During a three month journey travelling and working on organic farms in Japan, filmmaker Steve Atkins often found himself distracted by the beauty around him. As sunlight filtered through the trees that towered over him, their silhouette gracing the surface beneath or ahead him, he felt repeatedly drawn and connected with the Natural world — an effect of Komorebi performing itself on the peripheries.
There is a magical quality to the animate expression of Nature; a mutual puppet-show hosted between trees, light and wind. “When I paused long enough to take it all in, to share in a humble celebration of Nature’s playfulness, I was gifted with a potent ease,” Atkins shares…
Lucerne, a compact city in Switzerland known for its preserved medieval architecture, sits amid snowcapped mountains on Lake Lucerne. Its colorful Altstadt (Old Town) is bordered on the north by 870m Museggmauer (Musegg Wall), a 14-century rampart. The covered Kapellbrücke (Chapel Bridge), built in 1333, links the Aldstadt to the Reuss River’s right bank.
In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” Curator Aimee Ng explores the turbulent life of the woman portrayed in James McNeill Whistler’s serene “Harmony in Pink and Gray: Portrait of Lady Meux,” currently on view on the fourth floor of Frick Madison. A former bartender and actress, Lady Meux was shunned by London polite society even after she married Sir Henry Bruce Meux, heir to a huge brewery fortune. This week’s complementary cocktail is a refreshing Mummy, a nod to her extensive collection of some 1,800 Egyptian and Assyrian objects, including an infamous mummy of Nesmin.
New York Times columnist David Brooks and Washington Post columnist Jonathan Capehart join Judy Woodruff to discuss the week in politics, including the president’s ambitious climate goals. policing in America, and investigations into the capitol riot.
The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act is a bipartisan bill that would provide $1.4 billion to state and tribal wildlife conservation initiatives to support at-risk wildlife populations and their habitats. The funding would come from existing revenues and would not require any new taxes.
Texas would receive more than $50 million per year for projects to conserve vulnerable wildlife like the much-loved Texas horned lizard, our state fish the Guadalupe bass, and many songbirds and coastal birds. This funding will also help recover species that are already endangered, such as sea turtles and the Whooping crane. The additional resources are urgently needed to aid fish and wildlife populations under increasing pressure from habitat loss, invasive species, emerging diseases, and extreme weather events in Texas and throughout the country.
Director Colin B. Bailey takes a close look at three drawings by Jean-Antoine Watteau (1684–1721), considered some of the finest drawings in the Morgan’s collection: Seated Young Woman (ca. 1716), Young Woman Wearing a Chemise (ca. 1718), and Two Studies of the Head and Shoulders of a Little Girl.
San Polo is a vibrant district centered around the much-photographed, shop-lined Rialto Bridge, and the Rialto Market, where stalls sell fish, fruit and vegetables. Nearby, in the canalside Erbaria area, locals meet for aperitifs and “cicchetti,” or small plates, before heading to dinner at trendy eateries. The Basilica dei Frari houses masterpieces by Titian and other Renaissance artists.
A beautiful carpet of yellow rapeseed flowers lies over parts of Italy’s central Umbrian countryside for a few weeks in April, heralding in spring with a joyous burst of color.
Heatherwick Studio’s concept electric car, Airo, launched at the Shanghai Motor Show today 19th April 2021. Designed for IM Motors, Airo is a fully electric vehicle with autonomous and driver-controlled modes. It will run on electric power, producing no fossil fuel pollutants as it moves around the city.
But the car goes further in its environmental ambition as it’s also equipped with a state-of-the-art HEPA filtering system that actively cleans the air from the pollution of other vehicles as it passes through the under-carriage, leaving the air around it cleaner.
Inside, the car’s customisable interior can be configured into multiple functional spaces that turn the car into a moving room or a space for your life. With so much attention to detail and choice of materials, this is clearly a space to spend time in even when you’re not on a journey. The seats rotate from a traditional forward-facing driving position to face each other for social activities such as dining on the four-leaf table which neatly folds away to transform the space into a lounge. A foldaway screen turns the interior into a perfect gaming-pod and when you’ve exhausted yourself, the beautifully contoured seats fully recline to form a spacious double bed.
Using the latest technology in glass, the fully glazed roof becomes opaque on command for total privacy. Alongside the car, the studio has also designed a charging station for IM Motors that will become part of the infrastructure of the city. Formed from industrial materials including weathered steel, the charging station aims to become part of the urban fabric for decades to come. It has a retractable wire and an ergonomic handle for easy connection to electric vehicles.
Thomas Heatherwick, Founder of Heatherwick Studio said: “Airo isn’t simply another electric car that doesn’t pollute the air. Instead, using the latest HEPA filter technology, it goes further by also vacuuming-up pollutants from other cars as it drives along. Designed to simultaneously address the global space shortage, Airo is also a multi-functional room with extra space for dining, working, gaming or even sleeping. As a new room for our lives, with a changing view, Airo is a car intended to transport us to a cleaner and better future.”
The concept for IM Motors Airo designed by Heatherwick Studio was launched today and the car is expected to go into production in 2023.
As more U.S. adults get their Covid-19 vaccines, a variety of side effects are emerging. WSJ’s Daniela Hernandez speaks with an infectious disease specialist on what is common, what isn’t and when to seek medical attention. Photo: Associated Press
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