Indholdsfortegnelse for March 18, 2022 i The Week Magazine

Dictators promising national “greatness’’ inevitably inflict misery on their own people, and it will be no different with Vladimir Putin. As he escalates his barbaric bombardment of Ukrainian civilians, the West’s censure of Russia is blurring into the condemnation of Russians. Russian artists, performers, and athletes—whose family members are entirely at Putin’s mercy—are facing demands that they publicly condemn the regime. (See Best U.S. columns, p.12.) In New York City, Russian restaurant owners are being told that they are Nazis who should “go home.” The misunderstanding here is nothing less than profound. New York’s biggest “Russian” neighborhood is informally called “Little Odessa,” because so many of its inhabitants are immigrants from the southern city in Ukraine currently under assault. Kharkiv, where civilians are besieged in the north, is an almost…

Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia got Covid-19 in March 2020, and two years later he’s still dealing with symptoms, said Meagan Flynn in The Washington Post. He’s among the millions of Americans who are dealing with long Covid, the mysterious symptoms that can linger for weeks or months after an infection. The Democrat developed mild, flu-like symptoms during the earliest wave of the pandemic—but was left with an intense tingling sensation in his nerves that plagues him every waking moment. “It feels like all my nerves have had like five cups of coffee,” Kaine says. He went to a neurologist and got an MRI, but the doctor said everything looked fine. Kaine was frustrated. “I know how my body felt before I got Covid, I know how it felt…

John McCormack National Review America’s neo-isolationists are finding themselves more isolated than ever, said John McCormack. Before Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, various right-wing populists and America Firsters insisted it was more important to protect the U.S.’s southern border than Ukraine’s, and that what happened on the other side of the world was none of our business. U.S. Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) even introduced a bill prohibiting any U.S. assistance to Ukraine “until the border wall system on the southern border is completed.” Fox News’ Tucker Carlson told his viewers that conservatives had no beef with Putin, and that the real enemy was the American Left. But then our TV screens filled with images of Putin’s savage rocket and missile attacks on valiant Ukrainians—and the isolationists either…

UKRAINE Ira Tsylyk Meduza (Latvia) “You can’t even imagine the extent of the hatred Ukrainians have for Russians” now, said Ukrainian film director Ira Tsylyk. As Russian bombs rain down on “hospitals, kindergartens, orphanages,” we are united in rage. I fear that the bond between Russians and Ukrainians is broken for generations. What to say to my Russian relatives in St. Petersburg, who wrote to ask how my family is faring? The propaganda they hear on state TV tells them the fighting here was started by Ukrainian fanatics—not by their own military’s merciless invasion. They don’t understand that we are on the front lines of a “fight against fascism,” but it is abundantly clear to us. Putin has explicitly said that he considers it his responsibility to “resolve the Ukrainian…

Working out in even mildly polluted air almost completely negates the benefits that exercise provides for your brain, a new study suggests. Researchers looked at the health records of 8,600 middle-aged British men and women, some of whom had undergone brain scans and worn activity monitors to track their exercise habits. They then evaluated pollution levels where the participants lived. As expected, people who ran or rode bikes in areas with little air pollution had relatively healthy brains. But the beneficial associations from exercise disappeared for participants living in even moderate air pollution. In a follow-up study, they found that runners and bikers in the unpolluted areas were also less likely to develop dementia. Co-author David Raichlen, from the University of Southern California, tells The New York Times that…

(Riverhead, $27) Claire-Louise Bennett’s “unabashedly odd and mordantly funny” second novel is “proof of a rare talent,” said Nina Renata Aron in the Los Angeles Times. As in Pond, her 2015 debut, she supplies little in the way of plot. Instead, the nameless narrator presents herself to us by rummaging through memories of the books she has read. Reading here is what gives life meaning “but also possibly what adds to its meaninglessness”: Though the protagonist values books more than her life outside of them, she’s aware that even memories of them fade, and will die with her. Precisely because of her blinkered obsession with books, “she exudes a particular charm,” said B. D. McClay in The New Yorker. Twice she recounts how a man gifted her with a book…

A Molecule Away From Madness by Sara Manning Peskin (Norton, $26) So little is required to destroy a mind, said Adrian Woolfson in The Wall Street Journal. In her new book, neurologist Sara Manning Peskin strings together tales of brains undone by errant molecular activity to create an “acute and evocative” demonstration of how fragile mental health can be. The culprits here include altered DNA sequences and misbehaving proteins. Though she admits often feeling helpless to arrest a patient’s decline, she sees her profession as being very near a breakthrough. The Man Who Tasted Words by Guy Leschziner (St. Martin’s, $29) This engaging book prompts “a renewed sense of awe at the delicate workings of the senses,” said Farrah Jarral in The Guardian. Author Guy Leschziner, a neurology professor,…

  3 Nilüfer Yanya’s music “can sometimes be hard to grasp—vaporous and shadowy and in its own head,” said James Rettig in Stereogum. But the 26-year-old London singer, songwriter, and guitarist consistently creates moody, hypnotically looping songs, and her two albums have been “a pleasure to live inside for a while.” In a voice that sits “between hushed and pained,” she frequently sings about selling herself short in relationships, and her confessions play out on this second record against a backdrop that’s “murmuring and sorrowful but also effortlessly cool.” Yanya’s best songs, such as “Midnight Sun,” create a pleasing interplay between her guitar work and “riff-like” vocal melodies, said Mark Richardson in The Wall Street Journal. She “has seemed on the cusp of greater fame for a while,” yet she…

In Spain, a new generation is “rejuvenating the notion of what Spanish wine is all about,” said Eric Asimov in The New York Times. Though the country is known for fruity, inexpensive exports, younger producers have focused on old vines and old methods, creating lively wines that excel at expressing terroir. 2019 Daterra Viticultores ‘Camino de la Frontera’ Viño Tinto ($32). A grape called Juan García, grown on old wines, is featured in this “exuberantly perfumed” wine, a light-bodied red that’s “full of energy and life.” 2020 Envínate Benje Tinto ($29). Decant this Canary Islands red blend to fully appreciate it. “It’s almost delicate, with a lacy texture and earthy, mineral, floral flavors.” 2019 Goyo García Viadero ‘Joven de Viñas Viejas’ ($30). Made from old-vine tinto fino, this sumptuous,…

Líllébaby Complete Original Keep your lower back happy with this comfortable infant carrier. The adjustable cotton sling offers six ergonomic carrying positions, plus padded straps and a back panel for lumbar support. $120, lillebaby.com Source: Condé Nast Traveler Jetkids BedBox by Stokke This makeshift bed can make kids feel like they’re traveling first class. It folds out from a rolling suitcase that the child can ride on while you pull it past check-in and onto the plane. $199, buybuybaby.com Source: Fatherly Huzi Infinity Pillow “Infinitys and BedBoxes go together like PB&J.” This fluffy Möbius loop can swaddle a fidgety toddler—or a tired parent in need of more neck support. The bamboo fabric “manages to always feel just the right temp.” $39, infinitypillow.co Source: NYMag.com Doona Car Seat & Stroller…

An estimated 3,500 sailors have been stuck on some 200 ships at Ukrainian ports, according to London-based shipping tracker Windward Ltd. More ships are stranded around the globe than at any point since World War II. The Wall Street Journal Uber said trips using its service last month were back to 90 percent compared with February 2019, with gross bookings at 95 percent recovered. Trips to and from the airport were up 50 percent in February from a month earlier. CNBC.com McDonald’s said it would temporarily close all 850 of its Russian restaurants this week. When the first McDonald’s opened in Moscow in January 1990, over 30,000 people lined up to buy a burger. Financial Times Warren Buffett is back among the world’s five richest people, thanks to a 7.2…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sparked a massive humanitarian crisis, with an estimated 1.5 million displaced people already seeking refuge from the fighting and intense Russian bombardment. One of the many charities responding to the crisis is Direct Relief (directrelief.org), one of the world’s largest distributors of donated medical supplies. Working directly with Ukraine’s Ministry of Health and other on-the-ground partners, Direct Relief is providing field medics with hundreds of emergency medical backpacks as well as a wide range of urgently requested supplies such as oxygen concentrators, antibiotics, Combat Application Tourniquets, and critical-care medicines. Direct Relief has been supporting hospitals in Ukraine since before the invasion began and has shipped more than $26 million in medical aid to the country in the past six months. Each charity we feature…

This week’s question: A new study found that merely three seconds of resistance training a day could boost sedentary people’s biceps by 12 percent. Come up with a name for an exercise program that requires the absolute minimum level of effort. Last week’s contest: In a recent survey, 39 percent of pet owners admitted to tasting their pets’ food, with nearly a third of them saying they enjoyed it. If a company were to market its dog or cat food by portraying it as a tasty treat for humans, too, what would the brand be called? THE WINNER: “Bowl to Table” Megan Moyer, Oakland SECOND PLACE: “Collared Greens” Lidia Zidik, Reading, Pa. THIRD PLACE: “Wolfhound Puck” David P. Simmons, Harpers Ferry, W.Va. For runners-up and complete contest rules, please…

Good week for: Irony, after The New Yorker reported that Mark Meadows, former President Trump’s chief of staff, listed a rented North Carolina mobile home as his residence when registering to vote in 2020—even though neighbors say he never even spent a night there. National pride, after Whitney Hay, 21, of Kansas won the annual Pancake Day Race against a British competitor. The competition, which dates to the 15th century in Britain, requires contestants to carry a pancake in a frying pan and flip it at the start and end of a 415-yard running race. Teetotalers, after a British study found that drinking two glasses of beer or wine a day for men, and one glass for women, is associated with brain shrinkage equivalent to two years of aging. Bad week…

Stephen Colbert might be a funny guy, but nobody was laughing during the most memorable moments on The Late Show, said David Kamp in The Wall Street Journal Magazine. As he ascended to the top of the late-night ratings, Colbert took the format into unconventional territory, mixing sharp humor with earnest conversations with his guests about death, grief, Covid trauma, and loss. When singer Dua Lipa recently asked Colbert how his faith as a Catholic affects his comedy, his answer launched a viral video viewed millions of times. Making people laugh, Colbert said, is an act of love; both humor and faith are expressions of the idea that “no matter what happens, you are never defeated.” Even “death is not a defeat,” he said. “Laughter keeps you from having…

Steve Chapman Chicago Tribune We shouldn’t “punish innocent Russians” for Vladimir Putin’s war crimes in Ukraine, said Steve Chapman. The understandable revulsion the world feels over the war has made Russians and Russian immigrants “radioactive” in both the U.S. and Europe. Russian skaters have been banned from this month’s world championships, the doors of the Paralympics have been shut on Russian athletes, and even Russian cats have been kicked out of international feline competitions. The Munich Philharmonic Orchestra fired conductor Valery Gergiev “when he failed to denounce Putin,” and opera singer Anna Netrebko had performances canceled. Russian players in the National Hockey League are receiving death threats. So are restaurants with “Russian” in their name. “All this amounts to equating nationality with evil,” but artists and athletes “have no control over…

“In times of stress and confusion, people cry out for salvation and strength. The victorious ruler connects not just with human pride but also with profound human longings for protection, purpose, and identity. [Vladimir] Putin replaced the lost Soviet identity with a renewed commitment to Russian greatness. The sobering reality is that we cannot look at Russia and simply shake our heads at ‘those people,’ secure in the knowledge that we’re fundamentally different. We’re still not far removed from a violent attempt to overturn an American election, led by a mob waving blue flags stamped with their leader’s name.” David French in The Dispatch…

BELGIUM Pascal Martin Le Soir Turns out, Europeans are extraordinarily hospitable to refugees—at least those who look like them, said Pascal Martin. The war in Ukraine has already forced more than 1.5 million people to flee, creating the largest “migration crisis” the Continent has seen since World War II. The European Union responded with an outpouring of sympathy, welcoming the Ukrainians with “open arms,” providing “balm for the wounds of a dirty war.” Even the xenophobe Viktor Orban “unlocked the doors of Hungary.” And for the very first time, the EU invoked its power to give refugees immediate residency and work permits across the union—something it did not do for those fleeing Syria, Iraq, or Afghanistan. Such unity on an issue that has long divided Europe is admirable, but it…

INDIA Radha Kumar The Wire Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s continued commitment to Russia is a “strategic blunder,” said Radha Kumar. At the U.N. last week, India joined the weaselly company of just 34 other nations in abstaining from condemning Russia’s monstrous invasion of Ukraine. Modi’s allies justified the copout by claiming that India couldn’t afford to offend its Cold War ally and largest weapons provider. And anyway, they said, turning away from Moscow now would only “push it further” into the arms of China, our strategic rival. But with Russia quickly becoming a global pariah, those arguments no longer make sense. It’s not as if Vladimir Putin has been a steadfast ally: Russian arms supplies “are frequently long-delayed,” and Putin uses that time “to up the prices, sometimes even double…

As Vladimir Putin’s brutal, botched invasion of Ukraine turns Russia into an international pariah, a question looms in many minds, said Nigel Jones in The Spectator. “Could an assassin kill Putin?” Sen. Lindsey Graham said the quiet part out loud last week, when in a widely criticized tweet he asked if there was “a Brutus in Russia” who might “take this guy out.” There’s ample precedent, from Julius Caesar to Russian Czar Paul I in 1801 to two failed German plots to kill Hitler. So if Putin’s inner circle of military and economic elites is “sufficiently alarmed” by the chaos of the invasion and “the world’s horrified reaction to it,” might Graham’s wish come true? Sorry to say, “the odds don’t look good.” Putin hides inside a protective bubble,…

Was it NATO’s fault that Russia invaded Ukraine? asked Jan Smolenski and Jan Dutkiewicz in The New Republic. That’s the claim of right-wing populists, Democratic socialists, and self-described political “realists.” University of Chicago political scientist John Mearsheimer made the case for this premise with a now infamous 2014 article blaming the West for Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Mearsheimer claims that America and its allies drove Vladimir Putin to “lash out like a cornered animal” by admitting eastern European nations into NATO membership. It’s a view Putin himself has espoused, and it presumes that former Soviet republics lack the “right to self-determination.” NATO, remember, is “a voluntary organization,” said Jonah Goldberg in The Dispatch. The list of nations that want to join is long—largely because they do not want to…

NASA is designing a robot that can be launched into orbit to refuel satellites in midair, said Kurt Kleiner in ArsTechnica.com. “At the moment, there are about 4,852 working satellites in orbit,” but there is “no way of fixing” or refueling them. To resolve this, NASA is planning to launch two missions this decade that use semi-autonomous robots equipped with mechanical arms that are capable of “adding fuel to orbiting satellites—and even make simple repairs.” The project won’t be easy. Existing satellites lack “the markings for a robot to visually orient itself” to the target. There is also “a communication delay of several seconds” between the robot and its controllers on Earth, leaving the robot “to handle the most crucial tasks on its own.”…

Life really might flash before your eyes before you die. Many people who have had near-death experiences say they had flashbacks to significant milestones, and now a scientific “accident” lends weight to those claims. Doctors in Vancouver were giving an 87-year-old patient a brain scan when he suffered a fatal heart attack. The scan showed that in the 30 seconds before and after the man’s heart stopped beating, his brain waves followed the same patterns seen during dreaming or recalling memories. This suggests that people may experience one final “recall of life” right at death. Study co-author Ajmal Zemmar, from the University of Louisville, cautions that this is just one case, noting that the patient in question was epileptic and suffering from a bleeding brain. But he tells BBC.com…

(Liveright, $30) “The Bald Eagle is the rare natural history that plays as a comedy,” said Nathaniel Rich in The Atlantic. Granted, it’s a dark comedy, because the bird that has served as a national symbol since the country’s founding was mercilessly slaughtered for generations before a heroic conservation effort rescued it from extinction. Jack E. Davis, a Pulitzer Prize–winning natural historian, brings “a bouncy optimism” to his account of the bald eagle’s history as both species and symbol. But along the way, he makes “the subtle but persuasive point” that America became so flooded with eagle iconography that the birds themselves seemed expendable. In short, “we came very close to loving the bald eagle to death.” The bald eagle had enemies from the start, said Matt Jaffe in the…

Amy Bloom’s latest book originated in the same kitchen conversation during which her husband announced that he wished to end his life, said Elisabeth Egan in The New York Times. Bloom had just heard him confidently argue that assisted suicide was preferable to enduring the full impact of Alzheimer’s and surviving long after he could function. “He was pacing a little bit and he said, ‘You have to write about this,’” she recalls. “And I was like, ‘Oh, honey.’ And he was like, ‘No, you have to do this for me.’” That was three years ago. Two years ago, in January 2020, Bloom and the man she had married in 2007 flew to Zurich, with four days left to be together before he followed through on his plan under…

3 Conway the Machine’s major-label debut finally affords his fans “a look at the man behind the virtuosic wordplay,” said Will Dukes in Pitchfork. The 40-year-old Buffalo rapper was prolific as a member of Griselda, the city’s gritty hip-hop collective, and became celebrated for his heavy-hitting rhymes. But God Don’t Make Mistakes goes beyond “battle-ready barbs” to provide candid glimpses of a lifetime of trauma. “Stressed” and “Guilty” are heartfelt songs that touch on addiction and depression as well as the 2012 shooting that paralyzed one side of his face. Those and other tales are “backed by a collage of boom-bap that is as haunting as it is ornate.” A few tracks here “make Conway more mainstream-friendly than ever,” said Andrew Sacher in the Brooklyn Vegan. His collaboration with Lil…

Whenever the South by Southwest festival rolls into town, Texas’ capital city “feels like the center of the world,” said Kate Krader in Bloomberg.com. Austin is readier than ever this year, and when music fans, tech whizzes, crypto enthusiasts, and others gather this week for the first in-person SXSW since 2019, they’ll discover “a terrific array” of new additions to a restaurant scene that makes the city a destination all year round. La Barbecue Local ’cue queens LeAnn Mueller and Ali Clem opened their first brick-and-mortar location last spring, showcasing their “succulent, crispy” brisket and other smoked meats in a simple but handsome East Austin space with long tables and splashes of bold art. Don’t miss the Akashi beef chuck ribs served on weekends. 2401 E. Cesar Chavez St.…

Ruby Cramer Politico Last week, I decided to see for myself what Truth Social, the Donald Trump–endorsed social network that promises “a safe space for free expression,” is all about, said Ruby Cramer. Inside, “I found a nearly exact dupe of Trump’s first love, Twitter, the site that kicked him out more than a year ago” — except it’s nearly empty of people. In this alternate online universe, “everything once blue is now a bright, jewel-toned purple.” Tweets are now “Truths” and retweets are “ReTruths.” And Donald Trump was still @realDonaldTrump, except that he now had only 140,000 followers—a tiny fraction of his onetime Twitter audience. Only one Truth message appeared on his page, written two weeks before the site’s launch. Elsewhere on the app, “digital tumbleweeds blew through…

A shy college grad, Autherine Lucy simply wanted a second degree from her state’s top public school. But after accepting her into its library sciences program in 1952, the University of Alabama backtracked when administrators learned she was Black. The ensuing legal battle became the first major test of the Brown v. Board of Education ruling, and the university gates finally opened to her in 1956. Lucy lasted just three days on campus, though, after white students and Tuscaloosa residents pelted her relentlessly with eggs, bricks, and stones. “I did expect to find isolation,” she said in 1992. “But I did not expect it to go as far as it did. There were students behind me saying, ‘Let’s kill her! Let’s kill her!’” Lucy, who later went by her…

A student theater club at Fordham University in New York has created a whites-only “safe space for white allies to educate themselves and actively fight against racism.” The White Anti-Racist Working Group says it excludes people of color to free them from “responsibility for white people’s education,” as white students “seek to uncover the depths of their internalized racist superiority.” In gambling, the house always wins—except in Washington, D.C., where a city-run sports-betting app somehow managed to lose more than $4 million last year. The local government projected annual tax revenues of $20 million from the app, but a $6 million advertising budget, a glitchy interface, and uncompetitive payouts left it in the red. The app even crashed during this year’s Super Bowl. In other news Senate OKs Postal Service…

Diana Beresford-Kroeger is in love with trees, said Cara Buckley in The New York Times. A poet, scientist, and Celtic medicine woman who lives in the woods in Ottawa, Beresford-Kroeger has dedicated her life to studying and spreading the word about the wondrous capabilities of trees. At 77, she has painstakingly collected a Noah’s Ark of rare seeds and saplings that can withstand a warming planet, and the native trees she’s planted in her rural village are well suited to capture carbon and moderate drought, storms, and temperature swings. “The trees have fed the continent in the past,” she says. “I want them available for people in the future.” Raised by a grand-aunt in Ireland, Beresford-Kroeger was taught the Druid concept that trees are sentient beings that connect the…

Mary Katharine Ham The Daily Beast You can tell that Andrew Cuomo comes from “the land of chutzpah,” said Mary Katharine Ham. Just seven months after he was forced to resign in disgrace over a sexual harassment scandal involving 11 women, the former New York governor actually is attempting “a political comeback.” He has spent nearly $400,000 on TV ads that cast him as the victim of a politically motivated attack that cost New Yorkers “a proven leader.” In a speech this week at a Brooklyn church, Cuomo blamed his downfall on “cancel culture.” Cuomo conceded he “truly offended” his accusers—they say he groped them, kissed them, and made highly inappropriate sexual comments—but he blames this on not realizing “the line” had been redrawn. In other words: Who knew it…

SOUTH KOREA Kwak Yeon-soo The Korea Times Korea’s Generation Z has abandoned the pleasure-seeking mentality of the Millennials, said Kwak Yeon-soo. Instead, they seek constant self-improvement. When Covid hit, these young adults found themselves isolated by lockdowns and often unemployed. Many turned to what they call Godsaeng (“God-life”), or a meaningful way of living. Yet that “doesn’t mean they follow grandiose plans” to save the world or devote themselves to religion. Instead, Godsaeng is about finding purpose in small tasks and self-discipline—for example, by making the bed every morning, drinking plenty of water, or practicing music or languages. Psychology professor Kwak Geum-joo said that because members of this generation feel they have no control over the big issues—such as the housing shortage, the pandemic, and climate change—they focus on small…

Groups of U.S. military veterans are traveling to Ukraine to join the battle against the Russian invasion. So far, about 16,000 foreign volunteers from multiple countries have joined Ukrainian forces, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. “We have a calling to serve, and we trained our whole career for this kind of war,” said a departing U.S. Marine veteran who served in Iraq.The New York Times The official worldwide death toll from Covid-19 has passed 6 million. The number of deaths, experts say, is significantly undercounted because so many people have died without being tested or hospitalized. An analysis by The Economist puts the actual number of Covid deaths at 14.1 to 23.8 million.Associated Press Smugglers have sawed through the Mexican border wall built in the Trump administration 3,272 times over…

“Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.”Chinua Achebe, quoted in Sahara Reporters “Advice is like snow—the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.”Samuel Taylor Coleridge, quoted in the Montreal Gazette “You’re never allowed to step on people to get ahead—but you can step over them if they’re in your way.”Star Jones, quoted in the Orlando Weekly “There are only two ways to have a peaceful conscience: Never do anything wrong or learn self-forgiveness. Pro tip: First way’s impossible.”Elizabeth Gilbert, quoted in OprahDaily.com “Opportunities come infrequently. When it rains gold, put out the bucket, not the thimble.”Warren Buffett, quoted in Yahoo Finance “Change does happen, and even the most dire circumstances can…

Satellite internet in a war zone Shortly after sending a shipment of Starlink terminals to Ukraine, Elon Musk warned that the antennas could be targeted by Russia, said Jackie Wattles in CNN.com. Musk drew praise from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week for activating his company SpaceX’s satellite-based internet service in the country, where citizens could lose internet service amid the Russian invasion. Starlink requires satellite dishes to access the space-based internet, however, and some cybersecurity experts warned that states have “used satellite signals to geolocate and target enemies.” Musk wrote on Twitter that “the probability of being targeted” for using Starlink “is high.” He advised Ukrainians to “turn on Starlink only when needed” and to “place light camouflage over antennas to avoid visual detection.” When the boss shows…

It has always been a mystery why the meteorite that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago didn’t also kill off many birds, crocodiles, and small mammals. Now a new analysis of fish fossils found in North Dakota provides a possible answer: Those species survived because the impact took place when they were safely ensconced in burrows or underwater. “To be able to fight nuclear winter, you need to survive the initial impact,” lead author Melanie During, of Uppsala University, tells The Daily Telegraph (U.K.). “If you can hibernate, that would improve your chances.” The 6-mile-wide Chicxulub meteorite struck off the coast of what is now Mexico, leading to the extinction of three-quarters of the planet’s plants and animals. If it did strike in spring, as the fossil…

Steve Reich, a pioneer of the minimalist movement in contemporary classical music, has been widely described as America’s greatest living composer. In his new book, Conversations, he revisits his career in dialogue with friends and collaborators. Poetics of Music by Igor Stravinsky (1942). I read this when I was 17 and totally taken with Stravinsky’s music. He clarifies his admiration for structure and clarity in the work of Bach and Haydn, and his reservations about Wagner. Perhaps most provocative are his views on artistic freedom: “The more constraints one imposes, the more one frees one’s self of the chains that shackle the spirit.” Conversations With Igor Stravinsky by Robert Craft (1959). Craft’s questions to Stravinsky are answered energetically, with detail about his relationships with Debussy, Ravel, Nijinsky, and others. I…

“Classical music likes to think of itself this way: floating serenely above politics, in a realm of beauty and unity,” said Zachary Woolfe in The New York Times. But two of the genre’s biggest stars—Russian conductor Valery Gergiev and Russian opera diva Anna Netrebko—have been abruptly exiled from that charmed dominion because both have been reluctant to condemn Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Gergiev, a longtime friend of Putin’s, was stripped of prominent conducting posts in Europe and barred from leading the Vienna Philharmonic in three concerts at New York City’s Carnegie Hall. His career, built over decades, “seems to have unraveled in just a few days.” Netrebko, meanwhile, had her upcoming appearances canceled at the Metropolitan Opera, then withdrew from planned engagements in Europe. For the arts world,…

  3 “Stripped back or full-blown, there’s something for everyone who loves Americana here,” said Helen Jerome in Holler. On her third LP, singer-songwriter Carson McHone proves just how broad the banner roots music can be. The first track, with its dueling guitars, evokes the power pop of Tom Petty. Keep listening to McHone, though, and “it becomes clear why she’s drawn comparison to the likes of Gillian Welch.” A fixture of the Austin music scene since she was 16, McHone, now 29, currently splits her time between Austin and Ontario, where she recorded Still Life with Daniel Romano, her musician husband. Where McHone’s previous album pushed the boundaries of honky-tonk balladry, “Still Life breaks them, at times, completely,” said Abby Johnston in The Austin Chronicle. David Nardi’s sax “gives…

Understanding Ukraine… Winter on Fire The Maidan Revolution began in 2013 with peaceful demonstrations that grew into a widespread popular uprising that ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russian president in early 2014. Camera operators dove in among the demonstrators, and their work provides a visceral feel for what Ukrainians have been up against and the indomitable spirit of their response. Netflix Crimea. As It Was Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea was a response to the perceived threat posed by Maidan. As Russian forces moved in, some Ukrainian servicemen sided with the invaders. This documentary focuses on the soldiers and seamen who stayed true to Ukraine. UkrSteam.tv The Guide This grim but gorgeously shot 2014 Ukrainian drama is set during the Holodomor—a period of famine in Ukraine orchestrated by Joseph Stalin. It follows…

Heyday is an unobtrusive information-organizing assistant that helps you remember what you’ve already learned online. As you browse, the $10-a-month service displays in a discreet sidebar the web pages you’ve visited that may be relevant. Weavit is in its startup phase but offers to help turn your random musings into potent ideas. “It’s kind of like digitally enhanced thought”: You type in or dictate a thought and it creates infographics tying the thought to contacts, web links, past notes, and more. The iOS-only app is currently free. Stack scans, crops, and then analyzes documents, parsing useful information such as names, dates, and account numbers. The free Android app then organizes your digitized documents into “stacks” of similar files (e.g., bills or receipts). “Imagine being organized without really putting forth any…

After its latest device launch, Apple now has “nearly the array of product options that Cheerios does,” said Shira Ovide in The New York Times. The company this week unveiled a new budget-friendly iPhone SE with 5G and a speedier iPad Air tablet. It also introduced a Mac Studio model, which resembles an upgraded Mac Mini desktop computer, with a new M1 Ultra processing chip. With the latest additions, Apple is now selling “eight different models of the iPhone,” 10 Mac computers, and five iPad editions. But the “flotilla of options” may signal that the “company can no longer take its customers for granted.” Russia: Keeping $10 billion in leased planes “Foreign leasing firms have succeeded in repossessing only about two dozen of more than 500 aircraft rented to Russian…

A growing IRS backlog The IRS is still sorting through more than 20 million tax returns from last year, said Alan Rappeport in The New York Times. The agency was “turned into an economic relief spigot responsible for churning out checks and other stimulus payments to millions of Americans” during the pandemic. But its workforce of about 75,000—the same size it was in 1970—is struggling to reduce a backlog of about 24 million paper filings that “continue to clog creaky systems.” At the IRS’s primary paper-processing center in Kansas City, clerks must stamp each filing by hand. According to one employee, “a surprisingly large amount of time” is spent “looking for carts to put files on and staplers for stapling files together.” Leaning back at work Not everyone is…

Patrick Thomas and Alistair MacDonald The Wall Street Journal The economic fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reaches far beyond oil, said Patrick Thomas and Alistair MacDonald. Already, “the mayhem of war” is stressing a strained global supply chain and threatening to raise prices at “supermarkets, retailers, and the gas pump.” Ukrainian farmers are supposed to plant their spring crops soon, and they account for 8 percent and 13 percent of the world’s wheat and corn, respectively. The expectation of diminished yields has driven the price of wheat futures up by 40 percent, with corn prices up roughly 21 percent. “Even if the fighting were to stop,” Russia is one of the world’s largest fertilizer suppliers. Farmers in Iowa, thousands of miles from the conflict, “are wringing their hands”…

David Boggs set out to solve a knotty problem that would change the world: how to get one personal computer to transmit data to another. Starting in 1973 at the soon-to-be-legendary Xerox PARC research laboratory in Palo Alto, Calif., Boggs and another new hire, Bob Metcalfe, spent two years inventing a way to send electrical pulses through a cable from a computer to a printer or another device. They hit upon a prototype—Ethernet—that managed to connect 10 machines. That laid the groundwork for modern computer-networking technology, and by the 1980s and ’90s, Ethernet was the dominant protocol for networks in corporate offices and later became the basis for Wi-Fi. It’s now used in nearly all computer devices. However you access the internet, says Marc Weber, a curator at Silicon…

Walter Mears could compose a story as fast as he could type. As an Associated Press correspondent who covered 11 presidential elections, from 1960 to 2000, he earned legendary status among fellow reporters—and a Pulitzer Prize—for his ability to write insightfully and lyrically on a breakneck deadline. That’s why Mears, whose dispatches appeared in thousands of papers, was a key figure in The Boys on the Bus, Timothy Crouse’s classic book about coverage of the 1972 presidential race. Crouse depicted how reporters rushing to file a story about a campaign event would clamor to hear how Mears was framing the story he was certain to file first. “Walter,” they’d ask, “what’s the lead?” Growing up in Lexington, Mass., Mears always knew he wanted to be a reporter, said The…