This youtube video featuring Angelina Jolie alerted me to the fact that, 20 June was World Refugee day. Listen to that super U2 track in the background, very apt and with beautiful lyrics!
(Just in case you are an Angelina Jolie fan there are lots more videos about World Refugee Day featuring her over here.
World Refugee day started out as Africa Refugee Day. Africa has the highest numbers of refugees in the world perhaps resulting from a higher level or civic unrest, human displacement and tragedy. So what is the relevance of this day today? Well the fact is that there are some 40 million refugees world wide today; people who are forced to flee their homes; uprooted by violence and persecution, they are forced to flee their homelands.
Imagine for a minute if you will, if in your neighborhood or community or city, circumstances became so inhospitable, life became so imperiled that you had to pack only those few valuables that you could carry on your person (leaving behind all that is not considered imperative) and simply leave! Then imagine that you are given ‘sanctuary’ in some place where you are given permission to stay temporarily, where you are merely tolerated and not welcomed. Imagine further if you will, makeshift, temporary perhaps unsanitary and crowded accommodation, food and clothes being doled out like so much largesse.
Now you have an idea of what it is to be a refugee. When I try to picture myself or my loved ones in such circumstances, I am no less than appalled! So if I sound a little impassioned here, bear with me please.
The UN Refugee Agency makes use of this day to focus attention on its efforts to address the distress of refugees worldwide. Firstly they try to provide safety, shelter and basic health care to the displaced people with the focus on the most helpless among them. Next the agencies try to provide means for self reliance. Lastly they try to draw attention to the plight of refugees thru awareness programs and/or fund raisers. Thru this they try to make people like you and me aware that the refugee problem is something that affects all of us and that all of us should act in a responsible manner so as to make a difference. So if the opportunity presents itself to you, to make a difference, take it, and make a difference!
It’s Saturday morning and on Saturdays I have joined horse riding classes. I have to be at my classes at 7 am, so you can imagine after partying on Friday night till early morning I was fully dressed and ready to go for my classes at 6.30a.m. Well I don’t mind it as I always loved horse riding and use to look at veteran horse riders with a hope that one day even I shall ride like them. So finally the day came when first time I sat on a horse to ride it rather than just for pleasure.
I was given various kinds of information about horse riding, but one thing that I was not aware of is the apparel for horse riding. I never thought that horse riders have a proper dress code and there are proper apparels for the women riders, the male riders and even of the horse. Such kind of clothing is called equestrian clothing. These attire’s for riders as well as the horse are coupled with proper shoes and accessories too.
I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed my first class. It’s a great feeling to pursue your hobby. Well, I’ll keep you guys posted on how far have I and the horses managed to gel with each other.
I am convinced that one of the most special bonds on earth has to be the one that exists between a father and his daughter. I remember my aunt telling me of the time that my father saw me for the first time. He saw me for the first time as he waited in the lobby of the maternity hospital; he saw me being carried in a tub all covered in blood and vernix and my aunt often told me about the look of absolute elation on his face when they told him it was a Girl!
During my growing up years, it was always my father who had the time and the patience to explain things to me, to take me for walks and explain the names of birds and trees, to nurture and forge a bond more special than the one I shared with my mother. My father taught me to bicycle, to ride the scooter, and of course, ultimately to drive. He taught me how to swim, he inculcated in me my passion for books and he is the one that made sure I was trained in classical vocal music, having spotted my singing talent very early on. Long walks in the hills with my father and our Doberman are some of my happiest growing up memories.
I believe that we are, each of us too much like our mothers to have a completely friction free relationship with our mother. This is where dads come in incredibly handy; they seem to have a natural flair for pouring oil on troubled waters when a mother-daughter ‘situation’ develops. He is always in a unique position of knowledge to do the best thing possible to smooth over the situation and it is also in his own best interest to see that the two most important girls in his life are at peace both with themselves as well as with each other!
So ahead of Father’s Day which comes up on 15 June, let’s take the time to count our blessings, a major blessing among them being our own father and give him the appreciation on this special occasion that he so richly deserves.
Of you readers, the ones using gaming consoles should find this article interesting, it will answer much asked questions and for those know not much should find it interesting nonetheless.
The warring factions are the Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox and the Nintendo wii. It is worth mentioning the personal computing gamers are a large bunch as well. So how this works is these console manufacturers tie up with game production houses. These production houses then release blockbuster titles exclusively for the respective consoles only, hence getting gamers to buy these consoles for those games. Each console is popularized by exclusive runaway success games and has subsequently drawn their own console gamer following.
The Sony Playstation had ruled the market for recent times, the Nintendo had its own following but all that changed with Microsoft entering the gaming market. Microsoft upped the notch, released its console earlier than the Sony Playstation with some good games and made headway before the releases of Nintendo Wii and Playstation 3.
Today there is a lot of speculation about which console will come out on top. That depends on the content. Gamers want good games to play on their consoles. Aside from consoles only appealing to gamers these consoles today aim to be the center of digital entertainment systems. They are high-quality movie players. One can use them to access online content such as on-demand TV shows, movie previews and everything else the World Wide Web has to offer. For gamer son by day and sports highlights archive for dad by night. Or for that matter anyone, on-demand TV is now the most convenient and best way to watch TV.
Take this to thought, some approximate stats, 13 million Sony Playstation 3 units were sold, 19 million Xbox units have been sold. Now will any gaming production house restrict themselves to 19 million or be open to over 40 million potential users?? Enter: Multi-Platform Gaming. It has begun; the biggest gaming houses have started releasing games Multi-Platform.
The other day my 12 year old niece was behind me for making her school project. The project topic was Satellite Communication and management. Since the dead line of submission of project was coming closer, I finally one day sat down to hunt for the information on the net.
While surfing I came across this site uplogix.com. This site gave me all the information on the project and it is amazing the way they have shown on the site how effectively they manage satellite communications by transporting voice, video and data to and from remote locations. It has various satellite solutions given which are effective in managing remote sites and highly distributed infrastructure. These solutions also help in reducing risks, complexities and cost inherited in managing and distribution of IT infrastructure. There is a wide range of products also to choose as per your requirement.
It is not a very old organization, it was founded in 2003, it has it’s headquartered in Austin, TX (USA) with European offices in London, England.
I gathered a lot of information for the project from this site and in the course of time of doing the project research I got a chance to learn a lot about satellite communications.
Mothers’ day has come and gone (it was last Sunday, if it escaped you completely), did you observe it? Did you give a thought to why this day was instituted in the first place? What does mother’s day mean to you?
Last Sunday was the hundredth anniversary of Mother’s day (it was instituted and first celebrated in May 1908) and while it is still celebrated, I feel it has lost much of its original significance and meaning. It was the decade long, tireless efforts of Anna Jarvis due to which the second Sunday of every May is celebrated as Mother’s day. What originally was initiated as a way to show our mothers how much we as their children value their devotion and sacrifice, and how we appreciate the “truth, purity and broad charity of mother love”, now appears to have lost some of its original significance, and has been somewhat derailed by commercialism and quick-fix gifts and greetings. While Anna Jarvis originally visualized simple gestures such as a single white carnation and a heartfelt letter, now Mother’s day has become rather different.
Mind though I am not saying it has changed in a bad way; it has merely changed in a way that reflects the times that we live it. With the internet giving you the incredible convenience of being able to simply send your mother an ecard, or finding a nice gift over the internet (perhaps at a discount) and having it shipped to your mother without having to bother to go and deliver it personally, Mother’s day has simply evolved to echo the times we live in.
Also the lives that we now lead are such that it is not possible to observe mother’s day in the spirit that it was meant to be. Ideally we should be able to take time out and perhaps visit our mothers on the day or at least write her a heartfelt, sincere letter of appreciation. However busy lives and distances do make these things difficult. If therefore I sent my mother a nice card with some lines hand-written inside along with say a book that I thought she may enjoy and spoke to her at length over the phone, I think I conveyed my appreciation of her in the best way possible for me, I think that I made her day somewhat better and I think that I celebrated Mother’s Day in the best possible manner for me. Did you celebrate Mothers’ day? If you did what was it that you did?
Biofuels, biofuels, biofuels it’s everywhere these days. You find politicians making headlines on it, environmental groups protesting against it, scientists publishing various reports on the helpful/harmful nature of the fuels, car companies advertising their ‘biofuel compliance’. Phew! That’s a lot of them! So, I decided to see for myself what these biofuels are about. You’ll be surprised.
So what is the ‘bio’ in biofuels? Biofuels don’t really pollute any lesser, it is a convoluted concept. What is also a convoluted concept the carbon credits/carbon emission system which I’ll talk about in another post? The biofuel concept goes like this; Biofuel is plant derived fuel. Where ethanol is derived from various crops and mixed with regular fuel in different percentages. Like bio-30 or bio-60 means that much percentage of plant-derived ethanol is present in the regular gasoline/diesel.
The biofuel consumers don’t pollute any lesser. The theory is the carbon consumed by the plants is offset by the carbon emitted by the vehicles. A theory. Tailor made to appeal to some politician to sell to the masses. There is pressure already to drop this biofuel business (click on link for more)
Here’s how it really works.
The problem is in production of biofuels. The problems are the crops used for Biofuel processing; deforestation to gain land for plantation and the one which really pinches is regular farmers quitting farming vital crops to grow ‘biofuel friendly’ crops. The last point is understandable only, only from an economic point of view. The farmers pick what pays them best, but what of the masses? They stop producing vital crops which result in a shortfall of food!
The other hugely debated aspect is choosing the correct crop to be harvested for biofuel processing. Many of the methods currently used for biofuel production are more environmentally adverse than producing conventional forms of energy, only a select few are not. Ethanol for fuel is made through fermentation, the same process which produces it in wine and beer. So there can be several methods, but which has the least environmental impact should be picked.
The UN Report (click link to see) on biofuels says quote:
“Environmentalists have warned that the biofuel craze can do as much or more damage to the environment as dirty fossil fuels”
“Changes in the carbon content of soils and carbon stocks in forests and peat lands might offset some or all of the benefits of the greenhouse gas reductions”
“Liquid biofuel production could threaten the availability of adequate food supplies by diverting land and other productive resources away from food crops”
What/Who is causing these concerns? The politicians are of course. The biggest problem with politicians is that they are never in office long enough for the boomerang to come hit them back in the face. They see public concerned about the environment, so they come up with a convoluted theory, encourage the private sector to put their money in it by offering them governmental sops, so what happens? Rise in commodity prices, strain on water supplies, large deforestation and farmers moving away from harvesting vital crops.
The developing countries are the ones most heavily hit by this phenomenon, while some countries divert food (click for more info) to produce bio fuels like in the US 20% of the corn produced is diverted for biofuel production.
Last word from a political leader “It is a sign of the lopsided priorities of certain countries that they will resort to measures that will produce fuel at a cheaper cost in order to meet the transport requirements of a section of their population,”
“The pursuit of such policies at a time when many in the world could barely afford to eat was “outrageous and… must be condemned”.
evawhite on June 23rd, 2008
I am convinced that one of the most special bonds on earth has to be the one that exists between a father and his daughter. I remember my aunt telling me of the time that my father saw me for the first time. He saw me for the first time as he waited in the lobby of the maternity hospital; he saw me being carried in a tub all covered in blood and vernix and my aunt often told me about the look of absolute elation on his face when they told him it was a Girl!
Last Sunday was the hundredth anniversary of Mother’s day (it was instituted and first celebrated in May 1908) and while it is still celebrated, I feel it has lost much of its original significance and meaning. It was the decade long, tireless efforts of Anna Jarvis due to which the second Sunday of every May is celebrated as Mother’s day. What originally was initiated as a way to show our mothers how much we as their children value their devotion and sacrifice, and how we appreciate the “truth, purity and broad charity of mother love”, now appears to have lost some of its original significance, and has been somewhat derailed by commercialism and quick-fix gifts and greetings. While Anna Jarvis originally visualized simple gestures such as a single white carnation and a heartfelt letter, now Mother’s day has become rather different.
Biofuels
The problem is in production of biofuels. The problems are the crops used for Biofuel processing; deforestation to gain land for plantation and the one which really pinches is regular farmers quitting farming vital crops to grow ‘biofuel friendly’ crops. The last point is understandable only, only from an economic point of view. The farmers pick what pays them best, but what of the masses? They stop producing vital crops which result in a shortfall of food!
The