Quick notes: Food vs fuel | Europe's problems...

• Food vs. fuel: Biden chooses ethanol interests in the face of global food shortages. . . . . . rules for thee, not for me



• Europe whining: "Europe has to grow out of the mindset that its problems are the world's problems but the world's problems are not Europe's problems. It has been singularly silent on many things which were happening, for example in Asia, you could ask why would anybody trust Europe on anything at all".



• Indo-Pacific Economic Framework: Two years after walking out of RCEP, the China-centric free trade pact, India is embracing the chance to become a founding member of another grouping — this one led by the U.S. "A major flaw of RCEP was the inclusion of China. China agrees to everything on paper, but has no compunctions about evading rules in practice. IPEF is very attractive to India because it includes east & southeast Asian countries but excludes China".



• You can be both "cool" and sober: Young women are using Instagram to show others you can be both "cool" and sober. Retired Party Girl and No Booze Babes are online communities for those rethinking their relationship to alcohol. Alcohol alternatives, like kava seltzers and CBD drinks, are getting popular on the heels of this sober curious movement.



• Plastic pollution is ubiquitous: Indian elephants are getting too much plastic in their diets. Plastic comprised 85 percent of the waste found in the elephant dung from Kotdwar. The bulk of this came from food containers and cutlery, followed by plastic bags and packaging.



• Basant in Georgia: Russians singing Om Namo Namah Shivaya




• Sridhar Vembu brings clarity:

We need a strong targeted program in India with the explicit goal of reaching & exceeding the state-of-the-art in all of the essential production technologies we depend on for modern life.

Government must push this hard and private sector must lead the effort.

We can do this.🙏 https://t.co/R5ukwj81QC

— Sridhar Vembu (@svembu) May 29, 2022




• Make the most of it: Japan to enable fighter jet and missile exports to 12 nations. India, Australia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Philippines among destinations... "Deterrence against China".



• Lessons learnt: Nepal has become increasingly wary of China's expansive Belt and Road Initiative amid Sri Lanka's financial collapse, fresh loans from the US and a shift towards India.



• RISC-V: Intel to explore RISC-V architecture for Zettascale Supercomputers



• Gravitricity: Gravity "batteries" for energy storage?



• Big-pharma's big mystery: Why boosted Americans seem to be getting more COVID-19 infections.