When McKinsey Comes to Town: The Hidden Influence of the World’s Most Powerful Consulting Firm by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe.
The primary product sold by all management consultants – both software developers and strategic organisers – is the theology of capital. This holds that workers are expendable. They can be replaced by machines, or by harder-working employees grateful they weren’t let go in the last round of redundancies. Managers are necessary to the functioning of corporations – or universities, or non-profit organisations – and the more of them the better.
Writing about the press by Andrew O’Hagan, Ross McKibbin, Jenny Diski, James Meek, Suzanne Moore, Mary-Kay Wilmers, Alan Rusbridger, Thomas Nagel and Raymond Williams.
ClassicDriver (December 6, 2022) – This stunning piece of automotive sculpture is a 1955 Porsche 356, and as the eagle-eyed among you will notice, this particular car is a very rare Pre-A model. As some of the earliest cars Porsche ever built, these Pre-A 356s were once disregarded by enthusiasts in favour of the faster and more modern 356 B and C models. However, what the Pre-A 356s lacked in outright pace, they made up for with their undeniable purity of design. We think you’ll agree, this particular example is quite the looker.
Long COVID is a poorly understood condition, with a wide spectrum of effects on multiple body systems and variable presentation in different individuals. Long COVID is of particular concern among older people (ie, aged 65 years or older), who are at greater risk than younger people of persisting symptoms associated with COVID-19. In addition, COVID-19 might trigger or exacerbate chronic conditions that occur commonly in older people, such as cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, neurodegenerative conditions, and functional decline.
It is widely thought that lifespans are increasing globally. However, life expectancy has begun to stagnate in the UK, and is falling in more than 50 countries including the USA. Lifespan stagnation or decrease is a consequence of socioeconomic inequalities, lifestyle factors, and the COVID-19 pandemic. In the UK, the National Health Service spends vast sums treating chronic diseases; by some estimates, 40% of its costs go to treating preventable conditions.
The relationship of measures of age-related hearing loss such as pure-tone autiometry might not be as consistently associated with risk of dementia as previous studies have suggested. Peripheral age-related hearing loss has been posited as a midlife risk factor for dementia.
The Architectural Review December 2022 issue: Whether it’s a house, a room or a collection of objects, homes are the imprint of the people who inhabit them. Described as the ‘detritus of life’ by Sam Johnson-Schlee in this issue’s keynote, the remnants of our daily lives can say much about who we are, while the possessions we choose to display around us say more about how we want to be seen.
Charles Jencks and Maggie Keswick | Anupama Kundoo | Margarete Schütte-Lihotzky | João Batista Vilanova Artigas | Laurie Simmons | Kochi Architects Studio | Ekar Architects | Atelier Tho.A | Chat Architects | Fernanda Canales Arquitectura | Brillhart Architecture
Very few people have the resources to realise the house of their dreams, yet the results can be extraordinary. From the London home of Charles Jencks and Maggie Keswick, which is a manifestation of their postmodern fantasies, to the local materials and construction techniques of Anupama Kundoo’s Wall House in Auroville, this issue revisits houses designed by architects for themselves, and sometimes their families. Also celebrated are the winning projects of the 2022 AR House Awards, featuring innovative and intriguing dwellings from Mexico, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and the Bahamas.
National Institute on Aging – As 2022 comes to a close, NIA invites you to explore some of the most popular health information topics from this past year:
— Shingles is a disease that triggers a painful skin rash. About one in three people will get shingles, but there is a vaccine for older adults to help prevent the disease.
NASA Goddard – This video celebrates the 50th anniversary of Apollo 17 by talking with Lunar Module Pilot Jack Schmitt about the significance of that mission and how it laid the groundwork for future human exploration of the Moon.
Jack also discusses how the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, which launched in 2009, has helped reinterpret Apollo-era data and given us new information about the lunar terrain that will help pave the way for the upcoming Artemis missions.
Apollo 17 was the sixth and final Apollo mission to land on the Moon. Following a 2-hour 40-minute delay, it launched at 11:33 p.m. CST on December 6, 1972, the only night launch of the Apollo program. Prior missions had explored the Moon’s early volcanic history and the role of large impact basins such as Imbrium. Accordingly, Apollo 17 was planned to collect ancient highlands crustal material far from the Imbrium basin and to search for possible young lunar volcanic activity, which would help to constrain our knowledge of the Moon’s thermal evolution.
“This cover feels simultaneously classic and entirely new. It’s slightly reminiscent of 1970s science fiction covers (albeit much more restrained), and yet I’ve never seen anything quite like it. That custom type! That illustration! Is it a world? An eye? Something else? All of the above? As a reader, I don’t typically gravitate toward sci-fi, but this cover is so compelling that it made me immediately want to buy the book.”
“There were so many eye-catching covers this year, but the one that constantly stood out for me because of its stunning simplicity, beauty and mystery was designed by John Gall: No Land in Sight. In a sea of gorgeous covers exploding with kaleidoscopic colorful backgrounds, with elements twisting and intertwining, with the title and author type set in sans-serif condensed fonts, Gall’s cover was refreshing for its clean layout, tasteful typography, elements that are balanced and non-overlapping, in an austere monochromatic palette. Timeless.”
[Cover Images: Picador]
MRS. DALLOWAY & THE HOURS, DESIGNED BY PABLO DELCAN
“The whole package is stunning and smart—words I use a lot to describe Pablo Delcan’s works. The covers evoke introspectiveness and intimacy in such a beautiful way. Everything from the type to the flower placement feels considered and intentional. I love how both sides mirror and work with each other visually and conceptually.”
“This cover is a feast of dualities: both a figurative scene and an abstract texture; a figure seen far off in the distance and a marbled paper viewed at almost 1:1 in scale; a formal, rigid, block colored layout, and a big, expressive interruption in the middle. The slightly muted colors are so refreshing, especially in a year when we’re reaching peak ‘pop,’ and David shows us here that you don’t need neon Pantones or massive type to create a big, bold, absorbing cover. I love that the type is almost pushed to the peripheries by the sprawl of the illustration, as if it’s something that’s happened over centuries; it makes everything feel massive in scale. Also, the silhouette of the figure is from a photo of the author, which is a perfect Pearson point of detail! There are worlds existing in this book cover, and I find it very easy to get lost in them.”
CNET (December 4, 2022) – Archer Aviation introduced its first production model eVTOL that’s called Midnight, an electric air taxi designed for high-demand urban flights. United Airlines has put down a deposit for 100 Midnights to begin passenger service in 2025.
Video timeline: 0:00 Intro 0:55 Midnight eVTOL 1:54 Maker Prototype Test Flight 2:29 Archer x United 3:26 Conclusion
Dezeen (December 2022) – Continuing our 2022 review, we have collected 10 residential extensions featured on Dezeen this year, from a weathering steel structure perched on top of a bungalow to a pair of concrete volumes added to a remote farmhouse.
This weathering steel-clad asymmetrical house extension is perched two centimetres above a family bungalow in Austin, hence its name. Architect Nicole Blair was tasked with expanding the occupants’ living space without sacrificing any of the home’s existing back garden.
The unusually shaped extension rests on four steel columns and was assembled off-site to avoid disrupting the lot’s vegetation. Inside, living spaces are dressed in pinky hues and framed by tongue-and-groove wooden planks on the ceilings and walls.
A rectilinear metallic frame in a dark shade of green forms Cascada House, an airy apartment nestled within a lush surrounding that tops an existing 1950s concrete building in Mexico City.
Architects Ana Nuño de Buen and Luis Young designed the structure with two roof slopes that drain towards a central gutter which manages rainfall, while inside, the steel structure is left exposed to create a distinctive interior.
Local architect Marc Perrotta replaced a “clumsy” volume with a concrete, glass and brick extension at Casa San Cristobal, a house in Mexico’s Mérida.
Containing most of the living spaces, this two-storey, U-shaped addition creates a trio of courtyards filled with lush native plants that are designed to provide relief from the tropical heat.
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, Xi Jinping’s zero-covid policy, why trustbusters should let Microsoft buy Activision Blizzard (11:44) and why emigration is in the air for Britons (16:38).
