March 16, 2025

Daily Log Digest – Week 10, 2025

2025-03-08

Chill day. Watched some shows. Did some travel planning.

2025-03-09

Is Posh Moisturizer Worth It

Is posh moisturiser worth the money? #skincare #moisturizer

All the skincare tips I need.

The three types of moisturiser can help. Humectants, such as hyaluronic acid and glycerin, pull moisture from inside the body onto the surface of the skin. Occlusives, such as petroleum jelly and shea butter, block water from evaporating from the skin. Emollients, such as ceramide, smooth the skin by filling in gaps between skin cells. A review published in January in Experimental Dermatology found that ceramide made skin look and feel smoother and also reduced inflammation of the skin.

If the goal is soft, well-hydrated skin, experts say that cheaper products work just as well as the boutique options. “You don’t need to break the bank,” says Nour Kibbi, a clinical associate professor of dermatology at Stanford University. Where splurging may pay off, says Abigail Waldman, a dermatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Massachusetts, is on products that reduce the signs of ageing. As people age, skin-cell production slows and the skin thins. Older people also produce less collagen, which keeps the skin plump. This combination leads to wrinkles.

Retinol and other retinoids, a class of products chemically derived from vitamin A, reduce the appearance of wrinkles by increasing cell and collagen production. A study published in JAMA Dermatology in 2007 tested the effectiveness of retinol by comparing the arms of 36 elderly people who, three times a week, had had lotion with retinol put on one arm and lotion without retinol on the other. After six months, the researchers found that the arms with retinol had fewer fine wrinkles. Nearly 20 years later, experts still recommend retinol as a way to reduce the signs of ageing.

2025-03-10

Tallahassee Ghazal

Tallahassee Ghazal – SAPIENS #ghazal #urdu #arabic #poetry

Using an ancient Arabic poetic form, a poet-archaeologist from Florida cycles through feelings of entrapment growing up queer in the U.S. South. But in the end, they celebrate love for this place—and that “most of us are breathing.”

Part of: Poets Resist, Refuse, and Find a Way Through – SAPIENS

Karl Marx in America - Andrew Hartman

Marxism for Americans: Andrew Hartman - Future Hindsight (podcast) | Listen Notes #marx #america #marxism

Andrew Hartman has an upcomingi book: Karl Marx in America

Some notes from the transcript:

I note here that this episode is coming out the day before the 177th anniversary of the Communist Manifesto's publication.

On Marxism and Marx's ideas:

So I've written a book about how Karl Marx's ideas have, I guess, played out throughout American history. And so Marx himself is a very important figure there as a person, but more importantly, sort of as somebody who created a body of work, a body of ideas that have persisted up until this day and in people's minds as being relevant. Marxism has a long and torturous history that is both complex and oftentimes changes depending on the time and context. But for my purposes, to be a Marxist simply means that you have a particular way of understanding capitalism, that is that the most important feature of capitalism is the relationship between those who own things, like what Marx called the means of production. But this would be like the factories or the land or the media. And then everyone else, for the most part, who has to work for them, or as Marx would have put it, has to sell their labor in order to survive. So famously using the language of the Communist Manifesto, this is the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. And Marx, in his time when capitalism of this sort was relatively new and had not gone global, theorized that that aspect of our human relations, that is there would be two classes of people, those who owned and those who worked for those who owned. He theorized that eventually everybody would come to be a member of one of those two classes, or almost everybody. And I think that is to a large extent become true. And that is one of the reasons why Marxism has continued to be relevant to lots of people, even after the failure and fall of most of the states that organized around Marxism, most particularly the Soviet Union. And I think that's why people are still reading and talking about Karl Marx. In fact, there's been like a recent influx of people reading Marx and talking about Marx again, perhaps more so than we've seen since the 1960s or even the 1930s. So to me that Marxism is just a particular way of understanding capitalism.

Relevance of Marx Today:

Yeah, so like Marx was fallible, he was human. He made mistakes as well as a person, to me, is less interesting than the fact that he made mistakes as a thinker. But his basic conception of capitalism and what it did to humans and also to some extent of what it did to climate or the environment, was essentially true. And that's why people continue to read Marx, for example, Howard Zinn, the left wing historian who was most famous for writing a people's history of the United States that continues to be read all across the world, and that conservatives continue to lament that fact. He wrote a play in the 1990s called Marx and Soho. And that's exactly what Howard Zinn tried to imagine is if Marx were alive at that point in the 1990s, what would he think? And essentially, Marx's theories in this play by Howard Zinn had panned out to a remarkable degree in terms of thinking about the globalization of capital accumulation that had wrecked so many lives and had sort of spread misery across the planet, while some people got rich beyond their wildest dreams. One of Marx's basic theories of capitalism is that it's at one level very wonderful in the terms of, like the things it can do in terms of technological development. It creates the capacity for humans to live without having to labor as much as humans in the past have had to because of the sort of, like, technological advancements, but also even more so, the advancements. Advancements in terms of, like, organizing ourselves into large units, like, what we would call corporations. So I think he would look around and say, look at all this wonderful stuff. But hardly anybody can share in the wonders. And also because of how unequal things are, because a few men control most of the wealth in the world, most people are more alienated than ever. I think he would say, yeah, this is what I expected. But I. I don't think he would have expected it would have taken so long for humans to get their act together, to sort of create something new. And, of course, that's one of the things that Critics across the 20th and 21st century of Marx and Marxism have pointed to, like, what next? Marx predicted that capitalism would fall, that capitalists were creating their own gravediggers. And yet, here we are. Perhaps things are worse than ever in terms of inequality, in terms of exploitation, in terms of our destruction of the very thing we need to survive, that is the planet and all of its resources.

The aspect of freedom in Marx's works

But I think since the fall of the Soviet Union and in particular in the last 10 or 20 years, people are much more interested in sort of freedom aspect of Marxist theory. So if you think about it in these terms, in capitalism, most people don't have a lot of free time because so much of our time is spent working. And while we're at work, most people, like you, could never describe the conditions of work. You kind of laid it out nicely when you're talking about sweatshops in Bangladesh or sweatshops in Amazon warehouses right here in the United States. Most people, while they're at work, they don't experience freedom. Like, there's nothing freeing or liberating about that experience. And they have to spend so many hours of their life under those conditions. Conditions in which a boss, a manager, or the system, in some sense, has almost totalitarian control over them, over their bodies. And yes, you could always say, well, they could just quit. That's not always true everywhere, but maybe in the U.S. yes, if you work at Amazon, you could just quit, but you have to pay the rent. You have to feed your kids. Like, that's part of Marx's whole theory and premise of capitalism is that most of us have to sell our labor in order to survive. And that's not a condition that creates freedom for most people.

On Marx's theory of change

So there's kind of like two layers to how Marx thought about the shift from capitalism to socialism or communism. These were terms that were often used interchangeably in the 19th century for Marx. So, like, if you think about capitalism growing into ever larger institutions and entities, factories, workers would be thrown together in ways that they would come to recognize the similarities of their shared conditions, and that would help them organize against their system of oppression. This is what Marx described in the Communist Manifesto as capitalists digging their own graves. And so he truly believed that the way in which capitalism was developing in terms of, like, the socialization of production, in other words, like things coming together in the producer side, would lead to the socialization of human relations once the humans involved, especially the workers, recognized their conditions. At various points, this happened to a small degree. And I think you could say, like, the labor movement over the course of the last two centuries is a product of this kind of understanding of capitalism and what happens to workers in it. The other side of Marx's theory is he thought a lot about the sort of inevitable crises of capitalism. And so just in his life, he saw several extremely damaging economic crises of capitalism. 1830s, 1850s. And then he didn't live long enough to see, of course, the 1890s, which was one of the worst. He saw one in the 1870s, but then there was another even worse one in the 1890s, each getting worse and worse. And then there's the 1930s. And many Marxist historians would say that the two world wars of the 20th century were the inevitable sort of byproduct of these. These crises of capitalism, that's a debate for another time. So he thought that if workers were organized, if they had that sort of solidarity, they could take advantage of these crises. And as each crisis got worse and worse, the working class would be well positioned to transition, to have a revolution, a socialist revolution. Obviously, it hasn't happened and obvious, or at least not yet, but it's really hard to anticipate that happening right now as we sit in 2025. And so that aspect of Marx and Marxism, I don't think is as relevant as perhaps it once was. Although I I do think that when the working class, through the labor movement organizes, that's one of the most important things that people can do to make their lives and the lives of others better. It's the most important sort of counter force to oligarchy. But the reason why I think Marx is still relevant goes back to his theory of labor exploitation and freedom. Like how he thought thought about capitalism and conceptualized the way it made us unfree, the way it alienated us is still so highly relevant. Maybe it's up to us to imagine how to create something different.

On Capitalism and Democracy:

But I have been wondering for a while, are capitalism and democracy compatible or incompatible? And I have to say that I've asked this question several times on the podcast, and none of the guests so far have yet to give me a straight answer on whether capitalism and democracy really should hang together or maybe not. Speaker B: Well, I'm so happy that I can break that string. I don't think they're compatible at all. I think they're completely incompatible. But again, I would think of democracy as on a spectrum in much the same way like Marx would think of freedom in relation to labor on a spectrum. This is a very Marxist take on democracy, I think, as well. There have been moments in American history, and the United States is historically probably the most capitalistic nation in world history. And also we like to think one of the sort of, like, originators of political democracy, although that's a more contested history. But at every step, democracy, if we define it as rule by the people, and by the people we mean everybody, at every step, it's been highly constrained. Now, that's true of democracy almost everywhere throughout history, but in particular in the US it's been highly constrained, in large part because of capitalism. And I think that's more true now than ever. And so if we only think of democracy as electing people to lead us or represent us every two to four years or whatever it is, I guess capitalism, democracy can work fine. Although even by that very limited definition of democracy, I think things aren't going so well. We have to sort of expand our imagination when it comes to democracy. We have to think about being free to rule ourselves in all aspects of our lives. And there are so many aspects of our lives where we're not free to rule ourselves. And when you really think about it, the thing standing in the way of that freedom in so many aspects is capitalism or one of its byproducts. If you have a billion dollars, you have so much more power, not only over the political system, but over your own life.

…

but just think about the billions of people across the planet who are completely constrained by the fact that they just don't have enough wealth, money, resources to actually have autonomy over their life, to actually rule themselves, govern themselves, and thus they are controlled by other people. In the US we, I guess, get to choose our. Choose the people who control us, but we have a very narrow set of parameters around which we choose the people who control us. And it seems to get narrower every four years.

On what we can do:

We all feel paralyzed. And so, you know, a lot of us will look locally, sort of tend to our own gardens, which is great. But I guess that's not really going to change the conditions either. One thing that I advise people to do is find ways to connect with other people that will change their and other people's sort of understanding or political consciousness. Form a reading group. And everyone reads something that is very challenging either at an intellectual or a political level. I just think I like that a lot. So, like, one of the things that's really interesting in my book is I've have learned throughout U.S. history, since Marx became a thing in the U.S. people have formed reading groups and they read marks together. And we're not just Talking about sort of grad students, as you might imagine, we're talking about, like, working class people really struggling through difficult texts to try to understand their world. I feel like we need more of that. And to me, that could be a really sort of radical act in today's world of. Of social media and our diminishing attention spans. Spend some time with something difficult like reading a philosophical text like Capital or it doesn't have to be Marx. There's so many other great things. And do it with other people. Talk about it.

ChatGPT Summary of full podcast transcript: ChatGPT - Marxism in America Today

Mysore Food Guide

Mysore Food Guide #mysore #food

A set of places from a local.

Evolution of Spotify in the Indian Market

Diljit Dosanjh Breaks the Bollywood Mold and Shakes Up India’s Music Scene - Bloomberg #music #business #spotify #indian

People’s tastes have also evolved. According to Spotify, domestic fans streamed almost 70% international music on the platform when the company debuted in India in 2019, compared with 70% local music now. Punjabi tunes in particular are topping the charts, not just in India but among a global audience, according to Spotify. Dosanjh is partly responsible for that.

While Indian music is still mainly consumed by Indians and the diaspora, that is starting to change.

The arrival of Spotify and other streaming platforms in India, the second-largest English speaking nation in the world, has played a crucial role in helping India raise the quality of its entertainment output. With diverse musical offerings from India, the number of countries that have songs from the country on top of their streaming lists is growing, said Ashish Pherwani, leader for the Media & Entertainment sector at EY in India.

“There’s more acceptance of Indian music that’s happening right now,” Pherwani said. “It’s just the tip of the iceberg. Honestly, there’s so much more that can happen around Indian content. It’s been a largely diaspora-oriented industry five years back, but that’s changing now.”

Andor

Every Star Wars Project Fails to Get This Basic Thing Right — Except One #andor #starwars

From the beginning of the franchise, Star Wars has been about struggling against tyranny and evil. From the Rebel Alliance fighting the Empire to the Resistance facing off against the First Order and the Jedi dueling with the Sith, the galaxy far, far away has always revolved around the forces of peace and democracy challenging those of authoritarianism. Ironically, with all the depictions of dictators and tyrants, Star Wars has consistently struggled to depict life under authoritarianism realistically. Only the show Andor has broken this trend by giving fans a believable look at how a dictatorship operates.

Andor won praise for its darker tone, more nuanced characters, and complex story. A great deal of this complexity and nuance was directly the result of its focus on portraying the realities of authoritarianism. Through depictions of average people and making Imperial officers more important characters, Andor gave fans a fascinating and scary look at life in the Empire.

From the very first episode of Season 1, fans get a look at how terrible life can be for regular people under imperial rule. Viewers see soldiers bullying people and get a sense of the fear and paranoia pervasive throughout society. When Andor kills two officers and goes on the run, he faces constant suspicion, as many people are constantly afraid that spies and informers will get them sent to prison or worse. This is a more accurate depiction of life under a tyrant.

Andor also gave fans a deeper look at the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB) and the terror it strikes into dissidents. Similar to the Soviet KGB or the East German Stasi, the ISB operates as a secret police force for the Empire, seeking out any potential opposition or rebellion through espionage, coercion, and fear. Further, in depicting and characterizing individual members of the ISB, like Dedra Meero and Blevin, fans finally get some insight into why a person would choose to serve the Empire and fight the rebellion. This reminds viewers that authoritarian regimes are run by real people who choose to oppose democracy, not mind-controlled clones or nameless soldiers.

Andor proved to be a remarkable show by giving fans an exciting adventure story, full of action and twists, while also exploring the darker elements of the Star Wars universe. It also managed to do something that George Lucas has arguably tried to do since the first movie released in 1977. Andor depicted a story of freedom struggling against tyranny that included nuance and a realistic depiction of how dictatorships and rebels actually operate.

2025-03-11

Prep for travel.

2025-03-12

Four Thousand Weeks - Introduction

Read the introduction of Oliver Burkeman's previous book on the plane. #productivity

The world is bursting with wonder, and yet it’s the rare productivity guru who seems to have considered the possibility that the ultimate point of all our frenetic doing might be to experience more of that wonder.

Moreover, the busyness of the better-off is contagious, because one extremely effective way to make more money, for those at the top of the tree, is to cut costs and make efficiency improvements in their companies and industries. That means greater insecurity for those lower down, who are then obliged to work harder just to get by.

Four Thousand Weeks is yet another book about making the best use of time. But it is written in the belief that time management as we know it has failed miserably, and that we need to stop pretending otherwise.

2025-03-13

Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman - Chapter One

There was no anxious pressure to “get everything done,” either, because a farmer’s work is infinite: there will always be another milking and another harvest, forever, so there’s no sense in racing toward some hypothetical moment of completion. Historians call this way of living “task orientation,” because the rhythms of life emerge organically from the tasks themselves, rather than from being lined up against an abstract timeline, the approach that has become second nature for us today.

2025-03-14

Four Thousand Weeks

In today's dose of Oliver Burkeman

Though I’d been largely unaware of it, my productivity obsession had been serving a hidden emotional agenda. For one thing, it helped me combat the sense of precariousness inherent to the modern world of work: if I could meet every editor’s every demand, while launching various side projects of my own, maybe one day I’d finally feel secure in my career and my finances. But it also held at bay certain scary questions about what I was doing with my life, and whether major changes might not be needed. If I could get enough work done, my subconscious had apparently concluded, I wouldn’t need to ask if it was all that healthy to be deriving so much of my sense of self-worth from work in the first place. And as long as I was always just on the cusp of mastering my time, I could avoid the thought that what life was really demanding from me might involve surrendering the craving for mastery and diving into the unknown instead.

The universal truth behind my specific issues is that most of us invest a lot of energy, one way or another, in trying to avoid fully experiencing the reality in which we find ourselves. We don’t want to feel the anxiety that might arise if we were to ask ourselves whether we’re on the right path, or what ideas about ourselves it could be time to give up. We don’t want to risk getting hurt in relationships or failing professionally; we don’t want to accept that we might never succeed in pleasing our parents or in changing certain things we don’t like about ourselves—and we certainly don’t want to get sick and die. The details differ from person to person, but the kernel is the same. We recoil from the notion that this is it—that this life, with all its flaws and inescapable vulnerabilities, its extreme brevity, and our limited influence over how it unfolds, is the only one we’ll get a shot at. Instead, we mentally fight against the way things are—so that, in the words of the psychotherapist Bruce Tift, “we don’t have to consciously participate in what it’s like to feel claustrophobic, imprisoned, powerless, and constrained by reality.” This struggle against the distressing constraints of reality is what some old-school psychoanalysts call “neurosis,” and it takes countless forms, from workaholism and commitment-phobia to codependency and chronic shyness.

None of us can single-handedly overthrow a society dedicated to limitless productivity, distraction, and speed. But right here, right now, you can stop buying into the delusion that any of that is ever going to bring satisfaction. You can face the facts. You can turn on the shower, brace yourself for some invigoratingly icy water, and step in.