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Move Over T. Rex, Rajasaurus Is Here

India's very own T.Rex
India's very own T.Rex

Rajasaurus, anyone?

India's native dinosaur discovered as recently as the early 2000s has been fittingly given an Indian name: Rajasaurus narmadensis, or "regal reptile of the Narmada," is a predator that lived roughly 65 million years ago, a Smithsonian Mag story recently notes.

Rajasaurus belongs to the sub-family of the wicked carnivorous Tyrannosaurus Rex, star of many a Jurassic Park movie.

rajasaurus_dinosaur_india_fossils

Central India's Narmada River where fossils of Rajasaurus have been found — Photo: Ssriram mt

Last month, a study published in the journal Nature found that the dinosaur family tree could be in for a "colossal shakeup."

"The longstanding division of dinosaurs into "bird-hipped" species including Stegosaurus and their "lizard-hipped" counterparts such as Brachiosaurus andTyrannosaurus rex may no longer be valid," the article noted.

The study is likely to excite paleontologists the world over ...

Paging Ross Geller.

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Ideas

Look At This Crap! The "Enshittification" Theory Of Why The Internet Is Broken

The term was coined by journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the fatal drift of major Internet platforms: if they were ever useful and user-friendly, they will inevitably end up being odious.

A photo of hands holding onto a smartphone

A person holding their smartphone

Gilles Lambert/ZUMA
Manuel Ligero

-Analysis-

The universe tends toward chaos. Ultimately, everything degenerates. These immutable laws are even more true of the Internet.

In the case of media platforms, everything you once thought was a good service will, sooner or later, disgust you. This trend has been given a name: enshittification. The term was coined by Canadian blogger and journalist Cory Doctorow to explain the inevitable drift of technological giants toward... well.

The explanation is in line with the most basic tenets of Marxism. All digital companies have investors (essentially the bourgeoisie, people who don't perform any work and take the lion's share of the profits), and these investors want to see the percentage of their gains grow year after year. This pushes companies to make decisions that affect the service they provide to their customers. Although they don't do it unwillingly, quite the opposite.

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Annoying customers is just another part of the business plan. Look at Netflix, for example. The streaming giant has long been riddling how to monetize shared Netflix accounts. Option 1: adding a premium option to its regular price. Next, it asked for verification through text messages. After that, it considered raising the total subscription price. It also mulled adding advertising to the mix, and so on. These endless maneuvers irritated its audience, even as the company has been unable to decide which way it wants to go. So, slowly but surely, we see it drifting toward enshittification.

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