Quick notes...: November 2022

Wednesday, November 23, 2022

Dylan Patel: China's Biren is a bigger threat to Nvidia’s AI training hardware dominance than the competition from Intel, AMD, Graphcore, SambaNova, or Cerebras. How China is attempting to evade US sanctions.

'Most countries won't forgive deaths of children': 'The deaths of the children in the Gambia would batter India's reputation as the developing world's pharmacy.'

Dabbawalas seek cycling lanes in Mumbai: The iconic Dabbawalas of Mumbai have stressed on the need for cycling lanes in the financial capital of the country and safe parking spaces for their cycles, which is their primary mode of transport for tiffin delivery

Kannan Parakunnil's Grasshoper Global: Thiruvananthapuram startup goes places with veg ‘chicken’ shawarma

Where Indian Army Scores Over PLA: An oft-overlooked military advantage that India has against China is the resilience and fighting quality of our combat forces. In contrast, the average Chinese soldier is a lone male child, pampered by an adoring family and ill-prepared for the hazards and discomforts of the Line of Actual Control.

This man-to-man advantage that Indian jawans on the LAC enjoy over the relatively comfort-loving Chinese soldiers would be eroded once the ranks of hardened jawans, enrolled on long-service tenures, are diluted by significant numbers of so-called Agniveers -- soldiers enrolled on short-service tenures of four years.

Annual R&D spend as a percentage of GDP: India? We spent it on Sardar Patel and Kempegowda statues.

Kumbhaka (Breath Retention) and Bohr Effect: According to the Bohr Effect, buildup of CO2 during breath retention (hypoxia) triggers release of oxygen. Oxygen is attached to hemoglobin in the blood, and is then unloaded into the tissues.

Most people have a blood oxygen saturation level of 95-98%, which sounds very high. However, this number is only a measure of oxygen in the blood—not the tissues, where oxygen is needed to energize and repair. Once oxygen is unloaded from hemoglobin due to a breath hold, it can be utilized by tissues. CO2 is then picked up by hemoglobin, escorted to the lungs, and breathed out.

'There really is more to life than posting on Instagram': "I would find myself scrolling at night, and then having a bad night's sleep, and then waking up not feeling refreshed. Now I'm not making comparisons in my day-to-day life, and I don't really know what celebrities are doing".

TikTok is China's Digital Fentanyl: They show a very different version in China than in U.S. “China only allows people to be on TikTok for 40 minutes a day”.

Supplement fetish: Intake of popular commercial dietary supplements like nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of vitamin B3, could actually increase the risk of serious diseases, including cancer. NR could not only increase the risk of someone developing triple-negative breast cancer but also cause the cancer to spread to the brain, the study said.

How have you deGoogled your life? De-Googled versions of Android are gaining traction... Expel Google from your life.

Japan's $2.38B Research Center for 2nm node: The research hub will be comprised of Japanese and American semiconductor companies, as well as multiple universities from Japan, the U.S. and Europe. Among the Japanese universities, the business publication names the University of Tokyo, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, and Riken. . . . . . . . . this is how you do it

'Namma Yatri': Autorickshaw union in Bengaluru launches its own ride-hailing app

Vehicular pollution in Delhi: “While the need is to scale up public transport, when you look at the actual investments in the city, the focus has been on building more roads — bigger roads, flyovers, overpasses and underpasses — to facilitate vehicular movement. And there has been virtually no effort to make paths for pedestrians or cyclists.”

China's CATL: The world’s biggest EV battery producer is about to get even bigger. The company has announced a new $7 billion factory in Hungary and another planned factory in Mexico. The manufacturer could be looking to expand with plants in the U.S. and Indonesia, as well.

Every River is under attack by the sand mafia: After the sale of liquor, the quickest way for politicians to earn a fast buck is from the sale of minerals, boulders and sand. The demand for minerals, boulders and sand is so great that it has fueled a black market and the goons who control this trade do not hesitate to kill law enforcement officers and reporters who have tried to expose them.

Imran Khan asks Pakistan’s president to investigate military: Claims senior intelligence official Major General Faisal Naseer was involved the plot to kill him.

Sino-Pak Bioweapon? Those in the intelligence and scientific community, watching the developments, warn that by using Pakistan, China had outsourced a highly contagious network of laboratories where antigens a hundred times more infectious than the present Covid could be created or `dropped in’.