Hot DOGE nips at the heels of r/Bitcoin on Reddit

R/Dogecoin was the third-most active crypto group on Reddit behind r/CryptoCurrency and r/Bitcoin this week.

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Russia registers Carnivak-Cov — first COVID-19 vaccine for animals to stop virus mutations

Russia announced Wednesday it had registered what it said was the world's first coronavirus vaccine for animals, describing the step as important for disrupting virus mutations. It said mass production of the vaccine could begin in April. The agriculture oversight agency Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement that the vaccine called Carnivak-Cov had been tested since October on dogs, cats, mink, foxes and other animals and was proven to be effective.

"All test animals that were vaccinated developed antibodies to coronavirus in 100 percent of cases," said Konstantin Savenkov, deputy head of Rosselkhoznadzor. "It is the world's first and only product for preventing Covid-19 in animals."

Rosselkhoznadzor said the development of its shot would help prevent mutations in animals and cited Denmark's decision to cull 15 million mink last year after some were found to be carrying a mutated virus variant.

"The use of the vaccine, according to Russian scientists, can prevent the development of virus mutations," the statement said.

The agency added that animal-breeding facilities and private companies from countries including Greece, Poland, Austria, the United States, Canada and Singapore had expressed interest in Carnivak-Cov.

Military officials in Russia's second city Saint Petersburg announced this week that army dogs would undergo mandatory vaccination before being deployed at airports and participating in nationwide World War II commemorations in May.

Also read: Why you should get a COVID-19 vaccine, even after you’ve recovered from coronavirus?

Decent vaccine

Veterinarians and fur breeders said on Wednesday they saw no immediate need to vaccinate animals.

A veterinary clinic in Moscow said it was looking into the information but currently it saw no reason to vaccinate cats and dogs.

"It has not been proven that they are Covid-19 carriers," the clinic said in a statement to AFP.

Russian fur breeders have so far not encountered any cases of coronavirus in animals and are not planning to vaccinate them, said the head of the National Association of Fur Breeders, Nadezhda Zubkova.

But some of the animals have been vaccinated during trials and "are feeling fine", Zubkova told AFP.

"It is a decent vaccine," said Zubkova whose association comprises farms with around 2 million animals including minks and foxes.

Russia has heavily promoted its state-sponsored coronavirus vaccine abroad but it has been met with scepticism in the West and even by many in Russia.

Officials registered the Sputnik V vaccine last August, ahead of large-scale clinical trials, sparking concern among many experts over the fast-track process. It has since registered two more vaccines.

Leading medical journal The Lancet in February confirmed Sputnik V to be safe and over 90 percent effective.

Moscow has applied to Europe's medicines regulator to gain approval for the use of Sputnik V in the 27-nation bloc, but is still waiting for an answer.

Also read: 

Share COVID-19 vaccines, don't stockpile them: UN Secretary-General tells developed counties

Russia, China reject notion they are using COVID-19 vaccines to increase political influence

COVID-19 vaccines: How are booster shots useful, and when might we need them?

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Oakland Athletics MLB team has sold a suite season ticket for Bitcoin for the first time

The A’s become the first team in Major League Baseball to sell tickets for cryptocurrency.

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Tropics lost 12.2 million hectares of tree cover in 2020, largely due to agriculture

An area of pristine rainforest the size of the Netherlands was burned or hacked down last year, as the destruction of the planet's tropical forests accelerated despite a global economic slowdown, according to research Wednesday. The worst losses were in Brazil, three times higher than the next highest country, the Democratic Republic of Congo, according to a report from Global Forest Watch based on satellite data. Across the tropics, the study registered the destruction in 2020 of 4.2 million hectares (10.4 million acres) of primary forest — 12 percent higher than the year before.

Ecosystems straddling the equator shelter abundant biodiversity and store vast amounts of carbon.

In total, the tropics lost 12.2 million hectares of tree cover — including forests and plantations — last year, driven largely by agriculture.

But researchers said extreme heat and drought also stoked huge fires that consumed swathes of forest across Australia, Siberia and deep into the Amazon.

These losses are a "climate emergency. They're a biodiversity crisis, a humanitarian disaster, and a loss of economic opportunity", said Frances Seymour of the World Resources Institute, which is behind the report.

The study found some evidence that Covid-19 restrictions may have had an effect around the world — with an increase in illegal harvesting because forests were left less protected, or the return of large numbers of people to rural areas.

But researchers said there was little sign that the pandemic had changed the trajectory of forest destruction and warned that the worst could be still to come if countries slash protections in an attempt to ramp up economic growth.

But Seymour said the most "ominous signal" from the 2020 data is the instances of forests themselves falling victim to climate change.

"I mean, wetlands are burning," she said in a press briefing. "Nature has been whispering this risk to us for a long time. But now she is shouting."

Plants — especially in the tropics — and soil comprise an enormous carbon sink, sucking up roughly a third of all the carbon pollution humans produce annually.

Yet tropical forests continue to disappear rapidly, threatening irreparable losses to Earth's crucial biodiversity.

Researchers said the destruction of tropical primary forests in 2020 released 2.64 billion tonnes of CO2 in 2020, equal to the annual emissions of India or 570 million cars, more than double the number on the road in the United States.

"The longer we wait to stop deforestation, and get other sectors on to net zero trajectories, the more likely it is that our natural carbon sinks will go up in smoke," Seymour said.

Also read: Carbon might boost forest, grassland growth but absorption capacity of soil decreases

Heartbreaking

Brazil, where far-right President Jair Bolsonaro has cut funding for environmental programs and pushed to open protected Amazon lands to agribusiness and mining, lost 1.7 million hectares of primary forest in 2020, an increase of 25 percent from 2019, the report said.

"Brazil, having achieved a huge reduction in deforestation in the Amazon, is now seeing an unravelling of that success, and it's heartbreaking," said Seymour.

Much of the loss was in the Amazon, including new areas that were deliberately cleared.

But dry conditions also meant fires lit on previously deforested land spread to once humid forests, burning out of control.

Fires also devastated the Pantanal wetlands, a paradise of biodiversity that extend from Brazil into Bolivia — the country with the third highest level of forest loss in 2020.

Almost a third of the Pantanal was scorched, including indigenous lands and jaguar habitats, and researchers said it could be decades before the region recovers.

Also read: Increasing agricultural demands by rich countries increases deforestation in tropics

Appetite for destruction

One bright area was in Indonesia, which reduced its rate of forest loss by 17 percent from 2019 and dropped out of the global top three for the first time in the 20 years of Global Forest Watch monitoring.

Forest destruction has slowed for four years in a row in Indonesia and researchers said government policies — helped last year by wetter weather — appeared to be having "a long-term effect on reducing primary forest loss".

Forests cover more than 30 percent of Earth's land surface, and tropical forests are home to between 50 and 90 percent of all terrestrial species.

Recent research has shown that, beyond a certain threshold, deforestation in the Amazon basin could tip the region into a new climate regime, turning tropical forests into savannah.

In January, two top Brazilian indigenous leaders asked the International Criminal Court (ICC) to investigate Bolsonaro for "crimes against humanity", accusing him of unprecedented environmental damage, killings and persecution.

On Monday, a study published in Nature Ecology & Evolution estimated that rising demand in wealthy countries for commodities ranging from coffee to soybeans was accelerating deforestation in the tropics.

Also read: Third of world's farm are at 'high risk' of pesticide pollution

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YouTube is testing 'few new designs' that don't show the public dislike count on videos

Responding to creator feedback on "well-being and targeted dislike campaigns", YouTube says it is testing few new designs for the platform where the public dislike count would not show. The 'new designs' are still an experiment and will be visible to some creators and viewers over the coming weeks. Creators will still be able to see the total likes and dislike on a video in YouTube Studio. For viewers, the ones who are part of the experiment, there will be a dislike button, but it won't show the dislike counter.

YouTube announced experimenting with the design on its official Twitter account.

Creators, you'll still be able to see the exact number of likes and dislikes in YouTube Studio. For viewers, if you're in the experiment, you can still like or dislike a video to share feedback with creators and help tune the recommendations you see on YouTube.

— YouTube (@YouTube) March 30, 2021

Last week, YouTube also announced expanding the ‘Products in this Video’ option. The update is going to provide videos for related content in any YouTube video. The feature will appear when a user will scroll through the video player and in between the recommended videos.

The update will be an addition to the pre-existing ‘recommended videos’ section that suggests users play videos similar to the ones that they are already watching. It is expected to focus on the video that users watch to check the features of a product before making a purchase.

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Xiaomi unveils new 'Alive' logo and brand identity: All you need to know

Xiaomi, on Tuesday, 30 March, unveiled a brand new dynamic logo with a corporate visual identity. With the logo, the Chinese tech giant aims at improving the brand’s awareness. The new corporate identity, with the design concept of “Alive”, will help in strengthening the company's foothold in the market, stated the press release. Alive interprets the brand's philosophy giving it a visual image full of life: people are alive. Since people have created technology, thus, technology is also alive.

New year. New look. New us.

Together with @haraken_tokyo, we've changed our logo! How do you like our new logo? #XiaomiMegaLaunch pic.twitter.com/bqi33ZC3vE

— Xiaomi (@Xiaomi) March 30, 2021

"The concept of Alive is Xiaomi’s thinking and response to the turning point in the era of intelligent interconnectivity. As a technology company, Xiaomi is committed to bringing more innovations around the world and it is essential for the brand to grow along with its users," states the press release.

The logo has been designed by Kenya HARA, the President of the Nippon Design Center (NDC) and a professor of Musashino Art University. He used the “superellipse” mathematical formula while designing it, the release added.

In the logo, the old square has been replaced with a squircle (the shape in between a circle and a square). Basically, it now has rounded corners. That's the only change.

The logo’s corporate colour remains Orange as it conveys the brand's youthfulness and liveliness, the release added.

The company will use black and silver as supplementary colours.

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Bitcoin closes six monthly green candles for the first time since 2013

Bitcoin's last six monthly candles have closed green, tying its previous record streak for bullish monthly candles.

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Redmi Note 10 Pro Max to go on sale today at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com

Redmi Note 10 series debuted in India last week. The series includes three models Redmi Note 10 (Review), Redmi Note 10 Pro and Redmi Note 10 Pro Max. The three models come with a Super AMOLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset and a quad rear camera setup. Redmi Note 10 Pro Max will go on sale today at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com. The smartphone comes with a 108 MP quad rear camera setup and a 5,020 mAh battery that comes with support for 33 W fast charging.

(Also Read: Redmi Note 10 Pro Max Vs Redmi Note 10 Pro Vs Redmi Note 10: What's the difference)

Redmi Note 10 Pro Max pricing, availability, sale offers

Redmi Note 10 Pro Max will be available in three storage variants. The 6 GB RAM + 64 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 18,999, the 6 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant is priced at Rs 19,999 and 8 GB RAM + 128 GB storage variant will cost you Rs 21,999.

Be a part of the #108MP REVOLUTION!
Grab your #RedmiNote10ProMax from https://t.co/cwYEXdVQIo, Mi Home and @AmazonIN tomorrow at 12 noon.

Avail up to ₹1500 off with @ICICIBank Credit Cards or get up to ₹600 cashback using @MobiKwik code 'MBK600' on https://t.co/cwYEXdVQIo. pic.twitter.com/smaBMNsmdp

— Redmi India - #RedmiNote10 Series (@RedmiIndia) March 24, 2021

It will go on sale today at 12 pm on Amazon and Mi.com.

Xiaomi has also announced that consumers buying Redmi 10 series smartphones will also get up to Rs 1,500 off on ICICI Bank debit and credit cards.

Redmi Note 10 Pro Max specifications

Redmi Note 10 features a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED display that comes with a 120 Hz refresh rate. It is powered by Snapdragon 732 G chipset and offers up to 8 GB RAM and 128 GB storage. It runs on MIUI 12 based on Android 11.

For photography, it sports a quad rear camera setup that houses a 108 MP Samsung ISOCELL HM2 sensor, an 8 MP ultra-wide-angle lens, a 5 MP Super macro lens and a 2 MP depth sensor. For selfies, it comes with a 16 MP punch hole camera. The Camera app now comes with Night mode 2.0, Magic Clone mode, Dual Video mode and more.

It is equipped with a 5,020 mAh battery that supports 33 W fast charging.

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Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces are the Goldilocks zone of conversation – they’re just right

One of biggest tech trends of 2021 was the skyrocketing popularity of the audio-only app Clubhouse. From 2,000 downloads in September 2020, the app’s monthly downloads jumped to 2.4 million in January 2021. In February 2021, Clubhouse crossed 10 million downloads globally on the Apple App Store.

Unless you took social distancing a little too far and were living in a cave, you would know that Clubhouse is a social platform built around the “drop-in audio chat” model. It features ephemeral real-time voice conversations that any user can listen to and nobody can record.

From Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Oprah to Lindsay Lohan, Clubhouse has gathered a legion of high-profile users.

What’s so attractive about audio-only conversation?

For starters, the pandemic, the quarantine, the one-year of WFH, the hordes of people desperate for social connection, all of that together may have created the ideal conditions for the audio-only model to thrive.

Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) recently shared a study, according to which, ‘Zoom fatigue’ is real. Bailenson says these video calls are tiring people out more than usual.

Constant Zoom calls and meetings, longer work hours (than usual) have worn people down over time, and with so much fatigue, text-based social media can only go so far; audio is a natural alternative. Live conversations transmit more empathy than text chat, while needing less screen and seat-focused than video.

To some extent, the popularity of podcasts have laid the foundation for the audio-only model.

The audio-chat model also creates the excitement and unpredictability around eavesdropping on a conversation, which can be thrilling.

I also spoke to Amit Doshi, the founder and CEO of IVM podcast about what makes audio conversations so attractive. He says: "Conversations are something we all do everyday. It's different from writing or addressing a group of people, conversations can be casual, deep, emotive, funny and everything in between. As the oldest mode of communication and something that comes very naturally to us, it’s a medium that allows for a deeper level of intimacy and authenticity."

Essentially, the audio conversations work well because they offer the best of the both worlds — of podcasts and webinars. You can drop in and out of a chat room, you can choose to be a passive listener or an active speaker. On Clubhouse, in particular, I also find the randomness very interesting – a conversation on Bitcoin can be followed by one on how to kick off a startup, or a discussion on women entrepreneurs, as opposed to the social media echo chamber we are by now accustomed to.

"Any content that is relayed via a single sense, in this case, audio, does not require our full attention in the sense that you can listen to something while sending emails, or cooking, or working out or any other task. This means that while you’re fully engaged and consuming the content, you are also able to devote your time to other tasks making it very easy to incorporate into your existing routine," Doshi adds.

In effect, the audio-only medium is like the Goldilocks zone. It’s not as invasive as a video chat, but it’s also not as impersonal as a text; it’s voice, it’s intrinsic, it’s just right!

It’s made other social media platforms want a slice

Within weeks of Clubhouse’s popularity shooting up, other social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook jumped at the chance of gaining back the audience that Clubhouse may have lured away from them.

Earlier this month, Twitter started rolling out a feature called Spaces on the platform, which lets users join in on an audio-only conversation. You can choose to join as a listener or a speaker or switch between the two. The feature is now rolling out for most Android and iOS Twitter users globally, including India. While still an experiment, it is impossible not to see the inspiration.

Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, LinkedIn are also reportedly dabbling with a similar offering.

Is audio the future?

Audio doesn’t fit neatly into the always-on, hit-and-run, race-to-the-bottom formats of online content. It’s slower, more considered, garners more engagement by design and has taken a while to really gather steam. With the current renaissance in podcasting and sudden interest by big tech in ephemeral audio content, it appears that we’re on the cusp of something.

However, current social media platforms continue to struggle to regulate and make their spaces safe for its users. And considering audio moderation is harder to manage than text or images, platforms like Clubhouse and Twitter Spaces will have to do a lot more to keep harassment at bay. Twitter spokespersons have spoken at length about the evolving experiment that is Spaces, and how health and safety are top priorities going forward.

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Volkswagen T-Roc SUV goes on sale in India once again, is now much more expensive

After the first batch sold out rather quickly in 2020, a second batch of the Volkswagen T-Roc has now been brought to India, and the SUV is now priced at Rs 21.35 lakh (ex-showroom). The T-Roc can be booked online on the Volkswagen India website for a Rs 50,000 booking amount. The 2021 Volkswagen T-Roc has seen a Rs 1.36 lakh price increase and will continue to be brought in as a CBU via the 2,500-unit homologation rule. The SUV will be imported in limited quantity again this time, but Volkswagen India hasn't announced an exact number.

Notable features on the India-spec T-Roc are a panoramic sunroof, 17-inch alloy wheels, LED headlamps, DRLs and tail lamps, leather seats and the digital instrument cluster that debuted on the Tiguan Allspace. Safety features include six airbags, hill start assist, ESP and so on. There are six colour options available, five dual-tone and one single-tone shade. Dimensionally, the T-Roc is 4,234 mm long, 1,992 mm wide and 1,573 mm tall, with a 2,590 mm-long wheelbase.

The 2021 Volkswagen T-Roc remains mechanically identical to the earlier car. The 1.5-litre turbo-petrol engine good for 150 hp and 250 Nm continue and will be shared with the Creta-rivalling Volkswagen Taigun. The motor comes paired with a seven-speed DSG dual-clutch automatic. Volkswagen claims a 0 to 100 kph time of 8.4 seconds and a top speed of 205 kph.

With these numbers, the T-Roc will compete with the likes of the higher-spec Kia Seltos, Hyundai Creta and the Jeep Compass. Volkswagen has started accepting bookings for the new batch of T-Roc SUVs in the country. Read our exclusive comparison review of the Volkswagen T-Roc and the related Skoda Karoq here, with real-world performance and mileage figures included.

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Bitcoin flash crashes by $2K in 5 minutes, liquidating $600M in longs

A flash crash on short timeframes for BTC/USD induces panic among long traders, but for analysts, it's business as usual.

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