Travel Books: “Sailing The Seas – A Voyager’s Guide To Oceanic Getaways” (2020)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERASailing the Seas will take readers on a series of nautical adventures across the globe, from the coast of the USA down to the Caribbean, through classic Mediterranean voyages and on trips in far-flung locations such as Thailand and French Polynesia. Presenting a fresh, younger side of sailing, this volume reveals the sights, sounds, tastes, and experiences that can be had on board a boat.

Since the dawn of time, exploring the world by boat has been seen as the pinnacle of freedom. There is no greater adventure than setting sail, at the mercy of the wind, being sprayed by salty water as you voyage from island to island and sea to sea, discovering new landscapes and cultures.

Sailing The Seas - Gestalten 2020With beautiful photos of locations, detailed itineraries, and “Captain’s Notes” filled with useful tips and insights on destinations, Sailing the Seas will inspire novice sailors and “old salts” alike to take to the waves.

Text and preface by Dayyan Armstrong and Ross Beane

Sailing Collective is comprised of an energetic group of captains, culinary artists, and explorers with a shared enthusiasm for adventure. Their passion lies in curating journeys to the world’s most exotic locations, captained and crewed by talented professionals.

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Top New Science Podcasts: Tougher Diamonds, Whale Hideouts & Ancient Incest

Nature PodcastsThis week, researchers make diamonds tough, and evidence of incest in a 5,000 year old tomb.

In this episode:

00:51 Tough versus hard

Diamonds are famed for their hardness, but they are not so resistant to fracture. Now, researchers have toughened up diamonds, which could open up new industrial applications. Research Article: Yue et al.

06:07 Research Highlights

A spacecraft helps physicists work out the lifespan of a neutron, and the icy hideaway of an endangered whale. Research Highlight: The vanishing-neutron mystery might be cracked by a robot in outer spaceResearch Highlight: A secluded icy fortress shelters rare whales

08:33 Ancient inbreeding

Analysis of the genomes of humans buried in an ancient Irish tomb has uncovered many surprises, including evidence of incest amongst the elite. Research Article: Cassidy et al.News and Views: Incest uncovered at the elite prehistoric Newgrange monument in Ireland

21:13 #ShutdownSTEM

Nature reporter Nidhi Subbaraman joins us to talk about the #ShutdownSTEM movement, and anti-black racism in academia. Editorial: Note from the editors: Nature joins #ShutDownSTEMNews: Grieving and frustrated: Black scientists call out racism in the wake of police killingsNews: Thousands of scientists worldwide to go on strike for Black livesNews: How #BlackInTheIvory put a spotlight on racism in academia

Top Artist Profiles: Abigail McBride – Oil Paintings With The “Heart Of A Poet”

Abigail McBride - Artist Compelled to chronicle the life and world around her, Abigail Faye McBride paints with the heart of a poet. Her oil paintings and charcoal drawings bear witness to a time, person or passing glimmer of light. Abigail paints landscape, figure and still life working interchangeably with brush and palette knife. Collectors, nationally and internationally, appreciate the color, mood and elegance of her work.

Abigail McBride - Hearty Breakfast

A consummate Cape School colorist, the draftsmanship in her work is born of an academic interest in the portrait and figure. Her work blends traditional subject matter with modern design sensibilities. She is part of a new breed of perceptual painters working from direct observation be it plein air or in the studio. Though often free of narrative, her work is grounded in the present day as a contemporary interpretation of genre painting.

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New Healthcare Tech: “Consult Station” By H4D – First Telemedicine Booth

H4D facilitates access to healthcare by allowing patients to consult a doctor remotely in the Consult Station®, the first connected local telemedicine booth. This medical device allows quality healthcare to be delivered for primary care, occupational health, and general health promotion.

The Consult Station - First Connected Local Telemedicine Booth - H4D

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Travels With A Curator: “San Severino Marche”, Italy (Frick Collection)

In this episode of “Travels with a Curator,” Xavier F. Salomon, Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, invites us to the Italian city of San Severino Marche to investigate the mystery of the Frick’s “Coronation of the Virgin,” by Paolo Veneziano. The gold-ground panel was originally part of a larger ensemble, but the altarpiece was dismembered sometime before the 1820s. What do we know about the polyptych—and where are the other fragments? Search for clues in a Dominican church just outside the city walls.
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To see this painting in detail, please visit our website: https://collections.frick.org/objects…

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Health Infographics: “Cancers Associated With Overweight & Obesity”

Cancers Assoicated with Overweight and Obesity - National Cancer Institute - Infographic

There is consistent evidence that higher amounts of body fat are associated with increased risks of a number of cancers (6), including:

  • Endometrial cancer: Obese and overweight women are two to about four times as likely as normal-weight women to develop endometrial cancer (cancer of the lining of the uterus), and extremely obese women are about seven times as likely to develop the more common of the two main types of this cancer (7). The risk of endometrial cancer increases with increasing weight gain in adulthood, particularly among women who have never used menopausal hormone therapy (8).
  • Esophageal adenocarcinoma: People who are overweight or obese are about twice as likely as normal-weight people to develop a type of esophageal cancer called esophageal adenocarcinoma, and people who are extremely obese are more than four times as likely (9).
  • Gastric cardia cancer: People who are obese are nearly twice as likely as normal-weight people to develop cancer in the upper part of the stomach, that is, the part that is closest to the esophagus (10).
  • Liver cancer: People who are overweight or obese are up to twice as likely as normal-weight people to develop liver cancer. The association between overweight/obesity and liver cancer is stronger in men than women (1112).
  • Kidney cancer: People who are overweight or obese are nearly twice as likely as normal-weight people to develop renal cell cancer, the most common form of kidney cancer (13). The association of renal cell cancer with obesity is independent of its association with high blood pressure, a known risk factor for kidney cancer (14).
  • Multiple myeloma: Compared with normal-weight individuals, overweight and obese individuals have a slight (10% to 20%) increase in the risk of developing multiple myeloma (15).
  • Meningioma: The risk of this slow-growing brain tumor that arises in the membranes surrounding the brain and the spinal cord is increased by about 50% in people who are obese and about 20% in people who are overweight (16).
  • Pancreatic cancer: People who are overweight or obese are about 1.5 times as likely to develop pancreatic cancer as normal-weight people (17).
  • Colorectal cancer: People who are obese are slightly (about 30%) more likely to develop colorectal cancer than normal-weight people (18).A higher BMI is associated with increased risks of colon and rectal cancers in both men and in women, but the increases are higher in men than in women (18).
  • Gallbladder cancer: Compared with normal-weight people, people who are overweight have a slight (about 20%) increase in risk of gallbladder cancer, and people who are obese have a 60% increase in risk of gallbladder cancer (1920). The risk increase is greater in women than men.
  • Breast cancer: Many studies have shown that, in postmenopausal women, a higher BMI is associated with a modest increase in risk of breast cancer. For example, a 5-unit increase in BMI is associated with a 12% increase in risk (21). Among postmenopausal women, those who are obese have a 20% to 40% increase in risk of developing breast cancer compared with normal-weight women (22). The higher risks are seen mainly in women who have never used menopausal hormone therapy and for tumors that express hormone receptors. Obesity is also a risk factor for breast cancer in men (23).In premenopausal women, by contrast, overweight and obesity have been found to be associated with a 20% decreased risk of breast tumors that express hormone receptors (22).
  • Ovarian cancer: Higher BMI is associated with a slight increase in the risk of ovarian cancer, particularly in women who have never used menopausal hormone therapy (24). For example, a 5-unit increase in BMI is associated with a 10% increase in risk among women who have never used menopausal hormone therapy (24).
  • Thyroid cancer: Higher BMI (specifically, a 5-unit increase in BMI) is associated with a slight (10%) increase in the risk of thyroid cancer (25).

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Travel: “England Coastal Path” Stretching 2,800 Miles To Open In 2021

From Afar magazine (June 15, 2020):

The England Coast Path will soon allow you to walk along the entire coast of England, including areas previously inaccessible to the public. The trail, due to be completed next year, will stretch 2,800 miles along cliffs and beaches and through seaside towns and major cities, making it the longest marked oceanside path in the world.

Jurassic Coast Trust
Jurassic Coast, England

Hikers will be able to tackle sections at a time, but those attempting to conquer the whole thing should expect to be plodding along for more than five months. Two slightly shorter routes, the iconic Pacific Crest (2,653 miles) and the Appalachian (2,200 miles) Trails, both take between five and seven months to complete.

The route is split into four sections, some portions of which are already open.

  • The north-east portion starts at the border with Scotland and continues along the rocky North Sea coastline to Wash Bay, where it meets up with the coastal part of the existing Cleveland Way National Trail and wanders through resort towns, including Skegness and Mablethorpe, and past historic sites, such as Tynemouth Castle and Priory and St. Mary’s Lighthouse.
  • The south-east section connects at Wash Bay then continues west to Southampton, passing long stretches of sandy beach, wildlife reserves, and England’s famous White Cliffs, with their views of France.
  • Much of the south-west section follows the existing South West Coast Path, which runs along the English Channel and features the dramatic Jurassic Coast UNESCO World Heritage site.
  • On the west coast of England, the path jumps the Welsh border and picks up again just south of Liverpool then continues north toward Scotland. This north-west portion of the trail cuts through Lake District National Park. Hikers can also explore one of the largest Roman sites in northern Britain near Maryport as well as sites that show the region’s industrial history.

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Podcasts: “Drawing An Albatross With A Camera Lucida” By Gaby Wood (LRB)

Gaby Wood reads her diary from the latest issue of the LRB, in which she tries to draw an albatross using a camera lucida.

 

Diary Gaby WoodBy the time I used the camera lucida in the museum, I’d spent several months grappling with the strange proposition offered by its prism. I’d read that the image was sharper if you held it over a dark drawing surface, but that didn’t make any sense to me until the smoked metal etching plate was beneath my hand. Suddenly the albatross skeleton appeared on it: bright, spectral. The process was different from the way I’d imagined it. There was a drag, almost a dance, under the needle – a tiny jump of resistance in the copper. Without seeing what you were doing, you could feel it more keenly. It wasn’t like ice-skating at all.

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Camera_Lucida_in_use_drawing_small_figurineA camera lucida is an optical device used as a drawing aid by artists. The camera lucida performs an optical superimposition of the subject being viewed upon the surface upon which the artist is drawing. The artist sees both scene and drawing surface simultaneously, as in a photographic double exposure.

Top New Travel Videos: “Romania – February 2020” By Jordan Drumm

Travel Highlight Film | Some snowfall and sights from a trip to Romania in February, 2020.

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Romania is a southeastern European country known for the forested region of Transylvania, ringed by the Carpathian Mountains. Its preserved medieval towns include Sighişoara, and there are many fortified churches and castles, notably clifftop Bran Castle, long associated with the Dracula legend.

Artist Tribute: Wolf Kahn (1927-2020) – “Lust For Life”

“I have a good relation with black,” says Wolf Kahn. This is not obvious. The painter stands in front of an unfinished oil—a pattern of trees, a slice of sky—and nothing of it argues “black”; we are in the realm of Gerard Manley Hopkins’s “skies of couple-colour” and “rose moles all in stipple.” The world here evoked is luminous, bright, and the act of witness is an act of celebration. Colors laid down on the canvas are some of Kahn’s signature colors: purple, alizarin crimson, lemon yellow, phthalo green.

The painter’s shock of hair is white, his eyes are a bright blue. Trim yet sturdy, eighty-five, he wears faded blue jeans and an old plaid shirt “I like the bottom left of this painting,” he says, “the bottom right needs work. But nature in general is quite generous in providing material for one’s imagination; I will return to it later, when you go.”

Seven years later and after his death, a black-rimmed condolence card seems no more appropriate now than then. An exuberant artist, this master of shape and color always had “a good relation with black.” So I, along with legions, mourn him—but I also want to celebrate his life-long act of witness and (to borrow a phrase applied to a predecessor) flat-out “Lust for Life.”

(From BrooklynRail June 2020)

Wolf Kahn was a German-born American painter. Kahn, known for his combination of Realism and Color Field, worked in pastel, oil paint, and printmaking. He studied under Hans Hofmann, and also graduated from the University of Chicago.

News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious