The History of our World

One of the items on my 2017 list of things to do is to "learn more". About anything and everything. And I guess the world we live in, is a great starting point. I was debating about which books I should read and I wasn't very encouraged just seeing the thickness of the books.

And I felt that there has to be a nicer, quicker way to get a brief peek into the subject. And I found not one but 2 resources that in addition to being informative were both interesting and fascinating.

Check them out for yourself.


The history of our world in 18 minutes | David Christian

Backed by stunning illustrations, David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. This is "Big History": an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life and humanity, set against our slim share of the cosmic timeline.

A History of the World in 100 objects

A 100 part series by Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, exploring world history from two million years ago to the present.

Objects featured in the series can be explored and their stories discovered in the Museum galleries or here on the website through the links below.

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/a_history_of_the_world.aspx

And at the end of knowing a little ore about the history of the world, it was a humbling realization that the more I learnt, the more I realized about how little I knew.

Robot Vacuum

This year for Christmas we gifted Freia a robot vacuum cleaner. I've always been fascinated with robots, and a robot vacuum cleaner was the one that was useful and affordable. Yet, I've never owned one. And now Freia would get it. And who knows, she might even allow me to borrow it.

And then the New Year miracle happened. My landlady gave me a robot vacuum for the apartment. It was aptly called "Neato". And it was everything, or almost everything I had hoped it would be. It was programmable and I could schedule a cleaning when I wasn't at home. The first time, I had it vacuum the apartment when I was there.

It was extremely irritating, as it was slow, and went around the same places multiple times. And you always felt, that you could do it so much faster. The next time around I just programmed it for when I was at work. It was perfect. I got home, and it had done a terrific job. I guess the fact that I wasn't around to watch it take a few hours helped.

And just 2 days ago, Freia got her robot vacuum cleaner. The ILIFE V5s. She hasn't used it yet, but the video looks pretty cool. And in addition to a vacuum cleaner, it has mopping too.

http://www.iliferobot.com/list-44.html


I'm a convert and a fan of the Robot vacuum cleaner. Next stop Robot Butler.

Bridging the Great Divide

In 5 days on Friday, Donald Trump will take over as the 45th President of the United States.

Most people expected that after the extremely acrimonious elections, people would unite. Unfortunately that's not happening. It seems like its becoming worse and both sides, the Democrats as well as the Republicans are doubling down on their positions.

Earlier this week, I had conversations with 2 Republicans. And they were taking extreme positions. They were critical of the Democrats. Their action not only in the last 8 years, but also since the elections. As an example, they quoted Democrats raising concerns since Hilary Clinton had won the popular vote. By almost 3 million votes. Which was a fact. I didn't get it. How could they have an issue with the Democrats raising this as an argument to question the legitimacy of the President -Elect when they seem to have no issue with the President-Elect himself spending over 6 years questioning the legitimacy of the Obama administration. And on the basis of a figment of the imagination.
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/09/birther-movement-founder-trump-clinton-228304

The other side was equally irrational. They argued about the nomination of the Secretary's by the President-Elect. The fact that they were extremely conservative. But isn't that what one should expect when the Conservatives won, with the far right dominating. And its not as if the Democrats had put independents or moderates in their Cabinet.

Both sides earnestly believed that the other side was evil. Actions by the other side was deemed unacceptable and extreme, whilst the exact same action by their side was acceptable because of the circumstance.

And I came across this TED Talk that speaks about "How to have better political conversations".

I liked what Robb Willer has to say. And agree. However I believe that no one is likely to change their position even after seeing this. Both sides are likely to agree that all Robb speaks about is True of the other side. They themselves are rational, reasonable people. Nevertheless I'll try and see if anyone changes their mind. But, I wouldn't bet on it.

Mashable

Earlier this week Freia started a Tech Internship at Mashable. Until she accepted this internship I had not heard of Mashable.

http://mashable.com/

I checked it out and it was to put it mildly, Interesting. What I found even more interesting since I didn't know it existed, was that Snapchat had media channels. And Mashable was one of the digital publications that had their own channel on Mashable.

Freia's internship was to help with the Snapchat part of the technology section.She had her first article appear on Jan 5. It was about Soylent, a meal replacement product that Freia was a fan of and had used in the summer. The title unfortunately was non appetizing.

Soylent bounces back from diarrhea scandal with two new flavors 

And that seems to be the style Mashable uses. Make the title sensational. Get the reader to click and give them a story that they can read through easily, without much use of the brain cells to think, unlike a New York Times article, which can sometimes be a tough read.

You should check out the new budding writer, aka sensational columnist or more accurately, "The Tech Intern" at:
http://mashable.com/author/freia-lobo/

2017 : Begins with a CRASH !

2017 is going to be a great year. I just know. It started with a crash. Literally. Early this morning at 2.30 we were headed to the airport to drop Reia who was on her way to college in Hong Kong.

As we were pulling out of the driveway, we heard a ripping sound. We had hit a concrete protrusion. We reversed, pulled out and parked to inspect the damage. It was deep gash, dent and hole on the passenger side of the car. The good news was that we were able to open and close the doors. And decided to continue our trip to the airport.

We felt lucky to have got away with some damage. We made it to the airport and bid Au Revoir to Reia as she set out on her Hong Kong adventure.

With a crashing start 2017 is going to be different. Very different. And this started with my New Year Resolutions. The usual suspects made it to the list. And a few new ones. But there was a twist. I was going to reward myself for keeping the resolutions. I would measure these on a quarterly basis and reaching 90% of the overall targets would be considered successful.

Each of these were rewards I've always wanted, but had never been able to pamper myself with. Now I had an incentive to earn them.

The Q1 reward is an iPad

The Q2 reward is a scuba diving certification trip

The Q3 reward is a Mavic Pro drone

The Q4 reward is a holiday with Ivy in South America

And the Big Annual Award is a Family Holiday in Hawaii

I'm hugely incentivized to achieve my resolution targets. Will let you know in 2018 how it turned out.

And last, but most important here's wishing your families and you an Awesome and Amazing 2017. May it be filled with Health and Happiness.