Editor’s note: We are experimenting with making our headlines round-up more ‘snackable’—keeping the items short and easier to quickly scan. Let us know what you think at talktous@splainer.in:)
And the Nobel prize goes to…
A trio of scientists have won the ultimate honour in physics: Japanese-born American Syukuro Manabe, German Klaus Hasselmann and Italian Giorgio Parisi. Manabe and Hasselmann were recognised for their work on modelling Earth’s climate and reliably predicting global warming. Parisi discovered the “hidden rules” behind seemingly random movements and swirls in gases or liquids—now applied to neuroscience and machine learning. Quartz has a good read on why climate is the real big winner this year. (Reuters)
France’s big child sex abuse scandal
According to a report issued by an independent commission, an estimated 330,000 children were victims of 3,000 predators within the Catholic Church over the past 70 years. At least two-thirds of the abusers are priests, and 80% of the victims were boys. Point to note: victim advocates say the high ratio of victims per abuser is particularly “terrifying for French society, for the Catholic Church.” (NBC)
About that big Facebook outage…
The company offered a vague explanation as to why all its social media platforms crashed for six hours—blaming it on: “configuration changes on the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centers.” CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologised—for a disaster that personally cost him $6 billion thanks to tanking share prices. Forbes rounds up expert views on whether this could have been a malicious attack.
About that California oil spill…
We don’t know the exact cause of the giant spill that has leaked over 120,000 gallons into the Pacific Ocean. But the US Coast Guard suspects that a large commercial ship put down its anchor in the wrong place—damaging an oil pipeline, and possibly dragging it as much as 150 feet. (Los Angeles Times)
China’s big show of force
Beijing has become increasingly aggressive in the lead up to Taiwan’s independence day—since it claims Taiwan as part of China. On Monday, it sent 56 warplanes into the island nation’s air defense zone. There have been 149 such incursions in the past week! (CNN)
A big lawsuit about medical consent
Back in 1951, doctors took tissue from Henrietta Lacks’ tumor before she died of cervical cancer—and they became the first human cells to be successfully cloned. But no one bothered to get her consent. HeLa cells have since been replicated innumerable times since—and now her estate is suing billion dollar companies that have patented different ways of using them: “Why is it they have intellectual rights to her cells and can benefit billions of dollars when her family, her flesh and blood, her Black children, get nothing?” (Associated Press)
More strange arrests in UP
Three Muslim women from Kerala traveled to the state to meet family members—currently in prison after being charged under anti-terror laws. They were not able to meet the men—but were instead arrested themselves for using fake RT-PCR test certificates! The News Minute has more details.
A big breakthrough in depression therapy
California researchers have developed a new device that can be implanted into your brain to treat depression. Think of it as a pacemaker for the brain. It uses something called ‘deep brain stimulation’ or DBS—which allows the device to detect erratic brain activity patterns that cause depression and stimulates the brain to counteract it. And it offered almost instant relief to the patient it was tested on. (Gizmodo)
Speaking of depression: A new UNICEF survey shows that one in five young people between the ages of 15 and 24 say they feel depressed. One big reason: The pandemic. The number is as high as one-third in places like Cameroon. Also: 13% of 10- to 19-year-olds are estimated to live with a diagnosed mental health disorder—which is 89 million boys and 77 million girls. (The Guardian)
Captain Kirk is going to space
One of the four passengers on Jeff Bezos-owned Blue Origin’s next flight will be 90-year old Star Trek legend William Shatner—who will become the oldest person in space. He tweeted in delight: “So now I can say something. Yes, it’s true; I’m going to be a ‘rocket man!’” (Washington Post)
‘Squid Game’ mania continues
One: Netflix has been forced to edit out scenes that accidentally revealed a phone number that belongs to a Korean man—who started receiving thousands of phone calls every day. (The Independent)
Two: Fans in Paris got into a big street fight as they waited to get into a pop-up store dedicated to the show. Yes, really. Watch it below. (Daily Mail)
‘Poohsticks Bridge’ is on sale
The bridge in southern England made literary history when author AA Milne gave it a starring role in the Winnie the Pooh books. It is now on the auction block, and could fetch as much as £250,000. Yeah, the bridge described as the “most important iconic literary objects there is” doesn’t look like much. (Washington Post)
Three things to see
One: A scrapped Air India plane being hauled off by its new owners got stuck under an overbridge in Delhi. (BBC News)
Two: A drone light show in China went terribly awry—and the drones started to rain down from the skies. (Vice)
Three: Lots of folks are furious at Givenchy after its models walked down the runway wearing necklaces shaped like nooses: “Givenchy shows a ‘noose necklace’ in its Paris Fashion Week show. I guess a swastika, or a model carrying a gun, or wearing a white hood, were all too edgy.” (BBC News)
From our subscribers...
Founding member Bhavya Vatrapu wrote in to tell us about her organisation Vegan Outreach’s excellent campaign called Green Tuesdays—which helps institutions reduce their carbon footprint. Thanks to their partnership with Tech Mahindra, the company cut the serving of meat by 20% across its 14 campuses in five locations! It is just one of the 27 organisations that have worked with Vegan Outreach to either implement meatless days—or reduce the serving of egg and dairy at their cafeterias.
Dine with Data: All about Upscalio
Editor’s Note: Here is DWD’s weekly installment of one cool, innovative or just plain quirky startup from around the world.
Company: Upscalio
About: Gurgaon-based Upscalio is a Thrasio-style company. That means it's in the business of buying e-commerce businesses that are profitable and haven't raised outside money, and growing them rapidly through an influx of cash and optimisation of its various departments. 📈
The C-suite and leadership team is dominated by ex-consulting or ex-Amazon, Flipkart employees—industry experts who know how to take a company from 10 to 100.
Food For Thought: Much like most Thrasio companies in India, Upscalio has raised a monster round with a Series A of $42.5M. Presight Capital and an unknown hedge fund are the leading investors in the round. 💰
DWD Take: More than 8 Thrasio companies have popped up in 2021 for India. With each one raising big rounds, the only differentiator and determinant of success is the talent they hire. It's going to be an interesting race to watch! 🏁
About DWD: Dine With Data🍴sends you a short summary of one new startup every day, delivered straight to your WhatsApp inbox!
