{"id":3636,"date":"2017-01-18T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T08:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/?p=3636"},"modified":"2017-01-17T15:39:23","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T15:39:23","slug":"pulp-fiction-in-kl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/?p=3636","title":{"rendered":"Pulp fiction in KL?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Freshly<\/a>
Coffee on the cutting machine at Pulp<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There have been a few great caf\u00e9s opening up recently in Kuala Lumpur, including\u00a0Pulp by Papa Palheta<\/span><\/a> in Lucky Gardens. However the space that Pulp occupies is unrivalled: The old cutting room of the Art Printing Works. It really is geek meets hipster in this caf\u00e9, with old electric fittings and the original paper cutting machine housed alongside a fantastic range of freshly roasted coffee.<\/p>\n

There is a great range of coffee on offer too. From pour-overs to espresso based drinks and cold brew, Pulp is a great place to discover a wide range of coffees. I had a pour over Ethiopian (Suke Quto) that was beautifully presented with tasting notes ready for me to enjoy. A nice touch was that the cup had been pre-warmed so I got no condensation around the rim<\/span><\/a> of the mug when I filled the cup with coffee. The coffee itself was very fruity, presumably very lightly roasted in order to retain the fruity notes of the beans. (On a second visit I enjoyed a long black which was also very fruity though less so than the pour-over).<\/p>\n

\"pourover<\/a>
Taking time with a beautifully presented pour-over<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although there are plenty of seats in this caf\u00e9, on both occasions we visited it was crowded and hard to find a seat. It seems that this is a very popular spot for good coffee in KL, so do be prepared to share a table! Indeed, one of these ‘tables’ is formed from the\u00a0old cutting machine itself, the machine that used to prepare the paper used for newspapers and books. Sipping coffee here, in a place steeped in the history of printing, it seemed only natural to consider the role in our current society of fake news and whether there is anything that we can do about it.<\/p>\n

The issue of fake news or of exaggerated or incomplete news stories is not just limited to issues surrounding the recent US election.\u00a0Reporting our experimental results honestly and our theories thoroughly underpins all scientific research. However, as funding decisions and employment prospects increasingly depend on publications in prestigious journals, question marks can start to hover over each scientist’s paper (the “publish or perish”<\/span><\/a> problem). Does reporting a result honestly include waiting for that last result (that could contradict or delay the ‘story’ thereby making publication in “high impact” journals such as Nature<\/em> less probable)? Do we read the papers of others thinking that they have reported everything as truthfully and fully as possible or do we shrug as their next paper (in a lower impact journal) reveals the ‘caveats’ on their previous work? The chemist and scientific philosopher, Michael Polanyi wrote in 1946:<\/p>\n

“… Suppose scientists were in the habit of regarding most of their fellows as cranks or charlatans. Fruitful discussion between them would become impossible…. The process of publication, of compiling text books, of teaching juniors, of making appointments and establishing new scientific institutions would henceforth depend on the mere chance of who happened to make the decision. It would then become impossible to recognise any statement as a scientific proposition or to describe anyone as a scientist. Science would become practically extinct.<\/em>“\u2217<\/p>\n

\"Pulp,<\/a>
Where else could you see all these old electrical boxes?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Although we are hopefully still very far from that scenario, it is fairly clear that similar levels of trust are required for our society to function well too. For our society to flourish, these same standards of integrity are required of our press (and indeed of ourselves if we publish – or share – articles online). The perception that our society is moving into an era where fake news is as valid as proper investigative journalism has led to some calling ours a “post-truth” era. However, as\u00a0Emmi It\u00e4ranta<\/span><\/a>\u00a0has argued, we should endeavour to avoid calling our times “post-truth”, in part because the term itself is not neutral. Our words and language matter and when we use the term we contribute to the idea that truth is no longer meaningful.<\/p>\n

Such\u00a0thoughts remind us of our own responsibility and contributions to society. If we don’t want fake news to influence politics, we need to be careful what we share or publish online. From our language to our values<\/span><\/a>, we need to behave as if truth matters. And, to me at least, it seems that enjoying a coffee can help us with that. Stopping to appreciate the moment as we savour our well prepared coffee, we can step-back from the “retweet” or “share” button and think, is this evidence based and true or else, what is it that I gain by sharing this?<\/p>\n

It strikes me that caf\u00e9s such as\u00a0Pulp, with their mix of great coffee and interesting surroundings are perfect spaces in which to slow down and think rather than react and retweet. Perhaps that is what we need for 2017, more time contemplating in caf\u00e9s, less time on social media. Let’s hope for some quiet time ahead.<\/p>\n

Pulp by Papa Palheta is at 29-01 Jalan Riong, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia,<\/p>\n

\u2217Michael Polanyi “Science, Faith and Society”, Oxford University Press, 1946<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There have been a few great caf\u00e9s opening up recently in Kuala Lumpur, including\u00a0Pulp by Papa Palheta in Lucky Gardens. However the space that Pulp occupies is unrivalled: The old cutting room of the Art Printing Works. It really is geek meets hipster in this caf\u00e9, with old electric fittings and the original paper cutting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,160],"tags":[516,571,1384,1385,1383,1381,1380,1377,442,1382,396,1378,1379,9,444,390],"class_list":["post-3636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-coffee-review","category-slow","tag-bangsar","tag-coffee-in-kl","tag-fake-news","tag-honesty","tag-integrity","tag-lucky-gardens","tag-old-cutting-room","tag-papa-palheta","tag-polanyi","tag-post-truth","tag-publish-or-perish","tag-pulp","tag-pulp-by-papa-palheta","tag-science","tag-science-faith-and-society","tag-truth"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Z8Nz-WE","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3636"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3701,"href":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3636\/revisions\/3701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beanthinking.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}