Business Standard: “The rise of streaming video since 2016 has not only created the pan-Indian film and the domestic crossover — helping Indians discover Malayalam, Tamil, Assamese, and Bengali cinema, among others—but is also enabling us to explore different parts of India, rather vicariously, as the geography of storytelling expands. Writers and creators are telling more authentic stories based in states and cities that we may not have seen much of in mainstream media, such as Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh. Or ones that we have some mistaken notions about like Punjab, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar, Tamil Nadu.”
WSJ: “The economic and technological forces driving solar, wind and other sources are now too powerful to resist…Solar energy is 10,000 times cheaper today than when it was first used in the U.S.’s Vanguard satellite in 1958. Using a measure of cost that accounts for reliability and flexibility on the grid, the International Energy Agency (IEA) calculates that electricity from solar power with battery storage is less expensive today than electricity from new coal-fired plants in India and new gas-fired plants in the U.S. We project that by 2050 solar energy will cost a tenth of what it does today, making it far cheaper than any other source of energy.”
NYTimes on the love for blue: “According to surveys, blue is by far the world’s most popular hue, regardless of geography or gender — mostly owing to our favorable associations with it, or so researchers posit. Not surprisingly, people love cerulean skies and aquamarine seas, moody gemstones — sapphires, lapis lazuli, the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond — and blue inventions, like denim jeans and ballpoint pens. But as Perry notes, “blue is contrapuntal. It is itself and its opposite: sweet and bitter.” It has long been associated with melancholy — we get the blues, after all. A modern abbreviation of “blue devils,” the term dates to the 17th century and refers to depression, as well as to the hallucinations of alcoholism’s delirium tremens. In several of their respective etchings, both George and Isaac Cruikshank personified that affliction as menacing blue demons.”
Morgan Housel: “A simple formula for a pretty nice life is independence plus purpose. Purpose is different for everyone. Sometimes it’s family, sometimes it’s community, religion, work, whatever. But independence is more universal. Our desire to be independent, why we want it, what prevents us from achieving it, and why some people sabotage their ability to have it, is such a common story across cultures and generations.”
NYTimes: “Zero-sum thinking [is] the belief that life is a battle over finite rewards where gains for one mean losses for another. And these days, that notion seems to be everywhere. It’s how we view college admissions, as a cutthroat contest for groups defined by race or privilege. It’s there in our love for “Squid Game.” It’s Silicon Valley’s winner-take-all ethos, and it’s at the core of many popular opinions: that immigrants steal jobs from Americans; that the wealthy get rich at others’ expense; that men lose power and status when women gain.”
