From a beer-drenched London street to the simple joy of a flying disc and finally to the click of a mouse that bought "Ten Summoner’s Tales," history, it seems, prefers its tales served with a side of whimsical. And we have a rhyme to match.
In London's streets, the beer did flow,
A flood of ale from long ago.
The vats did burst, the town did weep,
In hops and barley drowned so deep.
Then Yale, where pie tins took to flight,
Became the Frisbee's birthright.
A simple toss, a joyful cheer,
From tin to disc, the path was clear.
Online, a transaction bold,
Dan Kohn's CD of Sting was sold.
Through NetMarket's digital door,
A new era began to soar.
Laugh along with us in this edition of our Shorts.
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[00:00:00] I already wanted to start recording like that. So, okay, here we are recording another shots
[00:00:22] after many, many recording challenges and the reason I started with that absurd laugh is because
[00:00:29] I have been reading a lot of absurd stuff. Starting with, I didn't even know such a thing
[00:00:34] existed and we kind of maybe touched upon it once or twice that there was this whole
[00:00:43] London beer flood in 1914 which actually there was 1 million litres of beer that ran through
[00:00:49] the streets of London and 8 people died. I don't know if they died from drinking
[00:00:54] or from whatever but there you are. There was the dancing plague in 1518 where people all
[00:01:01] of a sudden started dancing. They danced so much that if you got heart attacks, strange.
[00:01:06] Was there particular dance or it was they were all doing tango, samba or it was just
[00:01:12] free for them? The strange thing Nilesh is that actually
[00:01:15] it went on for a very long time. It was like I think it went on from July to September
[00:01:21] of 1518. I mean, I can't even believe people dance for three months.
[00:01:25] That's a lot of dancing. Yeah, that is why they died of heart attacks.
[00:01:29] They shouldn't die. They shouldn't die of exhaustion.
[00:01:34] No, because it's a plague. So, I think it was a contagious dance movement. So, it's like
[00:01:39] I start dancing then you start. So, that's why it's called a plague and not just
[00:01:43] a little disease. So anyway, so I mean, yeah, that just kind of gives you an idea
[00:01:47] of what's happening. So, Samiran that plague in today's world is called viral.
[00:01:52] Okay. The viral videos are the same. Oh, totally. Yeah. Excellent. Excellent.
[00:02:00] So I also came across this great interview by Brian Cox. Okay. So he was asked that,
[00:02:07] what should we do? How can you solve the world's problems and stuff?
[00:02:11] So he said, what we should do? We should put all the politicians in a spacecraft and
[00:02:16] send them away. Send them away. We send them to outer space. He said, why?
[00:02:21] He said, no, no, I'll tell you later. He said, but what about coming back? He said,
[00:02:25] yeah, maybe some of them could come back, but not all. But anyway, so that was the
[00:02:29] hillary. But the interesting thing there, which I really kind of look away was the fact that
[00:02:34] Brian Cox has actually spoken to a lot of astronauts right from the Apology age downwards.
[00:02:41] So what he said was really interesting and too profound for me, but I'll say it anyway.
[00:02:48] So he said that he was speaking to this Saudi Arabian astronaut and that guy said that when
[00:02:54] he takes the first orbit of the earth, he looks for his own village. Then he takes another
[00:03:00] orbit and he looks for Mecca. Then he looks for Saudi Arabia. Then after 10, 15 orbits,
[00:03:07] all he can see is earth. And then it's totally dawns on them that the fact that this is
[00:03:14] our only planet, this is the place we all have in the billions and millions of stars and all.
[00:03:19] So his point was that to solve the world's problems, you need to send all these politicians
[00:03:28] into space so that they get a perspective of what the world is and try to solve a problem.
[00:03:33] So I think Brian Cox is probably part Irish and he has a much better way of delivering this.
[00:03:39] But the essence of the matter was that to solve the world's problems, you need to send people
[00:03:44] into space. Sorry, it just makes me feel like this is exactly what must have happened in boardrooms
[00:03:50] and that's where the phrase 30,000 feet got coined because they couldn't think about a space.
[00:03:57] But 30,000 feet is also high enough for you to look at it in its perspective. And now they're only
[00:04:03] thinking 30,000 feet and nothing is actually happening otherwise. So no, I'm not even sure.
[00:04:09] I don't think even sending them into space, the politicians is going to help any of us.
[00:04:14] So God bless. Sorry, Nilesh, you were saying something.
[00:04:16] No, no, I was saying that if you remember, I mean, Samiran had this great idea of cleaning
[00:04:23] up earth by sending it's like, you know, when you move houses to clean and set up your own house.
[00:04:30] So yeah, maybe there are spaces the answer to everything.
[00:04:33] So let me go ahead with what I selected for this, this episode of shots.
[00:04:40] We have talked so much about e-commerce, ONDC. So I thought, let me go ahead and search out
[00:04:46] which were what qualifies probably as the first e-commerce interaction.
[00:04:52] And there are many variations to it. So I'll go one by one.
[00:04:56] So first one is as old as ARPANET, where Stanford University and MIT University students
[00:05:07] decided to exchange weed and they did this over ARPANET in 1971 and 72 between 71 and 72.
[00:05:16] But this cannot be termed as a e-commerce or even commerce transaction because they
[00:05:22] essentially used ARPANET to just decide on a meeting place and yes,
[00:05:28] then physically went there and exchanged the weed. So that was like first kind of trade on net.
[00:05:37] Then it came something in UK where in 1984, I think 72 year old lady used a device called
[00:05:49] Video Text. And essentially it is, Video Text is something like we know tele-text,
[00:05:56] Video Text is you hook a dumb terminal in this case, it was a television hook through a modem
[00:06:03] to a network and she ordered some margarine eggs and conflicts from local grocery store
[00:06:10] via phone lines. But again, this was not an e-commerce transaction because she paid in
[00:06:16] cash and the groceries were hand delivered. So many people say this is not e-commerce.
[00:06:22] So finally, one that qualifies as an e-commerce transaction is in 1994 when a person called
[00:06:32] Dan Cohen created a website called Net Market and he sold a CD of Sting's 10 Summoner's Tale
[00:06:43] to a friend in Philadelphia. And the friend paid $12 or something plus shipping using credit card
[00:06:53] online, you know securely. So when you say e-commerce transaction, the payment and the
[00:06:59] logistics of shipping the CD and all. So 1994 qualifies as the first e-commerce transaction.
[00:07:09] But depending on how you slice it or dice it, essentially first internet transaction involved
[00:07:16] weed, rock, music or food. The innovation needs you to be in a different state of mind.
[00:07:26] Totally agree with you. So I have a, I'm going to tell you all a story actually. So I don't know,
[00:07:32] did either of you play Frisbee's when you were young?
[00:07:35] Yeah, yeah, I mean not the greatest Frisbee player but yeah.
[00:07:38] Yeah, but you must have played Frisbee when you were young, right? All of us have done it.
[00:07:42] Hey listen, if you're an Indian and you've gone for a family picnic, one of the games that
[00:07:45] you played was the Frisbee. Okay, let's admit to it. Our age might show but that's the
[00:07:51] truth. So Frederick Morrison is actually credited with inventing the Frisbee in 1940s, okay?
[00:07:59] And he developed a plastic flying disc which he called the flying saucer and things like that.
[00:08:05] Then there was another guy called Ed Hedrick who's considered to be the father of the disc golf
[00:08:12] and he was actually instrumental in popularizing the modern Frisbee as we know it. But why am I
[00:08:19] telling you this story? So I found it really interesting that Ed Hedrick, because he went on
[00:08:28] to create the sport of Frisbee and all of that. When he died in 2002, his final wish was to have
[00:08:38] his ashes turned into a Frisbee. Excellent, excellent. So not only did they make one Frisbee
[00:08:48] but they made multiple Frisbees and they gave it to people, family and friends and things like that.
[00:08:54] Not all of his ashes were used, some of his ashes were used but they were used to make multiple
[00:09:02] Frisbees to be donated. And then I figured that also that got me curious saying how can it,
[00:09:08] did only he do this where his invention, like his ashes went into his inventions?
[00:09:15] And then I realized that as I was searching more, there are many more people, many more
[00:09:20] inventors who have converted their ashes into their inventions. So the belief is that in Disney,
[00:09:28] yeah, yeah, there's quite a few of them. So I thought if this is interesting, you should go
[00:09:32] and search for it, that how many inventors actually put their ashes into their own inventions
[00:09:38] as long as they don't put it into my whiskey bottle like. I'm just thinking that how,
[00:09:43] supposing what would we do that will qualify like that, that could we make something into
[00:09:48] three techies banter? I don't know. The logo will become with her ashes.
[00:09:55] That's the only thing I can think of right now. We can convert the logo,
[00:10:00] you know, make it whatever compressed ashes or something and over the years it will become
[00:10:04] diamonds or some shit like that. So Nilesh, this is actually on the back since you said
[00:10:08] it's very Samiran like. So this is Samiran putting me on that trip where I went and searched for a
[00:10:14] few crazy things. And then at one point in time, Chad GPT told me that I was breaking all rules of
[00:10:22] a Chad GPT on my searches. So I thought they were going to kind of put my account on hold
[00:10:30] and boot me out saying they are not going to be allowed on Chad GPT.
[00:10:34] You know, you could be next generation beta developer for the Chad GPT now because you're
[00:10:39] testing the limits of Chad GPT.
[00:10:40] Correct. For sure. And I'm definitely checking whether I'm allowed to use certain words or not,
[00:10:47] at least. And at what point in time do they actually tell me this is not acceptable? So yeah,
[00:10:53] it was fun. So that brings us to another mad episode of Shorts for You.
[00:11:02] I'm sure in our next Shorts, Samiran will have something even more esoteric than sending our
[00:11:07] politicians to space to give them a perspective that Earth is one planet and that they all need
[00:11:15] to work together to make Earth succeed. How? Or they will not be brought back on?
[00:11:22] I don't know whether that's utopian or dystopian but it is very, very...
[00:11:26] I'm quite sure. I'm willing to bet all my money on it that it won't happen.
[00:11:32] On that happy note, we look forward to seeing you on our next Shorts and
[00:11:37] stay tuned for our really interesting episodes on Sri Techies Bantle, the long ones we're
[00:11:42] speaking to some really interesting guests and I'm sure you will love to listen to those.
[00:11:49] Bye everyone for now.