I think parent is referring to the film in the novel, also named Infinite Jest. The film is so compelling that its viewers lose all interest in anything other than repeatedly viewing it, and thus eventually die.
I would've liked to read more about what they're doing, but their website fab2.com is unhelpful. Very little info, presented in pointless swirling animations that hijack your scroll action.
The article is only a brief summary that cannot do justice to the incredible story of the Koh-i-Noor diamond. I have been doing some research on it, and IMO the most modern and accurate take is the book by Anand and Dalrymple [1].
The following is an excerpt from a review of the book, written by Maya Jassanoff. The book is also very engagingly written. Highly recommend.
"If Koh-i-Noor sounds like a magical history tour, that’s less because of the stone’s putative properties than because – as the authors so pervasively recognise – the history of imperial power is always at base a history of violence. This is no book for the squeamish. There are noses rotted by disease, eyes punctured with hot needles, live cremations, slow poisoning and a torture victim crowned in molten lead."
[1] Koh-i-Noor: The History of the World's Most Infamous Diamond, by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. Bloomsbury, 2017
Yes, it's an outstanding book, well worth reading:
Cadillac Desert: The American West and Its Disappearing Water, by Marc Reisner, Penguin Books, 1986, 1993.
A recent perspective on this excellent book by Ryan Cooper is also very good. He says that journalists in the 1970s and 80s were infected with Reaganite ideology and made some mistakes. Worth reading:
Most people are ego-driven and won't listen to your logical arguments. They will only get angry with you even if you're right. So don't argue with them. Give advice only if they ask.
If you really know something others don't realize, maybe that's a valuable edge for you to profit from. Use it.
And don't hesitate to ask others for advice when it might help you.
"Financial surveillance by law enforcement is far from unheard of, but it wouldn’t be normal to see agents use it in this way. For instance, ICE in particular once had widespread access to something called the Transaction Record Analysis Center (TRAC), used to surveil immigrants who wired money, but much of that access was clawed back last year amid public scrutiny and accusations of illegality."
Since I don't see it mentioned yet in the comments:
In 2011, movie studios created a digital ownership service called Ultraviolet. You could own titles in your "UltraViolet Digital Rights Locker" and access them from multiple devices via third-party streaming services. [1]
"The UltraViolet Digital Rights Locker will keep track of all of the consumers’ UltraViolet digital purchases, whether they bought a movie or television show on Blu-ray disc or digital download. UltraViolet does not store the actual content. When a consumer logs in, UltraViolet will verify that the consumer has purchased a film, and will then allow the consumer to stream or download their movies from a participating UltraViolet service." [2]
This was an attempt to separate the technology of streaming from the legal ownership of the asset.
But Disney never signed on, and the member studios eventually got tired of it for some reason. The whole service was shut down in 2019.
Every indicator says that shareholders or managers have no idea what improves or degrades productivity, unfortunately. It’s all based on vibes. Executives get the benefit of the doubt.
You're not wrong. If you smell pure cumin (without any other spices or herbs), particularly if you grind and mix it with yogurt to make a salty lassi, you get a whiff of body odor. My kids called it "the BO drink".
It's a weird thing, but the smell becomes quite different in combination with other smells. It's an ingredient in many expensive perfumes, believe it or not! [1]
Dipa Chaudhuri and Puneet Gupta, who undertook the epic translation project, tell us about the many challenges they faced, and the fun they had along the way.
One more fact that might be interesting about natural diamonds: not all of them are extracted by digging mines;
the oldest way of extracting diamonds is by sifting through alluvial deposits.
This method originated centuries ago in India. In fact, until the 18th century, this was the only known method. The most famous origin of alluvial diamonds is the Godavari-Krishna river delta in the old Golconda Sultanate. This particular site was exhausted about 200 years ago, making Golconda diamonds especially precious now.