Misc

Pleasantly surprised to read this piece from ProPublica/NPR. Michael Frank was my professor for a Health Insurance course I took while at Columbia and he was a terrific one at it. Though I moved on to Property and Casualty Insurance as an Actuarial Analyst, I continue to be intrigued by Health. Who wouldn’t be - Such an entangled mess that the U.S. Insurance space is! Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a strong proponent of Insurance. I’ve spent years mining through claims data and have seen the tremendous benefits, a well structured Insurance plan provides - for both parties involved. Where we’re actually faltering is the policies and regulations that govern the Insurance markets. Profits drive decisions and the U.S. healthcare system is on an abysmal downward spiral latching on to just the monetary front. Why in this day and age is it unclear how much I might owe when I visit my Physician or undergo a procedure? I’d much rather pay higher taxes than live in eternal uncertainty. ...

A fascinating talk by Jonah Edwards to the Internet Archive staff. They manage ~200PB of data in-house! https://archive.org/download/jonah-edwards-presentation/jonah-edwards-presentation_720p.mp4

Just about a decade ago, we leased a property on a pristine and desolate beach. The house didn’t have robust walls - It just had a few curtains to protect us from the elements. The rooms internally had walls full of transparent glass. It was a beautiful property with lots of cross-ventilation and something that was just right for our family. Over time, more people moved in around us and it didn’t feel all that secluded. Visitors to the beach, neighbors and more so the property owner started getting more interested in our mundane lives. At times we felt, they were interested more in us than the pristine beach. The property owner started hiking the rent overtime and started charging us for random things. At one point, he even started deciding when we could actually use the beach. As much as we’d wanted to stay at that place and enjoy the neighbors company, we decided it was time to take things in control. ...

This is fascinating! A few GPS devices apparently had a mild(?) path offset issue few days ago: The issue has to do with the ephemeris data file, also called the EPO file (Extended Prediction Orbit) or Connected Predictive Ephemeris (CPE). Or simply the satellite pre-cache file. That’s the file that’s delivered to your device on a frequent basis (usually every few days). This file is what makes your watch near-instantly find GPS satellites when you go outside. It’s basically a cheat-sheet of where the satellites are for the next few days, or up to a week or so. ...

I wouldn’t say I understood all of it, but this video from Quanta Magazine is one of the best explanations I’ve seen so far that attempts to connect prime numbers with the Reimann Hypothesis.

Came across this phenomenal documentary from Patagonia about the Tarkine in North western Tasmania. Reminded me of the incessant wood logging that I witnessed almost on every backpacking trip across the western ghats in India. Irrationality of humans blows my mind beyond all proportions. If only there was a master switch to reset it all… [embed]https://youtu.be/MHdE2YCRjck[/embed]

Back in India, about eight years ago a colleague of mine sent out out an e-mail blast to the company bulletin board checking to see if anyone was a marrow donor. His son needed a transplant and the odd’s weren’t in his favor. I had no clue what that entailed and read up a bit on it. Later that evening as I tried registering on to the Be the match portal, I realized they didn’t have the support framework to sign-on users outside the U.S. It didn’t take a minute for me to close the tab and get back to what I was doing. A couple weeks later I learnt the kid died and somewhere deep in my heart I regretted not trying harder to sign-up or figure a way around. But again with all things good and bad, that moment passed and I moved on. ...

Several years back when I got my scuba diving certification, I literally had no words to describe my experience. A few years later when I chanced upon James Nestor’s Deep on free diving, I was shocked, mesmerized and stoked all at once. I literally gulped the book and to date it is one of those books that I could totally get absorbed in one go. I keep telling Miss Me how at times, I catch myself not breathing. While mostly it’s psychological, I also believe at some level it is sub-conscious. And then when you’re almost consumed by the mundane necessities with everyday chores, videos such as this bring your breath back - in one whole swoop.There’s so much depth in this video that keeps you wanting to re-watch it. I love the cold and freezing temperatures. I yearn for vast, untouched landscapes. And true silence gets me deeply captivated. This clip encompasses all that in so many levels all through. ...

Last Sunday we had a plausible mishap on the road. On our way to New Haven, the Jeep started self-accelerating and the brakes didn’t seem to work. Luckily there weren’t many cars on the road and we were on a slight positive gradient. With whatever little brake power left, I was able to reduce the speed to the sub 50s and tried using the rumble strips on the shoulder to further decelerate. I eventually got the vehicle to come to a rough halt with some gear shifts and a crude ignition stall. Just in time before a merge from the right! ...

A few days back, I posted an early morning shot in Instagram. I don’t use the app as much as i’d like to; however that morning I spent some time sifting through various posts. A post by maptia totally got my attention. ...