FRANCE 24 English Films (November 27, 2023) – The French region of Alsace is famous for its traditional half-timbered houses. But this centuries-old heritage is threatened by the passage of time and urban development.
Every year, 400 of these remarkable old houses are demolished. But a few locals are trying to safeguard their heritage. One young couple have embarked on a project to renovate their old house, using ancestral techniques.
Meanwhile, a company near Strasbourg specialises in dismantling the half-timbering of abandoned houses, renovating them and reusing them on new structures. We take a closer look.
An underground nuclear arsenal in Israel dwarfs the tunnels alleged at a Gaza hospital.
It’s one thing to burrow beneath the ground, digging to construct a tunnel for refuge, a passage of goods, or to store weapons during a time of war. It’s quite another for a small child to use one hand to dig their way out of the rubble that has collapsed on them.
The Morgan Library & Museum (November 27, 2023) – The Morgan is home to one of the world’s largest and most important collections of drawings by Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770) and his eldest son Domenico (1727–1804), with more than 300 representative examples of their lively invention and masterful techniques.
Combining highlights from the Morgan’s collection with carefully selected loans, this exhibition will provide a comprehensive look at the Tiepolos’ work as draftsmen, focusing on the role of drawing in their creative process and the distinct physical and stylistic properties of their graphic work. At the core of the collection and exhibition are substantial groups of Giambattista’s drawings that relate to major ceiling fresco projects of the 1740s and 1750s.
A fresh look at the style, function, and material properties of these working drawings has yielded new insights into their purposes. Most significantly, the exhibition presents for the first time extremely rare pen studies for Tiepolo’s magnum opus, the ceiling fresco above the staircase of the Würzburg Residenz of 1752, and a group of bold sketches newly connected with his ceiling fresco of 1754 at the Venetian church of Santa Maria della Pietà.
Other sections of the exhibition highlight the introduction of Domenico to the family workshop, the exchanges between father and son, and the great series drawings by both: Giambattista’s fantastic heads and figures seen di sotto in su, and Domenico’s drawings of animals, biblical scenes, and contemporary life.
The exhibition will end with a wall including striking examples from Domenico’s late Punchinello series. October 27, 2023 through January 28, 2024
DW Travel (November 26, 2023) – With its old town center, its castle and numerous romantic bridges, the city of Prague is a veritable tourist magnet. That’s why you’ll always find so many amazing photos of the Czech capital on Instagram – and it all looks soooooo gorgeous.
Video timeline:00:00 Intro 00:42 Hradčany, Prague’s castle district 02:33 Charles Bridge 03:28 Trdelník 04:11 Old Town Square 05:30 Conclusion
But do these images reflect the true face of Prague? And is the city really worth visiting?
Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic, is bisected by the Vltava River. Nicknamed “the City of a Hundred Spires,” it’s known for its Old Town Square, the heart of its historic core, with colorful baroque buildings, Gothic churches and the medieval Astronomical Clock, which gives an animated hourly show. Completed in 1402, pedestrian Charles Bridge is lined with statues of Catholic saints.
The New Yorker – December 4, 2023 issue: The new issue‘s cover features Sergio García Sánchez’s “Ready to Soar” – The artist discusses rhythm, rigor, and the linguistic capabilities of art.
The revelation that ChatGPT, the astonishing artificial-intelligence chatbot, had been trained on an Nvidia supercomputer spurred one of the largest single-day gains in stock-market history. When the Nasdaq opened on May 25, 2023, Nvidia’s value increased by about two hundred billion dollars. A few months earlier, Jensen Huang, Nvidia’s C.E.O., had informed investors that Nvidia had sold similar supercomputers to fifty of America’s hundred largest companies. By the close of trading, Nvidia was the sixth most valuable corporation on earth, worth more than Walmart and ExxonMobil combined. Huang’s business position can be compared to that of Samuel Brannan, the celebrated vender of prospecting supplies in San Francisco in the late eighteen-forties. “There’s a war going on out there in A.I., and Nvidia is the only arms dealer,” one Wall Street analyst said.
On November 6th, Donald Trump emerged from a New York City courtroom, where he had testified in a civil trial alleging that he and others in the Trump Organization had committed fraud, and gave himself a great review. “I think it went very well,” he told reporters. “If you were there, and you listened, you’d see what a scam this is.” He meant that the case was a scam and not that his company was. “Everybody saw what happened today,” he went on. “And it was very conclusive.”
The German actress Sandra Hüller probes characters with unusual depth. But to portray a Fascist wife, in “The Zone of Interest,” she reversed her usual approach—and withheld her empathy.
In “Anatomy of a Fall,” Hüller stars as a successful novelist accused of murdering her husband. The camera often lingers on her face as it shifts like quicksilver between playfulness, defiance, and evasion.Photograph by Mark Peckmezian for The New Yorker
The Globalist Podcast (November 27, 2023) – The latest on the war between Israel and Hamas. Plus: the Philippines considers returning to the ICC, the latest climate news and Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’.
A third group of captives released from Gaza included a 4-year-old dual American-Israeli citizen whose parents were killed in the Hamas attack on Oct. 7.
Pentagon researchers say weapons like shoulder-fired rockets expose troops who fire them to blast waves far above safety limits, but they remain in wide use.
Members of Congress Head for the Exits, Many Citing Dysfunction
More than three dozen incumbents have announced they will not seek re-election next year. Some are running for other offices, while others intend to leave Congress altogether.
As Groundwater Dwindles, Powerful Players Block Change
Here are some of the people fighting efforts to conserve a vital resource that’s disappearing across the United States.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious