Current Affairs Quiz - December, 2021

Notes:
The USA recently announced a new bill named ‘Platform Accountability and Transparency Act (PATA)’.
The bill establishes new rules which could compel social media platforms to share data with “Qualified researchers”. They are defined as university-affiliated researchers pursuing projects that have been approved by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Notes:
Mouse opossums are relatively small members of the Neotropical marsupial family Didelphidae. They are endemic to Americas, especially to South America.
Recently a newly-identified species, named the Adler’s mouse opossum (Marmosa adleri), is among the smallest subgenus Micoureus. It was named after the researcher Greg Adler and  has larger ears, with a short furry tail.

Notes:
Gulf of Mexico Bryde’s whales have been classified as “endangered” under the Endangered Species Act.  They are the only known resident baleen whales in the Gulf of Mexico, with less than 100 individuals left in the population.
The carcass of an endangered Bryde’s whale was washed ashore near the border of Puri and Ganjam districts of Odisha.

Notes:
Global Methane Initiative (GMI) is a voluntary Government and an informal international partnership having members from 45 countries including the US and Canada. It was created in 2004 and India is one of the members since its inception
A Steering Leadership meeting of Global Methane Initiative (GMI) has been held virtually in which India’s representative from the Ministry of Coal was the Vice Chairman. The Chairperson of the Steering Leadership is from Canada.

Notes:
The present world chess champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway defended his title and won the FIDE World Championship in Dubai.
Carlsen beat Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, crossing the seven point threshold to win the global tournament held at Dubai’s Expo 2020 in the United Arab Emirates.Carlsen clinched his fifth world championship title.

Notes:
The Log4j vulnerability is a software flaw as reported by cyber-security researchers that could allow attackers to have uncontrolled access to computer systems.
Dubbed CVE-2021-44228, it could impact several products from those of Apple to Microsoft. US government’s cyber-security agency has also issued a warning on the same. The issue was discovered in Microsoft-owned Minecraft.

Notes:
Max Verstappen recently became the first Dutchman ever to win the Formula One world championship title.
He achieved this feat when he won a dramatic season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix at the Yas Marina circuit. The 24-year old is a Belgian-Dutch racing driver, who has been contesting since 2015.

Notes:
UN recognised the 38 degrees Celsius measured in Siberian region of Russia, as the new record high for the Arctic
The heat equivalent to 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit was seen on June 20, 2020 in the Russian town of Verkhoyansk. It marked the highest temperature ever recorded above the Arctic Circle, as per the World Meteorological Organization.

Notes:
Time magazine has named CEO of Tesla and SpaceX Elon Musk as Person of the Year.
Elon Musk gained attention for becoming the richest person in the world due to the rise in Tesla’s (TSLA) stock price. As per Time Magazine, “Musk emerged not just as the world’s richest person but also as the richest example of a massive shift in our society.”

Notes:
Malini Parthasarathy, the chairperson of The Hindu Group Publishing, is among four veteran journalists who are named by US-based Columbia Journalism School as the 2022 alumni award winners.
The other winners include Eric Marcus, founder and host of “Making Gay History” podcast, Stuart Schear, American Jewish World Service, and Thomas Maier, investigative journalist. Wendy Lu (HuffPost) and Mukhtar Ibrahim (Sahan Journal), jointly bagged the First Decade Award.