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Recently I watched the harrowing 2023 survival thriller Society of the Snow, based on the book of the same name about the real-life 1972 plane crash in the Andes that left a rugby team and families and friends to fend for themselves in the unforgiving elements. Over the following two-and-a-half months after the crash, as search efforts were unsuccessful and then abandoned, the dwindling number of survivors (only 16 out of 45 passengers and crew were ultimately rescued) were forced to resort to cannibalizing the bodies of the dead in order to survive.The movie (pictured above) captures, with an unflinching...

n Tuesday, Tucker Carlson debuted his new show on Twitter, called ‘Tucker on Twitter’ and it was a wild ride, discussing the war on Ukraineand declaring, based on one guy’s claims, that basically aliens exist andhey have visited the Earth. This morning we reported on an apparent ‘cease and desist’ letter Fox News’ lawyers sent to Tucker Carlson’s team. So, if you were wondering whether this would cause Carlson to back off and cancel his Twitter show, this is your answer: Ep. 2 Cling to your taboos! pic.twitter.com/45AeVdtwOu — Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 8, 2023 To be blunt, the fact...

Believe it or not, this isn’t another article about Bruce / Caitlyn Jenner, though the wider question of gender bending could probably be squirreled away in here somewhere. Gallup took time out from polling people about the presidential candidates they like and asked Americans their annual set of questions on taboo subjects and how accepting we tend to be of actions which have been traditionally shunned. If you only went by the headline (Once Taboo, Some Behaviors Now More Acceptable in U.S.) you might think that we’ve suddenly morphed into a nation of hedonists, but the phrase “more acceptable”...

Coiffed, groomed and impeccably suited, Mithal al-Alusi cuts an imposing figure at this trendy hotel. In the empty bar lounge, he makes himself at home to a breakfast of fresh fruit, strong coffee and a constant flow of cigarettes. The leader of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation is in town to promote his vision for a new Iraq and accept an accolade from an unlikely sponsor – the American Jewish Committee – who honored him with a Moral Courage award at their annual dinner last week. His act of courage was an attempt to break Iraq's long-standing taboo...

The case of the Oxford lecturer in Jewish studies who says she was sacked after she converted to Christianity has thrown a spotlight on to an acutely sensitive subject. I have no idea whether Dr Tali Argov was treated unfairly – that’s for the employment tribunal to decide – but let’s not pretend that Jews who become Christians don’t face intense disapproval from their own community. Christian anti-Semitism, Muslim anti-Semitism, Christian Islamophobia, Muslim persecution of Christians – all of these are acceptable topics of debate. But not Jewish hostility to Christianity.

In a fascinating op/ed, Harvard cognitive scientist, Steven Pinker, lists a number of taboo ideas that have been soundly denounced by various people. To wit: Do women, on average, have a different profile of aptitudes and emotions than men? Were the events in the Bible fictitious -- not just the miracles, but those involving kings and empires? Has the state of the environment improved in the last 50 years? Do most victims of sexual abuse suffer no lifelong damage? Did Native Americans engage in genocide and despoil the landscape? Do men have an innate tendency to rape? Did the crime...

While recently awaiting the arrival of a new baby, Elizabeth Dacey-Fondelius found herself not so much restricted by her bulging belly as by the opinions of those around her - especially when it came to alcohol consumption. Somehow my body became public property when I got pregnant. People I barely know elatedly rub my belly when they’d feel highly uncomfortable giving me a hug. Then there’s the rest of the public who feel it’s their prerogative to tell me what I am allowed to eat, drink and do. Cultural taboos vary country to country, yet you’d think that medical advice...

London-The Arab world's first Muslim sexologist is breaking boundaries with a sex education television show that has taken the Middle East by storm.Dr. Heba Kotb, 39, devotes "Serious Talk," broadcast weekly on the independent Egyptian satellite channel Al Mehwar, to answering intimate sexual questions posed by curious young Arab men and women.

TORONTO (Reuters) - A new film portrayal of Adolf Hitler shows both a ranting, twitching, delusional madman and a father figure who speaks kindly to his secretary and gazes fondly as blond Aryan children sing songs of praise. But Downfall (Der Untergang), which has its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival on Tuesday, also breaches one of post-war Germany's last taboos to show the Nazi leader as a human being rather than just a monster. It has prompted the charge that director Oliver Hirschbiegel has gone too far. "It's one of the last remaining taboos in Germany and we...

Everyday conversation is now so foul-mouthed that only a handful of words can be considered truly taboo, according to the authors of the new edition of the Collins English Dictionary. "Bollocks" and "gangbang" are among 70 words described in earlier editions of the dictionary as "taboo" that have now been downgraded to "slang". There are now, it appears, only 16 taboo words in use in English, including the f-word and c-word. According to Collins, the use of asterisks to soften the effects of industrial Anglo-Saxon may soon become a historical nicety as modern discourse sinks ever deeper into the mire....