Eco Friendly Vehicles: A Case of Misplaced Emphasis?

In this year’s budget, the Government reduced the excise duty on electric cars from 8 per cent to nil. Recently the Government repeated the same with 2 and 3 wheel electric vehicles. (Full article here) Why? Well, if one were to believe the advertisements, this is because the Government wants to promote these “eco friendly”, “zero pollution” vehicles. Just open any electric vehicle manufacturer’s website and you will see these words laced all over the site.

Well, that might be true if one were to compare electric vehicles with carbon dioxide emitting vehicles. However, I seem to have been bitten by the recent bug of measuring everything by its carbon footprint. Considering that most of the power produced in India is from hydro carbon fuels I fail to see how these vehicles are eco friendly. Just because you choose to be blind to the technology that brings the electricity right to your doorstep it does not cease to exist. Add to that the fact that we are an energy deficient nation, I fail to see the rationale in promoting electric vehicles.

I see a lot of similarities between ethanol blended fuel and these electric vehicles. Ethanol blended fuel was supposed to be environmentally friendly since it used natural component that could be regenerated. However, this has a hand in the spiraling food prices as food crops like corn were diverted to produce ethanol. Similarly agricultural land meant for food crops began to grow crops that were in demand to produce this “bio-fuel”.

As and energy deficient nation and one that meets its electricity needs primarily through fossil fuels can we really afford to promote electric vehicles?

Also posted at http://desicritics.org/2008/05/11/140745.php

Whats in a name?

I recently came across an article that referred to India Held Kashmir. Now while many Indians are familiar with POK or Pakistan Occupied Kashmir I’m not sure how many have heard this term.

There is a saying that history doesn’t determine who is right. It determines who is left. It is the winner who writes the history books. With both sides claiming their own victory and scripting their own histories, can one really blame the people for their mutual distrust of each other? If your whole life you were raised to believe that America was your number one enemy, would you be able to accept any help from them without worrying about the fine print or the possibility of a Trojan horse?

If a name can cause enmity between nations or people, I guess there is a lot in a name after all.

Microsoft can be such a pain in the ***

Just in order to publicize your search engine you are making me go through an extra bloody step when I typed the link in correctly?



No wonder you are lagging Google in terms of search queries if you have such a lousy publicity team that doesn’t have a pinch of creativity. Wait a sec. Did I just say “number of search queries”? Guess with the battle for Yahoo going to get bitter there is a need to boost the actual number of “search clicks” that Live Search is getting.

P.S on a similar note check out this post

I believe in God. It is his fan following that I cant stand

“I believe in God. It is his fan following that I can’t stand.”

A powerful statement. One that refuses to get out of my head due to a recent incident where a friend berated me for eating meat on a day that you weren’t supposed to for religious purposes.

Ok. Let’s face it. I see some glaring inaccuracies in the catholic faith.

1) How can Jesus be of the line of David when Joseph is a descendant of King David and his wife Mary was a virgin mother?

2) How can you descend to the dead to rise again on the third day and promise the thief crucified along with you that “tonight you will be with me in paradise”?

There are a few other minor ones like:

How can you say that you “believe in Jesus, the ONLY son our Lord” and then go on to say “Our Father” and

How can the New Testament tell you not to swear by anything when the Old Testament specifically tells you that God swore upon himself?

But they do point to some inconsistencies. The fact is that with the discovery of the Gospel of Judas one cannot but help wonder about the authenticity of “facts” as claimed by the other Gospels. In fact while reading this article about the New Testament Apocrypha you will come across,

The works that presented themselves as "authentic" but did not obtain general acceptance from within the churches are called New Testament Apocrypha.

So how does the church get to decide about what is right and wrong? According to recent news bulletins their ranks might even be filled with perverts and child molesters. While it is wrong to paint the whole church for the short comings of a few, it should bring about the realization that they too are human. Need I point out the famous case of Galileo and his heliocentric point of view that went against the church’s interpretation of the “scriptures”?

This is not restricted to Christianity alone. A religious organisation became infamous some time back because it declared a Fatwa (religious edict) against a particularly popular Indian lass’s sports attire. Government bans on books are common. Bans on films are the latest rage (excuse the pun). The list goes on.

While we can go on and on about the pros and cons of religion, why can’t people just live and let live? In a democracy everyone is free to their own opinion. Just because you have an opinion it doesn’t mean that you have to shove it down other people’s throats. I have an opinion and I am posting it here. I am of the opinion that the church and other bodies that claim to be the embodiment of various religions may have lost sight of what the original message was. I’m not forcing you to accept it. You can accept it or reject it. One of the characteristics of an adult is to be able to THINK. After using it, we can agree, disagree or agree to disagree with any stated opinion. As the Bible says “who are you to sit in judgment over your brother?”

P.S. IF you are still upset over the way this has been written, remember that the bible also says that “The Devil can quote from the bible to suit his needs” and go on your merry way. Peace be with you.

Appearances can be..... what?

I was in the canteen the other day waiting for my order when I noticed this waiter wearing plastic gloves while serving food. The only problem was that he wasn’t wearing gloves only while serving food. He was wearing it while doing everything else too. Dusting his shirt, moving vessels and DOING HIS LACES!!!!

Kind of defeats the whole purpose of wearing gloves doesn’t it? But then again, does it? The only reason I was hanging around was that they were out of something that I had ordered for and were waiting for the same to come in. Other people were eating blissfully unaware of the level of hygiene that had gone into the preparation of their meal. (We are talking about him touching rotis with the same hands. It is needless to say that I lost my appetite.) What is the point of giving the employees gloves if they are not taught to change their behaviour? Or is the purpose to just make the customers believe that there are getting clean food? Well then the purpose was served, wasn’t it?

While these thoughts were running through my head a colleague came up and asked me if I had finished filling out my appraisal form. You know that little form where there is a lot of big talk on your “achievements” through out the year. The one that everyone adds “a little extra” so that it “looks like” you have done a lot more than u really have……

And the banks came tumbling down

Recession seems to be the new buzz word. Every one seems to be throwing this word around now-a-days. Guess that’s what happens when news channels keep bringing up the losses to the banking sector and the bad loan write offs. But while everyone seems to know about the real world banking problems anyone seen what has been happening on second life recently? Well I guess if you were regular players you would know that Linden labs pulled the plug on some financial institutions in the game. People not too familiar with the game might be tempted to say big deal its all part of the game. Sadly my friend, that was a long long time ago. With an exchange where you can change your real dollars into Liden Dollars, there have been lots of stories of people making their fortunes on second life. Of people giving up their real lives and careers to pursue the same on second life. A Google search on “making money in second life” threw up a mind blowing 30 MILLION results

So how do you draw the line between what is real and what is make believe? Is there a distinction between the two? I think that disappeared when real money went into the game. It was no more a game meant for fun and recreation. Events there were as real we wanted them to be. Why does that cause a shiver to run down my spine? I guess it reminds me too much of a Matrix like universe.

Google everywhere

I recently received the following picture in my mail. It reminded me of this post that I had written more than a year ago. With you tube, picasa and others under its belt now, there are more areas where Google has penetrated and penetrated our lives. With Google phone that is rumored to have text ads and free subscriptions on its way, need I say more?