Tag Archives: Reviews

Arts & Literature, Books, Newspapers, Reviews

Books: The Top Twelve Best Reviews – April 2023

April 27, 2023 Intellicurious Leave a comment

12 Books to Read: The Best Reviews of April

Pegasus

Shakespeare’s Book: The Story Behind the First Folio and the Making of Shakespeare

By Chris Laoutaris | Pegasus

After William Shakespeare’s death, his colleagues collected his plays in a single, history-making volume. Review by Malcolm Forbes.

Read the review

The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions

By Jonathan Rosen | Penguin Press

A young man’s ife of brilliant promise was overtaken when his struggle with mental illness took a turn into delusion and nightmare. Review by Richard J. McNally.

Read the review

A Brutal Reckoning: Andrew Jackson, the Creek Indians, and the Epic War for the American South

By Peter Cozzens | Knopf

The most consequential Indian war in U.S. history didn’t take place on the prairie but among the forsts and marshes of the Deep South. Atrocities were committed by both sides. Review by Fergus M. Bordewich.

Read the review

Knopf

The Earth Transformed: An Untold History

By Peter Frankopan | Knopf

The names and dates of battles that changed history are well-remembered. But what about storms or volcanic eruptions? For eons, human civilizations have shaped—and been shaped by—the natural world. Review by Tunku Varadarajan.

Read the review

Economics, Financial, Magazines, Opinion, Politics, Previews, Reviews

Previews: The Economist Magazine – April 29, 2023

April 27, 2023 Intellicurious Leave a comment

The Economist – April 29, 2023 issue:

As Israel turns 75, its biggest threats now come from within

The country needs a new political settlement that diminishes the power of extremists

As israel marks its 75th anniversary, take a moment to admire how it has triumphed against the odds. Before it declared independence in 1948 its own generals warned that it had only a fifty-fifty chance of survival. Today Israel is hugely rich, safer than it has been for most of its history, and democratic—if, that is, you are prepared to exclude the territories it occupies. It has overcome wars, droughts and poverty with few natural endowments other than human grit. It is an outlier in the Middle East, a hub of innovation and a winner from globalisation.

The West should supply Ukraine with F-16s

Or Russian fighter jets may win control of Ukrainian skies

A F-16 jet fighter of Royal Dutch Air Force lands on the runway of Volkel air base, southern Netherlands, on January 2, 2019. - The Dutch Air Force took part in the Air Task Force Middle East mission to fight against ISIS in Iraq and Eastern Syria. (Photo by Remko de Waal / ANP / AFP) / Netherlands OUT (Photo credit should read REMKO DE WAAL/AFP via Getty Images)

As Ukraine prepares its forces for a crucial counter-offensive, the argument among its Western allies about what equipment to provide chunters on. Having finally received the tanks it had been pleading for since last year, Ukraine has increased the intensity of its demands for fighter jets. Yet its pleas are falling on largely deaf ears.

Education, Magazines, Previews, Reviews, Technology

Preview: MIT Technology Review – May/June 2023

April 27, 2023 Intellicurious Leave a comment

MIT Technology Review – May/June 2023: How AI is transforming the classroom. Surveilling students. Teaching the biliterate brain to read. What we’ve learned from “learning to code.” Plus keyboard obsessions, wildfire resilience, and shroom speak.

Teachers in Denmark are using apps to audit their students’ moods

Companies say the software can help improve well-being, but some experts worry it could have the opposite effect.

How AI is helping historians better understand our past

The historians of tomorrow are using computer science to analyze how people lived centuries ago.

It’s an evening in 1531, in the city of Venice. In a printer’s workshop, an apprentice labors over the layout of a page that’s destined for an astronomy textbook—a dense line of type and a woodblock illustration of a cherubic head observing shapes moving through the cosmos, representing a lunar eclipse.

Culture, Design, Lifestyle, Magazines, Reviews, Society

Design/Culture: Monocle Magazine —May 2023

April 27, 2023 Intellicurious Leave a comment

Monocle Magazine (May 2023 issue) – As the canny, optimistic winners of this year’s Monocle Design Awards all demonstrate, staying on top of your game in any field requires the instincts of a true detective – and a curiosity to find out what makes the world tick, writes our editor in chief, Andrew Tuck.

Dutch master

A former waterside inn in a quiet fishing village north of Amsterdam is now a cosy hotel and restaurant where good food, nice design and big views all entice you to linger. Monocle takes a first look.ByJosh FehnertPhotographyJulie Mayfeng

Design Awards: Part 1

For the third annual Monocle Design Awards, we’ve scoured the globe for the best in architecture, furniture, graphic design and more, to celebrate projects improving our lives – while looking good.Edited byNic MonissePhotographyBenjamin Swanson

“I was a motorcycle hater,” says Stefan Ytterborn. That is, before the Swedish entrepreneur tried a few electric ones and got so hooked that he decided to design his own. Cake’s first model, Kalk, put competitors to shame with a design weighing 40 per cent less than the average motorbike. In 2021 Cake started shipping out Kalk &, an upgrade engineered for both commutes and off-road escapades. “During the week you ride the bike from home to work, and during the weekend you bring it out to the countryside,”…

Magazines, Previews, Research, Reviews, Science

Research Preview: Nature Magazine – April 27, 2023

April 26, 2023 Intellicurious Leave a comment

nature Magazine – April 20, 2023 issue:

Massive mosquito factory in Brazil aims to halt dengue

Facility will produce up to five billion bacteria-infected mosquitoes per year

A WMP staff member releases Wolbachia mosquitoes in Niteroi, Rio de Janeiro — A World Mosquito Program (WMP) staff member releases *Wolbachia*-infected mosquitoes in Niterói, Brazil.Credit: WMP Brasil.

The non-profit World Mosquito Program (WMP) has announced that it will release modified mosquitoes in many of Brazil’s urban areas over the next 10 years, with the aim of protecting up to 70 million people from diseases such as dengue. Researchers have tested the release of this type of mosquito — which carries a Wolbachia bacterium that stops the insect from transmitting viruses — in select cities in countries such as Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and Vietnam. But this will be the first time that the technology is dispersed nationwide.

Rewilding the planet

An archipelago constructed of sand and mud is bringing new life to a dead lake but can this bold experiment have a lasting impact

Arts & Literature, Books, Magazines, Previews, Reviews

Arts/Books: Times Literary Supplement – April 28, 2023

April 26, 2023 Intellicurious Leave a comment

Times Literary Supplement @TheTLS (April 28, 2023) – This week’s @TheTLS, featuring Abigail Green on 1848; @WeTheBrandon on the geopolitics of space; @woodsgregory on James Purdy; @JulianBaggini on food policy; @scheffer_pablo on the Passion in the Netherlands; @CamilleRalphs_ on poetry anthologies – and more

Architecture, Buildings, Design, Rankings, Reviews

Architecture: Innovation At The Top 25 Dutch Firms

April 25, 2023 Intellicurious Leave a comment

25 best architecture firms in The Netherlands

Archello (April 24, 2023) – Dutch architecture has long been at the vanguard of experimentation and innovation, pushing the boundaries of design metaphorically and literally. With an extensive chunk of the country situated below sea level, the Dutch have always relied on bold engineering and architectural solutions to adapt to the changing water levels to build habitats.

1. MVRDV

photo_credit Marcel Steinbach — Marcel Steinbach

MVRDV is a globally based architectural firm established in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries, with offices in Rotterdam, Shanghai, Paris, Berlin, and New York.

2. OMA

photo_credit Egbert de Boer — Egbert de Boer

OMA is an internationally renowned architecture and urbanism practice led by eight partners, Rem Koolhas, Reinier de Graaf, Ellen van Loon, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Jason Long, and Managing Partner-Architect David Gianotten. With offices in Rotterdam, New York, Hong Kong, Doha and Australia, the practice is currently working on several building projects, including the renovation of Kaufhaus des Westens in Berlin and the Simone Veil Bridge in Bordeaux.

3. UNStudio

UNStudio began as a vision of two young minds, Ben van Berkel and Caroline Bos, who started with a simple drawing board and a pen, sketching their designs for the future. Today, 30 years later, UNStudio operates in over 30 countries with six international offices and a team of over 200 architects and designers who focus on designing spaces that meet human needs.

Preview: London Review Of Books — May 4, 2023

April 24, 2023 Intellicurious Leave a comment

London Review of Books (LRB) – May 4, 2023 issue: French President Emmanuel Macron and the Pension Crisis, India Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Big Con’ and more.

Macron v. Millions – The pensions crisis in France

Jeremy Harding · Macron v. Millions · LRB 4 May 2023

Pensions – and ‘the fiscal impact of ageing’ – have long troubled the EU. A European Commission paper published in 2016 noted with relief that ‘most EU member states’ were reforming their pension systems. France is one of them. During his first term in office Emmanuel Macron envisaged an ambitious reform plan, but Covid-19 put paid to it. Re-elected in 2022, he put a different plan on the table; at its core is an increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64. It has been predictably unpopular. Pensions rank high on the list of French state expenditures. They are one of the cornerstones in France’s edifice of public provision, which is why the sound of drilling and hammering sets most citizens’ teeth on edge.