Times Literary Supplement (June 9, 2023): Requiem for a dream – Aung San Suu Kyi’s fall from grace; Vindicating Mary Wollstonecraft; France on Trial; In search of Yeats, and more…
This short biography explains why the West misunderstood the Myanmar leader. Review by Richard Lloyd Parry
In humanity’s long history of toppled heroes, shattered reputations and honour besmirched, it is difficult to think of a more extreme case than that of Aung San Suu Kyi. A decade ago, the Myanmar leader was among the most adored and respected figures in the world — winner of the Nobel peace prize, long-term political prisoner, an emblem of peaceful, uncompromising democratic struggle. Her ascension to the national leadership felt like the vindication of precious hopes and principles; today, “the Lady”, as she used to be known, is face down in the mud.
The New York Times (June 6, 2023) – Down beneath the tourist lodges and shops selling keychains and incense, past windswept arroyos and brown valleys speckled with agave, juniper and sagebrush, the rocks of the Grand Canyon seem untethered from time. The oldest ones date back 1.8 billion years, not just eons before humans laid eyes on them, but eons before evolution endowed any organism on this planet with eyes.
Written and photographed by Raymond Zhong, who joined scientists on a 90-mile raft expedition through the canyon.
Since 1963, the Glen Canyon Dam has been backing up the Colorado for nearly 200 miles, in the form of America’s second-largest reservoir, Lake Powell. Engineers constantly evaluate water and electricity needs to decide how much of the river to let through the dam’s works and out the other end, first into the Grand Canyon, then into Lake Mead and, eventually, into fields and homes in Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico.
Spend long enough in the canyon, and you might start feeling a little unmoored from time yourself.
North Canyon, and a spring at Vasey’s Paradise.
The immense walls form a kind of cocoon, sealing you off from the modern world, with its cell signal and light pollution and disappointments. They draw your eyes relentlessly upward, as in a cathedral.
You might think you are seeing all the way to the top. But up and above are more walls, and above them even more, out of sight except for the occasional glimpse. For the canyon is not just deep. It is broad, too — 18 miles, rim to rim, at its widest. This is no mere cathedral of stone. It is a kingdom: sprawling, self-contained, an alternate reality existing magnificently outside of our own.
And yet, the Grand Canyon remains yoked to the present in one key respect. The Colorado River, whose wild energy incised the canyon over millions of years, is in crisis.
Plus: US secretary of state Antony Blinken visits Saudi Arabia, Brazil says goodbye to a bossa nova legend and why the French military working with science-fiction writers.
Experts suspect an explosion collapsed the dam on the Dnipro River. Kyiv and Moscow blamed each other, and residents downstream were forced to evacuate to escape the cascading waves.
In a stunning announcement, the tour, along with the DP World Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, said the rivals had agreed to create a “new, collectively owned, for-profit entity.”
The smoke was pouring across the border from Canada, where hundreds of wildfires remain unchecked, and the hazardous smoke conditions are expected to linger through Wednesday and perhaps until later in the week.
In a remarkable court scene, the prince took the stand for five hours to make his case that his phone was hacked by a newspaper group, as a lawyer for the defense grilled him about his claims.
THE AMERICAN SCHOLAR – SUMMER 2023 issue: What does Antoni van Leeuwenhoek have to do with Covid? Can a digital restoration of a supposed da Vinci be just as good as the real thing? What was it like to be a young journalist on one of François Truffaut’s sets?
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, in a circa 1680 painting by the Dutch artist Jan Verkolje, famous for his portraits of prominent members of Delft society
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of microorganisms made possible the revolutionary advances in biology and medicine that continue to inform our Covid age
One night in 1677, a grizzled man in a wrinkled linen nightshirt rushed from his bemused wife’s bed with a candle in hand to examine the “remains of conjugal coitus, immediately after ejaculation before six beats of the pulse.” Using the candle to cast a pool of light in his dark study, he put a drop of the liquid into a tiny glass vial he had blown himself, attaching it to the back of a strange-looking device he had also constructed.
What a digital restoration of the most expensive painting ever sold tells us about beauty, authenticity, and the fragility of existence
I got the call late on a summer afternoon. Yanai Segal, an artist I’ve known for years, asked me whether I’d heard of the Salvator Mundi—the painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci that was lost for more than two centuries before resurfacing in New Orleans in 2005. I told him that I’d heard something of the story but that I didn’t remember the details. He had recently undertaken a project related to the painting, he said, and wanted to tell me about it. I was eager to hear more, but first I needed to remind myself of the basic facts. We agreed to speak again soon.
SCIENCE MAGAZINE VIDEOS – JUNE 6, 2023: Some of the most notable lakes in the world, from the Great Salt Lake to Poyang Lake, have shrunk dramatically in recent decades. But because most lakes lack long-term, on-the-ground measurements, it was hard to say whether this was a widespread phenomenon.
Now, researchers have published a first-of-its-kind data set to look at how lake water storage has changed in nearly 2000 of the world’s largest lakes. They find significant global losses and tease out what might be driving these decreases.
The Local Project (June 6, 2023) – Inspired by the conventions of a boutique hotel, Kovac Design Studio administers an array of design elements that cater to its clients’ desires to have a modern house that celebrates the surrounds and can host friends and family.
Video timeline: 00:00 – Introduction 00:43 – A Boutique Residence 01:07 – Enabling the Feeling of Secludedness 01:41 – The Organisation of the Building 02:12 – The Element of Surprise 02:38 – Built for 2 people or 200 people 02:54 – Covered in Glass 03:09 – Matching the Materials with the Surrounds 03:32 – The Glamorous Material Palette 03:57 – Giving Each Room its own Identity 04:33 – The Oculus 05:10 – The Canopy 05:28 – Designing a Concept from Start to Finish 05:57 – Proud Moments
From the first steps inside, Madison Desert Club is deliberately designed to offer the feeling of being outside when moving from room to room. Imbued with space for the owner to entertain and unwind, Madison Desert Club rejoices in the landscape of La Quinta with an open floor plan and floor-to-ceiling windows and doors.
Additionally, unique design elements are employed to enhance the home’s connection to the outdoors, beginning with a continuous canopy-style roof that is set over parts of the modern house, offering a change of light throughout the day. Another element seen upon arrival is the Oculus – a circular shape integrated into the roof, which allows for uninterrupted views of the sky above. Spanning all three levels, the modern house tour begins at the lower level, where a sauna, spa and gym are placed.
The above two levels hold the guestrooms, kitchen, living, dining areas and private cocktail bar. Expressed by its metal mesh curtain, the cocktail bar is imbued with warm colours that reference whiskey and give the impression of being inside a sophisticated space reserved for VIP clients. On the top level, a dedicated screening room offers a rare surprise when the screen wall opens up to the entire living space below.
Can hard-core gamers learn to play well with others? By Spencer Kornhaber
Playing a prerelease version of Diablo IV, the latest installment in a 26-year-old adventure series about battling the forces of hell, I faced swarms of demons that yowled and belched. My character, a sorcerer, shot them with lightning bolts, producing a jet-engine roar.
Inside the desperate effort to rescue America’s pastime from irrelevance By Mark Leibovich
Where in the name of human rain delays is Juan Soto?
The stud outfielder is late. Everyone keeps checking their phones—the antsy Major League Baseball officials, the San Diego Padres PR guy, the handful of reporters, and the assorted hangers-on you encounter around baseball clubhouses. Everyone is wondering when the Padres superstar will show up. He was supposed to be here half an hour ago, just after this baseball players’ sanctum opened and we were allowed to join them in their most elemental of baseball activities: waiting around.
FRANCE 24 (June 6, 2023) – It’s one of the most iconic motor races in the world. The “24 hours of Le Mans” race marks a centenary this year. Seven auto manufacturers will be fighting for overall victory with 16 teams represented.
The unique race tests its participants’ reliability and endurance and encourages innovation. The 13,626km track attracts hundreds of thousands of fans from around the world every year. The endurance classic is both a physical and mental challenge for the drivers; the car that covers the greatest distance in 24 hours wins.
The Globalist Podcast, Tuesday, June 6, 2023: Ukraine‘s Kakhovska dam was completely destroyed; naval drills in Indonesia bring together Chinese, Russian and US forces, we get the latest from Jakarta.
Plus: reports of mass arrests in Kyrgyzstan, our technology correspondent is in California as Apple announces its newest releases and why Studio Ghibli’s forthcoming film will be unique.
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
