Reading the TLS (substituting for the full paper in the interest of finding more interesting things) is a little like the vizier going to the balcony and calling out to the huddled wretches in the courtyard, asking them what was being talked about in the great palaces. The wretches are are both quite impressed by the distant palaces and honored to have the chance to talk about them, but you do need to see through both the critical wretches attempting to impress you and the agendas of distant palaces to suss out what the remarkable thing underneath might be.
Alternatively, I suppose you could use it to measure the inclinations of the wretches of the moment, or what the distant palaces might be up do, but I'm a bit of an idealist.