This Fall update comes out a little late as I am working on updating my website. I’ve made my publications page much more user-friendly, and in the coming months, I am going to add some creative pages for those, like me, who would like a little more art, nature, and beauty in their lives (and a little less current events).
In October 2021, I virtually attended the Rabbit Room’s Hutchmoot Homebound Conference for Christian artists, writers, and musicians. The topics at Hutchmoot paired well with the Trinity Forum’s Evening Conversation with Peter Kreeft and Eugene Rivers in partnership with Comment Magazine.
My articles from September and October focused predominantly on China and technology at Mind Matters News. The buzz in the China & Tech wold is the Chinese government’s crackdown on the tech sector with new privacy and data protection laws. In many ways, these laws were needed to rein in the tech sector, but the laws also make room for the government to take greater control of tech companies and user data.
China offers a perspective on our own decisions with technology. In many ways, China’s data privacy laws are similar to the European Union’s whose technology laws are stricter than in the United States. By looking at other countries, we can ask ourselves what our relationship with technology ought to be, particularly in light of the Wall Street Journal’s coverage on the Facebook Files and former Facebook employee Francis Haugen’s testimony before Congress.
In the Fall issue of Salvo magazine I look at the implications of China’s one-child policy and the most recent data of sex-selection in India. In both cases, there is an over-representation of boys born that is beyond biological possibility, indicating sex-selective abortions or embryo selection using reproductive technologies. I do not write about these countries from a position of moral superiority. Sex selection goes on in the United States. The U.S. is sometimes called the “Wild West” of reproductive technologies because we have fewer regulations than most countries in the world. In the U.S. sex selection tends to be for “family balancing,” but some people travel here from other countries to ensure they have the gender that they prefer.
These topics are weighty, and while I always appreciate it when people read my articles, I recommend balancing such topics with poetry, fiction, or art. Below are some recommendations, including a couple of books that were discussed at the Hutchmoot Conference.
Latest Articles
LinkedIn Says Goodbye to China Mind Matters News, October 20, 2021
Xi Jinping’s Ruthless March Toward ‘Common Prosperity’ Mind Matters News October 12, 2021
Will China’s Huge Tech Sector Crackdown Stifle Innovation? Mind Matters News October 8, 2021
COVID-19 Timeline of Events at Bioethics.com
Unplanned Demography Salvo Magazine, September 1, 2021—China’s one-child policy has been lifted, allowing people to have three children. But many people say they couldn’t have children even if they wanted to.
Gone Girls Salvo Magazine, September 1, 2021—Sex selection happens in many countries. But in some parts of India, parents will make sure they have a boy. Recent studies show there are approximately 13.5 million “missing” girls from sex-selective abortions.
Interesting Reads
Short Story (Fiction): “A Madman’s Diary” by Lu Xun (1936) in The Big Red Book of Modern Chinese Literature, edited by Yunte Huang — This is a well-known story in modern Chinese literature and considered the first short story written in the Chinese vernacular.
Website: AllSides — A news website that gives you the headlines from Right, Center, and Left so you can compare how different venues present the news.
Website: One Hundred Days of Dante – join the largest book group around and read three Cantos per week, with videos from top Dante scholars. Complete the entire Divine Comedy by Easter.
From the Archives
A fool takes no pleasure in understanding, but only in expressing his opinion
Proverbs 18:2 ESV
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