Trendy Dumbo’s cobblestone streets and converted Brooklyn warehouse buildings are the backdrop for independent boutiques, high-end restaurants and trendy cafes. Near the waterfront, St. Ann’s Warehouse, in a former tobacco factory, is the heart of a thriving performance and gallery scene. The north end of Brooklyn Bridge Park features historic Jane’s Carousel as well as picturesque views of the Manhattan skyline.
Monthly Archives: April 2022
London Views: Changing Of The Guard (April 2022)
Changing of the Guard (or Guard Mounting) is the ceremony where The Queen’s Guard hands over responsibility for protecting Buckingham Palace and St. James’s Palace to the New Guard.
The St. James’s Detachment of The Queen’s Guard mounts daily in Friary Court.
International Art: Apollo Magazine – May 2022 Issue
• The method in Jackson Pollock’s madness
• The problem with Russian money in the art world
• What war photography looks like today
• Philip Guston’s uneasy quest for freedom
Plus: The women artists gazing at men, the portraits of Glyn Philpot, and Elizabeth David’s taste in Old Masters; and reviews of Donatello in Florence, Boilly in Paris, Kafka’s drawings and Stephen Shore’s memoir.
Paris Walks: The Rue Des Abbesses In Montmartre
The Place des Abbesses is located within the Montmartre area of Paris where it is home to an original art nouveau metro entrance, plus the Square Jehan-Rictus with the I Love You wall and the Paroisse Saint Jean church that was constructed in a revolutionary style at the time. There was once a Benedictine convent in this area of Paris that was built on the site of the martyrdom of Saint Denis, which was a popular place for pilgrimages until it was destroyed during the French Revolution, and this is where the Place des Abbesses gets in name from. The Place des Abbesses is a typical square that has a traditional feel, yet is now a popular place for shopping with some old shops and chic boutiques close by, along with numerous restaurants for that all important experience of eating out in Paris. Alternatively, you could just enjoy a coffee at one of the many cafes in Paris that are also situated around this square.
Morning News: U.S. Meets With Zelensky In Ukraine, Macron Wins Re-Election
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv, promising to gradually re-establish a diplomatic presence in Ukraine.
French President Emmanuel Macron won a second term, beating far right candidate Marine Le Pen with 58 percent of the vote. And, workers at an Amazon sorting facility in Staten Island begin voting on unionization today.
Front Page: Wall Street Journal – April 25, 2022
Science Books: Top New Picks – Nature Magazine
Andrew Robinson reviews five of the week’s best science picks.
Spark
Timothy J. Jorgensen Princeton Univ. Press (2022)
The use of electricity in medicine has long been controversial, notes health physicist Timothy Jorgensen. Eighteenth-century polymath Benjamin Franklin applied shocks to paralysed muscles with temporary success. In the 1930s, neurologist Ugo Cerletti pioneered painful but effective electroconvulsive therapy for schizophrenia and depression. Yet even today, “no one is sure exactly how ECT works”, says Jorgensen in his brilliant book. Now, business magnate Elon Musk plans to implant computer chips to treat brain disorders.
The New Fire
Ben Buchanan & Andrew Imbrie MIT Press (2022)
Artificial intelligence (AI) is not like electricity, but like fire, say Ben Buchanan and Andrew Imbrie — academic specialists in emerging technology — in their authoritative, coruscating analysis of its current and future significance. Its potential impact ranges from illuminating to catastrophic, according to three rival and sometimes overlapping views from observers whom they label “evangelists, warriors and Cassandras”. “Three sparks ignite the new fire,” say the authors: data, algorithms and computing power.
Tomorrow’s People
Paul Morland Picador (2022)
“To most of us, the influence of demography on our future is far from obvious,” writes demographer Paul Morland. City dwellers tend to have low fertility, thereby creating an older population and eventually population decline, which could prompt migration and ethnic change, as in today’s United Kingdom — or might not, as in Japan. Morland’s careful book discusses ten indicators, one per chapter: infant mortality, population growth, urbanization, fertility, ageing, old age, population decline, ethnic change, education and food.
Restarting the Future
Jonathan Haskel & Stian Westlake Princeton Univ. Press (2022)
In the past few decades, growth has stagnated in advanced economies. This is odd, given low interest rates, high business profits and a wide belief that we live with “dizzying technological progress”, write economists Jonathan Haskel and Stian Westlake. They argue that the old economic model based on material production fails when it comes to intangible assets — such as software, data, design and business processes — that hinge on ideas, knowledge and relationships. Financial and state institutions must update to cope.
Inequality
Carles Lalueza-Fox MIT Press (2022)
Inequality and its origins will always preoccupy humans. In 2014, biologist Carles Lalueza-Fox led the retrieval of a genome from a European forager’s skeleton more than 7,000 years old; his later studies revealed genetic evidence of “inequality and discrimination in different times and periods”, as he describes in this significant book, written during the pandemic. He concludes by observing that COVID‑19 has had an enhanced impact on poor people, which he anticipates will feature in future genetic studies.
Waterfall Views: Reedy River In South Carolina
“Sunday Morning” takes us under waterfalls on the Reedy River near Greenville, South Carolina. Videographer: Kevin Kjergaard.
The Reedy River is a tributary of the Saluda River, about 65 miles long, in northwestern South Carolina in the United States. Via the Saluda and Congaree rivers, it is part of the watershed of the Santee River, which flows to the Atlantic Ocean.
City Walks: Faisalabad In Punjab, East Pakistan (4K)
Faisalabad, formerly known as Lyallpur, named after the founder of the city is the third-most-populous city in Pakistan after Karachi and Lahore respectively, and the second-largest in the eastern province of Punjab.
Events: Rio de Janeiro’s ‘Carnival Parade’ Returns
Colorful floats and flamboyant dancers are delighting tens of thousands jammed into Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Sambadrome, putting on a delayed Carnival celebration after the pandemic halted the dazzling displays.
Boomers Daily 