And the media wonder why they are so distrusted: The Orlando Sentinel continually describes Terri Schiavo’s medical condition as “brain dead.” This is clearly wrong. Brain dead is a popular term for death by neurological criteria and it means that the whole brain and every . . . . Continue Reading »
We have seen much wailing and gnashing of teeth in recent years by the usual suspects who repeatedly have insisted that the USA is falling behind in science due to President Bush’s stem cell funding policy and the supposed anti-intellectualism that they claim permeates society because many . . . . Continue Reading »
Jonah Goldberg writes in the Los Angeles Times — reproduced on Real Clear Politics —about how Dianne Feinstein improved the Senate lunch room by putting it under private management. Here’s an excerpt: According to auditors, the chain of restaurants run by the Senate food service, . . . . Continue Reading »
A Frenchman who suffered a severe heart attack has apparently spontaneously awakened after 1 1/2 hours without a normal heartbeat (but mechanical heart message). From the story: A man whose heart had stopped beating woke up just as surgeons were about to remove his organs for donation, it was . . . . Continue Reading »
A portion of what we do at First Things is the Catholic thing, but obviously it’s also the Protestant thing, the Jewish thing, and the Islamic thing, too. But a new web-zine has just been launched focusing on—and appropriately titled— The Catholic Thing . You’ve probably . . . . Continue Reading »
A Swiss Court has banned the use of the macaque monkey in brain experiments. From the Nature story (no link):Zurich’s two largest institutes are appealing to the country’s supreme court after a lower court decided to ban two primate experiments studying how the brain adapts to change. . . . . Continue Reading »
Not all readers send in chipmunk jokes. Today another told me that the Spring 2000 issue of the Intercollegiate Review had a series of articles devoted to Whit Stillman’s movies. I think these were later collected into a book by Mark Henrie, the editor of IR, called Doomed Bourgeois in Love: . . . . Continue Reading »
A reader sent this along: THIS MAY COME AS A SURPRISE TO THOSE OF YOU NOT LIVING IN LAS VEGAS, BUT THERE ARE MORE CATHOLIC CHURCHES THAN CASINOS. NOT SURPRISINGLY, SOME WORSHIPERS AT SUNDAY SERVICES WILL GIVE CASINO CHIPS RATHER THAN CASH WHEN THE BASKET IS PASSED. SINCE THEY GET CHIPS FROM MANY . . . . Continue Reading »
From Leah Garchik’s “Public Eavesdropping” feature in the San Francisco Chronicle: “I don’t have a dad, I have a donor.”—One boy to another—do donor’s get ties on Father’s Day?—overheard in a kindergarten class by T. A. Francis.Worse . . . . Continue Reading »
A while ago a friend recommended Whit Stillman’s movie Metropolitan to me, and I figured that, as a young person who had intellectual conversations with groups of friends in New York, I would find it especially resonant with my life in the city. The young people I’ve met in New York are . . . . Continue Reading »
Subscribe
Latest Issue
Support First Things
