An evited World war

Post world war 2, the cold war between the United states and USSR was quite a phenomenon. The then 2 super powers have had the desire to conquer the world leadership. There were edged competitions between them to show their supremacy economically and technologically, especially in the arms race. Deadly nuclear weapons had been given more devastation power. This was the time when the military spying had become a very common thing. On 16^th Oct, 1962 the American president John F Kennedy was shown some photographs taken by U-2 spy planes hovering over Cuba which shook him completely.

Cuba is a small island country situated to the north of the United States. Following the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the diplomatic relations between The United States of America and Cuba had seized. On the contrary, this helped in tightening the relations between The USSR and Cuba. Cuba became increasingly dependent on Soviet markets and military aid. The USSR wanted to play this to their benefit to fuel the tensions between USA and them. The USA had its nuclear missiles on standby installed in Turkey border closing USSR which was a threat to the Soviet. To counter this, USSR had approached the then Cuban premier Fidel Castro to cast a joint conspiracy against the growing US influence. The Soviet started installing nuclear tipped missiles pointing to the major cities of USA on the Cuban soil. Upon discovery of the Soviet’s intentions, the US president Kennedy had called for a meeting with group of advisors including their defence personnel. They discussed several options until a final disclosure of the war like situations on the state run television addressing the fellow Americans. He also announced a naval blockade surrounding Cuba to stop any further shipment from Soviet. A tense second week followed, during which neither side backed down. Presented with the choice of attacking or accepting Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba, Kennedy rejected both options. Instead, he crafted an alternative with three components: a public deal in which the United States pledged not to invade Cuba if the Soviet Union withdrew its missiles; a private ultimatum threatening to attack Cuba within 24 hours if the offer was rejected; and a secret sweetener that promised to withdraw U.S. missiles from Turkey within six months. The crisis was resolved at the last minute when Khrushchev accepted the U.S. offer.

Had this not been resolved, the world would have witnessed a third world war which would have been much more destructive than any of the wars fought so far. The powerful nuclear weapons possessed by both the super powers would perhaps have ended the human existence on earth.

Swach Bharat: Mission Possible

A few months back when the mission was lunched, it looked next to impossible given the target of year 2019. For a country of 1.25 billion people having so many basic problems, it looked as an unachievable target.

Such sentiments are usual among we Indians. But sometimes, we exceed our own expectations, the India waalein spirit gears up. I am referring to the railway platforms, roads and rest of the public areas. I am not saying that there have been a huge change to such places. But I have seen a difference for sure, I guess most of us have. The platforms, roads are now cleaner. The change is in the air. The celebrities across India have endorsed the campaign by their public appearances. It has influenced many lives. We appreciate their effort. But it is more important to appreciate the people who are pursuing it on daily basis on real term, for example the sweeper at the railway platform. Such people should be motivated with recognition or rewards. They are the true campaigners. If the mission becomes successful, they should be given the credibility.

With all hope, I want to say that, the “Swach Bharat Abhiyaan” will surely be successful. This mission is just the beginning of India’s growth story.

Fall of the empire of Rampalji Maharaj

The santh or Babas have always been respected by virtue of the traditional Indian culture. We Indians treat them as Godmen. We feel sanctified by their presence. Perhaps such sentiment of we Indians have given an opportunity to a handful of people who cast themselves as the representative of God wanting to help people. They enjoy a lavish life style, thanks to their followers or rather blind followers. The followers pour their hard earnings to the fake glory of such fraudsters. One such live example is Baba Rampalji Maharaj.

Rampal Dass, oorf Rampalji Maharaj was a junior engineer in the Haryana irrigation department who was sacked in the year 2000. Within a mere 14 years of time, he has managed to become a billionaire. He owns an ashram spread across 12 acers of land in Haryana itself besides his properties in Madhy pradesh and Delhi. The cost of the properties he own would be costing more than 100 crores as per government estimation. He owns a fleet of several luxury cars which includes BMW and Mercedes. More than 250 Guns were serving as his bodyguards equipped with deadly weapons such as Rifles, pistols, and hand bombs. Can a person with such luxuries and amenities be called as a Santh. Sadhus or Sanths are expected to lead a selfless life who are bothered about the well being of the people. But this fraudster is an example of an opportunist who knows how to make fool of the emotions of lakhs of people.

Well the best part is that, Rampal now has been in the police custody for his alleged involvement in a murder case. It is an eye opener to some of his blind followers. But what about rest of the fraudsters in the disguise of Babas or Sadhus who are yet to be caught. Why can’t there be regulations/institutions which would strictly observe the spending of the revenues of such Ashrams or related establishments. Perhaps there are regulations already which I may be unaware of. But I am sure there are loopholes and the Dhongis take advantages of them. The base line is, it is not the administration that can control them, we people can only stop the rise of such social monsters. And it is possible only if the wisdom takes over the blind belief.

March towards a new Space Destination

Space scientists are exploring new possibilities being in the space race. We have explored most part of our galaxy, the planets and their satellites. But that’s not all, the march is towards the Comets. A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, heats up and begins to outgas, displaying a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet. Comet nuclei range from a few hundred metres to tens of kilometres across and are composed of loose collections of ice, dust, and small rocky particles. The coma and tail are much larger and, if sufficiently bright, may be seen from the Earth without the aid of a telescope. Comets have been observed and recorded since ancient times by many different cultures.

The European Space Agency is the first in the world to land a probe on any Comet nucleus. The European Space Agency’s Rosetta mission is the first to land a probe on the surface of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, a small comet hundreds of millions of kilometers from the Sun. As the comets are time capsules dating back to the earliest days of our solar system, the data gathered by this mission could reveal the role played by comets in delivering water and organic molecules to an infant Earth.

67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko is a comet with a current orbital period of 6.45 years, a rotation period of approximately 12.4 hours and a maximum velocity of 135,000 km/h (38 km/s; 84,000 mph). 67P is approximately 4.1 kilometres (2.5 mi) by 4.3 kilometres (2.7 mi) at its widest and longest dimensions. It will next come to perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 13 August 2015. Like most comets, it is named after its discoverers, Soviet astronomers Klim Ivanovych Churyumov and Svetlana Ivanovna Gerasimenko. They first observed it on photographic plates in 1969.

Churyumov–Gerasimenko is the destination of the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission, launched on 2 March 2004. Rosetta rendezvoused with Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014 and entered orbit on 10 September 2014. Rosetta '​s lander, Philae, landed on its surface on 12 November 2014.

How Efficient you are at work

Most of us follow a practice of routinizing our day to day activities, usually the stuffs in office. For example, we might have N number of activities to do. Hence, we often set time lines for finishing up various activities. It is not so surprising that we cannot finish the day’s work. We curse circumstances having too much of work and less time. On the other side, we might come across people who would have finished almost the equal quantity of work within that much time, perhaps in less time. How only few people have finished their tasks while everyone put equal efforts to do their respective tasks? Let’s find out why. One of the qualities of human mind is that, it rambles very fast. The mind of a normal man keeps shifting its focus continuously; it is very difficult to set it fixed at one place or
point for a long time.

For example, you are reading this article now.:

The same article can be read in 3 minutes by person “A” and in 5 minutes by person “B” whereas both of them have the same intellect. A could read the same in less time because it could fix the focus of his mind better than B. Now the question is- why our mind rambles?
Anxiety about the future or worry about the past could be one reason for such unstable mind. While doing a certain task, we might start worrying about what happened in the last appraisal where we could not meet the project deadlines resulting in a bad rating. It could also come to our mind that what we should do to make this year’s projects successful. Our own mind won’t let us do our tasks, and we blame that there was shortage of time. It destroys the peace and productivity.

We spend around 10 hours in a day in office. But out of that, how much are we actually utilizing. I would like you to take up the question to yourself and check out your own productivity. Most of us will be surprised to see the ratio of productive hours against unproductive hours. The general consensus around the world is 30 to 40 per cent of time utilization. In other words, the work which should ideally take 3 to 4 hours takes 10 hours. It is the reason we keep complaining that we do not have time. But the truth is we do not have the intellect to keep the mind in present. If we can do that, we would have all the time in the world.

This rambling of mind not only kills the productivity, but it also causes tired ness. We often feel fatigued at the end of the day; some people even need a drink. Whereas, the kids do not usually get tired even after jumping around, dancing, kicking the whole day. We are physically stronger than them but yet we get more tired as compared to kids. It is because, we get mentally week. The kids do not have any anxiety of the future or any worry about the past. Hence, they have boundless energy. They can live in the present, better than us. If we could control our intellect to live in present, we would also have the same energy as kids. The secret of some one’s efficiency lies in his power to control the mind.

Use of Bio fuel in Jet planes

The world’s first flight powered with a “green diesel” hybrid jet fuel was recently successfully completed by Boeing, according to a recent press statement. This first test flight was completed using the company’s ecoDemonstrator 787 flight test airplane, and a 15% green-diesel/85% petroleum jet-fuel mix (in the left engine). The “green diesel” used in the hybrid fuel is currently widely available, and utilized in many places in ground transportation technologies.

“Green diesel offers a tremendous opportunity to make sustainable aviation biofuel more available and more affordable for our customers,” explained Julie Felgar, the managing director of Environmental Strategy and Integration, Boeing Commercial Airplanes. “We will provide data from several eco Demonstrator flights to support efforts to approve this fuel for commercial aviation and help meet our industry’s environmental goals.”

This green diesel is produced from materials that would otherwise end up discarded as waste — used vegetable oils, waste cooking oil, and waste animal fats. Chemically speaking, previous work from Boeing determined that this fuel (once processed) is chemically similar to the HEFA (hydro-processed esters and fatty acids) aviation biofuel approved a few years ago in 2011.

(To be clear, this green diesel is a different type of fuel from the biodiesel currently in common use.)

“The airplane performed as designed with the green diesel blend, just as it does with conventional jet fuel,” stated Captain Mike Carriker, Chief Pilot, Product Development and 777X, Boeing Test and Evaluation. “This is exactly what we want to see in flight tests with a new type of fuel.”

With production capacity of 800 million gallons (3 billion liters) in the US, Europe and Asia, green diesel could rapidly supply as much as 1% of global jet fuel demand. With a wholesale cost of about $3 per gallon, inclusive of US government incentives, green diesel approaches price parity with petroleum jet fuel. On a lifecycle basis, sustainably produced green diesel reduces carbon emissions by 50% to 90% compared to fossil fuel, according to Finland-based Neste Oil, which supplied green diesel for the eco Demonstrator 787.

Commencement of Biofuel Flights Within Five Years:

The United-Arab-Emirates-based aviation heavyweight Etihad Airways will soon be offering regular 100%-biofuel-powered commercial flights throughout the region, according to recent comments made by chief operations officer Richard Hill.

This strong push towards greater biofuel-use by the airline is being supported by the creation of the new BIOjet Abu Dhabi project — a partnership with the French energy firm Total, and the world-renowned aircraft-producer Boeing, with the aim of developing aviation biofuels in the United Arab Emirates.

The new project was announced at a recent press conference celebrating the success of a recent UAE-produced-biokerosene-powered flight (partly powered with biofuels, not fully) — the first such flight. Speaking at the time, the chief operations officer at Etihad, Richard Hill, told reporters that “the 45-minute flight was the latest step towards operating commercial flights using biofuels.” He also stated that he expected the first of such commercial flights to be offered within the next five years.

Space: An interminable Energy source

Energy has become a basic necessity of humans as similar to food, shelter and clothing. It is really difficult to imagine our world without energy, be it in any form; Fuel or electricity. Scientists across the globe are continuously working to find out various sources of energy, more specifically an unlimited source which will generate electricity to fulfill our ever increasing need. Can we really have any such source which can be termed as “Unlimited”, perhaps the answer is yes.

Since long I was wondering if we can use the solar rays in the space to generate electricity using solar panels. But the main question was; how can we transmit the energy from space to the earth? Is there any such technology available, by which we can convert the electricity to micro waves and transmit wirelessly? Fortunately, the Japanese scientists have the answer. They have found out a technology through which they can transmit electricity wirelessly, which is off course in testing phase but they are hopeful about a successful testing of this technique in 2015. Japan is planning to place a solar-panel-equipped satellite in the orbit that would beam strong stream of power down to the power station on earth wirelessly. To iron out all the kinks and get a fully functional system set up would take a longer time. But if this testing of wireless transmission of electricity from space is successful, we can truly have an unlimited power source. Just not that, use of the technology will bring revolution in our day to day life as well. Our homes will have wireless electrification; no wiring will be required for supply of power from the power sub-station saving money and resource. Our vehicles will never have to stop at gas stations. Jet planes would fly without halting for refueling in between their destinations. As electricity will be available plentily and cheaply, it would replace all other traditional use of energy resulting in a pollution free earth.