Kickoff for September 16, 2024
Publishing of The Monday Kickoff might be a bit erratic and sporadic over the next week or three. I'm in the process of moving house and ... well, you know how that goes. So, if an edition or two of the letter doesn't land in your inbox don't worry. All is well and I'll be getting back to the regularly scheduled schedule soon.
With that out of the way, let's get Monday started with these links:
What Makes an Idea Likely to Appear in Consciousness? — Wherein we're walked through research that posits how particular things pop into our minds, even if we're not actively thinking about them.
From the article:
This process for calling options to mind holds even when we are making a decision, the researchers found. We involuntarily call up ideas that are most relevant to the category in question even when they are not the best options for a particular context.
The Unique Challenges of Translating The Brothers Karamazov Into English — Wherein Michael R. Katz recounts the joys and challenges of translating Dostoyevsky's greatest work into English, while trying not to follow previous translations of the novel.
From the article:
Translating Dostoevsky is different from rendering other authors into English. His prose is impassioned, fiery, and intense. Nothing in his novels ever happens “gradually” or “slowly.” His favorite adverb, frequently repeated in consecutive phrases, is “suddenly.” Similarly, his favorite adjective is “strange”: when he says something is strange, it is out of this world, beyond the range of common experience. These two examples provide quite a challenge for the faithful translator.
The Battle for Space Dominance — Wherein Joseph Grosso analyses the uses of orbiting satellites for both commercial and military purposes, why governments and companies are launching more satellites into various orbits, and what could happen if there are too many objects orbiting the Earth.
From the article:
If there are indeed more collisions and satellite destruction, there will also be more space junk—known formally as orbital debris, including pieces of inactive satellites, rockets, jet engines, and other mission-related detritus including some items left behind by astronauts.
The Bad Politics of Bad Posture — Wherein Daniel Felsenthal explores why so-called good posture became so ingrained in American life, looks at the murky and contentious research into posture and its effects on our health, and tackles why we need to get away from the idea of the existence of perfect posture and anatomy.
From the article:
They would never suggest orthodontia to a man with crooked incisors. Posture, though, occupies another realm: It leads us to not only make assumptions about people, their backgrounds, and their psychologies, but also to police their bodies, in a way that reveals more about the critics than the criticized.
Atomic Fallacy: Why Nuclear Power Won’t Solve the Climate Crisis — Wherein M.V. Ramana argues against building more nuclear reactors in an effort to generate more green energy, in large part because building viable reactors takes far too long and costs too much money.
From the article:
My bottom line is that nuclear energy, whether with old reactor designs or new faux alternatives, will simply not resolve the climate crisis. The threat from climate change is urgent. The world has neither the financial resources nor the luxury of time to expand nuclear power.
Was I Capable of Killing My Cat for Bad Behavior? — Wherein Mary Gaitskill describes the fraught, yet loving and fulfilling, relationship she had with a stray the she adopted, a relationship that at one moment in time deteriorated to the point where she considered having her cat euthanized.
From the article:
None of that made what I was contemplating any less cruel. What pulled me back from the brink of this awful choice was not an appeal to abstract ethics. It was an appeal to my own well-being — which I’d somehow forgotten was linked to Suki’s.