Previews: The Economist Magazine – Sept 16, 2023

All weekly editions | The Economist

The Economist Magazine (September 16, 2023): The latest issue reviews How AI can revolutionize science; Donald Trump will “never” support Putin, says Volodymyr Zelensky; The hard right is getting closer to power all over Europe, and more…

How artificial intelligence can revolutionise science

Consider the historical precedents

Debate about artificial intelligence (ai) tends to focus on its potential dangers: algorithmic bias and discrimination, the mass destruction of jobs and even, some say, the extinction of humanity. As some observers fret about these dystopian scenarios, however, others are focusing on the potential rewards. ai could, they claim, help humanity solve some of its biggest and thorniest problems. And, they say, ai will do this in a very specific way: by radically accelerating the pace of scientific discovery, especially in areas such as medicine, climate science and green technology.

Modi’s “one India” goal is good for the economy, but not for politics

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, presides over the closing session of the G20 Summit

In the next decade regional tensions will build in India

The world has been seeing the bright side of India. In August it landed a spacecraft on the Moon. In the latest quarter gdp grew at an annual rate of 7.8%, making it the world’s perkiest big economy. Narendra Modi, the prime minister, has just hosted a g20 summit where other leaders, including Joe Biden, courted Asia’s rising behemoth. Yet inside India the talk has turned to whether Mr Modi’s hunger for power and dreams of national renewal could lead him to bend the constitution. 

News: Biden’s Economic Agenda, U.S. To Withhold Aid To Egypt, iPhone 12 Ban

The Globalist Podcast (September 15, 2023) – Are American voters buying “Bidenomics”? We unpack Joe Biden’s latest effort to fine-tune his economic agenda.

Plus: the US plans to withhold millions in military aid to Egypt, a lookahead to London Fashion Week and the latest art news.

The New York Times — Friday, September 15, 2023

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Hunter Biden Indicted on Gun Charges

Hunter Biden outside the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Del., in July.

The Justice Department charged President Biden’s son after the collapse of an earlier plea deal and amid an impeachment investigation by House Republicans.

History Turns Upside Down in a War Where the Koreas Are Suppliers

A photograph released by North Korean state media showing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia with the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Russia on Wednesday.

Desperate for munitions for the war in Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia have turned to their allies in South and North Korea, which kept stockpiling arms for decades after their own conflict.

What the Wildfire Stole From One Maui Family

A 7-year-old boy, his mom and grandparents tried to flee Hawaii’s deadliest wildfire in over a century, and ran into impossible challenges.

C.I.A. Discloses Identity of Second Spy Involved in ‘Argo’ Operation

The movie about the daring mission to rescue American diplomats from Tehran portrayed a single C.I.A. officer sneaking into the Iranian capital. In reality, the agency sent two officers.

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Sept 15, 2023

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Times Literary Supplement (September 15, 2023): The new issue features what connects the novelist William Harrison Ainsworth, the Tichborne Trial and life on a sugar plantation in Jamaica? In a New Yorker essay Zadie Smith spelt out the preoccupations of The Fraud, her novel set in the Victorian era, as “fake identities, fake news, fake relationships, fake histories”. Ainsworth, in Smith’s view, was a fraud as a historical novelist.

A worldlier class of flapper

The Divorcee (1930); Ursula Parrott; The Palm Beach Story (1942)

Ursula Parrott scandalized and titillated Hollywood in the 1930s

By Lillian Crawford

Democrat or revolutionary?

A demonstration in support of Allende, Santiago, 1971

Salvador Allende reconsidered, fifty years after the military coup

By David Gallagher

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Sept 15, 2023

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Science Magazine – September 15, 2023: Blue jays, similar to other corvid songbirds, are known for their impressive cognitive abilities, presumably due to their relatively large brains. 

Mars Sample Return risks consuming NASA science

Forthcoming cost estimate for budget-busting mission could lead to strict caps from Congress

Iran prepares to erect a digital wall

Researchers feel increasingly isolated as government moves to restrict internet access

Views: ‘Midnight Movers’ – French-American Painter Jules De Balincourt’s Art

Pace Gallery (September 14, 2023) – From his studio in Brooklyn, New York, Jules de Balincourt discusses his new suite of paintings on view as part of “Midnight Movers,” his debut exhibition with our gallery in New York and his first solo show in the city in a decade.

Working spontaneously, de Balincourt develops his expressive paintings through an improvisational approach that borders on abstraction. In this new interview, the artist dissects his process and the ways that he explores the natural world, globalization, technology, and psychology in his works.

To learn more about this exhibition, visit: https://www.pacegallery.com/exhibitio…

To learn more about Jules de Balincourt, visit: https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/j…

Health: ‘Stress Exercise’ That Increases Longevity

Daniela Hernandez | WSJ (September 14, 2023) – Research shows that moderate amounts of physical stress can help your body stay healthier for longer.

Video timeline: 0:00 Stress exercise 0:38 Baseline longevity test 2:41 Training 3:17 The results 4:59 What can you do about it?

That’s why longevity hacks, like intermittent fasting and ice baths, are blowing up on social media. I put myself through a strenuous 10-day workout plan to learn why and how the most active form of stress–exercise–is actually your best bet for a longer, healthier life.

Arts & Literature: Kenyon Review – Autumn 2023

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Kenyon Review – Autumn 2023: The new issue includes the winner and runners-up for the Patricia Grodd Poetry Prize for Young Writers, selected by Ruth Awad, and a Food-themed folio, with poetry by sam saxInga Lea Schmidt, and Holly Zhou; fiction by Rebecca AckermannElvis Bego, and Douglas Silver; nonfiction by Katie Culligan and Erica N. Cardwell; and much more. Luminous Gender Vessel, a folio guest-edited by Gabrielle Calvocoressi and Melissa Faliveno, features work by Krys Malcolm BelcKB BrookinsAlexis Pauline GumbsCatherine Kim, and many others. The cover art is by Joanna Anos.

The New York Review Of Books – October 5, 2023

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The New York Review of Books (October 5, 2023) – The new issue features Jennifer Wilson on Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s unsettlingly funny tales of domestic un-bliss, Tim Judah on the new normal in Ukraine, Daniel M. Lavery on Jacques Pépin, E. Tammy Kim on the 1941 Disney animators’ strike, Christopher Benfey on John Constable, Bill McKibben on a planet smothered in asphalt, Lynn Hunt on the revolutions of 1848, Noah Feldman on the Supreme Court’s conservative bloc, A.E. Stallings on Simonides, poems by Devin Johnston and Claire DeVoogd, and much more.

Mother Russia

In Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s latest novel, Kidnapped, Soviet bureaucracy is made all the messier by maternal desperation.

Jennifer Wilson

Kidnapped: A Story in Crimes by Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, translated from the Russian by Marian Schwartz

Some months ago I was having dinner with a writer from Moscow. I told him I was thinking of reviewing a new translation of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s Kidnapped, a Bollywood-inspired novella that pays homage to the Soviets’ love of Indian cinema. “Don’t do it,” he—a friend of hers—warned me. “If she doesn’t like what you write, she will turn you into a character in one of her stories—the stupid girl in New York who doesn’t know anything.” Being a longtime admirer of Petrushevskaya, I wasn’t too worried: realism is not her thing.

Ukraine’s New Normal

Market Square, Lviv, Ukraine

Away from the front, life appears to be the same, but the country has undergone profound changes.

Tim Judah

On August 8 I went to the Jellyfish Museum in Kyiv. During my previous visits to the city, it had been closed because of the war. Now it has reopened. In the gloom the fantastical creatures drifted about in their tanks while couples, friends, and families drifted about happily looking at them. In Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border, the Half an Hour café, where I wrote for a couple of days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, has also just reopened.

Sailing Yachts: A Tour Of The 155’ Schooner ‘Gweilo’

Fraser Yachts Films (September 14, 2023) – Built in 2009 by the renowned Mengi Yay shipyard, GWEILO is a 47M/155’ luxury sailing schooner that undergone extensive refits in 2021/2022. With sleek lines and a distinctive Dykstra exterior design, GWEILO is crafted from a laminate wood construction.

With a beam of 8.35m and a draft of 4.7m, she boasts a generous volume of 157GT, providing ample space for relaxation and entertainment. Fully RINA LY2 commercially compliant, she is safe, fast, and possesses the proven capability to navigate the world’s most enchanting seas. GWEILO gracefully cruises at 11 knots, with a maximum speed of 16 knots thanks to her Caterpillar 3406E engine delivering 558hp.

Designed for both performance and comfort, GWEILO offers luxurious accommodation for up to 8 guests across 3 exquisitely appointed ensuite staterooms. This stunning 2009 Mengi Yay sailing schooner has been fabulously maintained. Impeccably cared for, she stands in superb condition, eagerly awaiting her next passionate owner to create unforgettable memories.