Wednesday, June 03, 2020

Quick notes: Weakening virus | Remove China...

  • Virus losing potency: C-virus is losing its potency and has become less lethal, says a senior Italian doctor. “The swabs that were performed over the last 10 days showed a much lower viral load in quantitative terms compared to the ones carried out a few months ago”.

    Saw this comment somewhere: Engineered viruses lose their engineered traits over time as it reverts to its natural form. Nature doesn't accept unnatural mutations. The virus was far more deadly in Dec/Jan than it is today.


  • C-virus is a hybrid: Pieces of several genomes recombined to produce the pandemic-causing pathogen. There appears to be a large number of coronaviruses that are regularly exchanging genetic information.


  • W.H.O. was afraid: China stalled information to WHO for weeks, according to recordings of multiple internal meetings.. From the time the virus was first decoded on Jan 2 to when the WHO declared a global emergency on Jan 30, the outbreak grew by a factor of 100 to 200 times. But the agency tried to portray China in the best light, to coax the country into providing more outbreak details.


  • Remove China Apps: India is the biggest driver of installations of ByteDance's TikTok. A border dispute fuels a backlash against Chinese products leading to this app's popularity.
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    Update: Google, China's best friend, takes down Remove China app


  • ICU-grade ventilator prototype completed by IISc: Supporting both invasive and non-invasive ventilation, it uses only components made in India or easily available in domestic supply chains and was developed by its PRAANA team


  • India's $6.6 billion electronics manufacturing push: Financial incentives and plug-and-play facilities to attract investments. Govt will initially target five global suppliers and extend a financial incentive of as much as 6% on incremental sales of goods made in the country for a period of five years. An incentive of 25% on capital expenditure will be provided for production of electronic components, semiconductors and other parts.


  • Free Piston Linear Generator: A unique engine is bringing power to a remote Philippine island. Traditional generators require maintenance and oil changes every 200-400 hours. Aquarius engines need maintenance once every 1,000 hours and need no oil.



  • Nations try to wean themselves off of American chips: Russia comes up with its custom  8-core VLIW design for servers, Elbrus.


  • U.S. probing digital tax plans from India and others: The OECD is trying to find agreement among almost 140 countries on a global tax overhaul to address how multinationals -- particularly tech giants -- are taxed in the countries where they have users or consumers.


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