AirPano VR Films (September 15, 2023) – A 360° aerial tour of the city of Male, capital of The Republic of Maldives, which comprises 26 atolls and nearly two thousand coral islands. Most of them are uninhabited and it is the area where nature reigns supreme.
Malé is the densely populated capital of the Maldives, an island nation in the Indian Ocean. It’s known for its mosques and colorful buildings. The Islamic Centre (Masjid-al-Sultan Muhammad Thakurufaanu Al Auzam) features a mosque, a library and a distinctive gold dome. Near the harbor, a popular fish market offers the day’s catch, and a produce market is stocked with local fruit.
The Economist Magazine (September 16, 2023): The latest issue reviews How AI can revolutionize science; Donald Trump will “never” support Putin, says Volodymyr Zelensky; The hard right is getting closer to power all over Europe, and more…
Debate about artificial intelligence (ai) tends to focus on its potential dangers: algorithmic bias and discrimination, the mass destruction of jobs and even, some say, the extinction of humanity. As some observers fret about these dystopian scenarios, however, others are focusing on the potential rewards. ai could, they claim, help humanity solve some of its biggest and thorniest problems. And, they say, ai will do this in a very specific way: by radically accelerating the pace of scientific discovery, especially in areas such as medicine, climate science and green technology.
In the next decade regional tensions will build in India
The world has been seeing the bright side of India. In August it landed a spacecraft on the Moon. In the latest quarter gdp grew at an annual rate of 7.8%, making it the world’s perkiest big economy. Narendra Modi, the prime minister, has just hosted a g20 summit where other leaders, including Joe Biden, courted Asia’s rising behemoth. Yet inside India the talk has turned to whether Mr Modi’s hunger for power and dreams of national renewal could lead him to bend the constitution.
The Globalist Podcast (September 15, 2023) – Are American voters buying “Bidenomics”? We unpack Joe Biden’s latest effort to fine-tune his economic agenda.
Plus: the US plans to withhold millions in military aid to Egypt, a lookahead to London Fashion Week and the latest art news.
The Justice Department charged President Biden’s son after the collapse of an earlier plea deal and amid an impeachment investigation by House Republicans.
Desperate for munitions for the war in Ukraine, the U.S. and Russia have turned to their allies in South and North Korea, which kept stockpiling arms for decades after their own conflict.
What the Wildfire Stole From One Maui Family
A 7-year-old boy, his mom and grandparents tried to flee Hawaii’s deadliest wildfire in over a century, and ran into impossible challenges.
C.I.A. Discloses Identity of Second Spy Involved in ‘Argo’ Operation
The movie about the daring mission to rescue American diplomats from Tehran portrayed a single C.I.A. officer sneaking into the Iranian capital. In reality, the agency sent two officers.
Times Literary Supplement (September 15, 2023): The new issue features what connects the novelist William Harrison Ainsworth, the Tichborne Trial and life on a sugar plantation in Jamaica? In a New Yorker essay Zadie Smith spelt out the preoccupations of The Fraud, her novel set in the Victorian era, as “fake identities, fake news, fake relationships, fake histories”. Ainsworth, in Smith’s view, was a fraud as a historical novelist.
Science Magazine – September 15, 2023: Blue jays, similar to other corvid songbirds, are known for their impressive cognitive abilities, presumably due to their relatively large brains.
Pace Gallery (September 14, 2023) – From his studio in Brooklyn, New York, Jules de Balincourt discusses his new suite of paintings on view as part of “Midnight Movers,” his debut exhibition with our gallery in New York and his first solo show in the city in a decade.
Working spontaneously, de Balincourt develops his expressive paintings through an improvisational approach that borders on abstraction. In this new interview, the artist dissects his process and the ways that he explores the natural world, globalization, technology, and psychology in his works.
Daniela Hernandez | WSJ (September 14, 2023) – Research shows that moderate amounts of physical stress can help your body stay healthier for longer.
Video timeline:0:00 Stress exercise 0:38 Baseline longevity test 2:41 Training 3:17 The results 4:59 What can you do about it?
That’s why longevity hacks, like intermittent fasting and ice baths, are blowing up on social media. I put myself through a strenuous 10-day workout plan to learn why and how the most active form of stress–exercise–is actually your best bet for a longer, healthier life.
The New York Review of Books (October 5, 2023) – The new issue features Jennifer Wilson on Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s unsettlingly funny tales of domestic un-bliss, Tim Judah on the new normal in Ukraine, Daniel M. Lavery on Jacques Pépin, E. Tammy Kim on the 1941 Disney animators’ strike, Christopher Benfey on John Constable, Bill McKibben on a planet smothered in asphalt, Lynn Hunt on the revolutions of 1848, Noah Feldman on the Supreme Court’s conservative bloc, A.E. Stallings on Simonides, poems by Devin Johnston and Claire DeVoogd, and much more.
Some months ago I was having dinner with a writer from Moscow. I told him I was thinking of reviewing a new translation of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s Kidnapped, a Bollywood-inspired novella that pays homage to the Soviets’ love of Indian cinema. “Don’t do it,” he—a friend of hers—warned me. “If she doesn’t like what you write, she will turn you into a character in one of her stories—the stupid girl in New York who doesn’t know anything.” Being a longtime admirer of Petrushevskaya, I wasn’t too worried: realism is not her thing.
On August 8 I went to the Jellyfish Museum in Kyiv. During my previous visits to the city, it had been closed because of the war. Now it has reopened. In the gloom the fantastical creatures drifted about in their tanks while couples, friends, and families drifted about happily looking at them. In Kharkiv, in eastern Ukraine close to the Russian border, the Half an Hour café, where I wrote for a couple of days before Russia launched its full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022, has also just reopened.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious