Michelle Kaatz Cat Rackham is an anxious, scruffy, navel-gazing kitty who sometimes likes adventures. But mostly he likes to stare. And sleep. And stare some more. An existential Ziggy, if you will.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded ...

Claude Shannon invented the modern mathematical definition of information, casting it in terms of bits and entropy. Shannon also tinkered with odd contraptions, but his boldest most brilliant ...