Bloomberg Blames India for Extending the Pandemic

Bloomberg's billionaire-owner Mike Bloomberg is well known to have massive investments in China:

the west gloated when this happened to india

but we will sympathize with them.

don't know what that is: a character flaw? or the asymmetry of information flow and narrative marketing? like those cricketer idiots doing a knee for black lives matter but not for hindu lives in bangladesh.

Quick notes: Stirling engine | Chinese GPU...

• France should pay us: France is seeing a spike in Rafale fighter jet orders after India acquired them.



• China's New Mortars: Designed for war with India? The PLA is now announcing the deployment of new self-propelled rapid-fire mortars to conduct “mobile, hit-and-run firing positions”.



• Stirling engine: China claims it developed the world's most powerful heat engine. “The prototype ran at a rated power of 320 kilowatts with a power conversion efficiency of 40%”. In comparison, the Stirling engine used on the Swedish Navy's Gotland submarines is rated at 75KW.. China eyeing deadlier submarines, safer nuclear reactors with new Stirling engine?



• Unstoppable: China's Fenghua-1 GPU aims for GeForce RTX 3060 compute performance. Based on Imagination Technologies' PowerVR architecture.



• Gouging small businesses: For every $100 sellers earn in sales, Amazon is keeping $30 — up from 19% just 5 years ago. . . . . . Internal Amazon documents show Alexa owners aren’t using devices



• Madhav Gadgil: "Most ‘development’ activities now are aimed at benefiting only the rich. The relaxations in ESA will benefit the quarries that make huge, illegal profits. Some mine-owners in Goa had told me about the huge rates they pay to the politicians, right from the bottom to the top. Before the 2014 elections, the BJP strongly supported our report, but the moment they came to power, they took a 180-degree turn".



• Uddiyana Bandha and Nauli Kriya:




• Crafting sustainable homes: Interlocking blocks — an alternative to burnt bricks and concrete blocks



• India's Population Growth: Urban India now has a fertility rate of 1.6, comparable to the European Union. In the relative weight of its states, India’s Parliament has remained frozen since the 1971 census. The average parliamentarian from Uttar Pradesh represents three million people, while a counterpart from Tamil Nadu represents 1.8 million.
  
  If Parliament were reapportioned according to the likely population in 2026, the five southern states would send 26 fewer representatives to the 545-seat Parliament. The four most populous Hindi heartland states would add 31 seats.

my geostrategic and business perspective on the semiconductor policy

My recent conversation with Sree Iyer of pgurus on what the business models and entrepreneurial opportunities are in terms of a massive electronics thrust: this is one of the most important and seminal technologies in the world now and for the foreseeable future. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11oBe-20ma8&t=427s

Elon Musk Interview With The Babylon Bee

Musk makes some unsparing criticisms of Left-wing media:

the HOD chemistry harvard was doing virus work in wuhan on the side

the infiltration is deep and broad. 

HOD chemistry at, where else, harvard.

i remember this fellow's specialty is some viral chemistry.

there is a virtual constellation of big american names doing china's bidding in wuhan: fauci, daszak, this lieber. it is hard to believe it's not a conspiracy.

Quick notes: 1971 war | Chip ecosystem...

• US wanted China to intervene against India in 1971 War: After Indira Gandhi's visit to Washington; Kissinger said the 'Indians are bastards anyway. They are starting a war there [in Bangladesh] ... While [Indira Gandhi] was a bitch, ... she will not be able to go home and say that the United States didn't give her a warm reception.'
  
  The duo (Nixon, Kissinger) wanted China to put more pressure on India: 'I think we've got to tell [the Chinese] that some movement on their part ... toward the Indian border could be very significant.'



• Develop ecosystem for chip production: The US, South Korea and China have incentives totaling about $50 billion, $100 billion and $450 billion respectively, far higher than India's. So future chip production, if we are to have it, shouldn’t be a one-trick pony and must develop an ecosystem from design to fabrication, to packaging and testing.
  
  Given the long gestation periods and rapid technology changes, India must out-strategise on design and functionality as the end product will be out only three-four years from the moment work begins, by which point the prevailing chip shortage would have been resolved, while technology would have advanced further.
  
  Designing is India’s advantage and while we leverage people skills, we must improvise research and development—an area that we are lacking in currently. Importantly, WTO-consistent tariff and non-tariff barriers should be resolved to ensure flow of goods, besides ensuring policy stability, without which our chip production prospects will remain empty.
  
  + Semiconductor capex to hit $152 Billion in 2021 as market on track for $2 Trillion by 2035



• India's Atlantis: Searching for the sunken kingdom of Dwarka




• Narinder Singh Kapany: The relentless innovator behind the science of fibre optics



• New Pfizer drug and ivermectin: Uncomfortable facts for Pfizer, Big pharma and Woke media



• Cryptocurrencies a challenge for emerging markets: "Because a lot of these crypto exchanges are offshore, they are not subject to regulation of a particular country... So, there is a need for a global policy on that front urgently".



• Why Pakistan may want the J-10: While a layperson may think the J-10 appears similar in layout to the F-16, the Chinese aircraft has a delta wing design with 'canards' forward of the fuselage. There is suspicion Israel transferred technology for the Lavi fighter to China.
  
  + Israeli companies exported cruise missiles to China without permit



• Boeing and Airbus warn of 5G safety concerns: "5G interference could adversely affect the ability of aircraft to safely operate".



• Chart buster: Bird songs bump stars off Australian music chart

pure propaganda from the NYT for mRNA

see the weasel words "preliminary"

in other words there is no solid evidence. i bet nobody has even submitted any research on the efficacy of covaxin, but Deepstate has decreed that only pfizer and moderna work. 

exponential

an arresting graph showing the rocket-like growth in internet usage in india. THAT is an opportunity for you folks to think of. and i think blockchains and maybe crypto will be key, too.

US Ambassador-Designate to India Will 'Actively Raise Human Rights Issue'

US Obsession with Russia Only Helps China

obama and dist attorney bharara: protect the guilty, persecute the peripheral

interesting thread based on raj rajaratnam's book. i can well believe this is the truth. screw some uppity browns/indians along the way (raj is sri lankan). 

https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1471272757417684994?s=20

Quick notes: Expired vaccines | Sigiriya...

• White man's generosity: Europe sent Nigeria up to 1 million near-expired doses of covid-19 vaccine



• Covaxin: Caught in the west's dirty tricks.

💡[Whisper]… there is actually a proven vaccine for kids age 2-4 that is *CURRENTLY UNDER REVIEW* at the @US_FDA with an EUA app submitted on November 5th—but FDA has not moved yet on approval meeting. ➡️Why is the media not talking about this? #COVAXIN https://t.co/N0PmXMEWtT pic.twitter.com/szLEN8HQoK

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) December 11, 2021

Third-party study shows Covaxin produced robust immune response against variants of concern for up to six months.



• Harvard report: “In speech technology, Chinese firms are beating American firms in every language, including English. The world’s top voice recognition startup, China’s iFlytek, has 700 million users, almost twice the number of people who speak to Apple’s Siri.”



• Jugaad ain't no innovation, stop romanticising it: India cannot become a world-beating economic force by under-investing in fundamental scientific research and celebrating stop-gap survival mechanisms (jugaad) as path-breaking innovation. Such celebration and characterisation should be left to advertising agencies and other creative types looking for a story to tell.
  
  The state should commit itself to turning India into a magnet for top scientific talent from around the world, increasing investment in fundamental science and engineering and creating infrastructure which will give Indian scientists the choice of working in their home country instead of moving to more hospitable climes abroad.



• Ancient Engineering Marvel: Sri Lanka's ancient water gardens of Sigiriya are a complex masterpiece of irrigation engineering design. During excavation, water conduits were found at different depths, likely to achieve varying water levels; something that required a masterful knowledge of physics and engineering.




• Socialization of losses: PSBs lost Rs 2.85 lakh cr due to loan default of 13 firms. "Time and again public sector banks have been used to bail out ailing private sector banks such as Yes Bank, Global Trust Bank, United Western Bank, Bank of Karad, etc. Private sector's largest NBFC, IL&FS, was bailed out again by public sector SBI and LIC".



• Semiconductor push: Govt's Rs 76,000-cr plan to woo chip makers, create semiconductor ecosystem. Support to universities to train 85,000 engineers under the “chips to start-ups” programme.



• StarFive: Chinese company delivers the world’s highest performance RISC-V CPU Core IP, codenamed “Dubhe”
  - 2GHz @ TSMC 12nm
  - SPECint2006: 8.9/GHz
  - Dhrystone: 6.6 DMIPS/MHz
  - CoreMark: 7.6/MHz.



• Semiconductor subsidies: "How do you compete with a 30 to 40% subsidy? Because that means we are not competing with TSMC or Samsung, we are competing with Taiwan and Korea. The subsidies in China are even more significant."



• Ban glyphosate: Glyphosate is "reportedly" being used both for weed control and to desiccate crops prior to harvesting. The weedicide and its adjuvants are absorbed by the plant and consumed by humans.



• Market Dominance: Italy fines Amazon $1.3 Billion for abuse of dominant market position.
  
  FTC complaint: Amazon misleading consumers with 'deceptive' ads in search results.

gulf arab countries giving a very few rich, smart expats citizenship

according to an economist podcast, gulf arabs now offering citizenship to select expats: rich people, inventors, scientists, doctors. UAE expects to do this for 1000 people a year.

this probably will work better than britain's offer: got 0 takers.

sorry, #keralano1 guys.

so, what about CAA?

U.S. Censors Taiwan at Summit for Democracies

America's Democracy-Hypocrisy Tightrope walk leaves its policy dangling from a thread.

Pakistan's Imran Khan avoided attending America's "Summit of Democracies" because China was upset over Taiwan being invited. Biden's officials have again likewise made a mockery of the summit by censoring Taiwan because of China's feelings.

baffling why "watch industry experts" are talking about cryptocurrencies :-)

seriously, i did a double-take. 

i was thinking, swatch, titan, rolex etc. 

wapo is now giving it away!

desperation.

the mindless loot of hindu murtis

and finally, the india pride project is recovering at least some of them. 

but white people's attitude that they can loot with impunity remains, only in a different form. it's called 'woke', or 'climate change' or 'democracy' these days. sometimes it's also called a virus.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2021/dec/04/looted-and-left-in-an-english-garden-the-goat-goddess-can-return-to-india

the mind-blowing banality of the indian twittersphere

some white cricketer's tweet was number 1. some woke indian cricketer's tweet was the most liked. i hope eventually indians will grow up.

oh, that'll teach them!

i am reminded of the CPI(M) renaming the street in front of the US consulate in calcutta as 'ho chi minh sarani'. entertaining, but really, cheap thrills

US-Russia Showdown: 1962 Redux?

Washington and Moscow are on a collision course over Ukraine. This may be the most serious confrontation since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis - which as we know gave China the opportunity to attack India. It would be prudent for India to stay vigilant in these times.

Chief of Defence Staff Rawat Killed in Helicopter Crash

cognitive dissonance: the 'Holy Land' (sic} is getting to be christian-free

sounds like kashmir choices: raaliv, gaaliv, something. convert, flee or die.

article against booster shots quotes ramanan "300 million indians will die" lakshminarayanan

this guy is a total fraud and so his quote must be considered proof that the article is dicey. https://www.livemint.com/science/health/clamour-for-booster-shots-grows-but-experts-say-it-s-too-early-for-india-11638900366275.html 

the article also quotes extensively one 'epidemiologist'. thankfully that 'epidemiologist' isn't gagandeep kaur. 

i'm surprised the article didn't call for importing pfizer mRNA shots. it does, however, take a backhanded swipe at covaxin:

run for the hills, people. this mRNA fad is really scary.

CRISPR first and now this. we should all be worried as people are messing with biology.

and as for unintended consequences, see 1. global warming, 2. thalidomide. 

tokyo and science fiction

two of the three greatest science fiction films ever had a link to tokyo: blade runner was set in a future LA, which was basically a version of tokyo. solaris had this long five minute sequence set in the expressways of tokyo. the original article is at https://www.ft.com/content/1a0a2877-90cc-45ea-8e01-37d5c22bd217 probably firewalled

oh, the third is 2001 a space odyssey.

Quick notes: Make-in-India | Israel's ally...

• Make-In-India? Yes, No, Maybe: India won’t go ahead with building Russian helicopters locally, opting instead for off-the-shelf purchases. IAF needs to make immediate replacements to its fleet of over 320 aging helicopters.



• Has Israel become a top Chinese ally? Not surprisingly, China appears to have a vested interest in the Israeli tech sector, especially its advances in quantum technology. Chinese investment in Israeli technology “could lead to leaks of sensitive technology and cyber-espionage.”



• Ascendant China: Toyota turns to Chinese tech to reach its electric holy grail
  
  Chinese stranglehold: Tesla has concluded that no company in the United States is currently capable of producing artificial graphite to the required specifications and capacity needed for Tesla’s production. It said only mainland China could provide the quantity of graphite it needs to manufacture its batteries.



• IIT Madras faculty founded 94 startups: A startup is aiming to make a new breed of aircraft called hybrid aerial vehicles for vertical takeoff and landing as well as long-distance flight to carry goods and passengers, ultimately leading to air taxi operations. Another working on mini launch vehicles to launch micro- and nano-satellites into space orbits.
  
  A startup aiming to produce micro gas turbines for decentralized power generation and another aiming to convert any kind of waste -- from municipal solid waste to agri waste -- into crude oil are among the notable ones. Another enterprise aims to make earth observation satellites with multi-sensor fusion and edge-computing in space.



• Remittance seeking mindset: Retaining - and attracting - talent is critical for India's future.

A lot has changed / is changing in India. What hasn’t change much is the Government’s remittance seeking mindset.

When GDP was <$1T it made sense to export human capital. With GDP at ~$3T, and India aiming to boost it to $10T+, retaining - and attracting - talent is critical. https://t.co/ZVwygfXpdM

— Rajeev Mantri (@RMantri) November 29, 2021

The Thousand Talents Plan is part of China’s long quest to become the global scientific leader



• New game in town: Ola's electric scooter



• 5G wireless use could prompt flight diversions: The aviation industry and the FAA have raised concerns about potential interference of 5G with sensitive aircraft electronics like radio altimeters.



• Vaccine durability: Antibody levels fall quickly in the months after people get their Pfizer and Moderna shots. The RNA in these vaccines does not last very long in the body. DNA is more stable than RNA, and might allow for a more prolonged, low-level activation of our immune system that provides longer-lasting protection.



• NOT White Man's Burden: UK 'nowhere near' meeting targets agreed at Glasgow climate summit



• The return of ‘naati’ ragi: Karnataka farmers revive forgotten ragi varieties. Hundreds of local ragi varieties disappeared with the arrival of the high-yielding indaf variety of ragi.



• Why soil is one of the most amazing things on Earth: Due to intensive farming, we are losing soil 50 to 100 times faster than it is able to rebuild.




• Global Gateway: BRI rival from EU. Can Europe compete with China?
  
  Why US, EU are pitching an alternative to Chinese ‘hidden debts’
  
  Contaminated fertilizer: Sri Lanka bows to Chinese pressure again

why indian CEOS are doing well in tech

ok, they are describing how, but not why.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-59457015

farewell, ram rani!

what happens to anybody in academia (in the US) if they are sympathetic to hindus: they never get tenure. i met yvette/ram rani a few times. unfortunately the last time i interacted with her was in an online argument a few months ago over, of all things, fauci's competency!

https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/columns/2021/dec/02/farewell-to-ram-rani-who-explained-india-to-the-west-and-to-us-2390575.html 

indians delude themselves that indian-americans are just like them

my firstpost article

https://www.firstpost.com/india/the-indian-american-paradox-indians-expect-them-to-be-indians-but-they-are-not-10185071.html

bhopal gas tragedy

Bhopal gas tragedy 1984: Looking back at one of India's worst industrial disasters | The Indian Express
https://indianexpress.com/photos/india-news/bhopal-gas-tragedy-37-years-later-victims-continue-to-suffer-injustice-warren-anderson-7653783/

real GDP

from shamika ravi.

i had no idea sri lanka was ahead of indonesia. presumably india's growth spurt is coming, which deepstate and china will do anything to prevent. pathetic that after 38 years of nehruvian stalinist rule, india was worse off than all these countries in 1975. it's the nehruvian penalty.

at least jawhalal knew how to wear a dhoti

did you see raoul struggling with his?

ok, jawhalal stabbed subhash in the back, metaphorically speaking.

would raoul have the wits to even do that?

what happened to my credit rating when i paid off a loan

amusing, but makes a certain twisted sense

how kerala's economy is collapsing

end of the money order economy. 1 million+ returnees who will have no jobs. https://twitter.com/HKupdate/status/1466170672133120000?s=20

the photo is not representative. the majority of migrants have always been muslim, and their womenfolk are in full black abaya. 

What Really Happened in Wuhan

Xi Jinping Ordered the Genocide Against Uighurs

Quick notes: Civil aviation | RISC-V phones...

• Shut down the civil aviation ministry: There is no reason for keeping an entire ministry with a total staff strength of 2,300, just for the oversight of a few aviation sector laws and regulatory bodies



• Entitled MNCs: Visa Inc has complained to the U.S. govt that India's "informal and formal" promotion of domestic payments rival RuPay hurts the U.S. giant in a key market. In public Visa has downplayed concerns about the rise of RuPay. Mastercard has raised similar concerns privately with the USTR.



• Princes to paupers: India's salesmen face ruin as tycoon Ambani targets mom-and-pop stores. Tiny shops account for 4/5ths of India's $900 bln retail sector



• Manu Joseph: When Modi cancelled his most humane reform yet it was a triumph for rich north Indian farmers and the movement they handled. In the end the rich and the middle-class sabotaged reform for the poor. Same old story of India.



• όμικρο: There is a possibility that we are seeing a more infectious and less virulent version of the virus, which would be one of those steps along a happier route to living with the virus”.
  
  "Generally, high transmission with reduced disease severity is an evolutionary win for the virus and many viruses evolve to this state, existing in an equilibrium with the host".
  
  The theory is that, if a less virulent strain becomes dominant, more people will become infected but fewer will be critically sick. The virus, while still a problem, also becomes part of the solution; every person who recovers from a mild case is left with greater immunity against future infections than any of the current vaccines provide.

At some point in the future, I hope a thriller movie will be made where COVID variants are the dark forces & are attacked by an ‘Avenger’ hero called Omicron who compels the evil variants to mutate into a docile flu. https://t.co/rpqesqBMMs

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) November 30, 2021




• Displacing ARM: The world's first RISC-V phone might be just around the corner.. The first major step on porting Android to RISC-V was, unsurprisingly, authored by Alibaba, who produced the first working Android 10 port for the RISC-V ISA.
  
  Chinese company Sipeed expects to release first RISC-V smartphone models next year.
  
  Homemade CPUs - China's Bid For Independence China's tech giants are striving for autonomy from U.S. chipsets. But true semiconductor independence will require China to develop its own extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, required to etch microscopic circuits on silicon. SMIC, China's main chip foundry, can't provide anything smaller than 14 nm.
  
  SMIC claims to have mastered the 3nm chip process in the lab and is trying to buy the EUV lithography machines necessary for production from ASML, the Dutch company that currently has a monopoly on the critical equipment. But the United States is intent on blocking the sale.
  
  The Chinese Academy of Sciences has an EUV lithography research team and Tsinghua University has developed a new type of particle accelerator light source, which could be used for EUV lithography. But getting that technology out of the lab and into a machine remains many years away.
  
  Intel's plan-B? There is no way x86 can defend itself against ARM for a whole 5–10 years longer. Intel has started a new RISC-V development platform and invested in SiFive. RISC-V has inherent advantages which will allow Intel to compete in the opposite end of the market where they cannot compete at the moment with x86.. . . . . .



• Chinese Hypersonic Missile ‘Overcame the Constraints of Physics: The July test featured “a technological advance that enabled it to fire a missile as it approached its target traveling at least five times the speed of sound—a capability no country has previously demonstrated.”



• Anonymous trolls: Australia to introduce new laws to force media platforms to unmask online trolls. "The online world should not be a wild west where bots and bigots and trolls and others are anonymously going around and can harm people,"



• Ajith Namboothiri: Ninnu Kori.. Vasantha raga Varnam




• India’s oral traditions need to be mainstreamed: The Haridasu was a singer, musician, storyteller, actor, stand-up comedian and salesperson, all rolled into one! The accompanists were talented players of the mridangam and the harmonium.



• New demographic reality: India’s fertility rate slips below replacement level.



• Bengaluru scientists find potential treatment for autism: “However, this does not mean that there will be a sudden cure. There is a long and arduous process for drug discoveries to take place and could take about 12 years to complete. The molecule has to be tested for toxicity, its solubility pattern has to be worked out.”



• Thanksgiving and the Myth of Native American ‘Savages’: The friendliness of the Wampanoag was extraordinary, because they had recently been ravaged by diseases caught from previous European explorers. Europeans had also killed, kidnapped and enslaved Native Americans in the region. The Plymouth settlers, during their desperate first year, had even stolen grain and other goods from the Wampanoag,



• Mohan Bhagwat: A serious threat to BJP's election prospects

Every time I hear this Man, my respect for him dips at least by a few thousand miles. Nothing but contradiction & confusion!! https://t.co/oFbmfRX52o

— ProfMKay 🇮🇳🇨🇭🇸🇬 (@ProfMKay) November 27, 2021

Death wish?

India to resume regular international flight from mid-December to and from all but 14 countries with which India has existing air bubble agreement. The decision comes at a time when a new strain of Covid-19 has been detected in South Africa, Hong Kong and Botswana.

> India to resume international flights from December 15

> US joins EU, UK in restricting S Africa flights

> Israel to shut its borders to foreigners

> Japan bans entry of foreign travellers

⚠️BREAKING—HOTEL CROSS TRANSMISSION OF #B11529—Traveler from South Africa🇿🇦 flew to Hong Kong🇭🇰 with new variant—but wasn’t discovered until 4th day of quarantine on 2nd PCR. Another guest across hallway cross-infected—only positive on 8th day on 4th PCR! Both Pfizer vaccinated🧵 pic.twitter.com/USS2EBzJKA

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 25, 2021

2) the viral load of these two with #B11529 in Hong Kong hotels were VERY high. PCR Ct values of 18 and 19!!! That’s insanely high considering they were negative on recent PCR tests. Damn, looks like vaccine evasion could be real with this variant. https://t.co/s4UQS2wi8S

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 25, 2021

3) and hell yes it’s very airborne. The hotel guests were in different room across the hallway from each other. Environmental samples found the virus in 25 of 87 swab across both rooms. https://t.co/LbrThuLGOu

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 25, 2021

4) I think border and travel restrictions make sense. Especially since Hong Kong 🇭🇰 only caught the case because of a mandatory hotel quarantine. Which countries in the west still have that??? Almost none. https://t.co/owAaKS9lFa

— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) November 25, 2021

• B.1.1.529 has 32 mutations on the spike protein alone. This is an insane amount of change. As a comparison, Delta had 9 changes on the spike protein. We are particularly interested in mutations that could do any of the following:
  
  1. Increase transmissibility;
  
  2. Escape our vaccines or infection-induced immunity; and/or
  
  3. Increase severity (hospitalization or death).
  
  B.1.1.529 has the potential to do all three. It will take weeks to understand what these new mutations mean or, more importantly, the combination of so many mutations. Keep in mind that the number of mutations does NOT always equal more severe.
  
  

jati as an enabler of commerce and entrepreneurship

prof vaidya's book is interesting; his ideas upturn conventional thinking on the matter. 

malayalam movies not being shown in canada after screen slashing attacks

kurup is a film about a clever murderer who was never caught. if i remember, he faked his own death (insurance?) by providing a burnt body that was roughly his size. 

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/cineplex-movie-screens-in-ontario-torn-latest-in-string-of-attacks-tied-to-south-indian-language-films

Quick notes: Digital colony | Sponge cities...

• Happy to be a digital colony of the West and China: India has squandered its software lead and lags behind China in artificial intelligence by a decade. Many of its industries are technologically obsolete and dependent on imported technologies. While aspiring to become a world-class manufacturing base, most of India’s workforce is likely to remain immured in low-wage and low-skill tasks relative to better educated countries.



• Vietnam ahead of India in EVs: Vinfast has hired a number of executives, engineers and designers from around the world and that should help them understand consumers in markets like the US and Europe. "They're bringing them in full time, not just as consultants. I think that's going to help them when they try to enter this market."



• The ingenious living bridges of India: For centuries, indigenous groups in north-east India have crafted intricate bridges from living fig trees. Now this ancient skill is making its way to European cities.



• To curb urban flooding, China is building ‘sponge cities’: Professor Yu’s sponge city concept promotes a more harmonious relationship between humans and nature that in effect gives water more room to soak in and pool in urban areas – such as parks that are dry in some seasons and become shallow ponds or channels in rainy seasons. “Floods are not enemies; we can make friends with floods”.



• The unlikely protector against Bangladesh's rising seas: Oysters engineer their environment by clustering on hard, submerged surfaces and fusing together to create reef structures. Oyster reefs can provide relief to a coast constantly buffeted by strong waves.
  
  That is not their only benefit, though. "What you want is the sedimentation behind the reef structure that the oysters naturally form. The reefs give you a more extensive foreshore and [consequently] calmer waters". Such fluidity is the hallmark of the building with nature approach. And rather than being seen as a setback, it becomes part of the plan. "It's a dynamic process – not hard concrete. And that's the new understanding of using natural forces to achieve our goals".



• Pedestrianise, boost air quality: A clear improvement in air quality was recorded on pedestrianised weekends in central Bengaluru. Pedestrianising an urban street positively impacts QoL.
  
  Pedestrians are at higher risk across India: “Authorities are building more roads and flyovers. They are neglecting the most ancient mode of transportation".



• How cities are going carbon neutral: Cities are introducing ultra-Low Emission Zones (ULEZ). Paris is creating 650km of new cycle ways and hopes to open up the whole of the city to bicycles by 2026. The Colombian capital, Bogota, has made 75 miles of streets car-free.



• Give, Give, Give: The path to happiness - Swami Brahmananda




• For every 10 boys there are only six girls: Tamil Brahmin bachelors look towards North India as bride hunt gets tough in TN.



• Analysis: Why is Apple’s M1 chip ao fast?



• Crop Fires:

Smoke from crop fires in northern India blanketed Delhi and contributed to soaring levels of air pollution. https://t.co/Pe30imj6xV pic.twitter.com/RyNEmVcbXx

— NASA Earth (@NASAEarth) November 18, 2021

wokeness is winning in the san francisco bay area

the district attorney announced that he wouldn't prosecute anybody for thefts of less than $950. the DA is a successor of kamala harris. 

result? large scale pilfering and theft. stories from the san jose mercury news and epoch times. 

this is alarming and not conducive to the Great Game the US is supposed to be playing against the chinese. the soft power narrative is taking a big hit. 

will there be a reverse trickle, or flood, of indians from silicon valley? (if so, i will take credit for pioneering that 25 years ago! prescience! :-)

another crisis in education

my firstpost piece is at https://www.firstpost.com/india/there-is-another-crisis-in-education-can-india-turn-this-to-its-advantage-10153231.html

the podcast is at https://rajeevsrinivasan.substack.com/p/ep-46-there-is-another-crisis-in

another zinger: reliance and aramco call off joint venture. what does this mean?

i guess the big repositioning of reliance away from oil is not going to happen on saudis' money. as a reliance stockholder, i am pretty sure this will have a negative impact. i suspect the legacy oil assets will drag down RIL, and perhaps even Jio's prospects. 

What's Happened to Chinese Tennis Star Peng Shuai?

is paytm overhyped?

brokerage macquarie slams #paytm. good points. they don't have a moat, an amazon/facebook could eat them for breakfast, and UPI has eaten their lunch. and the chinese connection is a handicap. regulators will keep them at arms-length. and the eclipse of the ant financial empire means they will not be able to pump much money in.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/stocks/news/macquarie-sees-44-downside-in-cash-guzzler-paytm-sets-target-at-rs-1200/articleshow/87771326.cms?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Marketnewsletter&utm_content=story2&ncode=800bf13c6cf7d6e0e41cdaa38e2d4579c2693b4dfb9d635f1d7630d55cc44eaa379d697bd67bd18fa8f48ad7a0c0ca410a62eb01a59ab196ba3aba07507520469a77e7589e32fccf8059d05a6ed658fa

Quick notes: Illicit takeover | Vatican slams India...

• China Bought Italian Military-Drone Maker Without Authorities’ Knowledge: Italian and European authorities weren’t aware that a Chinese state-controlled company bought an Italian military-drone manufacturer and transferred its know-how and technology, revealing how Beijing is skirting weak investment-screening in Europe to acquire sensitive technology.



• China's rival to Tesla Semi: Geely's Homtruck will come with Level 4 autonomy. Meanwhile, the Tesla Semi has been delayed multiple times due to unavailability of its 4680-format battery cells. . . . India needs a national tech mission. Not fantasies like India-growth-story or its latest variant, Next-Economic-Supercycle.



• China Draws Up List to Replace Foreign Tech: The quasi-govt body will choose from a basket of suppliers to provide technology for sensitive sectors. . . . Unlike India's screw-driver plan to manufacture foreign tech.



• A battery on wheels: Can we use big batteries to power trains instead of tracks with overhead power lines?



• Vatican heaps guilt on India: The Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano gave frontpage coverage to India’s alleged hypocrisy, underscoring its reticence to commit to CO2 reductions in Glasgow while experiencing dangerous levels of smog in New Delhi and elsewhere.
  
  "India's track record with renewables is solid". The emphasis on coal while leaving out oil and gas would disproportionately impact developing countries.
  
  Hypocrisy: Coal power plants are running at full tilt in parts of Europe. Under Europe’s climate policies, this shouldn’t be happening.



• Icelandverse: Get a 'Real' life.




• Ghost soldiers: Afghanistan's ex-finance minister has blamed the government's fall on corrupt officials who invented "ghost soldiers" and took payments from the Taliban.



• Electric scooters find buyers: India is one of the most vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather events like heat waves and floods. Disruptions to the rainy monsoon season are already having a major impact on agriculture.



• Bridging the skills gap: Bangladesh is making a serious attempt to improve its schools. It hopes to move away from rote learning and towards actual learning. A choice of two vocational subjects from such options as woodwork, graphic design, car mechanics, child care and plumbing will be mandatory for high-schoolers. The government also plans to open more technical universities.



• India is multi-lingual: We don't need one language.

We don't need one language, India was always multi-lingual. All central govt facilities must be available in all Indian languages. Every child must have the right to study to the highest level in their mother tongue.https://t.co/ie3FwlEdx6

— Sankrant Sanu सानु संक्रान्त ਸੰਕ੍ਰਾਂਤ ਸਾਨੁ (@sankrant) November 16, 2021




• How Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography works:

More Investment Flows Switching from China to India?

More unreadable verbiage from dr Kang

Gagandeep Kang is the Pratap Bhanu Mehta of the Indian medical establishment. Lots of words, no meaning. My eyes glaze over when i read her stuff. Did you know she's not even a virologist? But she has a contract from Pfizer, it would appear, if you read between the lines.

Kissinger On US-China Relationship, and On Artificial Intelligence

US official document still refers to the 'state of jammu and kashmir'

isn't this something that the GoI needs to fix? tell biden that 370 has been revoked. afaik, there is no more 'state of J&K' but some union territories. 

this is in a travel advisory from the US embassy. 

covid rising? no problem. cancel thanksgiving

yes, if it were india, that would be the preferred option according to the media and courts and parts of the govt. 

and they'd do it too, and make the public feel guilty. 

how do i know this? hollow laugh from an indian. 

Why India Will Never Be Part of U.S. Alliances

 

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2021/11/11/why-india-will-never-be-part-of-u-s-alliances/

US Media, Once Champions of Aam Admi, Now Become Elites

Nowhere is it more epitomized than NYT.

Kash Patel Connects the Dots on Russia Hoax

More indictments are handed out, as the left-wing conspiracy to oust Trump from office unravels:

China and Macro Impact w/ Kyle Bass

Kyle Bass of Hayman Capital is credited with having foreseen the US housing bubble which crashed in 2008. He offers his analysis and insights on what's going on behind the scenes in regards to China's handling of its economic bubble, and the implications for the world:

males beware: parthenogenesis (virgin birth) by california condors

i don't know if this is fake news, but the economist reports that california condors show virgin birth leading to chicks that actually hatched.

two outcomes:

1. feminazi women may plot of exterminate all men

2. maybe the jesus christ virgin birth myth isn't as far fetched as we thought. of course that story is preceded by the kunti mata virign birth stories. 

one more U-turn by US CDC: herd immunity isn't the goal any more

yes, the science is uncertain. but at every stage, the people in charge in the US (and some of the snake-oil type commentators in india) act like they have 100% certainty on everything. remember ramanan lakshminarayan, an economist, who confidently predicted 300 million deaths in india, and was feted on every TV channel? what a salesman! similarly fauci, daszak and other 'experts' in the US.

this isn't science any more, it's economics. at least some sectors are making huge profits, and the pandemic has become their feeding-trough. they want to milk it for all it's worth.

https://news.yahoo.com/cdc-shifts-pandemic-goals-away-130028307.html

fine example of the kalidasa syndrome

that is, cutting off the branch that you're sitting on.

wall street + US VCs = china's best friend. 

lancet paper on covaxin phase 3 results: 78% efficacy

since it's only considered official if it's printed in the peer reviewed (but dicey journal) lancet, here it is:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)02000-6/fulltext

this appears to be a real solution, as opposed to the much hyped mRNA type vaccines. no wonder the media tried so hard to suppress it: real risk to pfizer. 

Are Intellectuals in France Falling Under the Grip of Anti-India Leftists?

 India-bashing is becoming more popular among the commentariat in France:

https://newindian.in/all-political-discourse-today-in-france-sounds-like-debate-about-india/

Can India Become the Next Economic Supercycle?

Economic supercycles are those longer-term economic movements which span across multiple conventional economic cycles, and investments into which can lead to greater long-term gains.

https://fortune.com/2021/02/27/what-is-a-supercycle-investing-commodities-wall-street-copper-crude-rally/

https://financialpost.com/financial-times/why-a-new-commodity-supercycle-is-upon-us

The rise of China has been referred to as an economic supercycle.

Can India with its large market potential become the next one?

sounds a little pathetic. like brit blimps pretending empire still exists

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/10/28/china-is-definitely-on-the-rise-but-dont-write-off-american-dominance-just-yet/

sounds a little pathetic. i love the US, and wholeheartedly wish the US well, but this is obama-style atlanticist nostalgia. move on to the indo-pacific future. indian ocean rim, esp africa and india: that's where the action is, and the US is MIA there.

Quick notes: Thanksgiving | Sinjar revisited...

• Religion of "Love": 400 years on, Native Indians still regret helping the Pilgrims survive their first Thanksgiving.
  
  Thanksgiving portrays an idea of “us seeming like idiots who welcomed all of these changes and supports the idea that Pilgrims brought us a better life because they were superior.”
  
  The English pushed the Wampanoag off their land and forced many to convert to Christianity. “We had a pray-or-die policy at one point here among our people”.. “If you didn’t become a Christian, you had to run away or be killed.”
  
  “For us, Thanksgiving kicked off colonization. Our lives changed dramatically. It brought disease, servitude and so many things that weren’t good for Indigenous cultures.
  
  



• Yazidis still displaced in their own country: Sinjar's volatile security situation is the main reason not all Yazidis want to come back. And for many survivors, it's simply unthinkable to come back to a place inhabited by their tormentors.
  
  "They wanted to force us to change religion". Some 12,000 people were kidnapped or killed in the first week of what the UN has characterized as the Yazidi genocide in August 2014. IS fighters kidnapped and indoctrinated children. Boys were trained to become IS fighters, and women and girls were sold into sexual slavery.



• Carbon Border Tax: New ploy by rich nations? UK could hike import duties on countries that "fail to tackle climate change".



• The $80 bln hole in India's climate pledge: India can deliver on its pledge, provided a $80 billion hole in the heart of the country’s power system can be filled. Discoms’ payment arrears are now nearly $14 billion, almost a fifth of which are claims of renewable power producers.



• Anand Malligawad: Meet the activist cleaning up Bengaluru's lakes




• BBC's credibility is a thing of the past: Debunking the BBC debunk of ivermectin



• Is Facebook Bad for You?: It is for about 360 million users. Facebook researchers have found that 1 in 8 of its users report engaging in compulsive use of social media that impacts their sleep, work, parenting or relationships
  
  Social-curse: Instagram, FB and Tiktok addiction is a massive problem.
  
  Not a company we should trust: Metaverse will invade workers’ privacy.



• China Could Be Exploiting Internet Security Process to Steal Data: There are opportunities for a communist entity, a bad actor, or another untrustworthy entity to issue Digital Certificates to other “nefarious folks” that would appear to be trustworthy but aren’t.



• Rwanda goes electric with locally made e-motorbikes: There will be a loss of fuel tax revenue - but the benefits include a shift to locally produced power sources, lower fuel importation costs and job creation



• The Empire State Trail: A new 750-mile bicycle route from Manhattan to Buffalo to the Canadian border opened to the public. A combination of protected paths, city streets, highway shoulders and country roads that pass by small towns and cities — offers views of wetlands, waterways, grasslands and mountain ranges.