Curated Commons // Edition 45
Thank you for subscribing and welcome to the 45th edition of Curated Commons. Let’s dive right in!
Stores as warehouses?
Can you use your storefronts as mini-distribution hubs and create a genuine hybrid model? Inditex (owner of Zara) thinks so. Good long read into the group and how it is trying to adapt its (unsustainable and terrible for planet) business into the digital age.
Pre-liberalized India, in anecdotes
This is a good interview with N.R. Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Infosys on the bureaucratic jungle raj that prevailed pre-1991.
Are low-cost long-duration batteries finally here?
This is a fascinating read on a startup that is claiming a breakthrough in developing low-cost batteries that can retain energy for long-term. I hope they are right!
Sinkholes and climate change
A stat that’s gonna haunt me for a while! Globally, for every 0.1℃ rise in temperature, the number of sinkholes increases by 1%-3%.
Coolest CFO of the year
Not sure how Amazon convinced their India CFO to write, but this piece ranting about ‘capital dumping’ has to be the new benchmark for how cool CFOs are expected to be!
Tipping, as a reason for sexual harassment
In case one needed scientific proof that tipping and the ‘Service with a Smile’ requirement are responsible for sexual harassment in restaurants!
DeepMind at it again!
AI is now being used to predict the structures of almost every protein made by the human body. This company is scarily beautiful!
What does coexisting with the Coronavirus mean?
This is a fascinating read on what it means for us to coexist with the Coronavirus.
Meet the Farmville ponzi scheme
Can’t make this up! People thought they were investing in a real-world farm. Turns out, they were unwitting participants in an app-based ponzi scheme!
Don’t @ me, but this bit sounded like it’d resonate with so many Bangalore techies!
“Farming is a nostalgic word for the urban crowds of big cities in Turkey,” a psychology professor told the news site Al Monitor in 2018. “The value of meat competes with gold here. So the idea that you are buying a cow is safe and appealing to people.”
Can collect, will collect. Data that is
Museums in Italy will now keep track of how people look at paintings. Because, data!
A research team at the country’s new-technologies agency ENEA has developed a system based on devices that can calculate how long and how closely museum and gallery visitors observe a particular work of art.
Disinformation diplomacy
When you have a disinformation network hammer, every problem looks like a nail!
The Rorschach test of our times
A high-ranking Catholic cleric in the US was forced to resign after (what appears to be) deanonymized cell phone data showed he frequented gay bars. Which is the greater sin?
Modern shoes that aid doping
“New platform shoes offer such a big performance advantage to athletes that critics have described them as “technological doping””
More Interesting Links:
Top US scientist on melting glaciers: ‘I’ve gone from being an ecologist to a coroner’ - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/21/climate-crisis-glacier-diana-six-ecologist
China has likely been hacking oil & gas pipelines in the US for the past decade. Likely elsewhere too! - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/us/politics/china-hacking-pipelines.html
“UBS has launched a portfolio that invests solely in hedge funds led by women in an effort to improve diversity and spot hidden talent in the traditionally male-dominated sector.” - https://www.ft.com/content/dab5a2b3-c083-411b-b2d1-969d6bcf862b
Good read on genetically modified food - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/20/magazine/gmos.html
A Florida beach town created an Amazon TV series to lure tourists post-pandemic - https://fortune.com/2021/06/22/florida-beach-town-amazon-tv-series-lifes-rewards-tourism-post-pandemic/
A Chinese quantum computer finished a designated quantum benchmark task in around 70 minutes, and its creators claim the world's most powerful 'classical' (non-quantum) supercomputer to date would need around eight years to get through the same set of calculations - https://www.sciencealert.com/china-s-latest-56-qubit-computer-marks-another-quantum-milestone
What happens when you place marketing ahead of technical chops - IBM Watson will remain a case study for long. - https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/technology/what-happened-ibm-watson.html
Sobering read on vaccine inequity - https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-vaccine-inequality-dac9c07b324e29d3597037b8dc1d908a
Mark Zuckerberg and the metaverse - https://www.theverge.com/22588022/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-ceo-metaverse-interview
Mistype gmail and head to gail.com and experience Internet purity
And finally, Bezos can match Musk in trolling the interwebs!
Stay safe, and happy reading! And if you liked the newsletter, please do share on your social networks. My DMs on Twitter are always open for any feedback.