Category Archives: Reviews

Financial, Investing, Magazines, Previews, Retirement, Reviews

Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – July 3, 2023

July 1, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

BARRON’S MAGAZINE – JULY 3, 2023 ISSUE – The Ten Best Income Investments; Time to buy Real Estate Stocks; Automation is the Future, and more…

The Market Hates Real Estate Stocks. It’s Time to Buy.

A steep slide in commercial real estate has put the sector on sale. Where to find 6% yields and growth.

The 10 Best Income Plays for the Second Half of the Year

The 60/40 portfolio isn’t dead. From utilities to junk bonds and energy pipelines, we offer ways investors can get high yields and appreciation.

There’s a New Way to Watch TV. It’s Already More Popular Than HBO.

FAST channels have brought back old-school TV channel guides—and plenty of advertising. But the shows are free and incredibly varied. Media execs are taking note.

Automation Is the Future. Buy Rockwell Stock.

Rockwell Automation’s shares should earn a higher valuation as investors begin to consider it for what it really is—a tech company.

Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review — July 2, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW – JULY 2, 2023: The entire issue is devoted to literature in translation – reviews of translated books (by Javier Marías, Seamus Heaney, Natalia Ginzburg…); Daniel Hahn’s essay about translating picture books; Emily Wilson’s look at “Iliad” translations over the years, culminating with her own; a By the Book interview with the translator Jennifer Croft; and lots more.

Exit Hector, Again and Again: How Different Translators Reveal the ‘Iliad’ Anew

An 1878 illustration of the meeting between Hector and Andromache, based on a design by John Flaxman.

Over the years, some 100 people have translated the entire “Iliad” into English. The latest of them, Emily Wilson, explains what different approaches to one key scene say about the original, and the translators.

Jennifer Croft Knows a Good Translation When She Reads One

This illustration shows Jennifer Croft with long, straight blond hair and bangs. She’s wearing a shoulderless top that crosses at her neck, with variously colored stripes.

“There has to be chemistry,” says the writer and prolific translator, whose second book will come out next year. “You don’t need prior knowledge of, say, Iceland or Icelandic in order to appreciate Victoria Cribb’s translation of Sjón.”

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

Preview: New York Times Magazine – July 2, 2023

June 30, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (July 2, 2023) –

In this week’s cover story, Lynsey Addario takes us to a Ukrainian town where an 11-year-old is navigating a childhood transformed by war. Plus, a profile of the Christian pop star Marcos Witt and an investigation into how federal law targets thousands of women on anti-addiction medications.

A Boy’s Life on the Front Lines

In a Ukrainian town, an 11-year-old navigates a childhood transformed by war.

In a town near the Eastern front lines of the Donbas region of Ukraine, an 11-year-old boy named Yegor’s days were as predictable as they could be, given the unpredictability of war.

A.I. and TV Ads Were Made for Each Other

A photo collage of frames from AI-generated spoof advertisements, showing people drinking orange juice and beer and eating pizza. Close examination of the images reveal some strange visual distortions.

A string of uncanny videos show what generative A.I. and advertising have in common: They chew up the cultural subconscious and spit it back at us.

By Mac Schwerin

Even if I didn’t work in advertising, I would be a connoisseur of commercials. You’re probably one, too. Think of all the tropes you’ve ingested over the years — the forest-green hatchbacks conquering rugged Western landscapes, the miles of mozzarella stretched by major pizza chains. These are the images that let you know what kind of pitch you’re watching, so you won’t be confused when the brand shows up.

Art, Arts & Literature, Exhibitions, Museums, Podcasts, Reviews

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

Audio June 30, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Art Newspaper (June 29, 2023): In the final episode of this season, James Goodwin, a specialist on the art market and its history, tells us about what high inflation and interest rates mean for the art market and what lies ahead.

As Spain heads to the polls in July, we talk to Emilio Silva, president of the Association for the Recovery of Historical Memory in Madrid. What could the election mean for the controversial Spanish laws of Historical Memory and Democratic Memory relating to the Civil War of 1936 to 1939 and the period of Francisco Franco’s fascist dictatorship?

And this episode’s Work of the Week is a project by the Swedish duo Goldin + Senneby. The work, called Quantitative Melencolia, involves recreating the lost plate for Albrecht Dürer’s famous engraving Melencolia I. It is part of the exhibition Economics: The Blockbuster, which opens this week at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester, UK.

Economics the Blockbuster: It’s not Business as Usual, Whitworth Art Gallery, until 22 October. The Manchester International Festival, until 16 July.

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

Arts/Culture: Humanities Magazine – Summer 2023

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Humanities Magazine – Summer 2023 Issue

Red Map, Blue Map

In the 1970s and ’80s, geographer Ken Martis mapped every congressional district and color-coded them by political party, going all the way back to the first Congress.

Where Johnny Cash Came From

The Man in Black grew up in Dyess, Arkansas, in a community of poor farmers working government land.

Hell’s Searing Gaze

A traveling exhibition explores the underworld

In the captivating survey “Comparative Hell: Arts of Asian Underworlds,” the damned are boiled alive. Writhing in pain, they are skewered, mauled by dogs, and devoured by ink-black birds. But the show is dotted throughout by charming reprieves: a lush jade-green garden, creamy-white blossoms, and whirling clouds. This is a hell that delights as much as it punishes.

Magazines, Podcasts, Previews, Research, Reviews, Science

Research Preview: Science Magazine – June 30, 2023

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Science Magazine – June 30, 2023 issue: Vapor from liquid nitrogen wafts over a rat kidney awaiting a groundbreaking preservation method at the University of Minnesota. Scientists there have learned how to cool the organ to –150°C and rewarm it while minimizing freezing damage, enabling it to work after being transplanted.

Long-sought hum of gravitational waves from giant black holes heard for first time

illustration of pulsar on gravitational waves from supermassive black holes.

Subtle shifts in stellar signals reveal pervasive waves from mergers of giant black ho

Frozen in time

Scientists are learning how to cryopreserve living tissues, organs, and even whole organisms, then bring them back to life

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

The New York Review Of Books – July 20, 2023

June 29, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The New York Review of Books – July 20, 2023 issue: The Fiction Issue features Adam Thirlwell on Emmanuel Carrère, Carolina Miranda on contemporary Caribbean art, Darryl Pinckney on a new reissue of a classic of American vernacular literature, Fintan O’Toole on Mike Pence’s pallid pomp, Daniel Mendelsohn on Bob Gottlieb, and more.

The Trouble with Truth

Adam Thirlwell

Emmanuel Carrère’s new book, Yoga, has been the subject of gossipy debate about its veracity, but it is seductively open about its own anxiety as a work of fiction.

Life Made Light

Ruth Bernard Yeazell

Johannes Vermeer, one of the most intimate and quiet of artists, who is celebrated for the silence and light of his paintings, has become, paradoxically, a crowd-pleaser.

Johannes Vermeer: Faith, Light and Reflection by Gregor J.M. Weber

Vermeer and the Art of Love by Aneta Georgievska-Shine

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

Previews: The Economist Magazine – July 1, 2023

June 29, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

The Economist Magazine- June 24, 2023 issue: The humbling of Vladimir Putin; The Wagner mutiny has left Vladimir Putin looking dangerously exposed; Can Ukraine capitalise on chaos in Russia?

The humbling of Vladimir Putin

The Wagner mutiny exposes the Russian tyrant’s growing weakness. But don’t count him out yet

Can Ukraine capitalise on chaos in Russia?

Ukrainian militaries supervise as a M142 HIMARS launches a rocket towards Bakhmut Ukraine

Ukraine’s counter-offensive is going slowly

The Wagner mutiny has left Putin dangerously exposed

Factions close to the Russian president are thinking about life after him

Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Reviews

Books: The Top Ten Best Reviews – June 2023

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Wall Street Journal Books & Art (June 28, 2023) – A country music outsider’s journey, the uprising that tested a young America, the true story of a psychotherapy cult and more standouts from the month in books.

Animal Spirits: The American Pursuit of Vitality From Camp Meeting to Wall Street

By Jackson Lears

Shaw’s life force, Freud’s libido, Bergson’s ‘élan vital’—all are expressions of a spark that eludes the control of civilized modernity. Review by Jeremy McCarter.

“All history is the history of longing,” Jackson Lears has written.

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Empire, Incorporated: The Corporations That Built British Colonialism

By Philip J. Stern

The history of the British empire is really the history of ‘venture colonialism,’ developed by bold entrepreneurs, savvy investors—and some shady characters too. Review by Tunku Varadarajan.

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Hands of Time: A Watchmaker’s History

By Rebecca Struthers

The craft requires ingenious engineering at a miniature scale and an appreciation for timeless beauty. Review by Michael O’Donnell.

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Mozart in Motion: His Work and His World in Pieces

By Patrick Mackie

The continuing appeal of Mozart’s music may lie in the contradictory nature of the composer, balancing elegance with challenging originality. Review by Lloyd Schwartz.

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Once Upon a Prime: The Wondrous Connections Between Mathematics and Literature

By Sarah Hart

Are great writers and brilliant mathematicians really so far apart? Within the structures of literary works of all kinds, numbers are hiding. Review by Timothy Farrington.

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Research Preview: Nature Magazine – June 29, 2023

June 28, 2023 She Seeks Serene Leave a comment

nature Magazine -June 29, 2023 issue: RNA molecules can adopt complex 3D structures, but whether DNA can self-assemble into similar 3D folded structures has been less clear. In this week’s issue, Luiz Passalacqua and his colleagues use a DNA mimic of green fluorescent protein (GFP) to investigate this question.

Underwater volcano triggered the most intense lightning ever recorded

The huge eruption of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai volcano generated more than 2,600 lightning flashes per minute.

Open-source AI chatbots are booming — what does this mean for researchers?

A green unlocked padlock symbol is pictured amongst a binary code sequence on a computer screen.

Freely accessible large language models have accelerated the pace of innovation, computer scientists say.

The craze for generative artificial intelligence (AI) that began with the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT shows no sign of abating. But while large technology companies such as OpenAI and Google have captured the attention of the wider public — and are finding ways to monetize their AI tools — a quieter revolution is being waged by researchers and software engineers at smaller organizations.