Latest news with #Daedalus
New York Post
a day ago
- Entertainment
- New York Post
Sprawling Catskills compound in the same family since the 1800's asks $10M — massive stone maze and bronze statues included
Get lost in this $10 million forested retreat — literally. A Colonial-style home and sprawling property in Arkville, New York is on the market for that sum — and it brings with it an unusual amenity: a handsome stone maze. The forested estate has belonged to the same family since the late 1800s, the Wall Street Journal reported. The main house, built in 1970, offers eight baths and 7.5 bathrooms across nearly 5,300 square feet. If sold, the home and its 280 acres would set a record for Delaware County, listing agent Kathryn Johnson, of William Pitt Sotheby's International Realty, told the Journal. Advertisement 13 The estate is surrounded by lush Catskill forests. Nils Schlebusch 13 An aerial view of the winding stone maze. Nils Schlebusch The home already claims one superlative — if the claims of the late artist are to be believed, the home possesses the largest stone maze built since antiquity. Advertisement The winding maze, completed in 1965, runs 1,680 feet in length and its stone towering walls reach up to 10 feet high. The complex stone structure includes bronze statues of Daedalus, his son Icarus and the Minotaur. In Greek mythology, the skilled inventor Daedalus constructed the labyrinth to keep captive the half-man, half-bull offspring of the Queen of Crete. 13 One of the home's sellers recalled days spent playing inside the enigmatic maze. Nils Schlebusch 13 A bronze statue of the minotaur stands tall at a dead end of the labyrinth. Nils Schlebusch Advertisement 13 The maze's artist claimed this was the largest stone maze built since antiquity. Nils Schlebusch The environmental sculpture was commissioned by the late financier Armand Erpf, who was inspired after reading 'The Maze Maker,' by the late British author and artist Michael Aryton, a fictional autobiography of Daedalus. It was Aryton whom Erpf tapped to build the maze. Erpf's children, who are selling the property, spent decades entertained by the installation. His son Tolomy Erpf told the Journal about playing in the maze with cousins during family reunions. Advertisement 'It has an echo as you walk along with your steps,' he told the Journal. 'My favorite time there is either in the morning or in the evening, when the sun creates really interesting shadows along the walls and the floors.' 13 The same family has occupied the property since the late 1800s. Nils Schlebusch 13 The property includes several outbuildings, as well as a pool and a tennis court. Nils Schlebusch 13 A sitting room in the main house with green crown molding. Nils Schlebusch 13 The dining room. Nils Schlebusch 13 A bedroom boasts views of the forest. Nils Schlebusch 13 A bedroom. Nils Schlebusch 13 Stairs lead up to the cupola. Nils Schlebusch Advertisement 13 The home's large cupola offers panoramic views of the property. Nils Schlebusch Beyond the winding maze is 40 acres of lawns, meadows and pasture as well as 240 acres of mixed forest, according to the listing. The estate's natural attractions include swimming holes and streams, moss lined paths and a five-stall horse barn. Other environmental art installations are scattered throughout the property. The picturesque, white-washed main house was renovated in 2016 with modern amenities, according to the listing. Outbuildings include a guest house with three private apartments, a large pool and an accompanying poo house, an office cabin and a six-car garage.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Yahoo
Alexandros restaurant Carlisle: The perfect dress rehearsal for my big Greek wedding
'So You want to do a restaurant review whilst fitting into a suit for my sister's wedding?' asked my puzzled wife setting up the satnav for Alexandros on Warwick Road, Carlisle. Well what do you do when you are flying 2,500 miles to Heraklion, Crete, to your English sister-in-law's traditional Greek wedding, you are supposed to be giving her away - but you are marginally overweight? Well you go to a Greek restaurant, of course, in search of inspiration. 'It's a dress rehearsal' I explained disarmingly, 'I am killing two birds with one stone (literally, being 14Ibs over). You know like Daedalus in Greek Mythology?!' The logic - good Greek work (This write-up is riddled with Greek words). First you put on weight by eating a fabulous meal and then guilt-ridden with the memory of wonderful food burn off the calories. Call it reverse psychology. Call it buy now, pay later. Recent crash dieting has included speed walking up Wainwrights with rucksacks containing flasks of black coffee (harsh); daytime fasting (miserable); and attempting burpees (humiliating) I needed an escape. The greatest form of marketing is word of mouth and I have only heard encouraging things about Alexandros like an enticing Shangri-La willing me over the threshold. This fabled Greek restaurant has been long overdue on my Cumbrian bucket list which has seen me scramble Catbells at dusk, paddleboard on Loweswater and drink a cold beer in Keswick's Dog & Gun. Alexandros Carlisle (Image: Newsquest) It is 5.30pm on the Saturday before Easter and Alexandros is already looking busy before we are seated. We meet the charming owners, husband and wife team and Aris and Sarah Pathanoglous They are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the restaurant in Carlisle. Their family business. Alexandros is elegantly decorated in Grecian trimmings and eye-catching paintings of Greece including the great man himself Alexander The Great. It is a very relaxed setting. Sparkling water is proffered. Menus scrutinised. Husband and wife team Sarah and Aris (Image: Newsquest) Like a time capsule that is set in Cumbria but takes you on a journey, the restaurant is rolling back the years. French novelist Marcel Proust said that food has the restorative power of nostalgia. A smell or taste of food can transport you back in time. Dipping that gorgeous Greek bread into Tzatziki and the clock rewinds to the summer of 1996. I am back in Ioannina, Northern Greece, younger, thinner and working as a TEFL teacher. I am eating Greek salad by Preveza with a pint of Amstel and reading John Fowles The Magus. The famous Greek Drachma with Alexander The Great (Image: Newsquest) It is searingly hot. There was no European Union. No Euro notes. You could flip a 100-drachma coin and it could land heads or tails on the famous profile of Alexandros. The Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou and his much younger air hostess wife 'Mimi' is a big talking point. Tension is mounting between Turkey and Greece over a disputed island called Imia. Hilary Clinton is in Athens to collect the Olympic Torch for Atlanta 1996. Topping the charts in the bars of my favourite coastal resort of Parga are Spaceman by Babylon Zoo and Fool's Garden Lemon Tree. It seems appropriate as Northern Greece is the fruit basket. Taxi drivers don't use seat belts as they speed through the streets with Bouzouki music playing on the radio. Crete (Image: Newsquest) Greece was all about turning up the volume on the senses, the aroma of orange trees and olive groves. The taste of baked aubergine and garlic in a Taverna, the salty sweet smell of the Ionian sea. Sipping (Ellinikos kafes) Greek coffee, twiddling Kombo Loi (beads). Greeks I often found were consummate people watchers. Looking on with wry amusement as North Europeans busy themselves trying to pack a lifetime of sunshine and relaxation into a fortnight. A mulishly stubborn raised eyelids or a sardonic shrug of the shoulder speak volumes. For the Greeks there is nothing new under the sun. How to pack the promise of adventure onto a plate? The food we ordered was exquisite. Greek salad - crisp, creamy with sharp feta and a subtle drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Moussaka made from a traditional recipe. Tyrokafteri, Spicy Feta, Melitzanosalata, aubergine dip, the starter is a mind-boggling trinity of delectable flavours washed by down by a delicate white wine, Makedonikos, Tsantali from Halkidi. A Dionysian feast of aromas, tastes and textures that ooze that Mediterranean allure of sun-kissed isles. It conjures excitement and anticipation as the family talk is all about the forthcoming wedding. This is the first time the English and Greek families have met formally. Good manners and cultural etiquette will be meticulously observed. First impressions last. Tread carefully. Cretans are some of the most welcoming, hospitable people in the world but they don't suffer fools. Their fearsome partisan spirit was best depicted in WWII films Guns of Navarone with Gregory Peck and Ill Met by Moonlight starring Dirk Bogarde. Eating here reminds me of the past and the future. Traditional food with a modern outlook. Stunned by this spellbinding culinary masterpiece there was temptation to burst onto Warwick Road and proclaim 'Eureka!'. To avoid a few disconcerted looks and possibly arrest I just sat back and savoured that rare refined satisfaction you have when you've truly enjoyed a splendid meal. Greek food elevated par excellence. A full house of clean plates. 'Best food ever' proclaims my McDonald's mad 12-year-old who has cleaned a plate of Paidakia lamb chops. Delicious Moussaka (Image: Newsquest) For those craving 'encore' there is an adjoining deli to take a few delicacies back home. Racks of wines and olive oils. For those sweet toothed among you - Baklava. We leave this far flung Grecian restaurant in Carlisle to the sounds of clinking wine glasses, exuberant chatter and Aris Pathanoglous smiling standing with a clipboard like a Maestro composer. Happy Place, Happy faces. The body language all looks positive. This restaurant is a triumph. It could sit comfortably in Ermou Street, Athens, Covent Garden, London, Trattoria Vecchia, Rome and hold its own. But it's not. It's on Warwick Road, Carlisle, where it has conquered the city like Alexander The Great. A Herculean champion of dining, inspiration, hard work, impeccable service, and philosophy. The perfect fusion of tantalising authentic Greek food provenanced in Cumbria. So I say 'Yamas!' to Alexandros - Thank you for a sumptuous gastronomic tour down memory lane. The perfect dress rehearsal for my fat(ish) Greek Wedding. Now for a few Wainwrights and that diminutive suit… For more information about Alexandros click here ere Suit option for Crete (Image: Newsquest)
The Guardian
10-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Black Mirror's pessimism porn won't lead us to a better future
Black Mirror is more than science fiction – its stories about modernity have become akin to science folklore, shaping our collective view of technology and the future. Each new innovation gets an allegory: smartphones as tools for a new age caste system, robot dogs as overzealous human hunters, drones as a murderous swarm, artificial intelligence as new age necromancy, virtual reality and brain chips as seizure-inducing nightmares, to name a few. Episodes most often channel our collective anxieties about the future – or foment new ones through masterly writing, directing, casting and acting. It is a must-watch, but must we take it so seriously? Black Mirror fails to consistently explore the duality of technology and our reactions to it. It is a critical deficit. The show mimics the folly of Icarus and Daedalus – the original tech bros – and the hubris of Jurassic Park's Dr Hammond. Missing are the lessons of the Prometheus myth, which shows fire as a boon for humanity, not doom, though its democratization angered benevolent gods. Absent is the plot twist of Pandora's box that made it philosophically useful: the box also contained hope and opportunity that new knowledge brings. While Black Mirror explores how humans react to technology, it too often does so in service of a dystopian narrative, ignoring Isaac Asimov's observation: that humans are prone to irrationally fear or resist technology. Black Mirror is more pessimism porn than Plato's parable, imparting to its audience a tacit lesson: fear the future more than the past. Fear too much technological change, not too little. It is an inherently populist narrative – one that appeals to nostalgia: intellectually we understand the present is better than the past in large part due to scientific and technological change, yet emotionally and instinctually we can't help but feel this time in history is different, that the future can only get worse. This kind of reductive dystopianism – a hallmark of post-1960s science fiction – clouds our thinking about the future because it 'cannot imagine a better future, and it doesn't ask anyone to bother to make one', as New Yorker writer Jill Lepore noted in 2017. We run from the speculative risks of the future, towards the proven dangers of the past, a dynamic I call the Frankenstein fallacy. This pessimistic archetype has bipartisan allure because 'it requires so little by way of literary, political, or moral imagination', according to Lepore; consequently, it is politically useful but unconstructive – as populism tends to be. Technological pessimism will insure against a more dystopian tomorrow. Fear of genetically modified organisms – which kicked off around the release of Jurassic Park – has seen countries run from GMO food aid toward famine, from vitamin-enriched GMO 'golden rice' towards malnutrition leading to millions of avoidable deaths. Countries such as the United States and Germany ran from a future of nuclear energy, towards coal and oil. In the Philippines, a nuclear plant built in the 1970s sits unused – never turned on – while its population deals with sky-high energy prices. All three countries are now trying to reverse course, realizing that the certainty of stasis and stagnation is its own form of dystopia. In contrast, France ran from the past towards the future, overcoming public fears of nuclear disasters, now getting 70% of its electricity from nuclear power. Countries such as India, Brazil, Mexico and Thailand have run from vapes – outlawing them, while permitting traditional tobacco cigarettes for 1.8 billion of their citizens. Better unsafe than sorry. In the US, Robert F Kennedy Jr runs from vaccines towards natural herd immunity – although he might be having second thoughts now that the risks have become less abstract. Bipartisan efforts have sought to remove online anonymity to protect children, forgetting that as adults they'll lose the protection that anonymity brings in the context of free speech. Attacks on environmentally friendly lab-grown beef from Republicans have drawn support by Democrats such as John Fetterman. In the UK, encryption is under siege, a modern-day promethean protection that angers the powerful, in the name of keeping society from runaway technology. Meanwhile, Adolescence is the latest dystopian Netflix show to shape public policy conversations about technology and the future. Artificial intelligence has been touted as an existential threat to humanity while it accelerates cancer treatments, reduces sepsis deaths and produces new antibiotics to treat stubborn superbugs. Sign up to TechScape A weekly dive in to how technology is shaping our lives after newsletter promotion The folly of treating the miracles of science and technology as inevitable curses became unavoidable in the global coronavirus pandemic. The risk of inaction and stasis was too real to ignore, the absence of technology became the threat. Tellingly, it was in this period – between 2020 and 2022 – that Black Mirror went on hiatus. Charlie Brooker said this was because people didn't want to consume dystopian fiction when everything felt so bleak. In a moment when screens kept us connected, protected and employed, the reductiveness of dystopian science fiction felt silly. Biotechnology like GMOs and mRNA offered existential hope, rather than risk. Suddenly it became deeply uncool and unintellectual to fear technology – as 5G masts burned and Black Mirror-esque conspiracy theories of computer chips being injected through vaccines spread, dystopian fiction lost its allure, though its vestiges still lurked: Chipotle offered free burritos to the vaccinated, burritos it proudly markets as GMO-free. King Charles, who once warned that genetically modified organisms would cause the biggest environmental disaster of all time, would congratulate Oxford researchers for their GMO-based Covid vaccine. Publications like Scientific American would deplore pandemic conspiracy theories, when less than a year earlier it would amplify unfounded alarmism about 5G. A new progressivism – one that embraces construction over obstruction, of pragmatism over precaution – must find new allegories to think about technology and the future. Stories that challenge a mindset the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, criticized for leading us to miss massive opportunities 'because of the fears of small risk'. We must move away from binary tales of catastrophe, not towards naive utopianism that ignores problems and risks that comes with change, but hopeful solutionism that reminds us we can solve and mitigate them. Stories that don't make us forget that brain chips can liberate paraplegics, robot dogs can protect us from landmines, AI can prevent super bugs and VR can connect us rather than cut us off from reality – even if their vibes are 'a bit Black Mirror'.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Yahoo
Ukrainian sculptor Taras Shevchenko killed in action
Taras Shevchenko, a 25-year-old Ukrainian sculptor, was killed in action on Sunday, 9 March. He was an employee of the Tuzly Lagoons National Nature Park. Source: park's staff member Ivan Rusiev on Facebook Quote from Rusiev: "A young, incredibly bright person, an outstanding sculptor of Ukrainian Bessarabia, is no longer with us. He was killed by the war, which he went to fight alongside his father, Oleksandr, as soon as Russia's invasion of Ukraine began. Some years ago, a majestic pelican named Daedalus appeared in the Tuzly Amazonia recreation area of the Tuzly Lagoons National Nature Park." The sculpture of the pelican. Photo: Ivan Rusiev on Facebook The sculpture of the pelican. Photo: Ivan Rusiev on Facebook Photo: Ivan Rusiev on Facebook Details: The pelican sculpture was installed at the site of a former military training ground. Made of gypsum, it is life-sized. Quote from Rusiev: "Concrete pedestals remained at the site, and the park's creative staff decided to use them as bases for art installations. The first to be placed there was the symbol of Tuzly Amazonia – the Dalmatian pelican, a vulnerable species listed in Ukraine's Red Data Book. The monument was created by the young sculptor and park employee Taras Shevchenko." Details: Later, Taras also created thematic sculptures of a marmot and a Scythian stone statue. Read also: "A man of great heart": veterinarian and soldier Zakhar Palii killed in action Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
