The Smithian

An infusion of Sandy-related dollars from Congress will help the National Weather Service upgrade two supercomputers that are used in virtually all U.S. weather predictions. That, in turn, could close…an embarrassing gap between the primary U.S. and European computer models. The European model has…been more adept at forecasting the…intensities of major storms, and that pattern held last October when the European model projected the lethal westward turn by Sandy even as the early U.S. model showed it drifting to the east harmlessly, toward open ocean.

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art: photo by Chien-Chi Chang. New York City, 1998

…deals with the collision of modernity and traditionalism, through an updated, magical realist take on the first and much loved Tshivenda novel of the same name, written by TN Maumela.

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Set amidst the Nigerian crime scene in Woolwich (S.E. London) during the early noughties—the young Wale (who recently arrived in the UK from Lagos) is enticed into a life of ’419’ crime…Wale teams up with an old friend…and his ‘colleagues,’ and the fraudulent crew set about…a mission to achieve…wealth, gain notoriety and enjoy women…however they soon…realise some harsh truths about each another.

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art: by HUSH. Japan.

Every spring, hundreds of thousands of devotees converge at a shrine to pay homage to the Virgin del Rocio during an annual pilgrimage…

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art: photo by A.C. Gomes & Son. late 19th century.

raventailor:

Smile:)

[look of the day]

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art: photo, ‘Harlem,’ by Saul Leiter. 1960.

Vogue Ukraine

For a so-called fifty-fifty state, you’d think Democrats would have more luck running for statewide office in Ohio…State Democrats’ electoral troubles are truly biblical…many are called but few chosen…Cleveland State Senator Nina Turner represents one of the Democrats’ best shots at reversing this tradition of futility, as she weighs a presumed run for Secretary of State. She’s already beat the odds once.

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Rohde calls for the United States to scale back its military ambitions and focus instead on supporting moderates and an impatient rising generation of Arabs and Muslims eager to engage with the world. Rohde characterizes his book as “an effort to describe a new, more pragmatic, and more effective American approach to the Islamic world.” Such an approach is sorely needed. But he struggles to carve out a unique set of recommendations on how to do so.

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