imran jafri — verbose mode

Success of a ‘PR STUNT’ primarily depends on its viral reach as well as ability to keep the press engaged for as longer period of time as possible. And it has ticked mark the both boxes.

I’m not implying an entrepreneur in the ranks of Musk, would be dependent on that. He is just reckless like most of the self made billionaires. I applaud his efforts regardless of that.

Am I the only one, who writes emails with ‘TOP URGENT’ in the subject on Sunday to ruin people’s weekend.. I sent at least 6 today. I couldn’t hang out and was locked in my room, so basically I had nothing better to do.

Also congratulations 🇫🇷 France. Despite I guess 🇭🇷 Croatia has had almost 70% possession during both halves, but they were unable to make good moves .. demonstrating a bit lack of strategy. Nevertheless it’s remarkable for a country whose population is the size of my neighborhood, making it to the Finals. Well Played.

Science or in particular Biology is not in the business of proving or negating God, it’s just been trying hard to piece together the puzzle of our existence through another riddle called ‘Evolution Theory’. Every now and then we keep learning they have found another missing piece, that would raise even further questions about our ancestors.

I am not gonna lecture you on this absurd stuff, I have little to no interest in biology, I am a batman,. I rather contemplate and then render my strong opinions and sometime even take action on them.

Anyhow, a friend of mine, happens to own a lion, a grown up pet lion. And I have always cherished a pet lion of my own. But here is a little problem. I am a coward. Before you laugh your arses off, Hey! Who isn’t … anyhow, so it was a setback, and I inadvertently made a wish to ‘evolution’ why Lion could not have the natural instincts of a ‘Lamb’ or a ‘Horse’ …  so I would have comfortably adopted it., and riding it all day long without wetting my pants.

So today during the morning shower, I was contemplating the coincidence between the lion’s physical appearance and its natural instincts. Which are both awful. He is the worst predator and he looks like one. That’s why people generally call him the ‘King of the Animals’ due to his majestic physical appearance as well as being the strongest predator. So let’s chalk it up to ‘natural selection’?

It’s a parent’s nightmare: A 5-year-old boy in Overland Park, Kansas, knocked over and broke an artwork displayed in a community center. But it wasn’t just any artwork: It was a one-of-a-kind mosaic sculpture worth $132,000.

Holy Moly! Here is the image of the deceased art work IMG. Fortunate enough for the parents, they are not going to pay for it, it either is going to be recovered from the insurance company or the taxpayer money.

Anyhow, I have always opposed the idea of bringing kids along, I would keep my precious assets, like an iPhone under my strict watch, whenever these little turmoil-wreak-havoc-blokes are around my place.

The Trump administration on Friday escalated a trade war between the world’s two largest economies, moving ahead with tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese goods and provoking an immediate tit-for-tat response from Beijing.

These countries are fighting back, drawing up retaliatory measures that go after products in Mr. Trump’s political base. China’s response was swift on Friday, focusing on $50 billion worth of American goods including beef, poultry, tobacco and cars.

The moves could damp economic growth that has been stoked by the administration’s tax cuts — though the overall effects are likely to be limited because of the small size of the tariffs relative to the American economy. But in a few industries that are heavily affected, the pain could be substantial. Economists say the tariffs will drive up prices for American consumers purchasing products at retail stores as well as for businesses that depend on China for parts used to make other goods in the United States.

Imposing tariffs can only have desired results, if a country has the potential to produce the end consumer goods, without leading to an inflation for its own middle class consumers.

Generally levying tariffs on Chinese products results in consumers paying more than having any tangible effects on the growth of the local industries and employment., especially in a country like United States, where labor wages and cost of doing of business exceed far more than the most part of the world and Asia.

Further Reading:

U.S. President Donald Trump’s new trade tariffs will lop at most a couple of tenths of a percentage point off U.S. growth and add a similar amount to inflation, small fry for a $19 trillion economy that is experiencing its second longest economic expansion on record.

American consumers and businesses have taken the tariffs in their stride and the growing economy has brought in more workers, pushing unemployment down to levels not seen since the 1960s. The costs have been manageable so far, with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross saying the metals tariff, for example, will add a few hundred dollars to the cost of a car.

According to Reuters, it isn’t going to have a significant impact for an enormous $19 trillion economy., however at the end of the article they make a subtle cautious note too.

Trump’s expansion of unilateral trade action goes well beyond recent actions from the United States. Before Trump acted, the biggest measure was imposed in the 1980s when Washington forced Japan to limit exports of cars.

Trump’s top trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, was instrumental in that deal, which helped shield Detroit automakers from Japanese competition, but at a cost.

According to an estimate from economic think tank PERC, the additional sticker price cost to American consumers from those measures was $1,200 per car. Overall consumer losses from the restrictions amounted to $13 billion, the think tank said in a 1999 report.

So far, we can conclude that it may not have as remarkable economic significance as it appears, however, it might deteriorate the political relationship with China, as well as leave EU allies and Canada with a bad taste in the mouth.

And Mexico sadly does not even count, neither as a friend nor a foe., the most recent precedent set by White House is to simply turn a deaf ear to their uproar, resulting from the emotional distress and lack of respectful behaviour from the administration.

Further Reading: 

In Iowa, where farmers raise 40 million to 50 million pigs annually, President Trump’s tariffs on steel and aluminum from Mexico have already cost producers $560 million, according to an Iowa State University economist. How can that be, you ask. Mexico has threatened countervailing tariffs that include a 20 percent tariff on American pork. That prospect alone sent hog prices tumbling. If you like barbecued ribs, this could be a great summer for you. If you raise the pigs, you may be eating more barbecued beans.

Me wonders, is it merely coincidental or China did really figure it out, how to troll Mr. Trump and his voters, I would rather chalk it up to ‘misfortune’ and ‘bad karma’¹.

1. The meaning of bad karma is activities including casting a vote in favor of someone disdained by the liberal media, that result in suffering. What is the meaning of a bad karma? www.quora.com

Sundar Pitchai, Google CEO

We want to be clear that while we are not developing AI for use in weapons, we will continue our work with governments and the military in many other areas. These include cybersecurity, training, military recruitment, veterans’ healthcare, and search and rescue. These collaborations are important and we’ll actively look for more ways to augment the critical work of these organizations and keep service members and civilians safe.

To many it was a horribly shocking revelation, that Google has been working with Pentagon¹ to develop military related AI, that not only resulted in a PR backlash but also a dozen of employees leaving the company². Stealing our privacy and placing tracking cookies on our hard drives is one thing, making an AI that possibly can get us laid to rest for good is quite another. 😐

In the wake of the PR disaster, it’s a bit relieving to see them setting the ‘principles’ for themselves moving forward. However they are going to work with ‘military’ in many ‘other areas’ regardless of that., that honestly still does not settle well with me.

1. Google to drop Pentagon AI contract after employee objections to the ‘business of war’ www.washingtonpost.com

2. Google employees quit over controversial Pentagon work nypost.com

I’d skip lunches, I’d skip scratching my arse, I’d skip facebook when I am accounting. And this mofo notification kept bugging me. Finally gave in, and curiously clicked it, only to find, it’s a GDPR policy update …… 😐 RAWWWWWRRRRRRRR  img

The software maker has agreed to acquire GitHub, the code-repository company popular with many software developers, and could announce the deal as soon as Monday, according to people familiar with the matter.

I guess there is a fair skepticism over the acquisition. Despite they didn’t screw up linkedin yet. They however did ruin Skype, which was an enterprise instant messenger and wildly popular everywhere, and turned it into a cheap snapchat wanna-be clone.

Nat Friedman, Future Github CEO

The Octocat is out of the bag: GitHub is joining Microsoft and I will become the new CEO when the deal closes later this year. I’m confident that this change will be great for GitHub and developers around the world, and I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself.

Who am I? My name is Nat and I’ve been a developer since I was six. I’ve been active in open source since the 90s when I discovered Linux.

I’m not asking for your trust, but I’m committed to earning it. I can’t wait to help make the GitHub platform and community that’s special to all of us even greater.

A perfectly proof-read, assuring and satisfactory post-acquisition introductory letter.

I guess the best CEOs are those who are more capable of addressing the ‘uncertainty’ .. we all are confronted by uncertainty at every point .. yet not everyone can cope with it .. in a manner that minimizes the risk while making sure maximum advantage.