Author: Kate
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9 things to do when you’re locked out of your apartment
The thing about today’s smart devices is that they can be too smart for their own good. Last Wednesday, for example, I went to collect a delivery at my front door. I’d been expecting a new SIM card, and the network provider told me I’d need to receive it in person, for security purposes. True…
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Collected quotes, 1 of n
All these clocks, like the whole information industry today, run the risk of no longer communicating anything because they tell too much. But they also possess another characteristic of the information industry: they no longer speak of anything except themselves and their internal functioning. Eco, Umberto. “How Not to Know the Time.” How to Travel…
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Podcast notes: Broader implications
Listened to an illuminating episode of the Global Dispatches podcast recently. The featured guest was Dr. Angela Chang, who discussed a groundbreaking study on the links between vaccines and poverty prevention. This is the first study that looks closely at the non-health impact of vaccines. It’s impressive: the research uses statistical modeling and analysis to…
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Home and the city
I’ve been working my way through Reportage on Crime, an anthology of Nick Joaquin’s true crime stories. One such piece, “The Lodger,” deals with the demographic shift in Manila brought on by the influx of laborers (and their families) from the provinces. I don’t have the same intimate understanding of Manila as Nick Joaquin does,…
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The Optimal Starbucks Breakfast
Optimization is the millennial affliction. (There was a trenchant Buzzfeed essay a while back that delved into how this impulse drives our generation to burnout.) Since seeing that insight articulated in plain, stark language, I’ve been more conscious of its truth in my own life. Take today’s breakfast stop at the local Starbucks. I lived…
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On “Death of a Red Heroine” by Qiu Xiaolong
I mistook this novel for a murder mystery. It is that, nominally: Chief Inspector Chen Cao and Detective Yu of the Shanghai Police Bureau spend their time investigating the murder of Guan Hongying, a national model worker found dead in an obscure county canal. Chen and Yu dig for clues, interview witnesses, mull over theories about what…
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