Quick notes...: January 2023

Thursday, January 19, 2023

Minority status for Hindus: Delhi was the only govt that openly backed granting minority status to Hindus in any form at the state or UT level.

Delhi said, "The central govt may declare the 'migrated minority status to the followers of Hinduism who are the religious minority in their origin state (i.e. J&K, Laddakh etc) and residing in Delhi after migration from their home state." . . . Why are BJP states opposing this?

U.S. vs. China: The race to develop the most advanced chips. After working for years to catch up on U.S. technology, China has developed a chip that can rival Nvidia’s powerful A100.

TSMC Might Cut 3nm Prices to Lure AMD, Nvidia: N3 is an expensive technology to use. N3 extensively uses extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography for up to 25 layers and each EUV scanner now costs $150 million - $200 million, depending on configuration. Increased costs mean lower profits for companies such as AMD, Broadcom, MediaTek, Nvidia, and Qualcomm. . . . TSMC's 3nm Journey: Slow Ramp, Huge Investments, Big Future

India joins lithium hunt: Not only Argentina, India is also eyeing lithium reserves in Chile and Bolivia. The Andean Plains straddling Argentina, Chile and Bolivia – collectively called ‘Lithium Triangle’ – have about 56 per cent of the world’s total identified reserve of Lithium.

Dr. Jason Fung: Author of The Cancer Code: A Revolutionary New Understanding of a Medical Mystery.

Why is alcohol so harmful? The main way alcohol causes health problems is by damaging DNA. When you drink alcohol, your body metabolizes it into acetaldehyde, a chemical that is toxic to cells. Acetaldehyde both “damages your DNA and prevents your body from repairing the damage. Once your DNA is damaged, then a cell can grow out of control and create a cancer tumor.”

Even a little alcohol can harm your health, research shows. Alcohol also creates oxidative stress, another form of DNA damage that can be particularly harmful to the cells that line blood vessels. Oxidative stress can lead to stiffened arteries, resulting in higher blood pressure and coronary artery disease. “It fundamentally affects DNA, and that’s why it affects so many organ systems.”

Nepo (nepotism) babies: Those who use their parents' wealth and popularity to build their own careers. "I don't know anybody who becomes anything if they're just handed money".

Warren Buffett wrote in 2021 that "after much observation of super-wealthy families, here's my recommendation: Leave the children enough so that they can do anything but not enough that they can do nothing".

Tuesday, January 10, 2023

'Joshimath can't be saved': Not just Joshimath, homes have developed major cracks in Nainital, Uttarkashi, Bhatwari, Gopeshwar, Guptkashi, Karnprayag, Mussorie and a host of villages. Villagers blame the tunneling work being done on the Rishikesh-Karnprayag rail project and the dynamiting taking place for the extension of the Char Dham road for these cracks.

Joshimath: The neglected warning from 46 years ago: During the ramping up of the infrastructure, including the building of roads and houses, for the so-called development of Joshimath, enormous quantities of earth and boulders were removed using dynamite. Forests had also been cleared for timber used for construction in the seventies

How green was my valley by Madhav Gadgil: The Himalayan loot that triggered the Joshimath disaster.

Chandiprasad's organisation took up ecodevelopment work such as soil and water conservation, erection of a stone wall to protect the forest, or tree planting. The tasks were executed by everybody working in unison. The discussions were led by a physics professor from Gopeshwar college, but stonemasons who fabricated the water mills also provided their inputs.

Unfortunately, the govt had a monopoly on the water resources and their only interest was to construct giant projects like Tehri to supply electricity for the capital city of Delhi. This tragic diversion of all resources of Himalayas in the service of the powers that be, in fact, had begun when the British govt leased forests from the Tehri maharaja.

Android on RISC-V: Google is planning to bring full support for RISC-V chips to Android in the coming years, which could pave the way for RISC-V phones, tablets, smartwatches, set-top-boxes, or automotive systems, among other things.

Taiwan-Invasion war game sees China quickly flopping: Huge cost to US, Chinese and Taiwanese militaries. At the end of the conflict, at least two US aircraft carriers would lie at the bottom of the Pacific and China’s modern navy, which is the largest in the world, would be in “shambles.”

Those are among the conclusions the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), made after running what it claims is one of the most extensive war-game simulations ever conducted on a possible conflict over Taiwan.

A dud? Why is India's single-use plastic ban failing? Adequate investments have not been made to make the transition. "The might of the plastics industry, really needs a tsunami to shake it up". . . . . Single-use plastic cutlery and plates to be banned in England.

Hydra: The Greek island that banned wheels. A growing number of places around the world are looking to reduce reliance on cars.