Quick notes: Tech threat | Car-free streets...

• 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



• Rethinking car obsession: Planning for People & Bikes, Not for Cars




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



• Uma Valeti's Upside Foods: FDA gives safety nod to 'no kill' meat

Quick notes: LCH | Gladiator diet ...

• Ideal for mountain warfare: For mountain war against China, is India’s LCH helicopter superior to AH-64E Apache? .. Against armor on open ground, Apaches would devastate Chinese and Pakistani tanks. But in the Himalayas, where terrain and climate conspire to limit troop deployments, a flying arsenal probably isn’t needed. Just an armed helicopter that can fly above the mountains.



• India-Pak rivalry plays out in South Caucasus: Azerbaijan, Turkey and Pakistan conducted a joint exercise named 'Three Brothers' last year in the name of Islam. India's military assistance to Armenia comes against the backdrop of Pakistan's bonhomie with Azerbaijan
  
  However, in spite of these developments, an interesting fact is that India has stronger economic ties with Azerbaijan than with Armenia. ONGC has also invested heavily in Azerbaijan's gas sector.



• Fewer awards will rust scientific temper: In one silent stroke, the Union govt has decided to do away with over 200 awards, including scholarships, fellowships and internal awards for scientific excellence.



• Hordearii ("barley eaters"): Roman gladiators were mostly vegetarian.




• The first laptop with a RISC-V processor goes on sale: The laptop is the result of a partnership between China’s DeepComputing and Xcalibyte, and it’s powered by a new Alibaba T-Head TH1520 processor. It features four 2.5 GHz Xuantie C910 64-bit RISC-V processor cores, a neural processing unit with up to 4 TOPS performance, and an Imagination GPU.



• NOT white man's burden: UK defies climate warnings with new oil and gas licences. The decision is at odds with international climate scientists who say fossil fuel projects should be closed down, not expanded.

Quick notes: Facebook lies | Binge watching...

• Pursuit of profit: Facebook says it’s cool with lies in political ads



• Addicted generation: Sleep deprivation from bingeing on Netflix, Amazon Prime causing health decline in India.



• China roundup:
  - Peaceful rise: China tried to threaten Taiwan by weaponizing tourism.
  - Han espionage: Chinese “tourist” accused of espionage in the US.
  - See no evil: Pope keeps silent on persecution of Uighurs.
  - Corporate espionage: 5G is where China and the west finally diverge.
  - EUV tech: US pressed Dutch hard to cancel China chip-equipment sale



• Nasima Akter, fearless surfer: They tried to force her into prostitution. Instead, she hit the waves.




• ‘Green measles’ problem: Fragmentation of India's forested zones with no corridors connecting them. Many of these reserves, like Panna, had no tigers left in them. 



• Confessions of a slaughterhouse worker: "When I was a child I dreamed of becoming a vet. Instead, I ended up working in a slaughterhouse. Cows being brought in would get scared and panic, which was pretty terrifying for all of us too. There were countless occasions when, despite following all of the procedures for stunning, slaughterers would get kicked by a massive, spasming cow as they hoisted it up to the machine for slaughter.". 

  Snuggling with cows should convince everyone out there that cows deserve love, compassion, and consideration. Not confinement, harm, and to end up on someone's dinner plate. 🧡 [@julianasfarm Sanctuary] pic.twitter.com/EYph2zPUyi

  — John Oberg (@JohnOberg) January 5, 2020

  
  

Quick notes: 5G trials | Kerala tribals...

• 5G trials: Modi sarkar allows Huawei to conduct 5G trials in India. . . . . . Huawei's flagship phone will launch without any Google apps. . . . . US Navy bans TikTok



• The cold war no one is watching: China's ability to manufucture weaponry is much more efficient and advanced than India's.. It has consistently and aggressively underwritten the modernization of the arms industry in the form of steadily increasing defense budgets. This improved arms industry is, in turn, paying off in terms of making China a more formidable force to reckon with.



• Displacing native tribals, bringing in Christists? How Kerala govt’s forced relocation has deprived tribal communities of their rights Many are now struggling to survive away from the forest area, which generations of tribal communities have relied on for resources and their livelihood.



• Sadhguru on CAA & NRC: Calmly sends liberal dead bodies to the morgue.




• Showing the way: Former students of NIT, Trichy commit $3 million for research activities at their alma mater and for the institute's scholarships programmes. . . . hope others will follow.



• Power plant emissions: Mazda challenges our EV assumptions, claims long-range EVs are bad for the planet . . . . . India should focus on Hybrids for now



• Your data is your property:

Facebook admitted this week that they track your location even when you’ve turned off location tracking — and then sell that data to advertisers.

Your data is your property. Tech companies should absolutely not be allowed to use it without your permission.

— Andrew Yang🧢 (@AndrewYang) December 19, 2019




• Brave Hindu: 19 year old negotiates important policy changes at Stanford University to serve his Hindu lifestyle.




• Kneeling down: A space debris accord with US to clip India's options

Quick notes: Fake accounts | Visa's angst...

• N Ram will be proud: China used fake accounts to target Hong Kong protests, Twitter, Facebook uncover. The social networks are blocked in the mainland, but  not in Hong Kong. The assertion of a covert disinformation campaign is the latest twist as China seeks to quell the largely leaderless protest.



• Chinese telecom firms are security risk for India: “China today controls a significant section of India’s telecom networks even though information dominance is at the core of China’s military strategy, posing an unacceptable security risk”.



• Entrenched and entitled: Card payments group Visa is critical of the India’s move towards no-fee debit card transactions



• Hindu Nectar: Spiritual wanderings in India




• Why Schools Are Banning Yoga: They promote non-Christian belief system



• And now, plant-based eggs: Mung bean based liquid egg product, JUST Egg, is the second-best performing in the category. 



• Fermented rice or Pazhaya saadam: Increase healthy gut bacteria. High in vitamins like B12 lacking in other vegetarian foods. Use only organic milk free of antibiotics

Quick notes: Sunni rule | Crown jewels...

• The other side: Ladhakis celebrating independence from Sunni rule

#Article370
The celebrations haven't stopped in Ladakh.

This video was posted by a friend, Joshna Sharon Johnson, I met on Facebook. She says this is happening EVERY DAY.

No MSM will cover this. So Make them famous. #KashmirMeinTiranga pic.twitter.com/fbn6txxPpO

— RSS - Ready for Selfless Service (@PartyVillage017) August 11, 2019




• Google is sharing the 'crown jewel' of its AI efforts with China: Peter Thiel. "AI is a military technology.  Starting an AI lab in China while ending an AI contract with the Pentagon is shocking". . . . Sentient, the classified artificial brain behind US intelligence.



• 5G Hype: China warns India of 'reverse sanctions' if Huawei is blocked



• Han tricks: Chinese exporters dodge tariffs with fake made-in-Vietnam labels



• China's pharma dominance is a "National security risk":

Speaking of China, there's a good chance the medicine you take originated there. The Defense Department is flagging this as a national security risk after pills made there were found to contain carcinogens https://t.co/TqX0xLdr6w

— Anna Edney (@annaedney) August 5, 2019




• Water can act as a battery, too: It’s called pumped storage and it’s the largest and oldest form of energy storage in the US, and it’s the most efficient form of large-scale energy storage.



• Beef ban: UK university banning beef burgers and introducing a levy on plastic bottles as part of a wider drive to tackle climate change.



• People-focused innovations: e-slippers, gliding platforms and more: meet the student innovators of Maddur  



• 'Dangerous Korean cult':  A lot of youth from the Northeast have fallen for the Christian cult from South Korea, Shincheonji, led by Lee Man-Hee.



• Why does my child study Sanskrit? You will find universities from many countries having a Sanskrit faculty. Although India has been its custodian, Sanskrit has had universal appeal for centuries.



• Kauai's Hindu Monastery:




• Historical map of India:

Hats off to the creator of this video.. The entire history of our civilization in 5 mins. And we are only taught of Mughals in our history books... pic.twitter.com/hHnSwntYSI

— 〰ಶಂಕರ〰 (@PRO_Shankar) August 6, 2019

Quick notes: Chinese RISC-V | Hazardous waste...

• China's Semiconductor Push: Alibaba Unveils Open Source RISC-V CPU Amid US-China Trade War. RISC-V is open source, so it's much more resistant to government bans. The Chinese govt has been encouraging wealthy Chinese companies from various industries to enter the semiconductor industry in recent years. The govt forced foreign companies to transfer their technology and IP to Chinese companies if they wanted any chance at the local Chinese market.



• UK hazardous waste offloaded to India: A Sri Lankan investigation into nearly 3,000 tonnes of illegally imported waste has shown that some of it were sent on to India. The waste had been mislabelled and imported as used mattresses, but contained bio and clinical waste.



• China's Chump: Why America Can't Trust Pakistan... Khan seeks to continue a pattern of duplicity, the cost of which can be counted in billions of dollars of wasted aid, Chinese backslapping, and American body bags.



• Raw chicken moves off restaurant plate: The process of rigor mortis could last up to three to four days after death. It is possible that the nerve endings of the animal had not died yet.




• Animal abuse: "If atrocities committed to farm animals happened to cats or dogs, the abusers will be in prison".

It is UNREAL that cats and dogs are legally protected, yet farm animals face lives of legalized abuse and cruelty. RT if you agree. 😡 pic.twitter.com/RuUeYtDMfP

— John Oberg (@JohnOberg) July 23, 2019




• Sinister tech: Huawei secretly helped North Korea build, maintain wireless network.