Letters-29: "Pedal Power"

Your cover story (‘Green Life’, The Week, June 15, 2008) was very encouraging. I am a gynaecologist based in Vadodara. Five years ago, I sold my car and two-wheeler and bough a bicycle, as I wanted to go the green way. Since then, I commute to hospital on my bicycle, which I feel is healthy and pocket-friendly. More people should use bicycles for the sake of health and the environment. If thousands of office-goers pedal every day to work in the west, then why can’t we? (Bhagwati Oza, on email)

Courtesy: The Week, July 13, 2008 (Letters).

Article on “Bicycle - the worlds most efficient form of transportation” from Gotoes.org:
http://gotoes.org/bikestuff/index.htm

“Bicycle commuting” from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_commuting

“Commuting 101” from CommuteByBike.com:
http://www.commutebybike.net/

Grateful thanks to Dr.Bhagwati Oza, The Week, Gotoes.org, CommuteByBike.com and Wikipedia.

Eyecatchers-88: "Osama Bin Laden's son writes a Poem"

Osama Bin Laden’s teenage son, Hamza, wrote and posted online a poem asking God for help against Western “gangs of infidels”.

Courtesy: Harper’s Weekly, July 15, 2008 (Gemma Sieff)

For a detailed report with a color photo of Hamza bin Laden from Mumbai Mirror:
http://www.mumbaimirror.com/net/mmpaper.aspx?page=article&sectid=4&contentid=200807102008071002133548352fb240f

Grateful thanks to Gemma Sieff, Harper’s Weekly and Mumbai Mirror.

Eyecatchers-87: "The World's Biggest Polluter!"

President George W.Bush met with other world leaders at the G8 summit to discuss climate change.

“Goodbye,” he said as he left, grinning and punching the air, “from the world’s biggest polluter.”

Courtesy: Harper’s Weekly, July 15, 2008 (Gemma Sieff).
Grateful thanks to Gemma Sieff and Harper’s Weekly.

Health Watch-18: "The Magic in Being Active"

It prevents diabetes.
It prevents strokes
It strengthens the heart and the blood vessels
It prevents osteoporosis
It prevents arthiritis
It prevents obesity
It tones your muscles
It prevents high blood pressure.
It prevents heart attacks
It increases your stamina.
It lowers cholestrol in blood
It lowers triglycerides in blood
It makes you younger
It keeps you mentally alert

Regular exercise makes you more energetic even at the end of the day.

Exercise and activity also relaxes, it reduces stress.

Regular exercise is important for promoting weight control or weight loss. Exercise helps you burn calories, so it helps you loose weight, which in-turn protects from chronic disease, like coronary heart disease (heart disease), diabetes and osteo-arthritis. It also decreases the appetite.

Courtesy: Healthy-India.org
http://www.healthy-india.org/beingactive.asp

Grateful thanks to the Public Health Foundation of India and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Eyecatchers-86: "Biofuels and Food Grains"

USA which was exporting 36% of its agricultural produce is now exporting less, as it is diverting this for production of biofuel.

The land used for wheat production has now come down to 6.38 crore hectares from 7.7 crore hectares.

US is diverting 18% of its agricultural production to biofuel production. In another ten years, this may go up to 30%.

Farmers are under pressure to produce wheat and sugarcane, which are used to produce ethanol, a biofuel.

Source: ‘Dinamalar’, Tamil daily, July 13, 2008.

Detailed article on "Biofuels" from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biofuels

Grateful thanks to Dinamalar and Wikipedia.

Have a Hearty Laugh-2:

UP Chief Minister Mayavati was worth Rs.1.5 crores as per the property statement submitted by her before the 2004 elections and Rs.52 crores before the 2007 elections. Reporters queried her how 1.5 crores became 52 crores. She is reported to have told them that it was from small contributions of Rs.5 and 10 from party workers and the general public who knew her to be the champion of the poor and backward classes.

Source: ‘Dinamalar’, Tamil daily, July 13, 2008.

Grateful thanks to Dinamalar.

Facts & Figures-35: "English Language Nears Milestone"

According to Global Language Monitor, a Texas-based company, English language will reach the milestone of one million words on April 29, 2009.

According to its publication on June 14, 2008, the number was 995,892 words.

As Rupert Cornwell writes in The Independent(UK), no one argues about the huge richness of the English language – fed by Germanic, Scandinavian and Latin streams, unrivalled in its readiness to borrow from every language. If there is such a thing as a world language, it is English, spread by the British Empire, then by the economic, cultural and military juggernaut of the US, and now by the Internet.. And, at every step on the way, new words are coined, or scooped up from other languages. English is evolving faster than other languages.

The native speakers of English have been estimated to be around 500 million.

Link to Global Language Monitor’s article, “English will hit its Millionth Word on April 29, 2009”:
http://www.languagemonitor.com/

Link to Rupert Cornwell’s article, “English Language nears the one million-word milestone” in the Independent(UK):
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/english-language-nears-the-one-millionword-milestone-473935.html

Links to “Global Language Monitor” and "English Language" in Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_Language_Monitor

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language

Grateful thanks to 'Global Language Monitor', 'Rupert Cornwell', 'The Independent(UK)' and Wikipedia.

Open Access-1: A Very Brief Introduction to Open Access by Peter Suber

Open-access (OA) literature is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions. What makes it possible is the internet and the consent of the author or copyright-holder.

In most fields, scholarly journals do not pay authors, who can therefore consent to OA without losing revenue. In this respect scholars and scientists are very differently situated from most musicians and movie-makers, and controversies about OA to music and movies do not carry over to research literature.

OA is entirely compatible with peer review, and all the major OA initiatives for scientific and scholarly literature insist on its importance. Just as authors of journal articles donate their labor, so do most journal editors and referees participating in peer review. The campaign for OA focuses on (1) royalty-free literature, i.e. that which authors give to the world without expectation of payment, or (2) literature reporting publicly-funded research. Peer-reviewed journal articles in nearly every field and every country have the first property. Articles in the sciences tend to have both properties. -->

OA literature is not free to produce, even if it is less expensive to produce than conventionally published literature. The question is not whether scholarly literature can be made costless, but whether there are better ways to pay the bills than by charging readers and creating access barriers. Business models for paying the bills depend on how OA is delivered.

There are two primary vehicles for delivering OA to research articles: OA journals and OA archives or repositories.

OA archives or repositories do not perform peer review, but simply make their contents freely available to the world. They may contain unrefereed preprints, refereed postprints, or both. Archives may belong to institutions, such as universities and laboratories, or disciplines, such as physics and economics. Authors may archive their preprints without anyone else's permission, and a majority of journals already permit authors to archive their postprints. When archives comply with the metadata harvesting protocol of the Open Archives Initiative, then they are interoperable and users can find their contents without knowing which archives exist, where they are located, or what they contain. There is now open-source software for building and maintaining OAI-compliant archives and worldwide momentum for using it. The costs of an archive are negligible: some server space and a fraction of the time of a technician.

OA journals perform peer review and then make the approved contents freely available to the world. Their expenses consist of peer review, manuscript preparation, and server space. OA journals pay their bills very much the way broadcast television and radio stations do: those with an interest in disseminating the content pay the production costs upfront so that access can be free of charge for everyone with the right equipment. Sometimes this means that journals have a subsidy from the hosting university or professional society. Sometimes it means that journals charge a processing fee on accepted articles, to be paid by the author or the author's sponsor (employer, funding agency). OA journals that charge processing fees usually waive them in cases of economic hardship. OA journals with institutional subsidies tend to charge no processing fees. OA journals can get by on lower subsidies or fees if they have income from other publications, advertising, priced add-ons, or auxiliary services. Some institutions and consortia arrange fee discounts. Some OA publishers waive the fee for all researchers affiliated with institutions that have purchased an annual membership. There's a lot of room for creativity in finding ways to pay the costs of a peer-reviewed OA journal, and we're far from having exhausted our cleverness and imagination.

For a longer introduction, with live links for further reading, see my Open Access Overview, http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/overview.htm.

This is an open-access document.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.

Peter Suber Open Access Project Director, Public Knowledge Research Professor of Philosophy, Earlham College Senior Researcher, SPARC peters@earlham.edu

Article on "Open Access" from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access

Grateful thanks to Peter Suber and Wikipedia.

Facts & Figures-34: Rs.200 crores for 70,000 eVoting Machines!

The Election Commissioner of Tamil Nadu, Mr.Chandrasekaran, has stated that for total implementation electronic voting in the elections to the Local Bodies of Tamilnadu, 70,000 electronic voting machines would be required. The cost for this would work out to Rs.200 crores.

Based on news item in ‘Dinamalar’ (Tamil daily), Madurai, June 23, 2008.

Grateful thanks to Dinamalar.

Have a Hearty Laugh-1: Dhoni Reduces Milk Consumption!

Dinamalar, a Tamil daily from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India, reports that Mahendra Singh Dhoni, captain of the Indian cricket team, now consumes only one litre of milk a day. He used to consume six litres of milk a day. But, now, as the price of milk has gone up due to inflation, he has reduced the consumption to one litre a day!

Nellaiappan's Column-2: "Busy Vs. Too Busy"

In most cases, the readers are more intelligent than the writers. It has been proved again yesterday. I received a phone-call about my last article. The caller surprised me, by talking about what I was going to write. He said, “I know your next topic is about Lin Yutang”. He was unable to hide his pride and continued, “I know all your tricks; you have brought his name in your last article though there was no need for that”. I thanked him and appreciated his shrewdness.

But till then, I had no idea of what to write for the next one. I am grateful to the caller for providing me with an idea and to my old friend Mr.VE.Annamalai, who gave me “The importance of living” 25 years ago; let me share something I learnt from Lin Yutang.

“Those who are wise won’t be busy, and those who are too busy, can’t be wise.” When I read this for the first time, I was a college student. Though I was enjoying the quotation, I have not realized its full implication. After taking up ‘manufacturing’ as my ‘bread and butter’ and while I was struggling to manage my time effectively during my initial years, I understood and appreciated the wisdom behind it.

Even today many workaholics, especially executives, spend 12-16 hours a day in the office. I only pity them. Are they really contributing? Is there really any value addition? If so, can’t it be done within the stipulated working hours?

The fact is there is no need to do so. These hardcore workaholics not only spoil the working atmosphere, but cause huge damages to their own home front. This wrong concept has to be unlearned.

What we do at the time of emergency is different. But emergency cannot become a way of life. I know people who simply stay extra hours in office and derive a sort of pseudo-satisfaction.

Lack of systems, lack of resources and fear to delegate work are the major reasons for such work behavior.

I happened to work for one owner-cum-incharge and he was almost living in the factory. What is more he was expecting me also to do the same. I had to tell him point blank that why I could not do so.

Job is for bread and butter and to keep a respectable roof over your head. But life has other meanings and one needs to spare one’s time to pursue these other dreams, other goals, which could be higher, elevating, uplifting and ennobling and hence more fulfilling and more satisfying. You cannot earn money first and then pursue your dreams, these other goals. Both have to go hand-in-hand, simultaneously. It is very unfortunate that one spends any amount of time to work and other daily chore but does not find time to pursue one’s dreams, the higher goals of life.

If one spends all one’s time in work and other routine matters, when and how does one think and find time for pursuing one’s life purpose, the greater goals of life?


Lucky are the people who still manage to ride the two horses simultaneously like a circus-man: the breadwinner riding the horse of family and work and the dreamer riding the horse of higher goals of life. One finds fulfillment when one is able to manage both. The rest of us have to compromise somewhere, one overlapping the other or one at the cost of the other.

When I say busy, it is not just the timeframe, but also the tension that accompanies it. More often than not, the tension is due to delaying action till the last minute.

Well, management gurus have discussed in length about important Vs urgent, and I am not going to reproduce any of that here.

I always believe in team work and team building is an art. Where ever I work I take it as my first priority to develop my subordinates. When the team is in tact I never feel the urgency.

As I am aware that 90% of my work can be done by my subordinate I always look for sharing the work of my boss. I always encourage the down line people to take decision and to tell you the truth, most of the time they have come out with better solutions.

When some of their solutions are not up to the mark, I simply ask them few questions and they will immediately realize their mistake and the final result will be commendable.

Most of the people do the reverse of this. I once retorted with “why keep a dog and bark yourself?” to my old boss when he tried to do my job, which I usually give to my subordinates.

The secret is, train your people well and through some challenge and they will never allow you to be busy.

Oh! There is an emergency call from my house and let me attend to that first. See you again, bye!

Health Watch-17: Millions die of Preventable Surgical Injuries Every Year! - Kounteya Sinha/TNN

More than seven million people across the globe suffer from preventable surgical injuries every year, a million of them even dying during or immediately after the surgery, a World Health Organisation study has said.

The UN body has for the first time quantified the number of surgeries taking place every year globally – 234 million! It said surgeries had become common, with one in every 25 people undergoing it at any given time. ..WHO said that safety of patients during surgery had emerged as a substantial public health concern.

According to it, China conducted the highest number of surgeries followed by Russia and India.

In developing countries, the death rate was nearly 10% for a major surgery.

Mortality from general anesthesia affected in one in 150 patients.

Dr.Sudhir Cecil Joseph of St Stephen’s Hospital, who is conducting the study in India, told Times of India that any surgery – no matter how minor – could be life threatening.

“Cases of surgeries being done on the wrong patient, on the wrong part of the body and surgical equipment being left behind are very common in India……” he said.

Courtesy: The Times of India, Chennai, June 27, 2008.

Articles on “Patient Safety” and “Surgery”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_safety
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surgery

Grateful thanks to Mr Kounteya Sinha and The Times of India.

Environment-7: Three Lakh Highly-polluting Vehicles Off the Road!"

Beijing began its Olympic Games car ban by forcing up to 300,000 highly-polluting vehicles off the roads, state press reported. Vehicles that failed to meet emission standards were banned from the streets until September 20.

Excerpt from Deccan Chronicle, July 2, 2008.

Wikipedia article on “Emission Standards”:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emission_standard

Grateful thanks to Deccan Chronicle and Wikipedia.

Facts & Figures-33: "Four Lakh People Quit Smoking!"

More than 4,00,000 people in England have given up smoking as a result of the ban on lighting up in public places introduced in July 2007, according to a study.

Researchers say 40,000 deaths will be prevented over the next decade as a result of the ban.

Smoking was made an offence in all enclosed public spaces in England, including pubs and restaurants, on July 1, 2007.

Another study to be published by the Department of Health will show that a total of 2,34,060 people have stopped smoking with the help of a special service offered by the National Health Service since the ban came in.

Dr.Robert West, Director of Tobacco Studies, UK, said: “I never expected such a dramatic impact …. If the Department of Health can keep up the momentum this has created, there is a realistic prospect of achieving a target of less than 15% of the population smoking within the next ten years” - AFP

Excerpt from ‘4 lakh people quit smoking since ban: Despite some opposition to the law in England, compliance has been almost total’ (AFP), The Hindu, Madurai, July 1, 2008.

Article on “Smoking Ban” from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_ban

Grateful thanks to AFP, The Hindu and Wikipedia.

Eyecatchers-85: "Launch of Apple's iPhone 3G Causes Great Excitement!"

In more than 20 countries, ‘Apple’ stores will open early to cater to throngs of aspiring iPhone 3G users. Analysts say sales could pass the billion-dollar mark within days.

iPhone fanatics began camping outside Apple’s flagship store in New York City on July 4, while in Tokyo some 30 people had begun queuing on July 9.

If such anticipation is any indication, Apple’s latest device will be a smash hit.

Online orders for iPhone 3G handsets at British Telecom carrier O2 reportedly topped 13,000 a second on July 7, overwhelming the website and causing it to crash.

Industry tracker iSuppli predicts Apple might sell as many as two million iPhone 3G devices at the launch.

Apple will sell iPhone 3G models in the US for $199 and $299, depending on memory capacity.

Apple is continuing its strategy of locking iPhones exclusively to one telecom carrier per country. iPhone service providers are AT&T in US, T-Mobile in Germany, O2 in Great Britain, and Orange in France, where iPhone 3G launches on July 17.

Belgium will evidently be home to the most expensive iPhone 3G devices, which will be priced at $826 and $968 because law there prevents subsidizing hardware costs with service plans. (AFP)

Excerpt from ‘The next big smart phone’, The Hindu, Madurai, July 11, 2008.

For technical details and photos of Apple iPhone 3G:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/

Grateful thanks to AFP, The Hindu and Apple.

S&T Watch-15: "Large, Energy-saving Organic Displays(OLED)"

Japanese government is funding a joint project with leading firms to develop a key technology to produce large, energy-saving organic displays.

The organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel, which is self-luminescent and does not require a backlight, is seen as a promising next-generation display amid fierce competition in the sector.

Smaller OLED screens are used in cellphones and portable music players but no technology has yet been developed to produce large screens.

The project is aimed at developing a core technology to mass-produce 40-inch or larger OLED displays in the late 2010s.

OLED displays, which sandwich a very thin layer of organic material between plates, offer brighter images and wider viewing angles than the liquid crystal display panels that are currently in use widely. (AFP)

Excerpt from ‘Japanese Firms Team Up on OLED Panels’,

The Hindu, Madurai, July 11, 2008

Detailed article from Wikipedia on ‘Organic Light-Emitting Diodes(OLED)’: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLED

Grateful thanks to AFP, The Hindu and Wikipedia.

S&T Watch 14: "Mercury shrinking and Earth shrieking!"

Scientists who study radio waves say that Mercury is shrinking and Earth is shrieking.

Courtesy: Harper's Weekly, July 8, 2008 (Chantal Clarke)
Articles on "Mercury" and "Earth" from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_%28planet%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EartH
Grateful thanks to Chantal Clarke, Harper's Weekly and Wikipedia.

Health Watch-16: "Dangers of Junk Food"

British studies warned that eating junk food during pregnancy might cause lasting damage to the child, and that eating too much tofu could lead to dementia.

Courtesy: Harper's Weekly, July 8, 2008 (Chantal Clarke)

Article on "Junk Food" from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_food

Grateful thanks to Chantal Clarke, Harper's Weekly and Wikipedia.

Environment-6: Decarbonise Transport Sector

Only yesterday I came across some statistics about carbon emission in California, US, and mentioned it in my blog. Now I have across in today’s newspaper, (The Hindu, Madurai, July 9, 2008) an interesting, emphatic article with more authentic data entitled, “The Challenge of Change” by Sudha Mahalingam, Member, National Security Advisory Board. It worries me and should worry everybody else. But the planners and policymakers are they paying any heed to all these?

A brief excerpt from the article:

“Currently, the world consumes about 83 million barrels of oil daily. International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that by 2030, this will go up to 116 mbd of which Asia alone will demand an additional 20 millions barrels of oil daily, thanks to its misplaced emphasis on private transport as the engine of economic growth.

If we persist in our current growth paradigm, our carbon emissions will go up by 500% in the next 25 years. Does it not, therefore, make sense to make transportation a thrust area when dealing with carbon emissions? What better timing than now, to decarbonise our transportation sector, when skyrocketing crude prices and ballooning subsidies give us the sorely needed excuse for drastic intervention?”

Courtesy: The Hindu, Madurai, July 9, 2008.

For an article on "The King Review of low-carbon cars" from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Review

Grateful thanks to Ms Sudha Ramalingam, The Hindu and Wikipedia.

Letters-28: "If a journalist cannot write, then who else will?"

1. This refers to the editorial, “Strong message to the intolerant” (The Hindu, July 4, 2008). The Supreme Court’s act of quashing the summons issued by a Gujarat court to Ashis Nandy shows the power of Indian democracy. Individual freedom is the basic requirement of a healthy democratic society. True democracy becomes meaningless when freedom of speech and expression, including speech and creative work, is threatened. It is shameful that even after 60 years of Independence, some rulers display the suppressive attitude of the colonial era. - J.M.Rahim, Thiruvananthapuram.

2. Although the Supreme Court’s intervention time and again brings relief to the victims, it does not guarantee that Gujarat-type incidents will not recur. A country which has fought the mightiest of empires to get freedom through non-violence is resorting to violence at the drop of a hat. More often than not, issues are created and fanned to reap political mileage. Only when the people are educatred and do not get misguided by vested interests will such intolerance end. – V.Harine, Chennai;

3. The Supreme Court’s observation, “If a journalist cannot write, then who else will?” (The Hindu, July 2, 2008) is pertinent. The Narendra Modi regime should realize that India is a thriving democracy with pluralist ethos. Freedom of speech and tolerance is central to the success of democracy. The inability to put with an opposing point of view and the consequent attempts to silence critical voices will not succeed in India because the people are mature enough to discern the motives behind such obnoxious moves. – P.Prasand Thampy, Thiruvalla.

4. It has been the practice of politicians to misinterpret the Constitution to suit their needs and inflame the sentiments of the people. It is frightening to think of the plight of the common man who has no access to courts. – G.Ramesh, Chennai.

5. In a pluralistic society such as ours, where religious and political ethos often get mixed and fragility looms over the social secular fabric perpetually, intellectuals need to be more cautious and responsible. A society where diametrically oppositge views are held on every subject from morality to spirituality, they must resort to respectful disagreement and higher criticism. – Yasir Malik, New Delhi.

Courtesy: The Hindu, Madurai, July 5, 2008 (Letters to the Editor)
Grateful thanks to M/s. J.M.Rahim, Thiruvananthapuram; V.Harine, Chennai; P.Prasand Thampy, Thiruvalla; G.Ramesh, Chennai; Yasir Malik, New Delhi; and The Hindu.