smart & curious
A list of good reads
- Mint explains the ten frontrunners in the race to be the first coronavirus vaccine—and how they differ from one another. National Geographic offers a close look at the first one to pass a human trial—but using a new and as yet unproven kind of vaccine.
- Artsy has put together a lovely series of first-person essays, each describing a piece of art that changed the author’s life.
- The biggest winner of the pandemic games is Big Tech—and not only because everything is going digital and online. The New Republic explains why.
- Cricket Monthly has an excellent interview with the always candid Harbhajan Singh who explains what it means to be a spinner in a T-20 game.
- Knowable Magazine explains how we make decisions about our safety—and why some of them are terrible—during a pandemic. A must-read insight into the human psyche.
- Channel News Asia takes a thoughtful look at the good, bad and ugly history of the modern office—now endangered by the virus.
- After teaching a week of online classes, an IIT professor explains why they fall way short of the hype.
A list of intriguing things
- Can you drink in space? The short answer: Not if you’re American and stuck on the International Space Station. Yes, if you’re Russian on Mir—in which case, feel free to hit the cognac.
- Seriously dumb American bros are aiming guns at their, er, genitalia to prove that firearms are perfectly safe. No, we are not making this up.
- In the UK, you can sign up for a ‘mystery box’ of clothes and do some good. You will receive a box of apparel lying unsold in warehouses—and help Bangladeshi garment workers whose lives have been destroyed due to the pandemic. Brilliant!
- Did you know that the US military is building massive robotic earthworms to build tunnels during wartime?
- Here’s what the world will look like 250 million years from now. Looking good, India!