The Economist ‘Editor’s Picks’ Podcast (May 15 , 2023) – Is Chinese power about to peak? Why your job is (probably) safe from artificial intelligence (11:00) and how Mexico’s gangs are becoming criminal conglomerates (35:00).
Category Archives: Reviews
Arts/History: Smithsonian Magazine – June 2023
Smithsonian Magazine – June Issue
Artist Joseph Stella Painted Nature in Vibrant Color
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Cities weren’t the only subject that fascinated this acclaimed Futurist
By Amy Crawford
He famously captured industrial America—the Brooklyn Bridge, Pittsburgh’s steel mills—with his monumental canvases. But the painter Joseph Stella (1877-1946) looked to nature for respite, escaping his Manhattan studio to visit the New York Botanical Garden and to paint in southern Italy, where he grew up. “My devout wish,” the artist wrote, “[is] that my every working day might begin and end—as a good omen—with the light, gay painting of a flower.”
Anne Frank’s Childhood Friend Recalls Their Years Before the Holocaust
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After fleeing her native Germany, a young Jew found companionship and community as the Nazis approached
Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – May 22, 2023
How Philipp Plein Became the King of Low-Brow High Fashion
The maximalist designer has positioned himself as an underdog hero of the common man, who is successful despite the falsity and the snobbery of the élites.
By Naomi Fry
Earth League International Hunts the Hunters
A conservation N.G.O. infiltrates wildlife-trafficking rings to bring them down.
By Tad Friend
How a Disaster Expert Prepares for the Worst
Lucy Easthope, who has worked on major emergencies since 9/11, says that small interventions can make a significant difference.
By Sam Knight
Public Transit: NYC’s $16 Billion Subway Line Costs
Chapters: 00:00 — Introduction 01:39 — Second Avenue Subway 06:45 — A national problem 08:37 — Subway costs 15:31 — Solutions
In several major cities – New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco – the subway and other rapid rail systems are key contributors to the prosperity of the city. In NYC for example, more than $37 billion of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s $54 billion budget goes to subways. But building subways in the U.S. is very expensive.
In fact, it’s the sixth most expensive country to build rail transit in the world. And even that is likely an understatement. High labor costs, overbuilt tracks and stations, and onerous regulations all jack up costs. NYC’s sheer population density makes it rather worth it – so many people ride the subway that the cost per rider is comparable to many European cities where total expenditures are substantially lower.
However, the high costs hurt the case for public transit in less dense areas of the country. Lowering those costs could go a long way toward building affordable and accessible public transit for smaller cities around the country and reducing traffic congestion, pollution and traffic accidents.
World Economic Forum: Top Stories- May 13, 2023
0:15 This volcanic bacteria eats CO2 – Scientists say they turn CO2 into biomass ‘astonishingly quickly’ and one day could help remove CO2 from the atmosphere. The microbes were discovered off the coast of the Italian island of Vulcano where the ocean is rich in CO2. They bubble up from volcanic vents on the seafloor. The microbes were discovered by scientists from the Two Frontiers Project who found that the bugs sink in water which could help to sequester the CO2 they absorb.
1:35 This Japanese soccer league is over 80s only – It kicked off in April with 3 teams going head-to-head boasting an average age of 83.5. Among the players is ex-national team forward Mutsuhiko Nomura. His career has spanned 70 years and 18 World Cups. Now, aged 83, he patrols the midfield for Red Star. But the league’s veteran is Shingo Shiozawa. The former racing car designer plays in net for the White Bears at the tender age of 93.
3:19 Why we need economic growth – Economic growth may not be the only measure of success but in many countries, it saves lives. But economic growth need no longer happen at the expense of the planet.
6:38 Women need investment, not just empowerment – Non-profit Grameen Foundation is helping millions of people lift themselves out of poverty by teaching women how to manage money, access loans and manage their businesses. Most importantly, Bai says, women need to have the knowledge to ask the right questions.
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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.
The New York Times Book Review-Sunday May 14, 2023
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW – MAY 14, 2023
Abraham Verghese’s Sweeping New Fable of Family and Medicine
“The Covenant of Water” follows three generations of a close-knit and haunted family in southwestern India.
Pablo Picasso, the Pariah of Paris
As Annie Cohen-Solal shows in “Picasso the Foreigner,” the Spanish master was always under suspicion in France, simply for being not-French.
Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – May 15, 2023
BARRON’S MAGAZINE – MAY 15, 2023 ISSUE
How a SpaceX IPO Could End Musk’s Uncomfortable Tesla-Twitter Dance
A Starlink IPO could raise billions of dollars and mean less selling of Tesla in the years ahead.
The New Bank Landscape—and How to Invest Amid the Turmoil
Lenders face steep economic hurdles and stiffer regulations. How to invest as the industry reshapes itself.
Space Could Be a Trillion-Dollar Business. Here Are the Stocks to Play It.
Rocket Lab, Planet Labs, and other companies are high-risk bets on taking business to the final frontier.
Views: 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR ‘Uhlenhaut Coupé’
Arguably it transformed the way other collectors think about cars being “just cars”. Mercedes made two of these coupés for a race that never happened, and after press testing and high speed VIP rides chauffeured by race team boss Rudolf Uhlenhaut (that’s him in pic 7) they lived a sheltered life in the factory museum with rare appearances at historic events: ‘Red’ (nicknamed for its upholstery, as opposed to ‘Blue’) had covered just over 5,000km when it was sold.
Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’
The photographer Ala Kheir joins us from Khartoum to tell us about the conflict in Sudan and how it is affecting him and other artists. We talk to Alyce Mahon, the co-curator of Sade: Freedom or Evil, a new exhibition at the Centre Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona (CCCB) in Barcelona about the 18th-century writer and libertine the Marquis de Sade and his artistic and literary influence, particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries.
And this episode’s Work of the Week is Gwen John’s La Chambre sur la Cour (1907-08), a painting of John herself in a Parisian interior. The picture is one of the highlights of an exhibition dedicated to John at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, UK.Ala Kheir on Instagram @ala.kheir.Sade: Freedom or Evil, Centre Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona, until 15 October.
Alyce Mahon, The Marquis de Sade and the Avant-Garde, Princeton University Press, $47/£40.Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, 13 May-8 October. Alicia Foster, Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris, Thames and Hudson, $39.95/£30. Out now in UK, published in the US on 18 July.
Preview: New York Times Magazine – May 14, 2023
The New York Times Magazine – May 14, 2023: Katie Engelhart reports on a family torn apart by dementia; plus, we take you inside the world of saildrones — the unmanned boats that measure superstorms at sea — and Jazmine Hughes reports on one woman’s efforts to ensure the conviction of the white supremacist who killed her sister in the Buffalo shooting last year.
Hurricanes of Data: The Tiny Craft Mapping Superstorms at Sea
Understanding the secrets of a warming ocean means steering straight into the biggest hurricanes. Enter the saildrone.
A Year After Buffalo: ‘There’s No Forgiveness for That. Ever.’
Court hearings, media scrums, ruined holidays — Barbara Massey-Mapps suffered through it all to see the white supremacist who killed her sister convicted.
Boomers Daily 