Since the last time I wrote and published something,
1. CSK came back from the ban and won an IPL
2. Liverpool won a CL, UEFA Super Cup, Club World Cup and a PL
3. Modi's jacket and economic policies replaced Nehru's jacket (but same economic policies in a different name) in common parlance
4. Putin was, is and will be the Premier of Russia (no changes there)
5. There was something called as TataSky recharge every month
6. WinRAR asked me to buy a license (no changes there) and still worked
7. England became Cricket World Champions (although because of a stupid rule)
8. COVID-19 stuck
The worst is yet to come! Until then let's keep ourselves entertained.
In this new series of The Week Mind, I will curate a few articles that I read over the week and make a repository of sorts. Some of them may interest you and a lot of them may be just utterly rubbish.
Let's dive in
A. Political
China's software stalked Uighurs earlier and more widely, Paul Mozur/Nicol Perlroth, NY Times
The Chinese are everywhere and they aren't only tracking everyone who resides in China, but also possible future dissenters. Basically they were tracking/hacking the Chinese Uighurs who don't even reside in China anymore. What a group of people who run the global supply chain!
Analysis | Vladimir Putin, the eternal Persident?, Stanly Johny, The Hindu
The man needs no introduction. Vladimir Putin kind of made a mockery of the system. May be he is required to have a stable Russia. Anti-Verschlimmbesserung is the word for most of the leaders handling the current political situations in most of the countries. Verschlimmbesserung in German means an attempted improvement that only makes thing worse. Sometimes status quo is better and lack of options is another line of reasoning given by the majority of people. Lack of option is truly a problem, but that shouldn't allow criticism to be smothered. For all we know, criticism just makes us better!
B. Technology
Opinion: We need to know what happened to CRISPR twins Lulu and Nana, Kiran Musunuru
MIT Tech Review offers 3 free articles. So, you can use your free articles judiciously. But, yeah, if you find them useful, you can always subscribe.
It's again got to do with China. Kiran Musunuru parlays the larger question of what happened to the baby twins Lulu and Nana whose genes were edited with CRISPR technology. Although the entire world was against the usage of CRISPR to gene-editing of human babies, Chinese scientist He Jiankui went ahead and performed gene-editing. What are the repercurssions? Was gene-editing successful? Are we looking at the creation of our next overlords? Kiran tries to reason a few of these questions.
DuckDuckGo 'broadly restored'; some users continue to face issues, The Hindu
You must try DuckDuckGo. It's the anti-Christ of Google search and takes privacy seriously. I have been using it for a few months now. The good thing is that your data is not used anywhere (atleast that's what they claim). On the flip side, because of this privacy-take-seriously feature, the ads are not relevant. The text search algorithm is still a match to Page Rank of Google but, Google wins hands down when you search for images.
Last week, DuckDuckGo got blocked by our Indian ISPs along with the magical 59 apps of Chinese origin. May be the ISPs thought Duck->Peking Duck->Smells of China and blocked it. On a serious note, it's funny how China is part of anything that happens to us
C. Health
A couple of weeks back when I took a blood test to know my Vitamin D values, it was languishing amongst the lowest levels possible. The WFH has restricted most of us to get natural sunlight and help in synthesizing Vitamin D. Before we run into bigger problems, supplements should come in handy. If you haven't taken a Vit D test, I urge you to take it.
Coimbatore-based keeraikadai.com launches greeny dips, K. Jeshi, The Hindu
Not directly related to Vit D, but, Coimbatore based keeraikadai.com launched greeny dip which synthesizes greens (palak, saag, keerai and the associated family) and makes it available to be used in a dip form soup. I ordered a few varieties and replaced my morning chai. Till now, I have tried the Moringa dip, and the taste is very slightly spicy. More importantly, there is a satisfied positive feedback loop in the mind that this is healthier than chai. Since I don't take sugar or milk in my chai, the replacement was easier.
Their website looks poorly designed and difficult to navigate. The only payment option is through Google Pay/UPI. If they can correct these things, it will be easier and convenient for the consumers. And the article did look like a press release and I am not promoting it either.
239 Experts with one big claim: The Coronavirus is airborne, Apoorva Mandavilli, NY Times
So, corona virus is airborne. It is a misleading article title to an extent that if it is indeed airborne, then we will have to keep our doors and windows shut as well. But, the truth of the matter is corona virus is airborne in closed spaces. Basically, offices, restaurants, etc. where the aerosol particles carrying the virus can still travel a few meters of distance before they are brought down to the ground by the weight of the particles. Thank you gravity!
On a similar note, please check out COVID-19 Survival Calculator
It is a data collection exercise but on the other hand the simulator does give some indication of the factors that affect the probability of contracting COVID-19
D. Economics
One of the best things I started in July was to replace the morning paper - The Economic Times (ET) with mint. mint is a breath of fresh air (pun intended). Reading ET has been a smothering experience with a slew of press releases and what seemed like paid articles. Heavily one-sided perspective and interviews with very less critical reasoning. mint has been benevolent in that perspective that the articles are in-depth and argues both points of view. Will share the best of the week from mint from next week. I still read ET Prime and it has been interesting for 1.5 years now
The plans to privatize parts of the railways, Sayantan Bera, Livemint
The first person that I got reminded of was Sangeet, when he, Shankar, Alok Nigam and Abhinav Saxena in 2007 presented a business plan of privatising railways at IIT Kharagpur Kshitij festival. This article by Sayantan Bera analyses the pros and cons of having trains run by private companies along with Indian Railways. What he calls for is a barrage of structural reforms to make the model work
E. Sports
Test Cricket made a comeback with England and West Indies restarting the affairs at Southampton. The match is well poised and set up for a fantastic final day with WI holding the edge unless the English weather plays spoilsport. It's going to be a fantastic battle between bat, ball and banter
The heartfelt message from Michael Holding on BLM is worth your time
and this video as well!
Football has been a drag with a lot of mid-table fight over CL spots between Leicester City, Chelsea and Manchester United. Based on Manchester City's FFP verdict on 13th July, the fight for Europa League's spot becomes prominent between Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sheffield United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur
The Champions League to start in August and the draws are out. Honestly, I didn't see the fixtures as Liverpool are already out of contention. May the best team win! Would be an interesting August
Elsewhere, All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur trailer is out. No release date as of yet. In the other All or Nothing series, be it Manchester City or Brazil that I had watched, the crux was how they came to conquer their quest for glory. The previous editions focused on the aspect of All in All or Nothing. May be this is they are focussing on Nothing in the All or Nothing series.
Coming back to cricket, we celebrated two great former Indian captains birthday this week - Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Jul 7) and Sourav Ganguly (Jul 8)
Here is DJ Bravo's tribute to MS Dhoni
And why Dada is still relevant from a cricket point of view
#SpiritOfSourav - What makes Sourav Ganguly so relevant even now?, Shayan Acharya, Sportstar
The debate on who was the best captain still rages on. Share your thoughts on who it was - Dada or Mahi?
F. eCommerce
Ajfan
Ajfan is a retail chain that sells import products and dry fruits in Chennai. The storekeepers are Malayalis and it's fun visiting their store with me talking in my broken Malayalam and they replying in their broken Tamil. Obviously, their broken Tamil is far better than my Malayalam. My version of Malayalam is speaking Tamil through my nose.
Coming to Ajfan, they fulfill the needs of selling the best quality Dates and Almonds in the city. Under the lockdown and limited mobility it is difficult to get my hands on such rich superfoods. And unverified purchases online is risky in terms of quality as these are costly foods. I am stuck with a bad pack of Medjoul dates from Nuts & Spices through Dunzo already.
Although Ajfan's website has a lot of content on superfoods, it is diffciult to navigate. And when you check online for delivery from Ajfan stores, you find out that they have the poorest of the website designed with no call to action to carry out eCommerce operations. In my opinion, they are losing out on a huge opportunity here. Is someone from Ajfan listening
Ulty Khopdi
A friend of mine Rahul Jha, an engineer turned designer has his works put up on Ulty Khopdi. I went to browse and look at other artists designs and I could navigate the website clearly. But, the mobile covers and accessories listing is a mess and we can't operate two filters together. It's highly cumbersome and was a harrowing experience
G. Behaviour
Pavlov's Dogs, Saul McLeod, Simply Psychology
So, we are in a way Pavlov's dog. We dearly wanted WFH three months back and we don't want WFH now. We are conditioned by habits and stimulii and it is going to be a Herculean task to break this chakravyuh. Thanks to Harshal for sharing this article
What if working from home goes on forever, Harish Bhat, Livemint
Harish Bhatt writes well and here in this piece addresses the common joys of working in an office setup and how certain interventions can atleast try to replace them in a Zoom/MS Teams/Skype/Slack setup
H. Books & Cinema
I am still reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond since 7th Jun. A good friend Nishant pointed out that it is more of a textbook than a regular read. On the contrary I am devoting enought time to read the book
Thanks to Kabir, Sharon and I watched Ponmagal Vandhal on Amazon Prime Video over two days. The movie is hard hitting and there are moments where you cringe. It's a hard take on one of the deadliest evils of the society. The imdb rating of 6.9 is too harsh.
This week Sharon and I have been watching Gulabo Sitabo since yesterday (Saturday). With the benevolence of Kabir Kannan Mohideen, we are hoping to complete it in another day or two
With that we wrap this week's musings.
Do share your list of interesting articles that you came across
Do share your thoughts on what was good and what can be improved
And do share your thoughts on who was the best Indian cricket captain - Dada or Mahi?
1. CSK came back from the ban and won an IPL
2. Liverpool won a CL, UEFA Super Cup, Club World Cup and a PL
3. Modi's jacket and economic policies replaced Nehru's jacket (but same economic policies in a different name) in common parlance
4. Putin was, is and will be the Premier of Russia (no changes there)
5. There was something called as TataSky recharge every month
6. WinRAR asked me to buy a license (no changes there) and still worked
7. England became Cricket World Champions (although because of a stupid rule)
8. COVID-19 stuck
The worst is yet to come! Until then let's keep ourselves entertained.
In this new series of The Week Mind, I will curate a few articles that I read over the week and make a repository of sorts. Some of them may interest you and a lot of them may be just utterly rubbish.
Let's dive in
A. Political
China's software stalked Uighurs earlier and more widely, Paul Mozur/Nicol Perlroth, NY Times
The Chinese are everywhere and they aren't only tracking everyone who resides in China, but also possible future dissenters. Basically they were tracking/hacking the Chinese Uighurs who don't even reside in China anymore. What a group of people who run the global supply chain!
Analysis | Vladimir Putin, the eternal Persident?, Stanly Johny, The Hindu
The man needs no introduction. Vladimir Putin kind of made a mockery of the system. May be he is required to have a stable Russia. Anti-Verschlimmbesserung is the word for most of the leaders handling the current political situations in most of the countries. Verschlimmbesserung in German means an attempted improvement that only makes thing worse. Sometimes status quo is better and lack of options is another line of reasoning given by the majority of people. Lack of option is truly a problem, but that shouldn't allow criticism to be smothered. For all we know, criticism just makes us better!
B. Technology
Opinion: We need to know what happened to CRISPR twins Lulu and Nana, Kiran Musunuru
MIT Tech Review offers 3 free articles. So, you can use your free articles judiciously. But, yeah, if you find them useful, you can always subscribe.
It's again got to do with China. Kiran Musunuru parlays the larger question of what happened to the baby twins Lulu and Nana whose genes were edited with CRISPR technology. Although the entire world was against the usage of CRISPR to gene-editing of human babies, Chinese scientist He Jiankui went ahead and performed gene-editing. What are the repercurssions? Was gene-editing successful? Are we looking at the creation of our next overlords? Kiran tries to reason a few of these questions.
DuckDuckGo 'broadly restored'; some users continue to face issues, The Hindu
You must try DuckDuckGo. It's the anti-Christ of Google search and takes privacy seriously. I have been using it for a few months now. The good thing is that your data is not used anywhere (atleast that's what they claim). On the flip side, because of this privacy-take-seriously feature, the ads are not relevant. The text search algorithm is still a match to Page Rank of Google but, Google wins hands down when you search for images.
Last week, DuckDuckGo got blocked by our Indian ISPs along with the magical 59 apps of Chinese origin. May be the ISPs thought Duck->Peking Duck->Smells of China and blocked it. On a serious note, it's funny how China is part of anything that happens to us
C. Health
A couple of weeks back when I took a blood test to know my Vitamin D values, it was languishing amongst the lowest levels possible. The WFH has restricted most of us to get natural sunlight and help in synthesizing Vitamin D. Before we run into bigger problems, supplements should come in handy. If you haven't taken a Vit D test, I urge you to take it.
Coimbatore-based keeraikadai.com launches greeny dips, K. Jeshi, The Hindu
Not directly related to Vit D, but, Coimbatore based keeraikadai.com launched greeny dip which synthesizes greens (palak, saag, keerai and the associated family) and makes it available to be used in a dip form soup. I ordered a few varieties and replaced my morning chai. Till now, I have tried the Moringa dip, and the taste is very slightly spicy. More importantly, there is a satisfied positive feedback loop in the mind that this is healthier than chai. Since I don't take sugar or milk in my chai, the replacement was easier.
Their website looks poorly designed and difficult to navigate. The only payment option is through Google Pay/UPI. If they can correct these things, it will be easier and convenient for the consumers. And the article did look like a press release and I am not promoting it either.
239 Experts with one big claim: The Coronavirus is airborne, Apoorva Mandavilli, NY Times
So, corona virus is airborne. It is a misleading article title to an extent that if it is indeed airborne, then we will have to keep our doors and windows shut as well. But, the truth of the matter is corona virus is airborne in closed spaces. Basically, offices, restaurants, etc. where the aerosol particles carrying the virus can still travel a few meters of distance before they are brought down to the ground by the weight of the particles. Thank you gravity!
On a similar note, please check out COVID-19 Survival Calculator
It is a data collection exercise but on the other hand the simulator does give some indication of the factors that affect the probability of contracting COVID-19
D. Economics
One of the best things I started in July was to replace the morning paper - The Economic Times (ET) with mint. mint is a breath of fresh air (pun intended). Reading ET has been a smothering experience with a slew of press releases and what seemed like paid articles. Heavily one-sided perspective and interviews with very less critical reasoning. mint has been benevolent in that perspective that the articles are in-depth and argues both points of view. Will share the best of the week from mint from next week. I still read ET Prime and it has been interesting for 1.5 years now
The plans to privatize parts of the railways, Sayantan Bera, Livemint
The first person that I got reminded of was Sangeet, when he, Shankar, Alok Nigam and Abhinav Saxena in 2007 presented a business plan of privatising railways at IIT Kharagpur Kshitij festival. This article by Sayantan Bera analyses the pros and cons of having trains run by private companies along with Indian Railways. What he calls for is a barrage of structural reforms to make the model work
E. Sports
Test Cricket made a comeback with England and West Indies restarting the affairs at Southampton. The match is well poised and set up for a fantastic final day with WI holding the edge unless the English weather plays spoilsport. It's going to be a fantastic battle between bat, ball and banter
The heartfelt message from Michael Holding on BLM is worth your time
and this video as well!
Football has been a drag with a lot of mid-table fight over CL spots between Leicester City, Chelsea and Manchester United. Based on Manchester City's FFP verdict on 13th July, the fight for Europa League's spot becomes prominent between Wolverhampton Wanderers, Sheffield United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur
The Champions League to start in August and the draws are out. Honestly, I didn't see the fixtures as Liverpool are already out of contention. May the best team win! Would be an interesting August
Elsewhere, All or Nothing: Tottenham Hotspur trailer is out. No release date as of yet. In the other All or Nothing series, be it Manchester City or Brazil that I had watched, the crux was how they came to conquer their quest for glory. The previous editions focused on the aspect of All in All or Nothing. May be this is they are focussing on Nothing in the All or Nothing series.
Coming back to cricket, we celebrated two great former Indian captains birthday this week - Mahendra Singh Dhoni (Jul 7) and Sourav Ganguly (Jul 8)
Here is DJ Bravo's tribute to MS Dhoni
And why Dada is still relevant from a cricket point of view
#SpiritOfSourav - What makes Sourav Ganguly so relevant even now?, Shayan Acharya, Sportstar
The debate on who was the best captain still rages on. Share your thoughts on who it was - Dada or Mahi?
F. eCommerce
Ajfan
Ajfan is a retail chain that sells import products and dry fruits in Chennai. The storekeepers are Malayalis and it's fun visiting their store with me talking in my broken Malayalam and they replying in their broken Tamil. Obviously, their broken Tamil is far better than my Malayalam. My version of Malayalam is speaking Tamil through my nose.
Coming to Ajfan, they fulfill the needs of selling the best quality Dates and Almonds in the city. Under the lockdown and limited mobility it is difficult to get my hands on such rich superfoods. And unverified purchases online is risky in terms of quality as these are costly foods. I am stuck with a bad pack of Medjoul dates from Nuts & Spices through Dunzo already.
Although Ajfan's website has a lot of content on superfoods, it is diffciult to navigate. And when you check online for delivery from Ajfan stores, you find out that they have the poorest of the website designed with no call to action to carry out eCommerce operations. In my opinion, they are losing out on a huge opportunity here. Is someone from Ajfan listening
Ulty Khopdi
A friend of mine Rahul Jha, an engineer turned designer has his works put up on Ulty Khopdi. I went to browse and look at other artists designs and I could navigate the website clearly. But, the mobile covers and accessories listing is a mess and we can't operate two filters together. It's highly cumbersome and was a harrowing experience
G. Behaviour
Pavlov's Dogs, Saul McLeod, Simply Psychology
So, we are in a way Pavlov's dog. We dearly wanted WFH three months back and we don't want WFH now. We are conditioned by habits and stimulii and it is going to be a Herculean task to break this chakravyuh. Thanks to Harshal for sharing this article
What if working from home goes on forever, Harish Bhat, Livemint
Harish Bhatt writes well and here in this piece addresses the common joys of working in an office setup and how certain interventions can atleast try to replace them in a Zoom/MS Teams/Skype/Slack setup
H. Books & Cinema
I am still reading Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond since 7th Jun. A good friend Nishant pointed out that it is more of a textbook than a regular read. On the contrary I am devoting enought time to read the book
Thanks to Kabir, Sharon and I watched Ponmagal Vandhal on Amazon Prime Video over two days. The movie is hard hitting and there are moments where you cringe. It's a hard take on one of the deadliest evils of the society. The imdb rating of 6.9 is too harsh.
This week Sharon and I have been watching Gulabo Sitabo since yesterday (Saturday). With the benevolence of Kabir Kannan Mohideen, we are hoping to complete it in another day or two
With that we wrap this week's musings.
Do share your list of interesting articles that you came across
Do share your thoughts on what was good and what can be improved
And do share your thoughts on who was the best Indian cricket captain - Dada or Mahi?
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