Thursday, April 23, 2026

Iran, Fact or Fiction?

The trouble with watching a dramatic series that tracks too closely with the news is that you might get confused over what is real or made up.

Such is the risk of watching the Israeli spy thriller “Tehran” on Apple TV (2020-22-24).

An additional problem with this one is that the tension is almost constant, making me wonder if it’s really such a good idea for one with blood pressure issues.

But the series, which features  Niv Sultan playing Tamar Rabinyan, a young Jewish woman born in Iran but raised in Israel, is a compelling look at some of the issues behind the current war, so I recently decided to watch it again this week.

If you’re wondering why Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon has inspired such an overwhelming military response from both Israel and the U.S., this series may be of some help.

As for me, I’m taking frequent breaks, staying hydrated, and keeping to a strict schedule of taking my BP pills.

And when it comes to the actual war, can someone tell me what is actually going on? I think I prefer the fictional version.

(Thanks to Mary for getting me back into this one.)

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Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Keeping It Local

Recently, I knocked my iPhone off of a chair onto the rug below. It wasn’t a great distance but it hit the floor with enough force that when I picked it up, it started making an odd squeaking sound whenever I pressed the home button.

Alarmed (but not panicked), I Googled why an iPhone8 would make such a sound and quickly learned from a YouTube video that it was because one or more of the device’s internal screws were loose.

“Well,” I thought to myself, ”better that the phone has screw loose than I do.”

According to YouTube, the problem was easily fixed by opening up the phone and tightening the screws.

When we tried this at home, however, we couldn’t do it because we didn’t have the proper equipment in the form of very small screwdrivers.

One option was to go to an Apple Store, but my daughter had a better idea — find a local repair shop.

Her reasoning was based on an incident several years ago when she dropped her iPhone in the water. Conventional wisdom at the time was to wrap the device in a bag of rice, which would soak up the water and save the phone.

She did this but one grain of rice got sucked up into the phone’s port and it stopped working altogether.

She went to an Apple Store, where she was told that her best option was to buy a new phone.

Reluctant to do that, she stumbled upon a local repair shop in a mall, where a repairman removed the grain of rice and Presto! Her phone was as good as new.

So this was the context in which my daughter and I ventured out during a break in the rainstorms yesterday to a tiny hole-in-the-wall repair shop nestled into a nook next to a bright Mexican restaurant.

It really was just a window in a closet-sized space with an “Open” sign hung outside.

The young man at the window took my phone, opened it, tightened the screws, closed it back up and handed it back to me.

“No charge,” he said.

HEADLINES:

  • A deal to end the Iran war seemed close. Then Trump started posting on social media (CNN)

  • Trump Extends Cease-Fire With Iran (NYT)

  • Trump’s statements on Iran increasingly contradict each other (WP)

  • What was the Iran nuclear deal Trump dumped in search of ‘better’ terms? (Al Jazeera)

  • What are the chances for peace between Israel and Lebanon? (NPR)

  • Virginia Passes Gerrymandered House Map, Lifting Democrats’ Midterm Chances (NYT)

  • Trump’s approval rating held at the lowest of his term in recent days as many Americans questioned his temperament, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found. (Reuters)

  • Trump and other top Republicans will read passages in a marathon Bible event (AP)

  • Justice Dept. Charges Prominent Civil Rights Group With Financial Crimes (NYT)

  • Kevin Warsh says he will not be Trump’s ‘sock puppet’ if confirmed as Fed chairman (BBC)

  • Flu vaccine no longer mandatory for soldiers, says US military chief (Al Jazeera)

  • The Pentagon could be about to make a $55 billion mistake (The Hill)

  • White House ‘discussing’ FBI chief Patel’s future after bombshell report (Independent)

  • A New Supreme Court Leak Shows John Roberts at His Worst (Slate)

  • How the California Governor’s Race Is Changing Post-Swalwell (NYT)

  • China’s vast nuclear power sector now able to build 50 reactors at a time (SCMP)

  • Fired former UK official says he felt political pressure to approve Mandelson as US ambassador (AP)

  • Two CIA officers die in Mexico accident after counternarcotics operation (WP)

  • Canadian killed, six Americans among injured as gunman shoots tourists at Mexico’s Teotihuacan pyramids (CNN)

  • Japan to Sell More Weapons Abroad, Breaking With Postwar Pacifism (NYT)

  • Trump has renamed federal buildings and the Gulf of Mexico. Here’s how the old names can be restored when he’s out of office. [HuffPost]

  • The Onion launches new bid to take over Alex Jones’ Infowars and turn it into a parody platform (AP)

  • A new fault line has emerged inside Google: The Claude haves and have-nots (BI)

  • What Happens When A.I. Runs a Store in San Francisco? (NYT)

  • CISA lacks access to Anthropic’s Mythos (Axios)

  • Uber Driver Casually Mentions This His First Time Driving (Onion)

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Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Need Help Writing?

According to numerous new reports, (several are listed below), using AI to help you write will cause long-term cognitive decline, which was also the topic of the essay, “Don’t Stop Writing” last week.

Now, I want to go into much more detail. Author Nicolas Hulscher gives us the specifics.

“A new MIT study titled, Your Brain on ChatGPT: Accumulation of Cognitive Debt when Using an AI Assistant for Essay Writing Task, has found that using ChatGPT to help write essays leads to long-term cognitive harm—measurable through EEG brain scans. Students who repeatedly relied on ChatGPT showed weakened neural connectivity, impaired memory recall, and diminished sense of ownership over their own writing. While the AI-generated content often scored well, the brains behind it were shutting down.”

The findings indicate that although Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Grok may help students write, they also train the brain to disengage. Here’s what the researchers found:

* Brain Connectivity Declines with AI Use

* LLM Users Forget What They Just Wrote

* AI Use Disrupts Memory and Learning Pathways

* LLM Users Felt Detached From Their Work

* Switching from LLM to Brain Use Doesn’t Fully Restore Function

* Search Engine Users Showed Healthier Brain Engagement

* AI Dependency Leads to “Cognitive Offloading”

* Short-Term Gains, Long-Term Cognitive Debt

Over time, the test group showed a consistent decline in engagement, performance, and self-reported satisfaction.

Read the entire article here. I think this study is significant enough that teachers and parents should explain the risks of using AI in writing to their children.

Here are more reports: 

(Thanks to Leslie.)

DAILY NEWS HEADLINES:

  • Oil and Gas Rise As Hormuz Tensions Flare Ahead of Iran Deadline (Bloomberg)

  • Trump threatens Iran again as ceasefire deadline looms, U.S. gears up for peace talks (CNBC)

  • Concerns have grown that the ceasefire between the US and Iran might not hold after the US said it had seized an Iranian cargo ship that tried to ‌run its blockade and Iran vowed to retaliate. (Reuters)

  • Trump tells PBS News that ‘lots of bombs start going off’ if Iran ceasefire expires (PBS)

  • The Forces of Scarcity Hitting Asia May Soon Spread Across the World (NYT)

  • Trump’s Spider-Ridden Brain Is Cracking Under the Pressures of War (Esquire)

  • Palantir Wants to Bring Back the Draft (Mother Jones)

  • Labor Secretary Steps Down Amid Misconduct Investigation (NYT)

  • Kash Patel files defamation lawsuit against The Atlantic (Politico)

  • Businesses race to apply for tariff refunds (NPR)

  • Kenyan women defy fishing taboos as climate change threatens Lake Victoria (Al Jazeera)

  • Justices to Hear Case on Catholic Preschools That Reject Children of Gay Parents (NYT)

  • Dad brains: How fatherhood rewires the male mind (BBC)

  • Tim Cook Will Step Down as Apple C.E.O. (NYT)

  • Weapons-grade chemical carfentanil surges as dangerous substitute for fentanyl (AP)

  • MIT Study Finds Artificial Intelligence Use Reprograms the Brain, Leading to Cognitive Decline (Science, Public Health Policy & the Law)

  • The Killer Robots Are Coming. The Battlefield Will Never Look the Same. (NYT)

  • Chinese tech workers are starting to train their AI doubles–and pushing back (TR)

  • Man Finally Good Enough At New Hobby To Understand How Bad He Is At It (Onion)

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Monday, April 20, 2026

Monday Mix

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Sunday, April 19, 2026

The Wee Ones

I've long been curious about the beliefs that there are beings among us too small, fast or otherwise elusive to qualify as real. 

Recently, exploring a collection of ancient English folktales, I happened upon an extensive list of supernatural beings that have come down to us through the centuries:

Boggles, bloddy-bones, ignis fatui, brownies, bugbears, shelycoats, scrags, breaknecks, fantasms, boggy-boes, dobbies, hobthrusts, fetches, kelpies, warlocks, mock-beggars, mum-pokers, urchins, satyrs, pans, fauns, and on and on, ten times as many names as these.

People have often claimed that these tiny creatures explain the odd twists of fate that otherwise defy explanation.

Many modern classics, including Tolkien's "Hobbit" and J.K. Rowling’s "Harry Potter," have tapped into the ancient British superstitions to create new fictional worlds.

When it comes to journalists, all we have are mysterious shadows and unanswered questions. But somewhere deep in our soul, we may hope that magic exists, and that angels watch over us as we fall, urging us to rise again, and tell our stories in a more hopeful vein, one that just might inspire yet another generation to find its own magical voice.

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Saturday, April 18, 2026

The Next Episode

One of the features of a President who conducts his business like it’s a reality TV show is we are always left guessing about the next episode of his stories without ends.

Take Trump’s war on Iran.

It bounces back and forth. Is it on? Is it off? 

Who knows? Certainly not Trump.

He has already declared victory more times than he’s denounced the Pope. But in actuality, it appears that the way this sordid affair will probably end is more or less back where we were before the bombing began. 

But with thousands of people dead and millions displaced.

If reports prove true, Trump is considering releasing up to $20 billion in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for some or all of the enriched uranium, which may sound to inattentive ears like a reasonable enough deal on its face.

But mind you, this is strikingly similar to the deal Obama negotiated when he freed up $1.7 billion in frozen Iranian assets in exchange for a halt in that country’s uranium enrichment efforts years ago.

Trump tore up Obama’s deal, denouncing it in the most salacious of terms. He said Obama withdrew lovely green dollars from this country’s banks and flew them over in 747s to hand over to the greedy Anatollahs.

Now Trump is offering to do essentially the same thing but at a much higher cost in blood and money. Tellingly, he now calls his whole Iranian adventure a “transaction.” 

Stay tuned, if you can stomach it. He will no doubt eventually hail himself as having “ended” yet another war. 

Hypocrisy never goes out of style in reality TV.

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Friday, April 17, 2026

Don't Stop Writing

In the Age of AI, it may sound quaint, but when I used to teach writing courses, I recommended that students write every single day, 365 days of the year.

For those who find writing to be a challenge, that sounds like a pretty harsh assignment. Even for those to whom writing comes more easily, it may sound extreme.

But my reasoning (and my experience) is that making writing part of your daily exercise routine will pay dividends over time. And only over time can you expect to improve; with writing there are no instant fixes.

Enter artificial intelligence. Now, students can and are taking advantage of this technology to replace the work of learning the craft or writing with robot-generated texts.

It would appear that old writing teachers like me have lost the battle — definitively.

But wait! There is new evidence that living the more friction-less life AI offers is bad for your cognitive function. This is one of those “use it or lose it” situations.

According to neurologists interviewed by the Washington Post, “Making life harder sounds deeply unfun, but it might be good for your cognitive function.” Also:

“The brain’s No. 1 job is to help you survive.”. 

The article continues: “Throughout your daily routines, the brain conducts a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether a choice is worthwhile. Challenges require more energy, so, whenever possible, the brain prefers ease to difficulty. The brain also responds to rewards, such as the dopamine hit that comes with instant gratification (whether easy entertainment during a social media scroll or a perfectly written text message courtesy of Claude, the artificial intelligence chatbot).”

Also: “In a 2025 study, researchers looked at 580 university students, 57 percent of whom used AI on a daily basis while the rest used it several times a week. They found greater AI use was linked to a reduction in critical thinking skills, possibly because of an association with cognitive fatigue — a depletion of mental resources essential for complex thinking. In another 2025 study, which looked at 666 people of diverse ages and educational backgrounds, a researcher found that AI was linked to a reduction in critical thinking skills. Cognitive off-loading, which is essentially using tools to reduce the cognitive load on your working memory, might impair the ability to engage in deep reflection.”

The good news is that by adding friction to your daily routines, this cognitive decline can probably be reversed. Here are five ways listed by the Post:

1. Try puzzles and games you’re not good at.

2. Learn something new.

3. Cook a recipe.

4. See a friend in person.

5. Don’t look up the answer.

***

To these five, I would add a sixth: 

Write something, perhaps just a page per day.

It will work wonders over time.

(Thanks to Leslie for pointing me to this excellent article.)

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