REASON MAGAZINE (DECEMBER 2023) – The latest issue features The Endangered Species Act at 50 – Why have so few species been taken off the endangered species list?; Dobbs and the abortion debate is reshaping American Politics; Will Russia ever be free?, and more…
In August, the Sun rose behind the Extremely Large Telescope, under construction in Chile.
Past the halfway point, Extremely Large Telescope prepares to receive first mirrors
A web of steel girders is rising from the flattened summit of Cerro Armazones, 3000 meters above sea level in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The dome it will support will be vast—with a footprint as big as a soccer field and almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty— and unexpectedly nimble: It will smoothly rotate on rails as a giant telescope inside tracks stars through the night.
HISTORY TODAY MAGAZINE (NOVEMBER 2023) – This issue features The murder John F. Kennedy 60 years on, the dirty secrets of medieval monks, what the Nazis learnt from the Beer Hall Putsch, Christianity’s bloody history in Japan, and deaf expression in Renaissance art.
Was it the mob? A coup? Cuban dissidents? War hawks? 60 years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the theories are still debated. Do any of them hold up?
In the aftermath of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923, Hitler was in prison and the Nazi Party banned. But its failure taught him valuable lessons.
Repulsive revelations of bodily infestations were viewed by some in medieval Europe as proof of sanctity. But for most, parasites were just plain disgusting.
Confinement: The Hidden History of Maternal Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Britain by Jessica Cox looks at the engine of the Victorian population boom: motherhood.
The Economist Magazine (October 21, 2023):The latest issue features ‘Where will this end?’ – Only America can pull the Middle East back from the brink; Are American CEO’s overpaid?; The holes in export controls; Argentina’s radical option, and more….
nature Magazine – October 19, 2023: The latest issue features how humans develop in the very early stages when a newly formed embryo is implanted in the wall of the uterus, largely because of the physical and ethical challenges that are presented by studying early human embryos.
The test 30 years ago of what remote sensing could tell us about our own planet shows the value of looking with unbiased eyes at what we think we already know.
The Guardian Weekly (October 20, 2023) – The new issue features escalating events in Israel and Gaza that continue to cause deep distress and alarm,with several thousand people known to be dead or wounded on either side of the border. US president Joe Biden was expected to visit Israel this week, amid growing expectations of a ground invasion of Gaza and fears of a wider regional escalation.
Also, a primer on the historical background to events by Chris McGreal, while on the opinion pages the Israeli author and historian Yuval Noah Harari and Guardian US columnist Naomi Klein provide thoughtful and grounded perspectives.
There was sadness for many Aboriginal Australians after a move to recognise Indigenous people in the country’s constitution was rejected in a referendum, as Sarah Collard and Elias Visontay report. Also from Oceania, Henry Cooke examines what aspects of Jacinda Ardern’s political legacy might survive after New Zealand elected a new conservative government.
From Egypt to Hong Kong, the 2010s were a decade when mass protest movements looked set to change the world.But in most cases, the hope embodied by many massive street demonstrations was soon crushed by authoritarian regimes. Vincent Bevins asks organisers and others who were there where it all went wrong.
Times Literary Supplement (October20, 2023): The new issue features ‘Rocket Man’ – North Korea’s dictator is no joke; A snapshot of Teju Cole; Daniel Dennett’s evolution; Monet’s muses; John le Carré undercover, and more…
Scientific American – November 2023: The issue features Woman The Hunter – New science debunks the myth that men evolved to hunt and women to gather; Interspecies Organ Transplants; Materials Made in Space; The Legacy of the Endangered Species Act, and more…
The Endangered Species Act requires that every U.S. plant and animal be saved from extinction, but after 50 years, we have to do much more to prevent a biodiversity crisis
Summary: The average U.S. household contains a trove of potentially reusable goods worth roughly $4,500. That’s a lot of trapped value, and companies are at last getting serious about accessing it—by developing new resale capabilities. Resale has been with us for a very long time, of course—at yard sales, on used-car lots, in classified ads.
An advanced AI model considers much more than what competitors are charging.
Summary: In today’s fast-paced world of digital retailing, the ability to revise prices swiftly and on a large scale has emerged as a decisive differentiator for companies. Many retailers now track competitors’ prices via systems that scrape rivals’ websites and use this information as an input to set their own prices manually or automatically. A common strategy is to charge X dollars or X percent less than a target competitor. However, retailers that use such simple heuristics miss significant opportunities to fine-tune pricing.
Country Life Magazine – October18, 2023: The latest issue features Norfolks – Little pockets of fun; The real Macnab – great adventures in the field; Britain’s loneliest trees; Beethoven’s Austria and Amsterdam’s canal life, and more…
I’m still standing
In memory of the Sycamore Gap tree, so callously cut down, we salute its fellow arboreal sentinels of Britain
Following in the footsteps of John Macnab
The Editor and The Judge set off across the Tulchan estate in pursuit of a stag, a brace of grouse and a salmon, in the spirit of John Buchan’s hero
Country Life International
Anna Tyzack uncovers Monaco’s unexpectedly magnificent restoration
Deborah Nicholls-Lee settles in to an Amsterdam canal house
Tom Parker Bowles gorges on Alpine cheese
Russell Higham explores the Austrian countryside that inspired Beethoven
Holly Kirkwood picks the best Caribbean properties
Mark Frary straps on his pads for a spot of cricket in the Windward Islands
Felix Francis’s favourite painting
The author picks a scene full of the thrill of the racecourse
Totally foxed
The rural people of Scotland are reeling under a prejudiced new law on hunting. Jamie Blackett despairs for the fox
The Englishness of English architecture
What makes a building English? Steven Brindle considers the answer, from soaring cathedral vaults to austere Palladian villas and rambling country piles
Native breeds
Kate Green luxuriates in the luscious locks of the Leicestershire Longwool
Come hell or high water
Few creatures face as difficult a journey as the salmon does to and from its spawning grounds. Simon Lester follows in its wake
Interiors
A dramatic kitchen and why it’s time to cuddle up in British wool
Plant theatre
Charles Quest-Ritson takes the well-worn path to the famed nursery of Larch Cottage in Cumbria
Having a field day
Behind hounds or on the marsh, casting for a salmon or stalking a stag, nothing stirs Adrian Dangar’s heart as fieldsports do
Kitchen garden cook
Melanie Johnson finds the perfect pairing for hazelnuts
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
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