The New Criterion – March 2024 Preview
Daily Archives: February 16, 2024
The New York Times Book Review – February 18, 2024
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (February 16, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Philip Gefter’s sizzling, “unapologetically obsessive” new book, “Cocktails With George and Martha: Movies, Marriage and the Making of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’” Our critic Alexandra Jacobs calls it “a shot glass filled with one work that, alongside contemporaneous books like Richard Yates’s novel ‘Revolutionary Road’ and Betty Friedan’s polemic ‘The Feminine Mystique,’ showed how the ‘cartoon versions of marriage’ long served up by American popular culture always came with a secret side of bitters.”
Filming ‘Virginia Woolf,’ the Battles Weren’t Just Onscreen
With Burton and Taylor as stars and a writer and director feuding, adapting the scabrous play wasn’t easy. “Cocktails With George and Martha” pours out the details.
‘Neighbors’ Opens the Door to a Literary Career Cut Short
A story collection from Diane Oliver, who died at 22, locates the strength in Black families surviving their separate but equal surroundings.
Writer, Mother, Ex-Wife: Leslie Jamison Is a Self in ‘Splinters’
In her powerful new memoir, the author examines a life composed of conflicting identities — and fierce, contradictory desires.
Architecture: Cliffside House In New South Wales
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to An Interior Designers Own Home 00:41 – A Magical Site 01:35 – The Evolution of the Style and Mood 02:13 – Robust Materials and Textures 03:53 – Blending the Old and New 04:33 – A New Passion for Gardening 04:52 – Favourite Aspects
Nestled amid boulders, Cliffside emerges as a dream home that caters to every need. Located an hour south of Sydney within the Royal National Park, the home boasts a layout that closely aligns with the owners’ preferences, yet it lacked a personalised touch to truly make it their own. To address this during the design process, Thomas Hamel of Thomas Hamel & Associates – who is also the client – focused on fulfilling his and his partner’s needs and desires for a residence that would serve as their forever home.
As seen in the house tour of an interior designers own home, the style and mood of the interior have evolved organically, shaped by the owners’ cherished collections of treasures and souvenirs. Drawing inspiration from the boulders and the coastal location of the beach house, Thomas Hamel & Associates curated a palette for the interior of Cliffside that harmonised with its environment. This led to the incorporation of cohesive materials throughout the home, such as custom-designed wallpaper from Los Angeles, imparting a natural plaster texture. Complementing this, the furnishings exhibit a similar sense of harmony, featuring rough-hewn timbers reminiscent of forest elements turned into sculptural pieces.
Previews: New Humanist Magazine – Spring 2024
NEW HUMANIST MAGAZINE – SPRING 2024 ISSUE: The new issue features Emma Park on how the culture wars are damaging the sciences, theoretical physicist Tasneem Zehra Husain on why the imagination is key to decoding the universe, and Alom Shaha on what can be gained by thinking like a scientist…
Beyond the two cultures
Amid a polarised debate, science and art seem further apart than ever. Emma Park, editor of The Freethinker, explores what humanism has to teach us about the apparent conflict between these ways of thinking and how to bridge the divide.
“While humanities scholars are often (not without justification) accused of being Luddites, those on the science and technology side could also benefit from the knowledge that the humanities have accumulated over the centuries … [And] no intellectual activity worth the name can flourish in a politically repressive environment: freedom of expression and enquiry should be an issue to unite artists, scholars and scientists.”
The poetry of science
Metaphors are key to unlocking the secrets of the universe – scientists should do more to harness their power, writes acclaimed physicist Tasneem Zehra Husain.
“Metaphors aren’t only a means of description, they can also lead to revelations. Centuries ago, Newton was able to calculate the gravitational attraction between two objects … [but] would ‘feign no hypothesis’ as to why it was so. He had the equation, but he did not understand gravitation … With Einstein, we finally have a metaphor. When we picture space-time as a dynamic ‘fabric’ … we begin to understand what gravity means.”
News: Israel Plans For Rafah Offensive, Munich Security Conference
The Globalist (February 16, 2024): The latest as world leaders pile pressure on Israel to abandon plans for a ground offensive in Rafah.
Then: key themes at the Munich Security Conference and Chad’s refugee crisis with Sudan. Plus: a preview of the Singapore Air Show, newspapers and this week’s ‘What We Learned’.
The New York Times — Friday, February 16, 2024
Palestinians Flee as Israeli Forces Raid a Major Hospital in Gaza
Israel says Hamas routinely operates within — and beneath — places like Nasser hospital in Khan Younis, using them as shields, and has held Israeli hostages there. The group denies the charges.
Trump’s NATO Threat Reflects a Wider Shift on America’s Place in the World
Alliances that were once seen as the bulwark of the Cold War are now viewed as an outdated albatross by a significant segment of the American public.
Losing Ground, Ukraine Seeks New Positions Around Avdiivka
As Russian forces breach a supply line and seek to encircle opposing soldiers, Ukraine’s commanders maneuver to “more advantageous positions.”
California’s Push for Ethnic Studies Runs Into the Israel-Hamas War
The state’s high school students will be required to take the subject, but some object to how the discipline addresses the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Boomers Daily 