Tuesday, August 28, 2007

When will be my next blog post ??

I have been reading a lot of stories about the end of the boom for blogs. The blog sites are full of un-updated blogs. I also realise after the initial euphoria, it becomes difficult to keep updating the space. There are multifarious reasons , from the lack of time , priorities and could be just what to write about particularly if it is a general purpose personal blog without any specific objective.

This combination of the above factors has also hit me and probably this is the worst month in my blogging career. This being only the 4th post. This actually highlights what ails a lot of people and organisations ie to intiate and self sustain initiatives which are not mandatory.

When I look back in time , I f started a lot of things but mid way lost interest and track. I think one of the success mantras is not to loose the momentum in what you believe and keep doing against the odds.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Energy ..........

Since the last couple of years there has been renewed focus on the doomsday scenario of the world running out of oil. This has lead to the search for alternative fuels like making solar power viable, bio fuels, nuclear power, oil from shale , wind power etc ( both renewal and non renewal) ,. Oil today offers an extraordinary flexibility of it being portable, easy to transport, carry and burn which has resulted in the proliferation of mass transport. It is very difficult to imagine the world without oil – every thing will come to stop and sure with the way mankind has evolved with lots of ingenuity we will overcome this problem, even though there seems no viable alternative even in the conceptualization stage.

Solar power has been around for quite a number of decades but the capital cost of production is very high even though the running costs are low, then comes the availability of power which can be harnessed only in places where the sun light is available in plenty and the last is the area required is humungous to plant the solar panels. Though there has been a lot of research to make the panels more effective but I really doubt if it can replace the existing sources though may be a good supplement. It can be a good source for small requirements. As I have read - only Israel produces any meaningful amount of electricity from Solar Power something like 5% of its total requirement.

Oil from shale seems to be a pipe dream at this point in time– there is always a cost of how much energy will have to be spent to extract new forms as regards Bio fuels the eternal debate of food security will keep coming up as more and more land is diverted towards oil producing crops, though crops like Jatropha have ignited some hope as it can be grown on arid land without much tendering and support.

Wind power seems to be more of a gimmick than any serious effort to bridge the gap. There have been theories which state that large wind farms have the ability to alter the weather patterns resulting in diverting the rains. I think of all forms of renewal energy this is the most un-reliable. Hydro electricity should be tapped as much as possible – apart from generating electricity it has the potential to store water and divert it for irrigation. China has shown the way with the 3 Gorges dam.

I remember reading some time back that George Bush had some grand plan of getting a chemical from the surface of the moon which can replace the nuclear fuels like Uranium/plutonium which has similar properties but much safer. The biggest draw back of nuclear fuel is the safeguards and the chances of being used for the wrong purpose. Chernobyl demonstrated the disastrous fallout of nuclear radiation not to mention Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

In my opinion the need for energy should be classified in to two major segments – portable for the common man catering to all forms of transport and the other is for the bulk use like electricity. We have scenarios where Gas is proposed to be used for generation of electricity which should be stopped and rather alternative sources like Coal etc should be preferred. I don’t think every any aircraft will fly on coal but on Gas – definitely possible.

Monday, August 20, 2007

What do we stand for

Of all the different articles on India's independence which have been come kind of rigmarole on every independence day - This is the best I have read in many years.


Should not miss this

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Not my Idol

Talent search is a rage these days. The bug has caught on.. all the general entertainment channels are going over board to choose the next big singing superstar. Though not very inclined towards music as dont understand the nuances of singing .. I still happen to watch " Indian Idol" once in a while simply due it packaging. The first thing that strikes me is the hype and hoopla around these shows.There seems to be little attention on singing but more on the style and look of the contestants, naturally given that most of them come from small towns. Another point which fails me is how is this a pan india contest considering that that all the constestants are expected to sing fluently on hindi film songs. What happens to the regional languages ?

Indian Idiol is in its third season and I am as curious to know as other viewers as to what happened to the past two winners. They are hardly heard or seen. They were supposed to be the next big superstars , what happened to them is as a good guess. In this era of crass commercialisation what counts is the how much money can be made my monetizing the eyeballs. Voting by SMS itself has become a big industry. The on screen fights between the judges, the accolades given to the contestants, new celebrity guests every week etc seem very clearly tailor made as per rehearsed script. Some how I dont trust Sony in any of its reality shows as the eliminations/winners are clearly rigged going by the past winners of its shows. I remember there was to be a show called "Fame Gurukul" - both the winners even after so much grooming did not how to sing where the more deserving ones were kicked out earlier. Why cant the channels give out exact number of votes received by each contestant every week ? Its so tempting to rename the program as " IDiot Idol"

I have never ventured to watch either the VOI or Sa re ga ma pa. They seem to be too over board and crass- just looking at the clothes of the contestants will an idea. Any person who is remotely connected with the hindi film music industry now qualified to become a judge. Excepting couple of voices and that too ages ago .. nothing worth while has come out. I fail to understand that what is the average viewer wants in these shows which keeps them going season after season.