Hello there, reader! I come to you with your favourite newsletter, Kat’s Kable, this time on a bright Friday morning because.. well because I was lazy last night. This is a slightly different than usual issue, where the first half has longform as usual, but the latter half is all photoessays more for visual delight than anything else.

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1. Chasing the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker (Garden and Gun):

“The struggle to prove the majestic bird still exists has obsessed believers and exasperated doubters for a century. Now photographer Bobby Harrison is racing to document the species once and for all before the government declares it extinct”

2. Stone Skimming Is a World Champion Sport—And a Model for Spaceships (Atlas Obscura):

Ha! I love to see lots of articles these days on stone skimming.

3. Direct Solar Power: Off-Grid Without Batteries (Low Tech Magazine):

Interesting. At a home setup scale, could you power all your needs with solar and as few batteries as possible? This means reorganizing some of your activities (laundry during daytime only) and re-jigging some appliances.

4. The Conqueror Who Longed for Melons (Atlas Obscura):

Fun article about how Babur brought his love for melons to India.

5. Behold Modular Forms, the ‘Fifth Fundamental Operation’ of Math (Quanta Magazine):

Some math nerdery! I don’t know much (actually, anything) about modular forms, so this was a fun introduction.

6. Division of labor in ants, wasps, bees — and us (Knowable Magazine):

This was a pretty interesting read about the emergence of division of labour in different insect colonies, and how it sometimes emerges when there are particular triggering conditions.

7. Clay and Consciousness: A Journey into the Sense of Touch (Coonor and Co):

Lovely photoessay.

8. ‘Opens eyes and minds’: the wondrous world of underwater photography (South China Morning Post)

9. Documenting Community in Inner Mongolia (Atmos)