Earlier this year, Kapil Sharma got Sony to spawn a new show in his name, Family Time With Kapil Sharma. A few bad reviews and a tonne of online criticism later, Kapil’s show was cancelled after just three episodes. He reportedly stopped showing up for shoots and began peddling the ugliest abuses on Twitter. He threatened tabloid editors, appeared in CCTV footage of a Amsterdam grocery stores and filed lawsuits against people. But as his new show’s producer Salman Khan knows well, India is the land of second, third and seventh chances. We are a tolerant bunch, especially when a star’s career is at stake. So after a gap of nine months, Kapil Sharma has returned once again to our television sets with The Kapil Sharma Show and thankfully for him, it’s just as childishly stupid as we always remembered it to be.Kapil Sharma with Ranveer Singh on his show The Kapil Sharma Show.The new season brings back the old cast of Kiku Sharda, … [Read more...] about The Kapil Sharma Show review: Comedian’s latest comeback is saved by Ranveer Singh and a bad singer
China starts video game approvals after months-long freeze, excludes Tencent’s games
China on Saturday approved the release of 80 online video games after a freeze on such approvals for most of the year.However, the approved titles, listed on the website of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, did not include games from industry leader Tencent Holdings Ltd.China, the world’s biggest gaming market, stopped approving new video games in March amid a regulatory overhaul triggered by growing criticism of video games for being violent and allegations that they were causing myopia as well as addiction among young users. ALSO READ: Tencent records big profit rise despite China’s crackdown on game sector … [Read more...] about China starts video game approvals after months-long freeze, excludes Tencent’s games
A plurality of Americans—but not of states—want Donald Trump impeached
Get our daily newsletter Upgrade your inbox and get our Daily Dispatch and Editor's Picks. DONALD TRUMP owes his presidency to America’s quaint system of electing leaders. Despite losing the popular vote, he prevailed in the electoral college by winning lots of states by small margins and losing a few by large ones. Now, as Democrats prepare to impeach him, a similar quirk is helping him stay in office—and insulating his party from voters’ wrath. Whereas the electoral college is only mildly anti-majoritarian, the Senate often deviates wildly from the popular will. Because each state is weighted equally, voters in less-populous states are over-represented relative to those in large ones. Now that Republicans derive an outsize portion of their support from rural voters, their share of senators exceeds their share of total votes cast in Senate elections. This imbalance weighs on the politics of impeachment. Even if the Senate were apportioned by population, as the … [Read more...] about A plurality of Americans—but not of states—want Donald Trump impeached
Are anti-competitive firms killing American innovation?
WHEN THOMAS PHILIPPON moved from France to America in 1999 to begin a PhD in economics, he found a consumer paradise. Domestic flights were dazzlingly cheap. Household electronics were a relative bargain. In the days of dial-up modems Americans, who were charged a flat rate for local calls, paid far less than Europeans to get online. But over the past two decades, Mr Philippon writes in “The Great Reversal”, this paradise has been lost. Europeans now enjoy cheap cross-continent flights, high-street banking, and phone and internet services; Americans are often at the mercy of indifferent corporate giants. Perking up their economy might mean cutting those giants down to size. Much that has happened to the American economy since the 1990s has not been to the typical worker’s advantage. Growth in output, wages and productivity has slowed. Inequality has risen, as have the market share and profitability of the most dominant firms. Economics journals are packed with papers … [Read more...] about Are anti-competitive firms killing American innovation?
Why are people attracted to 50:50 probabilities?
BARACK OBAMA’S intelligence officers told him, variously, that there was a probability of between 30% and 95% that Osama bin Laden was in the Abbottabad compound in Pakistan in April 2011. The president was having none of it. “This is 50:50,” he said. “Look guys, this is a flip of the coin.” That bin Laden was found and killed does not reveal whose estimate of the odds was best. But new research argues that Mr Obama’s instinct—to treat probabilities as evenly split when they are uncertain—is widespread. In a working paper Benjamin Enke and Thomas Graeber, both of Harvard University, argue that the bias towards 50:50 has shown up in many contexts. One is decision-making under (known) risks, such as gambling at a (fair) slot machine. Economists have long realised that people are more sensitive to changes in probabilities, the nearer they are to the boundaries of 0% and 100%. For example, the chance of a big win of, say, $1m rising from 0% … [Read more...] about Why are people attracted to 50:50 probabilities?
