Category Archives: Reviews

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

Country Life Magazine – November 20, 2024 Preview

Leave a comment

Country Life Magazine (November 20, 2024): The latest issue features Winston Churchill – The wit and wisdom of the great man…

‘Let us go forward together’

As we approach the 150th anniversary of Sir Winston Churchill’s birthday, Amie Elizabeth White and Octavia Pollock pay homage to the great man, in his own words.

Entertaining His Majesty

In the second of two articles, John Goodall charts the 1560s and 1620s expansion of Apethorpe Palace in Northamptonshire

Landscape of ‘seamless sameness’

England’s heather moorland and its glorious purple swathe is a wonder of the Western world, suggest John Lewis-Stempel

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

Do you know a Yonerywander from a Vinvertuperator? Engage your inner Edward Lear as Daniel McKay welcomes you into his wacky world of whimwondery

Wibble wobble, wibble wobble, jelly made of paint

Food, glorious food is fuelling the creativity of modern still-life artists discovers Catriona Gray

Sex, lies and sewing machines

The sewing machine rose to be an emblem of domesticity, but its invention is a story of Saints and Singers. Matthew Dennison follows the thread

Interiors

Raze to the ground or renovate? Has the open-plan layout had its day? Cart shed or garage? Giles Kime considers some key architectural conundrums

Wisley reinvented

John Hoyland is captivated by the spectacular transformation of Piet Oudolf’s double borders at the RHS garden in Surrey

Some like it hot

If you like your chili ‘hotter than the hinges of hell’, Tom Parker Bowles has just the dish for you (and there’s not a bean in sight)

Wooden walls restored

John Goodall lauds a decade-long project to rescue a unique painted church at Ursi, Romania

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Nov. 22, 2024

Leave a comment

Image

Times Literary Supplement (November 20, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Uncommon Reader’ – Virginia Woolf in literary tradition..

What we want from her books

Virginia Woolf as reader, writer and literary inspiration By Sophie Oliver

A star is torn

The unravelling of Vivien Leigh’s marriage amid her mental health breakdown By Vanessa Curtis

Ignorant armies

History as an ideological battleground By Niall Ferguson

Bergson’s boom and bust

How the world’s most famous thinker fell out of fashion By Mark Sinclair

Analysis, International, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Analysis: The World Ahead In 2025 – The Economist

Leave a comment
Image

The Economist The World Ahead 2025 (November 20, 2024) : In 2025, as seen on the cover, the main event is Trump’s return to the White House and the global consequences of his policies, such as a new wave of trade wars with China. There is also an expected rise in technologies such as artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles.

Tom Standage’s ten trends to watch in 2025

A letter from the editor of The World Ahead

The three forces that will shape 2025

Watch the interplay between Donald Trump, technology and radical uncertainty

The cover mentions climate issues and hints at a new phase in the fight for social equality, especially among women. Last year, the cover predicted geopolitical instability, an economic crisis, climate disasters, and the g

Culture, Essays, Magazines, Media, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews

Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine – December 2024

Leave a comment

HARPER’S MAGAZINE – November 18, 2024: The latest issue features ‘The Painted Protest’ – How politics destroyed contemporary art…

The Painted Protest

How politics destroyed contemporary art by Dean Kissick

In the Rockets’ Red Glare

 The past and future of hot-rodding in America by Rachel Kushner

After the Deluge

A small town faces down climate disaster by Gary Greenberg

Arts & Literature, Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Preview: The New Yorker Magazine – Nov. 18, 2024

Leave a comment
A view of the Manhattan Bridge seen through a window above a desk in Brooklyn.

The New Yorker (November 18, 2024): The latest issue features Javier Mariscal’s “Desk with a View” – Sudden glimpses of urban artistry.

Javier Mariscal’s “Desk with a View”

Sudden glimpses of urban artistry. By Françoise MoulyArt by Javier Mariscal

Why N.S.A. Rules Say No to Smartphones, No to Texting, Yes to Podcasts

The agency, known for listening, is getting into the (extremely vetted) talking game, with “No Such Podcast.”

Art, Art Galleries, Arts & Literature, History, Reviews, Videos

Art: Picasso’s ‘Masterful Contradictions’ (1925)

Video Leave a comment

Sotheby’s (November 17, 2024):In late September of 1925, Pablo Picasso, his wife Olga and their young son Paolo returned to Paris from their annual summer holiday in the South of France.

The summers were beginning to blend together for Picasso, who was tiring of the swell set he and Olga socialized with. The home they returned to at 23 rue la Boetie was a changed one. After lengthy negotiations, Picasso had acquired an additional floor of the building to be used as his studio.

He set about immediately modifying the space: removing doors from their hinges, bringing in his copious art supplies (and a limited amount of furniture) and stripping back most of the existing wallpaper. After years of jostling with his elegant and socially aspirational wife for space in their apartment on the floor below he relished a place to colonize as his own.

Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review – November 17, 2024

Leave a comment

Image

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (November 17, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Who’s Johnny?’…

‘Carson the Magnific: Where’s Johnny? The Biography of a TV Host Whose Life Was a Closed Book.

Johnny Carson dominated late-night television for decades, but closely guarded his privacy. Bill Zehme’s biography, “Carson the Magnificent,” tries to break through.ent,’ by Bill Zehme

Combined Print & E-Book Fiction – Best Sellers

Rankings on weekly lists reflect sales for the week ending November 2, 2024.

Innovations, Magazines, Previews, Research, Reviews, Technology

MIT Technology Review – The Top Stories (11.17.24)

Leave a comment
Ai gaping maw with teeth and two clawed hands swallows artworks which tiny artists have put poison symbols on the reverse side. One carries a flag with Ben Zhao's face
Ben Zhao remembers well the moment he officially jumped into the fight between artists and generative AI: when one artist asked for AI bananas. 

MIT Technology Review (Novemer 17, 2024): This week’s round up includes Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment; The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI; Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through and Europa’s icy shell.

The AI lab waging a guerrilla war over exploitative AI

The tools Glaze and Nightshade are giving artists hope that they can fight back against AI that hoovers internet data to train. Are they enough?

Generative AI taught a robot dog to scramble around a new environment

A new system could help train robots entirely in generated worlds.

Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch

Rapid advances in applying artificial intelligence to simulations in physics and chemistry have some people questioning whether we will even need quantum computers at all.

AI search could break the web

Life-seeking, ice-melting robots could punch through Europa’s icy shell

Researchers are working on technology that could follow NASA’s Europa Clipper mission and hunt for life in the ocean of Jupiter’s moon.

Green Design, Reviews, Sustainability, Technology, Videos

World Economic Forum: Top Stories – Nov 16, 2024

Video Leave a comment

World Economic Forum (November 16, 2024) – The top stories of the week include:

0:15 AI robot zaps weeds while saving crops – It’s called Concentrated Light Autonomous Weeding and Scouting or CLAWS for short. CLAWS uses AI-powered image processing to identify the crops, then targets weeds around the crop with blasts of concentrated light. This gets rid of unwanted intruders without damaging either crops or soil.

1:52 5 ways bioeconomy affects daily living – The bioeconomy uses renewable resources from land or sea to produce food, energy, and other resources. It focuses on leveraging nature’s processes and products to create sustainable economic outputs. The bioeconomy is already a part of our daily lives, influencing various sectors and industries.

6:08 Iceland sees benefit of a 4-day work week – The Nordic nation of 380,000 is rolling out a new way of working. Between 2020 and 2022, 51% of Iceland’s workers accepted an offer of shorter hours, such as a 4-day week for no loss of pay. The shift has had a positive impact on work-life balance and personal stress, new research shows.

8:17 Restored Amazon ecosystems beat logging – Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance is fighting to safeguard 35 million hectares of rainforest through a collaboration between 30 Indigenous nations of the Amazon basin. There’s an economic case for protecting the Amazon, says Atossa Soltani, Director of Global Strategy, Amazon Sacred Headwaters Alliance.

#WorldEconomicForum

Financial, Investing, Magazines, Previews, Retirement, Reviews

Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – Nov. 18, 2024

Leave a comment
Barron's | Financial and Investment News

BARRON’S MAGAZINE (November 9, 2024): The latest issue features ‘The Nvidia Way’.

How Jensen Huang and Nvidia Led an AI Revolution

Nvidia’s CEO turned a struggling upstart into the world’s most valuable company. It took 30 years.

Inflation May Not Be Tamed. Commodities Can Protect You.

If prices start rising again, copper, corn, and oil could offer protection.

The Age of AI Is Still in the Early Innings. These 3 Stocks Will Keep Winning.

Barron’s interviewed more than a dozen senior executives across the world’s most important tech companies. Here’s why they remain bullish on the long-term opportunity for AI. Plus, the stocks to buy now.