Between China’s rise in lunar exploration and my visit to the country last year, I’ve grown more curious about how the Chinese collectively think and work. So I set out to gain some high-level context of Chinese policies and history, which have now helped me identify

I love reading blogs, newsletters, and virtually anything else on the Web through RSS feeds. As a space writer, it’s the best way for me to keep track of, read, and search what hundreds of sources publish every week. And, I proactively offer my own readers an option

I’ve been quite productive this month, chief of which has entailed publishing a spree of long articles. Notably, all of these pieces have been on different topics, each concerning an unusually important development in its own niche within the space industry. Because of their very newsy nature, it

Hi friends,

It’s again been over three months since I sent out the previous newsletter for friends. And once again, a lot has happened in life. Here’s a small snapshot of some notable things you might like to browse. Click the links you’re

I recently read lyrical poems by Aurobindo, an Indian freedom fighter, philosopher, and writer. Some of his verses capture deep views on life, and you can almost live through the emotional cycle of progress.

The fall

But suddenly there soared a dateless cry,
Deep as Night, imperishable as Time;
It

Lately I’ve been watching Prehistoric Planet. I’ve always been fascinated by dinosaurs but the show’s visuals and explanations are so good that they help you get a sense of how the dinosaurs might have spent their day-to-day lives. And now I’m

• Here’s a depressing roundup of how the bottomless greed of AI companies is utterly destroying the Web all of us grew up with. I’m furious.
• There’s also irony in the fact that open access publishing is under threat from people

Plus some blog recommendations as a nice side effect.

I recently researched and replaced many paid web app subscriptions I had with free alternatives that either perform the same function or come close enough. Here’s the list of which service I replaced with what.

1. Micro.one → flipboard.social (for the Fediverse)
2. Inoreader Pro → Inoreader Free

Hi friends,

It’s been over three months since I sent out the previous newsletter for friends. Usually I share every month’s key things as a linked list, which includes what I liked reading, professional space writing I published, some non-space thoughts I blogged about, and notable

I’ve had or re-had a few realizations lately that have helped me greatly:

1. Crossposting to or across social media is counterproductive if doing so to avoid social media. Applies to POSSE too.
2. Having a domain for micro thoughts, day-to-day photos, comments, and random musings is a waste of

Something unexpected happened recently. I had covered someone’s published research on my Moon Monday blog+newsletter. I don’t know the person but they saw that and so reached out to ask if I would write a recommendation letter for their visa application abroad. After

• Airports
• Trains
• Cafés
• Amid conferences
• Hostels and Hotels
• Recently from a beach
• Weddings
• When traveling in Europe and China
• A hospital

How? Since the day is etched in the name, Moon Monday, I plan every week around it.

Someday I’d love to publish a Moon Monday

The other day I posed a question on the Web that has (gladly) initiated a string of responses from people. And by that I do not mean comments on social media but entire blog posts. Before sharing a few thoughts on that and making it all meta (the good kind)

I don’t care if you like or react to my posts on social media. I’ve hunted down and turned off all such notifications everywhere possible so I barely know you liked them anyway.

​I don’t care if you don’t read my

This was the question I asked on the Web yesterday, and people had interesting responses. Imagine you were born and brought up in a time where Twitter and Instagram always existed. Would you still blog?

Many said no, which I find to be an interesting conclusion especially for people who

I’m the latest guest on the “People and Blogs” series by Manu. Hearing from people in this series has been a great way for me to meet some of their blogs over coffee. And now some of you web humans reading this might like the story

Instagram (I): Stories are not posts. They disappear after 24 hours.

People (P): What if I want to retain them?

I: Now you can archive stories

P: I don’t like some people

I: Okay, you can mute their stories too

P: I want to

Someone from a legacy Indian media outlet called me recently to ask me to write an article on Indian space within five days, and for free. They expected me to agree to commit to it then and there itself. I said I’d have considered contributing but the timeline

I’ve seen this recurring theme on Twitter, LinkedIn, and virtually every microblogging social platform I’ve used. Teasing something exciting you’re working on gets better visibility than when you share that work itself.

Here’s an example from the Twitter of yore—which

Hello friends, Continuing to embrace a calmer digital life instead of drowning in the slurp—and now slop—of social media, I’m sharing with you via this web letter some notable things I’ve been up to or enjoyed in October. Reading * How to comment on social media * Technology

2024 is a national election year for both the US and India. Some web searching led me to check past voter turnouts in both countries, and I was quite surprised with the numbers: The US (Source) * 2004: 60.1% * 2008: 62.5% * 2012: 58% * 2016: 59.2% * 2020: 66.9%

I love trains. Why you ask? * I get to spend hours reading without much interruption from humans. * ⁠Eating and relaxing is more comfortable in spacious AC train coaches than being cramped in plane seats. * ⁠With trains you essentially just get in and get out. There’s no fuss of guards,

Just start a newsletter that announces in its name to the whole world that it will go out every Monday: https://jatan.space/tag/moon-monday 🌝

Hello friends, Here’s another web letter of notable things I’ve been up to or enjoyed recently. A lot has happened over the last two months, and below are slices from both the spacey and non-spacey parts of my life. Reading * Why research paper DOIs don’t work sometimes

* Be outraged about everything * Be woke across all of time * Never bring nuance * Signal disapproval, or you might just cause an existential crisis for many * Get called out for not flicking your fingers in ways prescribed by stranger collectives * Torch your long-built reputation in no time * Assume others aren’t