A list of good reads

• Vulture has an eye-opening deep dive on how easy it is to manipulate ratings on Rotten Tomatoes.
• Rama Lakshmi in The Print points to the anti-capitalist tone of Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jawan’—harking back to Amitabh Bachchan’s films in the 1970s.
• New Yorker reports on a fascinating research trying to establish communication with whales using artificial intelligence. 
• Ramachandra Guha in The Telegraph explains why the future looks brighter for the Nilgiris than for Garhwal in the Himalayas.
• Quartz reports on one of the cheapest ways to reduce aviation pollution—reducing the contrails left in the wake of planes.
• Wall Street Journal (splainer gift link) explains why the great fashion dynasties of Italy lost its dominance of haute couture—and is being replaced by French corporate powerhouses.
• Shoaib Daniyal in Scroll offers a short history of the India vs Bharat debate.
• Vanity Fair looks at a new book that confirms the ‘second gunman’ theory on the assassination of JFK.
• The Atlantic’s analysis of Xi’s absence at the G20 points to Beijing’s withdrawal from the established world order—which has wider repercussions. 
• Smithsonian Magazine looks at the rise of an antiquated kind of booze—the nectar of the gods aka mead.
• Many actors are mad at this takedown of Martin Short in Slate as “sweaty” and “unfunny.”