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Midweek greetings to all, as we unveil the 307th chapter of Weekly Olio — a delightful concoction of laughter, insight, and a sprinkle of mystery. Within these pages, you'll discover a handpicked selection of fascinating finds from the vast realms of the internet.
Keep your eyes peeled for this week’s Publisher’s Parmesan, arriving this Sunday!
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The Quote 💭
“The prize goes to he who does not lose his head or open his mouth too soon.”
The Tweet 🐦
David Senra lists surprising facts about Eiichiro Oda (One Piece creator): he slept ~3 hours a night for 15 years, built the bestselling manga series ever (600M+ copies, Guinness record), and has an extreme, private, perfectionist work ethic—prioritizing the series so highly he’d skip family events and still works on it from age 22 into his 50s. Oda is described as a “maniac” who gets ideas by pushing physical limits, wants criticism over ideas, draws everything himself, and creates primarily for his 15-year-old self while living a highly restricted life devoted to a story about freedom.The post promotes a Founders Podcast episode on Oda’s obsession.
The Infographic 💹
Ever wondered how long can companies stay active? Here is a list of the oldest companies in each Asian country. The list spans a wide variety of industries: everything from food to petrochemicals and even locomotives.
The holiday streaming season is almost here
Are you ready? As revealed in our holiday playbook, Roku Ads Manager lets you easily set up, measure and optimize your self-serve holiday ad campaign. You can even create a shoppable ad unit that lets streamers buy directly from their remote.
The Short Read 📝
eMudhra’s rise from Indian digital signatures to global cybersecurity- & red flags ignored along the way - by The Print
eMudhra is an Indian cybersecurity and digital-trust company. In India, businesses commonly use its digital signature certificates to file taxes, company paperwork, and government bids; it also provides Aadhaar-linked electronic signing. Separately, its website certificates were trusted by major browsers, allowing it to serve customers internationally.
ThePrint reports that this global trust was shaken after researchers found eight eMudhra private keys were dangerously weak—one was the number four—making associated certificates vulnerable. Google, Mozilla, Apple, and Microsoft blocked the affected certificates, and browsers began removing trust in eMudhra’s root certificates. The company said it would leave the global website-certificate business. The article says the breach arose from human and process errors during key generation, and notes that Mozilla reviewers had raised concerns about eMudhra’s practices when approving its certificates in 2018. The report also examines the company’s ownership and a former parent’s fraud allegations, which eMudhra denies; police classified the matter as a civil dispute. India’s government said domestic digital-signature and eSign services were unaffected, though the article questions whether the regulator independently verified that claim. Read more…
The Long Read 📜
The Luxury of Children - by Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde
The article argues that global fertility has fallen further and faster than official projections suggest, potentially pushing world population into decline by around 2055. A striking reversal is underway: wealthier countries and households increasingly have more children than poorer ones, contrary to the long-standing assumption that prosperity uniformly reduces fertility. The author attributes the broader decline to “modernity.” Contemporary societies require parents to invest heavily in children’s education and credentials, while demanding careers compete for the same years and time. At the same time, children are no longer essential workers or providers of old-age care, making childlessness more feasible. Smartphones and women’s education may affect fertility, the article says, but neither adequately explains the long-running global pattern.
Children have consequently become a kind of luxury: affluent parents can pay for childcare, household help, tutoring, and more stable family lives, while poorer people face greater barriers to building the families they want. The article expects this demographic divide to widen within countries and between them. Shrinking, aging populations may weaken economies and political influence, especially in poorer countries with limited capacity to offset decline through immigration. Governments cannot simply persuade people to have children, but can reduce practical obstacles through affordable housing, childcare, and less costly, competitive education. Even modest fertility increases could compound over time. Without such changes, demographic decline may deepen inequality and political resentment. Read more…
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We’ll be back in your inbox 2 PM IST next Wednesday. Till then, have a productive week!
Disclaimer: The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in the text belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author's employer, organization, committee or other group or individual.