For some time, I’ve needed a sounder foundation for my claim (in Uncle Fred’s Book) that Jews are inclined to argue. It’s true, as my cousin reminds me, that this goes without saying and really needs no justification. I want to have the footnote, just in case.

This is perfect. I’ve been reading a lot of Twitter from Fania Oz-Salzberger about October 7 and the ensuing war; she, along with Simon Schama and Simon Sebag-Montefiori, has made consistent good sense.

This volume a wonderful essay on strong women in (and out of) the Bible, some terrific notes on humor, and demonstrates a wonderful (and I think sound) approach to the problem that the ultra-orthodox pose to secular Jews.

Also, this was a delightful read.

January 19, 2026 (permalink)

Winner of a Hugo for Best Novella, this is the story of a tea monk — a sort of itinerant psychotherapist — who meets a robot on the road. Robots were emancipated long ago, and long ago they left and absented themselves in the wilderness. Now, a volunteer has been sent to check up on how the humans are doing. The result is very heavy on exposition, and indeed nearly everything here is exposition. The robot, whose name is Splendid Speckled Mosscap, owes something to Iain M. Banks but is exceptionally well drawn.

January 22, 2026 (permalink)

A fascinating research report from a fascinating researcher. Wolfram studies cellular automata, which are very small and simple models of abstract computation in which each “cell” adjusts its state according to the state of some number of neighbors. These automata are even simpler than neural networks, but they, too, can learn. It appears that machine learning, in this case at least and perhaps in all cases, including animals and people, may be a matter of sampling lots of abstract computations and refining those that seem to have some slight utility for addressing the current situation.

January 4, 2026 (permalink)