Notices by Akshay | అక్షయ్ (cydonian@social.vivaldi.net)

For non-Singaporeans: SG famously sends its best and brightest to study in Harvard, Oxbridge etc on generous scholarships and then gets them back to head top positions in civil service. All of them are affected now, and are unlikely to forget this in a hurry. https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/confused-nervous-told-to-wait-for-updates-singapore-students-at-harvard-react-to-us-ban

American journalist published a story on a hacker-for-hire based in India. He gets his permanent residency (“OCI”) cancelled immediately.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/13/us-journalist-sues-indian-government-after-losing-his-overseas-citizenship

Pleasant surprise waking up today morning: iOS 18.4 has arrived and come with a Telugu UI.

The translations are decent and, for once, don’t seem algorithmically driven.

“The Maktaba Jamia bookshop he manages opened a century ago. Alam took over its running this year driven by his love for the language.

"I have been sitting since morning, and barely four people have come," he said gloomily. "And even those were college or school-going children who want their study books."”

جس کی زبان اردو کی طرح.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/fading-literature-delhis-famed-urdu-052623586.html

Modi government cancels OCI for a French journo married to an Indian citizen, forcing him to
lose his source of income and then force their family to leave India for good ostensibly for his reporting. https://x.com/sebfarcis/status/1803678386688012315

This one is entirely upon the other NDA leaders, Chandrababu Naidu and Nitish Kumar. Are they for free speech and international couples or do they want India to be worse than Myanmar?

“When you put all of these stories together, a clear picture emerges. The Indian government has developed a repertoire of tactics for repressing criticism abroad, and is currently deploying all of them as part of a campaign of intimidation in the United States. Human rights activists, experts, and Indian American community organizers are aware of India’s efforts and speak of its campaign as an everyday concern for themselves and people they know.

Which means it’s probably working.” https://www.vox.com/world-politics/24160779/inside-indias-secret-campaign-to-threaten-and-harass-americans

@liztai There’s also a question of how they trim the trees too, and how the soil around the tree is maintained. It’s quite complicated; used to get a headache reading reports by certified arborists back when I was in civil service.

Sending a bee signal to other Yellow Jackets here on Fedi. 🐝🤘🏾 😀 @evan @Riedl

Apparently the only time I can go out for a brisk walk is 10PM-7AM. It’s 29 degrees C at all other times.

Essentially the average temperature for April / May till 2020 has now become the minimum, and the mean maximum has become the daily mean.

And on this fine day, I’ve come upon the Answer to Life, Universe and Everything.

French journo who lived in India for 23 years, married an Indian, raised a son in India, is being stripped of her permanent residency and is being asked to leave India for good. Reason: her French articles in Le Point aren’t palatable to the powers that be.

(As someone married to an Indophile who has reported from/ on India before, this is scary af. ) https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/02/16/french-journalist-says-leaving-india-after-expulsion-threat_6532610_7.html

South Indian thali yesterday. Nalan’s thali shot up from $8 to $24 in 16 years, but is as awesome as it has ever been. #makanapatoday

@mmasnick Pleasantly surprised about two aspects: the ability to tie your handle to your domain, and the whole notion of selecting your sort algo. Pretty decent implementations for both, from what I’ve seen.

Needs more people there though, particularly with my interests. Seems like a wasteland out there.

Chinese New Year greetings from our Chindian household!

Translation of the verse:

Another year for the world, more longevity for this family ;
Another spring for the cosmos, more good fortune for this house.

లోకానికి మరో వర్షము
ఆత్మీయులకు మరింత ఆయురారోగ్యము
విశ్వానికి మరొక వసంతము
ఇంటిల్లిపాదికి మరింత శుభము.

@liztai My 2024 project is to learn bits of Chinese, and am a bit excited to realise I finally saw something in the “wild” that I can read! 😊

Now I just have to wait till someone says “I drink tea. I am happy. And you?”

Somehow, all the Vietnamese food I’ve had so far in central and southern Vietnam have much subtler flavours than the Vietnamese food in Singapore. Kind of tells you which restaurants in Singapore are really good and which ones aren’t. #makanapatoday

My Son: Natarāja with South East Asian characteristics lies next to bombshells from 1969. Huge craters lie next to where the ancient Champa kingdom - that ruled these parts from 8-14th centuries - built vast temple complexes comprising of Sivālayas and much more.

But the forest, the temples and bombed craters are all protected by UNESCO, and are being restored with an international team consisting of archeologists from India & Vietnam and funding from Germany and Netherlands.

Various Sino dialectal groups have their respective clan associations/ temples along the same stretch in historic Hoi An.

This is the flip side of “events in 1975” as a society elder put to us: Chinese education was wiped out after South Vietnam fell, and many Chinese-Vietnamese emigrated out. The few who are left don’t speak Chinese much, although the older generation does. They were quite happy to speak to us in Chinese.

Lee Kuan Yew is very popular among them, and therefore, Singapore. Don’t think the many multitudes of Singaporean tourists had an actual conversation with them though.

Han River.

Good morning, Vietnam!