Category Archives: Culture

Arts & Literature, Culture, Homes, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Country Life Magazine – November 27, 2024 Preview

November 26, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Country Life Magazine (November 26, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Advent Calendar Special’…

The master builder

Carla Passino is captivated by floral photographs that evoke 17th-century still-life paintings

A little mite with a mighty heart

She may be tiny, but Jenny wren certainly makes her presence felt, declares Mark Cocker

Worth its weight in gold

There’s more to myrrh than meets the eye, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee

Now that packs a punch

Lucien de Guise is bowled over by the intoxicating concoctions mixed by Dickens and George IV

Pie say!

Neil Buttery tucks into the tale of the Yorkshire Christmas Pye

Christmas gifts

Pick out those perfect presents with a helping hand from Hetty Lintell and Amie Elizabeth White

Mayara Magri’s favourite painting

The Royal Ballet dancer selects an inspiring, transformative work

Hardy and the country house

The author’s Wessex is brought to life in Jeremy Musson’s words and Matthew Rice’s drawings

Beauty by numbers

Deborah Nicholls-Lee is fascinated by fractals, the exquisite, ever-repeating patterns in Nature

The fall of Albion

John Lewis-Stempel urges us to rediscover our love of heathland, now a rarer habitat than rainforest

Get a Grip

Andrew Green rounds up the animals in Dickens’s life and work

First out of the lychgate

Jack Watkins explores the folklore and function of the lychgate

Little things that make a big difference

Our guide to entertaining in style

Thank you for the memories

From flying a Spitfire to sushi-making, the COUNTRY LIFE team puts gift experiences to the test

The legacy

Kate Green reveals how Sir David Willcocks changed the sound of Christmas with Carols for Choirs

Luxury

Hetty Lintell on saunas, socks, silk bows and precious stones

Now we’re just some gadgets that you used to know

Neil Buttery sorts the pudding prick from the tongue press

Lid pro quo

Rob Crossan talks Tupperware

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson on cabbage

It’s always darkest before the dawn

A black fox illuminates a dreary dawn for John Lewis-Stempel

Let’s go to the movies

Victoria Marston looks back at classic film posters

It takes the biscuit

Matthew Dennison explores the tin-novations that made Huntley & Palmers a household name

Forever a chorister

Sarah Sands shares how choral singing shaped the life of her late brother Kit Hesketh-Harvey

‘What a good boy am I’

Ian Morton investigates the real meanings of our nursery rhymes

The great astral sneeze

Harry Pearson finds out why this is the year of the Northern Lights

Arts & Literature, Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Dec. 2, 2024

November 25, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

A young person works on a farmhouse as turkeys wearing Groucho goggles look on.

The New Yorker (November24, 2024): The latest issue features Tom Toro’s “Incognito” – Putting on a friendly face.

The Fundamental Problem with R.F.K., Jr.,’s Nomination to H.H.S.

Kennedy has many bad ideas. Yet the irony of our political moment is that his more reasonable positions are the ones that could sink his candidacy. By Dhruv Khullar

How Old Age Was Reborn

“The Golden Girls” reframed senior life as being about socializing and sex. But did the cultural narrative of advanced age as continued youth twist the dial too far? By Daniel Immerwahr

How to Make Fuel (or Booze) from Thin Air

Air Company, a startup that has used water and carbon dioxide to make vodka and to power automobiles, taste-tests its product and discusses getting Elon Musk’s business. By Adam Iscoe

Cities, Culture, Education, Tours, Travel, Videos

Travel Tours: What It’s Like To Grow Up In Prague (DW)

November 23, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

DW Euromaxx (November 23, 2024): Prague – a city straight out of a fairytale, with its cobblestone streets, iconic red rooftops, and famed Czech beer. But beyond the picture-perfect image, what is life really like in the capital of the Czech Republic?

CHAPTERS 00:00 Intro 00:46 Living arrangements 02:36 Getting around 03:18 Roza’s work as a greenfluencer 04:56 Cost of living 05:37 Studying in Prague 06:24 Social life

Is it still as magical for locals as it is for tourists? We follow 21-year-old student Rozárie to find out.

#Prague #Czechia #dweuromaxx

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

The New York Times Magazine-Nov. 24, 2024

November 23, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (November 2, 2024): The 11.24.24 Issue features Philip Montgomery on two weeks in the life of Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County before, during and after the election; Emily Bazelon on how the abortion rights movement won in many states in the election; Tomas Weber on how Ozempic is turning people off from eating junk food; and more.

Becoming Trump Country

Luzerne County is one of many counties in Pennsylvania — and across the country — that shifted to the right this year.

Facing Eight Years in Prison, a Director Flees Iran

Facing an eight-year prison sentence, Mohammad Rasoulof had to make the most difficult decision of his life. We spent two weeks there before and after the election to understand what’s driving these changes.

Ozempic Could Crush the Junk Food Industry. But It Is Fighting Back.

Arts, Culture, History, Magazines, Previews, Reviews, Travel

Arts/History: Smithsonian Magazine – December 2024

November 21, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Smithsonian Magazine (November 21, 2024) – The latest issue features ‘The Hidden History of Bermuda’ – New archaeological finds are reshaping our views of early colonial life in the Americas…

The Forgotten Colony

What excavations in Bermuda are revealing about one of Britain’s first settlements in the Americas—and the surprising ways it shaped the New World. By Andrew Lawler. Photographs by Nicola Muirhead

The Feminist Behind the Man Behind the Curtain

The untold story of Matilda Gage, the freethinker who inspired her son-in-law L. Frank Baum’s classic novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”. By Evan I. Schwartz

It’s Not Easy Being Seen

Glass frogs use translucence to evade predators. So why are researchers trying to find as many as they can? By Alex Fox

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Previews, Science, Society, Technology

Culture: New Humanist Magazine – Winter 2024-25

November 21, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

New Humanist's winter 2024 cover shows a futuristic blue face with the words: 'Our cyborg future?'

NEW HUMANIST MAGAZINE – WINTER 2024/2025 ISSUE: The new issue features ‘Our Cyborg Future?’

The new age of the cyborg?

Neurobiologist and journalist Moheb Costandi explores the rapidly-developing world of brain-computer interfaces. For some people, these devices are already transforming lives – but the technology is quickly overtaking the ethics.

A dangerous calculation

Peter Ward unpicks the dark philosophy of the tech billionaires and how it is infiltrating some of our most powerful organisations.

There’s a product for that

A recent film, The Substance, explored the growing pressure on all of us – particularly women – to modify our bodies, not only through make-up and cosmetic procedures but also through digital filters. Clare Chambers, professor of political philosophy at the University of Cambridge, talks to us about the power of resistance and allowing our bodies to be “good enough”.

New life in the veins

Peter Salmon recounts the bizarre history of blood transfusion – and why the super-rich remain fascinated by its possibilities.

Culture, Magazines, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – Nov. 22, 2024

November 21, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Guardian Weekly (November 21, 2024): The new issue features ‘The crisis in the Church of England’…

Existentialist crises might more commonly be associated with some who seek out religion, rather than with those religions themselves, but that’s where the Church of England has found itself in recent days.

The resignation of Justin Welby, the archbishop of Canterbury, followed a damning report into the church’s shameful failures over the serial child abuser John Smyth, which detailed even more disturbing details of cover-ups by some senior clergy.

Spotlight | Trump’s shock-and-awe team
A flurry of controversial and extremist picks for Trump’s administration has provoked criticism and made heads spin. David Smith reports from Washington

Science | The inverse link between cancer and dementia
Scientists have long been aware of a curious connection between these common and feared diseases. At last, a clearer picture is emerging, writes Theres Lüthi

Feature | Kernels of hope
During the siege of Leningrad, botanists in charge of an irreplaceable seed collection, the first of its kind, had to protect it from fire, rodents – and hunger. By Simon Parkin

Opinion | Seven lessons from a long-serving economics editor
From Thatcher to Trump and Brexit, the Guardian’s outgoing economics editor, Larry Elliott, reflects on his 28 years in the role.

Culture | Faking history
Film and TV have a slippery relationship with the truth when it comes to historical epics. Simon Usborne meets the experts whose advice goes unheeded

Culture, Essays, History, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews, Society

The Atlantic Magazine – December 2024 Preview

November 20, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Atlantic Magazine – November 20, 2024: The latest issue features ‘How the Ivy League Broke America’ – The meritocracy isn’t working. We need something new.

How the Ivy League Broke America

The meritocracy isn’t working. We need something new. By David Brooks

How One Woman Became the Scapegoat for America’s Reading Crisis

Lucy Calkins was an education superstar. Now she’s cast as the reason a generation of students struggles to read. Can she reclaim her good name?

The Exhibit That Will Change How You See Impressionism

The National Gallery’s “Paris 1874” explores the movement’s dark origins.

Arts & Literature, Culture, Homes, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Country Life Magazine – November 20, 2024 Preview

November 20, 2024 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

Country Life Magazine (November 20, 2024): The latest issue features Winston Churchill – The wit and wisdom of the great man…

‘Let us go forward together’

As we approach the 150th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s birthday, Amie Elizabeth White and Octavia Pollock pay homage to the great man, in his own words.