Well, hello hello. It’s been a busy and eventful few weeks for me, thus the long gap between issues of Kat’s Kable. I’m writing this issue from the very room where I wrote much of the first few issues of the newsletter back in 2016. I’ve moved back home to Chennai, India now. And I have to say, it feels quite wonderful to be done with the PhD and to not have to think about it anymore. Of course, while I should be on break and relaxing entirely, I still find time and headspace to worry about whatever I have to or want to do next. I’m telling myself that that’s normal, and that it’s best for me to take my time and also let my brain and body recover. Anyhow.. that’s enough from my side. Hope you enjoy this issue!
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1. As lockdowns lift, media firms brace for an “attention recession” - The Economist (via Internet Archive)
Aha, this was interesting in part. It’s from July 2021, which I guess is important to mention because things have changed since then. As more people moved/are moving back to working in person, they have less spare time and hence less screen time on leisure activities.
2. Impressions of web3 - Moxie Marlinspike’s blog
This was a blog post that did a lot of rounds in some of the online communities that I am a part of. It’s a pretty critical overview and assessment of the current web3 landscape/field. Mostly, what I took away from it is that even though the fundamental precept of web3 is decentralization, in its current form, it is still going to be influenced heavily by top-heavy players. In other words, simply decentralizing things in this form does not solve the issues with the current web, the so-called web2.
3. Amidst a global banana crisis, Puerto Rico’s abundant biodiversity offers a taste of hope - Washington Post (soft paywalled)
I’ve been reading Alicia Kennedy’s work lately, and she’s so great. She has a Substack which is quite the delight, even though I’m only on the free plan. This particular piece is about bananas in Puerto Rico. In the US, if you want bananas, you just get one kind, and all the banana plants are clones of each other. This has made them susceptible to being wiped out swiftly by fungal disease. That disease, unfortunately, has arrived, reminding us that diversity in the varieties grown is quite important.
4. Mutual Aid Stations - Logic Mag
This was nice to read. It’s about how gig workers in a bunch of Global South cities are grouping together to help themselves. The article itself focuses on Jakarta (Indonesia) and Bengaluru (India). This is quite heartening given the insecurity that gig workers face, as well as the fact that they find it hard to collectively bargain with their employer.
5. The Push to Make French Gender-Neutral - The Atlantic (soft paywalled)
Also very interesting. This immediately reminded me of Anne Fadiman’s All My Pronouns piece that I shared a few months ago. English as a language is not very gendered, unlike, say French. There is an ongoing effort to make French more gender-neutral, and that’s what this article is about. The debate about it in France itself is quite intense, as one might expect. People against the inclusive language claim that it is dangerous to tamper with language, while people for the gender-neutrality say that language is a political thing and also that it’s normal and fine for it to change with the times.
6. Why CAPTCHA Pictures Are So Unbearably Depressing - OneZero on Medium
I avoid sharing listicles, but I thought to share this one. The author, Clive Thompson, gives six reasons why CAPTCHA pictures on the internet are sad to look at. And, you know, he makes good points. One thing that I hadn’t thought of earlier is that the pictures we’re shown in our CAPTCHAs are ones that machine-learning algorithms haven’t had much luck with. That’s why the pictures are blurry, from weird angles, or of weird objects with bad lighting. The other really interesting thing I realized from this list is that these pictures depress us because there’s very little nature in them.
7. Exploring Chennai, City of Fish - Whetstone Magazine
This is a nice and thought-provoking (for me at least) photoessay about fish in my home city of Chennai (where I am right now!). Chennai’s long coastline has obviously meant that seafood will, and has, played an important role in people’s lives.
8. Covering Environmental Health When Science Is Lacking - The Open Notebook
This was quite interesting. It starts with the story of a woman, Yaneth Valderrama, who lived in Colombia in the proximity of coca fields. The Colombian government, with US support, had been spraying pesticide on these fields. Valderrama died six months after being exposed to the airborne pesticide spray. The quandary that this piece deals with is this: there is a high likelihood that the pesticide caused her death, but in the absence of evidence, what is a reporter to do?
9. ‘Still’ Life - Grantland
Hehe I might have shared this 2011 piece about Roger Federer already at some point. But it’s great, and I like Federer a lot, so I’ll share it again regardless. It tickles me to realize that this 10 year-old feature talks about the “twilight” of Federer’s career, despite the fact that he’s competed at the top level for ten years since.
The saddest moment in the career of a great athlete is the one when he’s tagged with the word “still.” One day you’re fast. One day you’re slow. There’s an in-between day when you’re “still fast,” and that’s the day when everything hollows out. […] Roger Federer has spent longer as a “still” athlete than any great player I can remember. You could even argue that it’s one of the signs of his greatness.
10. How can wonder transform us? - Helen De Cruz’s blog
I love this blog post especially because it starts with a bit about Ursula K. Le guin’s Earthsea Cycle. It’s about wonder in general, looked at from a bunch of perspectives. The emotion of wonder is quite a powerful one, and an important one to feel and cultivate.
Wonder, thus construed, helps us to see the world as valuable for its own sake, and thus helps us not only see it as a means to human ends. A person who sees the natural world as intrinsically valuable will not be tempted to use it as a mere means, and thus end up with very different attitudes and relationships to the environment.
Also this:
To bring it all together, wonders helps us to move away from seeing things as means to an end to things that are valuable in themselves. Carson is clear that we need to cultivate our sense of wonder, otherwise it fades, just like other virtuous dispositions need to be cultivated. Once we have the sense of wonder, our sense of what is possible shifts, our action-schemas become different. A person without wonder for the natural world might feel: it’s useful to preserve nature but short-term interests will prevail, and so it is inevitable that we go toward ecological collapse/unmitigated climate change. But when you cultivate the sense of wonder, you might think: this is worth preserving and beautiful, how amazing is our world!
Until next time.–Kat.