A list of good reads

• Afghan writer Moska Najibullah pens a lovely essay in Scroll on her war-torn nation’s stunning show at the World Cup.
• Also a brilliant cricket read: Gideon Haigh’s tribute to the ‘frank and big-hearted’ Bishan Bedi in The Wire.
• Andy Mukherjee in Bloomberg News has an incisive take on Disney selling its India assets to Reliance.
• BBC Future offers an intriguing piece on the surprisingly subtle ways Microsoft Word has changed the way we use language.
• Popular Mechanics has a mind-blowing explanation—literally—on how your own consciousness can interact with the universe.
• Vir Sanghvi pens a lively column on that English staple—boring old baked beans—and how to spice them up.
• Arthur C Brooks in The Atlantic explains why the most successful marriages are start-ups, not mergers.
• Swati Chaturvedi in Gulf News makes a case for Mahua Moitra—in the midst of her political woes.
• FreeThink explains why everyone in the future will have a twin.
• Wall Street Journal (splainer gift link) reports on the ‘cage fight’ over armrests on planes.