Tag Archives: January 2024

Preview: MIT Technology Review – January 2024

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MIT Technology Review (January/February 2024) – The new issue features 10 Innovations that could change our World.

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2024

Every year, we look for promising technologies poised to have a real impact on the world. Here are the advances that we think matter most right now.

AI for everything

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We now live in the age of AI. Hundreds of millions of people have interacted directly with generative tools like ChatGPT that produce text, images, videos, and more from prompts. Their popularity has reshaped the tech industry, making OpenAI a household name and compelling Google, Meta, and Microsoft to invest heavily in the technology.

Super-efficient solar cells

Solar power is being rapidly deployed around the world, and it’s key to global efforts to reduce carbon emissions. But most of the sunlight that hits today’s panels isn’t being converted into electricity. Adding a layer of tiny crystals could make solar panels more efficient. WHY IT MATTERS

Apple Vision Pro

Apple will start shipping its first mixed-reality headset, the Vision Pro, this year. Its killer feature is the highest-resolution display ever made for such a device. Will there be a killer app? It’s early, but the world’s most valuable company has made a bold bet that the answer is yes. WHY IT MATTERS

Weight-loss drugs

The global rise in obesity has been called an epidemic by the World Health Organization. Medications like Mounjaro and Wegovy are now among the most powerful tools that patients and physicians have to treat it. Evidence suggests they can even protect against heart attacks and strokes. WHY IT MATTERS

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Jan 15, 2024

Former President Donald Trump marching on pavement blocks that read “2023” and “2024.”

The New Yorker – January 15, 2024 issue: The new issue‘s cover features Barry Blitt’s “Back to the Future” – The artist depicts a goose-stepping Donald Trump, determined to march back into political relevance.

Has School Become Optional?

A silhouette of a kid sitting on a desk revealing two people walking.

In the past few years, chronic absenteeism has nearly doubled. The fight to get students back in classrooms has only just begun.

By Alec MacGillis

Absenteeism underlies much of what has beset young people, including falling school achievement, deteriorating mental health, and elevated youth violence.

What Frantz Fanon and Ian Fleming Agreed On

Portraits of men divided by photos of protest.

From opposite directions, the revolutionary intellectual and the creator of James Bond saw violence as essential—psychologically and strategically—to solving the crisis of colonialism.

By Daniel Immerwahr

More than fifty years later, Zohra Drif could still picture the Milk Bar in Algiers on September 30, 1956. It was white and shining, she recalled, awash in laughter, young voices, “summer colors, the smell of pastries, and even the distant twittering of birds.” Drif, a well-coiffed law student in a stylish lavender dress, ordered a peach-Melba ice cream and wedged her beach bag against the counter. She paid, tipped, and left without her bag. The bomb inside it exploded soon afterward.

News: Blinken Middle East Tour, US Troops Exit Iraq, Ecuador Organized Crime

The Globalist Podcast (January 8, 2024) Antony Blinken’s latest multi-stop tour of the Middle East, Iraq prepares US-led troop exit and Ecuadorean president Daniel Noboa’s plan to hold a referendum on security measures.

Also, the business news and the winners of the Golden Globe Awards.

Travel: Top Beaches And Festivals In The Philippines

DW Travel (January 7, 2024) – The Philippines consists of no less than 7,000 islands, many of which have beautiful beaches and a fascinating underwater world. Two expert travel guides, Philippine-born Ave @avelovinit and her Norwegian husband Martin @martinsolhaugen show you their personal top travel destinations for the island state in the Western Pacific.

Video timeline: 00:00 Intro 00:58 From Manila to Boracay 01:54 Boracay island 04:05 El Nido, Palawan island 04:44 Manila 05:46 Siargao island 07:58 Sorsogon, Province of Bico, Kasanggayahan Festival

Classical: Pianist Tiffany Poon Plays Schumann

DW Classical Music (January 7, 2024) – A furious piano piece of the Romantic period. Tiffany Poon plays Robert Schumann’s Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6 at the Dresden Music Festival 2023. The concert took place in the Palais im Grossen Garten.

Video timeline: (00:00) Coming on stage (00:27) 1. Lebhaft (02:03) 2. Innig (03:36) 3. Etwas hahnbüchen (05:10) 4. Ungeduldig (06:30) 5. Einfach (08:21) 6. Sehr rasch und in sich hinein (10:05) 7. Nicht schnell mit äußerst starker Empfindung (14:07) 8. Frisch (15:14) 9. No tempo indication (16:46) 10. Balladenmäßig sehr rasch (18:15) 11. Einfach (19:51) 12. Mit Humor (20:36) 13. Wild und lustig (23:44) 14. Zart und singend (25:50) 15. Frisch (27:58) 16. Mit gutem Humor (29:22) 17. Wie aus der Ferne (32:56) 18. Nicht schnell

The Davidsbündlertänze, Op. 6, are a two-part piano cycle by Robert Schumann, each consisting of nine character pieces. Schumann wrote 19 pieces, the last of which remains incomplete. The work was composed in the two months following his engagement to Clara Wieck on August 14, 1837. In the first piece, he quotes a motif from the Mazurka No. 5 from her Soirées musicales Op. 6 in the Motto of C. W. He speaks to her of wedding thoughts, which he has incorporated into the pieces. To his friend Carl Montag, however, he spoke of “death dances, St. Vitus’ dances, dances of graces and goblins”.

Schumann’s pseudonyms Florestan and Eusebius also play an important role here. The two characters symbolize his dual role in the fictitious Davidsbund, which also gives this cycle its name. Florestan is the “roaring, exuberant stormtrooper”. Eusebius represents the opposite pole as “the gentle youth who always remains modestly in the background”. In the first edition, the plays are either titled “Florestan and Eusebius” or just one of the two names.

Nature: Coastal Desert Of Baja California, Mexico

BBC Earth (January 7, 2024) – Journey to the coastal deserts of Baja California to witness marine turtles laying their eggs and dolphins gliding through the ocean.

It is the only desert in the world surrounded by two seas, a geologically isolated peninsula sets the stage for a myriad of remarkable plants and animals exemplifying adaptations to an isolated and arid environment. The Baja California Desert is the peninsular arm of the mainland Sonoran Desert, and although closely related to each other, they contain dramatically different evolutionary histories.

Sunday Morning: Stories From Zürich And Istanbul

Monocle on Sunday, January 7, 2024 Monocle’s editorial director, Tyler Brûlé, is joined by Juliet Linley and Chandra Kurt to discuss the weekend’s hottest topics.

We also speak to our editor in chief, Andrew Tuck, our deputy head of radio, Tom Webb, and Monocle’s Istanbul correspondent Hannah Lucinda Smith.

Lifestyle: The Observer Magazine – January 7, 2024

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The Observer Magazine (January 6, 2024) – The latest issue features ‘Willem Dafoe’ – Hollywood legend, art lover, lifetime yogi and gentleman farmer; What sport can teach us about the game of life; Yalda Hakim on the human side of war reporting, and more…

Travel: Cities, Landmarks & Landscapes Of Ecuador

Clairmont Films (January 6, 2024) – Ecuador is a country straddling the equator on South America’s west coast. Its diverse landscape encompasses Amazon jungle, Andean highlands and the wildlife-rich Galápagos Islands.

In the Andean foothills at an elevation of 2,850m, Quito, the capital, is known for its largely intact Spanish colonial center, with decorated 16th- and 17th-century palaces and religious sites, like the ornate Compañía de Jesús Church. 

Travel: Grindelwald First Cableway, Switzerland

AKSense – Zurich (January 6, 2024) – Grindelwald, a village in Switzerland’s Bernese Alps, is a popular gateway for the Jungfrau Region, with skiing in winter and hiking in summer. The First Aerial Cableway is the cableway with six-seater gondolas travelling from Grindelwald up to First via Bort and Schreckfeld.

The gondola cableway has a capacity of up to 1,200 persons per hour with a travelling time of approximately 25 minutes. Aside from the gondola cableway, Firstbahn AG also has three chairlifts and two ski lifts.