Fighting for peace..

Dear Greta,
Have you not heard of children suffering from acute respiratory ailments due to stubble burning by your newly found farmer friends?

Quick notes: Paraglacial dams | Vishwa coolie...

• VikAss in Himalayas: 'Run of the river' dams, which operate by digging large tunnels into the side of the mountain, actually weakened the mountain by introducing fractures and fissures, increasing the risk of landslides.
  
  "While receding, they leave behind huge amounts of boulders, rocks, and moraines. A heavy rainfall or landslide could easily trigger floodwaters to surge down the narrow mountain streams, carrying a deadly mixture of sediment and rocks. If this great mass of water and solids meets any barrier on the way, it'll just smash through the barrier. Each time it smashes a barrier, it moves downstream with further energy. More energy means more mass is going to be lifted from the riverbed, or the river banks."



• Divine punishment? Raini village elders blame removal of temple for Chamoli tragedy. Raini is the same village which initiated the famous Chipko Movement in 1973. Raini villagers had also raised concerns that dams along the river could destabilize the mountain.




• English medium Vishwa-Coolies: In ancient times India was the world's premier knowledge producer and exporter. Today it is the biggest importer and consumer of foreign technology.

  Did you know that the Indian IT sector's much-celebrated success was built on the labor arbitrage model? Many Indian middlemen became ultra-wealthy IT tycoons reducing India to a Vishwa coolie. To learn why this is detrimental to India's progress, read-https://t.co/CWLZyAScEP pic.twitter.com/3LAV357zwQ

  — Rajiv Malhotra (@RajivMessage) February 12, 2021




• China Creating a Highly-Networked Military: PLA linking its Army and Air Force units into a single, unified combat alert duty in an effort to connect air defense radar and communications with PLA ground brigades.



• Crime against humanity: China refuses to give WHO raw data on early Covid-19 cases



• Af-Pak: Hazara Shiites, prime targets of Sunni extremists. The Hazaras are among the most persecuted people on this planet.



• Essence of Calculus: Series of videos




• J Sai Deepak: Uttarakhand, an eco-sensitive zone, aspiring for the same degree of road connectivity and “infrastructure” as Delhi notwithstanding the environmental impact of ceaseless “developmental” activity on its fragile ecological balance.
  
  
• Our mountain will fall one day: We have learnt nothing from 2013 Uttarakhand disaster. The ecological sanctity of the rivers is critically compromised. “Many Hydro-electric projects have been sanctioned inside protected areas, two inside the core zone of the Nanda Devi National Park. Two projects have been sanctioned on the Mandakini river inside the Kedarnath Musk Deer Sanctuary and another is located just at its boundary.
  
  Earlier, four projects on the Gori Ganga were inside the Askot Musk Deer Sanctuary. Another six large projects on the Dhauliganga (E) and Kali rivers were also within the Askot Sanctuary. Efforts made by the developers to have large parts of the sanctuary de-notified finally succeeded with the Supreme Court ordering a fresh demarcation of the sanctuary. Now most of the above projects are outside the Sanctuary.”

Kerala no different - outright rejection of any recommendations protecting the fragile ecology of the Western Ghats.
Centre’s notification on eco-sensitive zone triggers protests in Wayanad
No lessons learnt.https://t.co/wMuM8erplO

— Viva Kermani (@vivakermani) February 7, 2021

Quick notes: Eco-sensitive zone | Pangong pullback...

• Church lobby backed by Kaangress and the Left: Protest brewing over buffer zone around the Wayanad wildlife sanctuary in Kerala's high ranges. . . . . (dated) Rahul Gandhi joins protest.



• You can't build large dams in the Himalayas: In 2013, disaster struck the Mandakini river and this year it hit the Alaknanda.  Bhagirathi was saved because three dam projects were scrapped after being half constructed.
  
  When India was indeed a vishwaguru, it used science with common sense. We used to think of a development model which would not be disastrous for the people. The solution is what we did in Rajasthan. We made 11,800 small dams and not a single dam broke in the last 38 years. They are very small dams and they stopped water which then percolated in the ground. The land absorbed them and it is now in an underground aquifer.



• India not ready for mass adoption of EVs: Because of EV adoption, Norway nearly leads the world in per-capita electricity use. . . . Hybrids are more suited for India for the near future.



• Vacating the heights: Chinese troops were being posted to such forward locations for the first time and, contrary to belief that they were well-settled, the medical casualties were higher.
  

  China’s “win-win.” It insisted on:
  1. A Pangong-limited deal.
  2. A Buffer Zone. The Fingers 4 to 8 area was disputed. But Buffer Zone includes a swath of Indian-held area never in dispute. India is retreating further back in its own territory, to its post between Fingers 2 and 3.

  — Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) February 11, 2021




• No more CCP checks? China bans BBC news broadcasts... BBC, Cambridge University took cash from CCP backed Tencent



• $17 Billion Semiconductor Fab: Samsung Foundry is seeking to build a leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing facility in the USA.



• Life without Google and Facebook: Microsoft backs Australia’s proposal that tech companies pay newspapers for content. The proposal could prompt other countries to follow suit in a global transformation of the relationship between tech companies and traditional media. 

Quick notes: Baptism death | Vaccine worry

• Romania baptism manslaughter: A six-week-old had a cardiac arrest after he was immersed three times in holy water. He had a violent death and liquid was found in his lungs, an autopsy found.



• Sitting on billions, Catholic dioceses amassed taxpayer aid: Scores of Catholic dioceses across the U.S. received aid through the Paycheck Protection Program while sitting on well over $10 billion in cash, short-term investments or other available funds



• ‘You are what you ate as a child’: Childhood diet has lifelong impact, says study. The quantity of good gut bacteria is significantly reduced in the Western diet group. This type of bacteria is involved in carbohydrate metabolism.



• Bye-Bye vaccine? Israeli drug cured 29 of 30 moderate/serious COVID cases in days.. Helps prevent deadly cytokine storm



• Vaccine worry: Oxford jab doesn't work against S Africa variant. . . . South Africa pauses AstraZeneca vaccine rollout



• Chipageddon: Chip shortage crippling automotive industry.



• Mindful walking: “Walking meditation makes us whole again. Only when we are connected with our body are we truly alive. Healing is not possible without that connection. So walk and breathe in such a way that you can connect with your body deeply.”



• Ancient Peruvian mystery: The puquios were part of a sophisticated hydraulic system used to retrieve and channel water. The uniquely shaped holes let wind into a series of underground canals, which forced water from underground aquifers into the areas where it was needed. The puquios were so well-constructed that 30 of them are still utilized by farmers to this day. The creation of such a sophisticated and enduring network is evidence of the architects’ advanced understanding of the region’s geology and annual variations in water supply.

Quick notes: Feminization | Sputnik-V...

• China drive to make boys more 'manly': The Proposal to Prevent the Feminization of Male Adolescents called on schools to develop particular sports like football. The growing appeal of certain male celebrities meant that many children "did not want to be 'army heroes'" anymore.



• Sputnik V vaccine has 92% efficacy: The Sputnik jab uses two slightly different versions of the vaccine for the first and second dose - given 21 days apart.
  
  German study: Trained dogs detect COVID 94% of the time.



• The financialization of America: America used to make things. Today, its principal activity seems to be financial engineering. It was Wall Street engineers who produced the financial crisis of 2008 that triggered the biggest economic slump since the Great Depression. The Federal Reserve is still bailing them out. It has kept interest rates near zero to help the economy recover from the slump and, now, the pandemic. But, low interest rates disproportionately benefit Wall Street, which runs on borrowed money.



• Link tax: New law in Australia would force Google and Facebook to pay domestic media outlets for their content.



• Gautam Sachdev: Staying connected to the Source




• Researchers Uncover 2,000-Year-Old Maya Water Filtration System: The system relied on crystalline quartz and zeolite to create a “molecular sieve” capable of removing harmful microbes, heavy metals and other pollutants. Today, the same minerals are used in modern water filtration systems. “What’s interesting is this system would still be effective today and the Maya discovered it more than 2,000 years ago. When it comes to water management, the Maya were millennia ahead.”



• Natural ingredients: How to make natural garden pesticides.



• Traffic noise impairs songbirds' abilities: The sound of passing cars diminished the birds' ability to find food.

Quick notes: Bitter truths | Digital tax...

• Widespread mediocrity: Tech-challenged India has lagged in innovation while China is shaking up the world with its advances . . Must watch:




• Digital Tax: Amazon, Flipkart hit as budget slaps digital tax burden on non-resident e-com operators. . . . U.S. lobby group urges India not to tighten foreign e-commerce rules



• Tax on Tejas fighter jet: Govt taxes and levies constitute about 20%, or about Rs 9,000 crore. Effectively, the ministry of finance will be appropriating a large chunk of the defence budget through taxing an indigenous weapons platform.



• K-shaped recovery: Wealth of 100 richest Indians grew by Rs 12,97,822 cr during Covid



• GameStop saga revives calls for a financial transaction tax: “Trading for trading’s sake may be profitable, but it’s not inherently socially desirable”.

A financial transaction tax isn't unreasonable.

Hong Kong, ranked the world’s freest economy by the Heritage Foundation, has had a 0.1% tax for years.

A small tax on the sale of stocks, bonds, and derivatives would raise billions in revenue. https://t.co/lV3RjFXc6O

— Ro Khanna (@RoKhanna) June 29, 2019




• "The truth is, scientists just don't know": The mystery Of India's plummeting Covid-19 cases. . . so, this whole vaccine thing rests on weak foundation not backed by evidence? Who knew!



• Future of education: The future model of education will decouple the twin functions of teaching and evaluating. There will be specialized agencies that don’t teach but only evaluate and certify competency. There is no pass or fail — only a certification of how well you know the subject.



• China’s Comac: If successful, the C919 could rival Boeing and Airbus in the largest aviation market in the world.