Hello,
Only you are real in this vast bot-filled world.
Presenting SocialAI, a new app that gives each user a private social network populated exclusively by chatbots, which can—depending on your mood—be your trolls, fans, or supporters.
Day by day, we get close to a dead internet.
In other news, it’s a good time to be a semiconductor company…except if you’re Intel.
To say the once-towering giant of Silicon Valley is struggling would be an understatement. And now, private equity players and rivals are circling to get a piece of the five-decade-old company.
First, it was fellow chipmaker Qualcomm, which reportedly approached the firm for a potential acquisition. Later, news emerged that asset management firm Apollo Global Management Inc. has offered to invest as much as $5 billion—possibly in return for equity—as Intel tries to turn around its fate.
According to analysts, Qualcomm’s potential Intel buyout comes with challenges that can’t be overlooked.
ICYMI: TechSparks 2024 is just round the corner. Hurry and book your tickets!
In other news, a piece of music composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, when he was probably in his early teens, has been uncovered at a library in Germany.
The latest single from the maestro himself!
In today’s newsletter, we will talk about
- The art of nature conservation
- Bringing stories to life
- Reinventing sustainable fashion
Here’s your trivia for today: A Medusa is a marine creature better known by what other name?
Environment
The art of nature conservation
When all else fails, humour is the universal solvent against the abrasive elements of life—especially grim ones such as climate change.
Rohan Chakravarty, a cartoonist and illustrator from Nagpur, is melding humour and activism together as the creator of Green Humour—a series of cartoons, comics, and illustrations focused on wildlife, nature conservation, sustainability, and all things green.
Eco humour:
- The turning point happened for Chakravarty when he and his brother joined an NGO in Nagpur as volunteers. During his first wildlife safari, he saw a tigress, and that scene sparked the idea to start drawing cartoons/characters inspired by the wildlife world.
- The idea of Green Humour sparked when Chakravarty began working in a film studio and realised that to communicate more serious issues, like environmental governance and injustices, he needed a medium that allowed for deeper engagement.
- Besides his comics and illustrations, he has also published nine books, including Naturalist Ruddy: Adventurer. Sleuth. Mongoose, which won the Best Book in the Children’s Non-Fiction category at the Bangalore Literature Festival in 2021.
Art and Culture
Bringing stories to life
Having been an advocate of children’s education, and an educationist since early 2000—with Neev Schools and Neev Academy—Kavita Gupta Sabharwal decided to bring children’s literature to the forefront.
In 2017, she started the Neev Literature Festival (NLF), which claims to be India’s biggest children’s literature festival. Its eighth edition, scheduled for September 28 and 29 at the Neev Campus in Yemalur in Bengaluru, promises to bring alive books, stories, and conversations around the theme, ‘Stumble upon your next story.’
Enriching imaginations:
- NLF 2023 saw more than 4,000 attendees from across not just Bengaluru, but also elsewhere in the country, with audiences consisting of children, parents, and educators from diverse socio-economic strata—from IB schools to government and NGO schools.
- This year’s festival will have two marquee performances around children’s literature, for children between ages five and eight years, designed and performed by Mumbai theatre companies—Moin and the Monster and Jungle Nama.
- For the 2024 edition, NLF is inviting over 80-plus delegates who will be participating in more than 100 sessions over the course of two days. The literature festival will also feature more than 2,000 curated titles at the childrens’ book marketplace.
Woman Entrepreneur
Reinventing sustainable fashion
Like most middle-class households, Ashita Singhal’s household too reused containers. Singhal also wore pre-used clothes handed down to her. Sustainability had always been a way of life for her even as a child.
These childhood experiences eventually shaped Singhal’s outlook on life, and her desire to repurpose the waste generated by the fashion industry became the cornerstone of Paiwand—a textile studio she started in 2018.
Upcycled couture:
- The Delhi-based studio, which is dedicated to sustainable fashion, collects textile scraps from craft clusters, designers, brands, and organisations, and upcycles them into new fabrics using traditional handloom weaving and embroidery techniques.
- During a visit to Sunder Nagri in Delhi, a once-thriving weaving hub, Singhal learnt about the dwindling prospects of handcrafted textiles. This strengthened her resolve to use traditional techniques such as handloom weaving, hand embroidery, and patchwork in her upcycling endeavours at Paiwand.
- To date, Paiwand has upcycled close to 35,000 kg of textile waste. It is currently working with 20 helpers, 10 weavers, five embroiderers, and one designer.
News & updates
- Falling in line: Elon Musk’s X will now comply with court demands in Brazil so it can resume operations in the country and potentially end its feud with a powerful judge over free speech, far-right accounts and misinformation.
- Data privacy: Messaging app Telegram will provide users’ IP addresses and phone numbers to relevant authorities in response to valid legal requests, according to Chief Executive Officer Pavel Durov.
- Injecting cash: China’s central bank supplied 14-day cash to its banking system for the first time in months on Monday and at a lower interest rate, signalling its intent to further ease monetary conditions.
A Medusa is a marine creature better known by what other name?
Answer: Jellyfish
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