2020

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Oct222020

Hydroxychloroquine: Yes? No? What else?

HEALTH & EDUCATIONOctober 22, 2020

In discussion around the drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), let us recollect the three treatments given to U.S. President Donald Trump to combat his covid19 infection: Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody therapy, the anti-viral drug remdesivir and corticosteroid dexamethasone, which is typically given to patients on supplemental oxygen or needing ventilation. If medical trials of these drugs prove successful, they may become frontline covid19 medical treatments. In contrast, debate over the drug hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) has been politicised. Some conservative commentators attacked the dropping of HCQ from three medical trials after the trials failed to prove the drug was an effective covid19 treatment. These commentators criticised…

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Oct222020

Are the Harry Potter books dangerous?

MUSIC CINEMA & BOOKSOctober 22, 2020

by John Young A contestant on the television show, The Chaser, said she had read the Harry Potter books 50 times. That’s seven volumes, including two particularly large ones. The series has been phenomenally successful, with fans of all ages. But it has been severely criticised by some, including novelist Michael O’Brien in his book, Harry Potter and the Paganization of Culture. Some people are concerned that stories about wizards and witches will condition readers to explore the occult and end up in Satanism, especially when the good wizards and witches in the stories are attractive. Harry Potter author J.K.…

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Oct222020

Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism

MUSIC CINEMA & BOOKSOctober 22, 2020

DEATHS OF DESPAIR AND THE FUTURE OF CAPITALISM by Anne Case and Angus Deaton Princeton University Press,Princeton, New JerseyHardcover: 312 pagesPrice: AUD$47.99 Reviewed by Brian Coman “Knowledge is of two kinds,” said Dr Johnson. “We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.” The book under review – Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism – supplies that second kind of knowledge. It assembles and dissects a vast body of detailed statistics on the mental, physical, economic, and political health of the United States. For that reason, it is not a book…

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Oct222020

Background to Pell-Becciu allegations

Cardinal Pell, JUSTICE LAW & CRIME, RELIGIONOctober 22, 2020

Sensational accusations that Cardinal Angelo Becciu, the disgraced former deputy to the Vatican Secretary of State, used Vatican funds to destroy Cardinal George Pell are the latest twist in the complicated prosecution of Cardinal Pell, and his release from prison by the High Court of Australia. The Pell-Becciu allegations mean that the story is far from over. The story has more twists and turns than an Agatha Christie thriller. Cardinal Becciu has denied the allegations, published in the Rome newspapers, Il Messaggero, Corriere della Sera and L’Espresso. L’Espresso is the weekend edition of La Repubblica, a newspaper whose editor has…

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