Hello hello reader, this is Vishal with another issue of Kat’s Kable, an internet newsletter with ten good things to read every week. I come to you over the week this time because this past weekend was Diwali! Anyhow, we are back now, and as always the ten things to read are pretty great, if I may say so myself. I don’t have much else to say this issue honestly, so I will just leave you with this. Enjoy the list and please feel free to reply to this email if you liked it!
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. The Deep Link Equating Math Proofs and Computer Programs - Quanta Magazine
Interesting article (as always from Quanta) about the equivalence, or isomorphism, between computer science (types and programs) and logic (propositions and proofs). To me this didn’t seem like a major lightbulb moment especially when you consider that a Turing machine also starts to tie together the concepts of algorithms and mathematics. Interesting nonetheless.
2. The Genius Bar in a country where iPhones can’t legally be sold - Rest of World
So cool! Apple products aren’t legally available in Cuba, yet there is a network of expert technicians who are able to repair Macs and iPhones, and a significant part of their work is harvesting parts from older computers given back to them. The best part was how someone needed to get their MacBook keyboard fixed, and paid the mechanic Pupo Hondal with a broken iMac!
Pupo Hondal first tried to order a replacement keyboard from abroad, but was unsuccessful. He then decided to replace it with another old keyboard that “only” had four broken keys. Gámez Ruiz was happy enough with the repair and paid Pupo Hondal with a broken iMac.
3. Looking inside real vs. fake AirPods with industrial CT - Lumafield
Not longform journalism, but this is also super interesting. For example, look at this. The one of the left is a genuine AirPod (so much complicated circuitry!) and the two others are fakes.
4. Slovenia’s Beautiful Beehives Turn Apiaries Into Art - Atlas Obscura
Slovenia is full of a type of beehive called the Alberti-Žnideršič (or AŽ) hives, and they are really beautiful. The average age of beekeepers has also gone from 65 to 59 in the last 15 years, which is also heartening and shows that more new people are getting into beekeeping.
5. Airlines Are Just Banks Now - The Atlantic (via the Web Archive)
Interesting article about American airlines in particular and how in some cases their frequent flyer programs are valued higher than the airlines themselves (like in the case of United as mentioned in the article). But interestingly the article lays all the blame with American lawmakers:
And although getting mad at airlines is perfectly reasonable, the blame ultimately lies with Congress. […] Unleashed from regulation, airlines devised new tactics to capture the market. American Airlines was one of the most aggressive. In the lead-up to the deregulation bills, it created discount “super saver” fares to sell off the final few remaining seats on planes. That meant cheap prices for last-minute travelers and more revenue for American, because the planes were going to take off whether or not the seat was filled. But these fares upset business travelers, who tended to buy tickets further in advance for higher prices. So in 1981, American developed AAdvantage, its frequent-flier program, to give them additional benefits. Other airlines followed suit.
Then, airlines did three major changes: (a) tying up with credit card companies, (b) awarding miles based on dollars spent rather than miles flown, and (c) differential prices for tickets based on complicated fare levels. These essentially converted frequent flyer programs into the massive sprawl they are now.
6. Tamil Nadu’s long fight against Prosopis juliflora - Hindustan Times
Good article about the Indian state of Tamil Nadu’s struggle with the invasive Prosopis juliflora. These trees were planted aggressively in the 1960s to solve a severe shortage of firewood. Unfortunately, the tree is now invasive and a heavy water consumer in parts of the state.
7. Rethinking the Luddites in the Age of A.I. - The New Yorker (soft paywalled)
“Brian Merchant’s new book, “Blood in the Machine,” argues that Luddism stood not against technology per se but for the rights of workers in the face of automation.”
In the era of A.I., we have another opportunity to decide whether automation will create advantages for all, or whether its benefits will flow only to the business owners and investors looking to reduce their payrolls. One 1812 letter from the Luddites described their mission as fighting against “all Machinery hurtful to Commonality.” That remains a strong standard by which to judge technological gains.
8. Decomposing Language Models Into Understandable Components - Anthropic’s blog
Ha, a very different kind of piece as the one above but still about AI and more about the very cutting edge. Anthropic is a major AI company known for creating its AI assistant, Claude, and here they talk about “mechanistic interpretability”, one of the bets they’ve taken to create more explainable and less black box-y AI models. It’s very technical but it’s cool to know about.
9. Ural Airlines Is Preparing To Fly An Airbus A320 Out Of A Field - Simple Flying
Well, wow. A Sochi to Omsk flight had to perform an emergency landing in a wheat field, and now they’re dismantling the seating and taking as much off the plane in an attempt to lighten it and then take off from the wheat field!
10. India’s pickle people: Decades-old culinary heirlooms, nostalgia - Al Jazeera
Fun feature of Indian pickling techniques! The highlight was seeing and reading about lemon/lime pickles that are up to 70 years old! This is a style of pickling that I’m not a huge fan of and I haven’t made either, so maybe I shall start soon.