#OddlyEnough 16: Facebook’s Rebuff, Bangladeshi Art And More!

Image used for representation only

Oddly Enough in its sixteenth edition features interesting news stories like Facebook’s rebuttal to its former executive’s comments, a Nigerian woman who asserts her rights, a court battle that was started by a dog, a Bangladeshi couple’s efforts to promote art and the silent GIF that everyone ‘heard’.

On the Defence – Facebook Rebuffs Former Exec’s Stance on Behavioural Change

In a new willingness to defend its business model, Facebook has, for the second time in a week, posted a blog about how social media can be good for people’s well-being. Former Executive of the company, Chamath Palihapitiya said in a conference that Facebook is responsible for ‘destroying how society works’. Facebook’s model thrives on getting user’s attention. According to research, excessive use of social media could lead to social isolation.

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Case of Canine – Court Battle Ensues, Rescuer Faked Dog’s Death

Jamie Patterson and her seven children adopted Mack in 2015 from Rough Road Rescue in Perryville, Missouri. Mack was once found wandering alone by the director of the rescue centre, Steve Svehla. Svehla accused Patterson of neglect and decided to keep Mack. A two-year long ensued with Patterson winning. Svehla was asked to hand over the dog but he instead gave Patterson a box of ashes. He claimed the dog was dead. He later admitted to lying and retuned the dog to Patterson.

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Turned Away – Nigerian Woman Asserts Right to Wear Hijab

Amasa Firdaus Abdulsalam was denied her call to bar by the Body of Benchers as she was asked to take off her headscarf, which she refused. As a student of the Lagos-based Nigerian Law School, she was told that she is breaking the dress code set by the university. Abdulsalam insisted on wearing her wig over the hijab. She called this refusal as a violation of her rights. Meanwhile, this has sparked an intense debate on social media.

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Art for All – Bangladeshi Couple Promotes Art and Religious Tolerance

Rajeeb Samdani and his wife Nadia Srihatta’s Srihatta-Samdani Art Centre and Sculpture Park opens next year. Amid a tense climate of the Rohingya migration crisis and religious polarisation, this is a welcome move. The couple is also a collector duo who will showcase their collections at the centre. Launching the Dhaka Art Summit in 2012 also gave them the chance to show the country in a cultural light different from that of poverty, floods and cyclones.

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Sound of Silence – Silent GIF Goes Viral for Being ‘Heard’

A GIF showing an electric tower jumping a rope of bending power lines made rounds of the internet, as people could ‘hear’ the tower jump up and down. But the GIF was silent, so how is this possible? Scientists say that ‘hearing’ doesn’t necessarily require sound but the experience of having heard a sound. Another scientist studying cognitive neuroscience calls this the ‘visual evoked auditory response’.

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Vijayta Lalwani