Artisans: Metalwork In Ladakh, Northern India

NOWNESS Films (December 11, 2023) – Travelling to India’s northernmost point, at the western tip of the Himalayas, the Ladakh region stands in a remote corner of the planet, flanked by towering peaks.

Deeply entwined with its cultural heritage, the mountainous territory carries a historic tradition of craft metalwork – as a center for the production of hand-crafted ornaments, teapots and spiritual artefacts, destined for temples, and held in high regard by India’s king dynasties.

But the craft has entered a point of decline, continued by just a handful of artisanal metalworkers who fight for its preservation.…

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Dec 18, 2023

Olimpia Zagnolis “Let There Be Lights”

The New Yorker – December18, 2023 issue: The new issue‘s cover features Olimpia Zagnoli’s “Let There Be Lights” – The artist discusses strands of brilliance amid dark days.

All the Carcinogens We Cannot See

A grid of cells multiplying.

We routinely test for chemicals that cause mutations. What about the dark matter of carcinogens—substances that don’t create cancer cells but rouse them from their slumber?

By Siddhartha Mukherjee

In the nineteen-seventies, Bruce Ames, a biochemist at Berkeley, devised a way to test whether a chemical might cause cancer. Various tenets of cancer biology were already well established. Cancer resulted from genetic mutations—changes in a cell’s DNA sequence that typically cause the cell to divide uncontrollably. These mutations could be inherited, induced by viruses, or generated by random copying errors in dividing cells. They could also be produced by physical or chemical agents: radiation, ultraviolet light, benzene. One day, Ames had found himself reading the list of ingredients on a package of potato chips, and wondering how safe the chemicals used as preservatives really were.

The Troubled History of the Espionage Act

SECRET stamped atop the United States emblem.

The law, passed in a frenzy after the First World War, is a disaster. Why is it still on the books?

By Amy Davidson Sorkin

In March, 1940, Edmund Carl Heine, a forty-nine-year-old American automobile executive, reached an understanding with a company then known as Volkswagenwerk GmbH. Heine, who immigrated to the United States from Germany as a young man, had spent years at Ford, first in Michigan and then in its international operations in South America and Europe, landing finally in Germany. In 1935, two years after the Nazi regime came to power, Ford fired him, for reasons that are unclear. Heine next signed on with Chrysler, in Spain, but the Spanish Civil War was tough on the car business. And so he was out of a job again.

News: Israel-Hamas War In South Gaza, Egypt’s Sisi To Win The Presidential Vote

The Globalist Podcast (December 11, 2023) – The latest on the war between Israel and Hamas, examine the results of Egypt’s presidential election and debate Japan prime minister Fumio Kishida’s uncertain political future.

Also, the dispute between Guyana and Venezuela over Essequibo, art news and a dispatch from the Monocle Christmas Market.

The New York Times — Monday, December 11, 2023

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Gazans Mass at Border for Safety, but Find Only More Peril

Palestinians fleeing Khan Younis toward Rafah passing a crater caused by strikes on Sunday.

As Israeli forces pound Gaza, the area where Palestinians can seek shelter is shrinking, raising concerns that they could be forced into Egypt.

As Fury Erupts Over Campus Antisemitism, Conservatives Seize the Moment

Harvard was one of three universities last week whose presidents testified in Washington at a hearing on antisemitism.

Republicans have been attacking elite universities for years. After a tense congressional hearing last week, many on the left are joining them.

To Handle a Surge of Illegal Crossings, Border Officials Stop Legal Ones

Some border communities in the U.S. and Mexico are suddenly cut off from each other after a border crossing closed to cope with large numbers of migrants.

Gaza War Has Buoyed Egypt’s Leader Ahead of Presidential Vote

President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt grew increasingly unpopular amid a deep economic crisis. But the war in neighboring Gaza has given him a vital role on the international stage.