AI like HAL 9000 can never exist because real emotions aren’t programmable: gualtiero boffi/Shutterstock HAL 9000 is one of the best-known articifical intelligence characters of modern film. This superior form of sentient computer embarks on a mission to Jupiter, along with a human crew, in Stanley Kubrick’s iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which is …
Teenagers aren’t reading enough tough books – here’s why they should worry: Shutterstock. We may be living in the digital age, but reading books is still a big part of growing up. And the books that young people read – and how difficult they are – can have a massive impact on their ability to …
Why aren’t you dead? The bizarre approaches taken by benefits assessors: They are designed to help people with long-term illness or disabilities but there has been a litany of errors and mistakes. MPs up and down the country have received thousands of letters detailing the shocking and often downright strange questions claimants have had to …
After school clubs aren’t always safe spaces: what should be done about it: Getting involved in after-school sports can be positive, but it comes with risks too. Reuters/David Gray Young people around the world are encouraged to get involved in extracurricular activities. These range from choirs and drama clubs to sports teams, with many other …
Why aren’t we more outraged about eating chicken?: Chickens have personalities, too. Pixabay Like a B-movie for a post-Brexit era, consumers in Britain may soon be unwillingly cast in the 2019 blockbuster, Attack of the Chlorine Chickens. If news headlines are to be believed, flocks of toxic fowl are waiting to storm Britain’s shores like …
Austerity, privatisation and deregulation aren’t working – Grenfell now calls for change: Camden Council has been evacuating residents from four tower blocks in north London in response to concerns over their fire safety, and a total of 95 local authority and housing association-owned tower blocks across England have now been shown to have cladding that …
What to do with old fivers now that they aren’t legal tender: The news probably passed you by without much fanfare but old paper Bank of England 5 notes are now no longer legal tender. The old notes had to be spent by the public by midnight on Friday 5 May and have now lost …
Why South Africa’s social grants aren’t eradicating malnutrition: Some 17 million South Africans rely on social grants. Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters A national sigh of relief should follow the Constitutional Court ruling that ensures the uninterrupted payment of social grants in South Africa. And some praise might follow the slight increases in monthly social grant payments to …
Asimov’s laws of robotics aren’t the moral guidelines they appear to be: Tithe Luadthong/Shutterstock Seventy-five years ago, the celebrated science fiction writer Isaac Asimov published a short story called Runaround. Set on Mercury, it features a sophisticated robot nicknamed Speedy that has been ordered to gather some of the chemical selenium for two human space …
Melissa McCarthy: I feel ‘weird’ when my family aren’t around: The 'Ghostbusters' star always make sure her children Georgette, six, and Vivian, nine – who she has with her husband Ben Falcone – join them on set from time to time so they can see their parents working. She said: “They're in it because they …
National Living Wage: The people who aren’t entitled to it: Brexit is likely to knock 10p off the National Living Wage next year, according to research by the Resolution Foundation. The weaker pay outlook in the face of economic uncertainty is likely to cut 10p from the wage, which was brought in at A 7.20 …
Long lives aren’t necessarily happy ones in Africa, particularly for women: Older women are often identified and witches and persecuted. DIFD/Flickr, CC BY Around the world, people are living longer. Medical advances, improving health care systems and declining fertility rates have all contributed to this state of affairs. In 1980, there were 378 million people …
When universities aren’t properly funded, everybody loses: A year on from South Africa's #feesmustfall protests, funding remains a hot issue. Kim Ludbrook/EPA It seems that South Africa’s universities are on a knife-edge once more. Its students are ready to march again. It’s striking that universities find themselves in this position less than a year after …
Media-led investigations aren’t the way to beat doping in sport: Kenyan athletes exercise in the early morning near a high-altitude training camp. Reuters/Siegfried Modola New allegations of doping in Kenya have surfaced just ahead of the Rio Olympics. They include athletes and coaches from other countries, making Kenya seem like a dopers’ paradise with little …
If food labels aren’t simple, consumers may ignore them: Shutterstock Consumers gather information about food from a variety of sources including their families, the media and through education. But another way that they can get the information is through food and nutrition labels. Nutrition labelling refers to the section on food labels that declares nutrient …