Quick notes: GM corn | Whites-only...

• Arm-twisted: US trade talks may be cracking India’s opposition to GM crops. Concessions offered by the Indian trade team already included the possible easing of some restrictions on the import of GM corn. “GM is a life and death issue for Indian farmers.”... are we Trump's dumpyard?



• ‘It could feed the world’: Amaranth, a health trend 8,000 years old that survived colonization.. The Spanish believed that amaranth was a satanic food of natives. 1521: Spanish conquistadors ban amaranth cultivation under penalty of having hands severed, destroying temples where 200,000 people annually consumed tzoalli (amaranth-honey statues) during ceremonies. . . Rajgira could be game-changer for Indian farmer.




• White Right-wingers Only: Trump considers overhaul of refugee system that would favor white people. Importing white South Africans and European Nazis.



• Trump immigration plan may wipe out 15M jobs by 2035: Fewer workers in the labor force could have dramatic effects on the U.S. economy, from lower economic growth to reductions in the nation's goods and services produced.



• Soft on Beijing: Trump has purged the National Security Council of many advisers who advocated a tougher line toward China and diminished the role of the council. China hawks grow queasy over Trump’s push for deals with Beijing.



• 'DOGE was all about collecting data for Musk's Grok': Tariffs are way up. Interest on debt tops $1 Trillion. And DOGE didn’t do much.



• Japanese Monster: Shohei Ohtani’s historic performance sends LA back to World Series.




• How China Built Tech Prowess: Chemistry Classes and Research Labs. Unlike India's history debate clubs



• GOP's true colors: Leaked messages expose Young Republicans’ racist chat. “Im going to create some of the greatest physiological torture methods known to man. We only want true believers”. ‘I love Hitler’



• Trump Organization Expands in India: Where Many of Its Partners Face Accusations

Quick notes: Agrivoltaics | Outsourcing tax...

• Farming under solar panels: "It reduces irrigation needs, shields crops from heat stress, and stabilizes incomes by diversifying revenue streams for farmers".




• Let MAGA eat soy: America’s latest farmer crisis is Government-Grown. Losses could fuel farm bankruptcies around the United States.
  
  
  


• Waiting for socialist bailouts: China’s snub of U.S. soybeans is a crisis for American farmers



• Forever dependent on foreign tech: India's IT sector nervous as US proposes 25% outsourcing tax.. Navarro reposted a call from far-right activist Jack Posobiec for tariffs on services, not just goods.




Blaming AI for India’s IT woes is like blaming Uber for walking less. Truth is: we never built OS, chips or cloud because jugaad outsourcing was too profitable. Time isn’t the threat-our comfort zone is.

— Fropky (@fropky) September 6, 2025




• Trump attacks his cash cow: Hundreds of U.S. colleges poised to close in next decade. “Over the next decade, we’re going through a very painful but necessary re-balancing in supply and demand.”



• Ashtavakra Gita: The Perfect Spiritual Guide to Enlightenment




• Wi-Fi signals used to measure heart rate accurately: Signal variations caused by a beating heart enable determining beats per minute. The UCSC team, which included Professor Katia Obraczka, Ph.D. student Nayan Bhatia, and high school student and visiting researcher Pranay Kocheta, used a low-cost ESP32 chip and paired it with a machine learning algorithm to detect changes in the Wi-Fi signal caused by the heart. They then run it through a machine learning algorithm, which can estimate the heart rate with an accuracy of around half a beat per minute



• "Strength of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship": US firm makes a $500 million investment deal with Pakistan for critical minerals

Quick notes: Tone it down | Addicted kids...

• Tone it down on Khalistan: To be sure, there is no longer an active Khalistan insurgency in India, and Sikh extremist violence is rare now. One can ask what is gained by focusing so much attention on a relatively small group of people thousands of miles away who are committed to a cause that has essentially petered out in India itself.



• Kids Addicted: Majority of Indian parents say their kids addicted to social media, OTT. "Gadget addiction by children between ages 9-18 has become the new reality. The addiction, in some children, is leading to emotional, mental and physical disturbances".



• 'Coaching industry is toxic': It is unnatural to study without any purpose day and night. Your personality gets stunted. "Many of my engineering friends who are following the typical definition of success, have an elevated 'unhappiness level'. Many who have cracked these exams are now planning to go into business. They are realizing this much later after having run too far into this race. They join the corporate world and some feel burnt out".
  
  The coaching industry is the byproduct of a third world country. Since there are so many unemployed, it creates a competition among the unemployed. The institutes make you feel that if you clear the entrance exam you are very special.



• NYT features Anand Malligavad: India’s ‘Lake Man’ relies on ancient methods to ease a water crisis... After Anand Malligavad tumbled into a lake, he thought he might die. Not from drowning, but the stench. Like hundreds of other lakes in Bengaluru, the one Mr. Malligavad suddenly found himself in was a receptacle for sewage, plastic debris and construction waste.



• Millets for all: The pitfalls of growing too much wheat and rice can no longer be denied. The dominant varieties of these staples require large quantities of fertilizer, chemicals and water. They have been linked to lifestyle diseases. Meanwhile, the natural resource economy and nutritional benefits of millets are beyond dispute.



• Earthing Experiment with Dr Christy Westen: Power of Grounding




• Science with a spoonful of humor: Sabine Hossenfelder got famous on YouTube. Now it helps fund her research in quantum gravity



• Layered AI: Huawei vows to build 'Computing Backbone' for China's AI ambitions. . . . China stimulates investments in chips with massive R&D incentives . . . . . CHIPS Act tries to keep Quantum away from China. . . . China's third Exascale supercomputer reportedly comes online. Meanwhile, the US currently only has two exascale machines, Frontier and Aurora, in operation.



• Tied to next Indian elections: Is Biden using Trudeau to get back at Modi?



• Radical gender ideology: Trudeau accuses parents protesting grooming of manifesting ‘hate’

Quick notes: Hindenburg 2.0 | Oldest language...

• Hindenburg 2.0? George Soros-backed OCCRP said to be planning another 'expose'.. Concerted destabilization of Indian markets.



• RoP, meet Peacful Rise: China makes it harder for its Muslim citizens to go to Mecca, or anywhere else



• China's fertility rate drops to record low 1.09: Concerned about China's first population drop in six decades and its rapid ageing population, Beijing is urgently trying an array of measures to lift the birth rate including financial incentives and improved childcare facilities.



• What's the world's oldest language? “There are disputes among scholars about the precise date of ancient texts ascribed to Tamil and whether the language used is actually similar enough to modern Tamil to categorize them as the same language”.



• Padma Shri Meenakshi Amma: 78-year-old Kalaripayattu teacher




• Himachal Pradesh floods: More rain, less snow are turning Himalayas dangerous



• Point of no-return in the Himalayas: The collapse of a stretch of the Rishikesh-Badrinath highway, which is a part of the controversial Char Dham Project, has again raised questions about the Rs 12,000-crore project. The highway collapse is considered to have resulted from the weakening of the foundation of the road by the torrential rains that have lashed Uttarakhand. Landslides happen almost every day in some part of the region, boulders slide down on vehicles, and roads and buildings suddenly cave in.



• Mindless growth: NGT vindicated in Shimla ruling. “We hereby prohibit new construction of any kind in any part of the Core and Green/Forest area.” Beyond this green zone, “construction will not be permitted beyond two storeys plus attic floor”. It is surprising that the State government has pressed ahead with a development plan that appears to disregard the NGT ruling.



• Back to the future for India's rice farmers: Red rice has attractive qualities. It is hardy and grows well without fertiliser and other chemicals. Research also shows it has nutritional benefits over white rice. But perhaps for farmers the biggest attraction is that it sells well.
  
  "Many of the current incentive systems like fertilizer subsidy, free power, canal irrigation, minimum support price and procurement, all work against the interest of farmers to shift towards more sustainable production".



• Huawei Builds Secret Fab Network to Avoid U.S. Sanctions: This network is not a perfect substitute for TSMC and its leading edge process technologies — but it will make it easier for Huawei to procure commodity chips for a variety of applications without any restrictions from the U.S.



• China owning EV battery space: Chinese battery supplier CATL announces a new lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that the company claims will enable super-fast charging - 250 miles of range in 10 minutes



• Nvidia is worth $240 per share: Says Aswath Damodaran, NYU Stern School of Business Professor of Finance and valuation guru.



• Bhagavan Das: God is not a big deal

Quick notes: Forest schools | Light therapy...

• Learning from nature: Scandinavian-style forest schools are booming in Europe and the US – and spreading in Asia, too.



• Privacy hits Zuck's pocket: Apple iOS privacy change will decrease Facebook’s sales this year by about $10 billion.



• ‘Sold by Amazon’ program shut down: Amazon shuts down ‘Sold by Amazon’ program in the US following antitrust investigation. Amazon engages in unlawful price-fixing and restrained competition in order to maximize its profits.



• Chenab Rail Bridge: Highest railway bridge in the world




• TVS acquires 75 percent stake in Swiss e-Mobility Group: TVS is focusing on building a portfolio of premium and tech-driven brands, including Norton Motorcycles and eGO Movement.



• Eco-friendly alternative to fertilizer: You can swap your fertilizer for black-eyed peas



• Mindfulness: The 10-minute hack that is as ‘good as 40 minutes extra sleep’



• Light Therapy and Melatonin: Optimize Health and Immunity with Sunlight.
  1. View early morning sunlight.
  2. Get more light throughout the day. Preferably sunlight.
  3. Minimize bright light (screen time) after sunset.
  4. There is more to sunlight than Vitamin-D
  5. Oral melatonin is not a substitute
  6. Oral Vitamin-D is not a substitute
  7. LED bulbs bad - no Near-Infrared-Radiation. Incandescent bulbs better.




• Only Hindus can be "communal": Why is secular France doubling funding for Christian schools in the Middle East?



• Can Erdogan mediate a deal between Russia and Ukraine? Moscow is angered by Turkey providing Ukraine with combat drones.
  
  Drone Superpower: How Turkey became a drone superpower.

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

Quick notes: GM rice | Lying under oath...

• Reputation damage: 500 tonnes of genetically modified rice found in a consignment exported to the EU... India is yet to approve commercial cultivation of GM crops but allowed confined field trials resulting in “contamination and leaks” that made their way to the food chain.. "Only feeds the MNCs".



• 2-DG for Covid: Texas company to commence Phase 1a clinical trial. . . . any credit to DRDO?



• Muslims not minorities: “There are 20-22 crore Muslims in the country. How can 22 crore people be a minority?”.
  
  'Facebook post led to violence against Hindus in Bangladesh': Key suspect confesses crime
  
  BBC: Violence in B'desh is Hindus' fault: "The BJP has stoked fear of immigration from Bangladesh, causing anger in Dhaka, and Hindu hardliners in India have called for immigrants to be deported to Bangladesh".
  
  A German Muslim convert has been jailed for 10 years for letting a five-year-old Yazidi "slave" girl die of thirst in the sun.



• Lying under oath: Executives at Amazon, including founder Jeff Bezos, may have misled or lied to Congress about the firm's business practices.. A trade group representing thousands of India's brick-and-mortar retailers called for action against Amazon.



• Engineering courses in Hindi and Marathi: Pimpri Chinchwad College Of Engineering, Pune gets approval from AICTE to start BTech course in Marathi.



• Like your American counterparts: start paying for your own education and all expenses

I “like” how the youngsters of India have started taking their own decisions and keeping their parents out of it like their American counterparts!

Just do one thing: start paying for your own education and wedding and all expenses from 18 years of age on first!

Then talk!

— Gautam Govitrikar DMD (@Gautaamm) October 17, 2021




• BikAss ain't BikAss: Vikas that destroys a fragile ecosystem, leads to deforestation, causes landslides, loss of lives and homes, is not vikas. Mindless construction in the Western Ghats and the Himalayas in the name of development is destroying all that is good and wonderful



• Facts that should be in Greta's toolkit:

₹400 crore worth of hay burnt in Punjab yearly.
2 crore ton!
77,000 ton of Nitrogen emitted.
56 lakh ton animal edible nutreants lost.
10 LT crude protein, 3 lakh ton of digestible crude protein (DCP), 80 lakh ton of total digestible nutrient (TDN) lost.

(Yes HR & UP burn too) pic.twitter.com/5y1RyZHolq

— Kiran Kumar S (@KiranKS) October 17, 2021




• Plastisphere: The planet's seafloor is littered with an estimated 14 million tonnes of microplastics



• Enes Kanter: NBA player wears ‘Free Tibet’ shoes to game, China cuts livestream. . . . caught between free speech and lucrative Chinese market.

Quick notes: Annual vaccination | Han birth-rate...

• Golden goose for Big Pharma: Pfizer-BioNTech says immunity wanes, annual vaccination needed. . . . . Revenue stream! Subscription model, Yay!! Thank you, China!



• China stresses family values as more women put off marriage: Mao urged women to join the workforce to help build the nation and to hold off on marrying and having children. The new regime emphasizes family virtues to pass on the 'Red Gene'. Social-media accounts of women’s-rights groups are being deleted.



• Tianhe-3 exascale prototype supercomputer: China’s Exascale prototype supercomputer tests AI workloads -- potential for leadership-class systems to tackle deep learning.



• Asphalt nation: 'In 3 years, India's infrastructure will be on par with the US'. . . . . . blindly aping Amrika.
  
  With just 1% of the world's vehicles, India accounts for 11% of the global deaths in road accidents.



• Farming without chemicals: The Green Revolution made the land infertile, led to extensive water consumption and exacerbated groundwater loss. It also led to widespread use of chemical pesticides and fertilisers. A few years ago, Andhra Pradesh launched an ambitious programme called Zero Budget Natural Farming that is transforming things on the ground. The idea is simple: to stop the dependency on chemicals and revive the land. It's already starting to show results. The state is now well on its way to becoming India's first 100% organic farming state.




• Traditional ways of Storing Grains: “Seed is the embodiment of the ideas and knowledge, of the culture and heritage of a people. It is an accumulation of philosophy, of tradition, of knowledge.” . . . . Indigenous grain storage structures of Tamil Nadu.



• Wafer Scale Chip - 2.0: 7nm, 2.6 Trillion Transistors, 850,000 Cores, 15kW of Power from Cerebras



• Sales of Fab Tools Surge to Over $71 Billion: China is intensifying its domestic semiconductor efforts amid the trade war with the U.S.



• Raag Shuddh Kalyan: Pt. Venkatesh Kumar

Quick notes: Amazon drivers | Border villages...

• Oppressive greed: Amazon apologises after falsely denying that drivers are, at times, forced to urinate in plastic bottles.
  
  Biden singles out Amazon for not paying federal taxes



• Licorice for Covid? Scientists from Manesar have found that an ingredient in Mulethi (Yashthimadhu) has the potential to emerge as a drug candidate against SARS-CoV-2 as it lowers the severity of the disease and brings down viral replication.



• China Building Villages in Indian Himalayas: “Beijing expanded in South China Sea not by directly employing force but through asymmetrical and hybrid warfare. That success has emboldened China and it has taken that playbook to the Himalayan borderlands”.



• Shaolin: The legendary Bodhidharma gave up his throne to become a monk and propagate Zen Buddhism that he founded. He gave physical training to the monks of Shaolin, from which kung fu and other martial arts evolved.




• Ghar Wapsi: At 47%, Hinduism biggest gainer in religious conversion in Kerala . . . . . expect more in the coming decades



• Data warfare: Russian law requires smart devices to come pre-installed with domestic software.



• On-board generator: Making 'fully electric' viable for larger trucks




• Satyameva Jayate: Salvatore Babones in Foreign Policy Mag:
  
  Farm incomes in Punjab and Haryana are the highest in India, with the average farmer earning more than twice the national average. They also garner the lion’s share of govt support. More than 90 percent of their cropland is covered by heavily subsidized irrigation. And the govt buys almost the entire output of Punjab and Haryana farmers at minimum support prices that are set far above market levels. The results are huge and growing official stockpiles of wheat and rice, much of which ends up being given away to the country’s poor—or simply rotting in place.
  
  The Jat farmers of Punjab and Haryana have long lobbied India’s govt to maintain an agricultural system that is both economically wasteful and environmentally destructive. And why shouldn’t they? India is a democracy, and in a democracy, the squeaky wheel gets the grease—and the subsidies.



• On Being Quiet:

Quick notes: Cyber frontline | Server chips...

• Sino-Pak axis on Cyber warfare: There is evidence to believe that China is assisting Pakistani hackers in their campaigns against India, notably including an operation intended to steal sensitive data from the Indian military and plant malware on Indian defense systems launched in 2019.



• 256-core server chips from Chinese Academy of Engineering: Switching from MIPS to RISC-V should not be too challenging given the architectural similarities. Meanwhile, the adoption of RISC-V means that Loongson's upcoming processors will be supported by a broad ecosystem of software and hardware, something that will inevitably make them more competitive.



• Wannabe East India Companies: India’s move to deter digital monopolies may hit Amazon, Walmart



• Facebook + Google versus the news industry: Lobbyists for Facebook and Google threw their weight against new U.S. legislation to allow news publishers to negotiate collectively against tech companies over revenue sharing. The bills come not long after Facebook battled with Australia over news content.



• Gardening in hot summers: How to successfully grow a garden in HOT climates




• Boarding Schools for India’s Outcasts: "We used to produce about six doctors a year [from graduates]. This year we have produced 189".



• Toxic city: Hyderabad home to multiple contaminated sites



• US Army takes to Yoga: Why the Army is teaching Yoga to new recruits

Quick notes: State actors | Annus Horribilis...

• Big Tech is like a state actor now: Google, Facebook and Twitter should be treated as state actors under existing legal doctrines. A threat to our sovereignty.
  
  - Govt open to launching Indian app store, develop our own tech platforms.

India has the market size to do a serious Android fork, with a mobile OS and App Store controlled by neither Apple nor Google.

Xiaomi, KaiOS, Cyanogen, and the history of Chinese Android forks show there is a path here. https://t.co/DxB6VY6xul

— balajis.com (@balajis) January 11, 2021




• Chinese vaccine is 50% effective: China’s effort to boost its image by providing Covid-19 vaccines to the developing world suffered a setback after one of its leading inoculation candidates turned out to be 50% effective in late-stage trials in Brazil, significantly lower than earlier results showed.



• Will 2021 be China’s annus horribilis? Has Beijing succeeded in intimidating India with its brazen info warfare? Absolutely not. Has Mr Xi’s prestige been enhanced after Ladakh? Certainly not. Instead, it showed the PLA’s limitations facing a determined adversary.
  
  Economically too, Beijing lost a lot, especially with India (and several other countries) banning a number of Chinese apps and the decision to not award big contracts to China. One could add many issues to the list. All this makes me think 2021 will an “annus horribilis” for China and its new Great Helmsman. It would only be justice. -Claude Arpi



• Signal and Telegram downloads surge: WhatsApp collects account registration information such as your phone number, transaction data, service-related information, information on how you interact with others, including businesses when using the service, and mobile device information.
  
  - Elon Musk discloses funding Signal, says will 'donate more'



• Zero-dairy way to preserve native Indian cow breeds: Beejom doubles up as an animal sanctuary for native Indian cow breeds by trailing the focus away from dairy farming and towards an economy around cow dung and cow urine instead.




• Big Tech is tracking you: Hidden map on your phone shows everywhere you’ve been and the photos you took there



• Robot uses UV-C Light to fight Covid in schools, offices: Adibot is programmed to disinfect rooms on its own. UV light is proven to kill bacteria and viruses, including COVID-19, but it’s also harmful to human eyes and skin, potentially causing skin cancer or cataracts.

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

Quick notes: iPhone assembly | Solid-state battery...

• 12-hour shifts, no overtime: Wistron's labor law violations in Indian iPhone assembly plant
  
  > "Wistron, Foxconn and Pegatron all have huge rounds of employee loss during Chinese new year as people go home and never come back due to dissatisfaction and my guess is they expected the same outside China instead of workers actually protesting"
  
   > "Amazing how much profit *doesn't* go to the actual employees"
  
  > Deniability: “It’s not our business; they’re not our employees. We will investigate.”
  
  > It’s bad enough that Apple is using slave labor in China, that will not be tolerated in a freer country like India. Beyond that the wages highlight just how low Apple will go to enhance margins.



• Jagdeep Singh, founder and CEO at QuantumScape: Electric car battery startup is on the cusp of changing the industry.



• Energy bonus: Tiny nuclear reactors yield a huge amount of clean hydrogen



• Kalmane Kamegowda: Indian shepherd combats water scarcity by building ponds. He spent at least $14,000 from his and his son’s earnings to dig a chain of 16 ponds on a picturesque hill near his village in Karnataka. During rainy season, these tanks get filled with water and serve as reservoirs for birds and other forest animals during the summer.
  



• A story of inappropriate technology: Excellent thread.

  A story of inappropriate technology: in the 1970s it was decided to modernize the rice farming of Sri Lanka, whose system that had not changed much for 3000 years. The goal was to replace the water buffalo with the modern tractor, but the attempt had disastrous consequences... pic.twitter.com/XIl5sUQf8k

  — Wrath Of Gnon (@wrathofgnon) December 13, 2020




• Death by fertilizers: India is the top urea producer in the world, accounts for 44.42% of the world's urea production.



• E-commerce scams: Chinese hackers targeted Indians with e-shopping scams. They created bogus links and asked internet users to click on them to participate in online contests and win prizes



• Bilateral swaps’ further China’s global footprint: The swap line encourages partners to increase reliance on Chinese goods and RMB loans to buy them, enhancing thereby its economic influence. It also furthers the goal of internationalising the RMB and establishing it as an alternative reserve currency.



• The Power of Now: The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present.

"The power for creating a better future is contained in the present moment: You create a good future by creating a good present." -Eckhart Tolle

☀️#ZenYogaVibes

— Zen Yoga Vibes (@ZenYogaVibes) December 6, 2020

Quick notes: Gulags in Tibet | Chinese tech...

• Gulags are thriving: China is pushing Tibetans off their lands and turning them into factory workers . 500K Tibetans were forced into labor camps this year and quotas were set for transfers outside the region.
  :: China's new plan to tame Tibet.
  
  Himalayan villagers support Indian troops: “We want to help the Indian army to secure their positions immediately. We are carrying supplies to them, doing multiple rounds in a day, to ensure that the army doesn’t face too many problems.”. . . The Tibet factor.
  



• China's tech prowess: Increasingly, China is supplying the kind of sophisticated machinery that German manufacturers once dominated, like high-end tunnel borers and hydraulic valves and pumps used in wind turbines. “It’s only a matter of time until Chinese firms are No. 1,” says Ulrich Ackermann of German Engineering Association. 



• State Media: Chinese tech companies going abroad are ‘spreading China’s influence’



• Good riddance: Facebook may leave Europe if Ireland enforces ban on data sharing with US



• Microgreens: Hydroponic Farm Ventures Take Root in Indian Cities



• China’s 40-Year, Billion-Tree Project: Launched in 1978 to protect the north, northwest, and northeast, three regions affected by sandstorms sweeping out of the Gobi Desert, the so-called Three-North Shelter Forest Program aimed to grow 87 million acres of new trees—a forest the size of Germany—across the country’s north by 2050.



• Turning Gray into Green: Meishe River Greenway and Fengxiang Park, Haikou, China




• Pakistan begins phase-3 trial of Chinese vaccine: It was an “honor” for Pakistan to be among the few countries participating in “the biggest and relatively difficult” phase-3 study of a vaccine.
  
  Irony: China struggling to convince citizens to take Chinese-made flu shots

Quick notes: Tibet advantage | Urban farming...

• Claude Arpi: Is the ‘Tibet card’ in play? A dramatic Indian Army operation last week has given India tactical advantage in the 4-month-long confrontation with China. It was the first time in those four months that the Indian Army could ‘pre-empt’ the Chinese grabbing more Indian territory.. The best bet for India and the exiled Tibetans is to work closely together; it could pay rich dividends.



• PLA failures: Xi Jinping plans to purge Chinese military after failures on Indian border.. Xi is pushing China to the brink of military confrontations in several theaters by personally taking a hand in provocative actions like the August 26 launch of “aircraft carrier killer” ballistic missiles into the South China Sea. 



• Peaceful fall: Decoupling with U.S. would cut China’s growth to 3.5%. China would face even more disastrous consequences if the U.S. can coordinate its key allies, such as Japan, South Korea, Germany and France, to also decouple. In that case, China’s growth potential could fall to 1.6% in 2030.



• Dr D Nageshwar Reddy: Initially, people were talking about the importance of handwashing but now we know they are less important than wearing masks. One study has said that if masks are put on properly and if physical distancing is followed, it is equivalent to 90% effect of lockdown. Instead of lockdown, the same effect can be achieved by people wearing masks and maintaining distance.



• Urban farming is catching on: It can make us healthier and more resilient: Getting out into nature and gardening can improve your mental health and physical fitness.

Quick notes: Agrivoltaics | NEP...

• Agrivoltaics: Generate electricity and grow crops simultaneously with tinted, semi-transparent solar panels. The tinted solar panels absorb blue and green wavelengths to generate electricity. Orange and red wavelengths pass through, allowing plants underneath to grow.
  
  While the crop receives less than half the total amount of light it would get if grown in a standard agricultural system, the colours passing through the panels are the ones most suitable for its growth.
  
  Agrivoltaics work best for plants that grow well in partial shade. Potential functioning crops include hog peanut, alfalfa, yam, taro, cassava, sweet potato, along with lettuce.
  
  Food, water, energy at its best.




• NEP: Syncing education with practical knowledge and the needs of the times, the policy recommends that from the sixth standard onward, students be taught coding in school... The premium on “English-medium'' should also ease a bit, with the government encouraging early learning in the mother tongue or regional language.

Coding & AI is skill like that of the carpenter and the artist.

India teaching coding only via English is like asking children of merchants to make furniture.

Explains why Indian coders lag those from China, Japan, Russia, or US where coding is taught in via own languages.

— Subhash Kak (@subhash_kak) August 2, 2020




• Alexa Fund: Amazon met with startups about investing, then launched competing products. In some cases, it has met with startups about possible takeovers, figured out how their technology works and then refused to invest in them when it launches a competing product at a later stage.



• Energy-based-weaponry: Israel's Iron Beam, the laser that could destroy Iranian missiles



• Three Gorges Dam: Was it worth it? No!
  
  Some geologists say instead of relying on dams to stop flooding, we should give rivers space and allow them to expand during the flood season. "Large alluvial rivers naturally flood during the wet season. Floodwater is not a problem, that's simply what rivers do. The problem is when you have a lot of people living in the areas that are subject to flooding".
  
  Many dams in the northwestern coast of the US were actually removed because they blocked the migration of fish from the ocean up the rivers, causing their populations to drop. In the southeast of the country, upstream dams in the mountains created environmental problems, driving fish species to extinction, causing water pollution, and the recession of coastlines due to the blocking of sediments.



• Reverse migration: Pandemic triggers reverse migration from India cities to villages. Creating ways to earn a living for migrants who have lost jobs remains India’s biggest challenge as it grapples with the pandemic and a faltering economy.



• Moon-bathing, to cool off your heat: A kinesthetic experience of nature, close at hand, that can soothe away anger, which is a pitta condition, and aggravated vata (of anxiety).  



• Do any other countries have such policies?:

To launch a 10kg satellite as an Indian company from India, you'll end up probably paying 50 Lakh INR (~$70k) in Taxes.

Come in as a foreign company, you pay ZERO!

Do any other countries have such policies? https://t.co/KYGQvQhGwB

— Narayan Prasad (@cosmosguru) July 22, 2020

Quick notes: Sweatshop nation | Tibetan border...

• Sweatshop Nation: Governments in BJP-ruled states pushing for 12-hour shifts. Businesses may reduce from three shifts-a-day to two. . . . . . . . These kind of laws were brought in by Vasundhara Raje's govt in 2014. Six years later, business in Rajasthan has not picked up and employment has not grown. . . . . . . . . .Economic revival through labor exploitation?

Memo to those cheering the UP labour laws removal "to attract companies fleeing China".
UP needs agri labour more than any state. It grows 19% of our total foodgrain (32% of wheat).
Entire Ganga basin needs to shift to organic crop production - that has a future beyond 3 years.

— राहुल गोस्वामी (@rahul_goa) May 8, 2020




• Is BJP facilitating transfer of wealth from distressed farmers? Restrictions on purchase of farm agricultural land being removed. . . . . . Environment ministry in overdrive to clear projects.

On Modi's watch, China's trade surplus with India has more than doubled. India's stringent lockdown, by crippling the economy, has further boosted Chinese exports. The import lobby is a major funder of BJP. So, how does Modi intend to promote self-reliance by action, not talk?

— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) May 13, 2020




• Beijing opening new fronts: China's aggressive moves in Ladakh and Northern Sikkim do not augur well for the coming summer months. The new Chinese-made ZTQ-15 light tank could be a game changer. The Nepal Communist Party is dictated to by Beijing about what to do or say..



• The Coming Disruption: The strongest brand in the world is not Apple or Mercedes-Benz or Coca-Cola. The strongest brands are MIT, Oxford and Stanford. . . A handful of elite cyborg universities will soon monopolize higher education.

We need foreign technology in manufacturing, electronics, vlsi.. Not just money and not coca cola, and potato chips

— Aiyar (@ambi_aiyar) May 13, 2020




• No harmful chemicals: Electrolyzed water uses electricity to change the chemical structure of salt, water and vinegar into a cleaner disinfectant as effective as bleach.




• On mythology: Nothing to be offended

The reason "Mythology" offends us is because it has assumed pejorative meanings in other quotidian contexts

E.g. We often talk of "Myths vs reality" when discussing common misconceptions around us

But mythology in itself is not such an inaccurate word to describe the itihAsas

— Śrīkānta Kṛṣṇamācārya (@shrikanth_krish) May 11, 2020

Quick notes: UV robots | Chinese apps...

• UV Robots: Autonomous robots can efficiently disinfect hospitals using UV light .Each robot is a mobile array of powerful short wavelength ultraviolet-C (UVC) lights that emit enough energy to literally shred the DNA or RNA of any exposed microorganisms.



• UV Sterilization: Ultraviolet light is being beamed through public buses and lifts in China to wipe out  germs. With around 1,000 buses needing disinfection daily, the UV system has reduced the manpower needed for regular public transport disinfection.  UV disinfection is effective but needs to be used with care as the light can cause skin cancer.



• Chinese dating apps exploiting India’s men: Hundreds of Chinese companies are coming to India to monetize the needs of a multitude of first-time internet users—“the next half billion”—in fields as diverse as social media, online learning, and short-term loans. “This is totally fake app guys don’t install this app and don’t purchase any membership this girls are fake computer control profile so don’t install this app and report this app in play store.” 



• GM cotton no match for insects in India: "Bt plants were highly vulnerable to other insect pests that proliferated as more and more farmers adopted the crop. Farmers are now spending much more on insecticides than before they had ever heard of Bt cotton. And the situation is worsening." 



• Italy's bitter experience with Chinese Hug: Allowed 100,000 Chinese into the country after selling leather goods and textiles companies to the Chinese.

Many Italians in Northern Italy sold their leather goods and textiles companies to China. Italy then allowed 100,000 Chinese from Wuhan/Wenzhou to move to Italy to work in these factories, with direct Wuhan flights. Result: Northern Italy is Europe’s hotspot for Wuhan Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/eKZ0T59cUY

— David Vance (@DVATW) March 12, 2020




• Ultra-small generator: Works even with shallow, slow moving water.




• More people, including global leaders, are into namaste:

In an effort to stop the spread of the coronavirus, more people, including global leaders, are using the Indian greeting of namaste. pic.twitter.com/3pRugcvuLt

— BBC News India (@BBCIndia) March 13, 2020




• Macaulay's slaves: Woman denied entry over ethnic wear.

@bishnoikuldeep My shocking experience with discrimination at Kylin and Ivy, Ambience Vasant Kunj this evening. Denied entry as ethnic wear is not allowed! A restaurant in India allows ‘smart casuals’ but not Indian wear! Whatever happened to pride in being Indian? Take a stand! pic.twitter.com/ZtJJ1Lfq38

— Sangeeta K Nag (@sangeetaknag) March 10, 2020

Quick notes: China-bound students | Solar vs coal...

• Phoren degree: Chinese lure for Indian students falls under Coronavirus shadow. . . . Parents protest as Pakistani students stuck in China.



• Beggar-thy-neighbor: China’s 11 dams on the upper Mekong have severely hurt farming and fishing in Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam all of which are reeling under drought.. The dams have fuelled long-term inflation and dependence on China. . . China's latest export -- disease.



• Can solar power compete with coal? In India, it’s gaining ground. Even state-controlled Coal India forecasts a future with much less coal.

It has three of the world’s five biggest solar farms.

📕 Read more: https://t.co/wB9pp1Zm3b pic.twitter.com/O7WiyYxBtu

— World Economic Forum (@wef) February 17, 2020




• Ishta Linga: Muslim man chosen to head Lingayat Mutt in Karnataka.. Influenced by Basavanna's teaching, Diwan Sharief's parents donated two acres of land for the mutt. “If God appears to you for a path of goodwill and sacrifice, you will do it regardless of the manmade restrictions of birth and caste.” 



• Rice-fish farming: Compared to fields that only grow rice, rice-fish farming increases rice yields by up to 20%. Rice-fish farming could feed more people than current monocultures while using less of the agricultural chemicals. 
  



• Biodigester: Methane as fuel




• Math challenged guy: Michael Bloomberg claims India is bigger contributor to climate change than China.. India's emissions: 2,162 metric tons, China's: 9,302 metric tons.. Bloomberg’s move to deflect blame from China was a marked contrast to other candidates.



• Bernie Rises: But Socialism isn't popular with most Americans. . . . How socialist Bernie became a millionaire. . . What Michael Bloomberg should’ve said about his billions.