Tag Archives: April 2023

Business: Robots Helping Retailers Save Billions

CNBC (April 22, 2023) – Outfitted with cameras and sensors, autonomous inventory robots can verify price signs and look for out-of-stock items. Inventory is one of the biggest challenges retailers face.

Chapters: 0:002:07 Introduction 2:085:11 Chapter 1 Empty Shelves 5:129:26 Chapter 2 Inventory robots 9:2712:31 Chapter 3 The future

Missed sales from empty shelves and out-of-stock items cost U.S. retailers $82 billion in 2021, according to NielsenIQ. But an army of inventory robots is being deployed that could help retailers appease angry customers, boost sales and respond to the ongoing worker shortage.

International Art: Apollo Magazine — May 2023

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Apollo Magazine – May 2023 issue:

FEATURES | Jaune Quick-to-See Smith talks to Samuel Reilly about breaking the ‘buckskin ceiling’Grant Lewis on Handel’s art-buying habitElisa Germán talks to Apollo about the watercolours of Richard Foster YardeLouisa McKenzie on wax figures through the agesJonathan Griffin on the creative curating of Walter Hopps
 
REVIEWS | Imogen Tedbury on the experimental side of Giovanni BelliniNicola Shulman on tartan at the V&A DundeeMatthew Sperling looks at Alice Neel’s paintings at the BarbicanWilliam Carruthers digs deeper into the life of a formidable French archaeologistAlice Minter is dazzled by a catalogue of the Louvre’s gold and silver
 
MARKET | Jane Morris on New York’s domination of the art market; plus the latest columns from Emma Crichton-Miller and Samuel Reilly
 
PLUS | Hettie Judah asks if artists are getting screwed over by galleries and museumsRosamund Bartlett on how Sydney Modern is rethinking Australian artDiane Smyth focuses on photography collections in the UKWilliam Aslet on the chequered history of St Mary-le-StrandThomas Marks watches La Grande BouffeChristina Makris drinks rosé at a sculpture park in PiedmontSophie Barling on the potter who turned back timeHelen Stoilas on what not to miss at TEFAF New York; plus our pick of the best exhibitions to see this month

What’s the point of studying fine art?

Enrolment in the humanities is tumbling across the United States, but the numbers for fine art are still holding up

Will Edward Bawden’s lost masterpiece ever be tracked down?

The hunt is on for an epic mural depicting ‘Country Life in Britain’ – but chances are it’s a wild goose chase

Finnish lines – a new look for the Ateneum in Helsinki

Ateneum Art Museum

Finland’s most important art museum has been completely rehung just as questions of culture and national identity are on everyone’s mind

Saturday Morning: News And Stories From London

Monocle on Saturday, April 22, 2023: The weekend’s biggest discussion topics with Georgina Godwin. Plus: Alice Sherwood reviews the papers, Andrew Mueller recaps the week and we discuss Vincent Doumeizel’s new book, ‘The Seaweed Revolution’.

Front Page: The New York Times — April 22, 2023

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Airman Shared Sensitive Intelligence More Widely and for Longer Than Previously Known

The first leak to Discord appeared to come less than 48 hours into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
CREDITTYLER HICKS/THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Discord user matching the profile of Jack Teixeira distributed intelligence to a larger chat group, days after the beginning of the Ukraine war.

Supreme Court Ensures, for Now, Broad Access to Abortion Pill

The order halts lower court rulings that would have restricted the drug as an appeal moves forward in a case with profound implications for abortion access and the F.D.A.’s regulatory authority.

The Debt Ceiling Debate Is About More Than Debt

Republicans’ opening bid to avert economic catastrophe by raising the nation’s borrowing limit focuses more on energy policy than reducing debt.

The Obscure G.O.P. Bookkeeper at the Center of the George Santos Mess

Nancy Marks, Mr. Santos’s former campaign treasurer, has her own history of questionable dealings that have aroused interest from federal investigators.

The New York Times Book Review – April 23, 2023

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The New York Times Book Review – April 23, 2023:

With His Tale of Shipwreck, David Grann Is Steady as He Goes

This illustration shows a sailing ship being tossed in heaving seas. The art is stylized, with mostly black, white and subtle blue lines, and the image is mirrored, so the same picture appears twice, once right-side up and the other upside down.
Credit…Naï Zakharia

The author’s latest book, “The Wager,” investigates the mysteries surrounding an 18th-century maritime disaster off Cape Horn.

There were multiple moments while reading David Grann’s new book, “The Wager,” about an 18th-century shipwreck, when it occurred to me that the kind of nonfiction narratives The New Yorker writer has become known for share something essential with a sturdy ship.

‘Biography of X’ Rewrites a Life Story and an American Century

The book jacket of “Biography of X,” by Catherine Lacey, is a deep red with a small, scrambled photograph of a woman’s face in the center.

Catherine Lacey’s new novel follows a polarizing artist through a fractured country.

The narrator of “Biography of X,” the new Catherine Lacey novel, is a journalist named C.M. Lucca who worked for a Village Voice-like newspaper in New York City during the 1980s. C.M. has a cool tone and a lonely intelligence; she’s a solitary spirit. 

These Police Chiefs Are Working to Change Perceptions

A sea of uniformed police officers throng Fifth Avenue; an American flag waves in the background.
Police officers from across the country line Fifth Avenue for the funeral of the N.Y.P.D. officer Wilbert D. Mora, 2022.Credit…Karsten Moran for The New York Times

In “Walk the Walk,” Neil Gross profiles three departments around the country experimenting with genuine reform.

WALK THE WALK: How Three Police Chiefs Defied the Odds and Changed Cop Culture, by Neil Gross

Art & Architecture: Tour Of Almora House, Sydney

The Local Project – (April 21, 2023) – Imbued with a sense of calm and tranquillity, Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects creates a dream home that encourages contemplation. A neutral approach to materiality is complemented by an extensive art collection and sculptural furnishings, inspiring stillness and a sense of wonder for what lies beneath the structure’s outward façade.

Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to the Art Lovers Dream Home 00:29 – The Location of Almora House 00:44 – The Clients and The Brief 01:15 – The Organisation of the Home 01:55 – A Walkthrough of the Home 02:59 – An Enduring, Timeless and Maintenance Free Home 03:37 – Where The Spatial Richness is Derived From 04:11 – The Most Enjoyable Project for the Architect 04:46 – Favourite Parts of the Home

Located in the coastal refuge of Balmoral Beach in Sydney’s Mosman, Almora House is a collection of unique spaces. The clients have resided in the house for over twenty years and have come forward with the brief to design an enduring, timeless, maintenance-free dream home that would accommodate their extensive art collection. Almora House presents a distinctive shape that encourages a soft contemplation.

The form of the house itself is organised around a spine that runs almost north-south — the structure stretching its way along this spine, with a series of rooms that push out into the garden, creating small courtyards. Various features throughout the home also encourage contemplation, particularly the bookshelf. Housed in the upstairs library, the bookshelf’s rear side is made of slightly frosted glass, becoming an alluring abstract composition seen from the dining room. The spine design of the dream home creates an effortless sense of flow in its layout. Inside the front door, there is a guest bathroom and bedroom that open into a courtyard.

As you walk south along the spine, the first of the living rooms, a dining room with double-height ceilings and a kitchen unfurl to the left. Beyond the kitchen is an informal room with four glass walls that open into the garden. Upstairs are the master bedroom and powder room, a study and a gallery. Thoughtful choices surrounding materiality also create a dream home that embodies a poignant sense of calm and introspection. Glass is used to welcome the serenity of the surrounding greenery into the home.

A concrete frame is used as a neutral material that showcases the art within the home and inspires calm. Almora House reveals itself to incite tranquillity, stillness and retrieve from the constant movement of daily life. Tonkin Zulaikha Greer Architects perfectly balances an appreciation of practicality, art and craftsmanship to create a dream home that acts as a container of curiosities and a hub for the calm moments integral to being present in our fast-paced, modern world.

Preview: New York Times Magazine – April 23, 2023

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The New York Times Magazine – April 23, 2023:

They Saw the Horrific Aftermath of a Mass Shooting. Should We?

A photograph of Detectives Art Walkley and Karoline Keith and Sgt. Jeff Covello, all staring directly into the camera.
Detectives Art Walkley, left, and Karoline Keith and Sgt. Jeff Covello, crime-scene investigators for the Connecticut State Police.Credit…Elinor Carucci for The New York Times

The crime-scene investigators are the ones who document, and remember, the unimaginable. This is what they saw at Sandy Hook.

How Much Power Should the Courts Have?

A color illustration of a courthouse in the clouds.
Credit…Illustration by Anson Chan

In Israel, the United States and other democracies, bitter battles are being waged over the same question.

What Was Twitter, Anyway?

A color photograph of a nest filled with trash, including cigarette butts, a soda tab, wire, chewed-up bubble gum and a blue feather in the middle.
Credit…Photograph by Jamie Chung. Concept by Pablo Delcan.

Whether the platform is dying or not, it’s time to reckon with how exactly it broke our brains.

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

The Art Newspaper April 20, 2023: This week features a tour of Tate Modern’s exhibition that brings together the Swedish painter Hilma af Klint and the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian.

Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian | Artists | Tate Shop | Tate

We hear about the two artists’ distinctive contributions to abstraction, their shared interest in esoteric belief systems and their deep engagement with the natural world, from one of the show’s curators, Bryony Fer. Our editor, Americas, Ben Sutton visited the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York to talk to the Native American artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, as her retrospective opens at the museum.

And this episode’s Work of the Week is a reconstruction of a Roman gateway that has just opened at Richborough Roman Fort in Kent, southern England. Andrew J. Roberts, a properties historian with English Heritage, the charity that looks after the historic site, explains what the gateway tells us about the Romans’ arrival in Britain in 43 CE.Hilma af Klint and Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life, Tate Modern, London, until 3 September.

Additionally: Kunstmuseum den Haag, The Hague, 7 October-25 February 2024Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, until 13 August; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, 15 October -7 January 2024; Seattle Art Museum, 15 February–12 May next year. The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C., 24 September-15 January 2024; New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut, 18 April 2024-15 September 2024.The Roman gateway and rampart, Richborough Roman Fort and Amphitheatre, Kent, now open.

News: New EU Sanctions On Russia, North Korea ‘Bio Weapons’, Air Serbia

The Globalist, April 21, 2023: The European Commission prepares new sanctions against Russia, with special requests from Moldova. Plus: a new report on North Korea’s biological weapons programme, Air Serbia introduces 20 new routes and a check-in from the International Journalism Festival in Perugia.

Front Page: The New York Times — April 21, 2023

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As Xi Befriends World Leaders, He Hardens His Stance on the U.S.

President Xi Jinping of China with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil last week in Beijing.
CREDITPOOL PHOTO BY KEN ISHII

China has rebuffed calls to restart high-level talks with the United States, raising the risk of confrontation in contested areas like the Taiwan Strait.

In a Nation Armed to the Teeth, These Tiny Missteps Led to Tragedy

Lisa Johnson-Banks held a framed memorial of her son, Omarian Banks, in Riverdale, Ga., on Thursday. She said her son posed no threat on the March 2019 night that he was shot at the wrong apartment door.
CREDITALYSSA POINTER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A workman knocking on the wrong door. A cheerleader mistaking another car for her own. Small errors can have large consequences in a nation bristling with guns.

Israel’s Right-Wing Government Has Jewish Democrats at a Loss

American lawmakers defending Israel have often fallen back on what they call the countries’ shared democratic values. But defending the current far-right government is proving a lot harder.

SpaceX’s Starship ‘Learning Experience’ Ends in Explosion

The first flight of the most powerful rocket ever was not the success that Elon Musk and his company hoped for, but the launch achieved several milestones toward future journeys.