Indian Institute of Technology Madras ( IIT Madras ) will be provided a grant of Rs 242 Crore over a period of five years to undertake research on Lab Grown Diamonds (LGD). This research will be focused on driving indigenization of the LGD manufacturing process. Presenting the Budget 2023, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Lab grown Diamonds (LGD) is a technology and innovation-driven emerging sector with high employment potential. These environment-friendly diamonds have optically and chemically the same properties as natural diamonds. To encourage indigenous production of LGD seeds and machines and to reduce import dependency, a research and development grant will be provided to one of the IITs for five years.” The research grants will go towards various departments and research groups of the Institute that are involved in this field. IIT Madras has a history of undertaking cutting-edge and translational research with significant applications in industry … [Read more...] about iit madras: IIT Madras to receive Rs 242 crore for research on Lab Grown Diamonds in Budget 2023
Pentagon: Another Chinese Spy Balloon Flying over Latin America
The Pentagon on Friday evening announced that another Chinese spy balloon had been identified and is flying over Latin America. “We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon,” Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said. New: Pentagon says another Chinese spy balloon is currently transiting Latin America. Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said in a statement to CNN, “We are seeing reports of a balloon transiting Latin America. We now assess it is another Chinese surveillance balloon.” — Jim Sciutto (@jimsciutto) February 4, 2023 This marks the second Chinese spy balloon found after the first one was discovered floating over the continental United States on Thursday. Ryder said on Thursday: The U.S. government, including NORAD, continues to track and monitor it closely. The balloon is currently traveling at an altitude well above commercial air traffic and does not present a military or physical … [Read more...] about Pentagon: Another Chinese Spy Balloon Flying over Latin America
Fmr Clinton Defense Secretary Cohen: Inspect Chinese Ballon for ‘Biological Component’
Former Defense Secretary William Cohen, also a former Republican U.S. Senator from Maine, said Friday on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360” that the Chinese ballon should be taken down and inspected to determine if there is a “biological component” that could pose a threat. Cooper asked, “Secretary Cohen, if this was an Iranian balloon or a North Korean balloon, would we have reacted the same way?” Cohen said, “I think we would have because the first thing we need to do is, number one, is the balloon a military or security threat, but number two, can we get information out of it before we destroy it? We didn’t know, for example, if it could have contained something within the balloon other than helium that could have posed a threat to us. Do we know if it has any kind of biological component to it? So you want to ask those questions.” He added, “We need to find out as much information about this balloon as soon as we can to make sure we put the Chinese on notice, come again another … [Read more...] about Fmr Clinton Defense Secretary Cohen: Inspect Chinese Ballon for ‘Biological Component’
Dem Rep. Quigley: China Spy Balloon Isn’t a New Issue, They’ve Had Satellites ‘for Years’
On Friday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL) stated that the Chinese spy balloon is a serious issue, but we should note that “the low orbit Chinese satellites have been there for years, they’re there all the time. I don’t want the American people to think this is something new and that all of a sudden we have a concern that we didn’t have before.” Quigley stated that Secretary of State Tony Blinken should not have canceled his trip to China over the balloon, and that “if you’re angry about something, don’t talk about it through the press, talk about it nose-to-nose and the ramifications, let them know we’re serious about matters like this.” He continued, “And I’m serious about any surveillance over the United States. Let’s put this in perspective, the low orbit Chinese satellites have been there for years, they’re there all the time. I don’t want the American people to think this is something new and that all of a sudden we have a concern that we didn’t have before. Those … [Read more...] about Dem Rep. Quigley: China Spy Balloon Isn’t a New Issue, They’ve Had Satellites ‘for Years’
Maher: I ‘Don’t Trust the Government’ on Inflation Reduction Act after COVID Relief Fraud
On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher stated that he doesn’t “trust the government at this point” after the massive amount of coronavirus relief fraud and he doesn’t trust the Inflation Reduction Act due to what a mess coronavirus relief turned out to be. Maher said that while the full Build Back Better plan didn’t pass, the smaller Inflation Reduction Act is “still kind of a lot of money. … I’ve just got to say, I always was sort of on this page, first of all, 3.5 — do you even know what’s in there? No. And also, I just don’t trust the government at this point. The money that they spent on COVID, half of that got stolen. Hundreds of billions of dollars, hundreds of billions that went to the PPP…program and unemployment, it was just stolen or given out to anybody.” He added that he doesn’t believe there should have been no aid, but “I don’t trust the next one when the last one was such a mess. … There was always this idea that you cannot transfer money … [Read more...] about Maher: I ‘Don’t Trust the Government’ on Inflation Reduction Act after COVID Relief Fraud
Maher: ‘Woke Revolution’ Is a Lot Like Mao’s Cultural Revolution
On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that “today’s woke revolution” has striking similarities to China’s Cultural Revolution of the 1960s under Chairman Mao “we do have our own Red Guard here, but they do their rampaging on Twitter.” Maher stated, “Yesterday, I asked ChatGPT, are there any similarities between today’s woke revolution and Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution of the 1960s? And it wrote back, how long do you have? Because, again, in China, we saw how a revolutionary thought he could do a page-one rewrite of humans. Mao ordered his citizens to throw off the four olds: old thinking, old culture, old customs, and old habits. So, your whole life went in the garbage overnight, no biggie. And those who resisted were attacked by an army of purifiers called the Red Guard, who went around the country putting dunce caps on people…who didn’t take to being a new kind of mortal being. A lot of pointing and shaming went on — oh, and about a million dead — … [Read more...] about Maher: ‘Woke Revolution’ Is a Lot Like Mao’s Cultural Revolution
House Homeland Security Chair Green: I Never Got Alerted About Spy Balloon by Biden Administration
On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox News @ Night,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) stated that he was never alerted by the Biden administration about the Chinese spy balloon. Host Trace Gallagher asked, “Are you getting any information, sir, from the Pentagon about the specifics or anything else about this balloon?” Green responded, “No. We’re getting very little and we never got a phone call. We never got alerted to this. It’s a crying shame when the Chairman of Homeland Security finds out about a Chinese spy balloon flying over the United States, it’s just — it’s really unconscionable.” Gallagher later asked, “What’s the reasoning, what’s the rationale behind not telling us more about this, giving us more information, Congressman? Did they think we wouldn’t find out about this? What’s the working theory right now about why this administration that consistently says transparency, transparency, transparency won’t give us any … [Read more...] about House Homeland Security Chair Green: I Never Got Alerted About Spy Balloon by Biden Administration
GOP Sen. Rounds: Blinken Would Have Still Gone to China if Public Didn’t Know about Spy Balloon
On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Your World,” Sen. Mike Rounds (R-SD) said that he believes Secretary of State Tony Blinken’s visit to China would have gone forward if the incursion of a Chinese spy balloon into U.S. airspace didn’t become public given that the administration didn’t cancel the meeting until Friday despite stating that it knew about the balloon on Tuesday. Host Neil Cavuto asked [relevant exchange begins around 1:50] “I don’t want to compare apples and oranges, Sen., but it does ring a lot like the early readings we’re getting on the classified documents [from] the administration and how they were explaining them. And in this case, if they were aware, as they seem to be indicating, of this presence for some days, why, all of a sudden, is it today that they’ve decided to cancel Antony Blinken’s trip to China?” Rounds responded, “I can’t tell you for sure. We’re going to ask that question. But I think along with it and then close to the same … [Read more...] about GOP Sen. Rounds: Blinken Would Have Still Gone to China if Public Didn’t Know about Spy Balloon
Google rushes to launch its own ChatGPT-like technology soon
Something to look forward to: Google CEO Sundar Pichai disclosed the company's plans to integrate AI technologies into search and other products. During a Q4 earnings conference call this week, Pichai said that users would very soon be able to directly interact with its newest, most potent model as a companion to search in innovative ways. Google will release its chatbot technology to the general public in "the next weeks and months," according to the CEO. Google Search will leverage LaMDA (Language Model for Dialogue Applications), the company's in-house language model, to deliver "factual" and conversational results to queries. The tech giant is prepared to show what they've been working on amid the current generative AI frenzy and revealed plans to integrate the technology into the bulk of its products, including some cutting-edge AI features in Gmail and Docs. He mentioned two "big language models" being developed at the company, LaMDA and PaLM, with the former set for … [Read more...] about Google rushes to launch its own ChatGPT-like technology soon
My latest co-op multiplayer obsession is
My co-op gaming group has logged a few hundred extra hours in Deep Rock Galactic since I wrote about it a year and a half ago , but we're always looking for another game to fall in love with. Further Reading How a game about dwarves mining in space has helped me weather the pandemic We've tried a bunch of things in the last year, guided by a combination of positive reviews and "whatever is on sale in Steam at the time." We've logged time in Back 4 Blood , Payday 2 , Warhammer: Vermintide 2 , Sea of Thieves , Diablo III , Risk of Rain 2 , and Borderlands 3 , and each has had its charms. But the one that has stuck with me the most is called Raft , a game about building a raft. Raft isn't new—it went into Early Access in 2018—but its formal 1.0 release happened this past June . The pitch: You begin the game drifting across an endless ocean on a tiny wooden raft cobbled together from flotsam and jetsam. Armed with only a trusty throwable plastic … [Read more...] about My latest co-op multiplayer obsession is