Quick notes: War coverage | Rupee trade...

• White man killing white man?: No way! He should kill only colored people. “It’s very emotional for me because I see European people with blonde hair and blue eyes being killed every day with Putin’s missiles and his helicopters and his rockets”. The BBC presenter responded: “I understand and of course respect the emotion.”
  
  Sandhya Jain on 'dog does not eat dog': Hitler's unforgivable sin was that he breached the tacit accord of the White Colonial People (that dog does not eat dog) and practiced imperialism upon the White Christian peoples, bringing France, Austria, Poland, and virtually all of Europe under his heel. His invocation of a mythical non-Christian, Aryan ancestry for the German people must have enraged the epoch's dominant colonial power, Great Britain, which took pride in its Anglo-Saxon origins.



• India mulls rupee trade accounts with Russia: To soften the blow of western sanctions on Russia.. India also used it with Iran after it came under Western sanctions for its nuclear weapons program.
  

  India will need its own SWIFT, Youtube, Facebook etc
  
  Everything can be weaponized overnight and it doesn't have to be a major war. An increasingly woke west can choose its justifications on a whim. A protest of 100 people in Bhubaneshwar can be called "exactly like 1930s"

  — Opinion Bakery (@IndiaSpeaksPR) February 27, 2022




• Turkish drones: Ukrainian employs Turkish-made Bayraktar TB2 drone to pummel Russian forces in Kherson region



• Han hug: Sri Lanka on the brink of bankruptcy: Consumers hit hard by soaring inflation, food shortages



• Dry January was more popular than ever: 35% of legal-aged US adults skipped alcohol for the entire month — a trend that's growing in popularity as drinkers look to reset their bodies in the New Year.



• Anjaneyasana: Low lunge pose

Quick notes: NATO expanders | Semiconductor pitfalls...

• America and 'NATO expanders' revived the cold war: Not many paid attention to the expansion of NATO in the late 1990s and early 2000s to countries in Eastern and Central Europe. “At that time, we were working closely with Russia and they were beginning to get used to the idea that NATO could be a friend rather than an enemy … but they were very uncomfortable about having NATO right up on their border and they made a strong appeal for us not to go ahead with that. I think it is the beginning of a new cold war. There was no reason for this whatsoever.”
  
  “Don’t people understand? Our differences in the Cold War were with the Soviet Communist regime. And now we are turning our backs on the very people who mounted the greatest bloodless revolution in history to remove that Soviet regime. And Russia’s democracy is as far advanced, if not farther, as any of these countries we’ve just signed up to defend from Russia.”



• Semiconductor pitfalls: The fact that the world’s third-largest, GlobalFoundries Inc., can barely string together a few quarters of profit highlights the pitfalls even for those with years of experience.



• Sunlight for COVID patients: Oxidative Stress... "Vitamin-D isn't everything. It is just a marker of sunlight exposure".




• Needless suffering: Animal welfare fight reaches McDonald's boardroom. With Carl Icahn teaming up with the Humane Society, McDonald’s Corp. is facing the most high-profile attack on its animal-welfare policies to date.



• Toxic modesty of hijab: French bill banning hijabs in sports events moves to National Assembly.



• Used Carpets, Mattresses: Sri Lanka returns 3,000 tonnes of garbage to UK. . . . . when will India learn?

Quick notes: Digital rupee | Space travel...

• Digital rupee needs more thought and less haste: A digital rupee may well be a boon. Rushing the implementation of what should ideally be a multiyear project may be fraught with unnecessary risks. Even with China, there is no national rollout date yet.



• Made in China: Hyderabad's 'Statue of Equality' was made in China. Casting works were carried out in China and the statue was brought here in 1,600 pieces.



• China encroaching along Nepal border: It is the first time there have been official claims from Nepal of Chinese interference in its territory.



• India Is Doing Space Travel, on a Budget:




• Dairy-tech startup: Bangalore-based Stellapps has created a step counter for cows. Healthier cows produce more milk, and by tracking and better managing their animals, farmers can increase yields.



• The Garhwal mountain range is most fragile ecosystem: "We should not construct dams and hydropower projects or any other construction very close to these ecosystems. We have to be extremely careful that these are far below fragile glaciers and steep slopes".



• Woke factories: 40.1% of Indian students pursue humanities while 19% of students pursue technical courses.




• Wall Street in bed with China: Wall Street titan launched a $100 million plan to create a global education scholarship program in China to rival the Rhodes Scholarships.



• Pakistan’s ‘good Taliban-bad Taliban’ strategy backfires: Pakistan’s “long game” strategy of having a weak, Islamist power in Kabul is likely to implode with forbidding consequences for regional security.



• European Chips Act: The EU looks to boost its chip industry and cut its dependence on US and Asian supply.

Quick notes: Forest schools | Light therapy...

• Learning from nature: Scandinavian-style forest schools are booming in Europe and the US – and spreading in Asia, too.



• Privacy hits Zuck's pocket: Apple iOS privacy change will decrease Facebook’s sales this year by about $10 billion.



• ‘Sold by Amazon’ program shut down: Amazon shuts down ‘Sold by Amazon’ program in the US following antitrust investigation. Amazon engages in unlawful price-fixing and restrained competition in order to maximize its profits.



• Chenab Rail Bridge: Highest railway bridge in the world




• TVS acquires 75 percent stake in Swiss e-Mobility Group: TVS’ is focusing on building a portfolio of premium and tech-driven brands, including Norton Motorcycles and eGO Movement.



• Can Erdogan mediate a deal between Russia and Ukraine? Moscow is angered by Turkey providing Ukraine with combat drones.
  
  Drone Superpower: How Turkey became a drone superpower.



• Only Hindus can be "communal": Why is secular France doubling funding for Christian schools in the Middle East?



• Han dirty tricks: Fake Tibetan group sponsors event featuring Olympics promo with exclusively Han Chinese cultural elements. “That’s not even our logo. Looks like a fake group”.



• Mindfulness: The 10-minute hack that is as ‘good as 40 minutes extra sleep’



• Light Therapy and Melatonin: Optimize Health and Immunity with Sunlight.
  1. View early morning sunlight.
  2. Get more light throughout the day. Preferably sunlight.
  3. Minimize bright light (screen time) after sunset.
  4. There is more to sunlight than Vitamin-D
  5. Oral melatonin is not a substitute
  6. Oral Vitamin-D is not a substitute
  7. LED bulbs bad - no Near-Infrared-Radiation. Incandescent bulbs better.




• Eco-friendly alternative to fertilizer: You can swap your fertilizer for black-eyed peas

Quick notes: Crypto heist | Campus violence...

• Terror financing: Crypto worth around 4 crore transferred to Hamas, reveals Delhi Police probe



• Violence mars education: Violence has periodically marred Kerala's higher education system and the state is not a magnet for higher studies. Should politics be kicked out of campuses? . . . . . . . . . . . Bring NOTA to student elections. If NOTA wins, annul the elections that year.



• What India Needs In Ladakh: India has over 4,000 medium tanks, but not a single light tank. The advantage rests with the PLA, whose armoured units in Tibet are equipped with the new ZTQ-15 (or Type 15) light tank.



• E-bikes: The top-selling electric vehicles in the U.S. have two wheels. "Replace a car with a mode that contributes less to congestion and has a lighter carbon footprint".



• Thich Nhat Hanh: The first 8 exercises of Mindful Breathing




• 6G: Jio, Finland's University of Oulu ink JV on 6G technology



• Anti-Arab sentiment sweeps Turkey: Many Turks believe Syrian refugees have overstayed their welcome. Now, as the economic crisis in the country gets worse, attacks have begun to escalate, both rhetorically and physically. Some want all foreigners out of Turkey.



• China is beating the world on yet another greentech: As with other climate technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries, on hydrogen electrolyzers China is already eating the rest of the world’s lunch.



• Lithuania stands firm in its support for Taiwan: Taiwan’s $1 billion Lithuania fund is a high-stakes game of economic diplomacy. . . . "German companies bending to Beijing’s will", Lithuania says



• Has India lost its demographic sweet spot? "The country’s working age population growth rate which was more than 2 per cent till 2010 has dropped to 1.5 per cent. 75 per cent of the countries with economic growth of 6 per cent or more had a working age population growth in excess of 2 per cent. Most developed nations slowed down as their working age population dropped".
  
  We need to map skill requirements of the future and ensure that the education system is tuned to deliver them. Mere large scale investment in education, though needed, will not be enough.

Quick notes: ExMuslim day | Chinese enclave...

• Jan 9 is Kerala ExMuslim Day: ExMuslims of Kerala vows to protect rights of those who renounce religion.



• Targeting Sikhs and Chinese: Pakistan to offer permanent residency scheme for rich foreign nationals to boost weak economy



• Colombo Port City: A new Dubai or a Chinese enclave?
  
  Burdening poor countries with unsustainable debt.
  
  NBA star: "China uses money to buy silence and they just bought Elon".



• Silicon Valley: Led by physicist Robert Noyce, Fairchild Semiconductor began as a start-up company whose radical innovations would help make the United States a leader in both space exploration and the personal computer revolution, changing the way the world works, plays, and communicates.




• Green energy set to take off: Ambani is pouring more than $80 billion into renewable energy



• Lithium: China controls more than half of the world's lithium processing and refining capacity. More than 80% of the global lithium is currently sourced from Australia, Chile and China



• Cremation - A Greener Way to Die: Conserved corpses can go on display in caskets that, collectively, use tons of wood and steel, which we then bury in concrete containers. Instead of returning bodily nutrients, like potassium and calcium, to the ground, they slowly molder while shielded from the dirt. Lack of oxygen causes wasting flesh to release methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than the carbon dioxide we’d produce in open air.
  
  Meanwhile, embalming fluid can leak into soil and make its way into our groundwater, potentially at hazardous concentrations. Our final contribution to humankind: toxic ooze. Many countries favor an option lighter on chemicals: cremation. It’s also becoming popular in the U.S.



• Ellara Kannada: Has the influence of Sanskrit on Kannada created barriers for learning and usage? “When it comes to science terms, we have complicated words rooted in Sanskrit. We wanted to find simpler equivalents”.



• Be alive, every moment: