REVIVING a beloved series from our archives, we’re bringing back our curated collection of recent discoveries. Previously known as “10 Things We Loved this Week” and later evolving through various iterations like “(Five) Things We Love Lately” and “Things in my Saved Folder /001,” this edition offers an eclectic mix of cultural curiosities.
It is astonishing, but painting desperately needs her defenders and explainers. This most primal of arts, which goes back to the very beginning of the human story, seems to confuse and repel much of contemporary civilisation. Like bad-omen comets, proclamations still come of the death of painting.
In 1953, Roald Dahl published “The Great Automatic Grammatizator,” a short story about an electrical engineer who secretly desires to be a writer. One day, after completing construction of the world’s fastest calculating machine, the engineer realizes that “English grammar is governed by rules that are almost mathematical in their strictness.”
WE WROTE about displaying figurative art and nudes in March of last year, but thought it was worth revisiting this topic again because the act of surrounding oneself with such works can provoke interesting conversations about artistic expression, the human form, and personal taste.
In one way or another, the superrich have always been trying to extend their lives. Ancient Egyptians crammed their tombs with everything they’d need to live on in an afterlife not unlike their own world, just filled with more fun. In the modern era, the ultra-wealthy have attempted to live on through their legacies: sponsoring museums and galleries to immortalize their names.
When scientists first created the class of drugs that includes Ozempic, they told a tidy story about how the medications would work: The gut releases a hormone called GLP-1 that signals you’re full, so a drug that mimics GLP-1 could do the exact same thing, helping people eat less and lose weight.
A century ago, physics breakthroughs came in rapid sequence. There was quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theories of space and time, lots of new particles, two new nuclear forces, and eventually the standard model of particle physics. This progress and its technological applications commanded respect, if not outright fear.
How will Facebook celebrate its 20th birthday? Perhaps it will create one of those cute video montages they like to generate at significant moments. Starting with a tinkling piano soundtrack, a couple of breathless friend requests, and some self-conscious, tentative writing of “hello!” on other users’ walls, it might then pass quickly through moments of chronic oversharing, passive-aggressive, stalking of exes, and horrified untagging of yourself in unflattering photos.
For a preview of how AI will collide with creative industries, look to advertising. Amazon, Google, and Meta have all started encouraging advertisers to use AI tools to generate ad copy and imagery, promising high performance, lower costs, and super-specific targeting. Now, brands are paying to advertise with AI-generated virtual influencers — synthetic characters that can offer at least some promotional juice at a fraction of the cost.
You are currently logged on to the largest version of the internet that has ever existed. By clicking and scrolling, you’re one of the 5 billion–plus people contributing to an unfathomable array of networked information—quintillions of bytes produced each day.
Here is a very dumb truth: for a decade, the default answer to nearly every problem in mass media communication involved Twitter. Breaking news? Twitter. Live sports commentary? Twitter. Politics? Twitter. A celebrity has behaved badly? Twitter. A celebrity has issued a Notes app apology for bad behavior? Twitter. For a good while, the most reliable way to find out what a loud noise in New York City was involved asking Twitter. Was there an earthquake in San Francisco? Twitter. Is some website down? Twitter.
MAYFAIR was our last Life Lately, at the beginning of October, and it was all beautifully laid out in wide-screen format⏤best viewed on a desktop⏤but now more of you are here via your phones, so we’ll make this one (which is actually in two parts) a single layout to fit your screens while you’re out and about.
Leo Costelloe (b.1993) is an Irish-Australian artist and accessories designer living and working in London. Costelloe graduated from Central Saint Martins with a BA (Hons) in Jewellery Design and works natural materials such as glass, shells, and silver.
MARSEILLE-BORN Julie Pailhas got her start at Elle France, where she became a regular collaborator. She then joined Condé Nast Publications for the launch of Glamour France, where she would be Senior Fashion Editor for 8 years.
IN THE NEW living room, there is a marble fireplace with a large mantel that we're still trying to figure how to decorate. Currently, there is a large pelargonium in a terracotta pot on the lefthand side, as well as a tiny cutting from a larger epipremnum pictum argyraeus in a pot next to it.
