Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 24

Is All-Blind Narration the Future of Audio Description for Films & TV?

“He looks ahead, his dark eyebrows overshadowing his dark eyes. One of his several gold teeth gleams in the dim light.”

This is the audio description for a scene from a limited series called The Penguin from Max, a part of the Warner Brothers group. This isn’t just another AI-generated audio description of a visual scene, it was created by an all-blind and visually impaired team of actual humans who could describe the scene based on a combination of notes and scene descriptions from the origi...

A Short Tour of the Best Inventions of 2024 According to TIME Magazine

The newly released TIME Best Inventions of 2024 was a lovely diversion today and I probably (definitely!) spent way too long digging into the many different products and ideas on the list. From there, I selected eight that really stood out to me in particular and they are below. The full list is worth a read.

Diaa – A Ukrainian marriage app that allows couples who are physically separated by Russia’s invasion of the country to propose and get married via video call. It’s simple, necessary...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: Win Bigly – Persuasion In A World Where Facts Don’t Matter | 2nd Edition, by Scott Adams

Back in 2017, I selected this book as a winner in our Non-Obvious Book Awards program that year because of how perfectly it described a new sort of persuasive art that then President-elect Donald Trump had perfectly mastered. Just in time for this latest election, Dilbert-creator Scott Adams has a 2nd Edition of the book out (released in September 2024) and it’s worth picking up. I have to admit, I’m conflicted about him as a person. The level of delight he takes in childish name calling and his...

Pet Cloning Isn’t the Future … It’s Already Happening, With A Long Waiting List

The promise is simple: your pet can live as long as you. Or, at least, a version of your pet thanks to the largest commercial pet cloning company who is remaking thousands of dogs, cats and even horses. Apparently, there are specific rules to consider if you’re in the market for this pet cloning service. They need a piece of the pet’s ear, it must be harvested within five days and you’ll need to refrigerate (not freeze) the sample before providing it. Oh, and the service costs upwards of $50,000...

The One Marketing Change That Could Help Save Journalism

The survival of journalism and a free press largely depends on all of our willingness to fund it. One overlooked element of this issue is how digital marketing is purchased and valued. Consider this eye-opening assessment of how digital marketing and “brand safety tech” works and why these tools that were designed to prevent ads from appearing beside potentially controversial content based on using broad keywords like “shooting” or “drugs” have indiscriminately also created an impossible standar...

Netflix Launches “Moments” Feature to Save Your Favorite Movie Scenes

I have probably watched that darts scene from Ted Lasso a dozen times. If you know the show, you probably understand why I would love it. And if you haven’t, you need to see it now (you’ll still get it even if you haven’t seen the show). I’m linking the full video below.

This week Netflix shared the news that they are creating a new feature called “Moments” that lets you save scenes like this that you might want to watch and rewatch. This is absolutely brilliant on many levels. For one, b...

Why Are Baseball Players Always Eating Something?

I watched a baseball game last night for the first time in a year. I know that exactly because the last time I sat through a game was the final game of the World Series last year. Ok, it wasn’t actually the whole game … just from the fifth or so inning onwards. The truth is, I generally find baseball way to slow to watch. But the one thing that is hard to miss is how baseball players always seem to be chewing on something.

An article this week from The Atlantic aims to answer this question of...

The Non-Obvious Book of the Week: The Next 100 Years – A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman

If the upcoming U.S. Presidential election and potential ensuing backlash and chaos has you up at night, this book might offer a helpful reminder that everything happens on a much longer timescale than we sometimes feel as we live through history. In the book, renowned futurist and geopolitical expert George Friedman paints a picture of what the next 100 years of our world might look like. From predicting that Poland will become a global superpower to the rise of Mexico, it’s a sobering and ...

The Forgotten Silence of Childless Men

At several points over the past few years, I’ve showcased a story about women who make the personal choice not to have children. Usually, their stories are ones of personal bravery, confidence and empowerment. This week I came across an article that was one of the first to talk about a more invisible side of this equation: the men who love women who don’t want children.

Sometimes staying childless is a mutual choice. Other times, the man in a relationship can be the one who desperately wants ...

The End of the Diet Industry May Be Here

Oprah Winfrey stepped down from the board of Weight Watchers, ending her longtime affiliation with the brand. If you’re looking for a bellwether to judge the future of the diet industry, this may be as good as any. Earlier this year she had admitted to taking a GPL-1 weight loss drug, and shortly after her move, Weight Watchers shares had a significant drop. In another indication of this upheaval in the diet industry, and Weight Watchers has also joined the party by releasing their own GLP-1 dru...