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Joe HumphreysThe Irish Times |
The device on which you may be reading this owes its existence to an experiment roughly 55 years ago. A team of university researchers, with some...
It’s hard to make a TV ad that is funny while also communicating an important public service message. So well done the Electoral Commission on its...
This column prides itself on taking you to places where others fear to venture. Today we plumb new depths, literally, as we go down the toilet....
It seems a little perverse to be celebrating International Men’s Day next week. American voters have again rejected a woman candidate for president...
Irish people are cute with their money. Unlike in the United States, it’s not the done thing here to flaunt your wealth – but clearly some...
Have you ever gotten yourself into an argument with someone because the issue at stake is just theoretical to you whereas it’s very personal to...
Democracy has evolved over the last 300 years to give more people representation in decision-making. Excluded populations — including women,...
It has become clear the US presidential election is an unfair contest. This has nothing to do with campaign finances, media bias or judicial...
There are few places where you can be in the company of strangers for a while without someone glancing at a smartphone. Fewer still where you can sit...
You rarely hear the term “Judeo-Christian values” these days, but in the decades immediately after the second World War it was widely used as...
Recent surveys indicate a rise in “news avoidance”. The latest Reuters Institute poll found four in 10 people worldwide said they sometimes or...
The first Monday of September sees people return in their droves to workplaces. For many of us this means just one thing: getting on to airline...
Frank Lampard has won three Premier League titles, a Uefa Champions League and amassed more than 100 caps for his country, but the England footballer...
The priesthood in Ireland is dwindling fast but Tommy Tiernan believes there’s still a market for monks. “It should be an option for young fellas...
New technology muscles into your life whether you like it or not – and in future perhaps also into your death. It is not fanciful to imagine in a...
“Trump supporters call for revolution after guilty verdict” ran the news headline as backers of the 45th United States president voiced their...
When my mother was born in 1938, there were about 70 states in the world. Now there are 193 recognised by the United Nations, with Palestine in the...
The best treatment for anxiety is probably something most of us loathe to do: live in the present. “If we could stop caring about our future and...
Moralising about procreation used to be the Catholic Church’s thing. But nowadays it is the preserve of anti-immigrant fearmongers and...
Absence of proof is not proof of absence, theologians like to say. What applies to the existence of God also pertains to historical fact. We know...
No offence to Fine Gael’s new leader but Simon Harris: The Movie is unlikely to be made. Ryan Gosling’s phone will never ring with the offer to...
Overwhelmed by the world’s problems? You’re not alone. There is so much structural injustice – inequality, exploitation and prejudice – it’s...
A few years ago a satirical online site was created to churn out formulaic expressions of Irish cynicism. It was called “Random TheJournal.ie...
How do you feel about the death of Alexei Navalny? Sad? Of course. Shame? “Definitely. He puts us to shame,” replies Irish-American academic...
Nostalgia is big business. The Netflix series One Day has underlined that point, jumping to the top of TV streaming charts in the past month. The...
A famous thought experiment in philosophy is “the trolley problem”. Imagine you saw a tram about to crash into five people and you could save...
As dystopian images of the future go, it doesn’t get much better than a bloke interacting with a virtual reality headset while driving a bulletproof...
Petrol stations will be abuzz this week with romantics procuring flowers, chocolates and saucy greeting cards after filling up the tank. Whatever this...
You know it’s referendum season because a familiar cry goes up from certain two-legged animals. Like the mating call of the cuckoo, which signals...
You know it’s referendum season because a familiar cry goes up from certain two-legged animals. Like the mating call of the cuckoo, which signals...
Giving advice is a delicate balancing act. It’s a thin line between sharing useful information and being plain annoying. I should know, having been...
First the re-branders came for Lansdowne Road, then they came for Páirc Uí Chaoimh. What next? AAA Funeral Homes Croak It Park? Is nothing sacred,...
The resignation earlier this month of Claudine Gay as Harvard University’s first black president was welcomed with glee by conservatives in the...
January is a big month for the self-help industry, a business valued at €40 billion by Forbes a couple of years ago and now said to be a multiple of...
New Year’s resolutions can be hard work. Join a gym? Change jobs? Travel the world? It is exhausting just thinking of the options. To make matters...
An Irish philosopher and cage fighter has an important message for young men. No, it’s not Conor McGregor, though The Notorious might fancy himself...
It is ironic that a law designed to combat hate speech has attracted so much vitriol. The Criminal Justice (Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate...
It has become a scientific orthodoxy that we live in a pointless universe. Whatever about the prospect of flourishing during our time on Earth, once...
Belief has waned in a lot of things in recent years: Christianity, table manners, the Republic of Ireland’s men’s football team. But one type of...