3 Minute Tech Bytes - Italy's pink snow; Swarm Earthquakes; Who is Lewis Howard Latimer

Jul 11, 2020

“Edison invented a light bulb with a paper filament, it burnt out in no time at all. Can you tell me who invented the filament that makes these lights shine throughout? Nobody knows because he was a black man and it was not taught in schools. Lewis Howard Latimer invented the carbon filament because of which lights continuously shine, who knows that?”
— Former West Indies cricketer and commentator Michael Holding, when asked about his comments on racism & Black Lives Matter

Who is Lewis Howard Latimer? If you haven’t watched Michael Holding’s very impactful statement on racism say about racism, follow the link at the end of this newsletter. True legend.

First, some bits,

Alibaba’s Ant Financial investment of nearly $100 m in Zomato is stuck amid India-China border tensions.
India’s Vice President Venkiah Naidu launched the Elyments social media super app, which is backed by Shri Shri Ravi Shankar’s Art of Living Foundation. Though it has positive feedback primarily because it is a desi app, it got lots of negative reviews due to OTP authentication issues.
Amazon has notified that the email sent to some of its employees to uninstall Tik Tok was sent out in error. Tik Tok’s feature of accessing phone clipboard was the primary concern.
Earlier this week, US Secretary Mike Pompeo’s statement has said that US may ban Tik Tok.
Foxconn plans to invest around $1b to expand its Apple products manufacturing hub unit in Sriperumbudur, a manufacturing township hub located 50 kms outside of Chennai. It may be because of a push by Apple to its vendors to move part of the manufacturing chain outside of China
Sriperumbudur is known as the birthplace of Shri Ramanuja, the famous Vaishnava saint. Former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated here.
Google’s Project Loon launches its first large scale commercial Balloon-based internet service in Kenya.
Few weeks ago, scientist found green Snow in Antarctica. Now snow in Italy’s Alps mountains are turning pink in certain ranges. Scientists believe that the color is due to an algae that grows in warmer conditions. Not a good news for climate change observers.

Bytes

Swarm Earthquakes

You might be aware that earthquakes are caused by shift in Earth’s tectonic plates and the aftershocks can be felt for days. There is another type of earthquake called Swarm Earthquakes. These earthquakes are shortlived, but can continue for days, weeks, or sometimes even months.

Recently, scientists used Artificial Intelligence to pinpoint the reason of a swarm earthquake in a place called Cahullia, in south California, where 22,698 silent earthquakes were recorded in the last 4 years. It was found out that naturally injected underground fluids infiltrated a small seismic fault zone

A detailed explanation here.

Who is Lewis Howard Latimer?

Lewis Howard Latimer (September 4, 1848 – December 11, 1928) was an African-American inventor and an inductee in the US National Inventors Hall of Fame. His father, George Latimer, was a slave who ran away to his freedom.

After serving in US Navy, Latimer got a job in a patent law firm. Recognizing his talent in patent sketching, he was promoted to the position of head draftsman in the firm.

Latimer went on to co-invent the the Carbon filament, which gave the real utility of the light bulb, and an improved toilet flushing system for railroad carriages. He was the patent draftsman for Edison’s light bulb and Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone.

Here is the link to Michael Holding’s powerful take on racism.