Latest news with #TheOverstory
New York Times
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Ed Helms Read ‘Moby-Dick' on His Phone. On the New York Subway.
In an email interview, the actor ('The Office') explained why working in comedy drew him to exploring big mistakes, in a podcast that led to the book. SCOTT HELLER What books are on your night stand? 'The History of Sound,' by Ben Shattuck, and 'The Library Book,' by Susan Orlean. How do you organize your books? I don't. Books migrate between dignified shelves, unruly coffee tables and chaotic piles that sprout around my office like mushrooms. Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how). This might sound strange, but one of my favorite reading experiences was standing on the New York City subway, clinging to a pole with one hand and reading 'Moby-Dick' on my phone with the other. Sometimes I was so engrossed I'd get off the train and just plop down on a bench to finish a chapter. But honestly, nothing beats reading aloud to my kids in our little reading nook at home. What's the last great book you read? I've read a lot of good books, but the last truly great book I read was 'The Overstory,' by Richard Powers. What books are you embarrassed not to have read yet? 'Anna Karenina,' by Tolstoy. In my defense, someone gave me a Russian-language edition and I literally can't read it. Disappointing, overrated, just not good: What book did you feel as if you were supposed to like, and didn't? 'A Walk in the Woods,' by Bill Bryson. I signed up for soulful reflections on a grueling 2,000-mile trek along the Appalachian Trail. What I got were some chipper musings about a leisurely stroll to a diner. Bryson is hilarious, but I still felt betrayed. Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? The Lorax. Were you a 'Captain Underpants' fan before playing the title role in the movie version? I was only dimly aware of the series before I signed on, but I immediately fell in love with its anarchic spirit. There's a wonderful undercurrent of pure childhood mischief in those books. What's your favorite book no one else has heard of? 'Longitude,' by Dava Sobel. It's a gripping, soulful history of the race to determine one's longitude at sea, which, I promise, is way more exciting than it sounds. In 'Snafu,' you ask readers to think of you as their 'unofficial history teacher.' Is there one who made a difference to you? My brother is a middle school history teacher, and one of the smartest, funniest people I know. He's my go-to for fact-checking and/or spirited debates. What is it about your personality that makes you fascinated by foul-ups? I think because comedy is rooted in pain and suffering, I've spent my whole life instinctively tuning in to moments when things go wrong. At this point, it's not so much a fascination as it is a reflex. Who's the most foolish figure unearthed in the research for the book, and why? One strong contender is the U.S. military engineer who, during the Cold War, proposed nuking the moon just to show the Soviets how tough we were. Not land on it. Not colonize it. Just … detonate it. The most heroic? Jimmy Carter. In 1952, long before he became president, he helped lead a dangerous cleanup of a partial nuclear meltdown at Canada's Chalk River reactor. He and his men risked their lives to contain the disaster, a quiet act of heroism that almost no one talks about today. Is there a recent event that seems likely to make it into a sequel to this book? DOGE. Have you ever gotten in trouble for reading a book? In fifth grade, I got caught carting around 'The Joy of Sex' at school. It made me wildly popular with my friends and significantly less popular with my teachers and parents. What's the last book you recommended to a member of your family? A.D.H.D. has touched my life in a lot of ways, so I've recommended 'Scattered Minds,' by Gabor Maté, to friends and family who've been curious about it. It's a moving, compassionate window into what living with A.D.H.D. actually feels like. What's the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently? In David Byrne's 'How Music Works,' I learned how profoundly music is shaped by the spaces it's performed in. Cathedrals, dive bars, stadiums: They don't just host music, they transform how we experience it. As a musician, this was a thrilling revelation, something I'd always felt on some level but had never consciously reflected on before. 'Humanity has demonstrated an uncanny ability to bounce back' from snafus, you write. Still feeling that way? Yes. But to your point, we also have a nasty habit of bouncing backward just as quickly. Sadly, human progress is not a straight line. It's more like a cosmic game of Chutes and Ladders. You're organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite? Oscar Wilde, Marcus Aurelius and Anne Lamott. That should make for a good mix of profound insight and hard laughs.
Observer
22-04-2025
- General
- Observer
Let us live on a healthy earth...
Don't you feel that the environmental crisis that we are facing today is terrifying? That the air we breathe is polluted and the water that we drink is contaminated? Whoever does not see these signs now will probably never have the eyes for what lies ahead! The answer lies in what Robert Swan, the first person to walk to both poles, said: 'The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.' Whether climate change is an effect that is caused by natural processes, manmade activity or the combination of the two, what is visible is that changes are happening to the Earth's climate. And this is creating a strain on our environment. I am not an environmental expert, nor am I mindfulness professional. But still, there is ample scientific evidence that the climate is changing and that the change is being influenced by a host of human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. The only thing I can say, as a layman, is the changing weather patterns are going to force us to make more immediate and drastic changes to our existing infrastructure. It is clear that climate change, biodiversity loss, and other environmental issues are threatening the very foundation of our existence. So saving the earth is not merely the need of the hour but much more. Unfortunately, the only home we have is at a breaking point. It is even messier. We have damaged two-thirds of the earth's oceans and three-quarters of its land. These man-made changes to nature, as well as crimes that disrupt biodiversity, have gathered more pace, leading to the destruction of the planet. The final result is that millions of people are affected by extreme heat, wildfires, and floods. So saving the earth is not merely the need of the hour but much more. We need a healthier plant. We need nature more than it needs us. Our world has been changing and will continue to change — with or without us. Saving biodiversity and ecosystem by ecosystem, is the only way to save ourselves! April is Earth Month, a time when many people around the world come together to celebrate and raise awareness about environmental issues and take action to protect our planet. While Earth Month started as a movement in the 1960s, the first Earth Day was organised on April 22, 1970. Unlike any other annual event, Earth Day serves as a yearly 'wake-up call,' shaking us out of complacency and urging us to confront the harsh reality of our impact on the planet. Climate change, pollution, deforestation and biodiversity loss are no longer distant threats. Planting one single tree a year is a simple way to contribute to the environment because we believe that trees are nature's soldiers in the fight against global warming. In this context is The Overstory, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by American novelist Richard Powers. Though I may be one of the last to put my hands on the book so late, it reminded me of what I had forgotten — the wordless understanding I had about trees. Rather, it is a reminder of our environmental consciousness. The humans are not the important part of this book. It's the idea of how we relate to trees and nature itself. It's about the realisation that trees will find a way, with or without us. The novel provides an intimate case study of environmentalism. The novel stresses the need for co-existence of humans and non-humans this planet. 'All around the house, the things they've planted in years gone by are making significance, making meaning, as easily as they make sugar and wood from nothing, from air, and sun, and rain. But the humans hear nothing,' Powers writes. The Overstory inspires its readers to do more, act more for their planet. As the world still celebrating the Earth Month, let this novel be an inspiration to contemplate our relationship with nature.
Forbes
08-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Charles Gaines' Calculus of Trees
Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab , Tree #4 , Maasai 2024 Acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts 241.3 x 335.9 x 14.6 cm / 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 in Trees are having a moment. There was Richard Powers 'The Overstory,' a slim novel where the point of view of a tree was as much a character as the human ones. There was Tiffany Shlain and Ken Goldberg's recent exhibition at the Skirball (now moved on to new pastures, see here). More generally, scientists continue to explore how trees communicate with each other and the pathways they create through root networks and airborne transfers. And currently, there is Charles Gaines' magisterial new works, Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs, at Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood (on view through May 24, 2025). The exhibition consists of nine large three-part images and several two part watercolors that seem to progress in complexity and across a spectrum of color. The total effect is one of amazement and awe, of beauty and calm, transporting us away from our present world and all its conflicts. Portrait of Charles Gaines 2024 On the evening of the exhibition's opening, Gaines, in conversation at the gallery with LACMA curator Naima Keith and Phoenix Museum's Olga Viso (where Gaines also currently has a retrospective) spoke of how he wanted to eliminate 'the subjective in his art.' As the exhibition press release explains, in the work on exhibit, each tree has been assigned a distinctive color and number sequence. The profusion of colors each filling a small square creates a profusion of color as unique to Gaines' oeuvre as a Seurat pointillist masterpiece. The use of numbers and grids for image creation is, in one sense, an artist-created artificial intelligence that can generate an endless series of possible colors and images but that is, nonetheless, tightly controlled by Gaines' system. At the same, this method creates a distancing between the work and the viewer, a gap if you will, expressed as well by the separation in these works between the plexiglass and the photo behind it. Numbers and Trees: Tanzania Series 1, Baobab, Tree #5, Rangi 2024 Acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, photograph, 3 parts 241.3 x 335.9 x 14.6 cm / 95 x 132 1/4 x 5 3/4 in In some of the works, the photo of the African landscape appears in the background while the color simulacrum appears in the foreground. In others, the Tree is in the foreground while there is a blown-up section of the branch architecture, what Gaines calls 'an explosion.' Gaines is now eighty, and his demeanor, as much as his work, remains thoughtful and quiet. Gaines' flight from the subjective does not mean, as some critics believe, an avoidance of the personal, or even the political. This exhibition puts that notion to rest. Installation view, 'Charles Gaines. Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs,' Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood, February 19 – May 24. 2024 With the new work, one might ask: Why travel to Tanzania to take a photo? The exhibition press release tell us, 'With Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs, Gaines reflects on… the country's historical context, particularly in relation to the colonial enterprise, slave trade and personal identity.' That is about as personal and political as it can get. The baobab tree is called 'The Tree of Life' because it survives in arid areas where other trees do not. Its tangled network of branches extends into the sky, as if it were upside-down, its roots visible to all. 'Gaines' argument,' the press release notes, 'that aesthetic experience is not transcendent but rather firmly rooted in and shaped by culture' explains how the Tanzanian baobab and its numeric colored equivalents are Gaines' objective (not subjective) meditation on his roots, his personal and artistic history. Like the baobab, it is a display of Gaines' own rootedness, and how Numbers and Trees make connections to his personal history, to art history, to other artists, and to all who experience the work.
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
A Novel About a Father's Choice
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Welcome back to The Daily's Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what's keeping them entertained. Today's special guest is Shane Harris, a staff writer who covers intelligence and national-security issues. He has written about the Trump administration's military purge, what happens to federal agencies when DOGE takes over, and how Elon Musk is breaking the national-security system. Shane recommends reading Bewilderment, by Richard Powers, a novel that is 'freighted with insight, dread, hope, and often a mixture of the three.' He also enjoys daily online etymology lessons, studying Old Masters paintings, and listening to the film scores of the late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. First, here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic: The telepathy trap America's cultural revolution Trump is breaking the fourth wall. The Culture Survey: Shane Harris The best novel I've recently read: Bewilderment, by Richard Powers. Like its predecessor—the towering, sylvan epic The Overstory—this novel worries about the possibly untenable relationship between humanity and the natural world. The books are thematically and stylistically similar; nearly every paragraph is freighted with insight, dread, hope, and often a mixture of the three. But Bewilderment is a quieter and more tangible story that sometimes felt like it could be The Overstory's prequel. They are perfect companions, so if you've read one, read the other. [Related: The novel that asks, 'What went wrong with mankind?'] If you've read neither, give yourself the gift! Bewilderment follows a widowed astrobiologist named Theo Byrne, who is desperate to contain the volatile, emotional outbursts of his 9-year-old son. Robin is a prime target for bullies at school because of his affliction, which presents as a neurodivergent constellation and makes him acutely, sometimes painfully, aware of the physical degradation of the Earth and all the nonhumans that inhabit it. Desperate for some treatment that doesn't use medication, Theo has Robin try an experimental neurofeedback therapy that allows him to spend time with a version of his dead mother's consciousness. The ramifications are … not 'bewildering,' per se, but profoundly altering. When you finish the book, ask yourself, as I did, whether you would have made the same choice to bring even a modicum of relief for your child. The best work of nonfiction I've recently read: I don't love the term revisionist history, but Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God, by Catherine Nixey, is a highly readable book that revised my understanding of early Christianity and my thoughts about the Catholic Church. I'll leave it to historians to debate the quality of Nixey's scholarship—I'm way out of my depth there, but the book seems impeccably sourced and added to my evolving view on the nature of religion. Nixey proposes that, contrary to the Catholic Church's teachings, there was no clear agreement in Christianity's early centuries about who Jesus was and why he mattered. Her argument is persuasive, and it excites me the way great investigative journalism does. Her book is as much a hunt to unearth old stories as it is an indictment of the Church fathers who buried them. The last museum show that I loved: I had only a few free hours when I was in Munich last month for the annual Security Conference, so I went to the Alte Pinakothek, which houses one of the world's most significant collections of Old Masters paintings. I wasn't prepared for the physical scale and the beauty of this collection—and I saw only a fraction of it. I have never spent much time on this period of art because I've never been a huge fan of Christian imagery, which always struck me as redundant. The Alte Pinakothek converted me. There is just so much more to know about that epoch than I understood, and much of the knowledge is in that museum. I could have spent days there. A quiet song that I love, and a loud song that I love: 'If Christopher Calls,' by Foy Vance, and 'What's the Frequency, Kenneth?,' by R.E.M. An online creator that I'm a fan of: Tom Read Wilson. I start most mornings with his word or phrase of the day on Instagram. Tom is a devoted lover of spoken language and a keen etymologist. He recently explained the Latin origins of the word risible, and demonstrated how it could be used positively and negatively. He shares colorful figures of speech from Australia, South Africa, and the American South, always in a regionally appropriate accent. (His Texas twang is really good.) On weekends, he will recite a Shakespearean sonnet—he is learning and performing all of them in order. That's all great. But I think Tom is at his best when he eschews the high-minded stuff. I first encountered him when the Instagram algorithm served up his straight-faced explanation of a 'shit sandwich.' 'Now, I don't mean a sandwich containing fecal matter, nor do I mean a really rubbish panini,' Tom explained. He asked us to imagine a three-paragraph email in which bad news or criticism is sandwiched between more pleasant and easier-to-swallow sentences. Well, we've all received one of those! [Related: The two most dismissive words on the internet] A musical artist who means a lot to me: Jóhann Jóhannsson, the Icelandic composer who is probably best known for his collaboration with the filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Jóhannsson scored Prisoners, Sicario, and Arrival, which is one of my 10 favorite films of all time. (Sicario, by the way, is a movie that bears rewatching in light of the actions that the U.S. government is poised to take against Mexican drug cartels.) I am also captivated by Jóhannsson's score for his own film, Last and First Men. He died from a drug overdose two years before the release; the composer Yair Elazar Glotman finished the music and collaborated with other superb musicians, including Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won an Oscar in 2020 for scoring Joker. [Related: The blockbuster that Hollywood was afraid to make] I love Jóhannsson's film scores and often listen to them while I write. But don't overlook his studio albums. Fordlandia, inspired by a failed utopia that Henry Ford wanted to build in the jungles of Brazil, is so thematically coherent that you could imagine it was written for a movie. Jóhannsson's work is often dark, brooding, and eerie, but it can be surprisingly melodic, and I love that he treats any object that can make a sound as a musical instrument. He occupies the same place in my imagination as Philip Seymour Hoffman, the actor who also died far too young from an overdose. They would surely have given us more masterpieces, but any artist would envy the body of work they left behind. The Week Ahead Black Bag, Steven Soderbergh's new spy-thriller film about an intelligence agent whose wife is accused of betraying her country (in theaters Friday) Season 3 of The Wheel of Time, a fantasy series about five young villagers who are part of an ancient prophecy (out Thursday) Liquid: A Love Story, a novel by Mariam Rahmani about a Muslim scholar who leaves her career in academia to marry rich instead (out Tuesday) Essay What Ketamine Does to the Human Brain By Shayla Love What Ketamine Does to the Human BrainBy Shayla LoveLast month, during Elon Musk's appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, as he hoisted a chain saw in the air, stumbled over some of his words, and questioned whether there was really gold stored in Fort Knox, people on his social-media platform, X, started posting about ketamine. Read the full article. More in Culture Cling to your disgust. When a celebrity offers a 'harsh reality check' The nicest swamp on the internet 'Dear James': My husband is a mess. Coaching is the new 'asking your friends for help.' A thriller that's most fun when it's boring Conan O'Brien understood the assignment. Catch Up on Mitch McConnell and the president he calls 'despicable' Trump's most inexplicable decision yet Martin Baron: Where Jeff Bezos went wrong with The Washington Post Photo Album Revelers watch a giant wooden installation depicting a mill tower burn during the annual celebration of Maslenitsa at the Nikola-Lenivets art park southwest of Moscow, on March 1, 2025. The cherished Russian folk festival has its origins in an ancient Slavic holiday marking the end of winter and spring's arrival. Spend time with photos of the week, including a caretaking humanoid robot in Japan, prayers for Pope Francis in Brazil, a polar-bear-plunge record attempt in the Czech Republic, and more. When you buy a book using a link in this newsletter, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic. Article originally published at The Atlantic
Atlantic
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Atlantic
A Novel About a Father's Choice
This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Welcome back to The Daily's Sunday culture edition, in which one Atlantic writer or editor reveals what's keeping them entertained. Today's special guest is Shane Harris, a staff writer who covers intelligence and national-security issues. He has written about the Trump administration's military purge, what happens to federal agencies when DOGE takes over, and how Elon Musk is breaking the national-security system. Shane recommends reading Bewilderment, by Richard Powers, a novel that is 'freighted with insight, dread, hope, and often a mixture of the three.' He also enjoys daily online etymology lessons, studying Old Masters paintings, and listening to the film scores of the late composer Jóhann Jóhannsson. First, here are three Sunday reads from The Atlantic: The Culture Survey: Shane Harris The best novel I've recently read: Bewilderment, by Richard Powers. Like its predecessor—the towering, sylvan epic The Overstory —this novel worries about the possibly untenable relationship between humanity and the natural world. The books are thematically and stylistically similar; nearly every paragraph is freighted with insight, dread, hope, and often a mixture of the three. But Bewilderment is a quieter and more tangible story that sometimes felt like it could be The Overstory 's prequel. They are perfect companions, so if you've read one, read the other. [Related: The novel that asks, 'What went wrong with mankind?' ] If you've read neither, give yourself the gift! Bewilderment follows a widowed astrobiologist named Theo Byrne, who is desperate to contain the volatile, emotional outbursts of his 9-year-old son. Robin is a prime target for bullies at school because of his affliction, which presents as a neurodivergent constellation and makes him acutely, sometimes painfully, aware of the physical degradation of the Earth and all the nonhumans that inhabit it. Desperate for some treatment that doesn't use medication, Theo has Robin try an experimental neurofeedback therapy that allows him to spend time with a version of his dead mother's consciousness. The ramifications are … not 'bewildering,' per se, but profoundly altering. When you finish the book, ask yourself, as I did, whether you would have made the same choice to bring even a modicum of relief for your child. The best work of nonfiction I've recently read: I don't love the term revisionist history, but Heretic: Jesus Christ and the Other Sons of God, by Catherine Nixey, is a highly readable book that revised my understanding of early Christianity and my thoughts about the Catholic Church. I'll leave it to historians to debate the quality of Nixey's scholarship—I'm way out of my depth there, but the book seems impeccably sourced and added to my evolving view on the nature of religion. Nixey proposes that, contrary to the Catholic Church's teachings, there was no clear agreement in Christianity's early centuries about who Jesus was and why he mattered. Her argument is persuasive, and it excites me the way great investigative journalism does. Her book is as much a hunt to unearth old stories as it is an indictment of the Church fathers who buried them. The last museum show that I loved: I had only a few free hours when I was in Munich last month for the annual Security Conference, so I went to the Alte Pinakothek, which houses one of the world's most significant collections of Old Masters paintings. I wasn't prepared for the physical scale and the beauty of this collection—and I saw only a fraction of it. I have never spent much time on this period of art because I've never been a huge fan of Christian imagery, which always struck me as redundant. The Alte Pinakothek converted me. There is just so much more to know about that epoch than I understood, and much of the knowledge is in that museum. I could have spent days there. A quiet song that I love, and a loud song that I love: 'If Christopher Calls,' by Foy Vance, and 'What's the Frequency, Kenneth?,' by R.E.M. An online creator that I'm a fan of: Tom Read Wilson. I start most mornings with his word or phrase of the day on Instagram. Tom is a devoted lover of spoken language and a keen etymologist. He recently explained the Latin origins of the word risible, and demonstrated how it could be used positively and negatively. He shares colorful figures of speech from Australia, South Africa, and the American South, always in a regionally appropriate accent. (His Texas twang is really good.) On weekends, he will recite a Shakespearean sonnet— he is learning and performing all of them in order. That's all great. But I think Tom is at his best when he eschews the high-minded stuff. I first encountered him when the Instagram algorithm served up his straight-faced explanation of a ' shit sandwich.' 'Now, I don't mean a sandwich containing fecal matter, nor do I mean a really rubbish panini,' Tom explained. He asked us to imagine a three-paragraph email in which bad news or criticism is sandwiched between more pleasant and easier-to-swallow sentences. Well, we've all received one of those! [Related: The two most dismissive words on the internet ] A musical artist who means a lot to me: Jóhann Jóhannsson, the Icelandic composer who is probably best known for his collaboration with the filmmaker Denis Villeneuve. Jóhannsson scored Prisoners, Sicario, and Arrival, which is one of my 10 favorite films of all time. (Sicario, by the way, is a movie that bears rewatching in light of the actions that the U.S. government is poised to take against Mexican drug cartels.) I am also captivated by Jóhannsson's score for his own film, Last and First Men. He died from a drug overdose two years before the release; the composer Yair Elazar Glotman finished the music and collaborated with other superb musicians, including Hildur Guðnadóttir, who won an Oscar in 2020 for scoring Joker. [Related: The blockbuster that Hollywood was afraid to make ] I love Jóhannsson's film scores and often listen to them while I write. But don't overlook his studio albums. Fordlandia, inspired by a failed utopia that Henry Ford wanted to build in the jungles of Brazil, is so thematically coherent that you could imagine it was written for a movie. Jóhannsson's work is often dark, brooding, and eerie, but it can be surprisingly melodic, and I love that he treats any object that can make a sound as a musical instrument. He occupies the same place in my imagination as Philip Seymour Hoffman, the actor who also died far too young from an overdose. They would surely have given us more masterpieces, but any artist would envy the body of work they left behind. The Week Ahead Black Bag, Steven Soderbergh's new spy-thriller film about an intelligence agent whose wife is accused of betraying her country (in theaters Friday) Season 3 of The Wheel of Time, a fantasy series about five young villagers who are part of an ancient prophecy (out Thursday) Essay What Ketamine Does to the Human Brain By Shayla Love What Ketamine Does to the Human Brain By Shayla Love Last month, during Elon Musk's appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, as he hoisted a chain saw in the air, stumbled over some of his words, and questioned whether there was really gold stored in Fort Knox, people on his social-media platform, X, started posting about ketamine. Read the full article. More in Culture Cling to your disgust. When a celebrity offers a 'harsh reality check' The nicest swamp on the internet 'Dear James': My husband is a mess. Coaching is the new 'asking your friends for help.' A thriller that's most fun when it's boring Conan O'Brien understood the assignment. Catch Up on The Atlantic Mitch McConnell and the president he calls 'despicable' Trump's most inexplicable decision yet Martin Baron: Where Jeff Bezos went wrong with The Washington Post Photo Album Revelers watch a giant wooden installation depicting a mill tower burn during the annual celebration of Maslenitsa at the Nikola-Lenivets art park southwest of Moscow, on March 1, 2025. The cherished Russian folk festival has its origins in an ancient Slavic holiday marking the end of winter and spring's arrival. Spend time with photos of the week, including a caretaking humanoid robot in Japan, prayers for Pope Francis in Brazil, a polar-bear-plunge record attempt in the Czech Republic, and more.
