Welcome to another issue of Kat’s Kable. Here goes the list.
- Why is Russia so Good at Encouraging Women into Tech - More a how story than a why one, this is interesting. A more forthcoming society that has been through a war that required every last smatter of talent, Russia has successfully integrated more women into its tech industry than most developed or developing countries.
- How Pixar Lost its Way - Why has Pixar changed from the studio that made Monsters, Toy Story and Finding Nemo to the one that is making (and has made) Toy Story 2, Cars 3 and Finding Dory? What changed? Pixar is now owned by Disney - how much of its efforts now go into running the creative side of a huge corporate that specialises not only in movies, but also in merchandise and theme parks?
- The Nazi Who Infiltrated National Geographic - Douglas Chandler, a WWII-era writer for the magazine, filled all his writing and contributions with pro-Nazi propaganda. Why did the Nazis get around to harbouring such a grudge with the National Geographic?
- End Notes - Musings on death and mourning in China, with one novelty. It all happens on WeChat, the universal messaging app used in the country for everything - payments, texting, and mourning deaths.
Death footage on WeChat becomes public property — fodder for chatter, open to reproduction, to parody. On WeChat, where all content is equal, death is decontextualized, commodified, reproduced mechanically as gif. As such, these videos render death both sensational and meaningless, in a slow stripping away of traditional ceremonies associated with death, rituals of mourning and respect that have been required in China for thousands of years. - What it means when you can’t answer the question, What do you want to be when you grow up? - Learnt about a word called multipotentialite. This article is a comfort to everyone who hasn’t yet been able o decide what they want to do when older. (piece is adapted from this book)
- Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Diamond? - A 1982 piece on The Atlantic about the diamond cartel. Great read. I knew a few things about the diamond cartel, but did not know about the nuances and subtleties, nor about the controversies that have happened. Can you beat the cartel?
- How Intel Makes a Chip
Before entering the cleanroom in D1D, as Intel calls its 17 million-cubic-foot microprocessor factory in Hillsboro, Oregon, it’s a good idea to carefully wash your hands and face. You should probably also empty your bladder. There are no bathrooms in the cleanroom. Makeup, perfume, and cosmetics are forbidden. Writing instruments are allowed, as long as they’re special sterile pens; paper, which sheds microscopic particles, is absolutely banned. If you want to write on something, you’ll have to use what is known in the industry as “high-performance documentation material,” a paperlike product that doesn’t release fibers.
- The Doctor will see your Iguana now - The New York Times goes through a typical day in the Center for Avian and Exotic Medicine in New York. It’s a mad rush of (mostly illegal) pets and animals brought in for medical treatments and surgeries. Fun read.
- A Pinot Noir; Stolen to Order - Wine heists in high end restaurants in the US are becoming more widespread now, with thieves breaking into wine cellars and stealing specific expensive wines, so much so that one restaurant owner says, “They’re not crawling under laser beams or anything. They’re using sledgehammers and crowbars. But they know what wine they want. This is wine stolen to order.” Enter Maureen Downey, a professional part-time wine fraud investigator.
- Something Borrowed - Came across this when longform released a list of pieces on plagiarism. Malcolm Gladwell (a great author primarily, but also a first-class journalist) talks about Frozen, a Broadway musical adapted rather perfectly from the real life of a real person. Is this plagiarism? This, along with everything else on that list, is a good exploration of the nuances of plagiarism and copying.
That’s it for this week - have a great one ahead! I have a lot of free time on my hands now, so if you have any ideas or requests, please just reply to this mail. :)