All posts by Intellicurious
Cotswolds Tour: Cowley Manor Country House
Previews: The New Yorker Magazine – Feb 27, 2023
It’s Time to Rethink the Idea of the “Indigenous”
Many groups who identify as Indigenous don’t claim to be first peoples; many who did come first don’t claim to be Indigenous. Can the concept escape its colonial past?
Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s Minister of Chaos
As unrest roils the country, a controversial figure from the far right helps Benjamin Netanyahu hold on to power.
The Dystopian Underworld of South Africa’s Illegal Gold Mines
When the country’s mining industry collapsed, a criminal economy grew in its place, with thousands of men climbing into some of the deepest shafts in the world, searching for leftover gold.
News: Russia-Ukraine War Analysis, Growing Role Of Poland In Europe, BAFTA
February 20, 2023: We bring you the latest from Kyiv as we begin our special coverage of the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine.
Plus: Poland’s growing role in Europe ahead of President Biden’s visit, aviation news and all the winners, losers and surprises at the Bafta Film Awards.
Front Page: The New York Times – February 20, 2023
U.S. Warnings to China on Arms Aid for Russia’s War Portend Global Rift
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken says Washington has indications that Beijing is strongly considering giving military aid to Moscow for the war in Ukraine.
One Year Into War, Putin Is Crafting the Russia He Craves
In Ukraine, President Vladimir V. Putin’s invasion has met setback after setback. But its effect at home has been very different.
Biden Drawing Up a 2024 Playbook That Looks a Lot Like 2020’s
President Biden’s strategy is to frame the race as a contest between a seasoned leader and a conspiracy-minded opposition, while batting away concerns about his age.
A Fraught New Frontier in Telehealth: Ketamine
With loosened rules around remote prescriptions, a psychedelic-like drug has become a popular treatment for mental health conditions. But a boom in at-home use has outpaced evidence of safety.
The Great Emancipators: Frederick Douglass And Abraham Lincoln’s Legacy
Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, c. February 1817 or 1818– February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist movement in Massachusetts and New York, becoming famous for his orator and incisive antislavery writings. Accordingly, he was described by abolitionists in his time as a living counterexample to slaveholders’ arguments that slaves lacked the intellectual capacity to function as independent American citizens. Northerners at the time found it hard to believe that such a great orator had once been a slave. It was in response to this disbelief that Douglass wrote his first autobiography.
Views: Devil’s Tower In Northeastern Wyoming
Devils Tower is a butte, possibly laccolithic, composed of igneous rock in the Bear Lodge Ranger District of the Black Hills, near Hulett and Sundance in Crook County, northeastern Wyoming, above the Belle Fourche River. It rises 1,267 feet above the Belle Fourche River, standing 867 feet from summit to base.
Views: Fjords, Mountains & Waterways Of Norway (4K)
With its steep fjords and mountains, vast plateaus and incredible shows of Northern Lights, Norway is one of the most breathtaking countries on Earth. “Ode to Norway” was captured through timelapse photography over several years in different seasons, with tens of thousands of photos and over 10,000 kilometers travelled.
Arts & Literature: The New Criterion – March 2023
Names, pronouns & the law by Joshua T. Katz
Balanchine’s Austrian evening by Laura Jacobs
A Jewish life in the Third Reich by Bruce Bawer
Learning from David Milch by William Logan
New poems by Michael Weingrad & Henri Cole
Walking Tours: Village Of Bomarzo In Central Italy
Bomarzo is a town of the province of Viterbo (Lazio, central Italy), in the lower valley of the Tiber. Bomarzo’s main attraction is a garden, usually referred to as the Bosco Sacro (Sacred grove) or, locally, Bosco dei Mostri (“Monsters’ Grove”), named after the many larger-than-life sculptures,
Video timeline: 0:00 – [Drone intro🌐] 1:30 – [Walking tour begins👣 / Via del Castello (Castle Alley)🏰] 2:50 – [Statue of St.Anselmo – [Via del Castello (Castle Alley)] 3:33 – [Porta Nuova (New Gate)🏛] 5:00 – [Entrance to the old town📸] 6:20 – [Via Borghese & Borghese Palace] 7:40 – [Piazza Duomo⛲] 8:30 – [Duomo of Bomarzo / Church of St.Maria Assunta – *tour inside*⛪☀️] 12:33 – […re-used old roman funeral statues?🏺] 13:38 – [Via Regina Elena] 14:38 – [Via della Pace (Alley of Peace)🌹] 15:30 – [Piazza G.Pepe⛲] 15:55 – [Church of St.Anselmo – *tour inside*⛪☀️] 18:34 – [Via Daniele Manin] 19:40 – [Panorama on the valley⛺] 20:50 – [Via Vittorio Emanuele] 21:10 – [Charity Exhibit for less privileged people🎈] 22:30 – [Beware of the cat!🐱] 26:00 – [Piazza Garibaldi⛲] 28:18 – [Very charming narrow passage…📸] 29:50 – [Porta Nuova (New Gate)🏰] 32:30 – […descending to the eastern part of Bomarzo…👟] 35:46 – [Piazza della Repubblica⛲]
some sculpted in the bedrock, which populate this predominantly barren landscape. It is the work of Pier Francesco Orsini, called Vicino (1528–1588), a condottiero or mercenary and a patron of the arts. The park of Bomarzo was intended not to please, but to astonish, and like many Mannerist works of art, its symbolism is arcane; for example, one large sculpture is of one of Hannibal’s war elephants, which mangles a Roman legionary, and another is a statue of Ceres lounging on the bare ground, with a vase of “fruits of the earth” perched on her head. The many monstrous statues appear to be unconnected to any rational plan and appear to have been strewn almost randomly about the area, sol per sfogare il Core (“just to set the heart free”) as one inscription on an obelisk says.
