Marcus Roberts You are probably aware that Japan has some demographic challenges that it is grappling with. That is a bit of an understatement: Japan is having to deal with a rapidly falling birthrate, a continually ageing population and a shrinking workforce and overall population.
The news that Pfizer’s vaccine is 90 percent effective has rocked the world (a tad too late to help Donald Trump). The company will be applying for an emergency FDA approval. From the Wall Street Journal story: A vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc., PFE0.03% and partner BioNTech SE
Automakers continue to proclaim that fully autonomous vehicles are just around the corner. In 2016, a host of companies, from BMW to Volvo, promised driverless cars by 2021. While that has proven too ambitious, it hasn’t stopped companies from making revised predictions. In May 2020, Volvo announced a
AUTOMATION IS NOT A CAUSE FOR FEAR BUT AN OPPORTUNITY TO REDISCOVER WHY WE WORK IN THE FIRST PLACE. “I, FOR ONE, WELCOME OUR NEW COMPUTER OVERLORDS.” In 2011, millions watched as Ken Jennings scribbled this sentence on his answer screen, then looked up defeatedly
While most Catholic mothers pray for their teenage sons, Antonia Acutis has the unique ability to pray to hers, the soon-to-be-beatified Italian teenager Carlo Acutis. Carlo will be beatified October 10 in Assisi, Italy. His canonization cause has been popularized not only due to his young testament to holiness before he
Editor’s note: This piece was originally published in Newsweek in February, 1995. While it’s easy to laugh at how far off many of the predictions were, he did foresee how the internet can never fully replace human-to-human contact. After two decades online, I’m perplexed. It’s
When you become a parent, you immediately begin to worry about all sorts of things. Formula or breastfeeding, best and safest car seats, the balance of child care versus stay-at-home parenting, sleep training, when to introduce solids, vaccines. Porn probably doesn’t top that list. Or
Scientists have discovered yet another life-giving treatment for disease using adult stem cells, while the number of substantial medical breakthroughs from life-taking embryonic stem cell research remains essentially zero. Neuromyelitis optica (NMO), also known as Devic’s disease, causes the immune system to react against the
In a world in which smartwatches already measure heartbeats, footsteps, sleep cycles and hours on a tennis court, the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network has launched the first “smart rosary,” an app-driven device that aims to foster global prayer for peace. Technically called “Click To Pray
The contours of the history of the twenty-first century will be largely decided by the tussle between the USA and China. The familiar situation of an established global hegemon being challenged by a rising power is being played out before our eyes. Whether or not
