All posts by She Seeks Serene

My Journey of Reimagining Life, Love and Education

New Motor Sports Books: “Beautiful Machines: The Era of the Elegant Sports Car” (Gestalten)

From the Gestalten website:

Beautiful Machines The Era of the Elegant Sports CarStart your engines for a grand tour of the most stylish grand motoring automobiles ever created. Evoking an era when elegance, romance, and outright performance defined the automobile and the fascinating stories that made them icons of the road. From the shark-inspired Maserati Ghibli to the fiery Lamborghini Miura, from European elegance with American firepower such as the Iso Grifo and Facel Vega to the groundbreaking designs of the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale and Renault Alpine and the advanced technology behind the Jensen FF or Porsche 918 Spyder.

Beautiful Machines The Era of the Elegant Sports Car

These cars are less transportation and more testaments to beauty, freedom, ambition, innovation, and speed. Beautiful Machines was conceived and edited by gestalten. The stories are written by automobile expert Blake Z. Rong with a preface by Classic Driver’s Jan Baedeker and gestalten’s Robert Klanten.

To read more and order: https://us.gestalten.com/products/beautiful-machines?utm_source=Gestalten+Standard+Newsletter&utm_campaign=3d1d15ee2e-SPOCA+%2B+BRUMMM+US&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_280558bba4-3d1d15ee2e-3992541&mc_cid=3d1d15ee2e&mc_eid=d0c83e52f7

New Medical Innovations: Ultrasound Treatment For Prostate Cancer Proves 80% Effective

From a Radiological Society of North America release:

Radiological Society of North AmericaThe TACT Pivotal study of MRI-guided TULSA for whole-gland ablation in men with localized prostate cancer met its primary PSA endpoint in 96% of patients, with low rates of severe toxicity and residual GG2 disease. MRI at 12mo detected residual disease with NPV of 93%.

The new technique is called MRI-guided transurethral ultrasound ablation (TULSA) and has been under development for a number of years. The minimally invasive technology involves a rod that enters the prostate gland via the urethra and emits highly controlled sound waves in order to heat and destroy diseased tissue, while leaving healthy tissue unharmed.

To read more: https://press.rsna.org/pressrelease/2019_resources/2129/abstract.pdf

Homebuilding Trends: Affordable Housing Shortage Makes Modular, Prefab Homes A Must

From a Smart Cities Dive online opinion article;

Modular Advantage MagazineThe reality, however, is that modular, prefabricated housing can exceed the limitations put upon it by popular conceptions of trailer parks and postwar government housing. Not only are they certainly faster – an important factor in cost, as the cost of land and construction have as much as doubled in some parts of America within the past decade – but also of a higher quality.

Looking toward the expected lifespan of these homes, due to the precision of factory construction and the availability of new materials, some prefab or modular homes have the potential to even outlast traditionally-built, on-site housing.

A far cry from the “prefabs” of the 1950s, modules can be manufactured off-site in factories, in a cutting edge process of designing and building homes that can drive real change in an industry that has seen little change in centuries. Modular manufacturing permits us to get down to a level of detail and robustness that traditional architects, structural engineers and mechanical and electrical engineering consultants do not normally go into.

http://www.modular.org/

To read more: https://www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/affordable-housing-shortage-highlights-the-need-for-construction-to-enter-t/568435/

Profiles: Remembering English Art Critic John Berger (1926-2017)

From an Aeon online article:

Ways of Seeing John BergerTime brings new colour to old materials, and what makes Ways of Seeing so enduring might not be the same as what made it so electrically influential when it first appeared. We are now more aware of the fissures in the show, in its slight hesitations and indecisions, and in the hedges to what was otherwise such a freight train of an argument. The pictorial tradition of the female nude, Berger argues throughout the second episode, was not a celebration of humanist virtue but a fantasy of the acquisitive ‘male gaze’ (the term was coined a year later by Laura Mulvey).

At the start of the first TV episode of Ways of Seeing, John Berger takes a scalpel to Botticelli’s Venus and Mars. The opening beat of the programme is the audio of the incision – the blade’s rough abrasion on canvas – before the soundtrack settles into voiceover. ‘This is the first of four programmes,’ Berger says, ‘in which I want to question some of the assumptions usually made about the tradition of European painting. That tradition which was born about 1400, died about 1900.’

Ways of Seeing first aired on Sunday evenings on BBC2 at the start of 1972. It attracted few initial viewers but, through rebroadcasts and word of mouth, the show gathered steam. By the end of 1972, it had gone viral. People in London and New York argued about Berger’s ideas. When Penguin commissioned a paperback adaptation, the first two print runs sold out in months. Regularly assigned in art schools and introductory art history courses, Berger’s project has never really waned in popularity. That first episode now has close to 1.4 million views on YouTube, and the paperback regularly sits atop Amazon’s Media Studies bestseller list.

To read more: https://aeon.co/essays/john-bergers-ways-of-seeing-and-his-search-for-home?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=5932250078-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_12_01_11_33&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-5932250078-70852327

Nostalgia: “1961 Facel Vega Facellia FA Cabriolet” (Classic Driver)

From a Classic Driver online article:

jb_classic_cars_facel_vega_facellia_cabriolet_28As a contemporary French alternative for the successful Mercedes-Benz SL 190 and popular Alfa Romeo Giulietta Spider the Facel Vega Facellia FA is now seen as a rare gem that sits in between, target market-wise. It was almost as luxurious as the Benz, but also nearly as sporty as the Alfa. The Facellia’s reputation among car collectors is steadily improving, especially the first series. Despite being smaller the Facellia FA offers the same fine shapes and details of its larger family members like the Facel Vega FV3 and HK500. And besides being sporty enough for most drivers, it’s also as comfortable as you can expect from a French car. Which makes it a refreshing early 60’s sports car for all kinds of drives.

The larger Facels were more Grand Tourers. That’s why in his brochures the Californian Facel distributor Peter Satori presented the Facellia as the French twin cam 1960 sports convertible. Among Satori’s customers were the rich and famous. This car, with chassis number FAC 171, was ordered by Satori with a batch of other Facellias.

To read more: https://www.classicdriver.com/de/car/facel-vega/facellia/1961/721231?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Classic%20Driver%20Daily%203392019&utm_content=Classic%20Driver%20Daily%203392019+CID_d8c2de7c155a933dc2facb9501b2bcd9&utm_source=newsletter

New Technology Books: “Hop, Skip, Go – How the Mobility Revolution Is Transforming Our Lives”

HOP, SKIP, GO – HOW THE MOBILITY REVOLUTION IS TRANSFORMING OUR LIVESIn an engaging, deeply reported book, the authors travel to mobility hotspots, from Helsinki to Shanghai, to scout out this future. And they visit the companies putting it together. One, Divergent3d, is devising a system to manufacture cars with robots and 3D printers. PonyAI, a Chinese-Silicon Valley startup, builds autonomous software that perceives potholes, oncoming trucks, and wayward pedestrians, and guides the vehicle around them. Voom, an Airbus subsidiary, is racing with dozens of others to operate fleets of air taxis that fly by themselves.

Urban expert John Rossant and business journalist Stephen Baker look beyond the false promises of the past to examine the real future of transportation and the repercussions for the world’s cities, the global economy, the environment, and our individual lives.

Human mobility, dominated for a century by cars and trucks, is facing a dramatic transformation. Over the next decade, new networked devices, from electric bikes to fleets of autonomous cars, will change the way we move. They will also disrupt major industries, from energy to cars, give birth to new mobility giants, and lead to a redesign of our cities. For Rossant and Baker, this represents the advance of the Information Revolution into the physical world.

To read more: https://www.amazon.com/Hop-Skip-Go-Revolution-Transforming/dp/0062883062

Top Camper Trailers: “Fargo Elite Cabins” Are At Home On Land Or Water

Fargo Elite Cabins catamaran hullEqually at home on land or water, the Fargo Elite Cabin is a fully self contained accommodation unit perfect for cruising the waterways, exploring the open roads on a trailer or truck, or even as a spare room or private rental in your own backyard!

Available with or without unsinkable catamaran hulls, the cabin is easily transported by a flat bed trailer, can be pulled up on a beach to camp for the night or parked up in your backyard as a caravan or spare room with space for 2-4 people.

There is no maintenance required, has 12.5sq metres of cabin space and over 1000 litres of underfloor storage. The house boat model is powered by a 20-90hp outboard motor (not included) and can be transported locally by trailer or worldwide by 40′ container.

To read more: https://fargocabins.com.au/

Healthy Aging: “Happiness Across The Life Span” By Susan Bell (USC Dornsife)

From a USC Dornsife Magazine article by Susan Bell:

Not a Slippery Slope after all

Happiness Across The Life Span Illustrations Nicole Xu for USC Dornsife MagazineContrary to popular opinion, when it comes to well-being, our lives do not represent an inevitable decline from the sunny uplands of youth to the valley of death. Instead, the opposite is true — we can confidently look forward to old age as the happiest time of our lives.

More than 50 years have passed since The Who’s Pete Townshend penned these immortal lines on his 20th birthday, resulting in the band’s iconic ode to rebellious youth, “My Generation.” These days there is no hint that the rock star, now a spritely septuagenarian, is entertaining any regrets that his youthful wish didn’t come true.

USC Dornsife Magazine Fall 2019So why do people grow happier as they age? Is it an absence of stress, or are they able to focus more on what brings them joy?

But as a young man, Townshend certainly wasn’t alone in dreading old age, and while his suggested remedy for avoiding the unavoidable may have been extreme, he also wasn’t alone in wanting to dodge what we tend to believe will be the miseries of aging.

To read more: https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/3117/happiness-across-the-life-span-not-a-slippery-slope-after-all/

Travel Trailers: “Bowlus Road Chief” Is Light Weight, High Tech Luxury

From the Bowlus Road Chief website:

Bowlus Road Chief interior JPGThe Endless Highways is the ultimate luxury performance RV. As the industry leader with the most advanced technology, our high tech design is further elevated by more than two dozen luxurious and exclusive features and accessories. An exquisite manifestation of freedom, technology, and design, the Endless Highways ensures that your adventures are only as limited as your imagination.

Explore our magnificent public lands in the most luxurious way. A spacious, Zen-like bedroom converts from two twins to an incredible king so you can accommodate all your travel companions. The hotel-style en suite bathroom makes traveling to events like Monterey Car Week and the Kentucky Derby a five-star experience. The main cabin has dining for four. The Endless Highways is your stunning exploration guide to elevated escapes and adventures.

To read more: https://bowlusroadchief.com/endless-highways/