Region of doom
If you’re looking to take a breather from politics, science magazines aren’t exactly a safe bet. On top of global warming, there’s evolution and stem-cell research to argue about. And we’d guess that “mission to Mars” idea will invite loads of pique in Washington. What else? This week, there’s plenty.
If, for example, you thought the discussion about mummies got wrapped up thousands of years ago, Discover has unearthed a feminist angle. Its cover shows a mummified princess, with the story inside revealing that most of the world’s mummies are women. That’s right — King Tut was actually a rare example of a male mummy. And Egyptians were hardly the only ones who liked to suck the organs and fluids out from the noses of their dead. Featured female mummies hail from China, Siberia and Argentina, among other venues. One stone-cold stunner, Xiaohe, is known as the “Marlene Dietrich of the desert,” according to Discover. Even her long eyelashes were preserved.
In what looks like a shameless tactic to fatten up newsstand sales, Scientific American’s cover promises a solution to an age-old riddle: Can we lose weight through better workouts? The book forces us to tread through six dense pages to learn that no matter what we do at the gym, we’re screwed if we eat that doughnut. It’s our diet, dummies. And if you were thinking you might escape politics with this pointy-headed publication, watch out: It’s slipped in a column titled, “How to Stamp out Fake News.” The only thing that will protect us is our own “cynicism,” according to the book. (We’re guessing they meant “skepticism,” and will cut them some slack for not being English majors, assuming they aren’t totally down on the human race just yet.)
Elsewhere, in matters mechanical-political, Popular Mechanics has a cover story on cyber-terrorism. The scary article looks at how Russia, China and North Korea are threatening America with high-tech devices like exploding drones, souped-up tanks and missiles — even ones that can reach the US from North Korea. If, however, you were hoping to read about some good, old-fashioned ingenuity this month, there is the article about the landlord who learns revealing details about his tenants — and about human nature — by examining the plumbing in his buildings. One tenant flushed artichoke leaves down his toilet — and yes, it clogged the bowl. Why did he do it? Read on.
Popular Science’s January/ February issue is its new editor’s inaugural issue. Joe Brown tells readers that the 144-year-old book will focus each issue on a “single topic from the first page to the last.” This time, the topic is exploration, which includes arti- cles on China (by Brown himself ), the ocean, “aliens” in the Arctic (creatures that lurk in the deep, dark depths under the ice, that is), volcanic eruptions and the last unmapped places on earth. Where are those places, you might wonder? Siberia (no surprise there), Patagonia, Greenland National Park and — last but not least — Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. No word on whether that unmapped cave has been a popular stash for moonshiners.
Time leads with “The Great Manipulator,” a scathing profile of Steve Bannon, the chief White House strategist under President Trump. The piece, by David Von Drehle, reveals little for anyone who hasn’t been following the flood of news (Bannon didn’t talk to the mag for the piece) but does a good job of highlighting his apocalyptic worldview formed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. “He sees everything as a war,” a former Breitbart editor and Bannon subordinate once said. Elsewhere, Katy Steinmetz plunges deep into California, the bluest of blue states, and one of the few with Democratic governors and legislatures. The anti-Trump resistance there has fomented a #CalExit campaign, similar to the UK’S Brexit vote in June, though this seems more like more California Dreamin’.
Anthony Bourdain, host and creator of the culinary CNN show “Parts Unknown,” is the subject of the main profile in this week’s New Yorker. Like Bourdain’s show, Patrick Radden Keefe’s piece on him is worth it. “Filth is good,” the 60year-old chef says. In this case he’s talking about fermentation — the process behind alcohol or Korean kimchi — but it works as an overall motto, too. Gov. Cuomo’s “obsession” with major public works is the real subject of Nick Paumgarten’s history of the Second Avenue subway, which debuted on New Year’s Day. “We used to build big things,” Cuomo, who is said to be eyeing a 2020 presidential run, is quoted as saying.
New York’s Spring Fashion Issue has “Moonlight” star Naomie Harris on the cover. “I know everyone thinks this year is a response to that whole [#OscarsSoWhite] campaign,” she says of the greater number of non-white actors and directors up for an Academy Award this year, even though they’ve been in the works for “years before.” In a short piece, Jonathan Chait tries defining “Trumpism.” It’s a mix of “zero-sum relations” and a “retrograde definition of American identity,” he writes. Elsewhere is a brief interview with Doha Allahham, a Syrian refugee living in Bayonne, NJ. “I’ll tell them that we believe in this country and that there are people here who will defend us,” she says, even in the face of Trump’s travel ban.