Two Years of Snipette

Dear Snipette readers,
This 11th of June, we are celebrating our second anniversary. (!!!)

That is not a sentence we ever expected to be able to write. Neither are the ones that follow.

We have gained 300 followers. Three hundred people who decided they liked what we had to say and read our work week after week. We’ve worked with a dozen authors, dedicated people who have taken time out of their doubtless busy lives to write a few thousand words for us and stuck around through edits and re-edits.

Through all of this, we have only you to thank. It is your act of reading our work every week, your highlights and comments, and other interactions that keep us going. After all, we write for the reader, and the reader alone.

While we’re on the subject, here’s a special shout-out to Where Angels Fear: for incisive feedback and comments on a wide range of topics scientific and philosophical 📢

Another major component of what has allowed to keep going, and prevented us from fatiguing of writing, is the litany of new authors who have joined us this year. They offer fresh perspectives, new ideas, and varied writing styles that we hope will keep you interested and coming back for more.

Ringing in the New Year was Aubrey Norwood, with a fun poem. [All the Dogs in Dog Town] 🐶

Paul Cathill, editor of Interesting Histories, sent in his history of programming languages. [Building Code] 🧱

While Paul was looking at the past, computers and programming continue to advance. And the more powerful they get, the more careful we need to be — as Xander Warszawski points out, musing on the potential dangers of AI. [Artificial Irrelevance] 🤖

Science fiction writer Ryan Reudell no doubt writes about AI in other works — but this time, he dipped into history. More specifically, he covers a meeting by the grandson of Genghis Khan, and thinks it could teach today’s political debaters a lesson or three. [The Debate]🎙

Abbey is a food scientist who wants to share her information to the general public, including why you may be throwing away a perfectly good piece of cheese. [Cheese Crystals] 🧀

Turning back to the skies, there’s Sidharth Jain, who tells us how on Earth people managed to photograph a black-hole. Hint: it is on Earth. All of Earth, in fact. [Black Hole Photography] 🔭

And last but not the least, Will Kenway turns the gaze back on science itself, and wonders how good scientists are at explaining the world. Perhaps, he suggests, we need to start taking theories a bit less literally. [The Problem with Science] ⚛

Do take a moment to check out their profiles: there’s a lot of interesting stuff in there. And of course, we’d be happy to have you join us in writing too. You don’t need to be good at writing: you just need to have something to say.

We’ve had a wonderful two years here at Snipette.

Here’s to many more!

— Manasa and Badri, editors at Snipette

Ready to read? If you’re done with all the articles linked in this letter, you can dig into the archives to find some more.

Ready to write? New or aspiring writers, check out our Writers’ Programme, where we guide you through the process of making a Snipette article. And here are the submission guidelines for those who already have an article ready.

Ready to connect? We’re always happy to receive feedback. So do write about, comment, and share our articles. You can also follow us on social media, at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Friendica.