The appearance of a “tropical” mosquito-borne illness in southeastern Australia has unsettled researchers
In mice, pregnancy results in new neurons that support recognition of pups
HISTORY TODAY MAGAZINE (DECEMBER 2023) – This issue features The 50 years that made America from Revolution to the Monroe Doctrine, the forgotten role of Archbishop Wulfstan, the home front of the First World War, the role of sokol in Czech nationalism, Volcanos on tour, and the best history books of 2023.
Fifty years separate the Boston Tea Party and the Monroe Doctrine. How did a group of British colonies become a self-proclaimed protector of continents within half a century?
It was the evening of 16 December 1773. At Boston’s Old South Meeting House, more than 5,000 people awaited word from the governor of Massachusetts Bay, Thomas Hutchinson. Had the governor finally given in to their demand to send back to England the three ships laden with East India Company tea that were moored in Boston harbour? When learning of the governor’s refusal, tradition holds that the firebrand orator Samuel Adams loudly declared that ‘this meeting’ could do no more to defend the rights of the people. The words were a pre-arranged signal.
Revolutions and rubles, godlings and fascist symbols, Shakespeare and silk: ten historians choose their favourite new history books of 2023.
B 8G4L/ChimeraX
Around 7.3 billion people faced temperatures strongly influenced by global warming over the past year.
The landmark decision could transform the treatment of sickle-cell disease and β-thalassaemia — but the technology is expensive.
From identifying disputed artworks to reconstructing lost masterpieces, artificial intelligence is enriching how we interpret our cultural heritage.
Times Literary Supplement (November 22, 2023): The new issue features Edward Thomas’s journey – The radical turn in English poetry; An AI emergency; Great American history; Magical thinking; Carry On Napoleon, and more…
Jacqueline Rose on violence and its origins
In response to the destruction of Gaza, it seems to be becoming almost impossible to lament more than one people at a time. When I signed Artists for Palestine’s statement last month, I looked for mention of the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli Jews on 7 October, and then decided to settle for the unambiguous condemnation of ‘every act of violence against civilians and every infringement of international law whoever perpetrates them’.
‘Little Boy’ exploded over Hiroshima at 8.15 a.m. on 6 August 1945, wiping most of the city off the face of the earth and killing eighty thousand people instantly. But the ‘shock’ to the leadership in Tokyo envisaged by the former US secretary of war Henry Stimson failed to materialise.
Wikipedia and the problem of historical memory
by Ben Lerner
At twenty-six, in 2006, the year before the iPhone launched, I found myself driving a red Subaru Outback—the color was technically “claret metallic,” the friend who’d lent me the car had told me, in case I ever wanted to touch up the paint—on Highway 12 in Utah. I was heading to the East Bay after a painful breakup in New York. I remember, wrongly, that I was listening to a book on tape, a work by a prominent linguist, as I moved through the alien landscape, jagged formations of red rock towering against a cloudless sky.
Letting go of Philip Roth
by Hannah Gold
It is difficult to predict when one will spend the night at a hotel in Newark, let alone three, and uncommon to agree to such a scenario willingly. If you live there already, you stay home. If you’re there for a professional engagement, your boss made you go. If your flight has been canceled, you go there as a last resort. Whereas, though I felt compelled to be there, I couldn’t point to an authority outside of myself that had forced my hand. The room had been booked a week in advance.
BARRON’S MAGAZINE – November 20, 2023 ISSUE:
A resilient labor market and healthy household finances should keep a recession at bay, even if the postpandemic spending boom loses a bit of its vigor.
After the pandemic buying boom, sales are expected to come back to earth this holiday season.Long read
Some major healthcare systems are dropping the plans that cover seniors.4 min read
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (November 19, 2023): This week’s issue features Fuchsia Dunlop’s seductive new exploration of Chinese cuisine, “Invitation to a Banquet”; Michael Lewis Tells His Own Story of Sam Bankman-Fried; He Carried the Bags (and the Secrets) for the Beatles – A new biography resuscitates the colorful, tragic life of Mal Evans: roadie, confidant, procurer, cowbell player…
Fuchsia Dunlop’s “Invitation to a Banquet” is a cultural investigation of an impossibly broad and often misunderstood cuisine.
INVITATION TO A BANQUET: The Story of Chinese Food, by Fuchsia Dunlop
“A really good cookbook,” Jan Morris wrote, “is intellectually more adventurous than the Kama Sutra.” Fuchsia Dunlop’s masterly new book, “Invitation to a Banquet: The Story of Chinese Food,” is not a cookbook per se. But it has an earthiness that calls to mind Morris’s comment.
AUDIOBOOKS
In Jessie Gaynor’s debut novel, “The Glow,” read by Gabra Zackman, a P.R. rep immerses herself in the woo-woo world of a cultlike “spiritual retreat,” and its enigmatic leader.
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (November 17, 2023): The latest issue features How David Zaslav blew up Hollywood – The inside story of a novice movie mogul in an age of disruption, discontent and disaster ; Russell Brand’s Alternate Reality – The British entertainer built an army of fans with his conspiracy-minded podcast. Now, amid sex-assault claims against him, they’ve become his whole world; Sofia Coppola’s Subversive Search for Truth in ‘Priscilla’ – Hollywood is addicted to mythologizing biopics. ‘‘Priscilla’’ offers something different…
A merger put him in the driver’s seat at Warner Brothers, one of the industry’s biggest studios. It has been a wild ride.
By Jonathan Mahler, James B. Stewart and Benjamin Mullin
It was April 2022, and David Zaslav had just closed the deal of a lifetime. From the helm of his relatively small and unglamorous cable company, Discovery, he had taken control of a sprawling entertainment conglomerate that included perhaps the most storied movie studio on the planet, Warner Brothers. The longtime New Yorker had always loved movies, and against the advice of several media peers, he had moved to Hollywood and taken over Jack Warner’s historic office, hauling the old mogul’s desk out of storage and topping it off with an old-time handset telephone. So far things were going great. He had met all the stars and players, was widely feted as the next in line to save the eternally struggling industry and was well into the process of renovating a landmark house in Beverly Hills.
Hollywood is addicted to mythologizing biopics. ‘‘Priscilla’’ offers something different.
By Rafaela Bassili
As with much of her other work, the opening of Sofia Coppola’s latest film, “Priscilla,” is all about textures. A pair of manicured feet sink into a shag carpet; a fingernail is carefully polished in red; we see the back of a prodigious black bouffant, then the dexterous painting of a dramatic cat eye with black liner. Priscilla Presley (Cailee Spaeny) paces around Graceland relentlessly. There’s nothing for her to do, and too much for her to process.
NEW HUMANIST MAGAZINE – WINTER 2023 ISSUE: The new issue features Pavan Amara on the new technologies revolutionising reproduction, Gabriele Di Donfrancesco on Europe’s battle over “family values” and Rachael Lennon on a decade of same-sex marriage, and a new column from Shaparak Khorsandi…
Boomers Daily 