Hello there! Not too much to say today. Sometimes it really feels miraculous that I manage to get each week’s list compiled (most of the time). I’ve been lagging behind on a lot of other tasks generally, so I suppose it’s nice that this newsletter gets reasonable priority. So, there are things to do (like respond to emails all the way back from 2019(!)), and I shall leave you to this week’s list.
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1. Hideo Kojima’s Strange, Unforgettable Video-Game Worlds - New York Times (paywalled) This is a deep dive into the video game worlds of Hideo Kojima. Kojima is something of a cult figure in modern video games, but I hadn’t heard of him prior to reading this article. And his work is really interesting. He treats his games very much like pieces of art.
2. The end of farming? - The Guardian This longform piece has an overtly clickbaity title, which I don’t like. It goes into rewilding efforts in the UK, and about other efforts to prevent the degradation of the environment under modern agriculture.
3. France’s Deadly Seaweed - Hakai Magazine
“Fueled by agricultural runoff, rotting seaweed on Brittany’s beaches is becoming an environmental and public health emergency.”
4. For Israelis and Palestinians, a Battle Over a Humble Plant - Undark Whew. “Akoub” is a wild thistle that grows in volcanic plateaus in Israel. Beloved to Palestinians, it is often foraged illegally. Israel placed a ban on akoub foraging in 2005 when it was endangered, and has now reversed the ban allowing for small personal foraging.
5. Working In Science Was A Brutal Education. That’s Why I Left. - Buzzfeed
Science was a place I ultimately left, not so much because I wanted to, but because I had to. Science is not being able to say that because I reflexively feel the rebuttal waiting on the other end of that sentence: You could have made it work if you wanted it enough . Science is not knowing whether I wanted it enough.
6. How are we suppose to feel about COVID-19? - Sarah Mock
_So for me, I’m trying to give it time. I’m trying not to make up my mind or my heart just yet. I’m trying to not write my story about what’s going to be different, better, or worse after coronavirus, I’m trying not to write myself, or anyone else, off too soon. Because all of the predicting and soothe-saying in the world isn’t going to get us to the end any faster, it’s just going to make it harder to get to the truth once we’re there.
But at this point, in what feels like the darkest, emptiest hour of this pandemic, I like to think of it more as putting out bird seed, hopeful that there might be something in me, in my partner, or in the world, that will need a little nourishment when it arrives._
7. Time Is Meaningless Now - Vice
The most interesting part of this article, to me, was the difference between “clock time” and “event time”. Clock time is what a lot of us live by, where we define our events based on what time it is. Event time, on the other hand, is when events begin and end when it “feels right”.
8. The life and death of Homaro Cantu, the genius chef who wanted to change the world - The Guardian
9. That Time I Broke into a Factory Farm - Matters Journal
“How do activists go about changing minds? Matt Harnett steals some chickens in pursuit of an alternative future.”
See you next week.-Kat.