‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (September 11, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the The Economist. This week, how much will artificial intelligence affect the elections of 2024? Also, the ways cynical leaders are using scaremongering tactics both to win and to abuse power (9:35) and why everyone wants to own an airline these days (17:00).
Daily Archives: September 4, 2023
New Museum Exhibitions: ‘Manet/Degas’ At The Met
Manet/Degas
September 24, 2023–January 7, 2024
Through more than 150 paintings and works on paper, Manet/Degas takes a fresh look at the interactions of these two artists in the context of the family relationships, friendships, and intellectual circles that influenced their artistic and professional choices, deepening our understanding of a key moment in nineteenth-century French painting.
Manet/Degas is organized by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, Paris.
Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Sept 11, 2023
The Transformative, Alarming Power of Gene Editing
A rogue scientist showed that crispr gives humans the ability to transform ourselves. But should we?
Crispr, which may be the single most transformative biological technology of the twenty-first century, is a natural phenomenon, evolved over billions of years. It was first observed in the nineteen-eighties, when researchers noticed unexplained sequences of viral DNA in E. coli. Eventually, they realized that these sequences played a role in the bacteria’s immune system: they could find and destroy other pieces of viral DNA.
The Holy Heresies of George Eliot
Her greatest rebellion against Victorian moralism was to reclaim the sacred for herself.
By James Wood
Literature bores me, especially great literature,” the narrator of one of John Berryman’s “Dream Songs” says. George Eliot sometimes bores me, especially the George Eliot draped in greatness. Think of the extremities of nineteenth-century fiction: labile Lermontov; crazy, visionary Melville; nasty, world-hating Flaubert; mystic moor-bound Brontës; fanatical, trembling Dostoyevsky; explosive Hamsun. There’s enough wildness to destroy the myth of that stable Victorian portal “classic realism.” It was not classic—certainly not then—and not always particularly “real.”
News: Putin Meets With Erdogan, China Economic Concerns, Mexico Politics
The Globalist Podcast (September 4, 2023) – Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, meets with Vladimir Putin in Sochi to discuss grain deals, we get the lowdown on the Chinese economy with Patricia Thornton and Mexico’s opposition selects a female candidate with Indigenous roots to run for office.
Plus: France debates the height of ceilings, we get a roundup of news from the Nordics with Helsinki correspondent Petri Burtsoff and we check in with Seattle’s Bumbershoot festival.
The New York Times — Monday, September 4, 2023
Zelensky Replaces Defense Minister, Citing Need for ‘New Approaches’
The fate of the defense minister, Oleksii Reznikov, had been the subject of increasing speculation in Ukraine. It was the biggest shake-up in Ukraine’s government since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The Never-Ending Nightmare of Ukraine’s Dam Disaster
Environmentally, economically and in terms of pure human suffering, the destruction of the Kakhovka dam unleashed untold damage. Months later, many communities are still reeling.
Amid Rain and Mud, Climactic ‘Burn’ Is Delayed at Burning Man Fest
Officials urged campers to conserve food and water on Sunday, as the police investigated one death. The annual burning of a manlike figure was postponed.
China to Its People: Spies Are Everywhere, Help Us Catch Them
As Beijing tries to enlist the “whole of society” to guard against foreign enemies, the line between vigilance and paranoia fades.
Boomers Daily 