The death of Stephen Hawking was, above all, a tragic loss for his immediate family and closest friends. The world of physics, and science in general, will also be much the poorer without him. Whereas none of us, common mortals,… Continue Reading
Michel Houellebecq’s controversial novel, “Submission”, published in 2015, received a mixed reception from both the press and politicians. Not surprisingly, Marine Le Pen, leader of the right-winged “Front National”, described the work as, “fiction that one day could become reality.” Michel Houellebecq’s… Continue Reading
photograph © Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons) The latest OECD report, focussing on the work-leisure balance – so important in stopping each one of us from giving up on life – puts the Dutch at the top of… Continue Reading
Jean Monnet, one of the fathers of the Union, had a vision of a unified Europe, probably a federal one. For Monnet, Europe was an ongoing process, a “work in progress”, aiming to create the best possible future for our… Continue Reading
I wasn’t planning on writing anything else on the subject, so quickly, until I received a few comments, pointing out that I had made a terrible mistake, making me (for some) unworthy to write anything on the subject of transgender… Continue Reading
Erratum – I have been correctly told – “correctly”, because that’s the way it is (is it the way it should be?) – that the word “transgender” without the term “person”, should not be used. It is deemed to be… Continue Reading
David Cameron’s latest inept remarks about the seriousness of Brexit, remind me of a schoolboy’s minimization of the importance of the bad mark he just obtained in history, thinking that the subject is not important. A former UK prime minister,… Continue Reading
How much would you be willing to pay for the privilege to be able to open your mouth, and air your opinions? One Euro a day, or ten? Do you have a price limit, beyond which, it’s not worth the… Continue Reading
I recently wrote a post on “The Neon Demon”, a 2016 horror film that I watched on my movie pay-channel. My main thought was that Nicolas Refn, who directed the film, had cast the female characters with such masculine bias, that… Continue Reading
Photo: Wikipedia Commoms As always, around this time of year, the arrival on our shores, of Saint-Nicholas, with his band of merry Zwarte Piet’s (Black Peter’s), causes a few people to question the appropriateness of it all. They’re not… Continue Reading