All posts by Intellicurious

News, Views and Reviews for the Intellectually Curious

The New York Times — Saturday, June 29, 2024

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Fearful and Doubting Biden, Democrats Face an Uncertain Path Forward

A range of despairing Democrats began to reconsider their nominee after his rough debate showing, but there was no agreement on how, or whether, to urge him to step off the ticket.

This Debate, We Could Hear Biden Speak. There His Troubles Began.

The CNN presidential debate kept the volume down, for a change. That didn’t make it more intelligible.

Supreme Court Says Prosecutors Overstepped With Jan. 6 Charge

The ruling that the Justice Department misused a 2002 law in charging a pro-Trump rioter who entered the Capitol could have an impact on hundreds of other cases, including one against Donald Trump.

Justices Limit Power of Federal Agencies, Imperiling an Array of Regulations

A foundational 1984 decision had required courts to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of ambiguous statutes, underpinning regulations on health care, safety and the environment.

Finance Preview: Barron’s Magazine – July 1, 2024

Magazine - Latest Issue - Barron's

BARRON’S MAGAZINE – JULY 1, 2024 ISSUE:

Wall Street’s Hottest Lottery Ticket: Zero-Dated Options

Wall Street’s Hottest Lottery Ticket: Zero-Dated Options

Bets on market moves have taken off with these options. Stocks like Nvidia and Apple could be next.

Heart Just Skip a Beat? Your Watch Already Knows.

Heart Just Skip a Beat? Your Watch Already Knows.

Smart rings and smartwatches are providing consumers with reams of health information. Clinical device makers like DexCom needn’t worry.Long read

Things Are Looking Up for Income Investors. Here Are 11 Sectors to Consider.

Things Are Looking Up for Income Investors. Here Are 11 Sectors to Consider.

From Treasuries to REITs and MLPs, there are plenty of places to find generous dividends and yields.Long read

Arts/History: Smithsonian Magazine – July/Aug 2024

Smithsonian July-August 2024 (Digital) - DiscountMags.com

Smithsonian Magazine (June 28, 2024) – The latest issue features ‘The Ancient Wonders of Berenike’ – Stunning new finds in Egypt reveal a critical crossroads between East and West….

A Buried Ancient Egyptian Port Reveals the Hidden Connections Between Distant Civilizations

At the site of Berenike, in the desert sands along the Red Sea, archaeologists are uncovering wondrous new finds that challenge old ideas about the makings of the modern world

Galveston’s Texas-Size Plan to Stop the Next Big Storm

In the wake of Hurricane Ike, engineers have been crafting a $34 billion plan to protect the city. Will it work when the next disaster arrives?

HISTORY

How Coffee Helped the Union Caffeinate Their Way to Victory in the Civil War

The North’s fruitful partnership with Liberian farmers fueled a steady supply of an essential beverage

The Economist Magazine – June 29, 2024 Preview

France’s centre cannot hold

The Economist Magazine (June 27, 2024): The latest issue features

France’s centre cannot hold

After the election, populists of the right and left could hobble a centrist president

What to expect from a second Biden term

He has a domestic agenda, but no easy way to bring it about

Can countries get rich from services?

American fried chicken can now be served from the Philippines

Making heavy weather of hot weather

Deadly heat is increasingly the norm, not an exception to it

Read full edition

News: First Parliamentary Elections In France, First U.S. Presidential Debate

The Globalist Podcast (June 28, 2024): We look ahead to the first round of France’s parliamentary elections with journalist and writer Christine Ockrent. Plus: Japan’s efforts to curb tourism on Mount Fuji, the first US presidential debate of the 2024 election season and a sneak peek into our new Paris bureau.

The New York Times — Friday, June 28, 2024

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Supreme Court Jeopardizes Opioid Deal, Rejecting Protections for Sacklers

The justices rejected a bankruptcy settlement maneuver that would have protected members of the Sackler family from civil claims related to the opioid epidemic.

As Iran Picks a President, a Nuclear Shift: Open Talk About Building the Bomb

Iran has expanded its most sensitive nuclear production site in recent weeks. And for the first time, some leaders are dropping their insistence that the nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Russia Sends Waves of Troops to the Front in a Brutal Style of Fighting

More than 1,000 Russian soldiers in Ukraine were killed or wounded on average each day in May, according to NATO and Western military officials.

New Tactic in China’s Information War: Harassing a Critic’s Child in the U.S.

A covert campaign to target a writer critical of the country’s Communist Party has extended to sexually suggestive threats against his 16-year-old daughter.

Research Preview: Science Magazine – June 28, 2024

Current Issue Cover

‘Science Magazine – June 27, 2024: The new issue features ‘Trilobites in Detail’ – Fossils preserved in a pyroclastic flow illuminate previously unknown features…

The perfect pesticide? RNA kills crop-destroying beetles with unprecedented accuracy

New approach leaves other creatures unharmed. “You cannot get anything better than this”

Could super-Earths or mini-Neptunes host life among the stars?

As the hunt for habitable Earth-like planets stalls, astronomers are turning to bigger worlds

This biologist aims to solve the cell’s biggest mystery. Could it help cancer patients, too?

Four decades after his lab found odd, massive particles inside cells, Leonard Rome is still determined to figure out what “vaults” do

The New York Review Of Books – July 18, 2024

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The New York Review of Books (June 27, 2024) – The latest issue features:

Reimagining the Ordinary

The French artist Jean Hélion approached painting with a philosophical precision, each style a hypothesis to be investigated and tested.

By Michael Gorra

Jean Hélion: La Prose du monde – an exhibition at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, March 22–August 18, 2024


A Story of His Own

In James, Percival Everett’s smart, funny, brutal retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Everett takes readers deeper into the capricious yet certain violence of American slavery, giving the characters a life that seems to lift off the page.

James by Percival Everett

The Watercolorist

The short fiction of Ángel Bonomini possesses a lightness that sets him apart from contemporaries like Borges and Cortázar.

The Novices of Lerna by Ángel Bonomini, translated from the Spanish by Jordan Landsman

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – June 27, 2024

Volume 630 Issue 8018

‘Nature Magazine – June 26, 2024: The latest issue features ‘Popcorn Planet’ – Tidal heating puffs up exoplanet’s atmosphere…

‘Smart’ fabric protects against heat of city streets

Textile keeps its cool even when surrounded by urban surfaces that absorb and release heat.

How huge black holes sprouted just after the Big Bang

Hubble observations of faint galaxies suggest that such objects could have been the seeds of very early supermassive black holes.

Autoimmune antibodies tied to lower malaria risk in kids

Findings support one idea about why self-directed immune responses are more common in some populations.

A mighty river’s radical shift changed the face of ancient Egypt

Samples taken near a capital of the pharaohs reveal an overhaul of the Nile 4,000 years ago.

News: Von Der Leyen To Lead EU For Second Term, Peru-China Relations

The Globalist Podcast (June 27, 2024): Ursula von der Leyen set to be approved for a second-term in Brussels, Peru’s president visits China and Dubai invests in infrastructure to help protect against extreme weather. Also in the programme: the latest news from across Africa and the city in the top spot of Monocle’s Quality of Life survey.