On January 31, 1944, a young French dentist from Fougères who had taken refuge in Marseille with his wife and their newly born daughter was denounced as a Jew by his French neighbours; he was arrested by French policemen, who…
All of life’s everyday objects have a story, a genealogy, a raison d’être; and nothing is more exciting than to tell that story. The story of the humble nail, the loud hammer, the subtle book, the obedient washing machine, the…
Football may seem like a trivial topic to discuss when there are so many other very serious things that are happening. The sport, however, which is really popular, has always been a sort of mirror that reflects current issues at…
The performing arts are among the activities that are most threatened by the self-isolation measures. A priori, until at least the month of September, there will be very few concerts, theatrical performances, operas and festivals anywhere in the world. Not…
When confronted with an attitude that we consider to be shocking, or perhaps scandalous, crazy, and unacceptable, we must first try to explain it. Not to justify such attitude, but to better understand how to deal with it, and particularly…
One of the most common and beneficial exercises that many people do at the end of each year is to write a wish list for the following year. And to check the validity of the list of previous year. For…
Anyone who watched Ridley Scott’s brilliant film, “Blade Runner”, when it was released (1982) or later, cannot have forgotten the wonderful metaphor about the human condition. In the film, a police officer from Los Angeles tracks down humanoids that are…
The Vitruvian Man, with supposedly perfect proportions, has been challenging humans for nearly two thousand years. The one we can see at the Louvre at the moment, which is materialized by Leonardo da Vinci, has fascinated us for nearly five…
During the middle of the 15th century, a period marked by the belief that a new technology from Asia (movable-type printing press) would help strengthen the two dominant powers of the time (the Catholic Church and the Germanic Roman Empire),…
