Normally I send out the extract from the archive on a Saturday morning. But there are still a few hours to go before Black Friday turns into Grey Saturday, so I thought I’d do it now and remind you of this special offer: ' Get 50% off for 1 year Sign up now! While stocks last! One of the most mindblowing things I have ever learned concerns the “genetic isopoint”. This concept, also known as the “identical ancestors point” (IAP), or “all common ancestors” (ACA), is the most recent point in a particular population’s past at which everyone then alive either has no living descendants left, or is the ancestor of everyone currently living.

UPDATE AND ADDENDUM: Given the indictment of Young Thug this week, I’d like to revisit this post. I’m leaving it up because the background information about the case that led to the indictment is correct and accurate. But the overriding inference of this piece - the suggestion that LaKevia Jack… ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbjAp6uap5KfsqTAyK%2BcZ6ull8C1rcKkZZynnWS9cL%2FOppxmq5ikvLW1zaCqZpmimru1edGapZ2nnQ%3D%3D

A few weeks ago I listened to a speech from Rachel Goldberg-Polin, a true hero, and mother of Hersh Polin who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023. In the course of that speech she referenced an idea that she’d heard from her rabbi. Unfortunately, I have forgotten his name. The Amidah is the central prayer in Judaism. It is recited three times each weekday, four times on Shabbat and major holidays, and five times on Yom Kippur.

Over the last few days, you probably saw a bunch of enthusiastic news reports and tweets about a new Google Deepmind paper on math, like this at The Guardian: and this § Well, yes, and no. Google DeepMind, along with the mathematician Jordan Ellenberg really did use some AI to help solve a math problem, in a very clever paper that is worth reading, on how to use “program search with large language models” (as the accurate and not at all hypey title explains).

On the 7th of June 1926, a couple of weeks before his 74th birthday, Antoni Gaudí was quite violently interrupted in his journey to church for his daily prayer. He was hit by a tram. If you were there, witnessing the collision, I can fairly confidently say you wouldn’t grasp the significance of the event happening in front of you. That’s because I’m pretty certain you wouldn’t recognise that the old man being hit by a tram was Antoni Gaudí.