Category Archives: Culture

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – April 24, 2023

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The New Yorker – April 24 & May 1, 2023 issue:

JooHee Yoon’s “Drawing Hands with A.I. (After M. C. Escher)”

A hand drawn on a piece of paper rises off the page and draws another hand on the piece of paper which in turn draws the...

The artist discusses artistry, artificial intelligence, and the human experience.

Chatbots and image generators, newly on the rise, have sparked our imaginations—and our fears. As artificial-intelligence machines sharpen their ability to translate written prompts into images that accurately capture both style and substance, some visual artists worry that their specialized skills might be rendered irrelevant.

“Drawing Hands,” M. C. Escher, 1948.

The Future of Fertility

A futuristic scene of metallic DNA strands which wrap around a central petri dish containing a human ovum.

A new crop of biotech startups want to revolutionize human reproduction.

In 2016, two Japanese reproductive biologists, Katsuhiko Hayashi and Mitinori Saitou, made an announcement in the journal Nature that read like a science-fiction novel. The researchers had taken skin cells from the tip of a mouse’s tail, reprogrammed them into stem cells, and then turned those stem cells into egg cells. 

Crooks’ Mistaken Bet on Encrypted Phones

A group of four men sit around a table piled with cocaine. They are illuminated by the light of a cell phone hovering...

Drug syndicates and other criminal groups bought into the idea that a new kind of phone network couldn’t be infiltrated by cops. They were wrong—big time.

Many criminals have been convicted as a result of encrypted-phone stings—more than four hundred in the U.K. alone.Illustration by Max Löffler

Preview: New York Times Magazine – April 16, 2023

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The New York Times Magazine – April 16, 2023:

The R.T.O. Whisperers Have a Plan

A photo illustration of an empty chair surround by confetti.
Credit…Photo illustration by Derek Brahney

A niche group of consultants is trying to get you back to the office. It’s not going too well.

Being the boss doesn’t mean you get exactly what you wish for. That’s what Craig Knoblock discovered when he tried to get his employees to come back to the office in the fall of 2021.

You Call This ‘Flexible Work’?

Credit…Illustration by Brian Rea

Labor fought for a long time to draw a bright line between work and home. It took almost no time at all to erase it.

When Your Boss Is an App

A color illustration of a person working under an overhead lamp that is shaped like a large phone screen.
Credit…Illustration by Derek Abella

Gig work has been silently taking over new industries, but not in the way many expected.

For most Americans, the concept of “gig work” has been synonymous with a handful of Silicon Valley giants — companies like Uber and DoorDash, Instacart and TaskRabbit. There was a moment in the 2010s when pundits told us to expect the “Uberization of everything”: a future in which the typical worker would move from job to job or task to task, finding either independence and flexibility in freelancing or, more realistically, the precarity of working for platforms that may be light on benefits and aggressively exploitative of labor.

May 2023 Cover: National Geographic Traveller UK

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National Geographic Traveller Magazine (May 2023). The cover story this month takes a fresh look at the classic destinations of Italy, a country that offers enough for a lifetime of discoveries. From a coastal road trip through Calabria to street art tours in Turin and dining in the shadow of Mount Etna, we round up 21 experiences that cast the peninsula in a different light.

This issue also comes with a free Ecuador guide. Inside, we discover the country’s striking wildlife and landscapes, try the dishes leading its culinary renaissance and meet is creative, resilient communities.

Also inside this issue:

Madagascar: The communities and eco-lodges preserving the island’s rich, endangered habitats.
Scotland: Canoe down the River Spey, the water of life for Caledonia’s malt whisky.
Germany
: Creativity, community and craftsmanship in the magical Black Forest. 
Kyoto
: Turn up the volume in Japan’s cultural heart, where live music fills cafes, bars and historic houses. 
Cape Town
: South Africa’s ‘Mother City’ is finding a new groove with edgy bars and excitinghotels.
Punkaharju
:Spend a weekend in the Finnish Lakeland.
Napa Valley:Discover local produce and craft beers in the US’s most famous wine region.
Mexico City:The Mexican capital’s hotel scene is booming in buzzing neighbourhoods.

Preview: New York Times Magazine – April 9, 2023

Current cover

The New York Times Magazine – April 9, 2023: In this issue, Jim Rutenberg on how giving its audience what it wanted pushed Fox into a $1.6 billion bind; Elisabeth Zerofsky on Poland’s new political realities due to the war in Ukraine; Lydia Kiesling on the TV show “Yellowjackets”; Meg Bernhard on an L.A. school where the pandemic never ended; and more.

How Fox Chased Its Audience Down the Rabbit Hole

Rupert Murdoch built an empire by giving viewers exactly what they wanted. But what they wanted — election lies and insurrection — put that empire (and the country) in peril.

Poland’s War on Two Fronts

President Andrzej Duda arriving at the Royal Castle in Warsaw to welcome President Biden in February.
CreditJustyna Mielnikiewicz for The New York Times

Long at odds with the E.U. over its domestic policies, the right-wing government is winning allies with its staunch defense of Ukraine. Which battle matters most?

‘Yellowjackets’ Shows Us the Teenage Girlhood We Were Hungry For

CreditArtwork by Sarah Palmer

On set with the hit mystery series, which, amid all the gore, presents one of the most sensitive portraits of women on TV.

Views: Discover Germany Switzerland & Germany Magazine – April 2023

Discover Germany, Issue 104, April 2023 by Scan Client Publishing - Issuu

Discover Germany, Switzerland and Austria – April 2023 Issue: The April issue of Discover Germany, Austria & Switzerland puts a special focus on the sustainable tourism approach of Berlin. While the German capital is leading in many areas, Berlin also knows how to reconcile sustainability and tourism in a clever way. We further travel to Bavaria to try out some adventure holiday option. Other topics covered are an interview with actor Langston Uibel, a special theme on art, culture and museum highlights, design and lifestyle trends, fashion items that combine modernity with tradition, great museums and destinations for a spring getaway, and much, much more.

SPECIAL THEME: ART, CULTURE & MUSEUM HIGHLIGHTS

Discovering the arts in Germany

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Germany has much more to offer than just beer, pretzels and famous football teams. It is a paradise for artists as well as art lovers. Paintings, architecture, literature, music or design – the country’s art scene combines different backgrounds and cultural influences. The cities of Germany are home to numerous museums, galleries and theatres showcasing fine art and culture.

SPECIAL THEME: MICHELIN-STARRED RESTAURANTS IN GERMANY

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Germany’s culinary scene is one of the world’s best – for many reasons. Not only does the country lay claim to many award-winning chefs and restaurants, the sheer diversity of restaurants in the country is also one of a kind.

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Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – April 17, 2023

A courtroom drawing of Donald Trump at his arraignment on April 4 2023.
Art by Jane Rosenberg – April 5, 2023

The New Yorker – April 17, 2023 issue: Truth is stranger than fiction: for the first time in its long history, The New Yorker is publishing a courtroom sketch on the cover.

America’s First Indicted Ex-President Is Very Sorry—for Himself

A photo of Donald Trump speaks in a MaraLago ballroom hours after being arraigned.

Notes on Donald Trump’s day in court.

By the time Donald Trump marched out from behind a phalanx of American flags and emerged into the gilded Mar-a-Lago ballroom to speak to cheering supporters on Tuesday night, America’s first indicted ex-President hardly seemed chastened by his historic day as a defendant in a Manhattan courtroom

Alvin Bragg, Donald Trump, and the Pursuit of Low-Level Crimes

Alvin Bragg steps out of a car on March 27 2023.
The fact that Donald Trump has finally been brought to court for an alleged crime relating to paying hush money may well contradict Alvin Bragg’s key contention.

Following the Manhattan District Attorney’s investigation, the former President was arraigned on felony charges stemming from hush-money payments.

Travel Guide: The Sights And Food In Brooklyn, NY

Attaché (April 6, 2023) – Our Brooklyn travel guide! I don’t think I’ve ever given Brooklyn the time and attention it deserves. I’m always drawn to Queens, and Brooklyn never got more than a side-eye.

Video timeline:

That was dumb. Brooklyn is a huge borough with so much going on. Food, people, life. So to make our Brooklyn travel guide I went in with eyes wide open and this great borough did not disappoint. What a place.

Preview: Iceland Review Magazine – April/May 2023

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ICELAND REVIEW MAGAZINE (APRIL/MAY 2023):

The Dip

FICTION the dip by Örvar Smárason

When my fingers started falling off, it became harder and harder to put my

From the Archive: The Changing Face of Iceland

historical map of iceland

From the archive: In this 1971 article from Iceland Review,

Haraldur Sigurðsson delves into the history of Icelandic cartography. Note

Frost

Individually, snowflakes are fragile, easily broken, dissolving into droplets of water at the mere touch of a finger or a breath of air, while en masse, they’re capable of wreaking havoc on the city streets and causing catastrophe when avalanching down a mountainside.

Arts/Culture: Humanities Magazine – Spring 2023

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Humanities Magazine – Spring 2023 Issue

Audubon in This Day and Age

The artist and his birds continue to challenge us

John James Audubon, dead for 172 years, has been in the news again. Disturbing facts known to his biographers—that, for example, when he kept a store in Henderson, Kentucky, he enslaved people—have gained new currency, although the National Audubon Society has, for now, held on to its name. For many, Audubon has become synonymous with an activity—call it science, ornithology, natural history, birding, love of the outdoors—that has, for the longest time, excluded people of color.  

A Lot of What Is Known about Pirates Is Not True, and a Lot of What Is True Is Not Known.

In 1701, in Middletown, New Jersey, Moses Butterworth languished in a jail, accused of piracy. Like many young men based in England or her colonies, he had joined a crew that sailed the Indian Ocean intent on plundering ships of the Muslim Mughal Empire. Throughout the 1690s, these pirates marauded vessels laden with gold, jewels, silk, and calico on pilgrimage toward Mecca. After achieving great success, many of these men sailed back into the Atlantic via Madagascar to the North American seaboard, where they quietly disembarked in Charleston, Philadelphia, New Jersey, New York City, Newport, and Boston, and made themselves at home.