NYTimes: “The data suggests that after decades of life expectancy marching upward thanks to medical and technological advancements, humans could be closing in on the limits of what’s possible for average life span. “We’re basically suggesting that as long as we live now is about as long as we’re going to live,” said S. Jay Olshansky, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Illinois Chicago, who led the study. He predicted maximum life expectancy will end up around 87 years — approximately 84 for men, and 90 for women — an average age that several countries are already close to achieving.”
FT reviews “The Great Transformation: China’s Road from Revolution to Reform”: “The history of China’s “great transformation”, the authors argue, is key to understanding how China became the authoritarian developmental state that it is today. First, they emphasise that much of China’s dazzling economic growth over the past 40-some years was due to contingency and individual entrepreneurs rather than centralised political planning. Second, although Deng suffered terribly in the crazed dictatorship of the Cultural Revolution, through the 1980s and 1990s he never contemplated political alongside economic reform; his status as a revolutionary elder ensured that his views would trump those of his more liberal junior ministers. The epochal upheaval of the 1970s is thus “also a story of missed opportunities” for breaking with autocracy’s “corruption, mismanagement and widespread abuses”.”
WSJ: “Forget window seats versus aisle seats. The most contentious debate in travel is what type of suitcase you should buy. The popularity of hard-shell luggage has exploded over the past decade. It has been driven by advances in material technology that made hard-sided suitcases more durable, and the rise of direct-to-consumer brands like Away. Hard-sided bags tend to cost more than comparable soft-sided luggage. Fans of each luggage category aren’t quiet about their preferences. Hard-shell die-hards regularly cite the durability and aesthetics of their favorite suitcases. Soft-sided aficionados appreciate the flexibility a fabric-encased bag provides.”
FT: “Apple’s Vision Pro…is a headset worn over the eyes, but ingenious camera and display technology beams your surroundings back at you with exceptional clarity while overlaying it with digital content: icons, menus, apps and as many screens as you want, all easily moveable and resizable. Perhaps its most remarkable quality is the understated realism of that synthesis, with virtual objects casting subtle shadows and reflecting light as if they were really in the room. “We wanted to make sure that you felt like you were where you were,” says Richard Howarth, Apple’s vice-president of industrial design. “So we put an awful lot of effort into the clarity — of the glass, the optics, the whole system — to make sure you didn’t feel separated from it.” This is full digital immersion, but you don’t feel imprisoned by it — indeed, Alan Dye, Apple’s vice-president of human interface design, contrasts the “freedom” of the Vision Pro with the way you’re “locked in” to a standard screen. “Tim [Cook, Apple’s CEO] often talks about how it’s the first [Apple] product you look through, and not at,” he says. “I think that’s a lovely sentiment.””
