Quick notes: Racial bias, Politicized loans...

• Harvard Racial Bias: According to school policy, Asian-American males living in rural states need to score a 1370 on the PSAT to get a letter. White males, however, only need a 1310. "That's race discrimination plain and simple".



• Yet, rich Indians continue to support them:

Did you know that India's Mukesh Ambani family has "generously donated to the Clinton Foundation"? India's super-rich donate millions to U.S. institutions that are already flush with funds, while ignoring needy institutions in their home country. https://t.co/uE8QcEe8nM

— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) December 11, 2018




• Only 10% of farmers gain from loan waivers: Some farmers know when elections are due. Before that, they take loans. They then ask their farmer unions for loan waivers and the political party who shouts first about a loan waiver (gets the votes).



• Farm-loan waivers - waste of time and money: “The percentage of farmers availing bank loans is not even 50%. So, you are spending lakhs and crores of rupees and not even half of the farmers are benefiting. In some of the states, not even 25% of farmers avail institutional credit”.



• Bruhi Mukundethi : IndianRaga Chicago Advanced Labs:




• Shared Mobility Is Cheaper: The car you just bought might be the last one you’ll own. Folks living in urban and suburban centers are already shifting away from buying a second car in order to get around. 



• MIPS Goes Open Source: Allows users to access “the most recent versions of the 32-bit and 64-bit MIPS ISA free of charge — with no licensing or royalty fees.”



• Do not let Huawei anywhere near India's 5G:

What should India do about #huawei? My piece in @Openthemag suggests a) they are a major threat in 5G b) India must step up its electronics game c) trump is bullying China using its own tactics and they don't know how to respond 😁. This is a watershed https://t.co/padpbedMwH

— राजीवः श्रीनिवासः (@RajeevSrinivasa) December 17, 2018




• Plants don’t like being touched: A plant can’t flee threats, unlike mobile organisms. Instead, they have a highly sensitive threat-response system—like a plant’s version of an immune system