Modern Age Journal – Winter/Spring 2025

MODERN AGE – A CONSERVATIVE REVIEW (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The Art of Civilization’; No Canon, No West; Kitsch- An Essay in Definition; Flannery O’Connor’s Century…

Canons Win Culture Wars

Daniel McCarthy

Civilization is a product of canons. The Bible is a canon, and while the Iliad and Odyssey were not quite sacred scripture to the ancient Greeks, the Homeric epics went a long way toward establishing what it meant for a man or a city to be part of the Greek world. That world was almost a synonym for civilization itself. What was not Greek was barbarian.

Noam Chomsky’s War on War

David Gordon

Noam Chomsky has attained fame in two different areas. He is a world-renowned authority in linguistics and also a major public intellectual. But while in the former area his achievements are universally recognized, even by those who disagree with him, this is not so for his work as a public intellectual, where he is idolized by some, respected by others, tolerated by yet others, and execrated by more than a few.

Flannery at 100—and Forever

O’Connor’s work, fiction and not, is Catholic, gothic, Southern, and timeless.

Chilton Williamson, Jr.

Nature Magazine – March 13, 2025 Research Preview

Volume 639 Issue 8054

NATURE MAGAZINE (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Good Or Bad?’ – Simple two-point rating system curbs racial bias in the gig economy.

Who’s likely to wake up from a coma? Brainwaves provide a clue

The presence of a pattern called a sleep spindle helps to predict which people will recover from an unresponsive state.

A super-gel stays supple from −115 ºC to 143 ºC

A network of two polymers plus sulfuric acid allows a hydrogel to keep its elasticity and softness at extreme temperatures.

Ancient puppets that smile or scowl hint at shared rituals

Clay figurines found on top of the remnants of a pyramid in what is now El Salvador might have been used in public ceremonies.

The surprising culprit for the loss of huge swathes of tropical forest

Analysis of satellite imagery of the Brazilian Amazon, the Congo Basin and New Guinea helps to show that ‘secondary’ roads take an outsized toll.

Times Literary Supplement – March 14, 2025 Preview

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TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The Only Way Is Down’ – On hopeful pessimism; The death of a poet in war; On democracy; Did museums purchase or plunder and Crippen’s crimes…

Cold comfort farm        

Hope, despair and retreat in an unquiet age By Kieran Setiya

Taking up the cross

The crusades in the English literary imagination By David Abulafia

Not just a man’s war

The role of women in crusading history

Under the patriarchy

Sixty years of turmoil in Egypt

The Scientist Magazine – March 2025 Issue

Issues | The Scientist Magazine® | The Scientist

THE SCIENTIST MAGAZINE (March 12, 2025): The latest issue features ‘Peto’s Paradox’ – How gigantic species evolved to beat cancer…

Peto’s Paradox: How Gigantic Species Evolved to Beat Cancer

Scientists dive into the genomes of whales, elephants, and other animal giants looking for new weapons in the fight against cancer.

DNA Profiling: Tracing Killers and Solving Mysteries Using Genetic Clues

Every DNA fragment tells a story. Forensic experts use these genetic breadcrumbs to solve old mysteries and modern crimes.

Generation X and Millennials Face a Steep Rise in Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer Cases

Younger individuals are developing colorectal cancer earlier in life compared to older generations, and scientists don’t know why.

The New York Times – Wednesday, March 12, 2025

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Trump Pulls Back Plans to Double Canadian Metal Tariffs After Ontario Relents

The president had threatened to hit Canadian metals with 50 percent tariffs but opted not to go ahead after Ontario lifted a charge on U.S. electricity.

Education Department Fires 1,300 Workers, Gutting Its Staff

The layoffs mean that the department will now have a work force of about half the size it did when President Trump took office.

Ukraine Supports 30-Day Cease-Fire as U.S. Says It Will Resume Military Aid

The deal announced on Tuesday delivered new momentum to efforts to halt the fighting, with the ball for any truce now in Russia’s court, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Justice Dept. Official Says She Was Fired After Opposing Restoring Mel Gibson’s Gun Rights

Elizabeth G. Oyer, the former pardon attorney, said that she was not told why she was dismissed, but that as events unfolded she feared they might lead to her firing.