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The recent death of Monty Python’s Terry Jones has led to many reflections on the work of one of the famous comedy troupe’s founding members. Today in The Conversation Canada, Matthew Robert Anderson of Concordia University looks at Jones’s directorial debut for the Python film Life of Brian. Controversial at the time, the film has become a classic not just for its comedy, but for its take on the early days of Christianity. “Scholars of the Bible have long known that beneath the slapstick, Life of Brian made valuable points
about the historical Jesus,” writes Prof. Anderson.
Also today:
Regards,
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Graham Chapman as Brian in Terry Jones’s ‘Monty Python’s Life Of Brian.’
(HandMade Films/Python (Monty) Pictures//Monty Python's Life of Brian)
Matthew Robert Anderson, Concordia University
'Life of Brian' is a perfect introduction to how a seemingly-irreverent parody of films about the historical Jesus can offer stronger historical insights than more earnest fare.
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Orphan Swazi schoolboys playing soccer in a local school in Mbabane, Swaziland, in 2006.
(Shutterstock)
Tegwen Gadais, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM)
Whether it's global conflicts or communities in trouble, the solutions to peace and prosperity aren't only found by government. Sports, too, can bring about much-needed change.
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The role of women in futuristic drama TV series ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ makes references to Darwin’s writings on evolution.
(Shutterstock)
Ian Hesketh, The University of Queensland
In the television show 'The Handmaid's Tale,' Charles Darwin's 'Descent of Man' makes a cameo — and its appearance makes a comment on how Gilead functions.
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In this October 2011 photo, members of the Royal New Zealand defense force pump sea water into holding tanks ready to be used by the desalination plant in Funafuti, Tuvalu, South Pacific. The atolls of Tuvalu are at grave risk due to rising sea levels and contaminated ground water.
AP Photo/Alastair Grant
Yvonne Su, University of Guelph
A recent ruling by the UN's Human Rights Committee recognized that climate refugees do exist, and acknowledged a legal basis for protecting them when their lives are threatened by climate change.
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Les produits de cannabis comestible, comme ces pailles bonbons, sont désormais disponibles, mais les risques de surdose sont très élevés.
Shutterstock
Anita Srivastava, University of Toronto
Les bonbons et les chocolats au cannabis peuvent être attrayants pour les jeunes. Nous devons nous efforcer de minimiser les effets potentiels sur la santé.
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Health + Medicine
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C Raina MacIntyre, UNSW
There's no evidence you can spread the Wuhan coronavirus before showing symptoms, but one study suggests it's possible for children and young people to be infectious without ever having symptoms.
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Aubree Gordon, University of Michigan; Florian Krammer, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
One of the dangers of the new coronavirus is that there is no treatment – and no vaccine. But researchers had already been at work on vaccines for close-related viruses.
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Politics
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Mandisi Majavu, Rhodes University
In South Africa, state corruption has taken hold with utter disregard for ethics and democratic norms in a cynical exploitation of the post-apartheid transformation agenda.
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