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Tuesday April 13 2021

Festival of Frights 

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Sanity Break #1

This starring Punjab Kings’ Chris Gayle and Emiway Bantai trades in every genre cliche known to wannabe Mumbai gangstas. Babes in bikinis? Check. Hot tub? Check. But, hey, Gayle aka ‘Universe Boss’ seems to be having a blast—and we couldn’t help laughing along.

Sanity Break #1

Headlines that matter

ISRAEL’S BIG SABOTAGE STRIKE Israel conducted a sabotage operation targeting Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility—taking out a number of centrifuges and causing an electricity blackout. But the act was primarily aimed at sabotaging renewed nuclear talks between the US and Iran—who have finally come back to the table after four tumultuous years under Donald Trump. He tore up the nuclear deal crafted by Barack Obama, and imposed punitive sanctions on Tehran—which in turn restarted its nuclear program. The militant Benjamin Netanyahu government is not happy about the prospect of a Washington-Tehran detente.   However, the Iranians seem determined to , and talks will resume on Wednesday:   > “The Zionists want to take revenge because of our progress in the way to lift sanctions... We will not fall into their trap...We > will not allow this act of sabotage to affect the nuclear talks.”   THE GREAT PANDEMIC: A QUICK UPDATE * The new variants in India may be able to avoid detection by RT-PCR tests—which is considered the gold standard. has this worrying story. * According to a , 50% of Indians plan to travel between the months of April and June—which will make containing the spread near impossible. * Sputnik V has for emergency use—making it the third vaccine to do so after Covaxin and Covishield. According to earlier statements, around 200 million doses should be available in India. We explained how the vaccine works . * Both the stock market and the rupee due to fears of a new lockdown. * The UK the longest and most stringent lockdown in the world yesterday. * Ten foreign tourists were “I did not follow the rules of lockdown so I am so sorry,” 500 times as a punishment in Rishikesh. * New trials show that a synthetic antibody cocktail developed by Regeneron people living with someone who is infected—and offer an alternative to vaccination.  * A mattress making unit in Maharashtra was caught with discarded face masks instead of cotton. * Forty four of the 90 employees at the Supreme Court have . * The government has on flights that are less than two hours. * A new study found that have gone hungry during the pandemic—compounding the tragedy. * has an excellent read on how Covid changed the lives of the elderly. * A very good watch: CNN anchor Fareed Zakaria’s to his mother, Fatima, who died of Covid complications.   A FLOOD OF DATA LEAKS Last week, we found out about a massive Facebook data leak of 533 million users from 106 countries. Now has uncovered another phone number database of its users—and they are all for sale. Basically, you can buy the number of anyone who liked your page. Also: hackers seem to be scraping publicly available info for 1.3 million users of . And similar data for 500 million is up for sale.    Why this matters: It may seem trivial if someone is scraping info already available to everyone on your social media handle. But that information can be leveraged for a much bigger operation—as has happened with Microsoft Outlook, where Chinese hackers hacked hundreds of thousands of small businesses that use its software. But to do so, they troves of personal information—including email addresses—from sites like LinkedIn. This in turn gave them access to admin accounts on Outlook.    BAFTAS WERE A BLAST Not that you care about the Baftas now that the Bhaskar is in town, but here are the results. Best Film: Nomadland. Best Film Not in the English Language: Another Round. Best Documentary: My Octopus Teacher. Best Director: Chloé Zhao for Nomadland. Best Actress: Frances McDormand also for Nomadland. Best Actor: Anthony Hopkins for The Father. lists the rest. rounds up the most emotional moments in a video. has a collection of red carpet photos.  In case you care what Priyanka Chopra wore, has that covered. And you can see what everyone is calling the ‘braless’ look on her .   BRITAIN PREPARES FOR A FUNERAL Prince Philip will be buried in a small ceremonial funeral on Saturday—to be held at a chapel on the grounds of the Windsor Castle. There will be no public viewing of his body. The royal family will be in attendance—with the who has been advised not to travel as she is pregnant. Covid restrictions in the UK will limit the number of attendees to just 30. Not on that guest list: PM Boris Johnson. has the detailed plan. looks at the complicated legacy of a man known for making appallingly racist jokes. has a lovely gallery of photos celebrating the young royal couple at the beginning of their 73-year marriage.   TESLA INDIA RUMOURS GROW Tesla is scouting for locations to open showrooms in three cities and has hired a political lobbyist—the two things you need to kick off business in India. It is looking for 20,000-30,000 square feet in New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. No, there aren’t any plans to set up an assembly plant in India anytime soon. ()   WAIT, IS THAT A UFO? Video footage leaked to a documentary filmmaker appears to show unidentified objects swarming above a US Navy warship. Filmmaker Jeremy Corbell says those who took the clip back in 2019 described the objects as so:    > “It shows what they described as vehicles… this is not something that we own either a black project, this is not something of a > foreign military, that these were behaving in ways that we did not expect. And that they were you know shaped > non-aerodynamically. Like pyramids, these are flying pyramids!”   In case you think this is the stuff of tabloids (which we still suspect it is), the Pentagon has confirmed the authenticity of the footage. looks at all the theories. Also, you can for yourself below:   STUFFY NOSES ARE BAD NEWS A new study found a correlation between always-congested sinuses and certain kinds of brain activity. People with this condition showed less activity in parts of our brain that help us stay focused, problem-solve, and communicate—and greater activity in parts that are triggered when we’re unfocused, like while daydreaming. So the ‘brain fog’ you feel when you’re all plugged up may not be an illusion. ()   HOW NOT TO REMEMBER GENOCIDE The government of Cambodia is for carrying a story on the victims of genocide carried out by the infamous Khmer Rouge regime. The photo essay carried colourised versions of photos from Tuol Sleng—a school turned torture centre where 14,000 Cambodians were executed. Except the artist Matt Loughrey added more than just colour, as you can . The story has since been pulled, but Vice has not issued any apology, and neither has Loughrey.   A COOL THAMES PROJECT The city of London is kicking off a £31 million plan to transform the Thames river by lighting up 14 of its bridges—using changing LED sequences. You can watch the visualisation of —which is like a very pretty visual version of ASMR. has more on the project.  

Festival of Frights

Sanity Break #2

Ma Anand Sheela was the breakout star of ‘Wild Wild Country’—the mega-hit film on Bhagwan Rajneesh and his saffron-clad cult. Now, his top lieutenant is the star of her own documentary titled ‘'—courtesy Karan Johar and Dharma Productions. And the trailer just dropped. The film will be out on Netflix on April 22.

Sanity Break #2

Smart & Curious

A LIST OF CURIOUS FACTS One: Did you know that it is human nature to ‘add’ rather than ‘subtract’ to fix a problem? Example: when an incoming university president solicited ideas for improvements, only 11% involved getting rid of something. It simply doesn’t occur to us even when it may be simpler or easier! has more on this fascinating study into our basic human impulse.   Two: Did you know that nearly half of all known animals on Earth are parasites—and over a tenth of them are doomed to extinction in the next 50 years. And yet only a handful are on the endangered species list. has more on why ignoring these pariahs of the animal world is potentially catastrophic.   Three: Did you know that a main street in Tallinn, Estonia, has for two weeks to allow thousands of frogs to safely migrate to their spring breeding grounds?   Four: Did you know an American woman became pregnant with a second child—when she was already pregnant with the first? It’s a very rare situation described as ‘superfetation’—and there are fewer than 10 such recorded instances in medical history. has the whole story, but the good news is that both babies were born healthy.  Five: Last week, we brought you , this time it’s horsies! The Swiss military trialled a new method of transporting injured horses to vets using Super Puma helicopters. We’d like you to know that the horses remained calm throughout the trip. has more fun photos.  

Smart & Curious

Feel Good Place

: Nobody’s not afraid of Darth Vader.   Of the ten historical euphemisms for menstruation, our favourite: The Monthly Flowers!   Best way to sneak a kiss…  

Feel good place

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