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 western deviousness

💡[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




• 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.”



• 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.



• 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.




• 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.



• 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 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.