Category Archives: Previews

Financial, Investing, Magazines, Previews, Retirement, Reviews

Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – January 8, 2024

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BARRON’S MAGAZINE – JANUARY 8, 2024 ISSUE:

The Power Grid Is Changing. What It Means for Utility Stocks—and Your Electricity Bill.

Renewable energy will make life more complicated but could be a boon for the companies providing it.

Watch Out for This Rude Surprise From Medicare

Watch Out for This Rude Surprise From Medicare

If your Medicare modified adjusted gross income is on the edge of a tax bracket, you could save thousands of dollars a year by keeping it from going over.

Home Builders’ Stocks Soared in 2023. Brace for a Dip.

Home Builders’ Stocks Soared in 2023. Brace for a Dip.

High expectations for the spring buying season are already priced into most of the stocks, analysts say.

Japan Is Hot. Here Are the Best Funds to Play It.

Japan Is Hot. Here Are the Best Funds to Play It.

Japan was once the world’s hottest stock market, before falling into a decadeslong slumber. It revived in 2023, awakening investors to its long-term potential. How to invest in the country now.

The Right Balanced Fund Can Carry Your Portfolio. Where to Find It.

The Right Balanced Fund Can Carry Your Portfolio. Where to Find It.

The rise in bond interest rates makes the classic 60/40 balanced fund attractive again.

Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review – January 7, 2024

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (January 5): The latest issue features ‘Read This And Learn’ – For decades, Juan Rulfo’s novel, “Pedro Páramo,” has cast an uncanny spell on writers. A new translation may bring it broader appeal.

A Masterpiece That Inspired Gabriel García Márquez to Write His Own

A black-and-white photograph of a man resting his chin on his hand over a small wooden table. An Aztec skull sits next to his face.

For decades, Juan Rulfo’s novel, “Pedro Páramo,” has cast an uncanny spell on writers. A new translation may bring it broader appeal.

By Valeria Luiselli

Readers of Latin American literature may have heard one of the many versions of this story:

It is 1961 and Gabriel García Márquez has just arrived in Mexico City, penniless but full of literary ambition, trying desperately to work on a new novel. One day, he is sitting in the legendary Café La Habana, where Fidel Castro and Che Guevara were said to have plotted the Cuban Revolution. Julio Cortázar walks in, carrying a copy of Juan Rulfo’s novel “Pedro Páramo.” With a swift gesture, as if he’s dealing cards, Cortázar throws the book on García Márquez’s table. “Tenga, pa que aprenda,” he says. “Read this and learn.”

Willa Cather and Yehudi Menuhin: An Unlikely, Unwavering Friendship

A pair of black-and-white historical photographs show Willa Cather and Yehudi Menuhin, holding a violin.

These two titans of 20th-century literature and music formed a profound, yearslong relationship across generations and backgrounds.

By Joshua Barone

Early in 1935, a blizzard blew through New York City. The storm was so fierce, it virtually emptied Central Park. But Willa Cather spent her morning there, sledding with the violin prodigy Yehudi Menuhin and his sisters.

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

The New York Times Magazine – January 7, 2024

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (January 5, 2024): The new issue features “Letting Naomi Die” – Treatment wasn’t helping her anorexia, so doctors allowed her to stop, no matter the consequences. But is a ‘palliative’ approach to mental illness really ethical?

Should Patients Be Allowed to Die From Anorexia?

A portrait of Naomi.

Treatment wasn’t helping her anorexia, so doctors allowed her to stop — no matter the consequences. But is a “palliative” approach to mental illness really ethical?

By Katie Engelhart

The doctors told Naomi that she could not leave the hospital. She was lying in a narrow bed at Denver Health Medical Center. Someone said something about a judge and a court order. Someone used the phrase “gravely disabled.” Naomi did not think she was gravely disabled. Still, she decided not to fight it. She could deny that she was mentally incompetent — but this would probably just be taken as proof of her mental incompetence. Of her lack of insight. She would, instead, “succumb to it.”

What If People Don’t Need to Care About Climate Change to Fix It?

A photo illustration of Hannah Ritchie.

By David Marchese 

“It seems like we’ve been battling climate change for decades and made no progress,” Dr. Hannah Ritchie says. “I want to push back on that.” Ritchie, a senior researcher in the Program on Global Development at the University of Oxford and deputy editor at the online publication Our World in Data, is the author of the upcoming book, “Not the End of the World.” In it, she argues that the flood of doom-laden stats and stories about climate change is obscuring our ability to imagine solutions to the crisis and envision a sustainable, livable future.

Magazines, Podcasts, Previews, Research, Reviews, Science

Research Preview: Science Magazine – January 5, 2024

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Science Magazine – December 21, 2023: The new issue features a carnivorous Nepenthes gracilis pitcher plant luring an ant into a precarious position under the roof-like trap lid.

Dopamine regulates attitude toward risk

Specific brain pathways can lower or raise the willingness of monkeys to take risks

Magellanic cloud may be two galaxies, not one

Rethink of familiar object may boost odds that its name, offensive to some, will be changed

Economics, Financial, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews

The Economist Magazine – January 6, 2024 Preview

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The Economist Magazine (January 4, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The man supposed to stop Donald Trump is an unpopular 81-year-old; Israel-Hizbullah – Can war be avoided?; The stakes in Taiwan’s election; An interview with Volodymyr Zelensky; The surge in AI nationalism…

The man supposed to stop Donald Trump is an unpopular 81-year-old

In failing to look past Joe Biden, Democrats have shown cowardice and complacency

Binyamin Netanyahu is botching the war. Time to sack him

To be safe, Israel needs new leadership

Another war could break out on the Israel-Lebanon border

Israeli officials see Hizbullah as an unacceptable threat

Culture, Magazines, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – January 5, 2024

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The Guardian Weekly (January 4, 2024) – The new issue features ‘Make or Break 2024’ – The biggest election year in history.

About 2 billion people have the opportunity to cast their ballots in polls that span the globe from the United States to Taiwan, and India to Mexico in 2024. The outcomes, as our analysts and correspondents explain in our big story, have implications for us all.

Washington bureau chief David Smith looks at the likely rerun of 2020’s Biden v Trump contest in November and explores what has changed and what has not in the US as the old adversaries square up. It is an almost foregone conclusion that Narendra Modi will be back for a third term as Indian prime minster, reports Hannah Ellis-Petersen from Delhi where analysts fear his victory will further imperil the country’s Muslim minority. And while Vladimir Putin will certainly continue as president in Russia, Pjotr Sauer explains why the man about to become fifth-time president might allow other candidates onto the ballot list. From Taiwan’s poll on 13 January to the 27-state European elections in June, how citizens vote will influence the geopolitical landscape for us all, while the conduct of campaigns will reveal how vulnerable democracies now are to misinformation and cyber interference from malign actors.

Magazines, Podcasts, Previews, Research, Reviews, Science

Research Preview: Nature Magazine January 4, 2024

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Volume 625 Issue 7993

Nature Magazine – January 3, 2024: The latest issue cover features  an artist’s impression of a massive young star in the process of forming.

US nuclear-fusion lab enters new era: achieving ‘ignition’ over and over

NIF beamlines entering the lower hemisphere of the NIF Target Chamber, as seen from the ground floor of the Target Bay.

Researchers at the National Ignition Facility are consistently creating reactions that make more energy than they consume.

By Jeff Tollefson

In December 2022, after more than a decade of effort and frustration, scientists at the US National Ignition Facility (NIF) announced that they had set a world record by producing a fusion reaction that released more energy than it consumed — a phenomenon known as ignition. They have now proved that the feat was no accident by replicating it again and again, and the administration of US President Joe Biden is looking to build on this success by establishing a trio of US research centres to help advance the science.

DeepMind AI outdoes human mathematicians on unsolved problem

A player holds a hand of Set game cards over a green table.

Large language model improves on efforts to solve combinatorics problems inspired by the card game Set.

Davide Castelvecchi

The card game Set has long inspired mathematicians to create interesting problems.

Now, a technique based on large language models (LLMs) is showing that artificial intelligence (AI) can help mathematicians to generate new solutions.

Art, Arts & Literature, History, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Fine Art: The Burlington Magazine – January 2024

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The Burlington Magazine – January 3, 2024: The new issue features ‘The Golden Age of Avignon’ – Avignon as ‘New Rome’; Rubens and women; Tiepolo in New York; Gertrude Stein and Picasso, and more….

China’s Southern Paradise: Treasures from the Lower Yangzi Delta

A vivid photograph of a lotus pond ushers visitors into this ambitious exhibition on the arts and culture of Jiangnan. Lying to the south of the Yangtze – its name literally means ‘south of the river’ – this part of China includes such major cities as Shanghai, Hangzhou and Suzhou. Curated by Clarissa von Spee, Chair of Asian Art and the James and Donna Reid Curator of Chinese Art at the Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA), this is the first exhibition outside China to present an encyclopaedic view of the cultural history of this historically affluent region. 

The Walpole Society

Ever since the Walpole Society was founded in London in 1911 ‘with the object of promoting the study of the history of British art’, The Burlington Magazine has taken a close interest in an organisation with aims and principles so close to our own: this is the sixth Editorial we have devoted to the subject. The first, written by the art historian August F. Jaccaci, who edited the Magazine’s ‘Art in America’ section, appeared in 1913 on the occasion of the publication of the first of the annual volumes that are the society’s raison d’être.

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Jan 5, 2024

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Times Literary Supplement (January 3, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Lady Vanishes’ – Muireann Maguire on a revival of classic crime fiction; What next for Julian Assange; David Hockney’s drawings; Dreaming up 007; The science of belonging and more…

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

Previews: Country Life Magazine – January 3, 2024

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Country Life Magazine – January 2, 2024: The latest issue features ‘The Very Best Of Britain’; Marylands, a Surrey country house with a Spanish influence; artist Anne Wright’s miniature Daffodils and snowdrops at her small nursery in North Yorkshire; and how January weather can set the tone for the year to come…

The foul-mouthed Miller and the prim Princess

Geoffrey Chaucer created his Canterbury pilgrims more than 600 years ago, yet his band of travellers speaks across the ages, finds Matthew Dennison

Let’s hear it for Britain

Carla Passino bangs the drum for the British Isles with 50 things to make the nation proud, from code-cracking to clever dogs — and everything in between

Snow magic

Mary Keen is mesmerised by the array of rare and highly collectable snowdrops that artist Anne Wright is breeding at her small nursery in North Yorkshire

Keith Halstead’s favourite painting

The chief executive of the Royal Countryside Fund chooses a work that sparks memories of his childhood in rural Norfolk

Thought for the year 2024

Carla Carlisle enters the new year with a determination to remain positive, fortified by the sentiments of W. H. Auden

A fairy house

The glamour and glitz of 1920s stage and screen is rekindled as Clive Aslet puts the spotlight on Marylands, a Surrey country house with a Spanish influence

Baby, it’s cold outside

In the first of a new series on weather lore, Lia Leendertz reveals how January can set the tone for the year to come

Interiors

The bathroom of a Somerset house is restored with a nod to its historic roots, finds Arabella Youens, and Amelia Thorpe shares ideas for creating your own luxury bathing sanctuary

London Life

Start the year with an exhibition, says Charlotte Mullins, while Carla Passino assesses architect Richard Rogers’s contribution to the London skyline and Gilly Hopper looks ahead to the year’s big events in the capital

Kitchen garden cook

Melanie Johnson on sweet and nutty Jerusalem artichokes

Travel

Mary Lussiana stays at a land-mark luxury hotel in Marrakech while Luke Abrahams explores Athens in the snow and James Fisher dons his skis and discovers the Dolomites

New series: Arts & Antiques

Carla Passino investigates the centuries-long British passion for collecting antiquities and finds that all roads lead to Rome