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...public interest in their lives. Swift’s 2014 singles “Blank Space” and “Shake It Off” satirise the media portrayal of her as “a girl who’s crazy but seductive but glamorous but nuts but manipulative”, and Plath’s Lady Lazarus turns the tables on “the peanut-crunching crowd”, exploiting them as they seek to exploit her: There is a charge For the...

...public debate are essential for making societies more peaceful, tolerant and harmonious. Whereas superstitions can provide a refuge in ignorance and uncertainty, human beings are at our best when we can freely use our minds to examine and understand our natural worlds. Lucky pants What does that mean today? While there’s no harm in wearing those lucky pants if they make...

...public interest over the past decade or so. In 2013, a series of experiments by researchers Daniel Comer Kidd and Emmanuel Castano (2013) were published in the influential Science journal, generating headlines such as ‘Reading Fiction Makes You A Nicer Person’ (Barras, 2013), ‘Now We Have Proof Reading Literary Fiction Makes You A Better Person’ (Schonfeld, 2013),...