SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " ban " 7,891 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Thieves steal more than $100,000 in merchandise from Burbank trading cards store
Police are investigating a burglary at a trading card and collectibles store where more than $100,000 in merchandise -- mainly Pokémon products -- was stolen.
As Pay TV Collapses, Sports’ Streaming Wars Kick Off
Major leagues shut the lights off on TV-only deals, but a platform battle is emerging as media giants aim to get the biggest bang for the billions they've spent on rights deals.
14 CEOs reveal the pump-up playlist that powers their day
Mark Cuban, Jesse Itzler, and CEOs of companies including Olipop and Solidcore shared the songs that get them energized.
Most countries make progress towards universal health coverage, but major challenges remain, WHO–World Bank report finds
A new joint report from WHO and the World Bank Group reveals that most countries – across all income levels and regions – have made concurrent progress in expanding health service coverage and reducing the financial hardship associated with health costs, since 2000.
From wholesale to community impact; food bank and local business thrive together
Thinking outside the box to strengthen both a business and a food bank is happening in Cleveland, where a local wholesaler has become part of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank’s mission and community.
It's been a banner year for Indiana sports teams
It's been a banner year for Indiana sports teams. There have been perfect records and playoff runs for professional and collegiate teams in basketball, football and more.
Akron business fights censorship with subscription book service
Banned Books Box is a subscription service that delivers recipients one or two recently banned or challenged books each month. Books and accessories can also be purchased at the Northside Marketplace in Akron.
Record bankruptcies hit mom-and-pop businesses as debts surge
'The Big Money Show' panel discusses why small businesses are struggling.
Annual Legislative Update, Health Fair and Turkey Giveaway
Official website of Senator Akilah Weber Pierson, M.D., representing California Senate District 39.
Stone Temple Pilots, Brooke Eden highlight Sunday’s gameday entertainment
Grammy Award-winning rock band Stone Temple Pilots will perform at halftime while country artist Brooke Eden will perform the National Anthem.
Deals: 512GB iPad Pro, 24GB M5 MacBook Pro, more 9to5Mac
Alongside the Black Friday pricing that is somehow still live on AirPods 4 with ANC down at $99, today’s 9to5Toys...
Is Mario Kart World Getting Donkey Kong Bananza DLC? Datamines Have Fans Speculating
Nintendo Today! Nintendo Tomorrow?
First Brands’ Business Flails as Customers Don’t Know Who to Pay
As First Brands Group makes its way through bankruptcy court, the auto-parts supplier is bumping up against an unexpected snafu: Its customers don’t seem to know who to pay.
SEA Games 2025: Preview, schedule and how to watch Southeast Asian sporting action live
Discover the key details of the 33rd edition of the Southeast Asian Games, taking place in Bangkok and Chonburi, Thailand.
Business alumna proves service and success go hand in hand
Kristin Gawlik, a St. Mary's University Greehey School of Business double alumna, shows how one 'yes' can change your life's trajectory.
Fed's favored inflation gauge shows consumer prices remained elevated in September
The Commerce Department's delayed September PCE inflation report showed that inflation remained well above the Federal Reserve's 2% target ahead of a central bank decision next week.
Horror game Horses has been banned from sale – but is it as controversial as you’d think?
Pulled by Steam and Epic Games Store, indie horror Horses shook up the industry before it was even released. Now it’s out, all the drama surrounding it seems superfluous
Evers vetoes nine bills, including a ban on immigrant health care
Wisconsin already doesn’t allow immigrants without legal status to access BadgerCare, which Evers noted in his veto message.
2026 World Cup draw: 'Scotland braced for preamble & banterfest'
Scotland in a men's World Cup draw is not a dream. It's really happening - and the boring preamble will be worth it, writes Tom English.
SoFi Aims to Raise $1.5 Billion to Fund Additional Business Opportunities
SoFi Technologies is looking to fund additional business opportunities with an underwritten public offering of $1.5 billion of shares of its common stock.
A new Android malware sneakily wipes your bank account
Another banking malware has struck Androids yet again
Wells Fargo Adds Key Front-End Traders to Grow Markets Business
Wells Fargo & Co. hired two short-duration traders from Deutsche Bank AG, part of efforts to expand its markets business after the Federal Reserve lifted an asset cap on the bank earlier this year, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bank of America Business Loans Review 2025
Bank of America offers business term loans, business lines of credit and other lending products with competitive rates and discounts.
Battle for sports betting market heats up as Polymarket announces return to the U.S.
The prediction market giant rolls out mobile platform almost four years after regulators banned it from the U.S.
Producers Andrea Bucko & Motoko Kimura Launch Yume Entertainment, First Up Is Genre Movie ‘The Red Room’ Based On Japanese Urban Legend
EXCLUSIVE: Producers Andrea Bucko (Deadman’s Wire) and Motoko Kimura (LDK) have launched film and TV production and finance company Yume Entertainment, which will look to bridge the Hollywood and Asian film industries. Yume (由夢), meaning “born from a dream” in Japanese, will look to champion emerging creators such as Yumiko Fujiwara, whose drama The Fire Outside was featured …
Producers Andrea Bucko & Motoko Kimura Launch Yume Entertainment, First Up Is Genre Movie ‘The Red Room’ Based On Japanese Urban Legend
Yume also has an upcoming project with Dark Horse Comics, whose comics have included Hellboy and The Umbrella Academy.
Planet Earth has never had so many billionaires
The number of billionaires worldwide – and their combined wealth – reached record highs this year, buoyed in particular by gains in tech stocks, Swiss bank UBS has found.
Erika Kirk to open up about life, loss and politics in town hall airing on CBS
Three months after her husband, Charlie Kirk, was assassinated, Erika Kirk will open up about life, loss, the state of political discourse and more in a one-hour town hall event moderated by Bari Weiss, CBS News' editor-in-chief.
Lanouette leads collaborative research bridging science education, urban ecosystems
Assistant Professor Kathryn Lanouette is leading a research project to better characterize what outdoor environmental education can look like in urban spaces.
Connecting Maine: how fiber internet is fueling small business growth
For one Boothbay Harbor business, broadband has helped them grow online sales and reliably process credit cards during busy in-store hours.
Horror game Horses removed from multiple storefronts as censorship scare continues
The horror game Horses has been banned from multiple digital storefronts, like Steam, for vague, ill-defined reasons.
Lawyers for New York attorney general’s office expected in court to seek disqualification of another US attorney
Lawyers for the New York attorney general’s office are expected to appear in federal court in Albany on Thursday to try to disqualify a US attorney from investigating the state’s civil case against President Donald Trump.
I'm the CEO of BeatBox Beverages. DJing, dad duty, and catching up with Mark Cuban are all part of my day.
Justin Fenchel started BeatBox Beverages with his friends in business school. In 2014, Mark Cuban invested $1 million for a third of the company.
Girls 'taught how to get a job but not about women's health'
Young women say they were taught how to open a bank account in school, but not about their own health.
Florida wildlife agency’s leaders claim they don’t have to follow science
When I was growing up here in Florida, everyone revered science. We looked to high-IQ scientists to tell us how to fly to the moon, how to transplant a heart, how to fire up a laser, how the universe began with a Big Bang. But science is clearly out of favor now, especially in Florida. […]
Looking for solutions to ocean's threats to Outer Banks
We visit communities affected by homes falling into the ocean and N.C. 12 closed by ocean overwash.
Apple Removes Former AI Chief John Giannandrea From Executive Leadership Page
Apple today updated its executive leadership page to remove John Giannandrea, who is set to retire from Apple next spring. Earlier this week, Apple said that Giannandrea would step down from his role as AI chief, serving as an advisor until he leaves the company. Giannandrea's upcoming retirement was announced on Monday, and Apple wasted no time updating its leadership website.
Fintech firm Marquis notifies affected business after ransomware breach
Fintech firm Marquis is notifying U.S. banks and credit unions after an August ransomware attack allowed hackers to access files containing customer data, according to a company filing on Tuesday.
New Android update aims to stop scammers from screen recording your bank apps
Protection we all need
How The Idea Of Affordability Is Shaping Our Politics : 1A
No matter where you live in the U.S., you’ve probably heard stories — or have your own — about not being able to afford to live. The couple in their 30s that can’t buy a home. The 20-something who can’t afford rent without living with several roommates. The family of five who feel pinched every time they visit the grocery store. The retiree struggling to pay their health insurance premium.Whatever the situation, these stories are becoming central to how Americans are experiencing the economy. And this feeling is shaping politics.A CBS poll from October suggests inflation and the economy are now the top concern among Americans. According to the Urban Institute, 52 percent of U.S. families don’t have the resources to cover what it costs to live. The average monthly cost of groceries has also risen 32 percent since 2019.What do when we mean when we say something is “affordable?” And how do we achieve that goal when the target keeps moving?
Epic bans indie game Horses from its storefront 24 hours before release
Developer Santa Ragione previously said it was at risk of closure after Valve blocked the game from Steam.
How To Make Extraordinary Wealth Buying a Surprising Business, According To Codie Sanchez
You don't have to reinvent the wheel to get rich. Instead, you can glide into a fortune by launching a business that serves a common need. Financial influencer Codie Sanchez, founder of Contrarian...
An unsettling indie game about horses keeps getting banned from stores
Short answer: Neither Steam nor EGS will say exactly why.
Caring for fossils at the Science Museum of Minnesota
It's not every day that you get to fulfill your childhood dreams. For Violet McCann '26, that dream came true through an internship at the Minnesota Science Museum.
Coco Gauff and Victor Wembanyama named on Forbes 30 Under 30 Sports list
Brooke Raboutou and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander also named on the annual list that cites innovators in sport to watch for 2026
Undermanned Spurs set sights on surging Magic
Starters Stephon Castle and Victor Wembanyama were left behind when the San Antonio Spurs boarded a plane Tuesday night to begin a three-game road trip.
Florida wildlife agency’s leaders claim they don’t have to follow science
When I was growing up here in Florida, everyone revered science. We looked to high-IQ scientists to tell us how to fly to the moon, how to transplant a heart, how to fire up a laser, how the universe began with a Big Bang. But science is clearly out of favor now, especially in Florida. […]
Missouri sports betting market officially launched: Bank $3,000 in sportsbook sign-up bonuses
Missourians can now place sports bets with mobile apps and get Missouri sports betting offers for the Missouri betting launch
Space is filling with junk and scientists have a fix
Earth’s orbit is getting crowded with broken satellites and leftover rocket parts. Researchers say the solution is to build spacecraft that can be repaired, reused, or recycled instead of abandoned. They also want new tools to collect old debris and new data systems that help prevent collisions. The goal is to make space exploration cleaner and more sustainable.
Jackson bans employees from having relationships, doing business with ‘dope dealers’
The measure comes as three former Jackson city officials face federal charges in connection with a 2024 bribery scheme.
Chris Eubank Jr reveals 'health issues' and says he will not box again until "100%"
Chris Eubank Jr says he will not box again until he is "100%" fit after revealing he has been dealing with "health issues".
Horses Review
This unsettling horror game banned from Steam tells a harrowing story you won’t soon forget.
Chris Eubank Jr hints at scary health issue
Chris Eubank Jr has opened up about the worrying health problems that he had previously hinted at.
Business Trades Support Bank Capital Rule Reform to Boost Economic Growth
“Now is the time to modernize our capital framework to unleash economic growth for American businesses and consumers across the country.” WASHINGTON, D.C. — A coalition of leading business trade organizations urged prudential regulators to examine and modernize large bank capital requirements to ensure they support consumers, businesses, and the…
DHS recommends travel ban list include at least 10 more countries
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is recommending that the Trump administration’s travel ban list include between 30 to 32 countries, marking an increase from the current list of 19 countries, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady celebrates holiday season with prizes and entertainment
Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady is kicking off December with a month-long celebration featuring entertainment, holiday dining, gaming promotions, and events.
Meridian Health Plan of Illinois Commits $1.15 Million to Expand St. Louis Area Foodbank Mobile Pantry Program
Meridian Health Plan of Illinois, Inc. (Meridian), a company of Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC), announced it will provide a $1.15 million grant over the next three years to Food On The Move, a mobile food pantry program by the St. Louis Area Foodbank that brings healthy food to underserved populations and food deserts in urban communities and rural areas in Illinois. This partnership will deliver healthy food and essential resources to underserved communities across Illinois, aligning with Meri
Emma Heming Willis Says Husband Bruce Willis Is 'Surrounded by Love' As She Gives Health Update
The wife of the action star, who is living with frontotemporal dementia, shared the latest update on his health at an event honoring military caregivers.
Mom-and-Pop Business Bankruptcies Hit a Record as Debts Pile Up
A six-year-old federal program designed to help the smallest American businesses cut debt and get a fresh start has set a record for the number of cases filed, court data show.
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium
Afghanistan's Taliban authorities have carried out a public execution in the eastern city of Khost
AI valuations heighten risk of ‘sharp correction’ in stock markets, Bank of England warns
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news, as the Bank of England releases its Financial Stability Report
UK mulls ban on crypto cash in politics — putting Farage in firing line
Nigel Farage’s Reform UK was the first U.K. political party to accept donations in cryptocurrency — and now the government is considering a ban.
Jets unit leaving no doubt they are NFL's best: 'True game-changer'
The leader of this pack of dogs is Chris Banjo, who’s just three years removed from his 10-year NFL playing career as a core special teams player on three different teams.
Entertainment and more in the Mid-Ohio Valley
PARKERSBURG – The Artsbridge calendar for the week ahead: TODAY * Anything Goes: Wild Things, all member exhibition of the West Virginia Watercolor Society, Parkersburg Art Center * Belpre Holiday Lights, Civitan Park, Belpre * Festival of Trees Display, Blennerhassett Hotel and Spa * Shannon Hammer, naturalist photography display, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., WesBanco, […]
Hochul signs bill into law to build first New York state Holocaust memorial
Public officials and the Capital District Jewish Holocaust Memorial are trying to bring it to Albany.
I kept working as an RN even after my husband had made more than $30 million in the NFL. It gave me a sense of purpose.
Parker Henry reflects on settling in New England, raising her kids, and navigating the uncertainty that comes with her husband Hunter Henry's NFL career.
Survey: New York cellphone ban helping student engagement, teacher effectiveness
92% of respondents said the transition to the policy, implemented at the beginning of this academic school year, went smoothly.
AI becomes a political wedge issue, creating odd bedfellows across parties
MAGA media personality Steve Bannon described the fight on the right as one between populists and "broligarchs" in the tech industry.
MAX Accelerator Business IDEA Competition culminates with Dec. 3 live pitches at the IDEA Bank
The culmination of the MAX Accelerator Business IDEA Competition at Troy University is a pitch competition with a dozen students vying for some $8,000 is prize funding, the largest such pool in the program’s history.
Hearing in case that could rewrite the rules of religion in politics
A Texas hearing saw pushback to the federal government's recent reversal of a decades-long precedent that banned churches from endorsing politicians.
Science must move from materialism to mystery
Theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that modern science has become trapped in a framework that mistakes matter for the whole of reality. In this wide-ranging interview, Gómez-Marín challenges the foundations of materialism, defends the scientific study of near-death experiences, and calls for a new type of science grounded in mystery and a renewed sense of the sacred. He suggests that abandoning materialism could open the door to a deeper understanding of consciousness, death, and the purpose of human existence. Simon Custer: You are both a theoretical physicist and a neuroscientist, and you have also been fiercely critical of materialist theories of mind and consciousness. What do you think the ultimate nature of reality is?Àlex Gómez-Marín: I don't know what the ultimate nature of reality is, but what I try to first assess is whether the stories that they [mainstream science] have told us about it are right, or maybe whether there are other alternatives. That's why I've been a fierce critic of materialism. As a scientist, I realized that they had sold us this idea that to be a good scientist you also had to subscribe to many other -isms, like materialism, reductionism, and even secularism. And so first I think one needs to unmount these -isms, and then, as is happening today in consciousness studies, we have a huge landscape where there isn't only one game in town, the idea that matter is the only thing that really exists. But because we are studying the hard problem of consciousness, it may be the case that other views of reality, like idealism, or even dualism, or other theories like dual aspect monism... these are philosophical ideas that now, I think, have room in science to be taken seriously. How does something like materialism relate to dualism or idealism? What is materialism in the first place?Well, materialism is the philosophical position that matter is the only really ‘real’ thing in the universe. And I think that worked kind of well because science started 400 years ago and Galileo made that split, I call it the foundational wound. It was a great business move.He said, let's start doing science on that portion of reality that lends itself more easily to mathematization and measurement. So, for some reason, the solidity of this table or the movement of planets lend themselves very well to this foundational idea of science. But as time went on, 400 years later, we realized that we had forgotten the other side, which is what really matters.What really matters is pain, is love, is feelings, sensation, consciousness, which is very hard to define, but very intimate. We all know what it is. It's that thing that disappears when we go into deep sleep and comes back in the morning. SUGGESTED VIEWING On the edges of knowledge With Michael Shermer, Rupert Sheldrake, Güneş Taylor It's what it is like to be, as Nagel said. It's the feeling of being alive. So, materialism is good to study certain things, but then when it ossifies into this ideology and then is dressed like science, now it's preventing us from understanding these key questions that are really that everybody wants to know.Why are we here? Why do we feel reality? Where do we go when we die? And so we need other ways. We need pluralism. I'm only asking for having more options on the table and taking them seriously. Why does materialism fail to explain consciousness? For example, if you were to lobotomize me, I would not be a functional human being. What do you say to someone who might think that materialism adequately explains the mind?Well, here we could speak about different things. We could talk about physics or about neuroscience. I happen to have training with both.For instance, for neuroscientists, 99% of them, I'm not included in that portion, believe that the brain can only be a productive organ. It's an organ that somehow, somewhere, consciousness emerges. It's like a lamp. And then something happens, magic happens, and then consciousness emerges.That's the position you need to be if you're a materialist because if the only really ‘real’ thing is matter, then you need to say, just give us some more time and money and we'll figure out how mind emerges or is produced from matter. There are many philosophically sophisticated ways of criticizing this.Now there's another option, which is the brain as a permissive organ. This was said by William James more than 100 years ago.Now then the brain wouldn't be like this machine, like for instance, a heat engine whose smoke is consciousness, which is what we would have in the first big model, the productive model. But in the permissive model, the brain would be a kind of a filter. And so the brain would still have a very important role in consciousness, but it wouldn't be a productive role.It would be permissive, much like a filter or much like a prism which would receive light. And - I'm speaking metaphorically - it would receive the light of the mind and then it could reflect it and refract it.Now, with these two big options on the table, I think we can make progress into what I call the edges of consciousness, which are all these experiences, weird experiences that many people have, but we don't talk about enough, like near-death experiences, precognitive dreams, synchronicities. These experiences are very important for humans and they have a place in the permissive hypothesis and they are literally impossible in the productive hypothesis. So that's yet one more reason to explore alternatives to materialism. There may be anecdotal evidence for near-death experiences, but is there robust evidence that would be accepted by the majority of scientists who subscribe to the scientific method?Sure. And the plural of anecdotes, someone said, is data.And there's a lot of data. Actually, this year is the 50th anniversary, half a century, since Dr. Raymond Moody realized that we have two ears and one mouth and started listening to what his patients had to say about their experiences while they were clinically dead.The heart had stopped, breathing had stopped in these patients. These patients would come back and tell him these amazing stories that some people may say are hallucinations, but for the patients were hyper-real, like seeing light at the end of the tunnels, seeing deceased family members waiting for them, feeling bliss.___I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain.___And so he and others started taking them seriously and writing their accounts down. And then you can do a science based on that material of experience that people have. Now, on the more objective side, more recently people have started to measure what's going on in the brain when people are clinically dead and brought back. This has opened a proper field of study, which is near-death studies.Evidence is a difficult word, because sometimes people think that when you say evidence, this is just the final proof. Evidence is like in a jury. You bring testimony, you bring pieces of data that point in one direction or another.I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain. When brains are broken or shut off, there can still be mind going on. And that's revolutionary.That would entail that when we die, it's not game over, which, by the way, is the thesis of materialism. If consciousness survives, materialism dies. It's game over for materialism if something of us continues after we die. Do you think that there is mental continuity after death?Well, I think so, and I believe so, and I could also say I may have experienced it myself, because four years ago I had a near-death experience. I was in the hospital, I lost a lot of blood, and I saw those beings at the end of the tunnel, three beings, and there was yellow light. I was in a well, I was looking upwards, and I hadn't read about NDEs by then, but when I came back from this experience, I decided I would try to integrate this also in my professional life. Not just my personal life, of course, but my professional life as a physicist and as a neuroscientist. So I may have had the experience of glimpses of what an afterlife would be, and I'm not ashamed to say it in this way, and then one can do science of it, and then one can do philosophy of it.One can think about what -isms we were discussing, what views on reality would allow those experiences to be really ‘real,’ as opposed to, well, poor guy, the brain was kind of broken, it must have been a hallucination. Do you have a view about whether individuality or “the ego” persists after death, or whether we sort of merge into some sort of cosmic consciousness instead?I don't know, but my view would be along those lines you're suggesting. I think we could speak about a kind of universal mind, and then the problem is not how we emerge from matter, but how we fragment from a more holistic consciousness into these individual eddies and then when we die, this kind of dissipates.But I'm not sure. For instance, idealism would promote that view, but then what would survive of us after these eddies just vanish and become again the big Consciousness, I'm not sure what that would be. I don't know for sure, but I would tell you I believe something of us survives.And there are other lines of research, not just near-death experience, that can address this really hard question of survival. For instance, there are children who remember previous lives. This was studied by Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia for more than 50 years.___Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.___It's amazing research. He went all over the world, especially in the East, and collected all these case studies, all these stories. In plural, these were data of kids, very young age, who would describe up to 40 items that then he could go and verify.There was no internet. There was really no way the kid could know. Why would the kid say that when I was living in this other body and I was a woman and that's how my house would look like or that's how I would die, right? Again, there is evidence, not proof, but there's evidence not only that something weird and interesting is happening as we cross the threshold, but also when we come back to this life.Scientists should not be afraid of studying this, but they are because there's stigma. There's usually stigma upon the enigma, and this is so unfortunate. And one of the reasons is because of the ideology of materialism, because those things cannot be possible. What is wrong with the politics of science such that they have generated this stigma?So many things. Science is a human activity to begin with.So it falls prey to all our passions and ego and greed. That's one thing. Science is a job for the good and for the bad.You need to get a salary. You need to get grants. Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.And then, we didn't have time to unpack this, but science for many years become entangled, as I was suggesting before, to other -isms, materialism, secularism. So anything that smells like the afterlife, people may think has to do with God, and then they freak out.Anything that suggests that there's something about the mind that may not need a physical material substrate to exist, it smells like non-materialism. So, all these -isms are ideologically blocking that kind of research, and then there are all these sociopolitical constraints as to what should be studied and what shouldn't be studied.I call it the backstage of science. Sometimes we scientists or science communicators seem to speak as if the data is the only thing that matters. We say, well, data and theory.But then there's a third leg of this stool, which is all the politics that goes behind the scenes. And we often don't speak about this, and it's quite vicious and petty, and it's very real. Why is materialism so attractive to most scientists?Well, an easy answer is because we've grown up with it.It's what the educational system promotes, and that's what you hear when you go to university. So it's like growing in a culture. It feels like the air in which you breathe.So it's very hard to begin with to detect, well, maybe there's another alternative. Maybe there are other ways of doing science, other environments in which one could do science. That's one reason.And other reasons maybe are more profound, and I'm not qualified to explain them, but I could say, looking at this 400-year history of science, since it started around 1623 with Galileo's book The Assayer, that science went and coupled with all what's going on in the West.And so the fall of religion, you could say, and science presented us this new alternative that then could be coupled very well with other -isms, and this idea of growth, and then science losing its good twin brother, which was philosophy. There's a whole natural history of science starting as philosophy, kind of emancipating or breaking out from philosophy, and then marrying technology, and then marrying other social systems.From that point of view, materialism is a very convenient idea to propose. There were attempts, like the German idealists tried to do a more romantic science. But no, the idea prevailed, like Francis Bacon said: You should pursue nature through all her corners, he said, and make her spill her secrets.Our attitude towards nature in the science that dominates is very much reflecting how we treat nature in our society, in our culture, like a resource to extract secrets by force and then dominate it. How is materialism related to the notions of growth and progress? What's wrong with having a productive citizenry?This is another very interesting and very difficult question to answer.But there's this recent book coming out by Paul Kingsnorth. In it, he explains this idea of the machine and this idea of progress. And this, again, this conflation of more is better, of we need to go forward always, and convincing us that the way to do that is to continually extract more from nature. But because we don't have the religious context anymore, because God is dead, then what do we have? We have what we can do as humans with our own gadgets.It's kind of the story of the Promethean fire. We will just build anything to make ourselves God.A good example today is transhumanism. Transhumanism is this pseudo-religion dressed in technoscientific language whose goal is very religious. They promise immortality, they promise redemption, they promise transformation of the entire natural world, but it's done by human means through technology. Are you suggesting that we can't have ethics without religion?Well, we should have ethics with or without religion. That's another pruning that has happened in science. We say, forget about aesthetics, although some physicists still think that beautiful means probably true, and forget about politics. We pretend there's no backstage of science, and even let's forget about ethics.___Science needs to be in the service of mankind.___Scientists, when they become more like engineers, they're just thinking how to make things work so that they can go to the moon, go to Mars, make machines that think, but they don't think whether that's a good idea.And also consider metaphysics. Many scientists for a long time pretended, and maybe that comes from the stream of positivisms, that really one doesn't need metaphysics at all, except that materialism is always the metaphysics running the system.You see, it's not just ethics. It's the pruning of all of these, you could say, five main legs of philosophy that just makes a kind of unconscious science, a science that doesn't really know what it's doing. It's doing it very well locally, but it just doesn't know what it's doing globally. Do you think science has to have an ultimate vision and purpose behind it for it to be effective or for it to be meaningful and transformative?Yes, a way I would say that is that science needs to be in the service of mankind. And it hasn't been that. And we can see it through, you know, when we discovered the secrets of the atom, and all of a sudden, the Manhattan Project, and then we create nuclear weapons.And now we're trying to crack how machines may think, and now we're creating this mess, right? So science needs to be in service of mankind, not in service of a few ideas that maybe want to make more money or just dominate upon nature. What about planes, trains, automobiles, and modern medicine? Hasn't science served mankind by helping us develop those technologies?Yes and no. I see where you're going, and it's fair.I came here by plane, and it's a blessing. When I almost died, the surgeons did their job, and they saved my life. But these two forced choices between Luddites and Silicon Valley types, I think, of course, it's a false dichotomy.Progress, in a way, it's good, but we often don't speak about the dark side of the moon. We say the great things that progress has brought, and we don't speak about the disasters, the side effects that it has come with, and the same when we promise new technologies. We tend to think that any technology is great, that email is going to save us so much time because we don't need to write letters and send them anymore.Is that true? I spend so many hours a week writing emails. Let's just say there are great things about it and bad things about it. People like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, argue that we've made moral progress over time because of the Enlightenment. Do you think that's totally wrong-headed?I think he's emphasizing a side of the moon, and he does that very well, and you can find tons of plots where there's a slope going up and say it's great. But I think he should also tell the not-so-friendly story.But if your ideology is just to resist and continue to explain that the Enlightenment is the best thing ever and reason is the best thing ever… this feels to me like you're worshipping these abstractions.I'm very critical of it and also of these, again, science communicators and scientists that say, Oh, science says, in the name of science, experts say. It's like, come on, let's be careful because we can shoot ourselves in the foot by putting forth to the people an image of science that we know is not really true. Recently there's been a resurgence of spirituality and of people who say that they're spiritual but not religious, especially in the United States. If materialism is going away, what is going to fill that gap? Are we going to return to traditional religion? Do you see that being connected with the rise of the political right?I'm not a fortune teller, so I don't know what's going to happen. But, yeah, we could say we're in this post-materialist age and even post-secular age. One cannot come back to the past, but maybe just to contact with the roots is a good idea.What do I mean by that? I think we need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method. We need to do so in a culture where we realize humans cannot thrive in a vacuum where there's this idea that the sacred has to be removed.Now, how do we do that without bringing in back all the vices of religion? I don't know. I'm from a Catholic country.Here we are in England, so there are differences and interreligious dialogue has always been a challenge. But I think maybe a way of putting it is: after all these conflicts and branchings I was quickly alluding to, science from philosophy and then also from religion, now there's a time of reconciliation perhaps and maybe debates in the proper sense, like exchange of ideas in service of learning and getting into something higher than both poles. We need science to talk to religious people and it's interesting when people say they're spiritual and not religious.I think this is just a way of saying, no, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward. But at the end of the day, religions have offered us practices and grounding that we now desperately need. Everybody can and should just meditate or pray or do whatever they want, but we're in a crisis and it's time for reconciliation. What do you say to critics that say you are merely projecting our need for meaning onto a fundamentally indifferent universe?Yeah, I know that the typical science communicator says something like this. But we're not projecting. Human beings feed on meaning.It's the other way around. If you're a materialist, because the only thing that there is is matter, all that comes next, free will, consciousness, meaning, this is a kind of illusion that we need to explain.They're just craving for meaning, but there isn't really for them. I would also like to remind my materialist friends that for decades, if not centuries, they've said in the name of science, we know that this and this and this doesn't really exist. I think now they sense they're forced to say, well, actually, we don't know. We've been saying, for instance, that there's nothing after you die, and now probably they need to admit that they don't know the answer.___We need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method.___So it's a moment to open up possibilities and also to gently but fiercely critique these claims that I think harm society. If you say in the name of science, get on with it, when your father dies, you'll never see him again. Well, what the F do you know about it? You haven't studied the literature, you haven't had any of those experiences, and basically what you're doing is you're just doing marketing on ideology. This needs to stop. Do you think that it's scarier for some people to entertain the thought that there might be life after death, compared to a materialist worldview where you just die, given that there might be consequences for unsavory behaviour?Well, death and dying is scary. It's maybe the ultimate ending. It's a limit on life, and when we're in this conquest mode, we don't like limits.And it also has, there's a shockwave backwards, so I think if you change your notion of what death is or may be, you live differently. It also has consequences, as you're saying, for the future because this is not our only goal here and we come back in whatever form. And again, different religions would say different things. I the East, they are more happy with the idea of reincarnation, and here in the West, there are other preferences. But in any case, it changes how we live, and that's really what matters.It's not about just projecting or imagining what we'll be after, but how we live now and also how we treat those who are dying. So it goes from the individual to the families, to the hospitals.Now in the near-death research I do, this has ramifications at all these levels, all the way to society.But our society is thanatophobic. It has a phobia of death. We don't want to hear about death, and this is another thing we need to put on the table and be willing to talk about it. Do you think that we might get closer to answering ultimate questions like why is there anything at all if we jettison materialism?That’s an excellent question, Simon. Two things: we should stop treating reality, I believe, as a great sudoku, as an enigma, as something that with intelligence, money, and time that we will crack and instead treat reality more like a mystery. And what you do for in front of a mystery is not to be the clever guy in a class and say “I’ll solve you” but more like “I will bow and you will transform me.”I know this sounds a bit like a scientist speaking like a mystic. But I think this reorientation is needed. In the end, we won’t crack the big questions, but they will transform us. If we free ourselves from this prison of materialism, the way we will explore these questions will be freer, more creative, and in service of mankind. Do you think exploring mystery is the reason why we are here?I think we are here because, and this pseudo-theological argument I’m making off the cuff, But the One, the Absolute, if there is such a thing, had everything except limitation. We are that absolute experiencing that contingency. It’s like an act of divine proprioception. It’s a wonderful adventure, it’s just incredible to be alive. Perhaps we have forgotten why we are here and the whole point is to experience the flesh.Let me end by saying this. I criticize materialism harshly. I bang on this dead horse, because I think it’s dead. But matter is a great mystery. So maybe my invitation is as follows: hey materialist friends, come here, let’s work on materialism 2.0! Consciousness is a mystery, but matter is also a mystery. The fact that we can have an intersubjective experience consensus, the fact that we can apply mathematics, that we can measure things... the physical world we take for granted, but it is a great mystery too.Maybe that’s related to your last question: why are we here? Why did spirit decide to incarnate? Being in the flesh may be a great thing if spirit decided to do so.Àlex Gómez-Marín, thank you very much.My pleasure.
How elite business schools like Wharton are overhauling curriculum as AI reshapes Wall Street bankers' futures
The University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt are revamping business education as AI transforms Wall Street.
Lee Health: Celebrating our first anniversary as private nonprofit
Starting at the end of 2023 and throughout 2024, Lee Health completed a thoughtful, multi-phase process to become a community-focused.
England can hit Australia with pace again
Brydon Carse believes England can once again hit Australia with pace in the second Ashes Test in Brisbane, despite the expected absence of Mark Wood.
Entertainment: Cinematic Revival - Los Angeles Business Journal
In suburban Gardena, 800 chairs shoulder 79 years of intrigue, mystique, frights and laughter from their countless occupants. For the upcoming decades,
Old Dominion partners with Caesars Entertainment to launch its newest album in Las Vegas
The band performs ‘Barbara’ in its entirety at Planet Hollywood on Dec. 5-6.
Alicia Keys says a realization about her 'own triggers' shaped the way she parents
Alicia Keys and her husband, Swizz Beatz, have a blended family of five kids, three of whom are from his previous relationships.
What to Stream: George Clooney, Tom Cruise, Zac Brown Band, Michelle Pfeiffer and Metroid Prime 4
George Clooney playing a dashing movie star with nagging midlife regrets in “Jay Kelly” and Zac Brown Band returning with fresh tunes are some of the new television, films, music
2025 Virginia Business Person of the Year: John Asbury | Atlantic Union Bank
Atlantic Union CEO John Asbury is Virginia Business’ 2025 Business Person of the Year, recognized for leading the bank’s growth.
Anker’s Laptop Power Bank is $32 off for Cyber Monday, its biggest discount yet
It’s airline-compliant, too.
Albany business featured on Good Morning America showcases local products
Sunnyland Farms highlighted items including peanut brittle, homemade cheese straws and pecans as potential holiday gifts.
K-pop bands pledge donations to support victims in Hong Kong tower fire
At least five K-pop bands have pledged their support for victims, as have South Korean media conglomerates.
'Reconcile our resentment': Boy band Verivery faces its fears and 'han' after yearslong hiatus
During their two-and-a-half-year hiatus — practically an eternity in the K-pop world — the members of boy band Verivery kept busy, from acting in plays and musicals to one member even placing ninth in Mnet’s “Boys II Planet” audition program.
The Only Laptop Deal That Delivers the Best Bang for the Buck Is Still on Sale for Cyber Monday
The two-in-one Lenovo Duet 11 Chromebook is great for its versatility, but its biggest draw is its affordability.
UnitedHealth agrees to sell South American business to private equity firm Patria for $1 billion, sources say
UnitedHealth Group has agreed to sell its South American business Banmedica to a Brazilian private equity group, two sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Shabana Mahmood and my surprise at teenagers’ views on immigration
Letters: Rev Dr Michael Fox responds to an article by Nesrine Malik on the home secretary using her ‘story’ to silence criticism of her policies
Anker Cyber Monday deals offer up to 50 percent off power banks, wireless chargers, power adapters and more
Anker makes some of our favorite power banks, power adapters and wireless chargers -- for Cyber Monday, many of those top picks are on sale.
Dozens of convicted sex offenders once infiltrated N.J. health care. Now they’re banned.
After outrage over a chiropractor who was allowed to keep his license, changes were made.
Anker Plays Long Game With 25,000mAh Power Bank, 3 USB-C 100W Ports Hit Record Low to Gain Users
Triple 100W USB-C ports charge laptops and phones simultaneously.