Order, Order!

Sanity Break #1

Tom Blachford’s series ‘Nihon Noir’ (black Japan) captures Tokyo and Kyoto late at night. They were taken before the pandemic, but they now have added meaning—and yet have a futuristic Blade Runner look about them. As Blachford puts it, these buildings exist in the "past, present and future all at once.” See the rest of these dark beauties .

Headlines that matter

THE MAHA-YUDH VS DONALD TRUMP: AN UPDATE * House Democrats introduced an article of impeachment on Monday, charging Trump with inciting an insurrection. The measure has 200 co-sponsors and the House will vote on it on Wednesday. The justification: The President has "demonstrated that he will remain a threat to national security, democracy and the Constitution if allowed to remain in office”. * The FBI has issued of potential violence at 50 state capitals in the run up to Joe Biden’s inauguration. Also: “An identified armed group has said it plans to travel to Washington on January 16 and vowed an uprising if attempts are made to remove Trump from office.” * The Pentagon has authorised 15,000 National Guard troops to be deployed to protect the inauguration. * Far right networks are already armed protests in multiple cities—including a march on Washington DC. * Not worried about a thing: President elect Joe Biden's pooch Major who is getting of his own—as the first ever rescue dog to move into the White House. Also this: participants can nominate their pups to be part of Major's Cabinet as the ‘Secretary of Rescue Dogs.’ * This shows the mob dragging and pummelling a police officer—beating him with a flag pole. has more on this story. * In better news, some of the biggest companies all campaign contributions to members of Congress who challenged the election results. Hallmark is asking for its money back. * In even happier news, a number of the rioters have —including Jacob Chansley, the infamous young man in a fur hat and horns. His mom is very unhappy “he hasn’t eaten since Friday because the detention facility won’t feed him all organic food.” Aww, poor baby! * Last but not least: This of the arrests set to ‘Layla’. THE VACCINES ARE ROLLING OUT THE DOOR The government has finally a purchase agreement with Serum Institute of India for 11 million doses of Covishield—the Indian variant of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The price per dose: Rs 200. The first phase will frontline and healthcare workers—with the union government bearing the costs. The states don’t know what the arrangement will be in subsequent stages. Also this: carrying 478 boxes rolled out of the Serum factory and headed for Pune airport. And they are getting armed escorts to keep them safe. has more on this angle. In other pandemic related news: * Despite widespread vaccination campaigns, the that the world will not achieve herd immunity in 2021. So social distancing is here to stay for at least another year. * Pfizer says its vaccine against the highly-infectious variants discovered in the UK and South Africa—and has promised to release confirming data soon. * The likelihood you are willing to get the jab is somewhat linked to your politics. According to a new survey, 49% of BJP supporters said they will take the vaccine compared to 46% of those who support the Congress party. The good news: Only 6% are anti-vaxxers. Also interesting: 50% said they would wait to see reports about the effectiveness of the vaccines before they take it. has more details and charts on the results. INDIAN CRICKET HAS A BIG DAY Yes, the third test match in Sydney ended in a draw—but it sure felt like a big win for Indians. Despite a spate of injuries, racial attacks and the early loss of captain Ajinkya Rahane’s wicket, we batted 131 overs to score 334/5. Four batsmen—Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant, Hanuma Vihari and Ravi Ashwin—played 100-plus deliveries to save the day. explains why this was a true victory irrespective of what the scoreboard says. has more on Rahane’s comments after the match. Not having a good day: The Australians who didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory, thanks mainly due to their awful attitude. Steve Smith tried to erase Pant’s batting guard marks from the crease—to trick him into getting run out. And captain Tim Paine spent a great amount of his time sledging Ashwin—including maybe putting on a : In other off-the-field good news: Indian skipper Virat Kohli and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma had ! Kohli announced it . GOOGLE CRACKS DOWN ON LENDING APPS The company has kicked out four Indian money lending apps from its Play Store. These are among ten apps flagged by a Reuters investigation as predatory lenders: > “Some of these apps apply steep processing fees, as high as 2,000 rupees ($27) on loans of less than 10,000 rupees with tenures > of 30 days or under, according to the 15 borrowers. Together with other charges including one-off registration costs, borrowers > can pay, in real terms, interest rates as high as 60 percent per week, their loan details show.” FYI: Indian banks typically offer personal loans with annual interest rates of 10-20 percent and they usually do not have to be repaid in full for at least a year. (Reuters via ) Also in the hall of shame: Indian students taking Graduate Record Examination (GRE) online from their homes—which has been red-flagged by the largest Indian franchise of US-based The Princeton Review. has uncovered their modus operandi: > “According to people who witnessed cheating first-hand, a person would enter the room from an angle he/ she is not visible to > the online proctor, take pictures of all questions in the particular section — verbal reasoning or quantitative reasoning — as > the exam taker scrolls up and down through it. The person then leaves the room to solve these questions with the help of > collaborators outside. He would enter the room with a piece of paper with all answers.” CANCER CELLS CAN HIBERNATE In a bit of spooky news, new research has revealed that cancer cells—when faced by the threat of chemotherapy—can simply go ‘dormant'. from researchers: “The tumour is acting like a whole organism, able to go into a slow-dividing state, conserving energy to help it survive.” TWO GENDER THINGS One: South Koreans are furious at government guidelines for pregnant women. For example: > “Hang the clothes you wore before you were pregnant in a place where they are easy to see as that will motivate you to keep your > weight under control and go back to the same weight you were before you gave birth.” But the in our mind: > “As they near their due date, women should clear their fridge of items that are about to go off and prepare three to four meals, > such as curry and soup, that their husbands, ‘who are unaccustomed to cooking,’ can simply heat up while they are fending for > themselves. > > > > The guidelines also say women must make sure to leave enough changes of clothes for three days for their husband and children.” Two: What do you get when you cross chi-chi Gucci with a well-known outdoors apparel company North Face. Answer: priceless images of women hiking hills in heels. has more on the backlash. SEX AND THE CITY IS BAAACK! Seventeen years after its last episode, the iconic ‘single girl’ series on HBO Max—but sadly without our very favourite character: Samantha. The ten-episode series will be titled ‘And Just Like That’. We’d be worried, but the last was so bad (remember the tourism ad for Abu Dhabi pretending to be a movie?), anything will be an improvement. Here’s the —which features only the city and none of the sex or the women allegedly having it. In other entertainment news: The folks who brought you a very uplifting Vicky Kaushal flick ‘Uri: The Surgical Strike’ are getting ready to bless us with ‘’ (yes, as in the Mahabharata). It is being billed as a “futuristic science fiction VFX-laden extravaganza.” has details. All we can say is that the certainly look cool: ORAL SEX MAY GIVE YOU CANCER We share this with a heavy heart. Giving lots of oral sex is closely related with contracting human papillomavirus (HPV)—which in turn increases the odds (by 4.3 times) of getting HPV-related cancers. : > "Those who give oral sex before engaging in intercourse for the first time are at an increased risk of becoming infected with > HPV. Reason being that, according to researchers, an initial exposure to HPV via the genitals results in a “robust immune > response”, thus preparing a person’s body for when the virus is introduced orally. Those who go straight for oral sex lack this > immune response, and are therefore at a higher risk of infection." SAY HELLO TO THE ‘SPERM KING’ The pandemic has created an odd kind of shortage of—nope, not toilet rolls, but sperm! Apparently, the baby-making urge has kicked in big time thanks to these end-of-days times. And sperm banks in the US are running low on, well, sperm. The result: a burgeoning industry of unofficial and unregulated sperm donor groups on Facebook. One big risk: Unlike sperm banks, here the donor is known. What is really strange (and very American), due to the sheer demand, there are now men complaining: “I really didn’t come on here to be a pez dispenser style donor.” And there are women who are “known sperm donor” influencers. has more on this very odd story.

Sanity Break #2

Do you love Zayn Malik? If so, you’ll be happy to know that he has a new single called ‘’ which is so mellow—it is in the danger of sliding into the territory of ‘sleepy’. And that he moves sooo slowly through the video likely doesn help, lol! But hey, no one does pretty better than Zayn!

Smart & Curious

A LIST OF CURIOUS FACTS One: Did you know that a Czech playwright named Karel Čapek coined the word ‘robot’ for artificial men in his 1921 play titled ‘Rossum’s Universal Robots’—staged exactly 100 years ago? The reason: ‘roboti’ is the Czech word for serf or forced labourer. has more on Čapek and his play. Two: A newly unearthed 11th/12th century Buddhist monastery in Bihar was led by a nun named Vijayashree Bhadra—and she was supported by Mallika Devi, queen of the Pala Empire. has details. Three: Did you know, gentlemen, that there is an optimal angle and distance that determines whether or not you suffer splashback when you pee into a toilet? Also: there is an organisation called ‘Splash Lab’ that is dedicated in determining these exact coordinates for you. Also: if you prefer the text version, has more. But be assured the is very PG. Four: Did you know there is such a thing as ‘hate-wearing’ clothes? As per the , “A hate-wear is when you put on the clothing even though — because? — it makes you feel bad. Neither stylish nor particularly comfortable, yet constantly in rotation.” Hmm, so not our worn out nightie with way too many holes… coz we be loving that! Five: Swinhoe’s softshell turtle aka the aka Yangtze giant softshell turtle is the most endangered turtle in the world. There is only one known male—and he seemed doomed to be the last of his kind until scientists discovered a female in Vietnam! Well, she’s certainly a beauty! has the story.