With Finland and Sweden joining the NATO, the Baltic Sea is now often referred to as the NATO Lake. The alliance controls more than 95 per cent of the Baltic’s coastline and all of its sizeable islands, as well as the western entrance through the Kattegat and both sides of the Gulf of Finland, Russia’s … Continue reading The NATO Lake
If you were an East German during the Cold War, the Stasi (East German Secret Police) scrutinized every aspect of your life. Letters would be read, houses and offices would be bugged, suspects could be trailed, and any suspicion of wrongdoing could lead you to the interrogation chambers. The Stasi even saved up scents of … Continue reading The World’s Largest Jigsaw Puzzle
I visited Bhuj for the first time earlier this week. The first thing that struck me was the barren landscape, the hardy Mesquite trees, herds of goats and gaushalas – each a testament to a land shaped by sparse rainfall and arid conditions. (This Wire piece on the role of the mesquite in Kachchh is … Continue reading Bhuj Notes
Shakespeare’s play of a magician conjuring up a storm and bringing together a group of men to his island—his mastery over a native, a compliant spirit, and a daughter who is ‘made’ to fall in love with a prince—is a meta-story of the theories propounded by Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Montaigne. The Tempest should be … Continue reading The Tempest
Today, Bill Gates is known more for his sage-like utterings on global development and the groundbreaking work of his foundation than for his technological prowess. But for someone who grew up in the ’90s, Gates was undoubtedly the towering giant of the tech world. The PC revolution that had been underway since the ’80s, the … Continue reading Gates’ Source Code
In the beginning the earth was without parking. The planner said, Let there be parking, and there was parking. And the planner saw that it was good. And the planner then said, Let there be off-street parking for each land use, according to its kind. And developers provided off-street parking for each land use according … Continue reading The Tragedy of Free Parking
In Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future, Reid Hoffman and Greg Beato celebrate the potential of AI to transform our lives. Hoffman was the co-founder of LinkedIn, was on the board of PayPal, and was an early philanthropic investor in OpenAI. While he makes a passionate case for AI, the work … Continue reading Superagency
Just as including He/She/They in your bio was recently considered an ‘in’ thing (at least until a few months ago), the term ‘Settler’ is also laden with symbolism, solidarity, and wokeness. But like many academic constructs, it does not always hold up to strong scrutiny. Settler colonialism originally referred to the process by which colonial … Continue reading On Settler Colonialism
Jean-Marc Jancovici and Christophe Blain’s 'World Without End' – a comic about Climate Change that outsold Asterix in France in the year of its launch was a sharp, engaging introduction to Energy Sources and Climate Change. The panels that caught my attention were the ones explaining the long-term impacts of Chernobyl and Fukushima. According to … Continue reading The Real Costs of Chernobyl and Fukushima
Arnold Kling’s ‘The Three Languages of Politics’ is a short, succinct and handy toolkit to categorize political communication. For Kling, the three dominant political groups – the Progressives (what we call the Left in India), the Conservatives and the Libertarians communicate along dedicated axes. Liberals view political conflict as Oppressed vs. Oppressor Conservatives view political conflict … Continue reading The Three Languages of Politics
