(Image: Unsplash/Josh Riemer)

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

It’s not worth it: why you should ditch life-extending health treatment once you’re over 75 (says a medical professional under 75). On the subject of health, do smart phones alter sexual behaviour? Hmmmm — maybe, but not in the way you think.

Superheroes or losers? Laura La Rosa explores media depictions of fatherhood.

Do you know how many US graduates will never pay off their student debt? (There’s more than $1.5 trillion of it.)

Nanny state British medical publication The Lancet decided to venture into geopolitical territory and scold India over Kashmir. An Indian medical association objected, so an Indian doctor hit back.

Finally, two books explore the despair and suicide that overtook Germans at the end of World War II as Soviet forces approached.

Front cover of Florian Huber's Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself.
Front cover of Florian Huber’s Promise Me You’ll Shoot Yourself.

BEAM ME UP, NEO

Star Trek transporters have always worried me — is the person who comes out the other end the same person or a perfect copy who thinks they’re the same person, and for everyone else is indeed the same person? And what’s the difference anyway? Well, it gets more complicated than that.

Given it’s very likely we’re living in a computer game-style simulation and that a Matrix 4 is on the way (can they send John Wick to kill Neo?) should we try to find out if we’re not real? The arguments for and against. Meanwhile, “randonauts” are trying to glitch the simulation by going to random locations (watch out — there are llamas!).

NOTHING TO SEE HERE, EVERYTHING’S FINE

Celeste Liddle describes a rotten week for Aboriginal rights.

Overseas, Trump allies, in preparation for the 2020 election campaign, are developing smear sheets on journalists who might criticise him. Speaking of preparing for war, the US Army is printing playing cards featuring Iranian armour, in order to familiarise troops with them.

The late David Koch more than pretty much any other individual on Earth helped perpetuate the climate disaster we now face. Donald Trump’s attacks on American Jews illustrate how little he understands Judaism. And the rise to power of Boris Johnson hasn’t done anything to diminish the baleful influence of Nigel Farage.

FROM THE BUSINESS DESK

More on an issue Side View has mentioned before: the rise and rise of ransomware, and the role of insurance companies in it.

“Quite rapidly, the con­cerns about undue corporate power can be replaced by concerns about the risk of foreign influence.” A new thesis about the way corporations influence the political environment — and it’s not through lobbying. Plus, making Americans aware of how low-income workers cope with terrible working conditions — including critics of those conditions.

Dear Sir: I have been requested by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to contact you to explain that Nigerian scammers have new, improved tactics (of course, let’s not forget the wonderful “view from the humanities” moment when striking back at Nigerian scammers was equated with lynching).

OVERSEAS IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY: THEY DO THINGS DIFFERENTLY THERE

From around the globe:

STATIONARY, ETERNALLY IN MOTION, SWIFT

Finally: nursing clams — a pictorial guide. Like everything else, sharks and their rare biting of people are the subject of intense partisanship in the United States. And did you know how amazing the swift is? Amazingly amazing — read why!

Side View is taking an allegedly well-earned break until October. In the meantime, here’s a greyhound and a kitten.