thousands having […]