Notices by Srijit Kumar Bhadra (srijit@shonk.social)

TL;DR: It is high time we considered providing serious encouragement to sub-junior and junior sportspersons, if India wants to prosper in international sports. Otherwise life of sub-junior and junior sportspersons will continue to be difficult and there will be no outcome in the internal sports arenas. It is a collective effort. Even the common local resident has a lot to contribute.

This is a request to all my fellow countrymen who can afford go that extra mile to support Indian sports.

If you really love Indian sports and want Indian sports to prosper at International level, please go and watch local competitive matches of sub-juniors and juniors wherever you stay. Please do not restrict yourself just to cricket. You may watch basketball, hockey, football, badminton, tennis, swimming, athletics, shooting, equestrian, fencing etc. Encourage the kids by offering small token gifts (vouchers, sports equipment etc.). Talk to them and positively suggest them how to overcome the obstacles. If possible, practically contribute towards removing their bottlenecks. For example, some of them may face challenges just to reach the sports arena. Pick up and drop them in your vehicle whenever possible or arrange for car pooling, if feasible.

Very few Indian sub-junior or junior sports trainees are able to get support from their parents and can traverse the journey in sports without much external help. The rest opt out due to lack of resources. I know many athletes who were forced to quit early and become coaches to make both ends meet.

How much an Indian family of an athlete needs to spend to reach up to the international level? Lets us consider Srihari Nataraj who, along with 14-year-old Dhinidhi Desinghu, will represent India in swimming at the Paris 2024 Olympics. There is interesting article titled "Srihari Nataraj and the cost of creating India’s best swimmer" though the article is nearly four years old. In that article, dated August 30 2019, we learn that:“We have spent nearly ₹8 lakh for Srihari’s two World Championships within the last one month or so, the senior worlds in Gwangju in July and the junior in Budapest, which ended a few days ago. We spend ₹70,000-80,000 every month for his swimming and have spent nearly ₹30 lakh for his sport over the last few years,” said Kalyani, a former Tamil Nadu junior volleyball player who hails from Pudukottai.The support from Government may come after later. Till then the family just has to burn cash without expecting any returns.

In addition to the above, the family has to provide an ecosystem for day to day support to balance sports training and school education. This only adds to the hardship and stress since one has to constantly juggle between school time table and sports time table and they will never remain aligned with each other..

How many middle class families can afford? The bigger question that rattles the minds of an Indian middle class family is whether it is worth pursuing sports without any support from the society and the Government at early formative stages.

#MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India #Sports #Athlete

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

@renchap@oisaur.com We need to tune the behaviour a bit, but I am already missing them when using another instance.Sharkey and Iceshrimp already have this feature - account cards on hover!

#Sharkey #Iceshrimp #ActivityPub #Mastodon

I think the following thoughts of Jessica Wildfire are reasonable enough for me to adhere to:For the record, my stance toward global politics has always been: there's no heroes or villains on the world stage. Russia, China, and the U.S. are all guilty of human rights atrocities. They've all made dumb mistakes. None of them are as good, or bad, as they appear in the corporate media. Most importantly, they could all put aside their differences and work toward a shared vision of a better world, but they often don't. Who's the most responsible for the divided state of the world? It's probably the U.S., for what it's worth. But that doesn't exonerate other powers from their actions.When we talk about the actions and accountability of other countries, we're talking about the leaders of those countries.#GlobalPolitics #Politics #HumanRights #Humanity #GeoPolitics

Irrespective of any political ideology, I believe that privilege is the enemy of
1. Freedom
2. Equal rights
3. Modesty
4. Humility
5. Talent

Privilege is the friend or the facilitator of
1. Hubris
2. Gaslighting

#Privilege #Positivity #Humanity

Ephemerality, in digital world, is already fading away. Now it is going to be past soon. Thanks to Microsoft.

From this post of Kevin Beaumont, we get to learn further that privacy gets completely diluted, for all practical purpose, with recall feature of Microsoft.You deal with a sensitive matter on my Windows PC. E.g. an email you delete. Does Copilot Recall still store the deleted email?Answer: yes. There's no feature to delete screenshots of things you delete while using your PC. You would have to remember to go and purge screenshots that Recall makes every few seconds.If you or a friend use disappearing messages in WhatsApp, Signal etc, it is recorded regardless.If deleting a message, after sending, is rendered useless by Copilot+ Recall, it is better to avoid it for private communication and, instead, use email. I know that once an email is sent, I cannot edit it or delete it on receiver's computer. I am better prepared psychologically. Let the recipient worry (most users may not care) how to address deleted emails on a computer with Copilot+ Recall or equivalent.

#BigTech #Microsoft #AI #Privacy #Security #Recall #IrresponsibleTech #PrivacyMatters #DataProtection

I used to hear often about how friendships are deteriorating and how India's vast political divides are causing societal disintegration. In ‘India 2030’, Sandipan Deb, as part of the volume of 20 essays, predicts how ideology and technology will widen political polarisation over the next decade.

I am currently the victim of a friendship that lasted more than 40 years until it broke up over a political disagreement. During a conversation in March 2024, I strongly (or maybe brutally!) condemned the political party that this person actively supported. They wanted to talk to me because they were really upset. Feelings were running high. I was in the wrong kind of mood, too. This will never be discussed at this time. My friend passed away last week before I could make amends with them.

Some regrets, such as this, will be with me forever.

#MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India #Regret #Humanity #Politics #Ideology #Polarization

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

Bona-fide Spyware

WhatsApp has more than 400 million users only in India. I am one of them and I cannot evade it due to very strong network effects. In several cases, I pushed a friend or an acquaintance to use a messaging tool other than WhatsApp. And I was the only user for that person who eventually uninstalled that messaging tool before long.

We know WhatsApp provides end-to-end encryption but collects metadata which matters as, once again, stated here.WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption to protect your communications. At the same time, though, it regularly collects some seemingly less important details attached to your messaging activities—metadata. This information includes IP addresses, phone numbers, who you have spoken with, and when, among others. It may not look so important, but even such small digital traces can act as identifiers. For instance, it was exactly a piece of metadata—a Proton Mail recovery email—that led to the arrest of a Catalan activist.As for WhatsApp's Privacy Policy, the app records a wealth of usage logs including "the time, frequency, and duration of your activities and interactions." Other identifiable data such as your network details, the browser you use, ISP, and other identifiers linked to other Meta products (like Instagram and Facebook) associated with the same device or account are also collected.It is amazing that this aspect does not perturb us in India. The other day, I was initially surprised to see that the admins of one my WhatsApp group got very worried when a few members shared some metadata (names and contact details) with a high profile educational technology company of India. The admins decided to dissolve the existing WhatsApp group and create another similar group by collecting additional personal data from us. Fortunately this data is part of end-to-end encrypted WhatsApp message and, hence, it may be outside the purview of Meta. What caught my attention was that most of us were sharing this additional personal data is the existing group and thus enabling us to share even more precise data with the educational technology companies.

It does not seem to matter even when we know that Meta knows so much about us. There are even more serious concerns.The issue is that surveillance techniques are getting always more sophisticated. WhatsApp’s internal security team identified many instances of so-called correlation attacks where a smarter analysis of encrypted data—linked to its very much visible metadata counterpart—can evade the app's privacy protections.With respect to WhatsApp, Facebook and other Meta products we are nonchalant in India. The following quote from this post reflects my thoughts.What's really is scary that we're at a point were we made #SPYWARE socially acceptable simply because the authors are from "well-respected organizations" rather than "evil hacker groups".#Privacy #WhatsApp #Spyware #MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

Till climate change related issues move from the periphery to electoral interest

Climate change is all about saving humanity and our ecosystem. The significant human cost due to failure to address the climate change related challenges is understood very well without any ambiguity.

As per Professor Tim Lenton,For every 0.1 degrees of warming above present levels, about 140 million more people will be exposed to dangerous heat.The high impact of climate change that causes rising global temperatures and heatwaves, fires, storms and floods hurting people today have been extensively documented by climate scientists. We are reading it everyday. So the awareness is there though it may not be enough.

Unfortunately, our climate scientists feel hopeless when they see that the responses from the politicians and the big corporations are not in the best interest of the common man. And yet, our climate scientists still passionately continue to do their job with a conviction that policymakers cannot say that they were not made aware.

The root cause that this impending catastrophe does not motivate politicians (policymakers) is that it is not an election issue. If policymakers are motivated enough, the big corporations will also act more responsibly. Elections are typically held every four to five years across the world, but the planning and execution cycles to contain climate change impacts are more than that. According to Stephen Humphreys, the politicians and the well healed won't be affected, even if there is a cataclysmic 3C rise, till there is civil disobedience.

Now India is no exception. During the ongoing 2024 parliamentary elections, no political party explicitly talked about the devastating effects of climate crisis. Except the educated middle class and above, many of us do not fully understand the scientific phenomenon of climate change and its implications on our daily lives. This lack of awareness leads to climate change not influencing our voting decisions. But the issues related to its consequences, such as water scarcity, agriculture challenges, and economic impacts are being discussed aggressively.Between 2016- 2021, climate extreme events caused damage to crops in over 36 million hectares, and a $3.75 billion loss for farmers in the country. If estimates from the report on ‘Loss and Damage Today’ by economist James Rising were to be believed, India lost 8% of its GDP in 2022. Both the major political political parties, in India, have elaborately mentioned climate agenda in their election manifestos which are statement of intentions and not policy documents. However, Indian political parties tend to focus on immediate, emotive issues rather than long-term environmental concerns, which are not always seen as directly affecting voter in the short term. Environmental challenges and political priorities are consciously kept disconnected during election campaigns. No political party want to stir the hornet's best. Since meeting daily needs and economic growth are pressing concerns, the common people are prioritizing survival issues like employment, education, and healthcare over environmental policies.

The fate of climate change and politics is deeply intertwined. If climate issue fails to strike a strong resonance in the election campaigns across the globe, there is not much way forward.

References:

1. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2024/may/08/hopeless-and-broken-why-the-worlds-top-climate-scientists-are-in-despair
2. https://www.todayonline.com/world/climate-change-global-warming-27degc-will-expose-2-billion-people-dangerous-heat-end-century-study-shows-2178411
3. https://www.dw.com/en/india-elections-why-is-no-one-talking-about-climate-change/a-69035816
4. https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-climate/election-manifestos-climate-change-9288078/
5. https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/climate-on-the-ballot-why-india-needs-a-climate-conscious-majority-for-global-good/3484151/

#ClimateChange #CimateEmergency #ClimateCrisis #MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

RE: https://shonk.social/notes/9n347fwk61b200b6

TL;DR: Copyright, privacy and security will take a further backseat amidst the deluge of AI leveraged productivity tools that are deeply integrated with existing workflows and with great usability for normies. To protect privacy, copyright and security users have to be much more conscious and use additional tools and settings. This will add to increased effort, cost and cognitive load. Most of us will succumb.

Privacy conscious users have read and understood that Microsoft's new Windows 11 Recall is a privacy nightmare. Accordingly, they will advocate no usage or very restricted usage and I would agree with them. I also agree with them when they raise similar serious privacy concerns about Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube etc.

But none of these concerns have slowed the usage of WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube etc. Big Tech continue to actively develop and upgrade these flagship products since they significantly impact both the top line and bottom line. Big Tech will also continue to claim and promote data and user security while actually leveraging the metadata to offer personalized services and targeted advertising, leading to increased recurring revenue. Another interesting approach is to integrate with existing services and apps to garner critical mass as rapidly as possible.

Recall on Copilot+ PCs cannot be an exception to this approach. It is just a matter of time before more such similar AI assisted tools will be available. Even though Microsoft Recall does not perform content moderation and will not hide information such as passwords or financial account numbers, it will not deter most users if the usability is good enough for the user. Microsoft has full access to its own Windows 11 ecosystem and also has deep pockets to incrementally and frequently improve usability to enhance the feel of seamless integration with Windows ecosystem and increased productivity. As per this blog, the investment is already remarkable.We are excited to extend the Microsoft Copilot stack to Windows with Windows Copilot Runtime. We have infused AI into every layer of Windows, including a fundamental transformation of the OS itself to enable developers to accelerate AI development on Windows. I sometimes request not to take screenshots when I remotely share my desktop screen though collaboration tools. Now I also have to remember to also pause snapshots and strongly suggest to do the same from the Recall icon in the system tray. I am also aware that many privacy focussed cross platform tools will be threatened. I don't think Big Tech considers the users of these tools as mainstream users (read normies) yet. To minimize this threat, developers and users have to increase their effort and cost.Filtering apps and websites from your snapshots
You can filter out apps and websites from being saved as snapshots. You can add apps and websites at any time by going to Settings > Privacy & security > Recall & snapshots on your PC.
Filtering out specific websites will only work in supported browsers such as Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Opera, and Google Chrome. You always have the option to filter out all browsing activity by adding an app filter for a browser. To add support for website filtering, developers need to implement Recall activity APIs.
Recall won’t save any content from your private browsing activity when you’re using Microsoft Edge, Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome, or other Chromium-based browsers.It is a wishful thinking that Microsoft AI “Recall” feature does not gain enough traction and is eventually withdrawn. Big Tech seems to be committed to leverage AI to help consumers traverse their digital workspaces more effectively.

#BigTech #Microsoft #AI #Privacy #Security #Recall #IrresponsibleTech #PrivacyMatters #DataProtection

For all practical purposes Bertha Benz, wife of Karl Benz, can be considered the first person to refuel by purchasing ligroin (a petroleum spirit that was commonly used as an organic solvent in chemical laboratories) from Stadt-Apotheke (Town Pharmacy) in Wiesloch during August 1888. And Stadt-Apotheke can considered the world’s first filling station.

During 1888, the global CO2 levels were 31 percent lower than today (425 ppm).

There will be a person who will eventually buy fossil fuel for the last time from the world's last filling station before disposing off the fossil fuel driven vehicle. When will that happen? The exact date of the last purchase of fossil fuel remains uncertain due to the dynamic nature of fossil fuel reserves and consumption patterns. My guess is that eventuality will not happen during this century.

In 2018 global CO2 emissions from transport was 24% of CO2 emissions from energy. 74.5% of those transport emissions came from road vehicles.

It is unfortunate that due to poor social and economic policies, an elegant invention like car ended up seriously challenging the urban environment, infrastructure and liveability. This is how I feel while living in Bengaluru where car has become a necessary evil.

Reference:
1. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/stadtapotheke-wiesloch
2. https://infinity-renewables.com/162-2/
3. https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions-from-transport

#FossilFuel #GreenEnergy #CleanEnergy #Climate #TransportEmissions #ClimateEmergency

@argv_minus_one@mstdn.party @breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social

@argv_minus_one@mstdn.party @breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social

These desperate people are brainwashed to accept their current situation as their destiny. Also they seem to be convinced that though those politicians are not responsible for their status, the politicians are trying their best to address their needs. Through selected half true anecdotes, they are made to believe that it would have been much worse had it been someone else. The desperate people should consider themselves lucky to have these politicians at the helm of the affairs.

WhatsApp and similar social media tools play a big role in achieving this mindless subservience through domestication of users.

Playing the game on the same pitch and according to the same rules is one way to combat this. However that is easier said than done. It needs funds and resources.

#HumanSociety #Humanity

@housepanther@goblackcat.social @breadandcircuses@climatejustice.social

Who will bell the cat?The system is designed to benefit those at the top at the expense of those at the bottom.For this reason, there is no incentive for those at the top, at the expense of the bottom, to challenge and change the system. The system needs to change for those at the bottom who are mostly at the receiving end with nominal resources and too much on their plate for day to day survival.

Who will bell the cat?

#HumanSociety #Humanity

No matter what you are, you are enough

I suggest that we watch the Indian movie The Broken Table. This compact masterpiece has a subtle and a profund message which left a lasting impression in my mind within a duration of 23 minutes and fifty two seconds. I do not want to reveal the details. Let the viewer discover the healing perspectives of our emotional dilemmas in this sensitive movie.

The movie has excellent English subtitles and, hence, language should not be a barrier. Since the film touches on the depths of the universal human experience, overcoming linguistic and cultural limitations, I am confident that it will appeal to the international audience.

#MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India #Humanity #HumanEmotions #Emotions

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

@Amelia@transfem.social @fEmber@transfem.social
Is there any plan to improve search in https://shonk.social/ ? If I search for a phrase in https://shonk.social/, I usually get the message "An error has occurred" and asks me to retry. After several retries I may get "No notes".

IMHO, the best example of search is provided by an iceshrimp instance as on today. I am confident search in https://shonk.social/ can be much better.

#Sharkey #Iceshrimp #Fediverse #Search

In some context, for many of us, the happiness, wealth and, may be, some privileges, that we all have earned or enjoyed is tied to the blood and toil of the poor, helpless and defenceless people.

#Human #History #Inequality #Poor #Poverty

The majority of human history has been one of inequality, deprivation, and exploitation of innocent people.

#Human #History #Inequality

@bobbers@infosec.exchangeyou need home ownership to take full advantage of that.For electric cars, I initially felt that I can manage with publicly available battery chargers in Bengaluru. After visiting the battery charging stations and talking to several owners and potential buyers of of electric cars, I realized that the idea is not practical.

Also, with respect to usage of limited battery charging stations in Bengaluru, there is competition from large number of electric scooters which are quite popular in Bengaluru.

#ElectricCars #ElectricVehicles #EV #ElectricCar #ElectricVehicle #MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

Income and Wealth Inequality in India

As an Indian I am not surprised to learn from Robert Reich's post that the top 0.1% of Americans control $20 trillion in wealth and the bottom 50% control $3.7 trillion in wealth.

I have been haplessly observing the brutality of inequality since my childhood while putting my best efforts to remain on the other side.

From the paper titled "Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj" we learn the following.Our estimates suggest that inequality declined post-independence till the early 1980s, after which it began rising and has skyrocketed since the early 2000s. Trends of top income and wealth shares track each other over the entire period of our study. Between 2014-15 and 2022-23, the rise of top-end inequality has been particularly pronounced in terms of wealth concentration. By 2022-23, top 1% income and wealth shares (22.6% and 40.1%) are at their highest historical levels and India’s top 1% income share is among the very highest in the world.In other words, the ‘Billionaire Raj’ headed by India’s modern bourgeoisie is now more unequal than the British Raj headed by the colonialist forces. It is unclear how long such inequality levels can sustain without major social and political upheaval. While there is no reason to believe income and wealth inequality will slow down by itself, historical evidence suggests that it can be kept in check via policy.The root cause may be absence of appropriate policies through legislation.

The authors of the above mentioned paper lament that:In line with earlier work, we find suggestive evidence that the Indian income tax system might be regressive when viewed from the lens of net wealth. We emphasize that the quality of economic data in India is notably poor and has seen a decline recently. It is therefore likely that our results represent a lower bound to actual inequality levels.#Inequality #Poverty #WealthInequality #Billionaire #MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

RE: https://masto.ai/users/rbreich/statuses/112361975539771887

My attempt to explain capitalism to a high school student

Economic system

An economic system is a way that a country or society organizes and manages its resources, such as money, goods, and services. It's like a set of rules and practices that determine how people earn money, buy and sell things, and make decisions about what to produce and consume.

Economic freedom

Economic freedom means having the ability to make your own choices about how to earn money, buy and sell things, and make decisions about what to produce and consume. It is the freedom to participate in economic activities without unnecessary restrictions or interference.

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system where people can start their own businesses and make decisions about what to produce, how much to charge and where to sell their products. In this system, capital assets (e.g. factories, mines, rail, roads, ports etc.) can be privately owned and controlled by individuals or private companies and labor is purchased for money wages.
Profit is the money a business earns after paying for all the costs involved in producing and selling goods or services. The primary goal of capitalism is to make a profit by selling goods or services.

Economic freedom and capitalism

Economic freedom is not only related to capitalism. Other economic systems also provide economic freedom to varying degrees. Economic freedom is important because it encourages innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. When individuals and businesses have the freedom to make their own economic decisions, they are motivated to work hard, take risks, and come up with new ideas. This leads to the creation of new businesses, job opportunities, and improvements in the quality of goods and services.

Major drawbacks of capitalism that can affect society

1. In a capitalist system, wealth tends to accumulate in the hands of a small percentage of the population, and this can lead to a wide gap between the rich and the poor.
2. Successful companies can usually become so powerful that they dominate the market, allowing them to charge higher prices to consumers.
3. Capitalism can encourage greed i.e. the pursuit of profit in capitalism can sometimes prioritize making money over making decisions that may benefit society as a whole.
4. Capitalism, with its focus on profit, mostly overlooks the environmental impact of production. This can lead to overproduction, pollution, and other harmful effects on the environment and climate that affect everyone.
5. Often people are rich, simply because they inherit wealth or are born into a privileged class. Therefore, capitalist society can not only fail to create equality of outcome but also can also fail to provide equality of opportunity. Societies which are highly unequal create resentment and social division.

Topics not discussed
1. Rent

Reference: https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2015/06/basics.htm

#Capitalism #EconomicSystem #EconomicSystems #EconomicFreedom

TL;DR is that in Bengaluru and rest of India it is not yet a good practical idea to buy an electric car without ensuring that a personal charger can be installed at home.

#ElectricCars #ElectricVehicles #EV #ElectricCar #ElectricVehicle #MastodonIndians #MastIndia #India

cc: @mastodonindians@a.gup.pe

RE: https://shonk.social/notes/9pe9kqowiidr05xv