Jess Nevins,"Beware the Yanqui!" No Fear of the Future, 3 April, looks at the history of Japanese robots and reaches some conclusions therefrom. Hat tip to Rob MacDougall.

Walter Laqueur,"Disraelia: A Counterfactual History, 1848-2008," Middle East Strategy at Harvard, 2 April, asks what if a Jewish state had been established a century earlier, within the Ottoman Empire.

Gareth Pierce,"Was It Like This for the Irish?" LRB, 10 April, wonders if the suspicion of terrorism hung over the Irish in England, as it has hung over its Muslims. Thanks to Manan Ahmed for the tip.

Of all yesterday's recollections of Martin Luther King, Jr., on the 40th anniversary of his death, Juan Williams,"Obama and King," WSJ, 4 April, was surely the most lame: factually flawed, weakly reasoned, and without constructive purpose. Thanks to Chris Bray and David Noon for the tip.

Finally, farewell to Nicolas Coldstream, the distinguished British authority on classical Greek archaeology. Hat tip to Margaret Soltan.