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



• Omicron: No certainty if PCR tests detect Omicron Variant. . . . May elude current vaccines. . . 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




• 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.



• 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: Kindly shut up, sir

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

Quick notes: Digital colony | Pedestrianize...

• India 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.



• 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".



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




• 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".



• Permaculture: Producing food without destroying the planet



• 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”.



• 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.



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



• New details about China's hypersonic weapons test: "They launched a long-range missile. It went around the world, dropped off a hypersonic glide vehicle that glided all the way back to China, that impacted a target in China."
  
  Advanced maneuver in China hypersonic missile test shows new military capability.. Pentagon struggles to understand how China mastered the tech. . . . China expanding its hypersonic missiles.



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



• Saudi Arabia’s strategy to become a global leader in AI.

Quick notes: Illicit takeover | Vatican blames 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, allegedly due to unavailability of its 4680-format battery cells. . . India needs a national tech mission. Stop day-dreaming about India-growth-story or its latest variant, Next-Economic-Supercycle.



• 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.
  
  The emphasis on coal while leaving out oil and gas would disproportionately impact developing countries. "India's track record with renewables is solid."



• 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:

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.

Quick notes: Border tactics | Teenage mode...

• China's border tactics: At the height of the border standoff between China and India in 2020, the Chinese Army installed a fiber optic network in remote areas of the western Himalayas to provide faster communications and increased protection from foreign interception. . . . . (India's Defence chiefs were on Zoom calls)
  
  The PLA field commanders view near-real-time intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and situational data as well as redundant and reliable communications as essential to streamlining decision making processes and shortening response timelines, according to a Pentagon report.



• Atmanirbhar China: Tencent unveils three SoCs to deal with AI, videos, and networking to replace western processors. . . . . . . . . not the same as Sardar Patel statue



• Transnational repression: The arrest of a Tibetan New York city cop seemed to confirm what the Tibetan community had long suspected: that the Communist party of China is watching them. Tibetans fear their daily activities are documented and tallied. Some applicants have been shown photos of themselves attending a protest, or a teaching led by the Dalai Lama.
  
  In one case, a visa applicant in San Francisco found that the interviewer knew the name and breed of their dog. According to the Freedom House report, the PRC’s influence campaigns abroad target ethnic minorities and dissidents on a global scale unmatched by any other nation. One of the biggest Tibetan diaspora communities outside Dharamshala is in and around New York City, where an estimated 15,000 Tibetans live.



• Teenage mode: The Chinese version of TikTok is introducing a "teenage mode" that will limit the amount of time children under the age of 14 spend on the app to 40 minutes a day.. "China is implementing very sensible policies related to social media and protecting children".



• Taliban versus Islamic State: Despite a history of targeting Shiites, the Taliban have now pledged to protect them. IS-Khorasan, however, remains bent on eradicating groups it considers apostates. "ISIS-K has been previously successful in recruiting members disaffected with the Taliban and those who perceive the Taliban as too moderate".



• Greening: Pakistan sets out to plant 10 Billion trees to counter climate change. . . . . . . . . . . . unlike Gadkari's asphalt obsession.

Curious to know how this will be world's longest or is this a case of hordes mindlessly repeating whatever nonsense @nitin_gadkari says
Common sense should tell u that longest highway would be located in the largest countries (Rus, Can, US, Brazil, Aus)https://t.co/pJlFAgjYW9

— Spatel (@Rjrasva) September 24, 2021




• Do we need 2 lane highways passing through Dabaka Forest Reserve?:

NHAI's recent proposal to cut down 5000-7000 Sal trees in Assam’s Dabaka has evoked massive outrage among inhabitants. Citizens demand preservation of another green corridor. https://t.co/sAU7sZs2yu

— Viva Kermani (@vivakermani) October 31, 2021




• Vrimps: Nestle brings vegan shrimp to plant-based market.




• Kejri's latest itch: "If the AAP forms government in Goa, we will provide a free pilgrimage trip to Ayodhya, Shirdi, Velankanni and Ajmer Sharif".. Velankanni is a Catholic shrine in Tamil Nadu. Ajmer Sharif Dargah is the tomb of Sufi saint Moinuddin Chishti.

High traditions of justice. #Diwali pic.twitter.com/stxIcgzMK9

— Eminent Intellectual (@total_woke_) October 31, 2021