The numbers are in and it looks as if JK Rowling has defied her critics in the best way possible – by increasing her book sales. Her books have been a “lockdown hit” according to publisher Bloomsbury, and their sales have pushed revenues at the children’s division of the group up more than a quarter in the […]
My background is in investment risk management, particularly in the quantitative analysis of defined benefit pension scheme assets and liabilities. To put that in English: I’m a spreadsheet monkey. When I have a problem, and if I have enough time on my hands, I usually start with Microsoft Excel. Well, I’ve had a lot of […]
Popular U.S. Bishop, Robert Barron has described the attempt to erase the memory of catholic saint Junípero Serra is “from a historical standpoint ridiculous and from a moral standpoint more than a little frightening.” He made his comments after been informed that the government of Ventura in California was debating whether to remove the image […]
The report on this morning’s EU recovery deal in the Irish Times is very comprehensive, reporting all of the issues in detail, except for one, which is, very strangely, totally left out of the coverage: The 27 member states of the European Union this morning signed off on a €1.8 trillion package to fund the […]
It’s only been a few months, but it sure does feel like the Covid crisis is dragging on forever. Anything that can bring it to a relatively swift conclusion sometime next year would be a tremendous victory for the world, and a monumental scientific achievement. And our neighbours over at the University of Oxford certainly […]
Do you think the worst of covid 19 is behind us, or is the worst yet to come? VOTE in our Poll below and leave your comments here and on social media.
As The Guardian UK runs a whole series on being childfree, I wonder where they’ve put all the articles that make the case for having kids. Of course there are many reasons for choosing not to have a baby, but somehow we live in a world where that opinion seems more educated and high-minded than the choice to […]
Saturday’s arson attack on the Cathedral at Nantes whose construction began in the 15th century has taken place amid an escalating series of anti Christian violence and desecration. A person has been arrested but it is too early to attribute any definite motive. No-one was arrested or charged following the April 2019 burning of Notre […]
A fun little story from the weekend that’s too good not to write about. Every Saturday, the Irish Times publishes a relationship advice column, where readers send in letters detailing the difficulties they face in navigating romantic relationships in the modern era. In fairness to the paper, it’s a great read, with previous highlights including […]
Actor John Connors has issued a major apology for leading what he describes as a “homophobic crusade” against Children’s Minister Roderic O’Gorman. Mr. Connors was the most prominent speaker at the so-called “hands off our kids” rally which attracted around a thousand people to Dublin last weekend in the aftermath of online reporting about the […]
Dubbed “deaths of despair”, opioid deaths are a significant reason why the life expectancy of Americans is falling. In 2017, the rate of drug overdose deaths (21.7 per 100,000) had increased to 3.6 times the rate in 1999. The demographic of America’s opioid epidemic is non-Hispanic white Americans, Native Americans and the working class, and […]
India is about to overtake China as the world’s most populous country (if it hasn’t already done so). With around 1.4 billion people and a population density of nearly 400 people per kilometre, one often associates population explosion with Indian demographics. Indeed, the sight of India in the 1960s was one of the major influences […]