A list of good reads
- Rest of World offers a richly reported deep dive into the plight of H1B workers left stranded by the big tech layoffs.
- NPR looks at what the science says about why we often believe fake online reviews.
- The Guardian has an excellent piece on the ugly trope of the disabled villain—often a favourite in James Bond novels.
- TIME has an unlikely report on the scores of Taliban jihadists who are ‘quiet quitting’ their tedious government jobs. Sorry, we couldn’t help laughing (so wrong!).
- First we had all the news stories on the perils of Zoom—and how virtual meet ups were frying our brain. Now, Issie Lapowsky in New York Times (splainer gift link) pens a nostalgic lament for the lost joy of Zoom parties and hangout sessions.
- Want new reasons to worry about those AI chatbots? Mashable’s got you covered with this experiment that created HustleGPT—which was given $100 to figure out how to make big bucks.
- Nikhil Subramaniam in Inc42 analyses Netflix India’s neverending identity crisis. FYI: We offered our take on why Netflix hasn’t cracked the India puzzle in this Big Story.
- Variety looks at the controversy over the Oscars’ performance of ‘Naatu Naatu’—which didn’t have a lot of South Asian faces.
- Carl Zimmer in Vox takes a fascinating look at why scientists haven’t been able to arrive at a clear definition of life.
- Prithwiraj Mukherjee in Scroll has a lovely piece on the language chauvinism experienced by a Bengali raised in Bangalore.
