Tag Archives: Previews

The New York Times Magazine – Oct 22, 2023

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THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (October 22, 2023): The latest issue features In Search of Kamala Harris; Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America and The Botched Hunt for the Gilgo Beach Killer….

In Search of Kamala Harris

Vice President Kamala Harris stands with her arms crossed.

After nearly three years, the vice president is still struggling to make the case for herself — and feels she shouldn’t have to.

By Astead W. Herndon

All the conditions seemed right for a chance to reset the narrative.

At the Munich Security Conference in February, amid rising international angst about Russia’s war in Ukraine, Vice President Kamala Harris led a delegation of Americans, including around 50 lawmakers from both parties. She spent her first day in Germany in seclusion, preparing for the next 48 hours: meetings with European leaders the first day and a keynote speech the next in the ornate ballroom of the Hotel Bayerischer Hof. When she emerged, head high and shoulders back, Harris exuded what her staff members have argued is a particular comfort with her role on the international stage. There, they say, she is respected.

Longer Commutes, Shorter Lives: The Costs of Not Investing in America

An illustration of various historical photographs depicting technologies in a collage.

For decades, spending on the future put the nation ahead of all others. What would it take to revive that spirit?

By David Leonhardt

Every morning in 21st-century America, thousands of people wake up and prepare to take a cross-country trip. Some are traveling for business. Others are visiting family or going on vacations. Whether they are leaving from New York or Los Angeles, Atlanta or Seattle, their trips have a lot in common.

Opinion & Politics: Reason Magazine – December 2023

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REASON MAGAZINE (DECEMBER 2023) – The latest issue features The Endangered Species Act at 50 – Why have so few species been taken off the endangered species list?; Dobbs and the abortion debate is reshaping American Politics; Will Russia ever be free?, and more…

The Endangered Species Act at 50

An illustration of animals among green leaves | Illustration: Joanna Andreasson

Why have so few species been taken off the endangered species list?

The Abundance Agenda Promises Everything to Everyone All at Once

Illustration of two statues | Illustration: Joanna Andreasson; Source images: BWFolsom/iStock, Creative Market

Some progressives want to remove bureaucratic obstacles to growth—in the service of Democrats and big government.

CHRISTIAN BRITSCHGI

Dobbs Is Reshaping American Politics

Pro-life and pro-choice protesters yelling at a protest | Alex Wong/Getty

A wave of ballot measures reminds us most Americans are moderate on abortion.

ELIZABETH NOLAN BROWN

Will Russia Ever Be Free?

An illustration of a bust sculpture of Vladimir Putin dissected | Illustration: antipolygon-youtube/Unsplash

Promise and peril in post-Putin Russia

CATHY YOUNG

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Oct 20, 2023

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Science Magazine – October 20, 2023: The new issue features Copious Cicadas – Mass emergence alters food webs; A giant European telescope rises as U.S. rivals await rescue; Probe of Alzheimer’s studies finds ‘egregious misconduct’, and more…

A giant European telescope rises as U.S. rivals await rescue

ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) under construction at sunrise in the Chilean Atacama Desert.
In August, the Sun rose behind the Extremely Large Telescope, under construction in Chile.

Past the halfway point, Extremely Large Telescope prepares to receive first mirrors

A web of steel girders is rising from the flattened summit of Cerro Armazones, 3000 meters above sea level in Chile’s Atacama Desert. The dome it will support will be vast—with a footprint as big as a soccer field and almost as tall as the Statue of Liberty— and unexpectedly nimble: It will smoothly rotate on rails as a giant telescope inside tracks stars through the night.

Probe of Alzheimer’s studies finds ‘egregious misconduct’

Co-developer of biotech’s drug couldn’t supply original data

U.S. hands out $7 billion for hydrogen hubs

Gas could replace fossil fuels and fight climate change—if it is made cleanly

Previews: History Today Magazine – November 2023

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HISTORY TODAY MAGAZINE (NOVEMBER 2023) – This issue features The murder John F. Kennedy 60 years on, the dirty secrets of medieval monks, what the Nazis learnt from the Beer Hall Putsch, Christianity’s bloody history in Japan, and deaf expression in Renaissance art.

What Killed Kennedy?

John F. Kennedy in the presidential limousine before his assassination on 22 November 1963. Kennedy’s wife Jacqueline sits next to him; Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, are in front. World History Archive/Alamy Stock Photo.

Was it the mob? A coup? Cuban dissidents? War hawks? 60 years after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the theories are still debated. Do any of them hold up?

The Beer Hall Putsch: What Hitler Learnt

Adolf Hitler in Landsberg Prison following the Beer Hall Putsch, 1924. Shawshots/Alamy Stock Photo.

In the aftermath of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch of November 1923, Hitler was in prison and the Nazi Party banned. But its failure taught him valuable lessons.

The Flies, Fleas and Rotting Flesh of Medieval Monks

Jakob von Wart taking his bath, from the Codex Manesse, Switzerland, c.1305-40. The Protected Art Archive/Alamy Stock Photo

Repulsive revelations of bodily infestations were viewed by some in medieval Europe as proof of sanctity. But for most, parasites were just plain disgusting.

‘Confinement’ by Jessica Cox review

A nursing mother in ‘The Third Class Carriage’ by Honoré Daumier, c. 1862-64. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

Confinement: The Hidden History of Maternal Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Britain by Jessica Cox looks at the engine of the Victorian population boom: motherhood.

Previews: The Economist Magazine – Oct 21, 2023

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The Economist Magazine (October 21, 2023): The latest issue features ‘Where will this end?’ – Only America can pull the Middle East back from the brink; Are American CEO’s overpaid?; The holes in export controls; Argentina’s radical option, and more….

The stakes could hardly be higher in the Israel-Gaza conflict

Only America can pull the Middle East back from the brink

America’s Republicans cannot agree on a speaker. Good

How the GOP could yet, inadvertently, further the national interest

Poland shows that populists can be beaten

A victory for the rule of law in the heart of Europe


Research Preview: Nature Magazine – Oct 19, 2023

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nature Magazine – October 19, 2023: The latest issue features how humans develop in the very early stages when a newly formed embryo is implanted in the wall of the uterus, largely because of the physical and ethical challenges that are presented by studying early human embryos. 

Carl Sagan’s audacious search for life on Earth has lessons for science today

The test 30 years ago of what remote sensing could tell us about our own planet shows the value of looking with unbiased eyes at what we think we already know.

Runes on Viking stones speak to an ancient queen’s power

Analysis of carved inscriptions more than 1,000 years old suggests the prominence of the Viking queen Thyra.

‘Incredible’ asteroid sample ferried to Earth is rich in the building blocks of life

Samples of asteroid Bennu delivered by the OSIRIS-REx mission contain carbon, water and other ingredients from the primordial Solar System.

Politics: The Guardian Weekly – October 20, 2023

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The Guardian Weekly (October 20, 2023) The new issue features escalating events in Israel and Gaza that continue to cause deep distress and alarm, with several thousand people known to be dead or wounded on either side of the border. US president Joe Biden was expected to visit Israel this week, amid growing expectations of a ground invasion of Gaza and fears of a wider regional escalation.

Also, a primer on the historical background to events by Chris McGreal, while on the opinion pages the Israeli author and historian Yuval Noah Harari and Guardian US columnist Naomi Klein provide thoughtful and grounded perspectives.

There was sadness for many Aboriginal Australians after a move to recognise Indigenous people in the country’s constitution was rejected in a referendum, as Sarah Collard and Elias Visontay report. Also from Oceania, Henry Cooke examines what aspects of Jacinda Ardern’s political legacy might survive after New Zealand elected a new conservative government.

From Egypt to Hong Kong, the 2010s were a decade when mass protest movements looked set to change the world. But in most cases, the hope embodied by many massive street demonstrations was soon crushed by authoritarian regimes. Vincent Bevins asks organisers and others who were there where it all went wrong.

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – Oct 20, 2023

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Times Literary Supplement (October20, 2023): The new issue features ‘Rocket Man’ – North Korea’s dictator is no joke; A snapshot of Teju Cole; Daniel Dennett’s evolution; Monet’s muses; John le Carré undercover, and more…

Science Review: Scientific American – November 2023

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Scientific American – November 2023: The issue features Woman The Hunter – New science debunks the myth that men evolved to hunt and women to gather; Interspecies Organ Transplants; Materials Made in Space; The Legacy of the Endangered Species Act, and more…

The Evolutionary Reasons We Are Drawn to Horror Movies and Haunted Houses

The Evolutionary Reasons We Are Drawn to Horror Movies and Haunted Houses

Scary play lets people—and other animals—rehearse coping skills for disturbing challenges in the real world

By Coltan Scrivner and Athena Aktipis

Can We Save Every Species from Extinction?

Can We Save Every Species from Extinction?

The Endangered Species Act requires that every U.S. plant and animal be saved from extinction, but after 50 years, we have to do much more to prevent a biodiversity crisis

By Robert Kunzig

Surgeons Aim to Transplant Organs from Pigs to Humans to Help Solve the Donor Shortage

Surgeons Aim to Transplant Organs from Pigs to Humans to Help Solve the Donor Shortage

Advances are increasing the supply of organs. But this isn’t enough. Enter the genetically modified donor pig

By Tanya Lewis

Harvard Business Review – November/December 2023

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Harvard Business Review (November/December 2023) –

The Resale Revolution

Increasingly, companies are reselling their own products. Should you get into the game? 

by Thomas S. Robertson 

Summary: The average U.S. household contains a trove of potentially reusable goods worth roughly $4,500. That’s a lot of trapped value, and companies are at last getting serious about accessing it—by developing new resale capabilities. Resale has been with us for a very long time, of course—at yard sales, on used-car lots, in classified ads. 

A Step-by-Step Guide to Real-Time Pricing

An advanced AI model considers much more than what competitors are charging. 

Summary: In today’s fast-paced world of digital retailing, the ability to revise prices swiftly and on a large scale has emerged as a decisive differentiator for companies. Many retailers now track competitors’ prices via systems that scrape rivals’ websites and use this information as an input to set their own prices manually or automatically. A common strategy is to charge X dollars or X percent less than a target competitor. However, retailers that use such simple heuristics miss significant opportunities to fine-tune pricing.