Hello there, reader. I’m Vishal and I’m here with another (albeit delayed) issue of Kat’s Kable. I’m away from home right now and don’t really feel like sending out the usual long version of the newsletter, so instead here’s this! The once-in-a-while just-a-list type of newsletter.
If you got this from a friend and want to subscribe, here’s the link. Also, if any of the links are paywalled and if you don’t want to pay for a subscription, try opening the link in incognito mode in your browser. This works if the website has a “soft” paywall. If that doesn’t work, you can access the website using a different browser on the same device, or use a different device altogether. Another, slightly involved, method is to try to disable JavaScript and reload the page. This works on some websites for me.
1. Their Bionic Eyes Are Now Obsolete and Unsupported (IEEE Spectrum) - What happens when you buy a bionic eye from a company that later decides to stop supporting it? I found this quite cool.
2. The adorable love story behind Wikipedia’s ‘high five’ photos (Input Magazine) - Adorable! This is about a couple who staged “high five” photos for its Wikipedia page. Now married, they talk about it and they recreate the pictures too.
3. Threads of Life (Mangal Media) - Touching story about identity.
I am often asked where I am from. I spent nearly two decades moving around the world, rarely staying in one place for more than a couple of years, and explaining who I am to strangers has become the one constant in my life. When I say “Croatia,” some have no idea where that is. But many meet my answer with the retort: “So much history.” What people mean to say is there’s so much trouble where I come from. History is trouble.
4. Between Flavour and Faith (The Locavore) - I enjoyed this deep dive into Parsi sweets and snacks, with lots of fun pictures and history.
5. Long Distance Thinking (Simon Sarris’ Substack) - Simon Sarris’ writing is really nice, and what’s cool is that it seems really exploratory. So the themes and messages aren’t obvious but there is something that ties together the different posts that he writes. I think it’s cool that we, as readers, are able to see this happen in chunks.
6. Out There I Have to Smile (Longreads) - Well. This made me stop and think and feel feelings. It’s about parenting a disabled child, and mostly about how home is a safe space but “out there” is not, and often you’re forced to smile and put on a brave face because (a) that’s what the narrative expects of you, and (b) you will be judged based on it.
7. Here at the End of All Things (Longreads) - Long read about maps in fantasy novels! Wonderful! What’s not to love. I love love love maps in fantasy novels even though they are barely realistic. It’s fun to get lost in them. I was delighted by this piece because it spelled out a lot of things that I’ve thought about.
8. It’s Your Friends Who Break Your Heart (The Atlantic) - This long article did the rounds some time ago. Contrary to what a few of my friends thought, I wasn’t too impressed by it. Anyway, I’m sharing it because it’s got some nice personal anecdotes of friendship, and perhaps you will indeed enjoy the writing.
9. The Battle for the World’s Most Powerful Cyberweapon (The New York Times) - Well well. This was pretty scary and eerie to read. It’s about Pegasus, the Israel-based NSO group’s powerful surveillance software that is being used all across the world by governments now. I found it interesting to read about how Pegasus is a core part of Israel’s foreign policy, and thus the privately owned NSO group is heavily dependent on government approval to do whatever it does.
10. A Brief History of Word Games (The Paris Review) - A bit limited in scope plus also just about English word games, but fun regardless!
I’ll see you soon.-Kat.