Best New Art Books: “Hokusai’s Landscapes – The Complete Series”

Hokusai's Landscapes The Complete SeriesHokusai’s landscapes revolutionized Japanese printmaking and became icons of world art within a few decades of the artist’s death. Hokusai’s Landscapes focuses exclusively on this pivotal body of the artist’s work, the first book to do so. Featuring stunning color reproductions of works from the incomparable Japanese art collection at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (the largest collection of Japanese prints outside Japan), Hokusai’s Landscapes examines the magnetic appeal of Hokusai’s designs and the circumstances of their creation.

The best known of all Japanese artists, Katsushika Hokusai was active as a painter, book illustrator and print designer throughout his 90-year lifespan. Yet his most famous works―the color woodblock landscape prints issued in series―were produced within a relatively short time, in an amazing burst of creative energy that lasted from about 1830 to 1836.

To read more and order: https://www.amazon.com/Hokusais-Landscapes-Complete-Sarah-Thompson/dp/0878468668

Boomers Fitness: 63-Year Old Arizona Runner Hits Trail With His Dogs (WSJ)

From a Wall Street Journal online article:

Wall Street Journal This Marathoner Is A Dog's Best Friend Dec 1 2019Tuesday, Friday and Sunday, he is out before dawn for a 1.5- to two-hour run with Abby and Finn on one of the many trails accessible from Tucson along the Catalina Highway. The dogs are disciplined enough to run off-leash in a pack with him. The farthest he has taken Abby is a 13-mile, three-hour run. “She came home quite tired, as did I,” he says. When training for a marathon or longer distances, he adds a solo run on Wednesdays. He’ll run up to 23 miles on a network of paths in Tucson called the Loop.

Mr. McLean has had Achilles tendon problems as the result of tight calf muscles, and says he stretches for 15 minutes every night and before his morning run.

Like many marathoners, John McLean trains with running buddies. But if he isn’t keeping pace, he gets barked out. Mr. McLean is a dog-lover who logs miles with four-legged friends, both his own and rescues.

For years Mr. McLean, 63, ran solo. He and his wife, Barbara McLean, live in Arizona. They worked in the aerospace industry and travel made it tough to look after a dog. The day after Mr. McLean retired in 2014, he came home with Abby, a 10-week-old Chocolate Labrador.

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/this-marathoner-is-a-dogs-best-friend-11575201674

Investigative Debate: “Journalists Who Broke Harvey Weinstein Story” (Oxford Union Video)

On 5 October 2017, Twohey and Kantor, already respected investigative journalists, published a story in the New York Times that lit the world ablaze. The article, which detailed decades of sexual harassment and abuse perpetrated by Harvey Weinstein, launched the #MeToo movement into the mainstream and began an ongoing dialogue about the relationship between power and sexual exploitation. The article was the product of months of investigation by Twohey and Kantor, and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2018.

Photography Contests: “2019 Epson International Pano Awards” Winners

The Epson International Pano AwardsThe 10th EPSON International Pano Awards is dedicated to the craft and art of panoramic photography. Advances in digital photography and editing software have resulted in an ever-increasing rise in the popularity of image stitching, especially in the panoramic format. VR ‘immersive’ photography also continues to excite and develop at a rapid pace, and panoramic film photography remains alive and well.

The EPSON International Pano Awards showcases the work of panoramic photographers worldwide and is the largest competition for panoramic photography.

2019 Pano Awards Open Photographer of the Year Mieke Boynton

2019 Pano Awards Major Amateur Winner Carlos F. Turienzo

To read and see more: https://thepanoawards.com/2019-winners-gallery/

 

Emergency Medicine: When “Treating Everyone” Meets “Triage”, Patients And Healthcare Must Wait

From a STAT online article:

Emergency Room WaitingThe specialty of emergency medicine is firmly grounded in social justice and providing access to expert care to everyone who comes in. That means treating anyone, with any condition, at any time. And yet, embedded into emergency department operations is a system that might be perceived as unjust: the concept of triage. The emergency queue isn’t “first come, first served.” It’s nonlinear by design, since triage prioritizes the severity of illness. The severely ill or injured receive immediate attention. Everyone else, to various degrees, must wait.

There are situations when waiting feels immoral to me, not merely inconvenient. Being an emergency doctor means shouldering burdens for perceived injustices that we have little, if any, control over. Most of the beds were locked up with patients boarding in the ED, which means they are waiting for an inpatient bed to become available in the hospital.

Hospitals have high expectations regarding how quickly patients are seen in the emergency department, and my colleagues and I share that goal. But there’s less urgency when it comes to discharging patients from the hospital, which would unclog the backup in the emergency department — and its waiting room.

To read more: https://www.statnews.com/2019/11/25/waiting-feels-immoral-fairness-emergency-department-empathy/?utm_source=STAT+Newsletters&utm_campaign=507f0804a2-First_Opinion&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cab1d7961-507f0804a2-150443417

Health Diagnosis Podcasts: Dysautonomia (Invisible Illness) Affects Up To 3 Million Americans

From a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online article:

This Weekend with Gordon Deal

“Dysautonomia is probably significantly more common than we realize,” says Jeremy Cutsforth-Gregory, a neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “I think it’s significantly underdiagnosed.” In about half of POTS cases, he adds, the patient’s disease grows out of the immune response to an infection. 

Ryan Cooley, a doctor and co-director of the Dysautonomia Center at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, says detecting the disorder is especially challenging because “typically there isn’t a dominant symptom or physical finding.”

Perhaps the most common clue to the disorder is that patients find that when they stand up from a chair their heart races and they feel light-headed.

To read more: https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/2019/11/14/invisible-illness-leaves-millions-undiagnosed-barely-functioning/2507547001/

 

 

 

Boomers’ Retirement: Find Purpose, Give Back To Your Community And Adapt Slowly (Barron’s)

From a Barron’s online article:

ON-DI669_201912_NS_20191127154025Retirements must evolve because everything won’t work out as planned, says Carolyn Taylor, president of Weatherly Asset Management, an investment-management firm in Del Mar, Calif. One of her clients, who worked in the biotech industry and had a very busy family life, trained before retirement to become a master gardener. As she trained, she found that she enjoyed teaching others and finally became a teacher of gardening, Taylor says.

Retirees who feel they have no purpose are more likely to find themselves at a loss or feeling depressed, says Black. Taking on part-time work, going back to school, volunteering, or participating in philanthropic endeavors can make retirees feel that they’re still making an important contribution.

Bringing the enjoyable aspects of your work into your retirement life can be helpful, says Black. “Maybe you enjoy mentoring young people; perhaps you can find a way to continue doing that into retirement,” she says.

To read more: https://www.barrons.com/articles/retirement-can-be-a-tough-psychological-adjustment-here-are-some-ways-to-adapt-51574941500?mod=hp_minor_pos16

Nostalgia: British Artist Roy Nockolds Captured Motorsport Racing From 1930’s Through 1960’s

From a Grand Prix History online posting:

Roy Nockolds PosterHis work was displayed in many exhibitions in the UK and twenty four of his paintings were exhibited in New York in 1960. the exhibition was entitled ‘British Motoring Achievements’ and was a collection of paintings depicting outstanding performances of British cars during the previous ten years. These included the Vanwall and Cooper in Grand Prix, Monte Carlo and Alpine Rallies, speed records by MG and Austin, and Le Mans wins by Jaguar and Aston Martin.

Roy Anthony Nockolds was born in Croydon in south London, England on the 24th January 1911. He was the last of seven children; one of his brothers Harold F. L. Nockolds would later become a motoring journalist and author of the classic Rolls-Royce history, “Magic of a Name”. His mother Flora Mary van der Heyden was the great grand daughter of Dutch Baroque-era painter and inventor, Jan van der Heyden. His farther Walter Herbert Nockolds was a descendent of farmers who had originally come to Britain from the Frisian Islands.

 

British Artist Roy Nockolds

To read more: http://www.grandprixhistory.org/nockolds.htm

New Poetic Short Films: “The Mushroom Hunters” Written By Neil Gaiman, Read By Amanda Palmer

“The Mushroom Hunters” is a Cinematic Poem Short Film With Original Poem Written By Neil Gaiman, Directed By Caroline Rudge.

Artwork, Animation, Direction and Storyboard by: Caroline Rudge

The Mushroom Hunters Cinematic Poem Short Film Written by Neil Gaiman Directed by Caroline Rudge  2019.JPG

Production, Storyboard and Additional Mushrooms: Alexandra Casswell Becker
Editing and Special Effects: Dann Casswell

The Mushroom Hunters Original Poem by: Neil Gaiman

Read by: Amanda Palmer

Bass, Percussion, Vibraphone, Piano and Original Score by: Jherek Bischoff
Cello: Aniela Marie Perry
Violin: Paris Hurley
Viola: Marta Sofia Honer
Recorded, Mixed and Mastered by Jherek Bischoff at Sweethaven

The Mushroom Hunters Cinematic Poem Short Film Written by Neil Gaiman Directed by Caroline Rudge 2019

THE MUSHROOM HUNTERS
by Neil Gaiman

Science, as you know, my little one, is the study
of the nature and behaviour of the universe.
It’s based on observation, on experiment, and measurement,
and the formulation of laws to describe the facts revealed.

In the old times, they say, the men came already fitted with brains
designed to follow flesh-beasts at a run,
to hurdle blindly into the unknown,
and then to find their way back home when lost
with a slain antelope to carry between them.
Or, on bad hunting days, nothing.

The women, who did not need to run down prey,
had brains that spotted landmarks and made paths between them
left at the thorn bush and across the scree
and look down in the bole of the half-fallen tree,
because sometimes there are mushrooms.

Before the flint club, or flint butcher’s tools,
The first tool of all was a sling for the baby
to keep our hands free
and something to put the berries and the mushrooms in,
the roots and the good leaves, the seeds and the crawlers.
Then a flint pestle to smash, to crush, to grind or break.

And sometimes men chased the beasts
into the deep woods,
and never came back.

Some mushrooms will kill you,
while some will show you gods
and some will feed the hunger in our bellies. Identify.
Others will kill us if we eat them raw,
and kill us again if we cook them once,
but if we boil them up in spring water, and pour the water away,
and then boil them once more, and pour the water away,
only then can we eat them safely. Observe.

Observe childbirth, measure the swell of bellies and the shape of breasts,
and through experience discover how to bring babies safely into the world.

Observe everything.

And the mushroom hunters walk the ways they walk
and watch the world, and see what they observe.
And some of them would thrive and lick their lips,
While others clutched their stomachs and expired.
So laws are made and handed down on what is safe. Formulate.

The tools we make to build our lives:
our clothes, our food, our path home…
all these things we base on observation,
on experiment, on measurement, on truth.

And science, you remember, is the study
of the nature and behaviour of the universe,
based on observation, experiment, and measurement,
and the formulation of laws to describe these facts.

The race continues. An early scientist
drew beasts upon the walls of caves
to show her children, now all fat on mushrooms
and on berries, what would be safe to hunt.

The men go running on after beasts.

The scientists walk more slowly, over to the brow of the hill
and down to the water’s edge and past the place where the red clay runs.
They are carrying their babies in the slings they made,
freeing their hands to pick the mushrooms.

The Mushroom Hunters Cinematic Poem Short Film Written by Neil Gaiman Directed by Caroline Rudge 2019

This poem was written by Neil Gaiman and read by Amanda Palmer for Maria Popova’s “The Universe In Verse” event in 2017 (you can read about that here: https://www.brainpickings.org/2017/04…).

The Mushroom Hunters Cinematic Poem Short Film Written by Neil Gaiman Directed by Caroline Rudge 2019

The brilliant team at creative connection in the UK hand-drew this animated video to accompany the poem, and the music was composed and recorded by jherek bischoff. read about the making of this whole film on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/31517040

Future Of Grocery: Ahold Delhaize Digital “Nano Store” Uses Debit Card To Enter, Leave With Items

From a Grocery Dive online review:

Ahold Delhaize NanoStoreShoppers have to use a debit card at the door to gain entry to the store. Then they can shop for products and just walk out. Upon exit, customers can verify their purchases against the receipt. No cash is accepted.

“This speaks to the original design thinking behind NanoStore: to make a plug-and-play modular store so it can be easily placed and moved where people need it the most,”

Albert Heijn first unveiled the fully digital store under its AH To Go name in September at its headquarters in Zaandam in the Netherlands, where it was open only to employees. The move to Schiphol Airport gives the company an opportunity to pilot the technology with consumers in a highly trafficked area.

To read more: https://www.grocerydive.com/news/ahold-delhaizes-nanostore-heads-to-the-airport/568170/