Posts by Sophie Clearwater
The Remote Restaurants Worth the Journey, From Floating Fjords to Volcanic Grills
With culinary tourism on the rise, bucket-list dining has continued to dominate travel itineraries in the most established gastronomic cities. But while any amateur foodie can experience the usual Michelin-starred restaurants of Paris, Healdsburg and Tokyo, several of the world’s most unique fine-dining restaurants demand more than a hard-to-get reservation. At these ultra-remote restaurants, inaccessibility…
Read MoreWhy ICE Is Quietly Buying Up Private Detention Centers
“As some blue states are considering more active involvement in oversight of facilities, I think the logical solution to much of that is federal ownership of the facilities,” George Zoley, CEO of GEO Group, said during the company’s earnings call in May. Zoley made clear his thinking on the advantage of federal ownership was all…
Read MoreIsrael Bombs Gaza, Casting Doubt on Trump Peace Plan
On Friday, Trump said that Israel was “very happy” with the deal, which he called a “big step for the Middle East.” Instead, Israel has appeared to buck Trump—not for the first time—by sharply intensifying its deadly attacks on Gaza. The weekend airstrikes are just the latest Israeli attacks since the October cease-fire, which was…
Read MoreA SpaceX Rocket Is About to Crash Into the Moon. Here’s Everything You Need to Know
The 230-ft. Falcon 9 lifted off from launch complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on Jan. 15, 2025, packed with a pair of spacecraft bound for the moon. One of them, the Blue Ghost lander, built by Firefly Aerospace of Cedar Park, Texas, landed on the moon on March 2, 2025, becoming the first…
Read MoreThe Cost of Extreme Heat Is Displacement
Migration is rarely the result of a single heat wave. It is the culmination of years of mounting losses that steadily erode income, health, and hope. Consider Santuben Kantibhai, a farmer from Gujarat, India. Over the past two years, her family has endured a cascade of climate and economic shocks. A severe heatwave destroyed much…
Read MoreWhat We Know About the Suspected Idaho In-N-Out Shooter—and the Bystanders Credited With Distracting Him
The family of one of the victims shared the name of their loved one who was killed in the shooting: Ashley Garibay, who was an In-N-Out employee. In a statement, her family described Garibay as “an amazing, beautiful soul who loved living life.” “She was adventurous, outgoing, smart and driven, never letting obstacles get in…
Read MoreIs AI Telling Better Stories Than Us? Why Human Writers May Be Less Appealing
The OpenAI logo is displayed on a cellphone with an image on a computer monitor generated by ChatGPT’s Dall-E text-to-image model, Dec. 8, 2023, in Boston. —Michael Dwyer—AP Not only are people unable to tell the difference between stories written by humans or artificial intelligence, they actually prefer it when the stories are created by…
Read MoreOne Fine Show: “Arthur Jafa, The White Album” at the Hammer Museum
Arthur Jafa, The White Album, 2018 (still). Video projection, color, sound; 40 min. (loop). Courtesy of the artist and Gladstone Gallery, New York The consensus out of this year’s Venice Biennale was that the must-see pavilion was Austria’s, the artist of which was the subject of a profile in this week’s New Yorker, and that…
Read MoreHow Much Big Tech Companies Spend to Protect Their CEOs From Rising Threats
Mark Zuckerberg’s $25 million security bill leads a growing corporate effort to shield executives from stalking and violence. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images In April, Sam Altman made unwanted headlines when a 20-year-old man threw a Molotov cocktail at the OpenAI CEO’s home in San Francisco. The threat of violence is not isolated. A surge in attacks…
Read MoreThe Most Spectacular Off-the-Grid Hotels, Where Privacy Is the Main Event
Luxury hotels once treated remoteness as a problem to solve. The number that matters most in luxury travel right now is the guest count—how many people a property will take at once—and at the top of the market, it keeps shrinking toward one. The whole-property buyout, renting an entire island, lodge or wilderness estate for…
Read MoreThe Legal, Logistical and Conservation Challenges of Collecting Art at Sea
There’s a lot of overlap between the art world and the yachting world. Courtesy Sanlorenzo If you own a superyacht, apart from the essentials, such as a backlit marble wet bar, SeaBOBs, helipad and inflatable pickleball court, another must-have is a standout art collection. From timeless paintings by famous artists and commissioned contemporary works to…
Read MoreA Collector’s Guide to Freeports: Capital Efficiency, Tax Timing and Strategic Anonymity
The Geneva Freeport building in Switzerland, in which some of the world’s greatest masterworks are locked away. MHM55 CC BY-SA 4.0 Freeports play a sizable role in the global art trade, yet many collectors and even industry insiders still don’t fully grasp their utility. Simply put, a freeport is a designated area within a country…
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