ಆರ್ ಸುನೀಲ್ [email protected]

I've planned to make separate threads in Chapter fashion, and once I'm done I'll quote the beginning of each thread under this thread. Most of what I'll be narrating now is purely my personal understanding of this topic, however I will also quote emminent commentators.

Talking of ‘illegality’ and encroachments, ever heard of mass demolitions in Sainik Farms in Delhi? Hundreds of farm houses razed to the ground without warning in the dead of the winter or in peak summer and residents tossed into the street ? The question then is not about ‘illegal encroachments’ but the identity of the encroacher.

If Sampath returned to his tried-and-true approach of plagiarizing scholars, he’d probably make fewer factual errors. What embarrassing nonsense. Read this instead: engelsbergideas.com/essays/indias-…

Sunil Mittal's Airtel made a net profit of Rs.33800 crores in 2025-26. That's Rs.33800,00,00,000 🙏

@kingofknowwhere I am vegetarian but I remember cold dming zomato's head of AI just so I could resolve this bug

Zomato chatbot saga. They need better engineers not new grads doing PM and AI. Lol. > I ordered food yesterday. > Delivery driver told me restaurant is closed > Chatbot says driver has reached restaurant so it must be open > Hallucinates talking to driver > Reasons restaurant being offline by saying "they must be cooking". Hallucinates more details

Bengaluru’s cafes are beginning to look alike. Instagram may be why thenewsminute.com/karnataka/beng…

111 Indians dead. 227 homes in 26 districts destroyed. Children buried under collapsed homes in UP. Putin sent condolences. UAE sent condolences. Singapore sent condolences. India’s own PM? Boarding a flight to UAE, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway & Italy. This is the same man who tweets within minutes when there’s a stadium inauguration, a foreign trip photo-op, or an award ceremony. 111 dead. No statement. No call. No pause. Just a runway, a red carpet, and a photo-op waiting abroad. “Brand India” is alive. The Indians inside India? Not so much. The silence IS the statement. 🇮🇳

The first guy in America to wear a beard was so hated for it that he used to get into street fights with people trying to forcibly shave him.

Indian TV media is so compromised & pathetic that we find out about 100+ deaths due to rain & storms in UP from the Russian President. In no other supposed “democracy” is the media so entirely controlled by the ruling party. It’s beyond shameful.

A British doctor stranded in India for 4 months over an anti-BJP FB post finally boarded a flight home Tuesday. Before leaving, he spoke to @thaver_mohamed, looking visibly relieved, but still asking the Q that has haunted him: "How can a 12-word post attract an FIR & LOC?" Rs 50 lakh in legal fees. 4 months away from his children. Nearly lost his job. Read his story: indianexpress.com/article/cities… via @IndianExpress

Last week, while I was working on a piece by @harsh_mander on Hindutva at a food court in a Bengaluru mall, an elderly man quietly came and stood behind my chair, reading my screen without even asking. After a few moments, he walked around, sat in front of me, and started a conversation. “You shouldn’t read these kinds of craps,” he said. He told me that Hindus are in danger in India and warned me not to fall for such “narratives.” Looking at the headline, he insisted that “Hindutva terror” is not even a real term. He also criticised the publishers who carry such articles, unaware that I was not casually reading the piece, but actually uploading it and checking the preview before publication. I asked him his age. “Sixty-nine,” he replied. “When did you start feeling that Hindus are in danger in India?” “Since 2014,” he answered almost instantly. “Before that?” He paused for a moment and admitted that he had never really thought about it earlier. So I told him, “2014 is also the year Modi came to power. And that’s when you began feeling Hindus are in danger?” The man, fluent in English, dressed in a suit, and apparently at the mall VFS centre for visa services, suddenly grew uncomfortable. His tone changed. He stood up, looked at me, and said, “Your mind is radicalised.” Then he walked away in frustration.

"Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced."

SIR ನಲ್ಲಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಹೋದ ಮಹಿಳೆಯರಿಗೆ ಇನ್ನು ಮುಂದೆ 'ಅನ್ನಪೂರ್ಣ ಭಂಡಾರ್' ಯೋಜನೆಯಡಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಹಣ ನೀಡಲಾಗುವುದಿಲ್ಲ ಅಂತ ಪಶ್ಚಿಮ ಬಂಗಾಲ ಸರ್ಕಾರ ಘೋಷಿಸಿದೆ.‌ #SIR ಮೂಲಕ ಈ ದೇಶದ ಜನರನ್ನೆ ವಿದೇಶಿಯರು ಎಂದು ಮಾಡಲಾಗುತ್ತಿದೆ! @vishuguttal @Manjina_Hani @KannadaPrabha @nethrapal @KrishKrushik @LavanyaBallal

This reader comment on a NY Times column where Ross Douthat ponders that maybe God is speaking to us through A.I. is an absolute fastball on the corner with movement, and deserves a column. "Lightening was once mysterious too; mystery did not make Zeus correct" is perfect.

ಯುಎಸ್‌ಎ, ಇಸ್ರೇಲ್ ಹಾಗೂ ಇರಾನ್ ನಡುವಿನ ಯುದ್ಧದಲ್ಲಿ ಕೇಂದ್ರ ಸರ್ಕಾರದ ಎಡಬಿಡಂಗಿ ನಿಲುವೇ ಭಾರತದ ಇಂದಿನ ದುಸ್ಥಿತಿಗೆ ಕಾರಣ. ಈ ಯುದ್ಧದಲ್ಲಿ ಸತ್ಯ, ನ್ಯಾಯದ ಪರ ಗಟ್ಟಿ ನಿಲುವು ತಳೆದಿದ್ದರೆ ದೇಶ ಇಂತಹ ಕಷ್ಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಕ್ಕಿಹಾಕಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಿರಲಿಲ್ಲ. #ModiFailed

He won't tell that chutiya paedo to stop attacking Iran. He won't tell the other chutiya genocider to stop the slaughter. He doesn't have the spine to stand up to either of the chutiyas and say we'll buy oil from that other psycho chutiya. But farmers should use less fertiliser.

Apple and Google are gradually expanding their use of hardware-based attestation. They're convincing a growing number of services to adopt it. Google's Play Integrity API and Apple's App Attest API are very similar. Apple brought it to the web via Privacy Pass, which Google intends on doing too. Google's Play Integrity API requires hardware attestation for the strong integrity level and is gradually phasing in requiring it for the more commonly used device integrity level. Apple already has it as a requirement. Over the long term, this will increasingly lock out hardware and OS competition. The purpose of these systems is disallowing people from using hardware and software not approved by Apple or Google. This is wrongly presented as being a security feature. Banks and government services are the main ones adopting it but Apple and Google are encouraging every service to use it. Apple's Privacy Pass brought hardware attestation to the web to help with passing captchas on their own hardware. Many people saw that as harmless since few sites would be willing to lock out non-Apple-hardware users. Apple and Google are both likely to bring broader hardware attestation to the web. Google's reCAPTCHA is planning an approach where they use Privacy Pass on Apple hardware, their own approach on Google Mobile Services Android devices and a QR code scanning system to require an iOS or Google certified Android device for Windows and other systems: support.google.com/recaptcha/answ… Banking and government services increasingly require using a mobile app where they can use attestation to force using an Apple or Google approved device and OS. Apple's privacy pass, Google's 'cancelled' Web Environment Integrity and now reCAPTCHA Mobile Verification are bringing this to the web. Current media coverage for reCAPTCHA Mobile Verification misunderstands it and the impact of it. They're bringing a hardware attestation requirement to Windows, desktop Linux, OpenBSD, etc. by requiring a QR scan from a certified smartphone to pass reCAPTCHA in some cases. They could expand it more. Control over reCAPTCHA puts Google in a position where they can require having either iOS or a certified Android device to use an enormous amount of the web. Google defines certification requirements for Android which includes forcing bundling Google Chrome, etc. It's enormously anti-competitive. Google's Play Integrity API bans using GrapheneOS despite it being far more secure than anything they permit. It also bans using any other alternative. This isn't somehow specific to an AOSP-based OS. You can't avoid this by using a mobile OS based on FreeBSD instead. You'll just be more locked out. Google's Play Integrity API permits devices with no security patches for 10 years. The device integrity level can be bypassed via spoofing but they can detect it quite well and block it once it starts being done at scale. The strong integrity level requires leaked keys from TEEs/SEs to bypass it. It doesn't provide a useful security feature, but it does lock out competition very well. Services requiring Apple App Attest or Google Play Integrity are primarily helping to lock in Apple and Google having a duopoly for mobile devices. Play Integrity is more relevant due to AOSP being open source. Governments are increasingly mandating using Apple's App Attest and Google's Play Integrity for not only their own services but also commercial services. The EU is leading the charge of making these requirements for digital payments, ID, age verification, etc. Many EU government apps require them. Instead of governments stopping Apple and Google from engaging in egregiously anti-competitive behavior, they're directly participating in locking out competition via their own services. Requiring people to have an Apple device or Google-certified Android device is anti-competition, not security. reCAPTCHA Mobile Verification will currently work with sandboxed Google Play on GrapheneOS but it clearly exists to provide a way for them to start using hardware attestation on systems without it. People without an iOS or Android device will be locked out when this is required even without that. This isn't about security or any missing functionality. GrapheneOS can be verified via hardware attestation. Google bans using GrapheneOS for Play Integrity because we don't license Google Mobile Services and conform to anti-competitive rules already found to be illegal in South Korea and elsewhere. Services shouldn't ban people from using arbitrary hardware and operating systems in the first place. Google's security excuse is clearly bogus when they permit devices with no patches for 10 years but not a much more secure OS. It's for enforcing their monopolies via GMS licensing, that's all.

“India has no fixed legal temperature at which work must stop.”

France gathered 400 Muslim scholars and beheaded them. In 1917 AD, during the occupation of Chad. In 1852, when France entered the city of Laghouat in Algeria, it killed two-thirds of its population in a single night and burned them alive. France occupied Algeria for 132 years. In the first 7 years after their arrival, the French eliminated 1 million Muslims, and in the last 7 years before their departure, they eliminated 1.5 million Muslims. The French historian Jacques Gorky estimated that the total number of Muslims killed in Algeria from France's arrival in 1830 to its departure in 1962 was 10 million. France occupied Tunisia for 75 years, Algeria for 132 years, Morocco for 44 years, and Mauritania for 60 years. When France entered Egypt during its famous campaign, French soldiers on horseback entered mosques and raped free women in front of their families. They drank wine in the mosques and turned them into stables for their horses. It is strange to see some people boasting about and defending French civilization, forgetting all its dark history. This is France; remind them of its history. 🔻 When France entered the city of Aghwat (Laghouat) in Algeria in 1852, it burned two-thirds of its inhabitants to death in just one night. 🔻 France conducted 17 nuclear tests in Algeria between 1960 and 1966, resulting in an unknown number of deaths estimated between 27,000 and 100,000 and the effects persist to this day. 🔻 When France left Algeria in 1962, it left behind 11 million landmines more than the total population of Algeria at the time. 🔻 France occupied Algeria for 132 years. In just the first seven years of their occupation, they massacred one million Muslims, and in the last seven years, they martyred another 1.5 million Muslims. 🔻 France is the fourth largest holder of gold reserves in the world, with 2,436 tons of gold stored at the Bank of France, even though France has no active gold mines. 🔻 In contrast, Mali one of the world's largest gold producers with 14 official gold mines has no gold reserves of its own. 🔻 Similarly, the Republic of Congo, which ranks seventh among gold-producing countries, also has no gold reserves in its central bank.

Recently discovered Kannada inscription in Nitturu, (Siruguppa, Ballari) has been deciphered. It is from the reign of Akalavarsha Krishna (Krishna I), the same emperor who commissioned the Kailasa temple in Ajanta. This inscription holds significance in the history of Kannada. It stands as evidence for: • The use of ancient Kannada language and script as an administrative language • The land grant system during the Rashtrakuta period • Regional administrative divisions • The tradition of religious blessings and curse clauses in inscriptions Key highlights of the inscription: • It belongs to the reign of Akalavarsha Krishna I (756–774 CE) • It records the royal grant of 12 "mattars" of irrigated land to an individual • The land was measured according to “Rajamana,” the royal system of measurement • The grant also included rights of “Unchabhoga” • It mentions two administrative divisions ending with “100” and “70” • It also refers to the official administering the Nittur region The inscription concludes with a customary religious warning. What makes this inscription even more remarkable is its proximity to the region associated with Ashokan inscriptions, highlighting the historical importance of this area from the Mauryan era to the Rashtrakuta period. inscription clearly demonstrates that Kannada had already been firmly established as an administrative language by the 8th century CE. Inscription was discovered by a team led by Manu Tekkalakote and Ashok Abkari.