Uploaded March 25, 2023: The southwest shore of Maui is home to the lovely town of Kihei, one of the sunniest places on the island- with only about a foot of rain per year. As the climate is sweltering and dry, it was once called Kama’ole, which means ‘barren.’
Video timeline: 00:00 Video Preview 01:10 Start of Video, Kihei, Maui, Hawaii 02:17 Kalama Park 09:30 South Kihei Road 12:20 Cove Beach Park 17:07 Charley Young Beach 22:45 Kamaole Beach Park I 29:57 Kamaole Beach Park II
People who would not be allowed anywhere near the battlefield in a U.S.-led war are active on the Ukrainian front, with ready access to American weapons.
Once a symbol of Wall Street excess, Cohen has invested lavishly in the Mets, becoming the most beloved billionaire in Queens. Is that enough to reverse team history?
World Economic Forum (March 25, 2023) – This week’s top stories of the week include:
0:15 NASA launches space based pollution monitor – It’s called TEMPO, which stands for Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution. Built by Ball Aerospace, TEMPO will measure levels of major air pollutants every hour from a geostationary orbit 22,000 miles above the equator. It will monitor a huge region of North America from Canada’s oil sands in northern Alberta to below Mexico City at a resolution of up to 4 square miles. Air pollution poses a major threat to human and planetary health as 99% of the global population breathes air that exceeds WHO health guidelines. Air pollution carries a total economic cost of more than $8 trillion. Therefore, monitoring it is critical to understanding its impacts. Though TEMPO is due to launch in April 2023, watch to learn more about how it will monitor air pollution from space.
1:58 8 best countries for working women – The Economist ranked 29 OECD nations according to the role and influence of women in the workplace. Iceland scores well on numerous factors. From low childcare costs to education attainment for women to female representation at senior levels. At the current rate, it will take 132 years to close the global gender gap How does your country support women at work?
3:23 What is the polycrisis? – Today we are once again beset by seemingly unconnected crises. Such as the war in Ukraine, the climate crisis and the aftermath of COVID-19. “So economics, politics, geopolitics and then the natural environment blowing back at us – and those 4 things, they don’t reduce to a single common denominator. They don’t reduce to a single factor. And that’s why I think the polycrisis term has a real utility descriptively as much as anything else, because it’s kind of hand-waving, of course, it’s kind of arm waving. It’s going, look, there’s a lot of stuff happening here all at once. And that precisely is what we’re trying to wrap our minds around.”
6:54 Are Chatbots going to take our jobs? – “I get this question asked 10 times a week, which is that, look, is conversational AI going to take away jobs? And my consistent answer is no. And the best analogy I will give to you is banks and ATMs. So prior to the technology of ATMs, the most common reason why people would walk into a bank would be to take out money. So imagine there’s no ATMs and 90% of the reason why somebody goes inside the bank is to say, I need to take out some cash, I need to take out some money. As a result, you know, you and I don’t even remember these days, but banks used to be crowded. There used to be long lines and so on. Here comes the ATM, which automates really what should be a very simple task.”
_____________________________________________
The World Economic Forum is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business, cultural and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. We believe that progress happens by bringing together people from all walks of life who have the drive and the influence to make positive change.
The Local Project – (March 21, 2023) – Only reachable by boat, Marra Marra Shack by Leopold Banchini Architects is a hidden eco-friendly timber cabin that embraces a quiet lifestyle removed from the bustle of city living.
Video timeline:00:00 – Introduction to the Eco-Friendly Timber Cabin 00:46 – The Site and its Location 01:06 – The Brief: Simplicity and Discovery 01:30 – Working with a Remote Construction Site 01:59 – Hand Built and Off-Grid 02:32 – A Walkthrough of the Cabin 03:06 – The Feature Window 03:57 – A Timber Structure 04:29 – Custom Made Furniture 05:00 – The Materials 05:36 – Hidden in Plain Sight
As Leopold Banchini Architects’s first Australian project, the hidden eco-friendly timber cabin required only two bedrooms, easy living spaces and a connection to landscape. Using the occasion to discover the Australian landscape, the Swiss architect has used the unique crafts only available in this country. The entire building has been completed by two carpenters and using materials that required no heavy machinery.
Additionally, each chosen material responds directly to the complexity of weather, tides and floods experienced in the unique riverside location. Sitting on a slope, the hidden eco-friendly timber cabin welcomes guests with an awe-inspiring reveal upon arrival at the renovated jetty. After walking up the stairs the house tour begins at the entrance to the main living spaces, which includes the living room, dining area and kitchen. Located to the rear of the shack are two smaller bedrooms with bathrooms, both of which have been designed to offer solitude where the owners can enjoy their own space.
Finished with a large window that overlooks the river, the living room gives the impression that the home sits upon the water instead of above. By using counterweights, the opened window turns the living space into an inside and outside deck, allowing a deeper connection to the wider surrounds. The interior of the hidden eco-friendly timber cabin has been imbued with locally sourced timbers, including iron bark that is used for the pillars that hold the home together. Other elements within the home, including the stairs and flooring, are made from turpentine wood from the old jetty, while spotted gum forms the structural beams along the roof of the cabin.
Additionally, the furniture of the home has been designed specifically for Marra Marra Shack by using leftover wood from the construction. Other elements in the home, including the fireplace, sink and all steel elements, have been custom made to resolve the few needs of the owners while staying in the house. Being in the middle of an Australian national park, the architect had to respond to certain elemental outcomes including floods, fire and tide heights. Built up on a slope to respond to the conditions, the exterior of the home has also been covered in fibre cement and plaster board to address fire safety in the warmer months.
While the exterior of the hidden eco-friendly timber cabin appears to be made of other materials, it is evident when entering the home that the interior is entirely made of timber. Elevated and surrounded by trees, Marra Marra Shack does not transform the landscape but becomes one with it.
Architectural Digest (March 24, 2023) – Michael Wyetzner of Michielli + Wyetzner Architects returns to AD, this time breaking down five of the most common skyscraper styles dotting the New York City skyline. From set back ‘wedding cakes’ to the supertall buildings of the future, Michael gives expert insight on the different skyscraper styles that coalesce into one unforgettable view.
March 25, 2023: Georgina Godwin and the weekend’s biggest discussion topics. Alex von Tunzelmann reviews the papers, Andrew Mueller recaps what we learned this week, and we find out how attitudes of young adults towards the US and China are changing.
While retirement planning is a decadeslong endeavor, the way you handle your final decade before leaving the workforce will have a critical impact on how ready you’ll be when that day finally arrives.
“It hits about 10 years out—this train is coming to me,” says Danielle Byrd Thompson, a financial professional at Equitable Advisors in Washington, D.C. “It’s like a time clock is starting.”
With fat yields and more safety than common stock, preferred shares can be lifeboats for investors navigating banking’s stormy seas. Why bigger is better for small investors.
The expulsion of Rahul Gandhi is a devastating blow to the once-powerful Indian National Congress party. He and several other politicians are now in jeopardy through India’s legal system.
U.S. officials said the main air defense system at the coalition base was “not fully operational” at the time of Thursday’s attack, which killed a U.S. contractor and wounded six other Americans.
Margaret Atwood’s new book is “Old Babes in the Wood.”Credit…Arden Wray for The New York Times
Her new story collection, “Old Babes in the Wood,” offers elegiac scenes from a marriage plus a grab bag of curious fables.
There are authors we turn to because they can uncannily predict our future; there are authors we need for their skillful diagnosis of our present; and there are authors we love because they can explain our past. And then there are the outliers: those who gift us with timelines other than the one we’re stuck in, realities far from home. If anyone has proved, over the course of a long and wildly diverse career, that she can be all four, it’s Margaret Atwood.
Michael Lesy’s book of historical photographs and found text offers a singular portrait of American life.
Michael Lesy’s 1973 book “Wisconsin Death Trip” is an American oddity, a cult classic for a reason. In a way that few documentary texts do, it makes us leave the baggage of modernity at the trailhead. It forces us back into the inconceivably long nights in rural and small-town America before the widespread use of electricity, before radio, before antibiotics for dying children and antidepressants for anxiety bordering on mania, when events could make a family feel that some nocturnal beast had chalked its door.
The first installment of an essay series on American literature and faith.
I am a child of the church. In an early memory, I am 6 years old, half-asleep in the back of my grandparents’ station wagon on the way home from a revival…
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious