Chess

The first known version of chess appeared around the 6th century in India and was called chaturanga, played on a board of the game Ashtapada.[2] This board was monochromatic and divided into eight columns by eight rows, with special marks called castles in the first, fourth, fifth, and eighth squares of the a-, d-, e-, and h-columns, which served a function in Ashtapada, but not in chaturanga.[3]

Our tendency to overlook exponential growth has been known for millennia. According to an Indian legend, the brahmin Sissa ibn Dahir was offered a prize for inventing an early version of chess. He asked for one grain of wheat to be placed on the first square on the board, two for the second square, four for the third square, doubling each time up to the 64th square. The king apparently laughed at the humility of ibn Dahir’s request – until his treasurers reported that it would outstrip all the food in the land (18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains in total). It was only in the late 2000s that scientists started to study the bias formally, with research showing that most people – like Sissa ibn Dahir’s king – intuitively assume that most growth is linear, leading them to vastly underestimate the speed of exponential increase.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200812-exponential-growth-bias-the-numerical-error-behind-covid-19

This is my friend. She’s Indian but... a different kind of Indian. Like. She travels.

a friend’s friend

What sits atop this sneer? How did it get there?

Studying used to be part of organisations. You couldn't be part of the Black Panther party unless you were reading, unless you were discussing things, unless you were having meaningful conversations about the politics. You have to do this work.

Whiteness Psychosis, Kehinde Andrrews

Mainstream postural yoga is now a staple activity in the neoliberal project of enlightened consumerism. A way to find balance within the chaos of techno-capitalism—not resist it.

Matthew Remski

I had always been a Labour supporter but in 2019 I voted Conservatives because I thought Boris was the man to get Brexit done, and I haven't changed my mind about that.

At the time. I remember people droning on about his competence. I understand he got that lady stuck in a foreign prison when he was Foreign Secretary but that was not his fault (foreigners don’t understand bants), and it was ONE woman who wasn't really that British anyway (pls have a look for yourself).

"The Tories hate you," I was told.

"They are ideologically against the NHS, libraries, good state education, amenities that aren’t privately owned, unions, the working class in general" —  OK I get that, but when Boris wrote that thing about Muslims looking like letterboxes I finally had someone on my side, telling it like it is. I was quite surprised it was even allowed to be published, with 80% of the press owned by elitist SJW Rupert Murdoch.

Every day I "log on" and see people focussing squarely on the death toll and not the levity he brings to the situation. Only yesterday did he make a joke about another being able swim again now that we have reopened the economy, an activity he knew he had both enjoyed and missed. I chuckled so hard I forgot about the permanent scarring.

I'm not here to argue that Boris has handled this well but I would ask: would you really want someone like Corbyn in charge? With his allotment and unrealistic spending? Broadband being treated like public infrastructure is starting to make sense, but what about ABBOTT? DIANE ABBOTT. I can't point you to anything in particular she did that the current crop haven't, but just saying that name gets laughter, even when Fiona Bruce (a feminist) does it on Question Time (that's a news show Corbynista, keep up).

It call became clear in the conga line last weekend: this nation has been through tough times before—with no help from anyone else—and we can do it again. We’ll get through this, send the virus packing, then send the pak— get Brexit done.

Mind their language

The primary function of racist language is to remind to you + those around that you are a lower order. It is to pull rank:. a higher up reminding you of their status. This is the reason why I (and some on the left) see no a distinction between social justice and economic justice. Social justice is a form of class struggle.

A consumer insights service dabbling with white displacement rhetric

The virus—a Chinese export—yet the powerful races in Malaysia still find a way to kick dark-skinned south Asians.

Imagine for a second if this virus came from India. How do you think people would have reacted? A nation riven with white supremacy. A country where your race is the most important decider of your fate.

Malaysia is riven by a stark racial heiracries

You will never witness an existence as wretched as the migrant South Asian workers in South-East Asia—building infrascrutre in fatal heat with no human rights—the sweat from this labour another reason to denegrate—openly treated like vermin every waking hour by the same pamapered and clueless inhabitants that will benefit from their toil.

They don’t have human rights because they are not seen as fully human.

Malaysian Indians seperate themselves from them at every opportunity. I've heard someone say, 'You can call me Keling if you want but I'm a Christian'. They are each so unwanted, but they refuse to find belonging with each other.

• No other race has self-esteem as low as ours. • No other race is is so divided as us.

Chinese supremacy is just a variant of white supremacy

A very interesting headline from http://theindependent.sg/ http://theindependent.sg/activist-who-coined-the-term-chinese-privilege-seeks-donations-to-finish-her-phd-paper-on-chinese-supremacy-in-singapore/

Indian contributions to Malaysia suddenly become 'Malaysian' when it suits.