Monthly Archives: September 2023
Views: Favorite Birds Of Wildlife Photographers
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Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna
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Photograph by Gretchen Kay Stuart
“I’ve always been enchanted by hummingbirds,” Stuart says. “Their tiny size and iridescent plumage make them seem as though they are born out of fairy tales.”
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Evening Grosbeak, Coccothraustes vespertinus
Photograph by Melissa Groo
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The evening Grosbeak tends to hover north of Groo’s home in Central New York State. So she was delighted when a flock of them recently appeared outside her house. “When they roam further south in winter in search of food, I’ve been blessed with their presence, sometimes over months,” she says. “This past winter and into very early spring, I had a flock of up to 15 visiting my platform bird feeder daily, hoovering up black oil sunflower seeds.”
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Northern Pygmy-Owl, Glaucidium gnoma
Photograph by Gerrit Vyn
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In Western Oregon where Vyn lives, the tooting of the northern pygmy-owl is the sound of spring. “Even when you don’t see them, while hiking through the forest or sitting in a lush patch of sword ferns on the forest floor and looking up into the canopy, just knowing they are somewhere up there, watching, deepens the experience and magic of place,” he says.
Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’
The Week In Art Podcast (September 7, 2023): It’s our 250th podcast, and in this special episode we focus on the future. We ask leading figures across the art world to tell us about their hopes and concerns for the visual arts. Among them are Max Hollein, the director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York,
Bénédicte Savoy, the co-author of the Saar-Savoy report into the restitution of cultural heritage, Shanay Jhaveri, the head of visual arts at the Barbican, the Berlin-based curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung, Kymberly Pinder, the dean of Yale School of Art, and the artist Tomás Saraceno. Host Ben Luke is then joined by three core members of The Art Newspaper’s team and regular guests in the first 249 episodes of this podcast: editors-at-large Cristina Ruiz and Georgina Adam and our contemporary art correspondent Louisa Buck discuss the present and future of museums and heritage, art and artists and the art market.
Architecture Tour: Ridge Residence In Los Angeles
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Experimental Japanese-Inspired Home 00:54 – The Private Location 01:14 – External Materials 01:36 – An Original 1960’s Home 01:52 – The Functional and Balanced Design of the Kitchen 02:50 – The Internal Material Palette 03:48 – Integrating Japanese Wet Rooms 04:06 – Showcasing Collections 04:41 – Working with Dark and Brawny Materiality
Peggy and Chris – an avid collector – were drawn to the site’s potential for an experimental, Japanese-inspired architecture. Peggy says, “the area is less densely populated on the hillside and most properties have deep backyards. Ours frames an uninterrupted view of Fossil Ridge Park – it can never be developed and there are no homes, just a natural landscape featuring hillside oak trees and unique wildlife.” The interior design of this Japanese-inspired house features a textural materiality, and plants blur the boundaries between inside and out. Inside, texture, art and materiality converge in a layered interior.
An architect’s own home can often lead to experimental and deeply personal design outcomes – a sentiment that rings true in this house. The kitchen sits beneath a picture window that captures western sun and provides sightlines to the street. Given its proximity to the living room, its aesthetic relationship to the rest of the home was an important experimental consideration. As such, Peggy and Chris looked to Fisher & Paykel for appliances, tapping into the company’s integration capabilities and refined aesthetic to match their experimental vision.
Classical: Pianist Hélène Grimaud Plays Schumann
It was written in only four days in April 1838 and a revised version appeared in 1850. In 1839, soon after publishing it, Schumann called it in a letter my favorite work, remarking that The title conveys nothing to any but Germans. The work’s title was inspired by the character of Johannes Kreisler from works of E. T. A. Hoffmann.
Research Preview: Science Magazine – Sept 8, 2023
Anatomy of a volcanic eruption undersea
Submarine flows from the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai eruption decimated seafloor cables
In December 2021, an undersea volcano in the southern Pacific Ocean, the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai (hereafter called the Hunga volcano) began erupting. In January 2022 the eruption reached a powerful climax, triggering atmospheric waves that traveled around the globe and a tsunami that swept across the Pacific Ocean. An estimated 75% of Earth’s volcanoes are underwater, and 20% of all fatalities caused by volcanic eruptions since 1600 CE have been associated with underwater volcanism (3).
Reducing single-use cutlery with green nudges: Evidence from China’s food-delivery industry
China’s high demand for online food delivery resulted in an increase in the use of disposable, single-use cutlery. Disposable cutlery increases plastic pollution, and paper napkins and wooden chopsticks contribute to environmental degradation that endangers wildlife and marine species and compromises human health. Informed by the literature on “green nudges, ” which are prompts to promote environmentally friendly behaviors, He et al. collaborated with Alibaba to use its mobile food delivery platform, Eleme, in a longitudinal field study across China.
News: G20 Agrees To Admit African Union, China Law To Ban ‘Harmful’ Clothing
The Globalist Podcast (September 8, 2023) – As G20 agrees to grant membership to the African Union, what else is on the agenda at the summit in India?
Plus: China drafts ‘national spirit’ law to ban harmful clothing, the US Department of Defense will cut support for Hollywood directors whose films are censored by China and the return of a Paris-Berlin train service.
The New York Times — Friday, Sept 8, 2023
Ukrainians Embrace Cluster Munitions, but Are They Helping?
The weapons, banned by most countries over human rights concerns, are “not a magic wand,” but some Ukrainian troops say they are making a difference in fighting Russian forces.
How a New City Council Map of L.A. Turned Into a Political Brawl
Blatant political gerrymandering occurs in cities across the country, many of them run by Democrats. In Los Angeles, a scandal over a racist recording was only the tip of the iceberg.
‘They Blew Our Lives Up’: South Sudanese Flee War in Sudan
Hundreds of thousands fled a grisly civil conflict years ago to settle in Sudan, to the north. With war now raging there, they are streaming home to a country ill-prepared to take them back.
A Colorado City Has Been Battling for Decades to Use Its Own Water
Lawsuits, protests and fierce disputes over who controls water in the parched American West have held up a crucial pipeline.
Analysis: Argentina’s Dysfunctional Economy
Video timeline: 00:00 – Argentina’s economy is in crisis 01:21 – What is happening now? 04:16 – Why is this happening? 05:52 – Overspending 07:00 – Printing money 08:03 – Borrowing money 08:51 – Trade controls 11:06 – What are the solutions?
New York History: Upper West Side Apartment Tour
Servants’ quarters, elevators, and the realization of views were making apartment living more appealing to the upper middle classes and increasing the value of the top floors. Join Nick for an in-depth look at how the Upper West Side revolutionized apartment living and became the birthplace of the penthouse in Manhattan.
Boomers Daily 