A list of good reads
Three historical culture reads:
- Psyche traces the roots of Zoom backgrounds to19th century portrait photography. (Sadly, there is no mention of more recent examples such as cheesy 20th century Indian wedding photography).
- We enjoyed browsing through Rangan Datta’s round-up of the Buddhist temples of Kolkata.
- Narratively looks at medieval penis investigators who were employed by courts to decide divorce cases. The reason: impotence was one of the few legitimate grounds of divorce. Brace yourself for a raunchy and hilarious read.
Two trend-spotting reads: Mint charts the peculiar spike in protein inflation—as in egg, fish, dal and meat—and the accompanying hidden rise of protein deficiency. Huffington Post UK looks at the growing mental health crisis among journalists—and why it affects all of us.
Three big picture Covid reads:
- BBC Future on why vaccination is way better than infection as a path to immunity.
- Is the pandemic a sign that we’ve breached a civilisational tipping point? Vice certainly thinks so.
- MIT Technology Review looks at the conundrum of deciding who gets the vaccination first. Answer: it depends if you want to first prevent deaths or limit the spread.
Four very useful reads
- Is cheese bad for you? Quartz consults five nutritionists in search of good answers. OTOH, we are way too addicted to care.
- Psychology Today has an excellent read on how to find gratitude in challenging times. It’s the kind of thing that is easy to say, but this one explains how to do it.
- Opt to watch something entirely different this weekend: animal cams. A very good reason: They will actually improve your mental health unlike a trashy flick. Anita Rao Kashi in the South China Morning Post explains why and offers an excellent ‘best of’ list.
- Not a read but very useful: You do not need to understand Marathi to benefit from this Mumbai police PSA on how to protect yourself from ATM fraud.
