Quick notes: 2021 resolution | Permaculture...

• 2021 resolution: replace foreign products with local ones: “Think of things manufactured abroad that have permeated into our lives unknowingly, in a way, shackling us down. Let us find out their substitutes made in India and decide that henceforth we shall use products made with the hard work and sweat of the people of India. ”



• Amazon wins by ‘steamrolling’ smaller rivals: No competitor is too small to draw Amazon’s sights. It cloned a line of camera tripods that a small outside company sold on Amazon’s site, hurting the vendor’s sales so badly it is now a fraction of its original size, the little firm’s owner said. Amazon said it didn’t violate the company’s intellectual-property rights.
  
  Amazon set its sights on Allbirds Inc., the maker of popular shoes using natural and recycled materials, and last year launched a shoe called Galen that looks nearly identical to Allbirds’ bestseller—without the environmentally friendly materials and selling for less than half the price.
  
  Allbirds Co-CEO Joey Zwillinger commented on the situation stating: “You can’t help but look at a trillion-dollar company putting their muscle and their pockets and their machinations of their algorithms and reviewers and private-label machine all behind something that you’ve put your career against. You have this giant machine creating all these headwinds for us.”



• No one bigger than the Party: China launches anti-monopoly investigation into e-commerce giant Alibaba. “There is an underlying political message, that no company, and no individual, can grow so big in China to the point where they can potentially challenge the authority of the CCP”.



• Joe Biden RAGE: EU goes around USA for China investment deal. “It’s just mind-boggling that the EU would even consider rushing to agree an investment pact with Beijing weeks before Biden takes office after claiming for several years that they wanted transatlantic cooperation on China.” . . . Any Chinese signature on human rights is not worth the paper it is written on.



• Permaculture for Wastelands: Narsanna and Padma Koppula show the way




• Drones in farm sector: Agriculture scientists recommend application of insecticide at rootzone, which is very difficult, when the crop has grown to a certain height. However using drones, it is possible to effectively apply the insecticide at the root level.
  
  “When the drone is hovering above the crop, just like a helicopter producing wind while landing, there will be wind, which results in spreading effect in the crops, making it convenient for application of the insecticide at the root-level”. Most importantly, the dosage of the pesticide or insecticide can be reduced by 35 to 40 per cent



• Right To Breathe: Children are more affected by pollution than adults because their lungs are not fully developed. Compare lung sizes of Indian and US children, you’ll know who air pollution affects most. Asthma among children has become commonplace and most households need inhalers and nebulisers for the young and elderly to get through the highly polluted winter months in northern India.



• The Meat Paradox: Do you think animal torture is evil? Many people who would strongly disagree, in principle, with animal cruelty also eat meat that has been raised in terrible conditions. When we say one thing but do another, or hold inconsistent beliefs, psychologists call it cognitive dissonance.



• Sialkot, Pakistan: Almost 70% of the world's soccer balls are made here