One year in the eternal ice – a milestone in climate research
EINGEFROREN AM NORDPOL
(Frozen at the North Pole)
by Markus Rex
C. Bertelsmann, November 2020
On the 20th September 2019 began the largest polar expedition of all time: The research vessel RV Polarstern set off from the port of Tromsø, Norway, to be frozen to the ice of the North Pole. Scientists from 20 countries have boarded to research the consequences of climate change for one whole year. Markus Rex, the head of this research expedition called MOSAiC, recounts in his book the story of this unique endeavour. He tells of everyday life in the extreme environment of the Arctic, of the challenges in terms of logistics and planning, and of the scientific findings that the researchers were able to gather. EINGEFROREN AM NORDPOL is not only the story of the largest research adventure ever but at the same time a vivid insight into the dramatic consequences of climate change.
Markus Rex is the head of atmospheric research at the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Sea Research, and he is professor for atmospheric physics at the University of Potsdam. He had already joined numerous expeditions to the Arctic, Antarctica and other remote regions of the world to research the complex climatic processes that lead to at times dramatic climate changes. He heads the MOSAiC project, a unique research collaboration by 90 institutions from 20 countries.
Cornel West is at the forefront of thinking about race. First published in 1993, on the one-year anniversary of the Los Angeles riots, RACE MATTERS became a national best seller that has gone on to sell more than half a million copies. West addresses a range of issues, from the crisis in black leadership and the myths surrounding black sexuality to affirmative action, the new black conservatism, and the strained relations between Jews and African Americans. He never hesitates to confront the prejudices of all his readers or wavers in his insistence that they share a common destiny. Bold in its thought and written with a redemptive passion grounded in the tradition of the African-American church, RACE MATTERS is a book that is at once challenging and deeply healing.
For Damon Young, existing while Black is an extreme sport. The act of possessing black skin while searching for space to breathe in America is enough to induce a ceaseless state of angst where questions such as “How should I react here, as a professional black person?” and “Will this white person’s potato salad kill me?” are forever relevant. WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU BLACKER chronicles Young’s efforts to survive while battling and making sense of the various neuroses his country has given him. It’s a condition that’s sometimes stretched to absurd limits, provoking the angst that made him question if he was any good at the “being straight” thing, as if his sexual orientation was something he could practice and get better at, like a crossover dribble move or knitting; creating the farce where, as a teen, he wished for a white person to call him a racial slur just so he could fight him and have a great story about it; and generating the surreality of watching gentrification transform his Pittsburgh neighborhood from predominantly Black to “Portlandia . . . but with Pierogies.” And, at its most devastating, it provides him reason to believe that his mother would be alive today if she were white. From one of our most respected cultural observers, WHAT DOESN’T KILL YOU MAKES YOU BLACKER is a hilarious and honest debut that is both a celebration of the idiosyncrasies and distinctions of Blackness and a critique of white supremacy and how we define masculinity.
TINSELTOWN: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood de William J. Mann, lauréat d’un Edgar Award en 2015, sera bientôt adapté pour le petit écran par la société Spectrum Originals. Située dans les années 1920 à l’ère du cinéma muet, la série historique mettra en scène la vie de quatre pionnières du cinéma dont la vie et la carrière à Hollywood furent menacées suite à un meurtre scandaleux resté non résolu : celui de William Desmond Taylor, président de la Motion Picture Directors Association. Cette histoire véridique et addictive d’ambition, de scandale, d’intrigue et de crime retrace la naissance de l’industrie cinématographique moderne dans un monde encore brutal et sexiste. Pour plus de détails sur le projet de série TV, voir cet