Contents Winter 2008

FROM THE EDITOR

CONTRIBUTORS

LETTERS

 

THIS SEASON

A selective guide: Jonathan Meades on Le Corbusier, Julie Kavanagh on a new dance star, Allison Pearson on Cambridge at 800, Anthony Sher Q&A

 

INTELLIGENCE

THINKING | Why do believers have more babies? Anthony Gottlieb finds out

HISTORY | Andrew Marr's column: the neglected lives of scientists

FOOD | Is your lunch stuck in a rut? Caroline Stacey has some solutions

             Memoir: James Scudamore on the grandfather who kept him well fed
            
             RePasts: coulibiac, as found in Chekhov

FAMILY | Board games: Miss Farmer, with the fountain pen, in the study

WINE | El Bulli is not just about food. Tim Atkin puts its wine list to the test

GADGETS | We hand the new tiny camcorders to a film director: Mike Figgis

GAMING | Tom Standage plays casual games, and calls it work

SPORT | Ed Smith on Danny Cipriani and how debuts have changed

GIVING | Alec Reed, the employment mogul who has turned to charity

GOING GREEN | Better practice without preaching

CARS | Six supercars in one day: Paul Markillie and son have some rented fun

ZEITGEIST | Would you put a tracking device on your spouse? Natasha Loder did
 

FLAIR

SHOOT | Winter sparkle: the sharpest accessories, styled by Mary Fellowes

FASHION | Catherine St Germans's style column: Stephen Jones, king of hats

               Wrap up coolly: Bronwyn Cosgrave picks the finest knits

               Dress Sense: Victoire de Castellane on floral jewellery

SHOPPING | Less stuff, more substance: Francesca Martin finds gifts for the mind

                Global Trading: five scrumptious sweetshops

                Insider Trading: how to buy wineglasses

                One perfect...scented candle, chosen by Tania Sanchez 
 

ARTS

ART | Authors on Museums: Helen Simpson on a little-known gem near Zurich

VISUAL CV | Matthew Sweet on the career of Father Christmas

BOX OFFICE | Gigonomics: why live music makes so much money, by Henry Tricks

MUSIC | Is Canada now producing better rock bands than America?

                 The Playlist: 50 years of Motown

 

PLACES 

FEATURE | Surfing from the office: Malcolm Knox on a Sydney obsession

OUT THERE | The best mountain restaurants, chosen by Alistair Scott

BEING THERE | Caroline Lambert on the life of an expat in Johannesburg

SEVEN WONDERS | Simon Jenkins, the new head of the National Trust, takes his pick

SNAPSHOT | A car, a donkey, a girl in a white dress: a Cuban backstreet

 

FEATURES

COVER STORY  Mass intelligence
We’ve been so busy talking about dumbing down that we may have missed an equally striking development: its exact opposite. John Parker reports

The hypodermic building
The Burj Dubai is the world’s tallest man-made structure. J.M. Ledgard goes to gawp—and to ask the people behind it, what is it for?

The abbess’s tale
Joanna Jamieson spent 50 years in an enclosed order, followed by one year at art school in east London. Maggie Fergusson asks her what she made of the modern world

A month in the life of the National Theatre
It used to be a fortress, dogged by disputes. Now it’s a flagship store on London’s high street of the arts. Robert Butler and Brian Harris go behind the scenes

Photo essay: Arctic blues
Simon Roberts captures the radiant bleakness of northern Russia

The Mac at 25
It’s the computer that turned work into play, and all of us into designers. Douglas Coupland, author of “Generation X”, gives a personal view of the Apple Mac
 

THE MISSION | Will Smith tries ice sculpture

COVER MONTAGE:  GETTY/KATHRIN SPIRK/RUSS STREET

 

© 2008 The Economist Newspaper Limited. All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of The Economist Newspaper Limited. Published by The Economist Newspaper Limited. 25 St James's Street, London, SW1A 1HG, telephone +44 (0)20 7830 7000. E-mail intelligentlife@economist.com; www.moreintelligentlife.com. ISSN 1743-7424. Where opinion is expressed it is that of the authors and does not necessarily coincide with the editorial views of the publisher or The Economist. All information in this magazine is verified to the best of the author's and the publisher's ability. However, The Economist Newspaper Limited does not accept responsibility for any loss arising from reliance on it. Printed by St Ives PLC, Plymouth.

 

 

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