LyrArc Article Gist
"Horizontal sehlves first used for placing books"- this first happened at the Merton Library at Oxford in the 1370's. The Library was set up for loaning books predating the printing era in the Middle Ages. Books were kept in a chest before this. Dr. Julia Walworth, the Libraian of the Merton Library talks to the BBC's Christian Kriticos. The library will celebrate the 750th anniversary of its existence.Dining clubs at princeton immitate Merton Library. It is one of the oldest still functioning libraries in Europe and the oldest in the English speaking world.

LyrArc Article Gist
"Cancel Culture"- how Democrats and Republicans Conservatives and Liberals see the shaming of people for their views on social media- it is having accountability for some, and seen as censorship or punishment by others. Pew Researchers show the views of different people by age, gender, political affiliation, on the idea of "cancel culture." Some say does it even help doing this on a platform like social media as it tends to exaggerate and is rarely helpful to educate people and create real conversations to increase knowledge. When people are being shamed for racism or sexism, there is little idea of getting people to change or for patient forgiveness, or educating on why certain behaviours are wrong. Yale University's 58 page document on where it went wrong on "holistic admissions" and "cancel culture," is an example of how "cancel culture" when adopted inadvertently at universities and colleges across the Nation can be misguided and not result in positive actions. In the process can this denigrate the achievements of western civilization through the Renaissance of ideas, the awakening of knowledge in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, the Enlightenment, and the Scientific Revolution that resulted from this. Followed by the Industrial Revolution unique in Europe and the US that created the Modern World and the standards of living, of literacy, education and healthcare, and transportation we know today. This is the question Yale and other universities are asking today in 2026. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Yale 58 page look at America today and the harm happening to western civilization's achievements. Yale's 58 page report on harm done by "cancel culture," "holistic admissions," and "political bias," and a general tendency found- especially in Democrats- to object to anything that refers to "western civilization" or the founding fathers of America, and the foundations of western civilization in Christianity, the Renaissance, and the Scientific Revolution. Major universities are now pursuing academic activities in western civilization and its influences, understanding its value and significance for America. A quiet transformation is already taking place, says The Washington Post. 

LyrArc Article Gist
Economic costs of the war in Iran with loss of 2 million jobs inflation at 50% and loans of $300 from government at 18-35% interest for laid off workers. Disruptions in steel and petrchemicals disrupt car and other industries and their supply chains. Closure of Hormuz also affects supply chains across industries.

LyrArc Article Gist
Ban on sale of smoking products for 17 year olds (those born before 2009) in a new law for Britain. Smoking cost -64,000 deaths a year, 500,000 people living in poverty, $29 billion ocst to Britain and higher costs for the National Health Service. 5.3 million or 10% of UK adults are smokers most want to quit and wish thay never took up smoking.

LyrArc Article Gist
When the BBC talks about "fish" in a novel way as identity it fails to look at the important issues of unemployment, failures in industrialization and modernization, failures in infrastructure building, entrenched corruption that are the main issues in the West Bengal election in 2026, as they were in the elections earlier in Bihar and Orissa states of northeastern India.That the BBC is silent or says nothing about the massive amount of poor quality and unstable unemployment in West Bengal where youth are leaving the state to find employment in the western states of Gujarat, Maharashtra and other states. BBC is silent about the "cut culture" which means a percentage of every financial transaction goes from the public or business to corrupt politicians in government and their associates, destroying any chance of economic progress. BBC along with other media say little about the lack of business investment in the state, and an environment that is not investment friendly, which means industrialization and modernization is falling behind in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa region with a population of close to 300 million people, about half the size of the European Union, located in northeastern India.In this attitude by the media including the BBC in the US and European Union one finds a feeling that is similar to that shown during the evolution of China into a modern state from the conditions of the 1930 with Japanese occupation, corrupt leadership and roadblocks to modernization and industrialization that mattered little to the world outside China and India. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Teaching method on Western Civilization favored by charter schools in the US for K-12 and a growing number of private schools. Extensive in California, Washington, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and other states.

LyrArc Article Gist
There are about the same number of borrowers 3.6 million instead of 3.4 million yet over 10 years Parent Plus Loans have grown by 61% or $44 billion to a whopping $115 billion burdening parents and students. Yet no one mentions that it is the colleges that are causing much of this increase with their failure to control costs. The government is now stepping in and it is up to parents to do their homework on school value so that this overburdening with debt that colleges take for granted becomes a thing of the past. If colleges cannot control costs they should feel public dissatisfaction and be ruled out. Colleges and Universities act as if they are not in a market system economy where costs cannot be simply passed on, costs have to be managed or consumers of a service will turn down that product.

LyrArc Article Gist
Changes for US and Asia, EU, to ponder on are happening in Swedish schools. It is back to books in Sweden as digital learning has not worked well so far and reading has suffered in some ways dismally. At younger ages books are better for reading and comprehension than screens. "We're trying, actually, to get rid of screens as much as possible," says the Education Minister. The government uses a slogan "från skärm till pärm,  in Swedish this translates to "from screen to binder". Later in 2026 a ban on mobiles in schools even for educational use goes into effect. Digital acts as a distraction and lessens concentration say teachers. Sweden scores on PISA tests have gone down since 2012. A new curriculum based on books goes into effect in 2028 and 157 million euros will be used for new books in schools. "Reading real books and writing on real paper, and counting with real numbers on real paper, is much better if you want kids to get the knowledge they need," say Swedish education experts consulted for the changes. This is a sea change other nations need to consider doing. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Questioning assumptions on way to net zero emissions- heat pumps run on electricity need to look at overall costs. Cheaper electricity gets more heat pumps installed.

LyrArc Article Gist
Yale's internal report on its failure on price, value and political polarization.  “In its report, the committee calls on Yale to reflect on and take responsibility for our role in the erosion of public trust.” Maurie McInnis, Yale president  wrote- “I accept this judgment fully.” The report cites one fault as tilting admissions in one direction- to the children of the rich and connected. Report has 20 recommendations including removing the tilt to legacies, varsity athletes, children of faculty, staff, donors. This is not the institution or institutions of higher education that promote the social mobility that happened under FDR and throughout the 20th century to create what emerged as a society that made it possible for people of all incomes to rise. This is also what Marco Rubio has made his main complaint in his book -Decades of Decadence How our Spoiled Elites Blew America's Inheritance of Liberty, Security, and Prosperity. How a immigrant family from Cuba was able to raise a child (Rubio) with a decent income from factory work making steel chairs in a Florida factory and give him a good education.  Something Rubio says is no longer possible today. Much of this factory base was shifted to China under the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations, and no longer exists. In its place is a financial services business that does nothing for workers and ordinary Americans and a business culture that puts costs further and further away and out of reach for education in the nation's universities and colleges. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
US programs in thousands of dollars 2026- physical therapist $37 nurse anesthetist $38 and $46 physician assistant $100. Federal lending limit for graduate programs is $20,000. The federal lending should not support the spiralling cost of these programs in graduate professional education. As a result most will have to get private funding. There  are serious questions about the inflation in the cost of these programs. In 2016 physician assistant programs cost $46,000.

LyrArc Article Gist
Anthropic and Christianity's moral laws of the universe- can it guide AI? Anthropic staff researchers seeks guidance from Catholic and Protestant church leaders at a March 2 day Summit. Goal is to give Anthropic's Claude a moral foundation. Can this be better accomplished by human beings using Anthropic or other AI media just like another media source of information alongside other human powered media run by human beings, by harnessing a strong moral awareness based on Christian, Buddhist, Vedanta beliefs of mankind from Europe and the US and from India, China and Japan? This is the approach taken at Lyrarc.com.

LyrArc Article Gist
Extremely difficult engineering challenges for fueling, refueling in space, the lander for moon's surface, lie ahead for a Moon base planned for 2028. This time the NASA program will go on uninterrupted by swings in public sentiment.

LyrArc Article Gist
April 10, 2026 a day of thanksgiving for the safe return to Earth from the blackness of space of Artemis II, with 4 astronauts led by Captain Wiseman.

LyrArc Article Gist
Jim Whittaker, in 1963 first American on Everest, REI first employee, and promoter of life in the outdoors. He climbed A 14,000 peak with Robert Kennedy that is known by the name Kennedy, and ran RFK's campaign for president. A picture of him with John Glenn and Don Walsh in the BBC. He died at the age of 97 in Washington State with aview from his home of the Olympic mountains. He describes the climg on Everest and his life in his memoir Life on the Edge. He returned to Everest in 1983 with son Leif who trains athletes in climbing and outdoors. When he climbed Everest he says Gombu his Sherpa guide was the shortest and he was the tallest. He reflects on life and humility in the face of Nature and God's presence around us- "You learn, when you climb a difficult mountain, you leave your ego behind and learn that you're just a little micro-speck in this life. You learn your weaknesses and have a little broader perspective." A lot of us can learn from the lives of Americans like Jim Whittaker.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The new Social Studies, Civics and English Reading curriculum for K-12 in Texas Schools looks at a broader approach to reading of classics which have been largely bypassed in an erroneous approach to reading focused on whatever is in contemporary trends. The current approach is leading to a generation of children who do not know much about the Nation's history and culture and form of government, about the English language and its prominent American authors. One draft includes books like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle for kindergartners, “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle for seventh graders and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech for eighth graders. Frederick Douglas and Langston Hughes are also included. It also has passages from the Bible, including a meditation on Love from First Corinthians.  All this is happening as the Nation has a new Test alternative to ACT and SAT called the CLT Classical Learning Test which provides longer reading passages from English and American Literature and history, science, technology, world knowledge, far better than ACT or SAT. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Pictures of the Moon from Artemis II Moon Mission Orion Spacecraft shown in Washington Post. April 7 2026.