Vikram विक्रम

😴 💤

[THE SKIN DOCTOR @theskindoctor13]

Do we really need CBSE or ICSE board exams anymore?

What exact purpose are they serving in a modern education system where a large number of students eventually have to clear more relevant professional exams like NEET, JEE, GATE, CAT, etc. anyway?

Some will say that minimum marks in boards decide eligibility for professional exams. Do we really need eligibility criteria at such a junior level when we are moving away from eligibility criteria even in post-graduation and making people scoring minus 40 eligible to become postgraduate doctors?

And if one still insists that board exams must continue, why continue with descriptive answer writing? CBSE is already dealing with concerns around examiner bias, inconsistent checking, logistics of moving and handling answer sheets, delays, and controversies around evaluation. A comprehensive online MCQ-based system would solve many of these problems at once. There would be no examiner bias, no handwriting advantage, no subjective marking, lower cost, easier logistics, fewer human errors, and almost instant results.

More importantly, it would prepare students for what comes next because many major competitive and professional examinations are already MCQ-based. If the destination is eventually MCQs anyway, making students spend years mastering the art of writing long descriptive answers feels a bit like training people to ride horses before putting them in cars.

[Kane @KaneWWE]

Happy birthday to the @undertaker! Yes, you burned down the family home, encased my real father, Paul Bearer, in concrete, and set me on fire...a couple of times...but otherwise you're the best big brother anyone could ever hope for!

[Clip Insanity @ClipInsanity]

This is how you know if a kid is fake sleeping… if he were really asleep, his arms wouldn’t fall

[James Shields @scaling_shields]

i watched a flight go from $483 to $547 in 24 hours WITHOUT a single seat selling

searched london to new york on a tuesday

$483

checked again 2 hours later

$512

next morning: $547

panicked and booked it

the guy sitting next to me paid $391

same seat, date + airline

$156 less

he searched once i searched 3 times

the algorithm saw me come back and charged me until i broke

the seat doesnt have a price

you have a price

and it goes up EVERY time you show interest

couldnt stop thinking about it so i tracked down someone who actually built pricing algorithms for a european carrier

asked him what happened to me

"you got profiled. the system assigned you an intent score after your second search and raised your ceiling every time you came back"

asked how to beat it

"most people think a VPN fixes it. thats 2015 advice. the algorithm fingerprints more than your IP now. it reads your device your browser your screen resolution your timezone. VPN to bucharest but your clock says london and your language is english? the algo knows youre faking and sometimes charges you more for trying"

"so what actually works?"

"you have to poison the entire profile. not just the location. the identity"

the protocol he gave me:

VPN AND match your timezone and language to the spoofed location. mismatched signals flag you and can trigger a price increase

use a fully clean browser. no history no saved passwords no google account. the algorithm fingerprints your session not just your cookies

one search one booking. the intent score activates on the second search. there is no safe way to look twice

book tuesday or wednesday 1-5am. lowest traffic means the least demand data for the algorithm to inflate against

if the price already spiked go dark for 72 hours minimum. not 24. the intent score on most carriers decays on a 3 day cycle. come back on a different device from a different network

"we spent $4 billion building these systems. theyre not going to lose to someone who opened an incognito tab"

$900 billion industry

the gap between what you pay and what the person next to you pays is not a bug

its the entire business model

stop letting an algorithm charge you for being predictable

[Connor Boyack 📚 @cboyack]

https://t.co/4SMw7birVU

[Matt Shumer @mattshumer_]

https://t.co/ivXRKXJvQg

[Meru @MeruOnX]

Shocking: A news reporter from Tata Nagar, Jamshedpur (channel unknown), was seen littering in broad daylight. When confronted by an NGO that works tirelessly around the clock to keep the streets clean, he offered these excuses. Can we track him down and make him issue a public apology? I’ve always said civic sense isn’t determined by education. This behavior is utterly shameless.

[Gabbar @GabbbarSingh]

This whole Messi tour to India is the cringiest thing I have seen this country participate in a long time.

There is no serious Football match, where we get to see Messi’s real skill. Everyone using Messi as a prop, as a shiny thing, to project their own importance. Their level of access. Be it Ed Sheeran. Coldplay. Or any new placeholder. It’s a naked display of our corruption, our sycophancy, our slavery, our politics. A real black pill for all the believers of new India.

[Rahul Srinivas @whizkidd]

If there’s one thing stopping India from looking like a halfway decent country instead of a chaotic, third-world mess, it’s our failure to provide the basics: walkable sidewalks, clearly marked roads, and clean public spaces. And in a country that can launch mars missions, fixing a footpath somehow becomes an unsolvable problem.

That’s why it’s almost surreal to see someone in the upper political class finally acknowledge the importance of something as simple as walkable streets.

The embarrassing truth is: making neighborhoods clean, safe, and walkable is cheap, easy, and massively impactful.

But India rarely does it because:

-> It isn’t glamorous
-> It doesn’t involve fat contracts
-> It doesn’t generate hype like a deep-sea port, a coastal road, or a bullet train

What our politicians and bureaucracy fail to grasp is that walkable streets (along with strict traffic enforcement) would probably do more for the quality of life of ordinary Indians than every bullet train, coastal road, sea link, and megaproject combined.

As an example, I used AI to generate how a part of my hometown of Palghar would look if it does these basic steps.

[THE SKIN DOCTOR @theskindoctor13]

Kabul City road: wide sidewalks, clear markings, barely any potholes. How does a war-torn, poor country have better intra-city roads than many of ours?

Low population? But China has a massive population and still maintains excellent roads. The real difference, I think, is simple: zero tolerance for corruption. The Taliban and Communist China impose extreme penalties for corruption, even death, while we barely manage a functional jail term. How many contractors or govt officials here have ever gone to jail for rampant road-project corruption?

[Today Years Old @todayyearsold]

A solution to a problem that has bugged me for a long time...

[Ramesh Srivats @rameshsrivats]

I think the difference between a developed country and an undeveloped country is not income inequality.

It is power asymmetry.

In undeveloped countries, people in government, be it politicians, civil servants or judiciary, have an extraordinary right to trample on citizens and their rights.

That's the problem in India today.

Call it VIP culture. Call it unaccountability. Call it arrogance. In fact, call it toll exemptions, security clearance, whatever.

It all stems from a core belief that people in power are somewhat superior. So, they can get away with doing anything to people who don't have power.

The recent police videos and the SDM video are all examples of that.

It's only because of social media that these things even come to light - probably less than 0.001% of the daily sapping, brutal exercise of power.

So, if we want "Viksit Bharat", we need to do two things.

The first is, of course, financial growth, infrastructure, and all that.

But that still won't be enough.

We have to get rid of the power asymmetry. That will truly make a difference.

Less discretionary power, less perks, less privileges, less "exceptions". And more transparency thru social media.

We become a superpower when 1.4 billion people have power.

[Jason Smith - 上官杰文 @ShangguanJiewen]

BYD's new manufacturing hub in Zhengzhou is the size of the US city of San Francisco.

It has its own stores, malls, football stadiums, and more.

[THE SKIN DOCTOR @theskindoctor13]

An example of how simplifying a system can end corruption:

Why does a cop need to physically visit your house for passport verification? Your criminal record, if any, isn’t stored at home. During these visits, cops almost always ask for money. You don’t want to pay, but you fear they might put a negative remark and block your process, so many end up giving in.

Some argue that a visit is needed to confirm your address. That’s just an excuse. Everywhere else, banks, schools, government offices, your address is accepted through Aadhaar, ration card, electricity bill, or other official documents.

So why not end discretion and simplify the system? Let applicants upload all relevant documents online, and let the police verify them digitally. The process should be time-bound, for example, if a verification isn’t completed in 7 days, the file automatically escalates to a higher authority, and the police must explain the delay.

Every step should be recorded, traceable, and transparent, with online tracking for applicants. Make it cashless and fully digital. This small change would remove discretion, prevent bribes, and make the system faster, fairer, and corruption-free.

But, will they do it?

[ICC @ICC]

South Africa are definitely happy with what's in the briefcase 😲

#WTC25

[Norway Chess @NorwayChess]

OH MY GOD 😳🤯😲

[Piers Morgan Uncensored @PiersUncensored]

"THIS is the narrative the world should know."

Ranveer Allahbadia holds up a picture of Osama Bin Laden during Piers Morgan's debate on the ceasefire with Pakistan.

Watch in full 👇

📺 https://t.co/Qdt5aeDU8q

@piersmorgan | @BeerBicepsGuy | @BDUTT

[Murtaza Amin @murtuzi]

Dear @PiyushGoyal @PiyushGoyalOffc

I run a 100 people software company from #Burhanpur MP, I bring M$+ / yr to Bpur economy & I am the largest white collar employer in #Burhanpur.

Since you've been talking about how Indian #startups are not innovating enough, I'd like to ask