Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century

I finished reading Impossible City: Paris in the Twenty-First Century by Simon Kuper who is also a columnist in FT, host of a podcast Heroes and Humans of Football, and author of other books few of which are already in my reading list.

It is an engaging book. I have not been to Paris - except during transit - but it is a city I would like to visit. Thanks to Netflix tv series such as Call My Agent and Lupin, and having read Simon Kuper's earlier articles, this book was long on my reading list. 

This book establishes why Paris is the centre of France and how that centre is expanding - both geographically as well as metaphorically. Simon moved to France sometime in his adulthood having lived in different countries and therefore brings an outsider's and comparative perspective. Book is divided into different chapters each dealing with one topic and all the topic taken together presents a picture of Paris which is rooted in its century old customs but also trying to grow. As a columnist for FT, he - I assume - has access to the people and places and he takes us to different types of people from other migrants to homeless to politicians and places within the Paris as well as at the periphery or suburbs. I recommend this book to any one having interest in the city and exploration of the city beyond usual tourist things.

A name i recognize

 IEEE Spectrum is one of the sources I really admire for sound and general purpose technical news. In a recent post excerpting a book on evolution of universities as innovation engine, I came across the name of Romesh Wadhwani whom I, and many other IITB students, know from WEL lab (second 'lab' is RAS syndrom) or Wadhwani Electronics Lab where we had our undergraduate electronics lab and where many students used to go for quick prototyping of circuits. 

26June25 links and followup

• Rooting for: Four minute barrier for women
• Good try
• EU considers mars chocolates and Pringles 'must have' for customers: Challenge to their merger bid
• CBSE board exams twice a year. Good move. I was surprised to find that many IIMs giving weightage to 10th marks. Then I was even more surprised to find many IT companies may use 10th marks as filtering criterion in campus placements.
• Not surprising that chatbots exaggerates scientific claims. Many papers do and almost all the abstracts. In that sense, these chatbots are acting more like an amateur journalists than a cautious scientist. But I am very hopeful that exaggeration is an issue which can be easily overcome with focused training.  

Doing what you love - doing nothing edition

 Shoji Morimoto taking the adage to whole new level, and succeeding at it:

 "....“I was often told that I wasn’t doing enough, or that I wasn’t doing anything, so this became a complex for me. I decided to take advantage of this and make it into a business,” he said...."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/03/19/japan-loneliness-rent/

After having read some of the use cases, I think I would have subscribed to his services at more than one occasion in my life if they were available. 

UBI announcement by INC

Today INC announced plan for their version of UBI. Regardless of my personal opinion on such things, I was pleasantly surprised to read this interview in Caravan which gives some background to the announcement. It is an interview with Abhijeet Banerjee and suggests that there was some discussion with people who have been involved with such thing earlier. Now that such an announcement has been made, it will be interesting to see how things shape and if this proposal sees light of the day. 

Long time back, I used to wish there was some scheme/entrance test where you will get some pre defined small amount which is not sufficient to make you rich but let you not worry much about day to day life so that you can focus on doing things you enjoy. My thinking has evolved changed - not sure for better or worse - and no longer wish for such option but when I think about it, I think I was thinking about something similar to UBI. Interesting times ahead.  

Cedric Villani in French Parliament

From MR, I went to this page where some of the newly elected French parliamentarians are listed. I was able to recognize Cedric Villani, whose book (also mentioned in the article) I read some years back. Book was engaging and provided a view into the way mathematicians work and collaborate. Here is wishing a successful legislative career to Cedric. 

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Started Reading

I decided to continue my reading this month with spy fiction and zeroed on Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. I have seen the movie but luckily I forgot who was the mole. I remember the actor who played the mole but I don't remember name of his character. So it is still a mystery novel to me. But more than plain spy fiction, I have so far really enjoyed the novel for its detailing of back office process. While the reading is still progressing, I came across this review in my rss feeds of LitHub. As if universe was conspiring for me to read this (and if it was, couldn't it find a worthier aim to conspire for !!).