This is the 5th instalment of weekly update. Let’s revisit the interesting things that I came across in between last Monday and today (September 29, 2020). This is 759 words long.
Some interesting finds from the past week
1. What could an old TV could do? Breaking the Internet, may be.
Yes, the old TV took revenge on internet, in a village in Wales, UK. The story in the Register is worth a read, and could be valid post in r/Whatcouldgowrong
It turned out that at 0700 every morning the occupant would switch on their old TV which would in-turn knock out broadband for the entire village.
The TV’s owner “immediately agreed to switch it off and not use again.”
2. How many trackers does your blog/site has?
This is a story from the markup.
What I found interesting was, Oracle Data Cloud kills off its AddThis Audience Business in Europe, thanks to GDPR law.
The team in the Markup has built Blacklight, a privacy inspector. If you’re owning a site, do checkout how many trackers your site has.
3. The Psychology behind TikTok’s addictive feed
This post is from the growth.design on how TikTok’s feed is addictive.
The site’s vision reads, “We believe that sharing meaningful experiences makes the world better”. UI & UX of the is intriguing, and true to the vision, the experience is good. Apart TikTok, the site has case studies on several other popular services like Tinder, Uber Eats, Tesla & more.
4. Curious case of QAnon
For the uninitiated, below is the introduction in Wikipedia.
QAnon is a far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a cabal of Satan-worshiping pedophiles running a global child sex-trafficking ring is plotting against President Donald Trump, who is battling them, leading to a “day of reckoning” involving the mass arrest of journalists and politicians. No part of the theory is based on fact.
The Just Security says that QAnon’s conspiracy theory is a rebranded version of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion was written by Russian anti-Jewish propagandists around 1902. It collected myths about a Jewish plot to take over the world that had existed for hundreds of years.
There are several parallels between the theories of Nazis & Qanon. Go on read it yourself.
5. China and it’s promise
How can a week goes by without something interesting pops out from the middle kingdom? This time the promise involves global warming aka climate change. Mr Xi Jinping unveiled China’s bold pitch for leadership on global warming at the United Nations, vowing his nation will reach peak emissions before 2030 and go carbon-neutral 30 years later.
Meanwhile, in the first half of 2020 China approved 23 gigawatts-worth of new coal power projects, more than the previous two years combined, according to Global Energy Monitor (GEM), a San Francisco-based environmental NGO.
If China couldn’t keep the promise, it will not be the first time - it happened with the security law passed by China, South China Sea and more.
Another developing story from Kenya rings alarm.
Kenya’s difficulties in servicing its debts for the newly-built, Chinese-financed Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) is nearing a breaking point. The railway is losing money at an unsustainable rate of $9.2 million a month making it inconceivable that Kenya Railways will be able to repay its Chinese creditors at the current rate.
China has said repeatedly that it will not seize the port in the event of a default. Well, we can see how this ends, hope it doesn’t apply the debt trap diplomacy.
Twitter Thread
This is a twitter thread on a guide to note taking while reading. If you read books, follow the thread to get more from reading.
Bonus: A thread on owning a house pros & cons from personal finance point of view.
Something to smile
What is the answer to Who do you think would win out of a lion, a hippopotamus and a rhino??" During an interaction a kid posted this question to Sir David Attenborough and he answered it
COVID Stats
Past Week’s Snapshot data
| Week ended on Sep 22 | Total COVID-19 Cases | Cases Per Million | Deceased | Deceased Per Million | Recovered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global | 33.61M | 4,321 | 1M | 130 | 24.69M |
| India | 6.15M | 4,445 | 96.38K | 70 | 5.1M |
Source: As of Sep 29. ncov2019 live
The cases per million in India surged over global average. Also, the last 2 weeks data is scary, checkout this tweet.
Vaccine Tracker
 |
|---|
| Coronavirus Vaccine Tracker - Sep 29, 2020 |
Source: NYT
That’s the updates for the week.
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Page last updated on: 2024-11-06 09:30:05 +0530 +0530Git commit: a98b4d9