When I was in school, I was the curious George and had the opportunity to play with electrical outlets/appliances... Few things I liked to repair was the Tape recorder, the wall outlets, the fuse, the ceiling fan, bulbs, Tube-light and so on... The television was extra special coz as that was our only source to the external world.. The first time we got the TV home was a b/w one with the door. The only channel those days was the Doordarshan and then after few years it was the DD8(local news).

During the lock-down, we will be working with limited resources and many would remember that we only had 1 choice and that was everything.. One time we had a problem with the Television and needed a repair.. My Dad's colleague(Ali uncle), he knew how to repair the electronic appliances. My dad invited Ali uncle to take a look at the TV and he fixed the issue.. I was around when the television was fixed.. It was this small tuning that was at the back of the television set.. This fix only lasted few days and we were back to the same problem... The only option was to take the TV to the repair shop or call Ali uncle to fix the TV.. As many know, the b/w TV was heavy and it was not easy to carry.. The Flickering issue was something that was not a good experience... One day when mom had stepped out for grocery shopping, I thought of fixing the TV and ended up opening the back cover... I had to keep the television powered on and ran few tests.. I was also able to get to the back of that TV and tune the flickering issue... Voila, the TV is fixed..

As I was trying to put the cover back on, I hear knocking of the door.. My hands are full as i'm holding the TV cover... Mom realized something was wrong and was able to open the window from outside. It was the deer and the light experience... I'm standing there with the cover and the TV is powered on. Those who know my mom, would know what would have happened next.. I will leave that for your imagination... Years later, I realize that mom was more worried about the TV and not me(just kidding). It was the other way as she just asked me to drop that TV cover .. Long story, the issue was sorted and I felt that I will be able to fix lot of things. After few days, my dad called Ali uncle just to make sure there were no issue... Ali uncle said the TV was working fine... However, he said if i had end up touching any other part then things would have been different. Still remember those words and helps me prepare for worst case scenario...

Fast forward, the TV at home doesn't work as there is no picture. Tried everything.. Soft\hard reset and what not.. Even tried to call the repair centers... During this time, there was no one available to repair appliances. After some research, figured out it was an issue with the back-light and the LED lights need to be replaced.. Ordered the LED strip and start to disassemble the TV. Later realized that I dont have the LED tester so made a LED tester with 9v batteries.

The issue was with the LEDs as there was a lose contact. Everything was working fine and all the LEDs were now working. Spent 3+ hours to assemble\disassemble the TV.. However, one small mistake and I ended up cracking the LCD screen.

Moral of the story:

Kuch paane ke liye, kuch khona padtha hai( To gain something, we have to lose something... )

Day 1 was spent trying to find a connection and the origin of the virus.

Below is the link to the thread.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1240916131826651136.html

It is 99% confirmed that the corona virus is from the horseshoe bats and they carry 40-50 viruses. As stated in the other thread, the horseshoe bats survive on the insects like flies, beetle, a few other insects. They also have a immune system that fight these viruses.. the bats can generate heat upto 100 deg during flight and this could be building the immune system. Humans cannot even think of doing this due to the high levels of haemoglobin. The humans can build a immune system by staying fit. However, this may not be applicable to everyone. One other aspect to look at the intake and how the bats are able to survive. They can eat 1k insects in an hour. This includes the flies and beetles.

The one thing that stands out is the dung beetle which also has a better immune system. The dung beetle is very effective for grazing and can bury upto to 200 times its own weight into the soil. The dung beetle per reports are of several types.. the dung beetle have been very effective in farm lands as they have taken away the need for fertilizers. They work through the cow dung and can bury upto 200 times their weight into the soil. This is saving farmers a lot of money and also saving the animals and kill the parasites. The dung beetle take upto to 6 weeks to become an adult. The mother lays the eggs in the dung and rolls them into the soil. The lavae is able survive and is protected inside the dung. This is a beautiful evolution and dung beetle can survive any kind of bacteria or fungi.

The Lifestyle and Host Defense Mechanisms of the Dung Beetle, Euoniticellus intermedius was a interesting read.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4011371/

The E. Intermedius is the other name for the beetle. There aren’t enough studies about the immune system of the Dung beetle. It would be good to see if there is a research or studies related to the corona virus and the dung beetle. The dung beetle is able to fight other bacteria. my lack of knowledge in the area and the different terms used in the study is a little difficult to digest.. To speak in layman terms, Cantharidin is a substance derived from another type of beetle and the chinese have used this in ancient medicine for thousand of years. It’s reported that the substance was used to cure

warts. However this can be fatal if swallowed or used without supervision:

https://www.dermnetnz.org/topics/cantharidin/

One might be wondering why I’m interested in horseshoe bats and then the dung beetle. There may or maybe any link/ connection..

The horseshoe bats survive on the insects and beetle could be helping these bats fight the viruses or trouble flight maybe only way the bats are able to survive with the viruses.

One interesting fact that came to limelight is the cow dung. This is t source for the dung beetle and no wonder some in India are taking it seriously and have participated in a cow dung party.. A group also drank cow urine thinking that it will cure them of the virus.. the one missing part is the dung beetle that may or may not in the same cow dung. Even if it’s present, the virus is not going to be eliminated by the dung beetle.. If someone is cured of the virus by rubbing cow dung then that would be a miracle.

Per earlier research, the substance derived from the beetle can be fatal to humans.. however, it would be good if virologists and pathologists look into the immune system of the dung beetle and how it reacts if the corona virus is injected through the experiments.

The predicted immune genes found in Euonoticellus intermedius from

earlier research is as follows:

As per the National Research Foundation.

” There is some evidence of OBP involvement in insect immunity, but this is poorly defined (Levy et al. 2004). OBPs have been identified in normal haemolymph of T. molitor with no clear function except their potential to transport small hydrophobic molecules to tissues (Graham et al. 2003). In Drosophila, an OBP was found to be upregulated upon fungal infection and repressed by bacterial infection, suggesting an important role for these in immune response (Levy et al. 2004). Three protein spots were predicted to be differentially expressed OBPs, but only one of these was up-regulated upon fungal infection. The presence of multiple spots predicted to be OBPs suggests existence of different forms of the protein. The significance of the contiguous polyadenylation signals is currently not clear.“

Disclaimer:

There is no evidence or scientific research to prove anything quoted here as true. These are personal views and only an attempt to find some similarities.

We are the generation that boomed and knew how to solve problems... We had a solution for every problem.. We were the generation with the idea and had the best talent... However, we never tapped into what the generation had to offer.. We spent the last few years fighting for things that didn't make sense. Many were fighting religious battles and trying to prove their God was the best.. We are all in this together and will die together... The previous generation has seen ups and downs and seen deaths due to unknown reasons.. Their hope was that the next generation would be able to pick up from what was left out..

There was research and development that made a breakthrough in science and technology and people started concentrating on specific fields. This allowed people to nail down and find solutions to the problems presented. This was how we knew how to solve a problem... The last few years were completely wasted. There were signs of a pandemic, epidemic that would hit us. The people were so worried about their own self's and never looked at the signs. The Developed countries continued to shove their ideas. Developing and under developed countries had no other option than to go with the same ideas and hoped that there will be solution for their problems. The generation now has no option than to look for a miracle. Maybe there is a vaccine that will be available.. However, there are no guarantees that the vaccine would actual solve the problem and we would be back to normal.. The short term gain and the need to cut costs have put a dent on research... We would have easily identified the problem when it started if there was collaboration among world leaders. The world around is fighting their own battles and no one cared for the planet or the future. Most of the countries have leaders with extremist views and they feel they can continue to play with the sentiments and stay in power.. Look at what has happened? How do we ever recover from this whole mess.. Its not the money thats lost.. There was livelihood and every other thing. If there was collaboration among the specialists and scientists across the fields, we would have been in a better shape.. We have cut funding, we can pushed our own agendas... There are still few leaders who make sense but most of the famous and charismatic leaders failed.. This is a complete failure and we humans have no one to blame than ourselves.. It is our greed, it is our quest for power that we are in a situation like this.. The Corona virus doesn't care if a person belongs to a community or faith.. The virus will take everyone along and doesn't differentiate.

In every situation, we see people do something different and these are the few good humans. These humans are giving their time and money to help with the efforts.. The medicos and volunteers are not even worried about their own lives.. They are out there trying to save a life... Even companies are offering paid sick leaves and doing everything they can to help people stay home. It is a great gesture and hope others companies do something for their employees and not go after profits. There are also other businesses that cannot function in a remote setup.. There are people from low income families... They will also need the relief. Hope and pray that people who are doing ok, help others who cannot make ends meet.. This is a recession like situation and we dont know how long we need to be in this.. Please dont be a bully or fall for those fake social media messages.

We need to care for each other.. Throw away that religious ideology and think like a human... We can fight our religious battles later...

Practice #SocialDistancing #StayHome #covid19

This is a great question..

The superstar Rajnikant recently said that he supports CAA and will be the first to object if muslims are ever persecuted.. thank you Rajni but no thanks... you can keep that yourself and maybe it will work in movies.. It was also nice to see your stand. Few of us know where we stand.. no more thailava.. you may have other supporters who will still call you thailava.. for us, it is clear and we don’t even want to call you by that name.. you will be surprised to know that there are still people living in south India who haven’t watched a single rajni movie. Maybe they were right.. They knew something was wrong with the thailava and never entertained or called you with that name.. Anyway, that was your view and we also have our view... someday when it makes sense, please do come back and apologize for making that claim.. until then no more thailava..

Coming back to CAA, there is this wonderful question being asked.. how is this going to affect Indian muslims? IMO, it is a kind of click-bait approach.. People are asked this question and they hope the others especially people from the Muslim community will fall for that?

Lets start with what the home minister has said in the past.. He has made his intentions clear in interviews and campaigns and there is enogh evidences to prove that NRC will be implemented.. Look at the detention centers being constructed in differentstates.. there is one on the outskirts of Bangalore, there is one being built in Bihar and there is already one in Assam, there were plans to build detentions centers in Bengal and Rajastan and are currently on hold. It will be a joke if people justify this as well. The NRC effort in Assam was a farce.. the IT giant Wipro limited provided the software services for the Assam NRC. It can be simple question to this company on the scalability part? Did they only help with the software services for only Assam? The company has been called out by individuals already.. if not Wipro, someone else would have received the contract.

The Assam NRC effort made 1.9 million people illegal. If we look at the numbers, the majority people who have been classified as undocumented are from the Hindu community.. There was also cost involved for the NRC effort in Assam. This is a perfect case too, the government is using the excuse that they are doing this based on the SC order.. The Assam NRC sounds all legal and now they have created a mess.. there is even BJP state leaders unhappy with the NRC effort and want the government to take exceptions or push it further before implementing it.. on the ground, there are volunteers and lawyers working hard to help with the documentation efforts. There is real panic out there and a few have even take the extreme step.. the question to ask is how does the government get out of this mess? The SC can ask on what the government plans to with the undocumented people that were identified through the Assam NRC effort..

The home minister and his crooked politics cannot be taken lightly. There were reasons why he kept saying that after CAA, there will be NRC. This was an also an attempt to justify using CAA with the Assam NRC effort. Out of the 1.9 million people identified in Assam, there are people from other communities. There are poor among them and don’t even know where the documents are.. some have even served the country in the past. And then there are also people from Muslim community in this. Some do not have documents to prove as they may have lost those in the floods. The state has seen the worst floods in the last decade or so. The question to ask is do we not see Indian muslims? The 1.9 million people can apply for citizenship. Per citizenship act, we should grant citizenship regardless of the the religion.. however, if the stationed officer has to follow the citizenship criteria based on CAA. The only people that would be eligible would be those Hindus and the rest of the minorities but not the muslims. They won’t be able to receive the citizenship even though they were part of the country and may have moved to Assam.. they will have to kept in detention centers..

The home minister should have apologized and resigned from his post for the mess he created and also for the fear mongering.. if tha leader from the UPA governmen has done something like that, the country would stand united and made sure he resigned. Did we even ask him to apologize? Purr, we don’t want to do that..

The chronology is the same, the CAA was just the trailer and NRC is on the way.. they cannot let the Assam NRC as-is and need to take action. The CAA can be used to filter the people. The same CAA wil l be used when there is a NRC implemented across the country..

The question we indians should ask instead is what was the need to amend the constitution? We would have given citizenship to all the minorities and people who applied for citizenship. There was a criteria for that and it was working perfect.. please don’t justify CAA is needed coz the BJP wants to implement. It’s ok to ask questions like citizen and it’s our right to question the government and where our tax money is going.. maybe people will make an effort and ask the right questions instead of asking irrelevant questions. It’s ok to refer to the preamble when there are doubts.

Jai Hind!!

The poem by Faiz is everything.. The words are giving us hope to not give up. Even if a person has to lose everything, it is giving us an assurance.

The poem was written by Faiz during the challenging times in Pakistan during the Zia-ul-Haq’s regime. It is said that they had to confiscate every copy and reading the poem anywhere would’ve resulted in sedition charge. It was the most difficult times for the people who stood for people’s rights.

According to Wikipedia:

“The nazm became a song of resistance and defiance, after a public rendition by Iqbal Bano at Alhamra Arts Council on 13 February,1986, ignoring the ban on Faiz's poetry”

The nazm(poem) has been quoted and sung widely across a variety of protests in the sub-continent.

In India, there have been protests and solidarity march. The Abrogation of article 370 was one of the darkest hours. The entire state of Jammu & Kashmir was made to suffer. The Indian government is solely responsible for the injustice. The people of India were made to believe that there was a terrorist attack being planned and the pilgrims visiting the shrine were asked to leave. It was a trap to bring in the armed forces into the state. This was also to stop anyone from protesting and the Indian government even changed laws that gave powers to the armed forces and administration to detain anyone. There was a complete crackdown and we have seen the worst things being done to the people. The young children were picked up such that families would stay silent. There were other brutal incidents and thinking of that would bring shills down the spine. The Indian government have let down the people of Kashmir. It was an unfortunate turn of events. The state and its leaders are still suffering and are being denied basic services.. the nazm by Faiz were being sung at protests and to show solidarity for the people of Kashmir. The nazm even made news when someone played the religion card.. they accused that it’s an Islamic prayer and was being recited at schools and an attempt to convert young children.. This whole claim was bogus and eminent writers and poets called out the hypocrisy and reminded them on the beautiful poem by Faiz..

The country that cherished the harmony and secularism had to face another issue. The Indian government passed a bill through the parliament and made a law that deemed immigrants from certain countries as illegals based on their religion. This law was carefully designed to garner support of a certain section of the people. The Indian government led by the BJP thought the law that was passed the parliament would sail and there won’t be any issues.

The people across the country realized the dangers of the discriminatory law that was passed. The CAA law deemed Muslims and other nationals illegals and made them ineligible for citizenship. The Indian government continues to justify the law by saying there are persecuted Hindus in neighboring countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The citizenship act of 1951 was clear enough to grant anyone citizenship regardless of their religion. There was no need to bring in the CAA law.

There are protests against CAA, NRC, NPR across the country and people from all faiths have joined together. The humans of Shaheen bagh need special mention. They have done what other Indians didn’t. They are standing up for India and the constitution. It’s been 60+ days and shaheen bagh has made us proud. There are shaheen bagh like protests in other places in the country.. There is also great danger for people who are taking part in the protests. It is a life and death situation and we don’t know if some of them would be even alive.. this is because the BJP led state governments have given orders to the police and administration to detain people who are protesting. The people detained have shared their experience and how they were treated by the cops. It was troubling and people are unable to come to terms that the cops were involved. Who will register the complain for them?

They say, when one door closes another one opens. The people are finding support from volunteers, advocates, judges and others. There are also SM warriors who are helping with the coordination and helping them connect with support groups. There are many people on the ground who aren’t sure what their future will be. There are people from all faiths and backgrounds.. The students have also been detained and attacked by the Sangh-pariwar goons and the cops. There is no end to the hooliganism.

As people continue to protest, the people can quote/sing the nazm by Faiz.

Here is the poem :

Here is the original rendition by Iqbal Bano:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxtgsq5oVy4

There are also renditions in Indian languages and we are starting to the localized hum dekhenge versions. There is no shortage of talent and people are using the medium to send in their support. we are seeing how the common is making a huge difference. We are known for our diversity and there cannot be an India without this.

How long can anyone suppress the voices? Hum dekhenge.

Hum dekhenge in Tamil:

https://youtu.be/y1KpVC7CcfQ

Hum dekhenge in Malayalam:

https://youtu.be/-xWA8WpvdQc

Hum dekhenge in Kannada:

https://youtu.be/YjEC67X6xJk

Hindi:

https://youtu.be/A_HPt5K3h2s

Hum dekhenge.. hum dekhenge..

India celebrates its 71st republic day. I want to wish every Indian an happy republic day.

As I look back, i’m sure there was a reason I got married on this day 8 years ago.. It was an assurance that we will continue have this freedom no matter the consequences.. The country got the constitution and was made a republic. The country is going through the most troubling times since independence. it’s our duty to protect the constitution. I hope and pray Indians across the globe stay united and speak against the injustice and do not allow anyone to destroy the constitution..

I also thank God for a wonderful partner who has supported me and stood with me all these years.. when ever I was down or was worried, I had someone who I can lean on..My partner is my greatest support. Happy anniversary my dear wifey!!

Last evening as I about to logoff from work , I saw the suspicious activity mail on my personal accounts. The phone stopped working and I couldn’t make any calls\receive text. This is when I realized something was wrong.. There have been similar attempts in the past and unauthorized access was restricted due to the security measures on the accounts..

SIM swapping is possible when someone requests for a new SIM from the provider. However, the user will have to share the personal PIN with the Customer care representative or make them believe that they are the primary account holder on the account . Speaking to T-mobile customer, it was clear that the error was on their part and someone was able to bypass the security measures and replace the SIM. It’s unfortunate that they bypassed the PIN requirement and believed in the bogus story of the caller.

So how do scammers pull off a SIM card swap like this?

*They may call your cell phone service provider and say your phone was lost or damaged. Then they ask the provider to activate a new SIM card connected to your phone number on a new phone — a phone they own. If your provider believes the bogus story and activates the new SIM card, the scammer — not you — will get all your text messages, calls, and data on the new phone.
The scammer — who now has control of your number — could open new cellular accounts in your name or buy new phones using your information.
*

*SIM Swapping is not limited to a specific provider. However, there are reports on how users had their sim swapped on more than one occasion.
*

Trying to put this together, it looks like the hacker may have gained access to the account\phone number from the dark web and already pawned websites.

The website Have I been pawned” can be used to verify if an email account was comprised.

Below accounts were reported as comprised:

*There was an email last month from the Gatehub team that account comprised. However, I didn’t give it much attention as the account(s) were no longer used. I thought it was OK to leave them as-is and was planning on de-activating the accounts at a later time. The unauthorized user was able to identify the phone number and also the email accounts associated.
*

Below attempts were made almost at the same time

The unauthorized user convinced the T-mobile customer care with a bogus story and got the SIM Swapped (~5:30pm on 1/6/2019).

The unauthorized user changed the password on the personal account(outlook) as there was 2FA as text enabled on the account

The unauthorized user was able to change the password on another account(yahoo) using the same approach.

The unauthorized user was able to change password for the coinbase account. This also had a 2FA with AUTHY and text

Account recovery Approach:

Called T-mobile customer care from a different line and requested them to stop the SIM SWAP request. The first thing they asked was the personal PIN.. The unauthorized user also managed to change the personal PIN on the account. The next step was to prove that I’m the primary owner and they asked if they can send a temporary pin to the email linked to the account.. I thought for a sec and then realized that the personal account is no longer available as the unauthorized user has already changed the password. As I still had access to the phone and was able access the Authentication apps installed on the phone. I was able to quickly recover the personal account using the authentication code from the app. I added more than one recovery option on the accounts and 2FA as text was only used for backup purposes. The T-mobile customer care was able to re-instate the SIM back to the number.

Thanks to Tiffany Hayden as she warned users on the SIM-SWAP hack. She also shared how her SIM was swapped twice even after all the T-mobile Fraud protection.. You can read more from this thread:

What can you do?

Check with the Carrier(AT&T, T-mobile, etc..)

Check if there were any attempts to replace the SIM.

Have a permanent block on the account

Future SIM replacement requests will be redirected to the Fraud protection team. This however is a problem if someone wants to replace a SIM.

Enable Two-Factor authentication on all accounts(Even though accounts are not used).

**2FA with text is a weak security measure
**Use Google voice if the website doesn’t offer any other option and SIM SWAPs will not be possible.

2FA with identity pass code would be more secure

Install the Authenticator apps from playstore/appstore. Microsoft Authenticator / Google Authenticator

FIDO U2F

*U2F has been successfully deployed by large scale services, including Facebook, Gmail, Dropbox, GitHub, Salesforce.com, etc. You can also secure the accounts using anyYubiKeyproducts.*

**Verify if the accounts have been compromised and take action.
**Refer to the website: https://haveibeenpwned.com

Signup for Credit Monitoring services and setup notifications.

Credit Karma LifeLock Other credit monitoring service.

Do not share the passwords\pin for accounts and use a password manager

Chrome password manager Onepassword Other password manager

Request a credit freeze

*This way the unauthorized user wont have access to the credit reports and will not be able to open new accounts.
The credit freeze can be initiated online and it would only take few mins to freeze the account. If there is an error, the request can be initiated via phone.
*

Equifax Equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services 800-685-1111

Experian Experian.com/help 888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742)

Transunion TransUnion.com/credit-help 888-909-8872

Do not store Virtual Currency\Crypto in online wallets:

If you own any virtual currency, move them out of the online exchange\wallets.Remember, you are the bank and there are still lots of issues with the online wallets. Invest in hardware wallet like the Nano Ledger and secure the passkeys. Dont live any trace online even if own a small amount.

The presence of mind and timely help by others was useful and I was able to limit Sim-Swap damage. Stay safe everyone.

**Disclaimer:
**This may not be perfect solution.. However, this can help someone who hasn't secured the accounts or is in the process.

hello world!!