Dwinnie Fernandes

A sky filled with clouds is more than a collection of shapes. Long before weather forecasts appeared on television screens or smartphone apps, people looked upward for answers.  And even now, when forecasts get it wrong, the sky still gets it right. A clear sky lets us know it's going to be a warm day, while a sky filled with grey clouds might make us leave home with an umbrella. Our understanding of weather didn't appear out of thin air. People noticed and adapted. We say we feel under the weather when we are ill, but there was a time when all we could do was literally be under the weather and look at the sky to understand how the rest of the day would go.   In Vedic India, farmers tracked constellations to predict the arrival of monsoons. While Polynesians noted cloud formation and bird migration to ensure smooth weather during wayfinding. Other cultures followed their systems of weather forecasting; no fancy equipment. Just observing what was happening up in the sky. Th...

Sigmund Freud believed that a dream is a window into someone’s subconscious. Freud argued that dreams reveal a person's desires and repressed emotions. No matter how absurd a dream, it is related to reality. Heavily altered, but a dream is made up of what the mind has already seen, felt, and buried. That is what makes the story of “This Man” so unsettling.  Why did so many people on the internet believe they had dreamt of the same man? Dreams are often based on personal experiences, and no one knows this face outside dreamland. Are the memories of that man so repressed that the conscious mind forgot? That would be plausible, but only if there were a handful of people claiming that.  But here it’s the entirety of the internet. If dreams are rooted in memory and experience, then the mystery of “This Man” is not just why people saw him, but why so many were willing to believe they had.   The picture above is of “This Man”. In late 2008 or early 2009, Italian marketer And...

All of mankind has stared at the same moon. Not only did they admire it, but they also got innovative with it. Back before the days of clocks and calendars, people would calculate days with the phases of the moon. During the Cold War, it was used to calculate a nation's success. Being moonlit or moon-kissed is a compliment towards someone’s looks. The moon, as enchanting as she is, is the epitome of ethereal beauty, but what is prettier than the moon? Earth from the moon. The Apollo 11 mission was the first time a man ever set foot on the moon. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. Neil Armstrong rewrote history as the first man to walk on the moon. 20 th July 1969 wasn’t just a win for America, but a win for humanity as a whole. NASA shot for the moon, and they succeeded.   When World War 2 ended, the Cold War began. USA and USSR used technological advancements to make themselves the superior nation. There began a space race. During the war, Dr...

  Imagine you’re seated on the hot seat at Kaun Banega Crorepati when you hear Amitabh Bachchan yell out “SATH CRORE”. You would feel elated, but imagine all that money without possessing any skill. Doesn’t that feel better? So, you pick up the winning lottery ticket (after several duds). With all the money, you would be able to indulge in lavish spending that you otherwise never would’ve thought of. You may think that this big win has set you for life, but unlike your answers at KBC, you’re wrong. The 7-crore sum is a ton of money, but it isn’t a perpetual cheque. The money runs out eventually. And it leaves you in financial ruin, worse than before you ever got the money. This isn’t a scare to stop you from trying out your luck, but many sources believe that almost 70 per cent of windfall winners eventually go bankrupt.   This situation is a lot like an oxymoron. Complete opposite concepts coming together: A broke lottery winner . Someone lucky enough to get so much yest...

We all have stories of when Bluetooth has gotten on our nerves. From constantly refreshing to check if the device finally shows up to pair, or dancing around with your earphones as it only wants to connect one at a time. Hopefully, it doesn’t annoy you too much, as it is everywhere now. This invention has made our lives hassle-free, letting us be free of a tangled, wired mess. Connection at an instant. A connection that isn’t seen. Modern life depends heavily on invisible systems: Wi-Fi, GPS, cellular networks, cloud storage and so on. But despite relying so heavily, how much do we really know about Bluetooth? Bluetooth feels like sorcery. It can’t be seen or felt, but it gets the job done. It works on radio waves to send data between devices at short distances. A Piconet is formed. A Piconet is a small network formed when Bluetooth devices connect and assign roles to one another. The roles may involve one device controlling the other, like a phone controlling the headphones, or both ...

Twinkle twinkle little star, oh how I wonder what you mean. We have been raised on nursery rhymes. The simple wording and catchy rhythm help these rhymes stick in kids’ minds, shaping their early development without them even realising it. It is no surprise that nursery rhymes are taught worldwide. But these innocent words have a darker origin than you may think. Here are some popular nursery rhymes with meanings way different from what we believe   Baa Baa Black Sheep Baa-baa black sheep, do you have any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full One for the master, one for the dame One for the little boy who lives down the lane Baa-baa black sheep, do you have any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full. It had been theorised that Baa Baa Black Sheep was about chattel slavery in America. The slaves were considered the sheep, and wool as cotton, which is why black has been substituted for other colours in recent recitations. However, the nursery rhyme predates the Un...