Skip to footer

Top Picks: 'Our Little Sister,' the Moasure app, and more

The novel 'Conclave' by Robert Harris is hard to put down, the podcast 'The Ark' is great for nature fans, and more top picks.

|
Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics
  • By Staff

Religious mystery

Thriller writer Robert Harris follows his just-completed trilogy on Cicero and ancient Rome with a contemporary novel set in nearby Vatican City. In Conclave, which takes place in the near future, a Francis-like pope dies, setting in motion a high-pressure closed-door mystery: choosing a new pontiff. The mystery isn’t centered on a murder; instead, the intrigue revolves around the politics and maneuvering surrounding several of the cardinals who are considered front-runners in the next papal election, or conclave. Harris tells his story through the dean of the College of Cardinals, a man of shaken faith committed to doing the right thing even as he faces a slew of unforgiving decisions and potential scandals. As for putting this one down? You don’t have a prayer.

Temperature history

Where did the Fahrenheit temperature scale come from and why does the United States use it? Derek Muller of the YouTube channel Veritasium investigates these questions in a new video  that delves into the surprising history of the science that is part of our everyday lives. You can find the clip at http://bit.ly/fahrenheitvideo.

Handy measuring

With the Moasure app, the next time you’re measuring something, all you’ll need is your phone. Simply move your phone from one spot to another and the app will do the work for you. Moasure also measures angles. The app is $1.99 for iOS.

Intriguing nature

Nature fans should check out The Ark Podcast, by Aeron Allen. It takes a look at creatures as varied as the Chinese giant salamander and the Philippine eagle. You can find the intriguing installments at https://soundcloud.com/thearkpodcast.

Good sisters

In the film Our Little Sister, written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, a trio of grown sisters (Haruka Ayase, Masami Nagasawa, and Kaho) invite their half-sibling (Suzu Hirose) to live with them. “Kore-eda has a gift for portraying goodness that is quite rare,” Monitor film critic Peter Rainer writes of the film. “He does so without a whisper of banality.” The movie is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Top Picks: 'Our Little Sister,' the Moasure app, and more
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Arts/2016/1216/Top-Picks-Our-Little-Sister-the-Moasure-app-and-more
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe