All posts by Intellicurious

News, Views and Reviews for the Intellectually Curious

Reviews: ‘The Week In Art’

THE ART NEWSPAPER (December 20, 2024): It is the final episode of 2024 and so, as always, we review the year, looking at the top stories, the big issues and the best art.

Host Ben Luke is joined by The Art Newspaper’s contemporary art correspondent, Louisa Buck, our art market editor, Kabir Jhala, and Ben Sutton, our editor in the Americas.

Under discussion, among much else: the growing faultlines between institutions and artists in relation to Gaza; the big museum stories, from Saudi Arabian funding to attacks on artworks and restitution; a market roundup; culture and the climate emergency; and the panel’s exhibitions and biennials of the year.

Politics: National Review Magazine – February 2025

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NATIONAL REVIEW MAGAZINE (December 20, 2024): The latest issue features ‘William F. Buckley Jr. at 100’…

Why Bill Buckley’s Ideas Still Matter

An enduring fusion by Ramesh Ponnuru

The Elements of Buckley’s Style

Prose makes the man by Andrew Ferguson

Life of the Party

WFB as pop icon by James Rosen

Opinion & Politics: Reason Magazine – February 2025

Reason magazine, February 2025 cover image

REASON MAGAZINE (December 20, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Maga Musk’….

The Improbable Rise of MAGA-Musk

Is Elon Musk a reactionary with a defective bullshit meter or the best part of the second Trump administration?

Finding Trillions in Federal Cuts Is Easy. But Will Trump and Musk Follow Through?

DOGE won’t necessarily have to kill any of Republicans’ sacred cows—but they will have to be put on a diet.

‘The Constitution Is Not a Suicide Pact’

How a 1949 Supreme Court dissent gave birth to a meme that subverts free speech and civil liberties

The Pentagon Keeps Losing Equipment and Buying Stuff It Doesn’t Need

How the U.S. military busts its budget on wasteful, careless, and unnecessary ‘self-licking ice cream cones’

The New York Times —- Friday, December 20, 2024

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Elon Musk Flexes His Political Strength as Government Shutdown Looms

The world’s richest man led the charge to kill a bipartisan spending deal, in part by promoting false and misleading claims about it.

Government Lurches Toward Shutdown After House Tanks Trump’s Spending Plan

Dozens of right-wing Republicans joined Democrats in opposing a bill ordered up by President-elect Donald J. Trump to tie a government funding extension to a two-year deferral of the debt limit.

The Once Booming Drug Town Going Bust Under Taliban Rule

Funding its war against the United States, the Taliban reaped millions from boom towns trading opium, heroin and meth. Victorious, the group crushed the trade, leaving ghost towns in its wake.

With Guilty Verdicts, Rape Victim’s Ordeal in France Becomes a Message of Hope

Dozens of men who abused Gisèle Pelicot were convicted, including the man who invited them to do so: her husband of 50 years. She wanted the public trial to show rape victims they were not alone.

Research Preview: Science Magazine – Dec. 20, 2024

Science issue cover

Science Magazine (December 18, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Light Emission with a Twist’ – Hot, twisted carbon nanotube yarns emit bright circularly polarlized light…

Can psychedelics improve well-being in autism?

A brace of new studies probes benefits and risks for an understudied group

Thermal radiation with a twist

Carbon nanotube filaments with a twisted geometry emit spinning heat waves at high temperatures

The Economist Magazine – December 21, 2024 Preview

The Economist (December 18, 2024): The Holiday double issue features…

What to make of 2024

A turbulent year has shed fresh light on some important truths

Keep the Caucasus safe from Russia

The protesters and the president need help

Global warming is speeding up. Another reason to think about geoengineering

Reducing sulphur emissions saves lives. But it could also be hastening planetary warming

The Economist’s country of the year for 2024

The winner toppled a tyrant and seems headed for something better

THE NEW YORK TIMES —THURSDAY, DEC. 19, 2024

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Giant Companies Took Secret Payments to Allow Free Flow of Opioids

Drugmakers including Purdue Pharma paid pharmacy benefit managers not to restrict painkiller prescriptions, a New York Times investigation found.

A Weary Biden Heads for the Exit

Still stinging from the election, President Biden is pushing for his final priorities but has largely absented himself from the national conversation about Donald Trump after warning repeatedly that he was a threat to American democracy.

The Wrath of Trump: House Republicans Map a Case Against Liz Cheney

President-elect Donald J. Trump has never been shy about his desire to see his enemies punished. But he often shows a measure of caution about taking credit for potential prosecutions himself.

A Rift in Trump World Over How to Make America Healthier

Statements by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Elon Musk tap into a dispute over whether lifestyle changes or drugs are a better way to treat obesity.

Culture/Politics: Harper’s Magazine – January 2025

Harper’s Magazine (December 18, 2024): The latest issue features ‘Ghost Music’ – Inside Spotify’s Fake-Artist Scheme; Among the Ruins of Lebanon and Cynthia Ozick on the Pleasures of Letter Writing…

The Ghosts in the Machine

Spotify’s plot against musicians by Liz Pelly

The Forever Cure

Is civil commitment rehabilitating sex offenders—or punishing them? by Jordan Michael Smith

Voices from the Dead Letter Office

On the epistolary life by Cynthia Ozick