Times Literary Supplement (August 4, 2023): The twilight zone – Joyce Carol Oates on the novellas of Rachel Ingalls; J.L Austin, philosopher-spy; Adam Thirlwell’s historical fantasy; Hollywood blockbusters; Poverty in the U.S. and more…
Literary Review – August 2023 Issue: How Sugar Became King; Oil, Resin, Vinegar & Paint – “Albrecht Dürer: Art and Autobiography” By David Ekserdjian; Shopping & Plucking – “How to Be a Renaissance Woman: The Untold History of Beauty and Female Creativity” By Jill Burke and more…
Albrecht Dürer: Art and Autobiography By David Ekserdjian
Dürer’s Lost Masterpiece: Art and Society at the Dawn of a Global World By Ulinka Rublack
The German Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) was fortunate in his initials. The stylised ‘AD’ that he routinely inserted into his paintings and engravings, and even the preparatory drawings, seemed to imbue his productions with an almost divine stamp of approval. Most German painters of the era did not sign their work, but Dürer was eager to assert creative ownership of his productions, obtaining legal protection of his sole right to the trademark monogram.
The World of Sugar: How the Sweet Stuff Transformed Our Politics, Health, and Environment over 2,000 Years By Ulbe Bosma
There was a time when commodity histories were everywhere. They tended to focus on consumption and trade over very long distances. Ulbe Bosma’s The World of Sugar is much more than this sort of book. It is one of the most accomplished longue durée case studies in the history of capitalism that we have, concerned not just with trade and consumption but with production also. At every turn it subverts both critiques and celebrations of capitalism, and our understanding of much else besides. It is an extraordinary achievement.
The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng
In Ascension by Martin MacInnes
All the Little Bird-Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow
This Other Eden by Paul Harding
How to Build a Boat by Elaine Feeney
If I Survive You by Jonathan Escoffery
Study for Obedience by Sarah Bernstein
‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (July 31, 2023) – Three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week: what to do about overstretched CEOs, how to better predict the weather (9:00) and we meet Myanmar’s Gen Z guerrillas (15:00).
Renowned researchers like Nir Barzilai have long advocated for a shift in focus towards curing aging itself, but recent advancements could allow us to harness the power of AI to living not just longer, but healthier lives.
In this video, we talk with the scientists behind the groundbreaking discoveries of new anti-aging molecules and visit a lab in Berlin where similar discoveries are made.
How Yevgeny Prigozhin’s private military company went from fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine to staging a mutiny at home.
By Joshua Yaffa
Babylon was everything forbidden, and looming all around us—and my father tried to protect us from it at all costs.
As the founder of Adventures with Purpose, Jared Leisek carved a lucrative niche in the YouTube sleuthing community. Then the sleuths came for him, Rachel Monroe writes.
Video timeline: 0:00 A weapon to help with counteroffensive 0:30 How Storm Shadow missiles work 4:31 Weaknesses 6:07 What’s next?
The weapon has three times the range of that on the HIMARS rockets in Ukraine, forcing Moscow to rethink its logistics. WSJ takes a look at how these long-range, deep-strike missiles work and why the Storm Shadow is equipped to take out key Russian command and control centers.
6 energy saving tips for hot weather – When it’s hot, your ceiling fan should turn anti-clockwise. This creates a downdraft and circulates the cool air. On winter mode, fans move clockwise instead. Pulling hot air upwards and dispersing it around the room.
France will help pay for people’s clothing repairs – The government will refund €6-€25 of the cost of mending shoes and clothes. It hopes the scheme will cut textile waste and help to create a more circular textile sector. 700,000 tonnes of clothing are thrown away in France every year. Two-thirds of it ends up in landfill. The global textile industry is a major source of both pollution and CO2. It generates 10% of the world’s total CO2 emissions. By 2050, this could be 25%.
This Finnish island wants you to turn off your phone – This summer, Ulko-Tammio is encouraging visitors not to look at their devices. Ulko-Tammio is a small island in the Eastern Gulf of Finland. It’s uninhabited and home to rare birds and plants. Visitors arrive by boat to birdwatch, hike and camp. Now, the island is encouraging them to switch off their devices, take a break from emails and social media and focus attention on their surroundings rather than their screen.
Japan is encouraging more women into science – Currently, only 1 in 7 Japanese scientists are women. So from 2024, a dozen universities are introducing quotas to urge more women to major in science, technology, engineering and maths, also known as STEM. The Tokyo Institute of Technology wants women to make up 20-30% of new students, up from 13% today. Nagoya University, Shimane University and the University of Toyama are also putting quotas in place. Currently, only 7% of female students in Japan major in science and engineering. The lowest in the OECD.
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The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.
BARRON’S MAGAZINE – JULY 31, 2023 ISSUE –
A renewed focus on lower costs and doing what it does best could help the media titan’s shares recover from a long slump.
The Liberty Media cluster of companies is dauntingly complicated for investors. Now may be the right time to get in.
The industry has launched a legal war against a new law that would let Medicare negotiate prices. The odds are in Big Pharma’s favor.Long read
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW – JULY 30, 2023:
On this week’s cover, we feature biographies of composers Arnold Schoenberg and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart that emphasize the extent to which each was a singular genius attuned to his culture and times; our reviews are by Anthony Tommasini (formerly The Times’s chief classical music critic) and the composer John Adams.
In Patrick Mackie’s “Mozart in Motion,” the socially observant composer embraces modernity.
Musicians tend to be wary of ascribing specific meanings to music or making too much of a piece’s extra-musical associations. In one of his Norton Lectures at Harvard in 1973, turning to Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, Leonard Bernstein asked the audience to forget all about “birds and brooks and rustic pleasures” and instead concentrate on “pure” music. He then demonstrated how every phrase of the entire first movement is derived from little motifs of notes and rhythms in the first four bars of the score.
John Adams reviews “Schoenberg: Why He Matters,” in which Harvey Sachs explores the artistic, academic and spiritual life of a 20th-century cultural giant.
In 1955 Henry Pleasants, a critic of both popular and classical music, issued a cranky screed of a book, “The Agony of Modern Music,” which opened with the implacable verdict that “serious music is a dead art.” Pleasants’s thesis was that the traditional forms of classical music — opera, oratorio, orchestral and chamber music, all constructions of a bygone era — no longer related to the experience of our modern lives. Composers had lost touch with the currents of popular taste, and popular music,
Boomers Daily 