Tag:
Weekender
Dominique Olivier
The Nazi who was tried as a pirate
The scale and nature of Adolf Eichmann’s crimes placed them outside the reach of conventional legal frameworks. To hold him accountable, one court turned to a centuries-old doctrine designed to prosecute those who were considered enemies of all humanity. Dominique Olivier tells the astonishing story of how one Nazi almost got away.
Dominique Olivier
Bad taste is still taste
A film widely labelled as "the worst ever made" has spent two decades selling out midnight screenings. This raises an awkward possibility: maybe the line between “bad” and “good” is less stable than we like to think. Dominique Olivier introduces you to the cultural phenomenon that is The Room.
Dominique Olivier
The problem with obedience
One of history's most unsettling experiments shows us that ethics tend to fall by the wayside when people are "following orders".
Is this inherent flaw in humanity an area where AI might have the moral upper hand? Dominique Olivier explores this concept by taking us through Stanley Milgram's famous experiment from the 1960s. As always, the history books teach us a valuable lesson.
Dominique Olivier
The South Sea bubble: a financial crash to remember
If you’ve been watching the current frenzy around artificial intelligence - the breathless predictions, the overnight billionaires, the declarations that civilisation is either saved or doomed - you may feel a faint sense of déjà vu as you read Dominique Olivier's tale of The South Sea Company bubble. It even caught out Sir Isaac Newton!
Dominique Olivier
How a boardwalk sideshow changed modern medicine
Coney Island had its peep shows, its freak shows, its barkers and rides. And tucked between them was an exhibit of premature infants in glass boxes, tended by trained nurses. This wasn’t entertainment - it was the beginning of modern neonatal care, smuggled in as a carnival act.
