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Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Big Blue in Power

The Hindu : Education / Research : IBM, IIT students to work on power grid management system: "IBM has signed a research collaboration pact with IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur to develop systems that will help make power grids resilient.

We have heard of big batteries fighting blackouts and making renewable power economically viable. Large-scale power storage is crucial to our energy future, and technological assistance and knowledge transfer in the field of renewable energy, especially for rural electrification and grid integration, would be useful to the country, but more important is also the effective use of power grids.

IBM signed a research collaboration agreement with IIT Madras and IIT Kharagpur to develop systems that will help power grids become resilient. While, IIT Kharagpur will be primarily involved in developing the new power system applications and software systems for the project, IIT Madras will focus on the networking architecture to ensure that the data collected from different locations is appropriately transmitted to one location.

The project is aimed at developing open system designs that can boost the potential of Phasor Measurement Units (PMU), a new type of sensor on power grids.

The IBM researchers and the students will develop network architectures to collect data from PMUs, which will be integrated with the information gathered via various analytics tools processing data to provide valuable information to the grid operators. The systems will analyse power grid data for predictive insights. They will also improve grids to enhance productivity and reduce inefficiencies in power consumption.

The knowledge and insights gained from this collaborative research work will be made publicly available, in order to allow governments and businesses around the world to build resilient energy systems...."

Monday, November 29, 2010

Winter of Worries

More research reports calculating the expected rise in global temperatures. Tragically, nothing is expected to come out of the United Nations Climate Change Conference currently underway in Cancun, Mexico.

The World: Four Degrees Warmer : Discovery News: "Since the late 1990s, many researchers and policy makers have held a two-degree Celsius (3.6-degree Fahrenheit) global temperature increase relative to pre-industrial times as a benchmark limit for global warming, saying that keeping warming below this threshold increases the likelihood that catastrophic changes can be avoided.

But we are hardly on track to meet that target, researchers say, and an average global warming of four degrees Celsius (7.2 degrees Fahrenheit) by the end of this century is more likely than two.

In a collection of papers published today in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, researchers paint a picture of what a four-degree warmer world might look like, including changes in agriculture and water supply, ecosystems, sea level rise and the displacement of populations."

In trying to cut Federal Deficit, Obama and Legislators grow fat on Moral Deficit

President Obama has announced a salary freeze for "most" civilian federal workers for two years. Based on the data, it appears that the average salary for federal workers is in the $65,000-$70,000 range. This appears to be rather high. The Senators are celebrating the move. "Republicans cheered the pay freeze while noting that some of them had called for such a move for months. “We are pleased that President Obama appears ready to join our efforts,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the incoming Republican majority leader...NY Times.

On the other hand, it is interesting to see the salaries of Senators in recent history.
From 2008 to 2009 the salary increased from $169.3K to $174K, an increase of 2.78%, at a time when millions of Americans lost their jobs and many millions had wages decimated.
From 2000 to 2009, the Senators' salaries went up by more than 23%, or at a compound annual rate of more than 2.34%. This during the time when Bush and these politicians were calling for sacrifices.

Are all Legislators forgoing their raises? Are they taking pay cuts, to reduce the deficit?

1992 -- $129,500 per annum

1993 -- $133,600 per annum

1994 -- $133,600 per annum

1995 -- $133,600 per annum

1996 -- $133,600 per annum

1997 -- $133,600 per annum

1998 -- $136,700 per annum

1999 -- $136,700 per annum

2000 -- $141,300 per annum

2001 -- $145,100 per annum

2002 -- $150,000 per annum

2003 -- $154,700 per annum

2004 -- $158,100 per annum

2005 -- $162,100 per annum

2006 -- $165,200 per annum

2007 -- $165,200 per annum

2008 -- $169,300 per annum

2009 -- $174,000 per annum



Federal Pay Freeze: Obama Administration Announces Plan To Freeze Salaries Of Federal Employees: "The Obama administration announced on Monday an ambitious plan to freeze the salaries of federal employees for two years in an effort to address massive deficits and get a handle on the country's unsustainable fiscal path.

The proposal calls for a two-year pay freeze that would save the country $28 billion in the next five years and $60 billion over the coming decade. It would be applied to all civilian federal employees, including those at the Pentagon, but not to military personnel"

Obama Orders Pay Freeze for Federal Employees - NYTimes.com: "The pay freeze Mr. Obama announced wiped out plans for a 1.4 percent across-the-board raise in 2011 for 2.1 million federal civilian employees, including those working at the Defense Department, and it would mean no raise in 2012. The freeze would not affect the nation’s uniformed military personnel, and civilian workers who are promoted would still receive the higher pay that comes with the higher grade or position.

The move would save $2 billion in the 2011 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30 and $5 billion by the end of two fiscal years. Over 10 years, it would save $60 billion, according to Jeffrey Zients, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget and the government’s chief performance officer."

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Keeping Corporate Predatory Behavior in Check

The Indian Civil Aviation Minister has signaled to the Airlines that price collusion and predatory behavior will be investigated. When all airlines raise prices significantly and are priced within a narrow band for a specific segment, suspicions are aroused. What is interesting is the willingness of the government to signal to the industry to "keep it down."

FT.com / Companies / Airlines - India to act over predatory airline pricing: "India’s government has warned domestic airlines that it intends to crack down on “predatory pricing” after carriers sharply increased fares on popular routes during a recent festival, as overall passenger traffic surges.

Indian travellers were outraged during the recent festival of Diwali – Hinduism’s biggest gift-giving holiday – when some carriers charged about Rs25,000 ($550) for a last-minute Delhi-Bombay round trip ticket, a route on which fares usually range from Rs10,000-Rs15,000.

Fares on other popular routes also surged during the holiday period, as local airlines sought to cash in on a newly buoyant market.“This predatory pricing can’t be allowed to continue,” Praful Patel, the civil aviation minister, said at an industry conference in New Delhi on Thursday. “We shall try our best to bring discipline.”Mr Patel said the carriers should have a “price band” for different routes, and warned that the director general of civil aviation, the industry regulator, had “special powers” that could be invoked if airlines did not act appropriately, especially with last minute travellers.The warning comes as India’s airline passenger traffic numbers are soaring after the difficulties of 2008, when carriers – which had been growing at about 25 per cent a year for several years – were hit by surging fuel prices, and plummeting passenger traffic."

Saturday, November 27, 2010

When Management comes through in a tough test

Product holds and product recalls are some of the most challenging decisions for a marketing manager. In the communication business it was always difficult to decide if a product should be placed on hold or grounded because of reports of a serious problem. The ethics of a manager are seriously tested in these circumstances.
Recently Qantas suffered a serious problem when one of the engines on the A-380 suffered a "hard" failure. Management decided to ground all A-380s. After about three weeks and after extensive checks, Qantas decided to return one of the A-380s back to service, the CEO was on the flight to assure passengers that he was comfortable with the safety checks and he felt that the plane was air-worthy. These acts are examples of responsible management.



Qantas A380 returns to air after engine blowout - Yahoo! Finance: "A Qantas A380 carrying more than 450 passengers, including the airline's chief executive, took to the skies Saturday in the first flight by one of its superjumbos since a midair engine explosion three weeks ago triggered a global safety review.

Qantas CEO Alan Joyce said he was flying the first leg of the Sydney-Singapore-London flight as a sign of the airline's conviction that it had completed all modifications and other checks on the Rolls-Royce engines, and the planes were safe to fly."

"Investigators say leaking oil caught fire in the engine and heated metal parts, causing them to disintegrate. Experts say chunks of flying metal cut hydraulics and an engine-control line in the wing of the A380, causing the loss of control of a second engine and loss of some braking power, fuel leaks and more than 50 on-board warnings.

It was the most serious safety incident for the world's largest and newest jetliners. Other airlines using the Trent 900 engine on A380s -- Singapore Airlines and Germany's Lufthansa -- also briefly grounded some planes while safety checks were conducted.

Qantas' checks have been more exhaustive than those of the other airlines. It has replaced 16 of the Trent 900 engines -- each A380 has four of the bus-sized engines.

Qantas is putting just two of its A380s back into service while modifications are made on engines on the other aircraft in its fleet. The plane that suffered in the midair blowout is still in Singapore, where investigations are continuing.

Qantas says it will eventually pursue compensation from Rolls-Royce for the failure and losses from grounding its fleet, but that it is confident the problem has been fixed.

The airline is due to take delivery of two more A380s with Trent 900 engines in coming weeks, and Joyce says they will be put directly into service.

But Qantas has suspended A380s from its longest-haul flights -- from Australia direct to Los Angeles -- while it tests whether extra thrust for takeoff on these routes creates too much stress on the engines.

The Australia-U.S. flights are among the longest nonstop commercial flights in the world, and the A380s must load up on more fuel than on other flights to make them. That means the planes are heavier at takeoff and need more thrust.

The thrust Qantas uses is within the certified specifications of the Trent 900, and the manufacturers and the European regulator that ensures safety standards consider it safe to fly those routes. Qantas says the suspension is precautionary because it wants to conduct its own tests.

Saturday's flight used a reduced thrust setting.

"We are reducing the thrust as a precaution, and that's all it is," said Capt. David Evens who was piloting Saturday's flight. "We are 100 percent confident -- otherwise I wouldn't be here today," he told a news conference with Joyce shortly before the flight...."

Patenting Religion

The topic of intellectual property rights is controversial ,especially when examined from the viewpoint of ethics. Apparently Facebook is applying to get a trademark for the word "Face." A word that has been in use for a long time. Pharmaceutical companies are trying to patent herbs that have been used in medicinal applications for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Now, a bloke has got a patent for Yoga poses. Yoga has been part of the Hindu culture, going back to the Vedas.


Hindu Group Stirs Debate in Fight for Soul of Yoga - NYTimes.com: "The campaign, labeled “Take Back Yoga,” does not ask yoga devotees to become Hindu, or instructors to teach more about Hinduism. The small but increasingly influential group behind it, the Hindu American Foundation, suggests only that people become more aware of yoga’s debt to the faith’s ancient traditions.
That suggestion, modest though it may seem, has drawn a flurry of strong reactions from figures far apart on the religious spectrum. Dr. Deepak Chopra, the New Age writer, has dismissed the campaign as a jumble of faulty history and Hindu nationalism. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has said he agrees that yoga is Hindu — and cited that as evidence that the practice imperiled the souls of Christians who engage in it.
The question at the core of the debate — who owns yoga? — has become an enduring topic of chatter in yoga Web forums, Hindu American newspapers and journals catering to the many consumers of what is now a multibillion-dollar yoga industry.

In June, it even prompted the Indian government to begin making digital copies of ancient drawings showing the provenance of more than 4,000 yoga poses, to discourage further claims by entrepreneurs like Bikram Choudhury, an Indian-born yoga instructor to the stars who is based in Los Angeles. Mr. Choudhury nettled Indian officials in 2007 when he won a United States patent for 26 yoga poses he packaged as “Bikram Yoga.”

Organizers of the Take Back Yoga effort point out that the philosophy of yoga was first described in Hinduism’s seminal texts and remains at the core of Hindu teaching. Yet, because the religion has been stereotyped in the West as a polytheistic faith of “castes, cows and curry,” they say, most Americans prefer to see yoga as the legacy of a more timeless, spiritual “Indian wisdom.”

“In a way,” said Dr. Aseem Shukla, the foundation’s co-founder, “our issue is that yoga has thrived, but Hinduism has lost control of the brand.”"

Friday, November 26, 2010

Go East, Teachers

Now, expat teachers flock to India - The Economic Times: "Delhi-based fashion institute Raffles Millennium, a JV between Raffles Education and Educomp Solutions, Pathways World School , Delhi (NCR), Mahindra United World College and Indus International School, Pune and Ecole Mondiale World School, Mumbai have all lined up expat teachers for their students to give an international touch to their services. According to big consulting firms, 10-30% of teaching staff in these institutes are expats.

The number of International schools in K-12 segment that follow the international baccalaureate (IB) programme, has gone up seven times in the past three decades to 71, attracting teachers from various countries. That’s a first for the Indian education sector. “A globally mobile population (Indian/foreign) is increasing with MNCs eyeing India as a major growth centre. They need support in terms of children’s education so that transfers from one country to another doesn’t disrupt studies,” says Bharat Gulia, senior manager at Ernst & Young’s education practice. That also means better salaries. A K-12 teacher earns anything between $30,000 and $60,000 a year."

A "Democracy" that is above the people

Apparently the U.S. administration and other governments are worried about an impending WikiLeaks data release. A democratic government should be answerable to the people. If the officials say and do things that they are afraid of admitting in public, then they are not serving the interests of the populace. It is time the leaders realized that these 'secret' operations, interrogations, and negotiations compromise the safety and security of nations.

WikiLeaks Release: US Briefs Allies About Upcoming Revelations: "The Obama administration said earlier this week that it had alerted Congress and begun notifying foreign governments that the whistle-blowing website is preparing to release a huge cache of diplomatic cables whose publication could give a behind-the-scenes look at American diplomacy around the world.

'These revelations are harmful to the United States and our interests,' U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. 'They are going to create tension in relationships between our diplomats and our friends around the world.'

Diplomatic cables are internal documents that would include a range of secret communications between U.S. diplomatic outposts and State Department headquarters in Washington.

WikiLeaks has said the release will be seven times the size of its October leak of 400,000 Iraq war documents, already the biggest leak in U.S. intelligence history."

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Cats and Dogs also going to OB City

Obesity Epidemic Threatens Fido, Fluffy, Too - Yahoo! News: "Before sharing your Thanksgiving leftovers with your pampered pets, take note: The obesity epidemic in the United States is enlarging cats and dogs, not just their over-fed owners.
Overweight pets are a serious health issue today, experts say. About half of the nation's companion animals -- some 90 million cats and ogs -- are tipping the scales, according to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention.
'As a practicing veterinarian for almost 20 years, I've never seen this many overweight pets,' said Dr. Ernie Ward, author of Chow Hounds: Why Our Dogs Are Getting Fatter -- A Vet's Plan to Save Their Lives. 'We're witnessing the super-sizing of America's pets before our very eyes.'
The cause of obesity in people and pets is the same, added veterinarian Dr. Joe Wakshlag, assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.
'The Centers for Disease Control [and Prevention] says that America has become 'obesogenic,' meaning that we live in a world that promotes increased food intake, unhealthy food choices and reduced physical activity,' he said. 'Our pets live in the same world and are suffering the same consequences of obesity.'"

Irish Troubles

As Ireland Makes Big Cuts, Low Corporate Taxes Are Sacrosanct - NYTimes.com: "ut Ireland’s minimum wage? Check. Collect more in property taxes from beleaguered homeowners? Check. Raise the corporate tax rate, which could plug the gaping hole in Ireland’s tattered balance sheets even faster? Well, no.

The austerity plan Ireland unveiled on Wednesday to secure a bailout from its international partners makes one thing clear: much of the 15 billion euros (or $20 billion) in savings the government has pledged to find over the next four years will come from the welfare state and the working class. But the measures will not touch large businesses like Microsoft, Intel and Pfizer, which have created thousands of jobs and fueled exports in Ireland for years, thanks to one of the lowest corporate tax rates in Europe."

Making a Super-Sized Point, and Getting Murdoch'd for It

An important point to note in this story: There is a cabinet position in India responsible for Environment. The minister makes an educated point that the U.S. model of mobility might not be valid for India, which is geographically smaller, far denser, and more more historic. As expected he is villified and called names by Murdoch's empire.


SUVs socially useless vehicles: Jairam Ramesh - The Economic Times: "Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh reiterated his argument against increasing SUVs in the country, and cracked a joke at an editorial in a US daily that called him a ‘buffoon’ for criticizing the American model of mobility.
“The first editorial in the Wall Street Journal has called me a buffoon for going after SUVs. It has hurt a lot of people. The ruling establishment, whether in media or politics, uses these socially useless vehicles. But, the larger point I was trying to make was that government subsidises diesel for social purpose and is diesel vehicle fulfilling a social purpose?” he asked at an event organised by Centre for Science and Environment in the Capital.

The minister was referring to the debate that has raged for long between environmentalists and auto industry about subversion of diesel subsidy meant for farmers and poor to push sales of diesel engines. The green lobby contends that diesel engines add to greenhouse gas emissions coupled with various public health issues.

Sticking to his earlier stand, Ramesh said, “You can buy what you want, we can’t determine what vehicles you can buy. But we can certainly formulate a fiscal policy, which discourages the use of heavy vehicles, SUVs and so on.”

Hitting out against the increasing number of heavier private vehicles hitting Indian roads, he warned, “I do believe, if we replicate the American model of mobility which the Chinese have replicated, it’s a recipe for disaster for this country. It’s great to have aspirations, but this aspiration is going to cost us enormously.”

Earlier, in an interview to a UK daily, he had said, “It is a (American) paradigm fraught with grave risks. I shudder to think what will happen if we (in India) follow the suburban model of urbanisation."

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Pali(g)norance

Sarah Palin has made friends and earned money by celebrating ignorance and revelling in it. It is a sad commentary on the media and on the country. Ignorance is deified and education is mocked.

First lady Michelle Obama went through the Chicago Public Schools, then went to Princeton and to Harvard. Unlike GWB, she does not appear to have rich parents who used alumni connections to get her admitted to Ivy League schools- she earned her way.

  • Hawaii Pacific University (Fall 1982),
  • North Idaho College (Spring 1983 & Fall 1983),
  • University of Idaho (Fall 1984 - Spring 1985),
  • Matanuska-Susitna College (Fall 1985) and
  • University of Idaho (Spring 1986, Fall 1986 and Spring 1987 ).



  • First Lady Michelle O
    bama: "...A product of Chicago public schools, Mrs. Obama studied sociology and African-American studies at Princeton University. After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1988, she joined the Chicago law firm Sidley & Austin, where she later met the man who would become the love of her life. After a few years, Mrs. Obama decided her true calling was working with people to serve their communities and their neighbors. She served as assistant commissioner of planning and development in Chicago's City Hall before becoming the founding executive director of the Chicago chapter of Public Allies, an AmeriCorps program that prepares youth for public service. In 1996, Mrs. Obama joined the University of Chicago with a vision of bringing campus and community together. As Associate Dean of Student Services, she developed the university's first community service program, and under her leadership as Vice President of Community and External Affairs for the University of Chicago Medical Center, volunteerism skyrocketed... (from http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/first-lady-michelle-obama)



    Palin Slams Michelle Obama Again, This Time For Anti-Obesity Campaign: "An appearance by Sarah Palin on Laura Ingraham's radio show Wednesday morning drew a bit of pre-Thanksgiving buzz for a swipe she took at Barbara Bush for suggesting that the 2008 vice president nominee would be best served in 2012 by staying in Alaska.

    'I don't think the majority of Americans want to put up with the blue-bloods -- and I want to say it will all due respect because I love the Bushes -- the blue bloods who want to pick and choose their winners instead of allowing competition,' said the former Alaska Governor.

    But it was another swipe at another first lady that stood out in a notably charged interview. For the second time this week, Palin threw jabs at Michelle Obama (the first instance came with the publication of Palin's book), this time calling her campaign to improve child nutrition another instance of a philosophical devotion to big government..."

    Palin education took her to five colleges: Former Gov. Sarah Palin | adn.com: "Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin attended five colleges in six years before graduating from the University of Idaho in 1987."

    Fed ' Up

    This blog has stated, many times, that it will take a long time for a recovery in the United States.


    Now the Fed seems to state what has seemed obvious to analytical minds for a few years.

    America's revival will take years: Fed Reserve - The Economic Times: "America's central bank has slashed its outlook for the US economy projecting that jobless rate could exceed 8 percent for two more years and it could take several years for the economy to return to health.

    According to minutes from the Federal Reserve's Nov 3 meeting released Tuesday, more than half of the central bank's policymakers thought it would take about five or six years for unemployment, growth and inflation to return to more normal levels.

    Other Fed members warned the full recovery could take even longer than that.

    The much weaker forecast is the major reason that policymakers decided earlier this month to announce a plan to try and jumpstart growth by pumping an additional $600 billion into the economy through the purchase of long-term bonds, according to CNNMoney.."

    No way to say Face...

    With Facebook Claiming the Word 'Face,' Some Alternatives - NYTimes.com: "Facebook is a few steps away from getting a trademark on the word “face” with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, according to a document discovered by the technology blog TechCrunch, which it wrote about on Tuesday.

    According to the document and filing, Facebook was informed on Tuesday that it could move to the next phase of the trademark process, which will include paying a fee and providing a “Statement of Use” illustrating how the word will be used in the real world and online once it has been trademarked.

    So does that mean Facebook will be able to stop people from using the word “face” unless they are willing to send a check to Mark Zuckerberg, above, a company founder? Not exactly.

    As the Patent and Trademark Office points out, the trademark will apply only to “telecommunication services, namely, providing online chat rooms and electronic bulletin boards for transmission of messages among computer users.”

    But that still limits the use of the word for businesses when it comes to the modern-day world, as almost every business has a Web page, Twitter or Facebook account associated with it."

    Tuesday, November 23, 2010

    One more HOT data point

    World's lakes getting hotter, more than the air - Yahoo! News: "A first-of-its-kind NASA study is finding nice cool lakes are heating up — even faster than air.
    Two NASA scientists used satellite data to look at 104 large inland lakes around the world and found that on average they have warmed 2 degrees (1.1 degree Celsius) since 1985. That's about two-and-a-half times the increase in global temperatures in the same time period.
    Russia's Lake Ladoga and America's Lake Tahoe are warming significantly and the most, said study co-author Simon Hook, a scientist at the Jet Propulsion Lab in Pasadena, Calif. Tahoe has heated up by 3 degrees (1.7 degrees Celsius) since 1985, while Ladoga has been even hotter, going up by 4 degrees (2.2 degrees Celsius).
    The study was published Wednesday in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
    Hook and his colleague used several satellites and looked at thermal infrared images of the lakes in winter and summer. They also confirmed the numbers by comparing them to buoy data.
    'It fits with what we see with air temperature measurements,' Hook said. 'We were surprised that in some places the lakes appear to be warming more than the air temperature.'

    The next question to look at is why the lakes seem to be warming faster than the air or land, Hook said. One reason could be the way lakes warm — in a more gradual manner than land but also slower to cool.

    NASA climate scientist Gavin Schmidt, who was not part of the study, said the research made sense and adds another independent measuring system to show that the world is warming up. Eleven different indicators — including air temperature, humidity, snow cover, ocean heat content — show statistically significant man-made global warming, while no environmental measurements show otherwise, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    Warming lakes is No. 12 and "another brick in the wall," said University of Victoria climate scientist AndrewWeaver."

    Politics+Academics= Poor Example for Students

    Wegman report round-up - Science Fair: Science and Space News - USATODAY.com: "Essentially, the 2006 report contains a critique of statistical techniques used by climate scientists in 1998 and 1999 papers, and was requested by Rep. Joe Barton, R. - Texas, then head of the House energy committee, as part of an investigation of climate scientists.

    The plagiarism charge against the Wegman report, dubbed"Skepticgate" by Pace University climate writer Andrew Revkin, were first made by the Deep Climate website last year, with further analysis by retired computer scientist John Mashey of Portola Valley, Calif. They have charged Wegman and his fellow report authors with plagiarism and other shortcomings that compromise the credibility of their findings, including hidden influence by Barton committee staffers during the composition of the report. A 2007 presentation at GMU by one of the report's authors, Yasmin Said, says that an energy committee staffer, Peter Spencer, sent the report authors, "daunting amount of material" over the nine months of its composition."

    Monday, November 22, 2010

    Celebrating Ignorance over Science

    Departing Republican attacks climate-change deniers in own party | Environment | guardian.co.uk: "Unburdened by the prospect of another campaign, Inglis, in this final hearing, spared no scorn for climate change deniers in his own party and beyond, suggesting that they continue to ignore global warming at their own peril. 'I would also suggest to my free enterprise colleagues – especially conservatives here—whether you think it's all a bunch of hooey, what we've talked about in this committee, the Chinese don't,' the South Carolina Republican said in his opening remarks. 'And they plan on eating our lunch in this next century.' (ClimateWire covered the comments here.)

    He continued lobbing criticism at climate sceptics:

    "There are people who make a lot of money on talk radio and talk TV saying a lot of things. They slept at a Holiday Inn Express last night, and they're experts on climate change. They substitute their judgment for people who have Ph.D.s and work tirelessly."

    Inglis is referring, of course, to the series of commercials for the hotel chain in which a white guy magically develops the ability to rap, anotherguy ends up on Jeopardy, and a clown gives advice to a bull rider—all because they got smarter due to a good night's rest at the Holiday Inn Express.

    The difference on the subject between Inglis and Rep. Ralph Hall, the 87-year-old Texas Republican expected to take up the chairmanship of the committee next year, couldn't be more drastic. In his opening statement, Hall said that "reasonable people have serious questions about our knowledge of the state of the science." He also accused the scientific community of having a "dishonest undercurrent."

    Accordingly, Inglis warned scientists of what to expect in the next two years:

    "I'd encourage scientists who are listening out there to get ready for the hearings that are coming up in the next Congress. Those will be difficult hearings for climate scientists. But, I would encourage you to welcome those as fabulous opportunities to teach. Don't come here defensively."
    "

    Exporting Coal, Exporting Pollution



    Importing Coal, China Burns It as Others Stop - NYTimes.com: "Traditionally, coal is burned near where it is mined — particularly so-called thermal or steaming coal, used for heat and electricity. But in the last few years, long-distance international coal exports have been surging because of China’s galloping economy, which now burns half of the six billion tons of coal used globally each year.

    As a result, not only are the pollutants that developed countries have tried to reduce finding their way into the atmosphere anyway, but ships chugging halfway around the globe are spewing still more.

    And the rush to feed this new Asian market has helped double the price of coal over the past five years, leading to a renaissance of mining and exploration in many parts of the world.

    “This is a worst-case scenario,” said David Graham-Caso, spokesman for the Sierra Club, which estimates that its “Beyond Coal” campaign has helped to block 139 proposed coal plants in the United States over the last few years. “We don’t want this coal burned here, but we don’t want it burned at all. This is undermining everything we’ve accomplished.”"

    Sunday, November 21, 2010

    f(ake)News on iPad

    News reports indicate that Apple's Jobs and Murdoch are working together to create a "news"paper for the iPad. It can be safely assumed that this piece of Murdoc(toring)h will also be "fair and balanced" news. When facts are over-ridden by "fair and balanced" news, one should not be surprised at the rising levels of ignorance, which people like Ms. Palin find worthy of celebration.


    AppleInsider | News Corp, Apple building tablet-only iPad newspaper together - rumor: "Media giant News Corp may be working directly with Apple to build an all-new newspaper built specifically for the iPad, set to launch in the coming months at a cost of 99 cents per week.

    According to high-end women's fashion journal Women's Wear Daily, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch and Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs have worked together closely on the project, which will be called The Daily. It said that Jobs and Murdoch could appear onstage together to unveil the new product.

    But The Guardian in the U.K. went one step further, and said that the tablet-only project will be a joint effort between News Corp and Apple. The product, which will not have a print edition or web edition, will allegedly be developed with assistance from Apple engineers.
    However, the product will not be iPad-only, the reports said. News Corp's The Daily will reportedly be available for other tablet devices, though Murdoch is said to believe the iPad will be a "game changer," as the device most families use to get their news and information.

    The tablet publication will reportedly be run from the 26th floor of the News Corp offices in New York, where 100 journalists have been hired. The product could be announced alongside a rumored newspaper subscription plan Apple is said to be working on.

    Apple is also rumored to be creating a new standalone application that will serve as a digital newsstand for magazines and newspapers. Like iBooks makes books available through a separate application, Apple's newsstand will reportedly be created specifically for newspapers and magazines.

    A News Corp executive recently confirmed that the company is working on an iPad specific publication set to launch in the U.S. in the coming months. The newspaper will reportedly initially be a U.S.-only product."

    Saturday, November 20, 2010

    "Rude" Research...

    Rude Behavior Can Have Costs Beyond Hurt Feelings - NYTimes.com: "Alex J. Packer, author of “How Rude!: The Teenager’s Guide to Good Manners” (Free Spirit Publishing, 1997), went further. “I would be the first to say that there has been an absolute collapse of civility in the past generation or two,” Mr. Packer said. “So much of communications is once removed that it adds a layer of distance and anonymity that can only worsen manners.”

    Professor Forni, who also wrote “The Civility Solution: What to Do When People are Rude,” (St. Martin’s Press, 2008), noted that the major causes of incivility were anonymity, stress, lack of time, lack of restraint and insecurity.

    And we’re certainly seeing greater stress and more ability to lash out anonymously through the Internet and texting. “The more volatile the mixture, the more uncivil we become,” Professor Forni said."

    Holding Countries Hostage, the American Way

    US firms warn Irish over tax move - Telegraph: "The Irish government has been given a stark warning from some of the biggest American companies in Ireland on the risk of a mass exodus if the country's low corporation tax rate is raised.

    The warning – from executives at Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Intel – spoke of the "damaging impact" on Ireland's "ability to win and retain investment" should the country's corporation tax rate be increased from 12.5pc.

    The US warning was written by Lionel Alexander, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ireland, and a senior HP executive.

    Foreign investment equates to €110bn – or 70pc – of all exports with US companies alone employing more than 100,000 workers.

    While the companies are not threatening to leave at this stage, the statement – signed by senior Irish executives from each of the four companies mentioned – does directly point out that although Ireland's tax rate may be low in European terms, it is not when compared with locations such as Singapore, India and China."

    Friday, November 19, 2010

    Indian Honour for President Lula

    The Hindu : News / National : Indira Gandhi peace prize for Lula: "Outgoing Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has been selected for the prestigious Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2010, said a news release from the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust.

    Mr. Lula was selected for the award by an international jury chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh mainly for promoting strong ties among developing countries, promoting inclusive growth and for his contribution to the cause of India-Brazil partnership.

    ``Lula has championed the cause of the global south and has worked to strengthen bonds among the developing countries…his priority from the start was inclusive growth and the consolidation and expansion of social programmes,’’ noted the release.

    A galaxy of international personalities has been given the Indira Gandhi Prize with the previous three awardees being Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, former International Atomic Energy Agency Mohamed ElBaradei and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."

    Thursday, November 18, 2010

    Stunning recovery - Indian IT industry hiring to hit record highs

    Indian IT industry hiring to hit record highs - The Economic Times: "With campus recruitments by technology companies only weeks away, early indicators suggest this year recruitments may touch a historic high, as top Indian tech majors, including TCS, Infosys and Wipro, will alone recruit close to one lakh engineers, if not more.

    Back-of-the-envelope analysis, coupled with stated recruitment plans of the IT biggies, shows that December-January will be action-packed at engineering college campuses, not to mention the impact that MNC biggies like Accenture and IBM will have.

    “According to our original plans, we were to recruit 30,000 people this fiscal, but we will close the current year with 50,000 persons added. For the next fiscal, we could hire as much as this year, if not more,” N Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD of TCS, which has a total employee headcount of 1.77 lakh people, said.

    TCS follows a policy where it recruits 70% of its annual intake from campuses. The company recruited 24,000 persons in the fiscal ended March 2010.

    Nasscom, the industry body for software companies , has laid down ground rules for campus recruitments under which member-companies are allowed to enter campus only at the beginning of the eighth semester of engineering.

    Going by recruitment data and growth projections, most tech majors began 2010 with conservative estimates of manpower required but gradually scaled up their targets as the year progressed .

    At the beginning of this fiscal, Infosys had said it would recruit 30,000 but hiked the figure to 40,000 by September-end . The annual report of Infosys says in the previous year (2009-10 ), the company interviewed 61,000 people and made 26,200 job offers.

    As of March 2010, Infosys and its subsidiaries had an employee strength of approximately 1,13,800 employees, of which 1,06,900 are technology professionals, including trainees

    Shankar Srinivasan, chief people officer, Cognizant , told TOI, “In the last one year (from October 2009 to September 2010), we saw a net addition of over 27,500 employees. We continue to be active in campuses as well as in the lateral market (hiring of experienced professionals ). We ended the September 2010 quarter with approximately 95,600 employees globally.”

    “A 20% growth rate in the industry will lead to total demand of around 310,000 employees. Part of this will include employees joining from fields like MBA and accounts, and some employees will be hired locally onsite,” Ashish Chopra, analyst with Motilal Oswal, said.

    On the assumption that Cognizant, Wipro and HCL Tech will recruit as much in the forthcoming recruitment season if not more than they did in 2009-10 , there are bound to be fireworks at engineering colleges . “We have never seen such large scale recruitment numbers. This is clearly the highest levels that I have seen in the past 10 years of campus,” a campus recruitment watcher told TOI.

    Placement officers and institutional administrators in Tamil Nadu too are upbeat that IT majors such as TCS and Infosys have revised manpower projections for the coming year.

    “This is fantastic news. I am excited at this (revised HR projections). This is something that must keep not just placement officers, students, job seekers and job providers happy but the nation as a whole as the job sector is looking up,” says Jayakumar, former deputy registrar (placements and training) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT Madras ).

    However, pay packages at campuses might not witness any significant uptick despite the surge in recruitments. An entry-level engineer is likely to get Rs 3 to Rs 3.25 lakh as a starting offer, while a post-grad engineer may get an additional Rs 20,000.

    Likewise, professor S Gowri, registrar of Anna University of Technology , to which over 150 engineering colleges are affiliated in Chennai and surrounding regions, says while it is appreciable that the job market is looking up, much will depend on the kind of jobs they provide.
    "

    Wednesday, November 17, 2010

    Capitalism without Conscience

    As Indians and Chinese work to out-do the U.S. and become greater capitalists, it is highly imperative that everyone is wary of capitalism run amok and investors ruining the lives of the poor and the children.

    India Microcredit Sector Faces Collapse From Defaults - NYTimes.com: "India’s rapidly growing private microcredit industry faces imminent collapse as almost all borrowers in one of India’s largest states have stopped repaying their loans, egged on by politicians who accuse the industry of earning outsize profits on the backs of the poor.

    The crisis has been building for weeks, but has now reached a critical stage. Indian banks, which put up about 80 percent of the money that the companies lent to poor consumers, are increasingly worried that after surviving the global financial crisis mostly unscathed, they could now face serious losses. Indian banks have about $4 billion tied up in the industry, banking officials say.

    “We are extremely worried about our exposure to the microfinance sector,” said Sunand K. Mitra, a senior executive at Axis Bank, speaking Tuesday on a panel at the India Economic Summit.

    The region’s crisis is likely to reverberate around the globe. Initially the work of nonprofit groups, the tiny loans to the poor known as microcredit once seemed a promising path out of poverty for millions. In recent years, foundations, venture capitalists and the World Bank have used India as a petri dish for similar for-profit “social enterprises” that seek to make money while filling a social need. Like-minded industries have sprung up in Africa, Latin America and other parts of Asia.

    But microfinance in pursuit of profits has led some microcredit companies around the world to extend loans to poor villagers at exorbitant interest rates and without enough regard for their ability to repay. Some companies have more than doubled their revenues annually.

    Now some Indian officials fear that microfinance could become India’s version of the United States’ subprime mortgage debacle, in which the seemingly noble idea of extending home ownership to low-income households threatened to collapse the global banking system because of a reckless, grow-at-any-cost strategy.

    Responding to public anger over abuses in the microcredit industry — and growing reports of suicides among people unable to pay mounting debts — legislators in the state of Andhra Pradesh last month passed a stringent new law restricting how the companies can lend and collect money..."


    Bloomberg Backs Uruguay's Anti-Smoking Laws - NYTimes.com: "Uruguay, viewed as a world leader in antismoking laws, is being sued by Philip Morris International in a Washington-based affiliate of the World Bank. The cigarette giant objects to two new Uruguayan laws. One covers 80 percent of the front and back of cigarette packages with a graphic health warning. The other bans more than one type of any brand of cigarette, such as Marlboro red, gold and silver.

    The suit has rallied antismoking forces globally. They interpreted it as an attempt to intimidate Uruguay and send a message to other developing nations on the eve of a conference of tobacco control officials from 171 nations. The conference in Punta del Este, Uruguay, is expected to produce guidelines to enforce a broad antismoking treaty sponsored by the World Health Organization."

    Fla. dealership offers free AK-47 for truck buyers - Weird News - Kentucky.com: "SANFORD, Fla. -- A central Florida dealership trying to drum up business is offering an unusual perk for potential used-truck buyers: A free AK-47 assault rifle.
    General sales manager Nick Ginetta says that since the promotion was announced on Veterans Day, business has more than doubled at Nations Trucks in Sanford.
    Customers would have to pass a background check before using the $400 gun shop voucher. They also have the option of using the money toward other firearms, or they can request a check in that amount instead."

    Tuesday, November 16, 2010

    News to make one feel Cold all over...

    Our Warming World: Picking up the 'Glacial Pace' : Discovery News: "So the political argument that there are more important and more urgent matters to worry about (re-election, jobs, and re-election) finds a lot of people nodding their heads.

    For climate scientists, however, among people actually doing work in the field, a lot of the argument and the thinking about the pace of change is going in the opposite direction -- global climate is changing faster, bigger, and sooner rather than later.

    The biggest changes have come in features that have been seen as some of the slowest movers in the climate system: the melting of glaciers and the resulting rise in global sea levels. As recently as 2007, the conventional thinking by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change projected sea level rise as little as seven inches this century. Now all bets are off.

    As Justin Gillis reported Sunday in the New York Times, researchers who once believed the loss of polar ice north and south would take thousands of years "have recently been startled to see big changes unfold in both Greenland and Antarctica."

    Now many scientists are saying the resulting rise in sea level could be three feet during this century, he wrote, and maybe as much as six feet, a circumstance that "would put thousands of square miles of the American coastline under water and would probably displace tens of missions of people is Asia."

    In Greenland, scientists are gathering measurements which show the ocean is warming more quickly than expected, eroding the base of big outlet glaciers, speeding up their flows to the sea."

    Monday, November 15, 2010

    Dam(n)...Water Grabbing.

    The Hindu : News / International : China begins damming Brahmaputra river for hydropower project: "China has started damming the middle reaches of the Brahmaputra river, or the Yarlung Tsangpo as it is known in Tibet, to begin construction on a 510 MW hydropower project that has raised concerns in India.

    The government for the first time revealed that it has, since November 8, begun damming the Tsangpo's flow to allow work to begin on the hydropower project at Zangmu. This is the first major dam on the Brahmaputra and has been billed by the Chinese government as a landmark hydropower generation project for Tibet's development.

    A news report on Monday said the “closure of the Yarlung Zangbo river on November 12 marked the beginning of construction.” Work is expected to continue beyond 2014, when the first set of generators will be put into operation. The total investment in the project is 7.9 billion yuan ($1.2 billion)..."

    An eco-friendly fashion statement

    The Hindu : Arts / Crafts : An eco-friendly fashion statement: "Diversity seems to be the byword at the Gandhi Shilp Bazaar that got underway here on Monday. With an impressive assortment of materials made of terracotta, paper, jute, vegetable dyes and palm leaves, the exhibition makes an eco-friendly fashion statement.

    Jute bags, curtains and blinds made of taliput fibre, cane utensils and bamboo trays draw eco-conscious shoppers and admirers of ethnic products. One of the distinct aspects of the annual exhibition is its speciality craft pieces from every State. In a stall featuring Kerala mridangams, an added attraction is that the craftsmen demonstrate and customise mrindangams in all sizes.

    From Uttar Pradesh are cloth and wooden dolls, accessories and cotton kurtas, which are spotted at every corner of the venue. Many craftsmen have mounted their masterpieces along the walkways, which demand attention for their intricacy and detailing.

    Tamil Nadu has its fair share at the exhibition and stands apart for its variety of display. If Thanjavur paintings and bronze idols are a regular feature, this year's exhibition has sourced in exquisite paper jewellery, designer plates and lacquer ware. Particularly interesting are terracotta accessories and lamps from Cuddalore, wooden educational play kits from Puducherry, and tribal jewellery.

    There is an extensive option when it comes to home furnishings. Assam's traditional works such as koyna grass mats, bamboo utilities, cane sofa sets, moorhas and laundry baskets cast a spell on tribal craft lovers.

    Wrought iron artefacts from Chhattisgarh, Orissa's appliqué lampshades and shell carvings from Andaman and Nicobar Islands add a touch of vibrancy.

    On the textile front, delicate weaves such as Ikat and Chikan come in a blaze of colours along with the ever-in-vogue batik, Chanderi and Benares silks, Gujarat's embroideries and Kashmiri works. A couple of stalls feature Madhubani work from Bihar, which come in a whirl of motifs on silk and cotton fabrics."

    Sunday, November 14, 2010

    Promotion of Competence

    Examples abound in the corporate world of promotions that ruined departments and organizations. Person A shows some competence at level X, either at the job or in working the superiors, and is promoted to level Y. If the person is inherently incompetent (at X and Y) the lower level group gains (from the loss of A) while the promoted causes greater havoc and pain at the higher level Y. If A was good at X, and if the skills sets for X and Y are uncorrelated (or negatively correlated) there is little evidence that A succeeds at Y. Often A fails at Y since the skills sets can be negatively correlated. So, what is the optimal way to promote? What is the effect of promoting people at random? An interesting research work examines this question.

    Random promotion may be best, research suggests | Education | The Guardian: "Last month, three Italian researchers were awarded an Ig Nobel prize for demonstrating mathematically that organisations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random. But their research was neither the beginning nor the end of the story of how bureaucracies try – and fail – to find a good promotion method.

    Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda and Cesare Garofalo, of the University of Catania, Sicily, calculated how a pick-at-random promotion scheme compares with other, more enshrined methods. They gave details in the journal Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and Its Applications."

    Saturday, November 13, 2010

    High-flying China

    China to unveil its own large jetliner - chicagotribune.com: "— China is aiming to reshape the global aviation industry with a home-grown jetliner, a direct challenge to the supremacy of Boeing and Airbus, the world's only manufacturers of large commercial aircraft.

    The communist government has staked billions of dollars and national pride on the effort. What may surprise some Americans worried about slipping U.S. competitiveness is that some well-known U.S. companies are aiding China in its quest.

    That partnership will be on display this week at an air show in southern China with the unveiling of a full-scale mockup of the C919. Slated for production by 2016, the 156-seat, single-aisle passenger plane would have its fuselage emblazoned with Comac, short for the state-owned Commercial Aircraft Corp. of China. But inside, the most crucial systems would bear the trademarks of some of the biggest names in Western aviation."

    Power of O

    Who Will Be Oprah’s Last Star? - NYTimes.com: "“The Oprah Winfrey Show,” which made its debut nationally in 1986, has become regarded as an express lane to the American dream. Sales climbed at once-little-known companies like Spanx, maker of the now-ubiquitous body-sucking undergarments, and at Philosophy, a skin care brand, after Ms. Winfrey mentioned their products on the show, which is watched by about 40 million people a week in the United States. For authors in particular she has been a fairy godmother. Publishers Weekly said last year that Ms. Winfrey “turned 63 books into best sellers” and that “one publishing insider estimated that Oprah’s selections alone generated $500 million in sales for the industry.”

    Other beneficiaries include the fitness trainer Bob Greene; the designer Chris Madden; chefs like Art Smith and Rosie Daley; organizational experts, including Julie Morgenstern and Peter Walsh; and countless authors, like Eckhart Tolle. Regular guests of Ms. Winfrey’s show — Suze Orman, Mr. McGraw, Ms. Ray, Dr. Oz and, most recently, the interior designer Nate Berkus — became only more celebrated. They have also become the next generation of talk show hosts.