Brigitte Bardot makes again headlines in her fight to put animals above people. Her fascist past notwithstanding, this is a good opportunity to take a look at the animal rights movement. Read more »

We'll be presenting poetry regularly on this blog and we'll try to do this every Monday. The poets will most often be foreign (i.e., non-English) and hopefully a surprise for the reader. Read more »

The wide discovery and acceptance of the existence of extremophiles of the last decade is opening the gate for a wider acceptance of the idea that life can travel through cosmos and can be found on other planets, in conditions we previously thought inhospitable and not conducive to life. Read more »

It is extremely difficult to pay your respects to an author whose book you haven't read. None of us has read catcher in the rye. We lived it. Read more »

I’m supposed to do some work, but my thoughts are jumping around the world. The weather outside is frightful: after an Easter week-end with temperatures of 10 C and over, today we’re close to 0, it’s snowing and the wind is pushing the window toward me. And I’m thinking of a woman. Maybe more.. Read more »

The world is full of rules. First, there were the 10 commandments (we're purposely ignoring the ethical Greeks and others before them). Bill Maher ends his show with "new rules". APA and MLA have their own citations rules. There's a guy who even wrote Rules for life, work, management. Before we delve in any of those, we need to follow a few basic rules of writing. Read more »

Whenever there is a debate between theists and atheists, we expect theists to cower in defeat and atheists to emerge victorious (it may be different if you’re a religious person). But often times, the theists produce more persuasive arguments and it is atheists who cling to their “you can’t convince me” mantra in spite of all rational argumentation. Read more »

One of the amazing lectures thrown at us by TVO's Big Ideas is Prof Peterson's lecture on Reality and the Sacred. Truly amazing.. Read more »

As with all great educators, Professor Peterson is not only a deep repository of knowledge, but also a rather quirky entertainer. Watching his lectures, one cannot help wondering when and how did his quirks arise.. We continue with our notes from his latest lecture to make it in TVO’s Big Ideas. Read more »

To offer a synthetic view of world myths might be an even more daunting task than to do the same with the world religions. Yet our hero has managed to do just that. We take a quick look at his legacy. Read more »

There's a lot to say on this subject, but for the moment, I would rather mention only the recent CTV documentary "The Decline in Civility". Read more »

One of the outcomes of the previously mentioned Space Jam is getting to know a number of poems I didn't know. I shall list and discuss them here. Read more »

If by Rudyard Kipling was one of my favourite poems in my childhood. Since then, my views have changed. It seems that the story behind the poem is not all that compelling. Read more »

With the Oscars approaching, we decided to make a list of the movies nominated, including their IMDB ratings and Amazon links. Read more »

Understanding religion is tough even for those who were lucky enough to receive a non-abusive education. Navigating the numerous inadequacies and misunderstandings that surround this subject is a multidisciplinary endeavour, involving psychology, history, economics and to a certain extent, religion. Read more »

A very recent debate hosted by TVO reminded me of Fukuyama’s famous essay. The plan is to summarize it and eventually discuss it. Read more »