All posts by Intellicurious
Wildlife Film Trailers: ‘A Prairie Dog’s Life’ (2023)
Australian Architecture: Somers Beach House Tour
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction to The Perfect Beach House 00:25 – Location of the House 00:42 – Brief for the Architect 01:17 – Walkthrough of the Home 02:20 – The Staircase 02:52 – Natural Elements of the House 03:23 – Material Palette 04:23 – Shadow Play in the House 04:54 – Holistic Design Approach
Connecting the house tour over the stacked living forms is the linking external staircase, which allows the two primary users to live independently, or shut down one half of the house when not in use. Furthermore, Somers Beach House is finished with an easy garden path that leads directly down to the sheltered rear yard by Fiona Brockhoff Design and then out further towards the beach.
Upon arrival to Somers Beach House, the house tour begins on the upper level, which contains the primary living, kitchen and dining zones, along with the main bedroom and bathroom. Centred around an established banksia tree, the lap pool allows for the owners to swim out and take in the surrounding views. Moreover, the linking staircase that connects the two levels also allows for easy access straight out to the beach and back through home without leaving sand in the internal spaces of the modern beachfront home.
To complement the home, the existing boatshed that was built in the 1950s was rebuilt and remodeled to the same footprint and dimensions of the original structure. Serving as a miniature version of the main home, the boatshed is filled with minimal furniture and gives the owners a space to find respite as they look over the ocean. As the house is located on the steepest part of the site, the architect has designed the home to cantilever at the southern end to both take advantage of views and connect to the landscape.
Artist Profiles: American Painter Shara Hughes
Shara Hughes was born 1981 in Atlanta, Georgia. Lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and later attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
She describes her lush, vibrantly chromatic images of hills, rivers, trees and shorelines, often framed by abstract patterning, as “invented landscapes.” Full of gestural effect, surface tactility and possessing a fairytale mood of reverie, these paintings, as the New Yorker described them, “use every trick in the book to seduce, but still manage to come off as guileless visions of not-so-far-away worlds.”
Bold, clashing colours and shifting perspectives manifest into dream-like landscapes that push and pull the eye across the canvas, challenging conventions of space. Rather than depicting true to life landscapes, Hughes invites us into a fantastical world offered as a portal for psychological discovery and reflection.
Culinary Travels: Chef Luigi Stinga In Abu Dhabi
A chef’s tour around Abu Dhabi with Italian chef of one-MICHELIN star restaurant Talea by Antonio Guida, Luigi Stinga, taking food content creator, Harry Heal, around the city he now calls home.
We follow the pair as they explore the UAE capital; from the Malaysian eatery he regularly visits, the vegetable farm and bee farm near his restaurant, to the secluded sand bar he considers his little piece of paradise. Together, they spend their day adventuring around the chef’s favorite hidden gems in Abu Dhabi.
News: China Hi-Tech Ban, Assassination In Ecuador, FIFA Women’s World Cup
The Globalist Podcast, Friday, August 11: We discuss Biden’s Chinese technology investment ban with David Schlesinger and ask ‘LatinNews’ editor for the Andean region, Lewis Harrison, how the assassination of a presidential candidate in Ecuador could sway voters.
Plus: we find out the latest transport news with Monocle’s Gabriel Leigh, receive an update from the FIFA Women’s World Cup and Monocle’s contributing editor, Andrew Mueller, gives us a schooling in this week’s biggest lessons.
The New York Times — Friday, August 11, 2023
U.S. Reaches Deal With Iran to Free Americans for Jailed Iranians and Funds
Five American detainees will eventually be allowed to leave Iran in exchange for Tehran gaining access to $6 billion for humanitarian purposes and the United States freeing several jailed Iranians.
Israel’s Supreme Court Prepares to Rule on Its Own Fate
The justices will be scrutinized as never before at a hearing in September on the first part of a judicial overhaul that the government pushed through Parliament, angering many Israelis.
Supreme Court Pauses Opioid Settlement With Sacklers Pending Review
A federal appeals court had signed off on the agreement, which would shield members of the wealthy Sackler family from opioid-related lawsuits in exchange for billions to resolve thousands of claims.
Dozens of Children Die Every Year in Hot Cars. Could Technology Save Them?
A moment of forgetfulness by a distracted or sleep-deprived parent can be devastating. Experts and child-safety advocates have called for interior motion sensors in all vehicles.
Research Preview: Science Magazine – August 11, 2023
First up on this week’s podcast, we hear about the skewed perception of our own hands, extremely weird giant viruses, champion regenerating flatworms, and more from Newsletter Editor Christie Wilcox
Money: Non-Cash Payment Option In US, India & China
Video timeline: 00:00 Cashless transactions are on the rise 00:18 America: account and card 02:01 India: Unified Payment Interface 04:06 China: App payments
Previews: The Economist Magazine – August 12, 2023
Costly and dangerous: Why Biden’s China strategy isn’t working
Supply chains are becoming more tangled and opaque
On august 9th President Joe Biden unveiled his latest weapon in America’s economic war with China. New rules will police investments made abroad by the private sector, and those into the most sensitive technologies in China will be banned. The use of such curbs by the world’s strongest champion of capitalism is the latest sign of the profound shift in America’s economic policy as it contends with the rise of an increasingly assertive and threatening rival.
How America is failing to break up with China
The countries’ economic ties are more profound than they appear
When it comes to tracing the geography of global supply chains, few companies provide a better map than Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer. This year the Taiwanese giant has built or expanded factories in India, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam. The Chinese production sites once loved by Western companies are firmly out of fashion. Souring relations between the governments in Washington and Beijing have made businesses increasingly fretful about geopolitical risks. As a consequence, in the first half of the year, America traded more with Mexico and Canada than it did with China for the first time in almost two decades. The map of global trade is being redrawn.
