Miscellaneous

Satire has long been a tradition in many European countries. Historians describe caricature drawings of King Louis XVI of France having an impact on the French population on the eve of the French Revolution. Since large parts of the population were illiterate, caricatures were easier to grasp than the written word in leaflets as a means to raise awareness of ... Read More »

“Gravity as a theory is false. Objects simply fall.” You can find this answer to the question “What is Gravity?” on the website of the Flat Earth Society. This is, as the name says, a group of people promoting the concept of an earth shaped like a pizza – and the internet is full of groups like this one. If ... Read More »

For over sixty years the Eurovision Song Contest has brought Europe together for an extravagant celebration of its cultural diversity and shared identity. It remains the most watched television broadcasting in all of Europe with over 100 million viewers in more than 40 countries. Despite this, the contest has also faced numerous challenges. The event often turns political, as exemplified ... Read More »

In his 1976 bestseller, The Selfish Gene, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme”, ascribing it to any idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. In October 1994, Mike Goodwin applied this notion to the new phenomenon of the Internet in an article written for the magazine Wired. The term has since been ... Read More »

Katrina, Wilma, Irma and Sandy, the list goes on and on… No, these are not the latest victims of sexual harassment by Harvey Weinstein. On the contrary, these women themselves have wrecked some of the greatest havoc in the last couple of decades, as they were among the most destructive hurricanes in human history. Is it a coincidence that they ... Read More »

There it is again. You read something you are profoundly disagreeing with on Facebook. Maybe it is an incorrect statement from a politician. Maybe it is a ridiculously wrong post about vaccination effects from your aunt. Maybe it is a misinformed statement from your friend about an article on the economic situation in Nicaragua. You detect that it is wrong ... Read More »

“The cannabis drugs commonly used in India are derived from the flowers, leaves (and the resinous matter derived therefrom), fruit, young twigs and bark of the stem of the plant Cannabis sativa Linn. of the family Cannabinaceae.” – United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Medical cannabis, called ‘bhang’ in Indian, has never been outlawed in India. As such, it is ... Read More »

This won’t be an article to convince you why we should battle climate change. Its effects are undeniable: there have been thousands of articles, essays and researches, both scientific and popular, and any thinking person knows that steps have to be taken to preserve our planet. Instead, this will be an article to look for how we should battle climate ... Read More »

In American political rhetoric, the oft-repeated phrase “reaching across the aisle” refers to the bipartisan cooperation, a nod to the physical separation in Congress between the members of the two major political parties, and the political terms “left-wing” and “right-wing” have their origins in the seating arrangements of the National Assembly during the French Revolution of 1789. The relationship between architecture ... Read More »