Category Archives: Culture

Culture: New York Times Magazine – March 5, 2023

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The New York Times Magazine – March 5, 2023:

‘Nobody Wants to Be the World’s Villain’

Inside the Louisville Police Department, where officers are reckoning with what it means to be a cop in a city that doesn’t trust them.

This Revolutionary Stroke Treatment Will Save Millions of Lives. Eventually.

An endovascular thrombectomy, or EVT, being performed at Foothills Medical Center in Calgary, Alberta.

A procedure called EVT is creating radically better outcomes for patients, but only when it’s performed quickly enough — and that requires the transformation of an entire system of care.

CreditNatalia Neuhaus for The New York Times

Views: Discover Germany Switzerland & Germany Magazine – March 2023

Discover Germany, Switzerland and Austria

Discover Germany, Switzerland and Austria – March 2023 Issue:

The March issue of Discover Germany, Austria & Switzerland introduces five perfect places to bike to this springtime, as well as the famous Wartburg Castle and its cultural legacy.

Other topics covered are an interview with actor Bernhard Bettermann, some brightly coloured and airy spring outfits in this month’s Fashion Finds, top event locations in Switzerland, the popular Berlinale event, healthcare solutions, top coaches, 3D-printing technology, software development companies, education providers and much more.

READ DIGITAL MARCH 2023 ISSUE

Arts & Culture: The Art Newspaper – March 2023

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The Art Newspaper – March 2023 Issue:

The hunt for as many as nine elusive Vermeer paintings continues

As the Rijksmuseum’s once-in-a-lifetime blockbuster brings together an unprecedented number of works by the Old Master, paintings including a self-portrait are still missing

Michiel van Musscher’s A Self-portrait of the Artist in his Studio (1670) is thought to have been inspired by a lost Vermeer work Courtesy of Christie’s
Michiel van Musscher’s A Self-portrait of the Artist in his Studio (1670) is thought to have been inspired by a lost Vermeer workCourtesy of Christie’s

With only 37 authenticated Johannes Vermeer paintings (28 in the Rijksmuseum’s sold-out exhibition), could there be more out there, not yet recognised as from his hand? Vermeer’s production was certainly larger, so the hunt continues for the missing masterpieces. Experts believe that a number are still unaccounted for.

What are the implications of artificial intelligence for the future of art? The robot artist Ai-da and her creators discuss

Ai-da is an artist, she marks a challenge to the category, and it is in this sense that she becomes Duchampian, argue her creators

Previews: The Guardian Weekly – March 3, 2023

The ruin of Mariupol: inside the 3 March Guardian Weekly | Ukraine | The  Guardian

The Guardian Weekly (March 3, 2023) – A year on from the invasion of Ukraine and there seems little end in sight to a conflict that has, unquestionably, changed the world. The Guardian Weekly’s big story this week outlines five possible routes to peace (some more hopeful than others), but the main focus is a stunning collaboration from Guardian reporters detailing the fate of the port of Mariupol, the battle for which has perhaps been the bloodiest and most shocking chapter of the war to date.

It’s an extraordinary account of the devastation, partial reconstruction, and Russification of a thriving city. “You learn to only voice your opinions with those you know you can trust,” says Darya, a student opposed to the occupation. “Otherwise, you keep your thoughts to yourself.”

On Monday the UK government finally agreed a deal with the EU to end a long-running Brexit dispute over customs arrangements and legal oversight in Northern Ireland. Our Brexit correspondent Lisa O’Carroll unpicks the key points of the new agreement and what it means for the region.

In 2003, when the US army occupied Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Guardian writer Ghaith Abdul-Ahad was aged 28 and living in Baghdad. He recounts his front-row view of the fall of the regime, the arrival of the so-called liberators and the unfolding of a sectarian war.

Travel & History: Inside Stories Of German Castles

DW Travel (March 1, 2023) – You’ve likely heard of Germany’s famous Neuschwanstein castle, or Potsdam’s Sanssouci palace. But did you know one of the country’s best-known castles only became famous as a ruin? And that some German castles served as fortified customs offices? Here are some of the biggest misconceptions involving German castles palaces.

Video timeline: 0:00 Intro 0:28 Neuschwanstein – a medieval castle? 2:06 Sanssouci – palace or garden hut? 3:35 Is it too expensive to rebuild Heidelberg castle? 5:00 Why do so many castles line river Rhine? 6:25 Are all German castles and palaces owned by the state?

Culture & Politics: The Drift – February 28, 2023

The Drift Magazine – February 28, 2023 Issue – We called it heterosexual oppression. Like replacing a piece of your skull with a smartwatch.

Electric Bodies | Medical Technology Takes Over

Through a growing focus on healthcare monitoring in recent years, Apple has positioned its wearables as essential accessories for the technophile and the casual hypochondriac alike. 

Like so many other predictions of collapse, exaggerated.  Methylphenidate  for Miriam. Two executives showed up for a meeting dressed as Woody and Buzz Lightyear. A source of revolutionary Marxist critiques, an outright conservative, a peddler of flimsy conspiracy theories. Some days I am so filled with myself I can see nothing. I am not going to apologize for the empire, for our history. Bravissima! Stealth, he kept no socials. She had martini-glass tits. In this city every boy is an isotope. Enter among the truly civilized peoples. Cruising for difference. The body of a bear, the nose of an elephant, the paws of a tiger, the tail of an ox, and needle-like hairs. Wainscoting for an all-knowing liberalism. How can a narrow regional tabloid claim itself The World? The surrealist didn’t prescribe life-sized butter ears. Spend how you want the sixtyish years you have left of your life

Words Exchanged | Italophone Somalia, Then and Now

“Italian language teaching is back in Somalia!” the Italian embassy in Somalia tweeted in late September 2021, announcing a new program at the Somali National University that would reintroduce the language of the country’s former colonizer.

Culture: Scallops, Ciders & Caramels In Normandy

With its chalk cliffs and its bright green meadows, the French region of Normandy offers stunning scenery but also iconic local produce. It’s in this unique landscape that cider producer Guillaume Capelle grows apples, the local fruit, to make the world-famous Calvados brandy.

Meanwhile, Pierre Marie is hoping for a good season for scallop fishing – another emblematic product of Normandy, along with Isigny butter and caramels. For the latter two to see the light of day, dairy farmer Pierre Aubril pampers his Normandy cows, who produce up to 1,200 litres of 100 percent organic milk every day.

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – March 6, 2023

“The Florida BookoftheMonth Club” by Barry Blitt.

The New Yorker Magazine – March 6, 2023 Issue:

Can A.I. Treat Mental Illness?

A diagram of lines and shapes with several of them being a profile of a face.

New computer systems aim to peer inside our heads—and to help us fix what they find there.

The End of the English Major

A statue of Shakespeare is surrounded by colorful moving machines representative of the STEM disciplines.

Enrollment in the humanities is in free fall at colleges around the country. What happened?

Phosphorus Saved Our Way of Life—and Now Threatens to End It

Farmland surrounded by green algae water.

Fertilizers filled with the nutrient boosted our ability to feed the planet. Today, they’re creating vast and growing dead zones in our lakes and seas.

Culture: A Nomadic Life In The Gobi Desert, Mongolia

DW Documentary (February 25, 2023) – Otgo is the youngest child of a nomadic family in the Gobi desert. They make their living breeding cattle. Otgo loves their life, in harmony with nature and old traditions. Yet she dreams of becoming a dancer at the opera house in Ulan Bator.

In Mongolia, it is becoming increasingly common for the younger generation to leave traditional life behind. Otgo’s dream would take her far from her family’s yurt. She wants to become a dancer and later, a dance teacher. Her parents leave it up to her to decide how she wants to shape her life. They agree to support her, if she embarks on her great endeavor. In the meantime, Otgo has become an almost indispensable help to the family.

She gets up early in the morning to water the camels with her father, and it fills her with pride that she can help her family. The breathtaking landscape of the Gobi Desert and the strong bonds between the different nomadic families do not make it easy for Otgo to follow her dream. Otgo’s story paints a portrait of her world and of the men and women who have long passed on their culture from generation to generation, through the eyes of a child.

Culture: New York Times Magazine – Feb 26, 2023

The New York Times Magazine – February 26, 2023:

Three Years Into Covid, We Still Don’t Know How to Talk About It

Most Americans think they know the story of the pandemic. But when a writer immersed himself in a Covid oral-history project, he realized how much we’re still missing.

‘The Democratic Party in New York Is a Disaster’

After losing crucial seats in the congressional midterms, a bitter civil war over the moribund state organization has spilled into the open.