Category Archives: Previews

Previews: History Today Magazine – October 2022

Oct 22


A Century of Fascism

Fascism would plague the 20th century, but when Benito Mussolini seized power in October 1922 few could agree on exactly what it was.

Cuban Missile Crisis: the View from Havana

For 13 days in October 1962 the world watched Cuba with bated breath. What was the view like from the epicentre of the missile crisis?

Previews: The Economist Magazine – Sept 24, 2022

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An energy crisis and geopolitics are creating a new-look Gulf

It will be richer, more powerful—and more volatile

Vladimir Putin vows to send more invaders. The West should arm Ukraine faster

It has a window of opportunity to push Russian forces back

Cover Previews: World Archaeology – Sept 2022

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The World Archaeology October 2022 issue explores the secrets of Japan’s stone circles, the lost prehistoric cities of Bolivia, women’s everyday lives in the Ice Age, an idyllic alpine region that saw fierce fighting during the First World War, and much more.

The stone circles of Japan are enigmatic monuments. These structures were created by Jomon hunter-gatherers, mostly from roughly 2500-300 BC, and can be associated with burials, seasonal ceremonies, and solar alignments. Such preoccupations are far from being restricted to Jomon Japan, with study of these circles proving influential when it came to early 20th-century attempts to understand Stonehenge. In our cover feature, we take a detailed look at some of the Jomon stone circles, examining both the monuments themselves, and wider activity in the period.

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Sept 22, 2022

Volume 609 Issue 7928


A gentle lick or nibble makes this brain circuit buzz

Scientists identify a neuronal pathway in rats that drives ‘social grooming’, a behaviour that helps to hold animal communities together.

Warming Arctic brings jet-stream waviness and extreme weather

As high-level winds shift, heat and heavy rain can persist.

A diamond sensor shines at ‘seeing’ voltages

Crystalline device could be used to visualize voltages with high resolution, speed and stability.

A chocoholic’s best friends are the birds and the bats

The trees that provide the raw material for chocolate have a higher yield when the groves are accessible to certain species.

How did the sea cow cross the Pacific? At a ponderous paddle

A family tree of sea cows suggests that the dugong traversed an ocean to reach its present habitat.

Builder drones

Ground-based robots have potential for helping in the construction industry, but they are limited by their height. In this week’s issue, Mirko Kovac, Robert Stuart-Smith and their colleagues introduce highly manoeuvrable aerial robots that can perform additive 3D construction tasks. Inspired by natural builders such as wasps and bees, the researchers created BuilDrones (as shown on the cover) that can work in an autonomous team to perform 3D printing tasks using foam- or cement-based materials. They also created ScanDrones to assess the quality of the structures

 being built. The team hopes that this approach of ‘aerial additive manufacturing’ could help to build structures in difficult to access areas.

Preview: Country Life Magazine – Sept 21, 2022

Country Life’s 21 September 2022 issue is a Cotswolds special, looking at gardens, homes and Oxford’s brief stint as the British capital.

Our great good fortune

Long live the Kings and Queens, says Carla Carlisle as she marvels at the balancing act of our enduring monarchy

A Cotswold capital

Simon Thurley explains how Oxford was fortified during its brief spell as Charles I’s capital city during the Civil War

A concentrated Arcadia

Tilly Ware lauds the dedicated restoration of the many buildings and features of a historic Cotswolds landscape garden

Stella Ioannou’s favourite painting

The artistic director of Sculpture in the City chooses a vivid and compelling British work

Art Events: Hilma Af Klint At Swedenborg In London

The Temple: immersive virtual reality experience

Hilma af Klint dreamt of a spiral-shaped building to house her most important works. According to her notebooks, she wanted it to be built on an island in Sweden but the idea never materialized, and the temple remained an imaginary creation – until now. 

More than a century later, af Klint’s vision has been translated into an immersive VR experience. It takes you on a cosmic journey from the Milky Way, through spirals in nature and into a few of the artist’s most important paintings, some of them even coming alive. 

Hilma af Klint sometimes referred to her temple as a church for a new era and at other times called it a museum. The exact meaning remains open to interpretation. At the same time, her paintings were clearly intended to lead the viewer to levels of awareness beyond that of everyday life. Was it really a physical building she had in mind? Or was it a spiritual site – something existing in another dimension? 

Perhaps her temple, simultaneously spiritual and physical, could not be realised because she did not have access to the right medium. She had no knowledge about the technological possibilities that were to come, and the idea remained on paper. Today things are different. Hilma af Klint’s temple, inspired by the teachings of Christian Rosenkreutz, has arrived with the help of VR. You are invited to enter another world. 

Hilma af Klint The Temple was conceived by Daniel Birnbaum and Kurt Almqvist and directed by Marika Stolpe. The experience was produced by Acute Art and published by Stolpe Publishing. Creative Director – Rodrigo Marques. Music – Andrew Sheriff.

Watch video below for more on Hilma af Klint:

Photography: National Geographic – Oct 2022

A dark grey Canadian sphynx cat looks directly at the camera with green eyes and his ears turned to point forward. The image is surrounded by a yellow border and overlaid with the headline, "Minds of their own: Some animals have complex emotions— much like us"

Minds Of Their Own – Ed, a Canadian sphynx cat,

is curious, outgoing, affectionate, and highly responsive to human emotion. He’s also talkative: Say his name, he purrs. In this portrait, his forward-tilted ears show he’s alert and his narrowed pupils that he’s relaxed.

PHOTOGRAPH BY VINCENT LAGRANGE

Books: Literary Review Of Canada – October 2022

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The Bear and the Beaver – Eight games, one goal – Robert Lewis

Sentence Structure – Views from the inside – Amy Reiswig

Me, My Shelf, and I – An account of empty boxes – Mark Kingwell

An Uncertain Royal Path – Three Windsor women and the future of the monarchy – Patricia Treble

The last Queen of Canada? – What comes next for Canada and the Crown – John Fraser