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Showing posts from November, 2019

Humans fuck up - book review

After the Israeli historian Harari educated us about our species and its origins in easy to read manner earlier this decade, a Brit followed up with a hilarious portrait of our uncanny ability to cock things up. Humans - brief history of how we fucked it all up -  is a 2019 attempt by British journalist and storyteller Tom Phillips to lay bare the truth that we are not all that smart as cracked up to be. Starting with a condensed table of contents that describes an ape falling off a tree 3.2 M years ago after probably jerking off and dying, the species went on to get to present state aka Wise Man (leaving that moniker in doubt) or Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Contrast Yuval Harari's detailed investigations of historic records and some eye opening data points to Phillips' easy going hilarity, the latter was quite an entertaining read. Indeed we as a species still deal with the consequences of what we now see in the rearview mirror of history.  Discovering agriculture, gasoline

Nick Nack Paddy Whack

A children's marching band song that is somehow stuck in my head. I have no idea what the words mean but the tune is catchy.  Recently when I read Rihanna was peddling knickers, I somehow thought that she must have a knack for knickers and the tune kept playing in my head.  If that is not whacky what is? What it also tells me is that America is truly land of opportunity for anyone willing to hustle.  A girl from Barbados who allegedly suffered abuse can go from being no one to a pop star and then turn her charisma to selling unrelated goods. There are many such successful business people in America but when I compare to my land of birth aka India, I cannot think of comparable marketers.  I mean if Asha Bhosale or equivalent singer in India started selling their own brand of underwear it would cause a national uproar or even riots. Can you imagine Aishwarya trying to twerk or a Priyanka selling her own brand of Chopra cosmetics?  But it is possible for Kardashians to pull t