06897 @ the Scad Fashion Show

On Friday Reia's collection was being showcased in the SCAD Fashion Show. Even before the school year had begun in 2018, Reia very much wanted to be a part of her Senior Class Fashion Show. However she felt that most of her classmates were way more talented than her and she was unlikely to make it. So much so, she did not want us to be in Savannah during the event.

Ivy and I decided that we should be there. Especially if she didn't make it. To give her support and to let her know that there are a zillion fashion shows ahead. As it turned out, we didn't need to do any of that. Reia's collection was amongst those picked and we could attend and bask in some of the reflected glory from her.

The town of Savannah is always filled with SCAD hoardings and posters. And we were able to find quite a few for the fashion events. Freia didn't want to be left alone and so she decided to join us and arrived on the morning of the event.

Reia had designed shirts for the 3 of us to wear at the event. The theme of here collection was "06897" the Wilton zip code, the place where her fashion journey began. And the school that taught her that it's okay to be dyslexic. You still can shine in any field you choose. And she chose fashion.

The 3 of us set off for the event and arrived an hour early so we could get ringside seats. Seems like all the other guests had the exact same idea and we were lucky to get the last few from row seats.

All of the outfits on display were really good, although I'm probably biased. When Reia's models walked down the ramp, I felt that they were the best - definitely biased. I was beaming in pride at what Reia had managed to do.

But she couldn't have done it without 3 people she calls her assistants, "Tiffany, Caroline and Nikita". In my mind, they are her guardian angels. Always there. Even when she didn't need them. Thank You - Tiff, Caroline, Nikita.

Time for me to shut up and for you to have a look. And make your own judgements. And if its anything less than "Awesome", I don't want to hear about it.

Does Privacy Matter ?

It's said that we've sold our soul to the Google overlords. And most of us have resigned ourselves to the probability that anything we've done or are doing leaves a digital footprint and that the Google and Facebook and Amazon and Apple and ... have access to it. And will sell it to the highest bidder. And many accept this as the price for being connected.

The privacy conversation took on a new and interesting dimension when a couple of days ago Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook, said in an opinion piece in the New York Times,
"the company is so big and powerful that it threatens our democracy".

The opinion piece is a must read.

It's Time to Break Up Facebook
The New York Times

" ..,
We are a nation with a tradition of reining in monopolies, no matter how well intentioned the leaders of these companies may be. Mark’s power is unprecedented and un-American.

It is time to break up Facebook.

We already have the tools we need to check the domination of Facebook. We just seem to have forgotten about them.
... "

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/09/opinion/sunday/chris-hughes-facebook-zuckerberg.html

And Zuckerberg's response is troubling.
"
Zuckerberg says breaking up Facebook “isn’t going to help”. With the look of someone betrayed, Facebook’s CEO has fired back at co-founder Chris Hughes and his brutal NYT op-ed calling for regulators to split up Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

“When I read what he wrote, my main reaction was that what he’s proposing that we do isn’t going to do anything to help solve those issues. So I think that if what you care about is democracy and elections, then you want a company like us to be able to invest billions of dollars per year like we are in building up really advanced tools to fight election interference” Zuckerberg told France Info while in Paris to meet with French President Emmanuel Macron.
..."
https://techcrunch.com/2019/05/11/zuckerberg-responds-to-hughes/

https://twitter.com/reckless/status/1127273582621548545

This reminded me of a talk I had seen by journalist Glenn Greenwald who shot to prominence with the Edward Snowden files and on reviewing, I realized that what Mr. Greenwald talked about over 4 years ago (Oct 2014) is even more relevant today.

Why privacy matters
Glenn Greenwald

Glenn Greenwald was one of the first reporters to see -- and write about -- the Edward Snowden files, with their revelations about the United States' extensive surveillance of private citizens. In this searing talk, Greenwald makes the case for why you need to care about privacy, even if you're "not doing anything you need to hide."

My take is that whether we accept it or not, we need to be aware of what's at stake and decide and think about, "Is what we are getting in return for selling our souls worth it ? Or not. And if not, what's the solution ?"

Can Twitter be saved ?

Who else to better answer this question than the founder and current CEO. Here's his take on the subject in a conversational interview.

At the risk of being over simplistic, my 2 cents is that a relatively simple problem is being made complex and then the solution to the complex problem becomes even more complicated.

Here are 3 simple rules that could simplify the #1 issue. And its #1 not only as described by users but by Jack himself.

1. Disallow anonymous users to retweet, comment or have followers.

2. The current policy uses Conduct not Content. This should be changed to use Conduct and Content. Content can be as harmful, if not more harmful than Conduct.

3. The primary score to decide whether content is "Abuse and Harassment" should be by the receiver of the abuse. And the default should be to automatically block it. And the human review should be when the person whose retweet or comment is blocked, requests for a review. This will reduce human intervention required significantly.

Indian Elections 2019

Tomorrow I vote in what is the world's largest democracy. Except that not everyone votes tomorrow. Mumbai where I'm from goes to the polls tomorrow. It is Phase 4 of the 7 phased elections. And the counting of all 7 phases will happen simultaneously on May 23rd.

The idea of this blog was to give an understanding of the scope and complexity of the Indian election system. And like in most things, found that others had already done much better a job than I could hope to. Here are a few that will give a very good sense of the Indian elections.

India Lok Sabha election 2019: How the world's largest democracy votes
Global News

India elections: All you need to knowhttps://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2019/04/indian-elections-190410185739389.html


The world’s largest election, explained
Milan Vaishnav and Jamie Hintson
https://carnegieendowment.org/publications/interactive/india-elects-2019


India election: World's biggest voting event explained
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-26847432


2019 Indian general election
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Indian_general_election

And for those of you who have Netflix, do watch Hasan Minhaj's take on the Indian election. And while I disagree with several of his points as untrue, you don't need to agree with everything to like the episode. A definite must watch.
https://youtu.be/qqZ_SH9N3Xo

CRISPR - A DNA Editor ?

If you haven't heard of CRISPR, you should. It could change the human race. And that's no exaggeration, but a series of events that has already begun to take shape. And while you may be tempted to stop after a few minute, its important and I strongly recommend that at the very least you go through all of the below.

Let's start at the beginning.

CRISPR (/ˈkrɪspər/) (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found within the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments from viruses that have previously infected the prokaryote and are used to detect and destroy DNA from similar viruses during subsequent infections. Hence these sequences play a key role in the antiviral defense system of prokaryotes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRISPR

What is CRISPR?
Paul Andersen

The speaker explains how the CRISPR/Cas immune system was identified in bacteria and how the CRISPR/Cas9 system was developed to edit genomes.

CRISPR: History of Discovery
SINGAPORE NIE

What is the formula to discover the next breakthrough? It all begins with observation. In 1987, when a group of Japanese scientists discovered an odd DNA sequence in a type of bacteria, the E.coli.  These repeated sequences were something that had never been seen before. They are palindromic, meaning they read identically forward and backward, for about 30 bases, and are separated by spacers of roughly about 36 bases that are not palindromic in nature.

What you need to know about CRISPR
Ellen Jorgensen

Should we bring back the wooly mammoth? Or edit a human embryo? Or wipe out an entire species that we consider harmful? The genome-editing technology CRISPR has made extraordinary questions like these legitimate — but how does it work? Scientist and community lab advocate Ellen Jorgensen is on a mission to explain the myths and realities of CRISPR, hype-free, to the non-scientists among us.

How CRISPR lets us edit our DNA
Jennifer Doudna
Geneticist Jennifer Doudna co-invented a groundbreaking new technology for editing genes, called CRISPR-Cas9. The tool allows scientists to make precise edits to DNA strands, which could lead to treatments for genetic diseases … but could also be used to create so-called "designer babies." Doudna reviews how CRISPR-Cas9 works — and asks the scientific community to pause and discuss the ethics of this new tool.

CRISPR and the Future of Human Evolution
It's Okay To Be Smart
Now that genetic engineering tools like CRISPR allow us to edit our genes, how will that impact human evolution going forward? Are designer babies or eugenics around the corner? Welcome to a world of nonrandom mutation and unnatural selection.

Black Swan. Or. Gray Rhino.

 What's fascinated me about the Black Swan theory is how in most cases, several people had seen the signs of the "Black Swan Event", before the event and had both predicted it and monetized it. If that's true, how then is it a "Black Swan" event ?

Michele Wucker seems to have answered some of those questions in her book, "The Gray Rhino".
https://www.thegrayrhino.com/the-gray-rhino/

And you can read about the author in her own words:
https://www.wucker.com/about/about-me/

And while you order and wait for your copy of the book, check out her TED talk.

Why we ignore obvious problems - and how to act on them
Michelle Wucker

Why do we often neglect big problems, like the financial crisis and climate change, until it's too late? Policy strategist Michele Wucker urges us to replace the myth of the "black swan" -- that rare, unforeseeable, unavoidable catastrophe -- with the reality of the "gray rhino," the preventable danger that we choose to ignore. She shows why predictable crises catch us by surprise -- and lays out some signs that there may be a charging rhino in your life right now.grey

We need to be cognizant that while we can label events any which way after the fact, recognizing or even having a faint intuition that something could be happening could save us from disaster and if handled well, even result in a windfall.

Right or Wrong ?

My kids question several things that we have done and our parents and grandparents and wonder, "How could you'll ?"

These days and thinking about it, probably always there's a debate on Right and Wrong. And it seems frustrating to us that what's obviously wrong to us, is right to a significant and sometime even a majority of people.

This talk by Juan Enriquez is extremely thoughtful and insightful and in my opinion a must watch for all of us.

Is Right and Wrong Always Black and White?
Juan Enriquez

In retrospect, it is easy to see how seriously mistaken we were

But at the time there can be extraordinary societal pressures to conform with the norms set by mom, the preacher, teacher, doctor,  lawyer, police, and government.  Even on a subject as horrid as slavery.

In this context let’s celebrate the heroes who stood up, not judge too harshly those who went along, and have the humility to accept that we too, may be doing things our grandkids will consider horrific...

And while we continue to strive to define what should be right, let us be a little more tolerant of those we disagree with, knowing that only time will tell which is the new Right and the new Wrong.