The Dry is about drinking, and staying sober while putting up with family, ex-lovers, the past and the present with all its rituals and events where everybody drinksPeter Rowen/Courtesy of CBC Gem

George Bernard Shaw said this of his native Ireland: Your wits cant thicken in that soft moist air, on those white springy roads, in those misty rushes and brown bogs, on those hillsides of granite rocks and magenta heather.

Right, well, thats a nice poetic passage and it goes on for a bit longer, but the issue in Ireland isnt just the soft, moist air. Its the tolerance of drinking; the copious social and personal drinking that leads to what they call, the craic, the fun and revelry. If the craic is good, everythings grand, until it isnt, for some people.

The Dry (streams CBC Gem) is about drinking, and staying sober while putting up with family, ex-lovers, the past and the present with all its rituals and events where everybody drinks. The series arrives here with outstanding reviews. Masterful, wrote reviewer Chitra Ramaswamy in The Guardian, and sharply observed and superb wrote Joe Clay in The Times. Yes, its very, very good; wryly comical, sometimes dark and often bitingly funny. From the same team that adapted Normal People, it has that shows alertness to dysfunctional family awkwardness, with dashes of the absurdity found in Derry Girls.

Catch up on the best streaming TV of 2021 with our holiday guide

Its about Shiv (Roisin Gallagher) and we meet her as she arrives back in Dublin from London following the death of her grandmother. At the airport she waits in vain for a family member to collect her. And, while having coffee, she sees a nearby man consume a pint of Guinness, and then start on a second pint. Are you okay? she asks the man. His astonished reply is, What? To which she observes, Youre drinking at nine in the morning! His conclusion is that shes a religious nut and its an outrage that a man cant enjoy a pint at the airport without being bothered by such people.

Shiv is 35 years old, six months sober and hanging on. At her parents home, theres a wake for her granny. The corpse is in the living room and theres a lot of fuss and acid remarks being thrown around. Her dad, Tom (Ciaran Hinds, who is wonderful), is wondering if he can have a drink at the wake, or would that upset Shiv? His wife, Bernie (Pom Boyd), shrugs and says, We can put up with her for one weekend, cant we? Just dont get pissed.

Its just that Shiv is actually broke, out of work and planning to move back and live with her parents. That means putting up with her no-nonsense sister, Caroline (Siobhan Cullen), a doctor who heaps corn on any belief that isnt scientific, and her brother, Ant (Adam John Richardson). Ant is gay, lives in the garden shed and obliges his parents to put up with an endless stream of lovers who come and go.

Siobhn Cullen plays Caroline in The Dry.Peter Rowen/Courtesy of CBC Gem

Everyone has some secrets here but there is no melodrama about that. The sheer vitality of the series eight half-hour episodes, two available now is rooted in the talk and glancing social exchanges. Everyone talks using expletives and everyone exists in the Irish world of winks and nods, the truth about things existing plainly but not necessarily mentioned. The humour is what makes it gel as absurd but relatable comedy-drama. One gloriously jolting scene has Shiv encounter her old teacher from school at a posh recovery meeting in the Dublin suburbs. The retired teacher has a scathing assessment of Shiv and you dont know whether to laugh or have sympathy for these two characters.

Written by playwright Nancy Harris, The Dry is both deliberately unsettling and highly entertaining. Its one of those series that exists thanks to streaming services it was originally created for BritBox being an unconventional, prickly take on sobriety and its difficulties in a culture that wont necessarily cheer you on toward staying sober. Like Single Drunk Female (streams Disney+), it has a humorous approach that doesnt deny the despair in alcoholism but doesnt preach, either. Its breezily cold-hearted about everyone surrounding the central character, but it feels authentically funny and wise.

With the singing, the drinking, the jokes and the touches of self-loathing, this unusual little series isnt for the faint-hearted. But theres sobering poetry in its soul, without being Shavian and long-winded about it.

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The Dry: Wry and captivating about the Irish and drinking - The Globe and Mail

Ive just noticed that the Episcopal Church observes today, the 13th of June, as a feast, of sorts, for Gilbert Keith Chesterton.

He is perhaps best known as G. K. Chesterton. According to Wikipedia his friendly enemy George Bernard Shaw spoke of Chesterton as a man of colossal genius. And a public intellectual of his time and place.

Chesterton was a wit and a controversialist. He was a both a literary and social critic. he turned his hand to history, he wrote plays, and short stories and novels, the most famous and abiding is the Man Who Was Thursday.

He certainly was not all light and sweetness. Among his less endearing traits was his genteel anti-semitism which often marred his writings and observations. Although it should be noted he rejected the term throughout his life, even as he was followed by the accusations all the way. (Ive been thinking a lot about genteel antisemitism of late, and what a nasty worm it is. But, thats for another reflection.) Chesterton was many things. This was a nasty part, but a part.

The man certainly could write. And I read several of his spiritual books. Me, I liked his spiritual biographies of Francis and Thomas Aquinas a lot. I didnt particularly care for Orthodoxy, although many I know think it his best work.

Of his writings I enjoyed his Father Brown stories most, and most of all the various adaptations of the snooping priest. Which Ive found often better than the originals. As I think he is less and less read, it is beginning to look like the various adaptations of his Father Brown stories are going to be his half life. Of course, one never knows for sure about such things

Chestertons spiritual journey took him from a non-practicing Unitarianism in his childhood, to Anglicanism to Anglo Catholicism and eventually he crossed the Tiber to Rome. While he is said to have eschewed both right and left,The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected. He always seemed pretty conservative to me. In fact I think of him less as conservative and more as reactionary. An eloquent get-off-my lawn sort, waving a really nice and expensive walking stick

Most of all, I like the fact the Episcopal church, despite his eventual apostasy, honors their wayward son in their calendar

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Thinking of G K Chesterton, and of course, of Father Brown - Patheos

June 10, 2022 - From renowned authors to thrilling narratives and illustrious actors and producers, there are certain masterpieces that reveal something essential about the crescent-shaped country of Europe. Croatia, a country overflowing with culture and a home to many creative souls, has faced richly deserved appreciation from various cultural works. These people and narratives have become integral to the countrys identity, demonstrating the way it is perceived through the eyes of foreigners. A look at the art that defines Croatia.

Croatia has revealed itself to be a nation forged in war, emerging precisely in 1991 as an independent country. The centuries of unrest at the outer edges of earlier empires, as well as a devastating civil war when Titos Yugoslavia collapsed, had soon formed one of the most dynamic and creative countries in Europe; showcasing brilliancy to any tourist deciding to visit.

Starting from some of the distinguished books set in Croatia that depict the countrys enigmatic history, many will divulge in the Black Lamb and Grey Falcon; A journey through Yugoslavia written and published by Rebecca West. While those searching for a light-hearted novella might be lured into Two Tickets to Dubrovnik by Angus Kennedy as he depicts the areas history and draws up a beautiful setting of the city.

Moreover, not only are their books set in the celebrated central European and Mediterranean country but there are also authors who have shared their views on Croatias mesmerising landscapes. The great walled city of Dubrovnik, a popular tourist destination situated on the southern Adriatic coast, is famously known to be the pearl of the Adriatic as its picturesque views stun the most renowned poets of the world. This description from Lord Byron in the nineteenth century one of the greatest Romantic poets in English Literature has become unnoticed by numerous tourists that visit Dubrovnik every year.

Additionally, George Bernard Shaw, an Irish playwright who has been awarded both a Nobel Prize in Literature and an Academy Award, shared his sentiments on the citys sheer magnificence. Upon his visit to Dubrovnik in 1929 he revealed: If you want to see Heaven on Earth, come to Dubrovnik.

And of course, you know that it is no secret that Game of Thrones was set in Dubrovnik as its primary filming location, but were you aware that the country itself has been continuously producing fascinating talents within the movie industry? Some of these surprising actors and producers include John Malkovich who has received Academy Award Nominations for his distinguished performances and Goran Vinji a Croatian American actor making an appearance in both American and British films and television productions.

For many, Croatia is the entrance to the New World, and the countrys distinct personality has been shaped by generations of shocking talents who have passed through or lived in the country. Its nation conveys incredible nature, astonishing history, and generations of artists who celebrate the beauty of such land. So, it seems that no aspect of the culture-rich country of Croatia has gone unexplored by authors or even filmmakers making it a sight worth seeing!

For more, make sure to check out our dedicatedlifestyle section.

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The Art that Defines Croatia: From Lord Byron to Game of Thrones - Total Croatia News

Gingold Theatrical Group has announced that online patrons will be able to purchase and stream the company's recent off-Broadway revival of George Bernard Shaw's Mrs. Warren's Profession. The stream will be available June 21-27 on Broadway On Demand. Tickets are $25 and are available for pre-order now.

Scandalous when it first appeared at the dawn of the 20th century, Mrs. Warren's Profession tells the story of a working-class woman who has elbowed her way into the upper crust by establishing a chain of very successful brothels. Tony winner Karen Ziemba starred in the title role when Gingold revived the play off-Broadway in 2021.

"Karen Ziemba brilliantly embodies the bare-knuckled practicality of Kitty Warren, who bucks the same system that she eventually becomes a part of," writes Pete Hempstead in his review for TheaterMania.

In addition to Ziemba, the production starred Robert Cuccioli, David Lee Huynh, Alvin Keith, Nicole King, and Raphael Nash Thompson. Gingold artistic director David Staller helmed the production.

Click here to buy streaming tickets to Mrs. Warren's Profession.

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Off-Broadway Revival of Mrs. Warren's Profession to Stream Online - TheaterMania.com

Ann Learys first book was An Innocent, A Broad in 2004 about the (mostly) comic travails she and her husband Denis Leary endured when a short trip to London ended up lasting five months, while Leary was pregnant with their first child.

Since then Leary has published five novels, which tend to be about family, small communities, interesting work opportunities and romance. Her 2012 bestseller, The Good House, has been made into a movie starring Sigourney Weaver and Kevin Kline that will screen this month at the Tribeca Film Festival and in cinemas this fall.

Ann Learys latest novel, The Foundling (Marysue Rucci Books, 2022), is the vivid, often alarming, tale of a young woman named Mary who works at the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age in the 1920s. The asylum is fictional but based on one Learys grandmother worked at. The novel is the result of years of research into mental health treatments in the early 20th century. The book also touches on racism and sexism in that era, and the controversial eugenics movement, whose goal was to eliminate undesirable genetic traits in the humans through selective breeding.

Ann Leary is signing and discussing The Foundling at four different places in Connecticut in the next couple of weeks: Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Elm Street Books in New Canaan, Friday at 7 p.m. at the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Saturday at 3 p.m. at The Hickory Stick Bookshop in Washington Depot, and June 28 at 7 p.m. at Athena Books in Old Greenwich.

The Mark Twain House and Hickory Stick appearances will also feature Learys husband, the creator and star of the TV series Rescue Me, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll and The Job, who is also a noted comedian and movie actor.

The Courant spoke to Ann Leary, who recently moved to Westchester County in New York after living in Litchfield County for 20 years, about Connecticut, the dark side of the 1920s and how a book discussion with Denis Leary might go.

Do you and your husband have a plan for what youll do at the Mark Twain House?

No! Denis tweeted the cutest thing: For the first time ever I am able to interview Ann Leary. We havent really talked about it. What can he ask me that he doesnt know? But Denis has always been the biggest fan of my books. This book, in particular, he loved the first draft. He has produced multiple series, and hes always seen this book becoming perhaps a limited series for television. Ive decided my husband knows what hes doing, and I want him to produce this adaptation. So hes not only interviewing me because he knows the book, but hes also very much involved in the future of this book. Maybe well talk about that a little bit.

How long have you been together?

I met Denis in 1982. Weve been living together ever since then. I moved to Boston in 82. I was at Bennington College for a few years, then I transferred to Emerson in Boston and I met Denis, who was teaching this comedy writing workshop. I took the class and it was really fun. Denis was 25, I was 20. When the semester was over, we went out and had a beer. We started kind of seeing each other and then one night he stayed over and he never left.

The Foundling is new territory for you. Youve done multi-generational novels but not a historical novel.

I really enjoyed it, actually, because Ive always loved research and history, especially American history, and my favorite era has always been the 1920s. Id always thought of it as this decadent, flapper, devil-may-care Zelda Fitzgerald time. I thought it was when restrictions on women were loosened and morals were loosened, and they were. If you were wealthy in the 1920s and you were a woman, you get drunk even though there was prohibition. You could have sex outside of marriage. If you were not rich, doing those exact same behaviors made you a menace to society and you would likely be institutionalized. It [was] very much a class thing.

Ann Leary's new novel "The Foundling," set in an asylum for women in the 1920s. (Marysue Rucci Books)

You write a lot about subcultures, including a work culture in this one.

The book is a novel, its actually fiction though its loosely based on my grandmother. The Foundling is about two young women who grew up in the same orphanage in Scranton, Pennsylvania and met up years later at a different kind of institution. Mary was a secretary to the very charismatic female doctor who ran the place, and Lilian was what they called one of the inmates, who was confined there against her will. It turns out that it was a eugenics asylum, where the purpose was to confine women of child-bearing age from having children because they were feebleminded. In those days, feebleminded was not a slur, it was a clinical term.

I found there also women in these asylums who were, and again this is the clinical term, degenerate women. They were morally feebleminded. They were bad girls or and I found this very dismaying they might be a 13-year-old who accused her stepfather of molesting her or a woman whose husband was sick of her, and in those days it was hard to get a divorce. You could easily end up in an asylum like this, and the of child-bearing age part of it is actually more offensive than the feebleminded part of the title because if you went there, if you were 12 or 25, didnt matter, you didnt get to leave until you were in menopause. You werent sent there to get schooling, to get help, you were sent there to prevent you from having children.

You use words like dullwitted and befuddled and other offensive words, but they come out of the characters.

That was a real challenge. By the time I came down to writing it, it was just this jargon I was used to. So yeah, a doctor, head of a world-renowned institution for supposed intellectual disabilities, could refer to how many idiots they had versus imbeciles or morons. Also, the racism is so overt. There were no dog whistles. I was shocked by the newspaper headlines, the words used. The horrible racism, anti-semitism, the outright sexism of that time was shocking.

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So then when I was writing, getting early feedback, especially from young editorial assistants saying, This isnt OK. Why isnt Mary fighting it? Why didnt she leave? I realized I needed an authors note at the beginning of the book because people seemed to think from the early drafts that the eugenics movement was a hate group, and it wasnt. It was the law, an ideology of race held by everyone from Theodore Roosevelt to Winston Churchill to George Bernard Shaw, Alexander Graham Bell, Margaret Sanger. Many people embraced eugenics. So I had to write that into the narrative, and it was hard because I wanted people to not hate Mary. I didnt want to make her a woman of today because women in those days werent as they are today. They didnt have the full rights of citizens. They had the right to vote in the 1920s, but very few of the other rights men had.like this.

I did love writing this book. I hope people can put it in context with the time. I really cant stand anachronistic writing. I had to make the characters be people of that time, and then within those confines somehow enact change if they were able.

Christopher Arnott can be reached at carnott@courant.com.

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Ann Leary discusses her new novel, her Connecticut book tour and working with husband, actor and comedian Denis Leary - Hartford Courant

Starring in his first big blockbuster role, Mamoudou Athie is one of the newest additions to the beloved Jurassic World franchise. Having made waves with his performance in the Netflix series Archive 81, Athie has now dove into the world of toothy dinosaurs in Colin Trevorrows final entry in the pre-historic series Jurassic World Dominion.

Following on from the events of Fallen Kingdom, Jurassic World Dominion tells the story of a new age of human and dinosaur cohabitation. The adventure movie is action-packed and directly taps into Steven Spielbergs original Jurassic Park movies bringing in legacy actors Sam Neill, Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum for a brand new adventure.

Athie plays the role of Ramsay Cole, the head of communications at Biosyn. In our interview with the Emmy nominated star, we discuss how he skipped the traditional audition process to land his role in Dominion and break down what the experience of working on his first multi-million dollar blockbuster was really like.

The Digital Fix: Jurassic Park has been going on since the 90s, and so many people love it. How do you prepare for coming into such an iconic franchise?

Mamoudou Athie: Oh, you know what? Im so sorry, but honestly, I did it the same way I do everything else (laughs). I really am just like, Heres the script. I got the director here; were going to chat a lot. I want to work on this the same way as I do everything else.

And then the rest of it was like learning on the job because there are certain things that were brand new to me. But yeah, honestly, its always kind of the same process.

Your character has quite a few scenes with the legacy actors from the original Jurassic Park movies. You mentioned how there were things that you havent done before in this film. Did you get any advice from them?

Oh, you know what? Because my first scene was with Sam [Neill] and Laura [Dern] and that Ive been saying this a lot, but I really dont get starstruck. I dont care, typically. But those two, I mean, not only do I admire their work, but because Id seen them in those parts, and it made such an impression on me as a kid, I was nervous. And you could tell (laughs). You could tell.

So they kind of helped me relax. And they were just really generous and supportive. So in that sense, it wasnt specific advice to try like this or anything. It was more just like, Hey, you know, were just hanging out here. And, Lets go. Yes. Great.

I read somewhere that you didnt go through the typical audition process to get your role.

Oh yeah, I know!

Can you tell me how you got cast as Ramsay, and what attracted you to the character?

A phone call and then a meeting with Colin. We just had lobster rolls in Malibu. (laughs)We just chatted for three hours about video games and all kinds of stuff. And eventually, crazily, I got a call saying, he wanted to offer me the part.

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Which I was like, This is, this is the job that I get the offer for? (laughs) This is bizarre beyond belief. But also, what a gift. Yeah, what was the second part of your question?

What attracted you to the character? What made you say yes to Colins offer?

Oh, thank you, yes. You know, its rare that you get the script these days for these kinds of movies. So I didnt get the script until after Id said yes. But Colin had described the character to me. And I was like, Oh, that sounds great.

You know, hed seen this movie that I was in, The Front Runner. And there were certain elements of that character that he enjoyed, but also we wanted to make [Ramsay], you know, a new guy.

So yeah, we kind of just worked on it while were making the movie to make it kind of the person you saw. Hes certainly more comedic than initially written.

So Jurassic World Dominion is set to be the last one in the trilogy

Yeah.

But producer Frank Marshall said that hes open to making more movies. Is it possible, if that does happen, that we will see Ramsay return? He plays such a big role in this film.

Oh, yeah! I mean, anythings possible. You know? Who knows? But its hard for me to speculate on when, how, who, and what, you know? But Im always open. Yeah. Itd be cool.

Following on from that, would you be open to doing more big blockbusters then?

Sure! Yeah, as long as there are cool people absolutely! Yeah. Colin is great to work with. [Jurassic World Dominion] was really just like a lot of fun. And it was like a healthy set. Thats really whats important to me these days.

Yeah, how was Colin directing you? Especially with scenes where there are dinosaurs. Because obviously, sometimes those creatures arent physically there.

I didnt have that many scenes with them, though.

Ah, without giving too many spoilers, at the end, you did.

(laughs) Yes, you are right, in the end I did. Actually, there was this one moment, Colin did call me aside because I looked very excited to be on a Jurassic World set. So I was like, Oh!, and he was like, Hey, man. Hey, hey, this dude looks really happy to be in Jurassic World. (laughs) Thats hilarious. I hope he shows somebody that footage; it is ridiculous.

But yeah, no (laughs). I mean, its really just about, again, precision and just knowing exactly where to look and where to stop and how to interact. And then the rest of its your imagination.

Besides Colin pulling you aside, were there any other onset moments that, looking back, were really fun to film? Any you are going to remember fondly going forward?

[laughs] Im censoring myself. Yeah, I mean, like, especially when were all on set. I mean, it was a crazy couple of days because the election was going on in the States, and we were watching what was going on with that. But then were also having this crazy time where we are like, looking at this imaginary T-Rex and Giganotosaurus (laughs).

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And then we end up in this helicopter, and then Jeff [Goldblum] ends up reciting this poem from George Bernard Shaw thats so beautiful. That scene is actually filmed by the BTS team so that everybody can actually see it was really cool.

Its just like this very impromptu beautiful moment. Those days kind of as a swirl were like really some of my favourites

Jurassic World Dominion hits theatres on June 10, 2022.

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Mamoudou Athie reveals how he was cast in Jurassic World Dominion - The Digital Fix

Google management send on paid leave the engineer Blake Lemoine, who worked with the artificial intelligence (AI) LaMDA system and said that it began to show signs of robot consciousness. The company said that the program is not reasonable.

The LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) system is a Google language model; they design it to communicate with a person. The learning platform expands its vocabulary through the Internet and mimics natural human speech. Lemoines task was to control the vocabulary of the machine; LaMDA should not allow itself discriminatory statements, rude or hateful expressions.

However, when talking with artificial intelligence on a religious topic, the 41-year-old engineer, who studied computer science and cognitive science (the psychology of thinking) in college, noticed that the chatbot started talking about its rights and its own personality. In one of the dialogues, the machine was so convincing that Lemoine changed his mind about the third law of robotics by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.

If I didnt know exactly what it was, which is this computer program we built recently, Id think it was a seven-year-old, eight-year-old kid that happens to know physics, the engineer told Washington Post reporters. He reached out to his management, but Google VP and head of innovation examined his suspicions and dismissed them. Sent on paid leave Blake Lemoine decided to make the incident public.

Also, Google spokesperson Brad Gabriel said: Our team, including ethicists and technologists; has reviewed Blakes concerns per our AI principles and have informed him that the evidence does not support his claims. There was no evidence that LaMDA was sentient (and lots of evidence against it). However, we will keep tracking the evolution of this case; and keep you informed as soon as we get new information.

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Google employee suspended after saying that AI has become conscious - Gizchina.com

Image: Alfred Russel Wallace, attributed to John William Beaufort (1864-1943) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Richard DawkinssThe Blind Watchmakerbegins with the grand claim that our own existence once presented the greatest of all mysteries, but it is a mystery no longer because it is solved, Darwin and Wallace solved it. Leaving to one side the fact that this statement is a prime example of what writer and satirist Tom Wolfe has dubbed the temptation to cosmogonism the compulsion to find the ever-elusive Theory of Everything.1The statement is, at best, only half true. For Alfred Russel Wallace as early as the mid 1860s had parted company with Charles Darwin on the subject of the human mind, with its staggering complexity and unique language facility. For him, on more mature reflection, no simple ape-to-human progression was any longer tenable and he could no longer assent to the ontological equivalence of humans and nonhuman animals proposed by Darwin and later subjected to areductio ad absurdumby the philosopher Peter Singer, best known for hisAnimal Liberation(1975) and for his (seriously proposed) advocacy for a normalization of sexual relations between humans and animals.

Wallace had given much thought to his change of heart. Marvelously free of any racist prejudice even at the height of the colonial era, he had noted in his more than a decade of fieldwork in far-flung locations of the globe that primitive tribes were intellectually the equals of Europeans, even if not (yet) their equals at the technological level. Savages were, however, required to operate only in the context of simple activities where their great brainpower was redundant given the simplicities of their daily rounds. So, what was the point of their great mental powers and, more importantly, how had it evolved? After all, natural selection would not have been called on to enable them to perform cognitively challenging tasks for which there was presently no need. By extension, what was the survival value of musical and mathematical abilities for Europeans? These were patently not brute survival skills. How could they have been promoted by natural selection which favors only immediate utility since, as Darwin himself repeatedly stated, it had no power of foresight? Wallace eventually answered that question (to his own satisfaction) by claiming that an influx of a higher life had supervened to accompany the arrival ofHomo sapienson the worlds stage a volte-face which disappointed Darwin and made Wallace the target of some opprobrium from Darwins supporters.

In his older years Wallace came to reject natural selection as an explanation for the unfurling ofallhuman and even animal life. By then he had transitioned towards the espousal of a form of natural theology; but his initial and gravest misgiving in the 1860s was focused four-square on the mystery of how the human brain could have evolved according to Darwinian lines of explanation. For Wallace it had become so clear that an additional power must have played a role that he thenceforth felt constrained to bid adieu to material modes of explanation. Rather like the adherents of the modern intelligent design trend, Wallace could not see how what is now termed irreducible complexity could have been thrown together by the only marginally discriminating forces of natural selection.

It is not difficult to sympathize with Wallaces doubts. As Michael Ruse recently put it, mind is the apotheosis of final cause, drenched in purpose irreducibly teleological.2At the same time, however, Ruse puzzlingly and to me somewhat contradictorily contends, Why should the evolutionist be expected to explain the nature of consciousness? Surely it can be taken as a given, and the evolutionist can move on leave the discussion at that.3Wallace was certainly not prepared to accept such cherry-picking evasions and leave the discussion at that. And despite Dawkinss transparent attempt to airbrush Wallaces apostasy out of the historical record, the latters century-and-a half old question about natural selections inability to create the human mind has been maintained as a live issue by professional philosophers.

Wallaces point was reprised by philosopher Anthony OHear who objected that evolutionary theory was inadequate to account for the emergence of the human mental and moral faculties. On Darwinian principles there was simply no source from which human morality and other higher faculties could have originated (all the less so if one believes that we as a species represent essentially a congeries of selfish genes):

How is it conceivable that consciousness should develop from unconscious precursors? There is no explanation to date and only those who believe that the difference between a cabbage or an automaton and a sentient human being is of small account will minimize the significance of this incomprehension.4

In other words, Darwinism simply cannot explain human nature to anything like its fullest extent. Both OHear and philosopher Richard Rorty have pointed to the plethora of non-Darwinian motivations in humankind, including that non-selfish moral compass which exists in all bar the most abject psychopaths. Hence OHear attacked the argument of Richard Dawkins when the latter insisted it was possible for humans to resist their selfish biological endowment in order to achieve more morally accountable human societies. Such moral resistance would not be logically possible if one holds to the strict doctrine of biological determinism. For given such a scenario, what resources would people have to draw on in order to escape the adamantine bonds of the deterministic straitjacket they were born into? There is then clearly a fatal logical contradiction in claiming that ethical behavior could be salvaged from the unyielding toils of biological determinism.5

As Anthony Flew once put it, No eloquence can move pre-programmed robots.6It is therefore difficult to make a rationally justified case for the human mind having had the form of evolutionary history commonly imputed to it. Furthermore, the philosophical conclusion towards which Wallace was an early contributor has also come to be buttressed by an empirical discipline unknown in Wallaces time that of neuroscience, which throws valuable light on this philosophical issue, even, I would suggest, for those who publicly disdain the discipline of philosophy.

Neuroscientist Donald Hoffman, who once worked with DNA co-discoverer Francis Crick in attempting to crack the problem of human consciousness, recently conceded that the nature and origins of consciousness remain completely unsolved and may best be termed an eternal mystery.7The brusque and decidedly no-nonsense Crick was in the event fated to meet his Waterloo when it came to the subject of consciousness, explains Hoffman. Crick had at first attempted to explain it somewhat airily as nothing but an emergent property which naturally arose when matter reaches a certain level of complexity. However, he was at length obliged to withdraw that vacuous contention, conceding that there is nothing about conscious experience that is relatable to the physicalstuffor material of the brain. Consciousness simply lies beyond our empirical perception and cognitive reach.

Hoffman develops the point further: At the most microcosmic level the brain consists of subatomic particles which have qualities like mass, spin and charge. There is nothing about these qualities that relates to the qualities associated with consciousness such as thought, taste, pain or anxiety.8To suggest otherwise, continues Hoffman, would be like asserting that numbers might emerge from biscuits or ethics from rhubarb. The bottom line seems to be that we are not only ignorant but, alas, prostrate in our ignorance of the brains arcana.9Theoretically, of course, there may yet emerge an as yet undiscovered materialist explanation for the brain and human consciousness. But to date we must conclude that todays science cannot with integrity support such a claimon the evidence presently available.

Both Hoffman and Crick were finally forced to conclude that all purely physicalist theories of consciousness had failed to provide illumination and that the state of consciousness could not be explained in neurological terms, a conclusion powerfully endorsed for more than three decades by distinguished British neuroscientist Raymond Tallis in his long opposition to what he terms Darwinitis.10In short, consciousness is simply not derivable from physical laws but remains an inexplicable phenomenon of the human endowment which we are simply left to wonder at. To suggest otherwise, writes philosopher David Bentley Hart, is to fall into the trap of a misapplication of quantitative and empirical terms to unquantifiable and intrinsically non-empirical realities.11This indicates that vague, would-be Darwinian attempts to imagine consciousness arising as an epiphenomenon of other physiological processes are misconceived. In fact, not being able to identify the precise biological pathway leading to the claimed epiphenomena disqualifies this contention as a bona fide theory and relegates it to the status of little more than magical thinking (which I define as postulating an effect without an identifiable agent or cause).

It cannot be denied that there are philosophers content to follow the Darwinian line and even to become Darwinian apologists (and indeed cheerleading eulogists such as Daniel Dennett). But there are very many more who feel a vocational duty to deconstruct Darwinian postulates and unmask their debatable pretensions. Remarkably, Richard Spilsbury felt so strongly on this point that he took to task an older generation of philosophers for being cowed by materialist confirmation bias intonotaddressing the problem. His remarks were directed at the logical positivist philosophers, in the orbit of Sir Alfred Ayer and his famousLanguage, Truth and Logicof 1936, for what he saw as their culpable silence on Darwinism.

As a matter of historical record, no group of thinkers was more inclined to denounce propositions for being non-sense (in the philosophical sense of not having sufficient logical stringency to merit serious discussion) than the logical positivists. Yet no criticism of Darwinism issued from within that group. Spilsburys explanation for the omission seems all too plausible: It is rather surprising that they [Darwinists] have largely been left alone by logical positivists in search of new demolition work. Perhaps neo-Darwinism has been saved from this [demolition] by its essential contribution to the world view that positivists share12(i.e., materialism). Given that the underlying aim of the Ayerian philosophy was broadly speaking to make the world a safe place for positivism, by discouraging any form of mysticism or metaphysics, I find Spilsburys explanation entirely convincing. Nonsense can apparently be exempted from critique when it supports the materialist cause.

It is uncertain how future generations will react to theories without evidential foundation, simply at the paternalistic direction of scientists riding high on materialist hobbyhorses. Common experience suggests that many persons today are inclined to resist unsubstantiable theories in favor of their own tried-and-tested observations of reality. And the rise of intelligent design thought may be understood as a manifestation of this more precise, empirical mode of thinking. It cannot therefore be stressed strongly enough that inferences to a designing power (of some sort) is not,paceDawkins, always anchored in an adherence to a particular revealed faith. People now are considerably less swayed by deference and 19th-century fideism (believing on trust). In fact, the (historically) paradoxical truth is that for growing numbers of people today it issciencethat points in the direction of an unmoved mover more than any positive or revealed religion hence Anthony Flews well-publicized defection from non-theistic rationalism to a form of deism which he dubbed his pilgrimage of reason.

In that remarkable philosophic odyssey, the erstwhile president of the British Rationalist Society finally arrived at an understanding of the world as disclosed to him by natural theology, the multitudinous signatures of which he interpreted as empirical markers for a design which,paceLucretius, David Hume, Darwin, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawking, and Lawrence Krauss could not have arisen autonomously without a designer. For Flew as a professional logician, such a position simply represented the inference to the best explanation. He came to reject chance in the sense of the fortuitous configurations and re-configurations of matter postulated by Lucretius (and,mutatis mutandis, by Darwin with reference to the organic world). He found his a more rational explanation than that offered by those of Darwins intellectual heirs who seem to be more interested in cooking the books to protect materialist assumptions from theistic incursions than in facing up to the inadequacies of a science which dramatically contradicts their own philosophical case. For such ideologically tainted denials can sometimes seem to represent little more thana covert desire to throw a protectivecordon sanitairearound the theory of a purely material genesis for the biosphereand so stifle further debate.

The acceptance and promotion of what is strictly speaking non-discussible nonsense (in the Ayerian sense)13by groups of people supposedly devoted to the truth wherever it leads provides a disquieting specter of intellectual integrity playing second fiddle to ideological commitment. In fact, the attempt by more doctrinaire scientific materialists to bounce lay persons into gainsaying their own rational judgments results in a truly incongruous situation. That is, when big science brings forward a host of findings which might most fairly be glossed as prima facie proofs of a higher agency, but thereupon proceeds to deny the most intuitively logical import of its own discoveries, unbiased men and women prove unsurprisingly resistant. That resistance arises from their ability to appreciate the true existential implications of said findings and their entirely consequential determination to cry Foul! to the scientists for trying to mislead them. Such persons are in effect following in Wallaces footsteps, without of course in most cases being fully aware of the historical recapitulation. And this in turn furnishes a very good argument why Wallace should not be erased from the Darwinian narrative. Indeed, welcome historical revisions have been set in train in the last decade, much of that from the pen of Michael Flannery.14

What is impressive about Wallaces testimony is the without-fear-or-favor intellectual independence it reveals. He suffered no disabling sense of self-consciousness about doing his U-turn from his earlier opinions. He simply accepted the unexceptional fact that persons opinions will change over time according to how they come to revisit evidence on more mature reflection.Wallace was, as Frank Turner once put it, primarily a disinterested student of life with no interest in orthodox posturing, even after numerous honors had been bestowed upon him later in life.15

Darwin, on the other hand, found himself in a very different situation, being oppressively aware of the luster of the family name, especially as it pertained to his grandfather, Erasmus. His insistence that his theoryhadto be true for the sake of personal and family honor may do much to explain his state of obdurate denial when coming up against the many counter-indications to it which he encountered, even from close colleagues such as Thomas Huxley. His intransigence in facing opposition seems to have stemmed from a form of duelistspoint dhonneur.This attitude of mind had already been detectable inthe way that he had worked at a break-neck pace to produce the manuscript of theOriginfor publication when, after receiving Wallaces famous Ternate Letter in 1858, he sensed a competitor snapping at his heels.16It was clearly important to him to be able to have the Darwin imprimatur embossed on his evolutionary ideas.In that way he could both underscore his own status amongst his peers and also be seen to be consummating the glorious tradition of evolutionary speculation inaugurated by his grandfather. For Darwin was for all his adult life concerned with a peculiarly familial construction of reality the truth-value of which he never questioned. He framed his lifes work as a consummation of his grandfathers endeavors to prove evolution which was why he was so gratified to be able to advance what he took to be a mechanism to account for evolutionary ideas first advanced by Erasmus Darwin.

By contrast, Wallace had no intellectual pedigree to live up to. Natural selection was only one part of his life as a naturalist and intellectual17and he was well able to keep things in perspective. That was all the more so since he had no grand family tradition to live up to. Family piety was simply not a consideration for him sincehisgrandfather had not been a famous naturalist pushing the envelope ever further in quest of illumination of the unknown. For that reason, I find that there is more trust to be placed in Wallaces cool-headed testimony than there is in Darwins desperate denials that there could be any other explanation. Wallace was his own man and this bestowed on him the inner strength to follow the evidence where it led him without feeling the need to trim his position in apprehension of how others might react. He seems not to have felt anything like the need shown by Darwin to impress public opinion or pose as a Great Man of Science. And this, I would argue, makes his testimony concerning the fatal weakness of the theory of natural selection all the worthier of heed.

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How Darwin and Wallace Split over the Human Mind - Discovery Institute

After a 14-year hiatus, Reebok revived its Human Rights Awards in 2021. A year later, the effort is back with updates.

This year, Reebok said the program which has a history of famed winners including economist and environmentalist Winona LaDuke, lawyer and social justice activist Bryan Stevenson and United States Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta will honor activists in the world of sports and athletics, giving the initiative a greater focus on the intersection of human rights and sport.

Whats more, Reebok announced the programs newly reconstituted board of advisors, a list of accomplished individuals from the ACLU, the NAACP, Reebok parent Authentic Brands Group and elsewhere. Board members include Amber Hikes, Cynthia Roseberry, Dr. Regina Moorer, Monique Holland, Sara Mora, Tiffany Dena Loftin, Kari Uyehara, Zoe Henriquez, Michael Sherman and Chloe Mann.

Another new addition for 2022 is a partnership with the Sports Illustrated Awards to celebrate this years honoree, who will also receive a cash reward to support their work and guidance and mentorship from Reebok and its partners.

Nominations for the 2022 Reebok Human Rights Awards are now open via a landing page on Reebok.com.

Below, Reebok VP of apparel Portia Blunt a well-known advocate of diversity, inclusion and equity in the footwear industry reveals to FN how the program will evolve in 2022.

Why are the Human Rights Awards so special and important to you?

Mainly because it is so rooted in the history of our brand. The platform being able to amplify and reach a mass amount of people with stories of amazing activists and changemakers is one of the first things I connected with when I came to the brand. It touches my heart because its our brand really being our best selves, creating a space for young people. At this moment in time, its so important in terms of change activism, cause impact in community, especially as we start to tie that back into sport. Our professional athletes are at the tip of the spear, at the forefront of being voices of change, and with this platform were able to amplify those who arent necessarily the Shaqs of the worlds or the Allen Iversons of the world but are doing something meaningful in their community or in their school. Thats huge, every little bit counts and were able to do something and move it forward. Ive got two little boys and being able to speak on what the brand is doing and what I do on a day to day beyond creating product which has meaning is really important when youre raising a 16-year-old and an 11-year-old.

What was behind Reeboks decision to shift and make the awards for activists in the world of sports?

It is a natural shift for us. It wasnt ever not what we were focused on before, but this is just a conscious effort on our part to be more pointed in that space. As we started to build in more partnerships, it made a lot more sense to be more deliberate about that. And from a brand perspective, were anchored in this idea of amplifying human rights through human movement, and that obviously segways into sport. Its the natural way for us to get acquainted with that storytelling and finding those activists who are doing amazing work through sport. Now, it doesnt necessarily mean you have to be an athlete. It means that you are actually contributing to your community through the lens of athletics and through sport. It could be someone whos engaged in a youth or community underrepresented run club. Its looking at it in a more pointed way, but still keeping it pretty broad in terms of the communities that we serve and reach.

What did you learn from the programs revival in 2021?

The first lesson is that it was incredibly missed. Our employee community champions the program as a point of excitement, a point of pride. Two, we were definitely constrained in terms of COVID requirements and making the resurrection of the program a virtual platform. And we were dormant for too long, quite frankly. We had some amazing finalists and awardees highlighted last year through our virtual summit, and it showed the power not only of what theyre doing, but what the brand can do in terms of being a conduit of storytelling and amplifying these voices through the support we can provide through our partnerships and mentorships.

You were hired by Reebok in March 2021. Was this program something you wanted to jump right into when you were hired?

One of the things that is near and dear to my heart is diversity, inclusion, equity, equality and justice in our industry. This opportunity came to me through our leadership in terms of my voice, product, all of it. My desire to get involved led me to being that executive lead here. It was a natural path for me, for sure, to just step into the role and take it over. I do oversee the product portion of the program as well with our Human Rights Now capsule. Last year, the summit was in August and we dropped a capsule at that time, we had activation that was quite amazing in Brooklyn. Black Thought did spoken word and it was really energizing and amazing. One of the things that I looked to do at that point in time was to figure out a way to continue to amplify around the program so it didnt feel like a moment in time or just a blip on our radar like were just checking a box. As we come into 22, weve expanded that Human Rights Now product capsule to two drops as opposed to one. Well have one in September focused around celebrating around Title IX anniversary this year and what it means being a woman in sport and taking some inspiration around that. And then in December, our final capsule will drop, coinciding with the awards as well as International Human Rights Day, which happens on December 10. Were looking at taking these progressive steps to one, be impactful, two, be meaningful and thoughtful so that its not just product capsules, theyre tied to purpose, storytelling and making sure were continuing the conversation around human rights throughout the year. As we go into next year, youll see a progression of that with more storytelling, more partnerships and continuing to amplify.

What product will be featured in the collections?

For the September drop, it will be focused on Title IX in terms of inspiration, and we included our Freestyle in that capsule. Its the 40th anniversary of the Freestyle. The Freestyle, for the brand, was the first performance athletic training shoe for her at a time when brands werent really thinking about her specifically, being built for her. Tying that back to Title IX is so powerful and special for us, bringing that to life through the Human Rights Now capsule. And then in December, youll see a whole new expression coming to life, bringing to light this idea of community and all being welcome with a nod to our basketball heritage.

What message does Reebok relaunching the Human Rights Now Awards send to the greater athletic market?

Be who you are. Thats what we pride ourselves on at Reebok. We arent necessarily looking at our competitors to keep up with them. When it comes to human rights, when it comes to human movement, when it comes to these awards, we follow our instincts and our gut and we do what we feel is best. It is putting our arms around the community in a beautiful way through providing product, providing support and putting a light on these individuals and organizations that wouldnt necessarily get a lot of recognition and acclaim. I would really just encourage brands to be true to who they are and authentic to themselves, because thats really all we are looking to do. Were thrilled about the continuation of the revamped program because theres so much richness out there in the community and we want to be a partner and a place for these activists and community leaders, athletes and sport enthusiasts.

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Reeboks Portia Blunt on How the Human Rights Awards Will Evolve in 2022 - Footwear News

Women have become so adept at multitasking and getting things done by themselves that they find it difficult to delegate. Busy being capable and focused on what they want to achieve, they tend to spread themselves thin and neglect their health. These were among the pertinent comments voiced at the Cartier Womens Initiative: Kuala Lumpur Speaker Series on May 20.

Continuing on that thread, Renuka Sena, co-founder and CEO of Proficeo, said women should not be afraid to delegate. They need to let go and trust that they have good people and build up the next generation of generals who can take charge. Women also need to be able to admit that they are tired, she felt. We have to remind ourselves that we cannot do everything. Outsource and get help.

Joining Renuka in the panel discussion were Sunway iLabs Ventures head Dr Melissa Foo and PichaEats co-founder Kim Lim. Trainer, broadcast journalist, author and emcee Freda Liu moderated the event, directed at the question: How can we create thriving ecosystems for women entrepreneurs in Malaysia?

The Speaker Series, curated by Cartier Southeast Asia and Oceania and Impact Hub, also aims to raise awareness of the CWI in the region and connect impact-driven women entrepreneurs, investors and policymakers. It kicked off in Singapore in March and will be held in Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam next.

Foo, vice-president of the Malaysian Business Angel Network, is involved in early-stage investments and innovation across sectors such as health, education, fintech, smart cities and retail tech. She observes that men are rarely asked, How do you balance it all?

The trained dentist who returned to Malaysia from the US a decade ago recounts how when she once applied for a loan, the bank officer did not hear what she was saying because he was distracted by her dangly earrings. I catch myself being self-conscious about things like that.

Lim notes that a common trait of women entrepreneurs is playing safe: They want certain things to happen before taking the next step. Her suggestion? Just do and things will sort themselves out. Let go, play more and sink more into the unknown.

Across the floor, the 50-odd invited guests nodded, then put their heads together to share their experience of starting their own companies and running them. Some takeaways from this mix-n-fix session were: communicate your vision clearly; it can be lonely at the top; investors may not be able to relate to your products; you need ingenuity and courage to help other women rise.

French jewellery maison Cartier easily identifies with creating ecosystems for women. The CWI provides women impact entrepreneurs financial, social and human capital support to grow their business and build leadership skills.This annual programme drives change by empowering the changemakers. It is open to women-run and women-owned businesses in any country and sector that seek to solve pressing global challenges or find solutions for the future of our planet.

Applications for the 2023 edition of the CWI opened on May 16 and will close on June 30 at 2pm (Central European summer time). There will be awards for two new regional categories, Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania, besides the existing seven.

A new thematic award for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, open to all genders, has been created to encourage entrepreneurial solutions designed to close gaps of access, outcome or opportunities for communities that have been underrepresented or underserved. It is the CWIs second thematic prize, after that for Science & Technology Pioneer launched last year.

Winners of the CWI, to be announced next April, will receive their awards in Paris. Besides training and mentorship programmes, as well as opportunities to connect with cohorts around the world, these inspirational women will benefit from having their business solutions brought to the largest audience possible.

The CWI has supported 262 women from 62 countries and given out a total of US$6.44 million in grants since its launch in 2006.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary on International Womens Day at the World Expo 2022 in Dubai on March 8, Cartier brought together its global community of winners to toast their achievements and collectively shape the future of the programme. Looking back on its evolution and footprint, the company continues to find ways to empower women who leverage business as a force for good.

See herefor more information or to apply for the CWI Awards.

This article first appeared on May 30, 2022 in The Edge Malaysia.

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Cartier Women's Initiative Awards 2023 call for application until June 30 - Options The Edge