As long as one knows the appeal of the qin,
what is the need for the sound of the strings?
      — Attributed to Tao Yuanming, 365–427In the museum, I looked at
the beautiful things, one after another,
so many I could not take them all in.
Then I sat in the inner pavilion, clouds
moving overhead, the pages of my book blank.Because I could not see as I wanted to see.
I was beyond beauty. I was beyond seeing.

During a pandemic, public-health messaging is essential to saving lives. Media organizations have played a major role in that messaging over the past year, and not always for the better.Across the English-speaking world, many news stories about the spread of COVID-19 have been accompanied by photographs of people in outdoor settings, particularly beaches.

Development economists typically tell a compelling story about land reform: Countries can supercharge their development by leveling inequality and radically reallocating assets. In East Asia, nations that followed this simple formula transformed themselves into economic powerhouses.So why haven’t more countries adopted this well-established blueprint? The governments that have the will and capacity to adopt major land reforms are typically authoritarian.

Every weekday evening, our editors guide you through the biggest stories of the day, help you discover new ideas, and surprise you with moments of delight. Subscribe to get this delivered to your inbox.“Uptown, Minneapolis, Minnesota” by Hieu Minh Nguyen This poem was published in 2018, but Nguyen perfectly captures pandemic spring: the seedlings of joy tentatively taking root, but also the pain that hasn’t been—won’t be—shed.

At its best, hip-hop reveals the complexity of the human voice, and few artists show that better than DMX did. The sound that came out of Earl Simmons’s mouth was often called a growl or rasp, but those terms seem insufficient upon the occasion of his death, today, at age 50. You heard breath and bone in that voice. Its dissonance and musicality were kind of like an electric guitar. It started parties by jolting fight-or-flight reflexes.