Weekend Videos & Pix: Nikon Micro Pix, Inside Syria, & #MeToo

• Nikon Small World winners zoom in on microscopic marvels (108 images, New Atlas)
• Has #Metoo helped or harmed women? (video, 5 min 27 s, BBC Ideas)
• Inside Syria (13 min, SNI)

Sunday Reads

"It is good sense to appoint individual people to jobs on their merit. It is the opposite when those who are judged to have merit of a particular kind harden into a new social class without room in it for others." Read Justin Fox's brilliant piece on how "meritocracy is just another way of bringing you down" (Bloomberg). 

• The Feds brought down the world's biggest file-sharing website. (Foreign Policy)
• Educated terrorists and victimhood. (New IE)

And in the end...

Before bowling to (the visibly healthy) Mike Gatting in a test match, Aussie fast bowler Dennis Lille said, ”Hell Gatt, move out of the way... I can’t see the stumps”.

Sunday Reads

• Why Turkey's stability matters (BBC) 
• China's South China Sea arguments only prove its own perverse logic of history (FirstPost)
• Why you need to read and how to do it efficiently (Medium)
  

Also read: Man in New Zealand quits his job to play Pokemon Go full-time (BBC)

Sunday Reads

• Newslaundry, your fact-check on the PM's interview has been fact-checked. (OPIndia)
• The political resonance of the 'Game of Thrones'. (New Yorker)
• Bangladesh at crossroads. (BBC)
• Indian Muslim women fight to overturn Triple Talaq. (AlJazeera)

Check out this infographic on Job Interview Cautions here.

Sunday Reads

General Reads

• The real reason why American controls its nukes with ancient floppy disks (WaPo)
• The man who revived Renault and Nissan wants to save Mitsubishi (Bloomberg)

Controversial Read

• Gujarat Lies: A collection of personal vendetta (Nirwa Mehta)

Fun Read

• Can you identify these cars from film and TV? (BBC Auto)

Sunday Reads

General Reads

• AAPocracy and the cult of K (Open)
• Barbie challenges the 'White Saviour Complex' (BBC)
• What is 'May Day'? (CNN)
  

Photo Gallery

• Celebrity transformations (CNN)

Controversial Read

• Sanctifying the Mount (Jerusalem Post)

Anecdote

Those were the days in the beginning of the eighties when the world Cricket was dominated by the power packed West Indies Cricket Team and the subtlety packed England Cricket Team. Pakistan also played a major part in the domination but not with their skills in the game but with their poor standards in umpiring.

During one of those days, Imran Khan, the captain of the Pakistan Cricket team met Australian captain Allan Border in an informal meeting in Sydney. During a chat, Imran told Allan Border: “AB, give me Sunil Gavaskar and B. S. Chandrashekhar from India,we will beat Australia.”

In a shocking reply, Allan Border said: “Imran, just give me two umpires from Pakistan and we will beat the whole world.” Imran Khan was left speechless. Later, a furious Imran Khan complained to the Australian board. Under pressure from his board, Allan Border tendered apologies to Imran Khan and Pakistan Cricket Board.

Sunday Reads

Sunday Anecdote: In 1898, young Albert Einstein applied for admission to the Munich Technical Institute and was turned down. The young man, the Institute declared, "showed no promise" as a student. By 1905, he had formulated his special theory of relativity.

• Is China really scared of horror films? (BBC)

• How Islamic State takes its terror to the Web. (Der Spiegel)

• AAP denying Delhi the Janlokpal bill they deserve. (ET)

• An ecological disaster. (Telegraph India)

Sunday Reads

• Does atheism have to be anti-religious? (BBC)

• Pakistan hate, Indian disdain. (FP)

• 1965 War: Shastri blasted US & UN for support to Pakistan. (New IE)

• In Rajasthan desert, education for girl child blooms. (BS)
  

Also, glimpse at some of the world's exclusive cars.

Sunday Reads

• The man who was there. (BBC)

• Films... rising life and liberty. (Hindu)

• An interview with the Islamic State's architect of death. (Der Spiegel)

• Delhi's water mafia. (Foreign Policy)

Sunday Reads: CIA+Mossad and Cheap Oil

• CIA & Mossad killed senior Hezbollah figure (Washington Post)

• Japan's Abe's vision under threat. (AlJazeera)

• All about ways of expressive articulation. (Hindu Open Page)

• Seven reasons cheap oil cannot stop renewables now. (Bloomberg)

Superhero Movies, Super Earnings

Superheroes are the ultimate saviours of humankind, at least that's what Hollywood would love us to believe. Among the plethora of superheroes, I particularly admire Robert Downey, Jr. for his acting prowess. 

It is a rare thing that a superhero does not rake in the moolah. Here's a list of the top earning superhero movies. This comes from ET.

Sunday Reads - Facebook is Blue because ...

• Facebook is blue because Mark Zuckerberg is colourblind. (Gizmodo)
• Everything need to know about Facebook's controversial emotion experiment. (Wired)
• How cruel the beautiful game has become. (India Today)
• Why we stuck with Maliki - and lost Iraq. (WaPo)

Sunday Reads - Heavy Duty Edition

• The U.S. is an oligarchy, not a democracy. (BBC Echo Chambers)

• A Silicon Valley disaster: A 21-year-old Stanford kid got U.S.$30 million, then everything blew up. (Business Insider)

• The Bill Watterson (Creator of Calvin and Hobbes) interview. (The Comics Journal)

• Singh's Last Sigh; Statistics, Optics and Harsh Reality. (New IE)

• If the Family loses its hand... (Outlook India)

Tuesday Quiz

Today's question reflects a marriage of entertainment, business and convenience. 

Identify all in the two photos and and connect them.

Clue: In the picture! Post your answers in the comments space. 

Sunday Reads - Evil Genius and Crimea + Game Theory

• Bill Gates explains how to save the planet. (Rolling Stone)

• Crimea through a Game theory lens. (NYT)

• From evil genius to barroom brawler. (FP)

• The Man in the Bomb Suit: The Story that inspired The Hurt Locker. (Playboy)

China & The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory is one of the world's most popular serials. The story of a group of science nerds, it has captured the imagination of millions of viewers around the world. 

Apart from featuring some quirky and nerdy characters, there are some very different reasons as to why the Chinese have taken to this western television show. Foreign Policy magazine carried an interesting piece on the popularity of the show in China. Here's an excerpt: 

Awkward bookworms like the male characters in The Big Bang Theoryare becoming more hip in China, or at least more mainstream: One of China's most popular words in 2013 was diaosi, a once-pejorative term for poor, girlfriend-less geeks that translators generally render as "loser." In one survey conducted by popular Internet portal Sohu, over 80 percent of respondents aged 24 to 34 identified as diaosi. On Douban, a social media platform for television and book lovers, one commenter remarked that "many diaosi were watching" The Big Bang Theory. The state-run newspaper Guangzhou Daily wrote in an August 2012 review of the sitcom that "we have experienced the life of a diaosi," which is why "we see ourselves in The Big Bang Theory."

Strongly recommended read; click here.

(Read How to prepare for B-School GD, Essay & Interview)

Anil Agarwal on India's Economic Prospects & MSD's Not Alone

Anil Agarwal is the Chairman of Vedanta Resources. He is nicknamed ‘metal king’ for his ownership of a clutch of metals companies, like bauxite and iron ore. In a free-wheeling interview with the Economic Times, Mr Agarwal ­­­rues that “the world wants India to remain an import-based economy”.

He further says that “India produces 130 MT of iron ore. And they are talking about depletion of iron ore reserves. India has potential to produce 600 MT of iron ore annually. We’ll have reserves for another 100 years at 600 MT annually. That is India’s capacity.” 

As a co-owner of an oil major (in partnership with Cairn), he says that, “We need 20 oil and gas companies in India, but we have only three — Reliance Industries, ONGC, and Cairn. Cairn produces oil at three dollars. Can you believe this? And India imports at 110 dollars a barrel. So, priority to local resources has to be given.” Read the complete interview here.

Also read, ‘India’s realty bubble waiting to burst’, from the pages of the Business Line.

M. S. Dhoni is sporting a new hairdo. There have been several before who have had a “good or bad hair day”. Treat your eyes to this DC slideshow on sportspersons with some real weird hairdos.

Sunday Reads - The bomb didn't beat Japan & 3D Films

• The bomb didn't beat Japan... Stalin did. (Foreign Policy)

• In the violent favelas of Brazil. (NY Review of Books)

• My week in North Korea. (Reason)

• The U.S.$7 trillion problem that could sink Asia. (Bloomberg)

3D movies are hitting the screens in a flurry. Click on the infographic below to know more about the box-office prospects of 3D films.

Double-click on the infographic for a larger view.

Source: Reuters 

Sunday Reads - The Secret War & Defining Turkey

• The Secret War. (Wired) 

• Inside the [U.S.] NSA's ultra-secret China hacking group. (Foreign Policy)

• The contest to define Turkey. (AlJazeera)

• "I tried to be a star but it did not work for me." Interview with Irrfan Khan. (Indian Express)

One night in the House of Commons, Churchill, after imbibing a few drinks, stumbled into Bessie Braddock, a corpulent Labourite member from Liverpool. An angry Bessie straightened her clothes and addressed the British statesman.

"Winston," she roared. "You are drunk, and what’s more, you are disgustingly drunk."

Churchill, surveying Bessie, replied, "And might I say, Mrs. Braddock, you are ugly, and what’s more, disgustingly ugly. But tomorrow," Churchill added, "I shall be sober."

Sunday Reads - Jolie, Propaganda, IPL, & the Internet

I am travelling today to Jodhpur (Rajasthan); I hope I do not get skewered in the terrible heat of the desert.

• Propaganda: Lies and distortion. (BBC)
• The Internet killed the Middle Class. (Salon)
• Corporatisation of Angelina Jolie's breasts? (Outlook)
• The seamier side of IPL: Women and money. (India Today)

As the IPL spot-fixing unravels, Manjul's cartoon in DNA captures it all.