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A14 people & Arts
Tuesday 2 February 2021

New book sees a 'New Possible'

emerging from 2020's tumult

tion novelist Kim Stanley Facebook backers like in- ing at the top of our lungs
Robinson to Buddhist monk vestor Roger McNamee. about this train running off
Jack Kornfield suggest "It is very tempting to hate the cliff for a long time and
ways to reshape technol- the players rather than look then it culminated in Jan.
ogy, the economy, the en- at the game and realize it's 6," Harris told the AP, refer-
vironment, the food supply, the problem," Rosenstein ring to the insurrection at
government and commu- said. "We have new tech- the U.S. Capitol incited by
nity in hopes that people nology that can enable us former President Donald
can eventually look back to harness our collective Trump. "We have trapped
at 2020 as a reawakening intelligence in ways that the entire global psyche in-
and not a death rattle. has never been possible side this Vegas-style dopa-
"People can tell our systems before." mine machine that has be-
are broken, and not just in a The book is backed by One come the host of our dem-
subtle way, not just like we Project, a nonprofit group ocratic conversations."
need to tweak a few things Rosenstein started as part "The New Possible" aims to
or throw a few bad apples of his effort to improve the spur change through 28 es-
out," said Justin Rosenstein, way we live and work. He says divided into 10 cate-
a former Google and Face- also was a protagonist in gories — Earth, Us, Change,
book engineer who contrib- "The Social Dilemma," a Wealth, Work, Food, Edu-
uted an essay on building Netflix documentary about cation, Love, Community
a "democratic economy." the dark side of social me- and Tomorrow. The con-
This undated image provided by Wipf and Stock Publishers "The rules of the system are dia released four months tributors the gamut from
shows the book cover of "The New Possible". rigged against us. They are before the Jan. 6 insurrec- best-selling author Michael
Associated Press not designed to serve the tion at the Capitol. Pollan to high school teen
interests of humanity, they Another "Social Dilemma" activist Anisa Nanavati.
By MICHAEL LIEDTKE But what if all that tumult are not designed to serve standout, former Google The contributors quickly
AP Technology Writer actually laid the foundation the interests of nature." engineer Tristan Harris, embraced idea last spring,
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — for societal revival? That's Rosenstein was one of the founded the Center for Hu- said Philip Clayton, one
In pop culture, 2020 has the premise offered by an driving forces behind the mane Technology in 2018r of the book's editors and
been understandably re- eclectic group of writers, book, which was released to nudge the industry away president of the Institute for
viled as the "hell year." It academics, scientists, en- last week. Some critics may from building services and Ecological Civilization. In
tormented us with a lethal vironmentalists, and tech- see him as part of the prob- devices designed to at- the eight months since work
pandemic spiraling out of nology engineers in "The lem, given that he invented tract and hold onto our on the essays began, Clay-
control, thousands of shut- New Possible," a collection the Facebook "Like" button attention. His considers his ton believes the sequence
tered businesses, violent of essays that explore what that helped propel the suc- essay a kind of sequel to of events that bookended
protests over racial injus- and how the world might cess of a social network the Netflix documentary the Nov. 3 election have
tice, raging wildfires and rebuild from the rubble of that has become a massive and its warning about how turned "The New Possible"
political extremism and lies the past year. funnel of misinformation Facebook and Twitter can into a Kairos book, referring
that underpinned January's The group behind the book that has become a source tear people apart instead to the ancient Greek word
harrowing coup attempt at doesn't lack for ambition. of consternation and regret of bringing them together. for an opportune time in
the U.S. Capitol. People from science fic- for him and other one-time "We have been scream- history.q

Angelina Jolie sells painting Churchill gave as gift to FDR

By JILL LAWLESS and Hollywood history is of the Koutoubia Mosque" could show Roosevelt the played on the landscapes,"
Associated Press coming up for auction. — a gift from Churchill to city's beauty. he said. "And that's ab-
LONDON (AP) — A painting Christie's auction house U.S. President Franklin D. "Roosevelt was blown solutely visible here in this
by Winston Churchill that said Monday that the Mo- Roosevelt — is being sold away by it and thought it painting. You can see the
is a piece of both political roccan landscape "Tower by Angelina Jolie next was incredible," said Nick long shadows and the turn-
month with an estimated Orchard, head of Christie's ing purple of the mountains
price of 1.5 million pounds modern British art depart- and the deepening of the
to 2.5 million pounds ($2.1 ment. He said Churchill sky — classic sunset time."
million to $3.4 million). captured the view in the The painting was sold by
The image of the 12th-cen- "wonderful, evocative Roosevelt's son after the
tury mosque in Marrakech painting" and gave it to president's death in 1945,
at sunset, with the Atlas Roosevelt as a memento of and had several owners
Mountains in the back- the trip. before Jolie and partner
ground, is the only paint- Churchill was a keen ama- Brad Pitt bought it in 2011.q
ing that Britain's World War teur artist who completed
II leader completed during some 500 paintings after 3 8 9 7 2 6 1 5 4
the 1939-45 conflict. taking up painting in his 40s. 2 6 1 3 5 4 8 9 7
He painted it after the Janu- Orchard said that "the light 4 5 7 8 9 1 6 3 2
ary 1943 Casablanca Con- in Morocco and over Mar- 6 2 8 5 7 3 4 1 9
ference, where Churchill rakech was something that 5 7 4 9 1 2 3 6 8
and Roosevelt planned Churchill was passionate 9 1 3 4 6 8 2 7 5 2021 Conceptis Puzzles, Dist. by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
An oil on canvas painting by Sir Winston Churchill Painted in the defeat of Nazi Germa- about" and painted again 1 4 5 6 8 9 7 2 3
Jan. 1943 called 'Tower of the Koutoubia Mosque' is displayed ny. The two leaders visited and again.
at Christie's auction rooms in London, Friday, Jan. 29, 2021. Marrakech after the con- "He loved the dry air, the 8 9 6 2 3 7 5 4 1
Associated Press ference so that Churchill light, the sun and the way it 7 3 2 1 4 5 9 8 6
Difficulty Level 2/02