|Z|E|B|R|A| |C|R|O|S|S|I|N|G|

The source material we try to curate is ‘Zebra Crossing’ — a Sunday column carried by The Indian Express for twenty years (2000-2020).

All along a continuum of global cohesion

Call us Team ZC. We have members from India (where our project took off), China, and Pakistan. And, extending to the farthest geographical point on the Earth’s surface from India, Team ZC even has a member from Chile—nearly 17,000 kilometers or 10,500 miles away. This is just a tangential indication of how truly global we are, thanks to our lively presence and interactions on ResearchGate (RG), a social networking site with over 20 million researchers. The first person to sign up at our former site, covid19on.com, was a Karachi-based researcher from RG. The pandemic united us as it disregarded all national boundaries. Covid19on.com was launched in December 2019—months before governments worldwide began announcing lockdowns one after another. Back then, most Team ZC members were part of TEAM 19. These two teams can be viewed along a continuum of global cohesion or synergic cohesion, as we are engaged in a project to curate hundreds of print media articles. The section “Notes From The Backend” will brief you on how we go about it.

A shortcut across the information highway

The column Zebra Crossing was concieved as a shortcut across the information highway — at a time when dial-up was the only internet option, even for privileged users in first-tier firms. Right now, a host of ResearchGate (RG) scholars contend that the column holds an encyclopedic scope — a finding substantiated by AI briefs.

Our team
includes students, academicians, coders, designers and journalists.

~ STELLA DENVER

942 / Elephants send chills up our spine

Sentience (“qualia”) is the ability to have subjective perceptual experiences. Scholars differentiate it from qualities such as creativity, intelligence and self-awareness. If you get acquainted with a retired game warden in Africa, he is likely to tell you incredible stories…

continue reading

951 / Why we say ‘Bye’, not ‘Goodbye’

We tend to lessen physical effort in almost everything we do, including using language. We say “bye” instead of “goodbye” to get the same message across with just one syllable. While investigating how this effort-reduction influences sign languages that are…

continue reading

000 / Experimental

PAGE FOR EXPERIMENTS IN POSTING art gallery is set to redefine cultural landscape. The revitalized art gallery is set to redefine cultural landscape. The revitalized art gallery is set to redefine cultural landscape. The revitalized art gallery is set to…

continue reading

945 / Forecasting the spread of anything

These days we hear a lot about people affected by COVID-19 and also about people arrested for spreading misinformation on the disease. Just two related topics? When experts try to forecast the spread of anything across populations (anything from COVID-19…

continue reading

944 / An extreme dam for the days ahead

Sometimes we need extreme measures to keep things at bay. And right now the world needs a “North-European Enclosure Dam” (NEED) to protect more than 25 million Europeans against the ravages of an expected sea-level rise of several metres over…

continue reading

181 / Flipping the Indian flatbread right

It’s sad that no scientist has figured out the physics of tossing the Indian flatbread `parotta’ into the air. The secret of such a fascinating vertical-flying-saucer effect should not remain unidentified. For, what would happen if we try the feat?…

continue reading

932 / Immune system and human lifespan

The human immune system has always been evolving and it is still evolving, but lifespan continues to increase with each generation. In addition, lifestyles and ecologic natures can really differ and influence immune responses. A malaria parasite has infected Africans…

continue reading

940 / A theme of death and celebration

Alcohol and tobacco don’t have the prerogative to generate diseases readily associated with drinking and smoking. At the same time, disgusting graphics employed in antismoking campaigns often backfire, as they ignite the rebellious traits in youngsters. But we know smoking…

continue reading

Scroll to Top