Category Archives: Reviews

Top Science Podcasts: Persistent Antibiotic Resistance And Modeling Hot Cities (Nature)

Nature PodcastResearchers have identified how Salmonella ‘persister’ cells can spread antibiotic resistance genes in mice intestines. 

Cities are generally hotter than their surroundings, but what are the causes of these ‘heat islands’?

In this episode:

00:46 Antibiotic resistance reservoirs

Researchers have identified how Salmonella ‘persister’ cells can spread antibiotic resistance genes in mice intestines. Research article: Bakkeren et al.

08:12 Research Highlights

Bright barn owls stun prey, and the evolution of dog brains. Research Highlight: Zip-lining owls reveal what really scares their preyResearch Highlight: A dog’s breed is a window onto its brain

10:13 Urban heating

Cities are generally hotter than their surroundings, but what are the causes of these ‘heat islands’? Research Article: Manoli et al.

16:54 News Chat

A cryptic Russian radiation spike, and India’s moon mission gets closer to touchdown. News: How nuclear scientists are decoding Russia’s mystery explosionNews: ‘The most terrifying moments’: India counts down to risky Moon landing

 

Books Worth Reading: “Quichotte” By Salman Rushdie Is “Fiction Telling Truths We Can’t Get At”

From a London Review of Books online review:

Salman Rushie Quichotte NovelQuichotte opens with a brilliant parody of Cervantes’s first sentence: ‘There once lived, at a series of temporary addresses across the United States of America, a travelling man of Indian origin, advancing years, and retreating mental powers.’ The temporary addresses are a fine revision of Cervantes’s pretending not to remember the name of the place where Quixote lived – literally, he says he doesn’t want to remember. But in spite of this and many other echoes, Quichotte is not all that close to the original Don Quixote in style or mood, and doesn’t seek to be. The leading character chooses his pseudonym because a recording of Massenet’s opera Don Quichotte was his father’s favourite LP, and echoes of the musical Man of La Mancha, with the obligatory ‘impossible dream’, are all over the place.

Cervantes tells us that Don Quixote lost his mind because he read too many romances of chivalry, not all nonsense, as many critics assume, but not models of realism either; yet there are indications, as the novel develops, that Quixote has learned to play at madness, like Hamlet, because it seems to work, because a functioning pretence of knighthood is better than staying at home. Quichotte largely follows the romantic reading of the knight as idealist, whose madness consists of his nobility of spirit and his refusal to believe that the pragmatically possible is an acceptable limit to human behaviour. Rushdie is both mocking and celebrating this posture, and his Quichotte is genuinely ridiculous as well as heroic. He has other sources too, he tells us in his acknowledgments, and both Pinocchio and The Conference of the Birds play a considerable role in the plot. It’s good to see Jiminy Cricket speaking Italian.

To read more: https://www.lrb.co.uk/v41/n17/michael-wood/the-profusion-effect

Top European Cities: Cadiz, Spain Features “Delicious Andalusian Cuisine”, Ancient History

From a New York Times online article:

The neighborhood of La Viña is packed with open-air restaurants.CreditSebastian Modak The New York TimesOne of the reasons the province of Cádiz is on this year’s 52 Places list is food, as chefs in the area are innovating with pork and fish, the base ingredients here. I tried out a few of the white-tablecloth joints, but came away remembering the noisy, cheap tapas bars that have been around forever.

What makes Andalusian cuisine so delicious are the ingredients, and sometimes less is more. Why go crazy with reductions and infusions when freshly caught sardines sprinkled with olive oil are enough to elicit moans?

Cádiz, the province and city on Spain’s southwestern edge, is an underdog — and I’m among the many travelers who have spent years overlooking it. I know Andalusia, the southern region it is part of, well. For years, it’s been a meeting point for my family who has just as much wanderlust as I do and is spread across the world.

To read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/03/travel/cadiz-an-underrated-corner-of-spain.html

Trends In Food: 5th Annual “Blended Burger Project” Celebrates Five Winning Chefs On Oct. 23

From a JamesBeard.org release:

James Beard Foundation Blended Burger ProjectThis year, the Foundation is pleased to once again partner with the Mushroom Council to host the Blended Burger Project*, which encourages chefs to create a healthier, more sustainable, and tastier burger that can be enjoyed by consumers across the country, while also educating diners about the many benefits of The Blend and the future of food. 

Through our Impact Programs, the James Beard Foundation has become more involved in the conversations around health and sustainability in our food system. The Foundation is proud of its work on the Blended Burger Project™ along with our other programs including the James Beard Foundation Food Summit, the annual Leadership Awards, and the Chefs Boot Camp for Policy and Change.

The five fabulous winners of the 2019 contest are:

  • Meredith Manee, Ritz-Carlton’s Burger Shack, Kapalua, Kapalua, HI
  • Justin Medina, Playalinda Brewing Company – Brix Project, Titusville, FL
  • Robert Repp, Hops at 84 East, Holland, MI
  • Eric Rivera, Vintage Year, Montgomery, AL
  • Jacqueline Sampson, Pompano Grill, Cocoa Beach, FL

Blended Burger GraphicTo read more: https://www.jamesbeard.org/blendedburgerproject

 

Best New Home Design: “Granholmen” From Swedish Architects Bornstein Lyckefors

From a Curbed.com online article:

Granholmen www.bornsteinlyckefors.seDuring the summers, the northern Swedish island of Kallaxön is bright for nearly 24 hours a day, which means the windows that wrap the house are put to good use. Inside, the house is clad entirely in pale timber.

The main living spaces are downstairs, while a lofted bedroom is accessed by a ladder. Residents access the toilet and shower from the outside—a true testament to indoor-outdoor living.

Designed by Bornstein Lyckefors, the facade of the gabled cabin looks like it was painted with a pint of mint ice cream. The roof, made with an oxidized copper, blends right in, creating a monochromatic look.

https://www.bornsteinlyckefors.se/

To read more: https://www.curbed.com/2019/9/4/20848180/modern-cabin-mint-green-sweden

Culinary Destinations: Mexico City Food Markets, “Great Food Everywhere”

From a CityLab.com online article:

Juana Lomeli at Jamaica Market. Clemente Dadoo LomeliThe city’s great unifier and appeal is its cuisine, especially the street-food: corner quesadillas, fast food tents outside of subway stops, stews served over hand-made tortillas, deep fried chicken tacos, tacos topped with rice served from street stands or a make-shift diner in the back of a van. In Mexico City, one can find great food everywhere at any price-point and at any time of day.

Among the hundreds of markets in Mexico, every person finds the one best attuned to their needs and desires. In 52 years, I have visited my markets hundreds, perhaps thousands of times. In that time, my father passed away, as did the fisherman from the now defunct El Barco in San Juan, and, recently, the woman, who sold me lush, grainy yellow morel mushrooms. When I told my daughter about her passing, she too felt a pang in her heart. She can crystalize her image from memory; the tight, white braids, the rebozo she used to lay out the mushrooms and the fact that if those mushrooms made their way into our supper, she knew exactly where they came from. I courteously called her “La señora” for so many years that I now question if I knew her name to begin with.

To read more: https://www.citylab.com/perspective/2019/08/mexico-city-travel-food-market-cuisine-taco-best-cdmx/597034/?utm_source=newsletter&silverid=%25%25RECIPIENT_ID%25%25&utm_campaign=citylab-daily-newsletter&utm_medium=email

Top Art Exhibitions: “Homer At The Beach: A Marine Painter’s Journey” At The Cape Ann Museum

From a Wall Street Journal article:

Winslow Homer’s Sunset Fires (1880) PHOTO THE WESTMORELAND MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ARTThat’s how I felt while visiting “Homer at the Beach: A Marine Painter’s Journey, 1869-1880,” an intimate exhibition at the Cape Ann Museum. The show is handsome, historically rich and perfectly positioned here at this harbor venue, which devotes galleries to regional maritime and fishing artifacts, local decorative arts, Gloucester sea captain Elias Davis ’s house and the works of the renowned illustrator and marine painter Fitz Henry Lane (1804-1865), a Gloucester native with whom Boston-born Winslow Homer (1836-1910) had much in common.

An illustrator and painter, Homer is chiefly celebrated for his mature paintings of life on or near the sea. “Homer on the Beach” was never intended to be a gathering of Homer’s greatest maritime works. Therefore, it does not contain those revered later masterpieces such as “The Life Line” (1884), “The Herring Net” (1885) and “The Gale” (1883-93), but it lays their foundations and illumines the first leg of his voyage. Curated by William R. Cross, a museum consultant and chairman of the Advisory Board of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, the show focuses on Homer’s artistic formation as a marine painter.

To read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/homer-at-the-beach-a-marine-painters-journey-1869-1880-review-flotsam-jetsam-handsome-11567249200

Profiles: Malika Favre’s “Spectacularly Modern” “New Yorker” Covers

From a CommArts.com online article:

New_yorker_web-1200x1638-24fpsFrom the top floor of a 1920s building in Hackney, in the East End of London, Favre’s confidence is at a peak. The bold, graphic style she has developed over the last fifteen years attracts prestigious projects. When she was invited to design the poster for this year’s Montreux Jazz Festival, held every summer in Switzerland since 1967, she became part of a group that includes Milton Glaser, Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Her poster is full of female silhouettes dancing, the negative spaces between them forming instruments.

 

New_yorker_web-1200x1638-24fps_2Favre is a French artist based in London.

Her bold, minimal style – often described as Pop Art meets OpArt – is a striking lesson in the use of positive/negative space and colour.

Her unmistakable style has established her as one of the UK’s most sought after graphic artists. Malika’s clients include The New Yorker, Vogue, BAFTA, Sephora and Penguin Books, amongst many others.

New_yorker_web-1200x1638

The above is from her Website: https://www.malikafavre.com/

 

Top Art Exhibitions: “The Impressionist Pastel” At Art Institute Of Chicago

From Art Institute of Chicago online release:

Two Dancers, c. 1893–98 Hilaire Germain Edgar DegasThis focused installation features pastels by four artists whose work was shown in the Impressionist exhibitions: Mary Cassatt, Edgar Degas, Eva Gonzalès, and Berthe Morisot. Their subjects range from scenes of modern life, such as ballet performers and a woman working in a hat shop, to depictions of intimate moments of bathing and women with children.

Although Impressionism is most closely associated with oil painting, during the late 19th century, Impressionist artists increasingly began to exhibit and market their prints and drawings as finished works of art. In fact, prints and drawings made up nearly half of the works in the eight Impressionist exhibitions held in Paris between 1874 and 1886. Pastels in particular became increasingly sought-after by collectors.

Art Institute Chicago logoPastel, a medium used to draw on paper or, less often, on canvas, is made by combining dry pigment with a sticky binder. Once artists have applied the pastel to the surface, they can either blend it, leave their markings visible, or layer different colors to create texture and tone. Pastel portraits had previously gained popularity in France and England in the 18th century, but fell out of fashion with critics when pastel was deemed too feminine; not only was it used by women artists, but it had a powdery consistency similar to women’s makeup. The Impressionists rejected this bias and instead embraced the medium’s ability to impart immediacy, boldness, and radiance.

Website: https://www.artic.edu/exhibitions/9400/the-impressionist-pastel

Visual Artists: Samir Belhamra’s “Mesmerizing Meadows From Soaring Perspectives” In Provence

From a MyModernMet.com online article:

Samir Belhamra Visual Artist - Valensole by Night, South France, Provence 2To many nature photographers, no muse is quite as magical as a field of flowers. This tried and true subject is particularly popular with aerial photographers, whose atmospheric shots allow us to explore the mesmerizing meadows from soaring perspectives. One photographer taking this trend to new heights is Samir Belhamra, a visual artist whose love of aerial photography landed him in a lavender field in France.

Situated in Valensole, a picturesque town in Provence, this field of flowers blankets the golden landscape in shades of purple. In order to capture the extent of the site’s sprawling beauty, Belhamra begins his video at ground level. Slowly, he directs his DJI Mavic Air drone toward the sky in order to showcase the perfectly organized and seemingly endless rows of flowers from various vantage points.

https://grafixartphoto.com/

To read more click on following link: https://mymodernmet.com/lavender-video-samir-belhamra/?utm_source=email&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_term=2019-08-29