The word for today is… commodious (adjective): 1 : comfortably or conveniently spacious 2 archaic : handy, serviceable Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Although it’s now used to mean “roomy,” in the 18th century “commodious” was regularly used to mean “handy” or “serviceable,” a meaning that is true to the word’s
The word for today is… interloper (noun): one that interlopes: such as a : one that intrudes in a place or sphere of activity b : an illegal or unlicensed trader Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : When English speakers combined “inter-” with “-loper” in the late 1500s, they already had a word landloper
Kurt Mahlburg mercatornet.com Kurt Mahlburg is a writer and author, and an emerging Australian voice on culture and the Christian faith. He has a passion for both the philosophical and the personal, drawing on his background as a graduate architect, a primary school teacher, a missionary, and a young
Tolkien fans are awaiting the much-hyped Amazon Lord of the Rings tv series not with bated breath, but trepidation. Please, Amazon, don’t fuck it up, is the most frequent comment in fan groups. “A fool’s hope,” as Gandalf would say. Fans are already wincing as a domino-effect of
JM White Dr Philip Nitschke founded the Voluntary Euthanasia Research Foundation now called Exit International. Assisted dying became legal in New Zealand in November 2021. Three hundred and fifty deaths were expected in the first year, but due to second thoughts when the reality appears – as often occurs – that number
The word for today is… wistful (adjective): 1 : full of yearning or desire tinged with melancholy 2 : musingly sad Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Are you yearning to know the history of wistful? If so, I can ease your melancholy a little by telling you that wistful comes from a combination
Jonah Lynch brownstone.org Jonah Lynch has a doctorate in theology from the Gregorian University in Rome, an M.Ed. in education from The George Washington University, and a B.Sc. in physics from McGill. He conducts research in digital humanities and lives in Italy. Here we are, all of
Toby Rogers brownstone.org Toby Rogers has a Ph.D. in political economy from the University of Sydney in Australia and a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focus is on regulatory capture and corruption in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Rogers does grassroots
The word for today is… pantheon (noun): 1a : the gods of a people especially b : a temple dedicated to all the gods 2 : a group of illustrious or notable persons or things I 3 : a building serving as the burial place of or containing memorials to the famous dead of
I stopped giving to charity years ago but the final straw was, after donating $100 to the Red Cross for the Australian bushfires in 2020, learning that the charity decided to take its usual 10% for “administration fees”. In this case, those amounted to $10 million, in a country with
The word for today is… calculus (noun): 1a : a method of computation or calculation in a special notation (as of logic or symbolic logic) b : the mathematical methods comprising differential and integral calculus 2 : calculation 3a : a concretion usually of mineral salts around organic material found especially in hollow organs
The word for today is… galvanize (verb): 1 : to cause (people) to become so excited or concerned about an issue, idea, etc., that they want to do something about it 2 : to cause (a force that is capable of causing change) to become active 3 technical : to cover (steel or
Leah Heiss lens.monash.edu Leah is a Melbourne-based designer and Monash University academic working at the nexus of design, health and technology. Through collaborative projects Leah has brought human centred design to technologies for hearing loss, diabetes and pre-diabetes, cardiovascular disease, gut disease and loneliness. As we increasingly rely
Information Opinion Do you believe that men can have babies? Apple apparently does. Fox News reports: A “pregnant man” emoji and “pregnant person” emoji are coming to Apple iPhones with its latest update, iOS 15.4 sparking controversy. The pregnant emoji aren’t new for some, since they arrived as
You think Whoopi Goldberg’s latest “gaffe” is just another celebrity saying something incredibly dumb? Well, yes, it is — but there’s also a much deeper, darker — or blacker — undercurrent to Goldberg’s claim that the Holocaust wasn’t about race. If Jews hadn’t got the message from Harvard,
The word for today is… smarmy (adjective): 1 : revealing or marked by a smug, ingratiating, or false earnestness 2 : of low sleazy taste or quality Source : Merriam -Webster Etymology : Something smarmy will often ooze with self-satisfaction and insincerity. Much like its synonyms unctuous and slick, smarmy has a history that
