Election Badge
Wednesday November 18 2020

Fashion Victim

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Sanity Break #1

We are not big fans of Gene Kelly’s ‘Singin’ in the Rain’ or of Burberry’s ghastly checks, TBH. But ad campaign is seriously awesome. More on the ad . (h/t )

Sanity Break #1

Headlines that matter

PAGING ALL YEARLY SUBSCRIBERS A number of you wrote in asking to add another 12 months to your subscription during the 40% off Diwali sale. A number of you want to book your Christmas gifts in advance, as well. For all such special requests, just email us at .    PS: You only have four days to share your referral link and offer the discount to your friends & fam. Or opt for our one-month free trial if you’re not a subscriber as yet.   ANOTHER BANK IN TROUBLE Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) has been put under —and the Reserve Bank of India has capped withdrawals at Rs 25,000 per customer till December 16. The reason: “declining financial health” as the company has incurred huge losses for the past three years. And it has no viable strategy to save itself. The RBI now plans to merge the company with the Indian subsidiary of Singapore-based DBS bank. explains why you don’t need to panic over this latest banking debacle.   In other troubling biz news: AirAsia is that indicate it may exit India—and its partnership with the Tatas:   > “Our businesses in Japan and India have been draining cash, causing the group much financial stress. Cost containment and > reducing cash burns remain key priorities evident by the recent closure of AirAsia Japan and an ongoing review of our investment > in AirAsia India.”   explains why it's headed for the door.   Planning to opt in: Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corp, which is planning to buy Simon & Schuster—put up for sale by its owner ViacomCBS since March. Point to remember: The company publishes Stephen King and Hillary Clinton—and has put out a string of bestselling anti-Trump titles. ()   AKSHAYA PATRA IS IN TROUBLE The foundation serves food to over 1.8 million children from 19,039 schools—and has had its share of ISKCON-related . But this latest drama is the most serious. Two key people who helped found the organisation—Mohandas Pai and Abhay Jain—have resigned from the board, as have two other independent trustees. :    > “Pai stopped short of alleging financial discrepancies but said that an organization of this stature must have the highest > governance and audit practices. Pai said that the two other trustees, who he did not name, started to put more insiders on the > trust and started to override the decisions made by the independent trustees.”   TRUMP-SIZED THREAT TO WORLD PEACE Still in denial over losing the election, the US president appears to be considering a dangerous military strike against Iran’s nuclear facility. The :   > “A strike on Iran may not play well to his base, which is largely opposed to a deeper American conflict in the Middle East, but > it could poison relations with Tehran so that it would be much harder for President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. to revive the 2015 > Iran nuclear accord, as he has promised to do.”   THE GREAT PANDEMIC: A QUICK UPDATE * A new and offers very happy news about long term immunity: “Eight months after infection, most people who have recovered still have enough immune cells to fend off the virus and prevent illness, the new data show. A slow rate of decline in the short term suggests, happily, that these cells may persist in the body for a very, very long time to come.” * A CNN investigation has revealed nightmarish conditions within Russia. Hospital morgues are packed with bodies—and both the case tally and the death count is a total sham. The official figure: 33,000—but the real number is closer to 130,000. CNN also obtained secret footage from Russian doctors. Watch the report . * A with less happy news reveals that owning a dog increases the risk of infection by 78%. Even riskier: Ordering home delivery of groceries (94%) 😱. Point to note: This study merely describes its findings from a random sample, and cannot establish cause-effect relationships. * looks at which of the vaccine candidates will work in India—and how many we have pre-booked so far. * has the story of Fijian Roy Krishna—who endured ten Covid tests, travelled over 40 days and four connecting flights to make it to Goa in time for the Indian Super League (ISL).  * A good read: has a long reported piece on how city hotels are doing their best to survive while nearby resorts enjoy the benefits of ‘revenge tourism’. * This young man demonstrates what it is like to lose your sense of taste and smell due to Covid—with munching raw onions, and doing shots of lemon juice. Watch him . * A shop in Osaka, Japan, is testing a robot that asks customers to mask up and maintain social distance. has that story. Check out the robot . * Also: The German government released three ads celebrating great Covid heroes, including this one: “The laziest sod to ever roam this country.” See all of them on this .   NEW RECORD AT TOP BIZ SCHOOLS The percentage of women students entering top business schools in the US hit an all-time record this year. Of the top 20 schools, Dartmouth came closest to gender parity, with an incoming class that is 49% female. Close behind: Stanford at 47%. has more. ANAND MAHINDRA TO RESTORE BRITISH PRIDE Birmingham Small Arms or BSA is an iconic British brand—kinda like our Royal Enfield. Once the largest motorcycle company in the world, it went bankrupt in the 1970s. Anand Mahindra has bought a controlling stake in the company that owns BSA—run by former investment banker Anupam Thareja. And Mahindra is promising to “resurrect the British motorbike industry” and its most famous bike. has the story. Below is a quick jaunt through BSA’s glorious history and most famous bikes.   OPPO’S VERY COOL CONCEPT PHONE  This “rolling” phone expands from a 6.7-inch phone screen to a 7.4-inch tablet-like panel. No, it won’t be available on the market anytime soon but it’s still awesome to watch . has more details:   TIME FOR A ‘FAKE COMMUTE’? As many folks around the world have discovered, working from home = working all the time. And while not sitting in traffic may feel like a blessing, losing that precious transition time comes with its own downside, as mental health experts explain:   > “As painful as the commute can be for some, it gave us time to decompress from the workday and prepared us to be present for our > loved ones when we got home. Without it, some people are really struggling with turning off work, and they are working into the > evening, often very late.”    The solution: Creating a ‘fake commute’ that reclaims the barrier between work and home. offers seven different ways you can do just that.   ONE INSPIRATIONAL THING You don’t have to give a flying eff about baseball to appreciate about Kim Ng who is and Asian American to become the General Manager of a major baseball team, the Miami Marlins.   ROCKY GOES TO LONDON This is the lovely story of a three-year-old streetie named Rocky in Faridabad. A year ago, she was run over by a train and found on the tracks by local constable Chanderpal Tanwar—who rushed her to the hospital. She almost bled to death, lost her two forelegs, but fought her way back to life. She is now getting ready to fly out to… Cotswolds in the UK to stay with her forever family! The date of departure: today! Check out adorable Rocky in this report. Or read the story.

Fashion Victim

Sanity Break #2

If you don’t spend your life on social media, you may have missed Lucky Ali’s gorgeous of ‘O Sanam’—which went viral over the Diwali weekend. With age comes even greater beauty...

Sanity Break #2

Smart & Curious

A LIST OF INTRIGUING THINGS One: This is a small demonstration of something called —the effect of sound/vibrations over matter. Love it? Watch a longer and very cool video of more experiments .    Two: Is this woman in an 1860 painting holding a smart-phone? FYI: It is titled “The Expected One” and is by Austrian painter Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller. Also: sadly, that is a prayer book. We stumbled on this thanks to this older story—which has the whole backstory.   Three: This is a bit of the taken from the Eiffel Tower. It’s almost three meters high with 14 steps—and used to connect the second and third levels until it was replaced by an elevator. In 2016, a similar set of stairs sold for €500,000. But this one will only fetch €30,000-40,000. Read more about it .   Four: This is New Zealand’s —and for a second year running. Say hello to the chubby parrot species named kakapo. Also intriguing: a that may have helped kakapo to rob the Antipodean albatross of this honour.   Five: ICYMI, this giant gold dog was making the rounds over Diwali weekend. It is the Turkmenistan to a local breed called Alabay. Also: the nation has one of the worst human rights records in the world. Upside: it’s an improvement on the 2015 statue—also made of solid gold—which featured the president riding a horse.  

Smart & Curious

Feel Good Place

An eye-popping hologram ad.   Maori baby’s first Haka lesson.   Have you seen anything sillier than a ? We think not.   Truth in advertising: Fat Men's Shop, New York, 1955  

Feel good place

archivetitle dog ic

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