Steven Pinker is the Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, and a popular writer on linguistics and evolutionary psychology. Angela Tan interviews him about politics, language, death, and reasons to be optimistic.
Apollo Magazine(January 29, 2024): The new February 2024 issue features ‘Giants of Indian Miniature Painting’; The Crisis in Italian Paintings and more…
• Holidaying with the Habsburgs
• An interview with Julie Mehretu
• The crisis in Italian museums
• Howard Hodgkin’s Indian miniatures
Plus: Slim pickings for foodies on Valentine’s Day, Parma’s monumental museum complex, and – and reviews of Impressionists on paper, experimental art in the Eastern bloc, and Africa and Byzantium at the Met
The New Yorker (January 29, 2024): The new issue‘s cover featuresSarula Bao’s “Lunar New Year” – The artist depicts the joys of gathering with loved ones, around a table of good food
As the general manager of the Jay Peak ski resort, Bill Stenger rose most days around 6 a.m. and arrived at the slopes before seven. He’d check in with his head snowmaker and the ski-patrol staff, visit the two hotels on the property, and chat with the maintenance workers, the lift operators, the food-and-beverage manager, and the ski-school instructors—a kind of management through constant motion. Stenger is seventy-five, with white hair, wire-rimmed reading glasses, and a sturdy physique that makes him look built for fuzzy sweaters.
The Perverse Policies That Fuel Wildfires
We thought we could master nature, but we were playing with fire.
With elections postponed and no end to the war with Russia in sight, Volodymyr Zelensky and his political allies are becoming like the officials they once promised to root out: entrenched.
MGM (January 28, 2024) – Highlights from the Top Ten Best Historical films including:
A Bridge Too Far (1977) Directed By: Richard Attenborough Cast: Dirk Bogarde, James Caan, Michael Caine, Sean Connery, Edward Fox, Elliott Gould, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Hardy Kruger, Laurence Olivier, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, Maximilian Schell, Liv
The Alamo (1960) Produced and Directed by John Wayne Cast: John Wayne, Richard Widmark, Laurence Harvey, Frankie Avalon, Patrick Wayne, Linda Cristal, Joan O’Brien, Chill Wills, Ken Curtis, Carlos Arruza, Jester Hairston, Joseph Calleia, and guest star Richard Boone
The Battle of Britain (1969) Directed by Guy Hamilton Cast: Harry Andrews, Michael Caine, Trevor Howard, Curt Jurgens, Ian McShane, Kenneth More, Laurence Olivier, Nigel Patrick, Christopher Plummer, Michael Redgrave, Ralph Richardson, Robert Shaw, Patrick Wymark, Susannah York
De-Lovely (2004) Directed By: Irwin Winkler Cast: Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd, Jonathan Pryce
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) Written for the screen and Directed by Randall Wallace Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gerard Depardieu, Gabriel Byrne, Anne Parillaud, Judith Godreche
Alexander the Great (1956) Written, Produced and Directed By: Robert Rossen Cast: Richard Burton, Fredric March, Claire Bloom, Barry Jones, Harry Andrews, Stanley Baker, Niall MacGinnis, Danielle Darrieux
The Great Escape (1963) Produced and Directed by: John Sturges Cast: Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, James Donald, Charles Bronson, Donald Pleasence, James Coburn
Birdman of Alcatraz (1962) Directed By: John Frankenheimer Cast: Burt Lancaster, Karl Malden, Thelma Ritter, Neville Brand, with Edmond O’Brien as “Tom Gaddis,” also starring Betty Field, Telly Savalas
The Bridge at Remagen (1969) Directed By: John Guillermin Cast: George Segal, Robert Vaughn, Ben Gazzara, Bradford Dillman, E. G. Marshall
Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) Produced and Directed By: Stanley Kramer Cast: Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, Marlene Dietrich, Judy Garland as “”Irene Hoffman,”” Maximilian Schell, and Montgomery Clift
The Economist (January 27, 2024) – In 2023, bestseller lists continued to be populated by medical tomes in the wake of the pandemic and by scientists sounding the alarm about climate change. In 2024 there will be a distinct change of tack, as other topics take the lead.
Artificial intelligence (ai) is one of them. Several books will look at how it might reshape the world: “ai Needs You”, a “humanist manifesto for the age of ai” by Verity Harding, formerly of Google DeepMind; “The Heart and the Chip: Our Bright Future with Robots” by Daniela Rus, director of the ai laboratory at mit; and “Literary Theory for Robots”, an examination of how machine intelligence will influence the way we read, write and think, by Dennis Yi Tenen, a professor of English at Columbia University.
Geopolitics will also dominate publishers’ frontlists. Dale Copeland, a professor of international relations, will chronicle how commerce has shaped America’s foreign policy; Jim Sciutto of cnn will explore “The Return of Great Powers: Russia, China and the Next World War”. Several authors will focus on the war in Europe. Eugene Finkel, who was born in Ukraine, will offer a “deeper history of Russian violence against civilians” in the country; in “Putin and the Return of History” Martin Sixsmith will look back over a thousand years to put the Russian president’s aggression in context. Peter Pomerantsev’s “How to Win an Information War” will apply the perspective of a propagandist during the second world war to the conflict.
For those hoping for a few hours of diversion, there will be plenty of novels to look forward to. Bestselling authors including Percival Everett, Yann Martel, David Nicholls, Kiley Reid, Colm Toibin and Amor Towles will return with new stories in 2024. James Patterson will be completing an unfinished manuscript left behind by Michael Crichton, the author of “Jurassic Park”.
An unseen work by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who died in 2014, will also be released. In “En Agosto Nos Vemos” (“Until August”), a novella of fewer than 150 pages, the late Nobel laureate told the tale of a middle-aged woman’s affair. His children opposed its publication but now say it has the author’s trademark “capacity for invention, his poetic language [and] his captivating storytelling”. True or not, García Marquez will probably enjoy a resurgence, as an adaptation of his most celebrated work, “One Hundred Years of Solitude”, is also in production at Netflix. If you want a fantastical tale, who better to turn to than the Colombian master of magical realism?
The company is in the early stages of infusing OpenAI’s technology into all of its offerings. How much will it make from AI, and how long will it take to do so?
THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (January 26, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Ukraine’s Leading Man’ – In “The Showman”, Simon Shuster makes the case that Volodymyr Zelensky’s past as an entertainer helps him on the world stage…
In “The Showman,” the journalist Simon Shuster trails the entertainer-turned-wartime president as he rallies the world for support.
By David Kortava
THE SHOWMAN: Inside the Invasion That Shook the World and Made a Leader of Volodymyr Zelensky, by Simon Shuster
Nine months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, in 2022, the Time magazine correspondent Simon Shuster caught a ride on a presidential train that few, if any, journalists had seen from the inside. In a private carriage, with the blinds drawn, Volodymyr Zelensky was fueling up on coffee during a trip to the frontline. He’d been reading about Winston Churchill, but with Shuster he’d sooner discuss another key World War II figure: Charlie Chaplin.
“He used the weapon of information during the Second World War to fight against fascism,” Zelensky said. “There were these people, these artists, who helped society. And their influence was often stronger than artillery.”
Mightier — and Meaner — Than the Sword
Emily Cockayne’s “Penning Poison,” a history of anonymous letters, reveals the ways we’ve been torturing one another, verbally, for centuries.
The Rise and Fall and Rise of San Francisco
Two books — “The Longest Minute,” by Matthew J. Davenport, and “Portal,” by John King — examine the City by the Bay’s resiliency from very different angles.
MICHELIN Guide (January 26, 2024) – Every morning, Chef Hisao Nakahigashi ventures into Kyoto’s countryside, exploring the forest and mountains where he has spent his entire life. He gathers fresh vegetables, herbs and flowers for his restaurant’s daily menu.
With the credo of “eat all of what is edible”, this restaurant embraces the concept of fully-use all the parts of ingredients. True advocate of the local producers he works with, chef Nakahigashi’s philosophy transpire in the hassun he plates every day, expressing the rustic beauty of the country through all five senses.
In this Green Star in action episode, we dive into the world of chef Hisao NAKAHIGASHI whose restaurant Sojiki Nakahigashi (草喰なかひがし) – literally ‘herbivorous cuisine’ – is awarded a Green Star and Two Stars in the MICHELIN Guide Kyoto & Osaka 2023. Dining here means reconnecting with the environment, fostering a commitment to an eco-conscious life. It offers not only flavorful dishes but also culinary creations that embody mindfulness and a profound respect for nature.
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE (January 26, 2024): The new issue features ‘America’s 21st-Century E-Commerce Economy Has Stoked A 19th-Century Form of Crime: The Train Robbery’….
MGM
The Economist (January 27, 2024) – In 2023, bestseller lists continued to be populated by medical tomes in the wake of the pandemic and by scientists sounding the alarm about climate change. In 2024 there will be a distinct change of tack, as other topics take the lead.
Boomers Daily 