Tag Archives: Previews

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – June 9, 2023

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Times Literary Supplement (June 9, 2023): Requiem for a dream – Aung San Suu Kyi’s fall from grace; Vindicating Mary Wollstonecraft; France on Trial; In search of Yeats, and more…

Aung San Suu Kyi by Wendy Law-Yone review — how a saint became a pariah

Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, Myanmar, in 2011

This short biography explains why the West misunderstood the Myanmar leader. Review by Richard Lloyd Parry

In humanity’s long history of toppled heroes, shattered reputations and honour besmirched, it is difficult to think of a more extreme case than that of Aung San Suu Kyi. A decade ago, the Myanmar leader was among the most adored and respected figures in the world — winner of the Nobel peace prize, long-term political prisoner, an emblem of peaceful, uncompromising democratic struggle. Her ascension to the national leadership felt like the vindication of precious hopes and principles; today, “the Lady”, as she used to be known, is face down in the mud.

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

Front Cover: The Atlantic Magazine – July/Aug 2023

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The Atlantic Magazine – July/August 2023 issue: Mark Leibovich goes inside the MLB’s desperate effort to rescue America’s pastime from irrelevance

‘HELL WELCOMES ALL’

A graphic illustration of black, pixelated video-game characters on a red background.

Can hard-core gamers learn to play well with others? By Spencer Kornhaber

Playing a prerelease version of Diablo IV, the latest installment in a 26-year-old adventure series about battling the forces of hell, I faced swarms of demons that yowled and belched. My character, a sorcerer, shot them with lightning bolts, producing a jet-engine roar. 

HOW BASEBALL SAVED ITSELF

Inside the desperate effort to rescue America’s pastime from irrelevance By Mark Leibovich

A photograph of a baseball outfielder on green field with fans silhouetted in the foreground.

Where in the name of human rain delays is Juan Soto?

The stud outfielder is late. Everyone keeps checking their phones—the antsy Major League Baseball officials, the San Diego Padres PR guy, the handful of reporters, and the assorted hangers-on you encounter around baseball clubhouses. Everyone is wondering when the Padres superstar will show up. He was supposed to be here half an hour ago, just after this baseball players’ sanctum opened and we were allowed to join them in their most elemental of baseball activities: waiting around.

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Preview: London Review Of Books — June 15, 2023

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London Review of Books (LRB) – June 15, 2023 issue: James Butler on Italo Calvino’s Politics; John Lahr – My Hollywood Fling; Ferdinand Mount – Safe as the Bank of England; Africa’s Cold War by Kevin Okoth, and more…

Toots, they owned you

By John Lahr

Hollywood: The Oral History 
edited by Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson.

In April​ 1973, on a Pan Am 747 jumbo jet from London to LA, I took my seat in the upstairs dining room opposite a Cincinnati salesman and his wife. He sold screws – really. Just as improbably, I had sold my first novel to the movies. The tablecloth, the silverware, the crystal wine glasses, the Chateaubriand being carved in front of us at five hundred miles an hour felt extraordinary, a swank unreality that matched my elevated mood. I was 32. I was going to Hollywood. I was making a movie. I was going to be a screenwriter.


Arts & Literature, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Reviews

Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – June 12, 2023

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Sasha Velours “The Look of Pride”
Art by Sasha Velour

The New Yorker – June 12, 2023 issue: The artist behind the cover for the June 12, 2023, issue, Sasha Velour, is a gender-fluid drag queen, author, television and theatre performer, and visual artist. In 2017, she was named the winner of the ninth season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” 

How the Marvel Cinematic Universe Swallowed Hollywood

Many superheroes breaking through the word Hollywood

Robert Redford, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paul Rudd, and Angela Bassett now disappear into movies whose plots can come down to “Keep glowy thing away from bad guy.”

By Michael Schulman

The Writer Who Insists He Knew Tennessee Williams

An illustrated portrait of James Grissom writing on a notepad. From his pen emanates a cloud in which we see a scene...

James Grissom says that he met the playwright and his famous muses, and quoted them extensively in his work. Not everyone believes him.


By Helen Shaw

How a Fringe Legal Theory Became a Threat to Democracy

A seesaw with a collection of colorful US States on one side and the shape of the entire United States on the other. The...

Lawyers tried to use the independent-state-legislature theory to sway the outcomes of the 2000 and 2020 elections. What if it were to become the law of the land?

By Andrew Marantz

An extreme version of the theory could give state legislatures the power to award Electoral College votes however they see fit. Illustrations by Golden Cosmos

Design, Innovations, Previews, Reviews, Technology

Augmented Reality: Apple Unveils ‘Glass Air’ Glasses

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Concept Images by Kylin Wu

Yanko Design (June 2, 2023) – Augmented Reality has always been Tim Cook’s favorite buzzword, and he’s consistently pushed for Apple to have a presence in this space. It’s expected that all this will culminate in what analysts and leakers call “Reality”, Apple’s first XR headset. This cutting-edge device, expected to be unveiled at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, aims to pioneer the relatively uncharted realm of mixed-reality technology.

With a price tag of approximately $3,000, the ‘Reality’ headset has been seven years in the making, and has been apparently filled with controversy too, with a large chunk of Apple’s own employees expressing doubt and disdain. However, here’s everything we know about the Reality headset (or could it be a pair of glasses?) that’s set to launch this Monday.

The headset’s design journey has oscillated between being thick and obtrusive, like your average VR headset, to being as slim as a pair of spectacles, or realistically, a pair of chunky ski goggles. At its heart, however, lies the innovative xrOS, designed to provide an interface that echoes the familiar iOS experience. The new operating system (which is pretty much confirmed thanks to a trademark filed by Apple in New Zealand) is set to revolutionize how users interact with their devices, presenting a traditional Home Screen in an entirely new dimension filled with apps and customizable widgets.

One of the most exciting features of ‘Reality’ is its ability to merge digital elements with the real world. The xrOS software could potentially project AR app interface elements onto actual objects, creating a seamless mixed-reality overlay effect. This represents a significant leap forward in AR technology, blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital worlds. According to MacRumors, the ‘Reality’ device will achieve this using “dual high-resolution 4K micro OLED displays with up to 3,000 pixels per inch for a rich, realistic, and immersive viewing experience.” To operate the device, the user’s hands and eyes will be monitored by over a dozen optical cameras. The user can select an on-screen item by simply looking at it and activate it by making a hand gesture, such as a pinch.

READ MORE AT YANKO DESIGN

Financial, Investing, Magazines, Previews, Retirement, Reviews

Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – June 5, 2023

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BARRON’S MAGAZINE – JUNE 5, 2023 ISSUE

‘Shadow Banks’ Hold Half of the World’s Assets. Why Concerns Are Growing.

‘Shadow Banks’ Hold Half of the World’s Assets. Why Concerns Are Growing.

Regulators don’t have a clear view into the huge world of nonbank finance, or ‘shadow banking.’ Barron’s peers into this opaque world.

REIT Resurgence: 4 to Consider, 2 to Avoid

REIT Resurgence: 4 to Consider, 2 to Avoid

Real estate investment trusts have been clobbered over the past year. We survey the landscape, from REITs that specialize in cell towers, data centers, and warehouses to ones holding troubled office buildings. Where to find value and where to dodge traps.

It’s Not Just AI. 5 Trends That Will Change How You Invest.

It’s Not Just AI. 5 Trends That Will Change How You Invest.

Water shortages and a fast-growing India are among the developments that will change economies and markets.

The Stock Market Throws a Party—and Everyone’s Invited

Carleton English

The Debt-Ceiling Deal Could End Up Biting Stock Investors

Randall W. Forsyth

A Hidden AI Stock That Pays a Big Dividend

Eric J. Savitz

AI Will Change Investing. How It Could Play Out.

Andy Serwer

Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Previews, Reviews

The New York Times Book Review-Sunday June 4, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW – JUNE 4, 2023: The summer reading issue lands this weekend, 56 pages filled with suggestions of books to keep you company at the beach or in that shady mothballed nook you discovered in your rental share. The issue closes with a beautiful photo essay of swimmers pictured underwater, from an art book that evokes summer as vividly as fried clam strips and soft-serve ice cream: “Swimmers,” by Larry Sultan.

Deep-Sea Creatures of Bittersweet Orange and Metallic Opaline Green

This illustration depicts two enormous fish with red eyes and lots of teeth swimming around the bathysphere, an underwater exploration machine from the 1930s.

In “The Bathysphere Book,” Brad Fox chronicles the fascinating Depression-era ocean explorations of William Beebe.

Consider the siphonophore. An inhabitant of the lightless ocean, it looks like a single organism, but is actually a collection of minute creatures, each with its own purpose, working in harmony to move, to eat, to stay alive. They seem impossible but they are real. In 1930 William Beebe was 3,000 feet underwater in a bathysphere, an early deep-sea submersible, when he spotted a huge one: a writhing 20-yard mass whose pale magenta shone impossibly against the absolute blackness of the water. As you can imagine, it made an impression.

An Indictment of Human Culture, Narrated by a Mountain Lion

This is a close-up illustration of a lion’s eye, reflecting the silhouette of a man against a blue sky and greenery.

Henry Hoke’s latest novel, “Open Throat,” follows an observant — and starving — cougar living in the Los Angeles hills surrounding the Hollywood sign.

There is a moment toward the end of “Open Throat,” Henry Hoke’s slim jewel of a novel, where the narrator, a mountain lion living in the desert hills surrounding Los Angeles’s Hollywood sign, falls asleep and dreams of Disneyland. It will be hard for those who haven’t yet read this propulsive novel to understand, but the lion’s waking life at this moment is so precarious that this slippage into pleasant dream left me scared to turn the page.

Summertime in America, Beneath the Surface

A new book of photographs by Larry Sultan captures recreational swimmers at public pools in 1970s and ‘80s California.

Culture, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews, Society

Preview: New York Times Magazine – June 4, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (June 4, 2023) – California is the place where the future happens, for good and ill. That’s part of its magic. Read our first-ever California Issue to find out what roads the state will take us down next.

Inside: A fight over a parking lot that explains the housing crisis; the future of California’s power to shape national policy; how the state is adapting to a warming world — and more.

California Builds the Future, for Good and Bad. What’s Next?

An illustration of a California-inspired scene: wildfires, cars on a highway, the writer’s strike in Hollywood, a tent city, drones in the sky, flooding and a marijuana dispensary.

From reparations to tax revolts, the Golden State tries out new ideas all the time. What roads will its latest experiments send us down?

By Laila Lalami

I remember my first glimpse into the future. In August 1992, when I arrived in California as a student, I discovered during orientation that the university required all incoming students to have something called an email account. To access it, I had to call up a text-based mail client on Unix, using a series of line commands. If I needed a file that sat on a university computer in New York, I could use file transfer protocol to download it in Los Angeles, the whole process taking no more than a few minutes. That’s brilliant, I remember thinking.

Can the ‘California Effect’ Survive in a Hyperpartisan America?

A collage illustration showing the California capitol, the Golden Gate Bridge and a surfer hitting the waves, among other California motifs.

For decades the state has been setting policy for the whole nation. Now red states are pushing back.

By Conor Dougherty

For a while this winter, seemingly every text message that Buffy Wicks received asked if she was running for Congress. Representative Barbara Lee, of California’s 12th District, which includes Oakland, had announced that she would enter the race for Dianne Feinstein’s soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat. This decision by Lee, who is 76, created a rare opportunity for the next generation of California Democrats to vie for federal office. And Wicks — a 45-year-old State Assembly member who lives in Lee’s district and was last re-elected with 85 percent of the vote — seemed like a natural candidate.

Economics, Financial, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews

Previews: The Economist Magazine – June 3, 2023

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The Economist Magazine– June 3, 2023 issue: The baby-bust economy: How declining birth rates will change the world.

Global fertility has collapsed, with profound economic consequences

What might change the world’s dire demographic trajectory?

In the roughly 250 years since the Industrial Revolution the world’s population, like its wealth, has exploded. Before the end of this century, however, the number of people on the planet could shrink for the first time since the Black Death. The root cause is not a surge in deaths, but a slump in births. Across much of the world the fertility rate, the average number of births per woman, is collapsing. Although the trend may be familiar, its extent and its consequences are not. Even as artificial intelligence (ai) leads to surging optimism in some quarters, the baby bust hangs over the future of the world economy.

How to make the re-election of Recep Tayyip Erdogan less bad news

Turkish President and People's Alliance's presidential candidate Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures to supporters at the presidential palace, in Ankara, Turkey, Sunday, May 28, 2023. Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won reelection Sunday, extending his increasingly authoritarian rule into a third decade as the country reels from high inflation and the aftermath of an earthquake that leveled entire cities. (AP Photo/Ali Unal)

There is a chance for a partial reset

It certainly wasn’t fair. Nor was it entirely free. But, like it or not, the victory on May 28th of Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey’s presidential election is a fact. For the next five years Turkey, Europe and the wider world will have to deal with a prickly and authoritarian populist. That is bad news on many fronts: economically, democratically and regionally. And yet pragmatists have a duty to search for chinks of light in the gloom.

It’s not just a fiscal fiasco: greying economies also innovate less

That compounds the problems of shrinking workforces and rising bills for health care and pensions

“Adam is a special child,” says the voice-over, as the camera pans across abandoned classrooms and deserted maternity wards. “He’s the last child born in Italy.” The short film made for Plasmon, an Italian brand of baby food owned by Kraft-Heinz, a giant American firm, is set in 2050. It imagines an Italy where babies are a thing of the past. It is exaggerating for effect, of course, but not by as much as you might imagine. The number of births in Italy peaked at 1m in 1964; by 2050, the un projects, it will have shrunk by almost two-thirds, to 346,000.

Magazines, Podcasts, Previews, Research, Reviews, Science

Research Preview: Science Magazine – June 2, 2023

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Science Magazine – June 2, 2023 issue: The snub-nosed monkey genus Rhinopithecus comprises five allopatric and morphologically differentiated species, the black-white snub-nosed monkey, the black snub-nosed monkey , the golden snub-nosed monkey, the gray snub-nosed monkey, and the Tonkin snub-nosed monkey. 

Understanding our own order

Humans are primates. If we weren’t able to do things like write poetry and drive cars, we would likely be classified as another species of great ape, along with our closest cousins—chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans. Thus, understanding the genomes, evolutionary history, sociality, and, some might argue, even ecology of modern primates greatly informs our understanding of ourselves.

A cool path for making glass

Brent Grocholski

Printing glass with additive manufacturing techniques could provide access to new materials and structures for many applications. However, one key limitation to this is the high temperature usually required to cure glass. Bauer et al. used a hybrid organic-inorganic polymer resin as a feedstock material that requires a much lower temperature for curing (see the Perspective by Colombo and Franchin).

A super Sonic circadian synchronizer

Sonic Hedgehog signaling and primary cilia control the core mammalian circadian clock

Virtually all mammalian physiological functions fall under the control of an internal circadian rhythm, or body clock. This circadian rhythm is governed by master neural networks in the hypothalamus that synchronize the activity of peripheral clocks in cells throughout the body.