Hello there, reader, and welcome back to another issue of Kat’s Kable. As always, ten great things to read, across a wide range of subjects: diamonds to cool compute chips, SOPs on managing nuclear reactors, and what it was like to counsel and equip rock musicians in the 70s. Tell me how you like it!

1. Nine Rules for Managing Humans Managing Nuclear Reactors (Asterisk Mag):

The US navy runs a huge number of nuclear power stations and has had next to no mishaps. This is a great read into understanding how to manage the people to get to such a record.

2. Can Diamonds Solve the Chip Heat Dilemma? (IEEE Spectrum):

Our most advanced compute platforms and chips are simply bottlenecked by heat: how do you funnel heat away as efficiently as possible? Diamond is a new answer.

3. How Co-Ops Electrified America (Asterisk Mag):

“In the 1930s, private utilities balked at the task of bringing electricity to rural America. A New Deal agency figured out how to do it more quickly and more cheaply than anyone expected.”

4. Less noise, more me (All and Sundry blog):

Pretty interesting blog post about having the house to yourself after a separation, and what that inner dialogue and journey looks like.

5. This is how the Swiss would have done HS2 (Freewheeling):

The HS2 is a high-speed railway tunnel in the UK, about 16 kilometres long. It’s taken a long time and a lot of money to build it. This blog post explores the difference in planning the Swiss authorities would have gone through if they had to connect through similar mountains.

6. Thoughts on The Curve (Interconnects by Nathan Lambert):

Another interesting read on the increasing capabilities of frontier AI models.

7. The Cat Who Woke Me Up (The Sun):

Beautiful meditation by Sy Safransky on Nimbus and Cirrus, two cats that belonged to him and his partner. Really touching read.

8. Extremely offline: what happened when a Pacific island was cut off from the internet (The Guardian):

Great writing from Samanth Subramanian per usual about Tonga and how a massive 2022 earthquake disconnected them from the internet - because of a breached under-ocean fiber optic cable.

9. Glowworms (The New Yorker):

Beautiful, beautiful meditation by Ann Patchett on dealing with deaths among her friends and family, and her subsequent trip to Australia and New Zealand for book promotion. Like all Patchett writing, this is worth your time.

10. My Father, Guitar Guru to the Rock Gods (The Atlantic):

“When the greatest musicians of the 1970s needed an instrument—or a friend—my dad was there.” Nancy Walecki writes about her dad, Frank, who I’d not heard about but who played an integral role in the rock’n’roll music of the 70s and 80s.