Mixed Shots

That’s A Snug Fit

In Covid times, there’s an addition to the Sikh paraphernalia: the Singh Thattha. Well, don’t Sikhs wear a thattha, or a beard band, anyway? They do, but the traditional thatta could now save lives and jobs. A British research team has designed an under-mask beard cover, much like the thattha, that allows a bearded person to wear an FFP3 respirator mask, without the need for a shave that some faiths don’t allow. Facial hair, albeit an accepted risk factor for face-mask leakage, can be overcome by using a thattha. It’s hard to get a snug fit of the respirator mask without a clean shave, but the beard cover cuts that problem as it holds the whiskers tightly bunched up against the skin.

The Golden Boy

He is worth his weight in gold—all-rounder Krunal Pandya of the Mumbai Indians that won their record fifth IPL title in Dubai on November 10. Or, maybe more than that! He was detained at Mumbai airport for undisclosed gold and valuables, which reports say, could run up to Rs 1 crore. The 29-year-old, who was Player-of-the-Match in the 2017 final, probably didn’t weigh in Indian laws that limit the amount of gold a person could bring into the country. It seems the Pandya brothers, Krunal and Hardik, are prisoners of their own devices—gold chains and top-end watches.

Bring Cake To Sword

We would like to be caveating before we proceed—that we are not getting our knife into law-enforcers who are known to throw the wet blanket on a party. Here’s the scenario: a birthday bash at a public place in Ahmedabad, eleven cakes (yes, to suit every palate), and a sword to cut them clean. Whoops, high jinks and a loud birthday song for special effect. And then the video goes viral, the cops watch it too; they come knocking on the revelers’ doors, detain nine of them. IPC Sections 143 (unlawful assembly), 144 (unlawful assembly with deadly weapon), 188 (disobedience to order promulgated by a public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection), provisions in the Disaster Management Act and the Gujarat Police Act. They get all. We say back in the knife drawer, Mr Dev Badshah, the birthday boy.

This Giraffe Pings

The only known white giraffe in the world has been fitted with a GPS tracking device, attached to one of its horns, to help protect it from poachers as it grazes in Kenya. It will ping every hour to alert wildlife rangers to its location. But despite its singular status, the lonely male doesn’t have a name. The white giraffe now stands alone after a female and her calf were killed by poachers in March. A rare genetic trait called leucism causes the white colour, and it makes the one surviving giraffe stand out dangerously for poachers in the arid savannah near the Somalia border.

Parcel, Don’t Eat It

Don’t jump out of your skin if your next food parcel comes in a box made of cucumber peels. IIT Kharagpur researchers have developed an eco-friendly food packaging material from the skin of the salad vegetable. The researchers say the cucumber skin contains cellulose nanocrystals that can be used to make non-toxic, biodegradable and biocompatible food packaging material—think natural biopolymer—which is strong and allows limited oxygen to pass through it. Low oxygen permeability means the food remains fresh longer. 

Brevis

Illustrations: Saahil, Text curated by Alka Gupta