smart & curious
All aboard the London-Calcutta bus!
Did you know that there was a real bus service that connected those two cities? We found mention of it on Twitter and started to dig. And here’s what we found: It was kicked off in 1957 and was driven by Oswald Joseph Garrow-Fisher, nicknamed The Indiaman. Here is a delightful news clipping from the New York Times time machine on that trip. In 1968, the worthy task was taken up by a double-decker nicknamed Albert—which made 15 round trips until the service was canceled in 1976. On four occasions, Albert even made it as far as Sydney! See this advertisement featuring the price and amenities on Albert. And the photo of the original single-decker is below:
True story of a female spy
This Brut video features a delightfully candid interview with a real espionage agent—who explains why she hates the fictional kind she sees on screen.
Using deepfakes for good!
A soon-to-be-released HBO documentary ‘Welcome to Chechnya’ reveals the terrifying experience of being gay in Russia. The subject is powerful and revelatory. But it is also notable for one other reason: it uses deepfakes. The filmmakers took faces of volunteers and mapped them onto survivors to make them unrecognizable. You can see the deepkfakes in the trailer below. Vox has the story.