Category Archives: Reviews
An obscure think tank in Boston is getting drug companies to lower their prices – using something called a QALY. WSJ’s Denise Roland explains what a QALY is, and why it’s controversial.
Trends In Grocery Stores: Brothers Marketplace Is Expanding With Prepared Meals, “Supreme Meats”
From a GroceryDive.com online review:
The 12,000-square-foot store is packed with in-store dining options, a scratch bakery, coffee bar and a curated assortment of fresh and local products. An additional 8,000 square feet is dedicated to prep space and a kitchen where employees make prepared foods and from-scratch items using Brothers Marketplace’s own recipes.
Roche Bros.’ Brothers Marketplace banner opened its newest store in Cambridge, Massachusetts Tuesday. It’s the banner’s fifth location to open since the concept debuted in 2014, and joins other Brothers stores in Cambridge, Duxbury, Medfield, Weston and Waltham, Massachusetts.
A full-service butcher counter allows customers to place special orders, make requests or order preferred cuts. The butcher sells only antibiotic-free and hormone-free meats and poultry, and includes selections like certified Angus Prime Beef as well as pork sourced from Niman Ranch, and Bell and Evans chicken. The counter also offers ready-to-cook options such as marinated meats, kabobs and house-made sausages.
To read more: https://www.grocerydive.com/news/inside-the-store-brothers-marketplace/567372/
Special Magazine Issues: Country Life “Victorian Houses- The Masterpieces”
From a Country Life online article:
First published in 1897, Country Life is itself a late-Victorian institution. What could be more appropriate, therefore, than to celebrate this anniversary with a collector’s issue of articles and photographs from the magazine’s archives?
An opening timeline offers an overview of the Victorian Age, but the focus of what follows is exclusively architectural. The coverage of country houses has always been central to the magazine, but it can also claim to have been a pioneer in the study of Victorian architecture through the work of two former Architectural Editors, Mark Girouard and Michael Hall.
This year is the 200th anniversary of the birth of both Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, respectively in May and August, 1819. Their marriage 21 years later in 1840 was long arranged and, after a difficult beginning, grew to be unexpectedly happy. With perfect symmetry, it lasted 21 years, until Prince Albert’s early death in 1861.
During that time, the couple established a completely new mode of Royal Family life and redefined the role of Britain’s constitutional monarchy. All of this happened as Britain developed at an astonishing speed into the most powerful nation in the world. When the Queen died in 1901, there was no question that a remarkable age of British history had come to a close.
Read more at https://www.countrylife.co.uk/news/focus-greatest-victorian-houses-britain-featu:red-magnificent-one-off-magazine-207774#cLqLhWZ6ouDLuAM1.99
Celebrity Documentaries: “Very Ralph” On HBO Profiles 50 Years Of Ralph Lauren Fashion (HBO)
From a The Cut online review:
Lauren lived his life as a character in his own movie, and his clothes allowed his customers to do the same. Some days he was Rick from Casablanca, dressed in a double-breasted white dinner jacket, and other days he was a cowboy, wearing jeans and cowboy boots with a blazer.
Ralph Lauren is “zee American designer,” says Karl Lagerfeld in Very Ralph, a new HBO documentary on the Bronx-born fashion icon. Coming from zee most prolific French designer of the 20th and 21st centuries, that’s saying a lot. But the film, which premiers today, supports that statement, illustrating with interviews and archival footage how he’s successfully sold an American fantasy to a global audience for over 50 years.
To read more: https://www.thecut.com/2019/11/ralph-lauren-documentary-very-ralph-hbo.html
Medical Podcasts: New Stanford Hospital Uses Technology To Stay “Future-Proofed”
From a Stanford Medicine online article:
“A simple example would be copper and fiber wires. When you’re putting wires in a new facility, it’s easier to put in many more than you need that moment because putting them in 5 years from now or 10 years from now is quite hard. Something like 85 percent of our copper wires and fiber optic cables are dark right now because we know we’re going to need them in the future.”
When you consider the fast pace of technological advances today, you wonder how do you go about building a new hospital and keep the technology relevant for 10, 20 or even 50 years? I put that question to Stanford Health Care’s technology wiz Gary Fritz. He told me:
“We try to do something we call future-proof the hospital. We tried to make design decisions and technology decisions that allow us to move to the current or the next generation technology as easily as possible.”
Top Travel Accessories: PinFin’s “Alpha Jacket” Has Enough Pockets To “Replace A Backpack”
From a Yanko Design online review:
Alpha Jacket’s fabric is both stylish yet waterproof and wind-resistant, and its high-collar design and cut gives it the appeal of a casual blazer, but with reflective piping and a durable design that you can comfortably wear anywhere in the outdoors. Each jacket is armed with 8 pockets on the inside, for everything from your phone to your power-bank, keys, sunglasses, wallet, and even an iPad. Plus, a dedicated pouch for carrying a water-bladder to sip from while on the go. Pockets on the outside of the jacket find their place on the breast as well as the sleeve, secured with concealed YKK zippers that match the quality build of the rest of the jacket.
Alpha Jacket was built to truly support the often-traveler. Designed by Dan Truong and Linh Tran, a couple who endured a long-distance relationship and found themselves often traveling to meet each other, the Alpha Jacket sits at the intersection of “jacket that’s perfect for traveling” and “jacket I can step out for social events in”. For someone who finds themselves traveling often, the Alpha Jacket comes with a detachable hoodie that has a built-in neck pillow (you can choose between memory foam or microbeads) helping you get through long commutes, and for the alpha-human who wants to look their best, the jacket comes in a variety of four colors to choose from, with a cut that defines your silhouette just like a casual blazer would, but also gives you the advantage of storage so you don’t need to lug a backpack around with your stuff!
To read more: https://www.yankodesign.com/2019/11/13/this-urban-hoodie-packs-in-a-pillow-has-enough-space-so-you-can-ditch-your-backpack/
Artist Profile: Painter Claude Monet’s Birthday Celebrated At Denver Art Museum On November 14
The Denver Art Museum will celebrate famed French Impressionist Claude Monet’s birthday on November 14, 2019, in conjunction with the exhibition Claude Monet: The Truth of Nature. The DAM will celebrate the artist’s 179th birthday with cake, the launch of the DAM’s first-ever podcast titled Beyond Monet, the reveal of a Monet-inspired painting by local artist Ashley Joon, a special Art & About program dedicated to Monet’s birthday, and a surprise Monet-themed gift bag for one lucky visitor.
Born in Paris on November 14, 1840, Claude Monet was a prolific painter and founder of the French Impressionist movement, bridging the gap between the artistic movements of the 19th century and the modernized art world of the 20th century. Monet lived a long life and had an extensive artistic career that spanned nearly 70 years. In the Monet exhibition, visitors can see more than 120 works by Monet, including the first painting Monet ever exhibited when he was just 18 years old, along with some of his very last paintings.
To read more: https://denverartmuseum.org/article/celebrate-monets-birthday-dam-november-14
Automotive Nostalgia: 1940s British Van “Morris Commercial” Relaunches With All-Electric Model
From a AutoCar online article:
The van is new from the ground up, sitting on a new modular platform and featuring a 60kWh lithium ion powertrain said to endow it with a “power-to-weight efficiency that fully maximises the range of the vehicle”. It can fast charge to 80% in 30 minutes.
Morris Commercial ranks it alongside the Mini, Morris Minor and Land Rover Defender as a “truly iconic post-war British automotive design”.
Revived thanks to unnamed UK and European financial backing, Morris Commercial’s first production model since the 1960s has a 200-mile range, a 1000kg payload and a 2.5-tonne gross weight.
Company website: https://www.morris-commercial.com/
It’ll be priced from £60,000 and set to be built in the UK at an undisclosed location, with the design an engineering taking place in a facility in Worcestershire.
Healthy Diet Podcasts: “Are Probiotics Safe for Your Immune System?” (Scientific American)
From a Scientific American online release:
One of the immune system’s jobs is to protect us from harmful bacterial. And the beneficial organisms that we refer to as probiotics contribute to this effort in a number of ways. In the gut, a robust population of beneficial bacteria can help crowd out harmful bacteria, making it harder for them to thrive. In addition, probiotic bacteria can influence the activity of our own immune cells, regulating inflammation, barrier function, and cell-to-cell signaling.
One way to foster healthy intestinal bacteria is to eat more of the foods these bugs like to eat—namely, fiber. Increasing your intake of plant fibers from vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds is like filling a bird-feeder with the kind of seeds that the beautiful songbirds you want attract like best. If you feed them, they will come!
And if we want to attract a lot of different types of songbirds—er, bacteria—then we want to put out a variety of foods. That means you don’t just want to get all your fiber from a single source, such as a fiber supplement. You want to get it fiber from lots of different kinds of vegetables, fruits, legumes, grains, nuts and seeds.
The Aging Workplace: Baby Boomers Are Fastest Growing Segment Of Labor Force (GlassDoor)
From a GlassDoor.com online posting:
“Senior citizens today are healthier, more engaged, and working longer than past generations,” says Chamberlain. “A ‘gray wave’ of senior citizens will be impacting the workforce in coming years, both in the United States and the United Kingdom.”
Mature employees and job seekers bring a vast skillset and tremendous experience to open jobs, combined with a strong professional network that rivals any social-media-savvy Gen Zer. And despite the preconceptions of older workers, reports show they are just as open to learning and development as their young peers.
Move over, Gen Z and Millennials. The Baby Boomer generation, those born between 1944 and 1964, are the fastest-growing segment of the labor force in the U.S. and they are catching the eye of recruiters in every industry.
Read report: https://www.glassdoor.com/research/app/uploads/sites/2/2019/11/Job_Trends_2020-Glassdoor_FINAL.pdf
According to Glassdoor’s Chief Economist Dr. Andrew Chamberlain in the newly released “Job & Hiring Trends 2020” report, the 65+ demographic is working longer than past generations and shows no signs of retiring for good.
To read more: https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/baby-boomers-becoming-the-fastest-growing-workforce/
Boomers Daily 