Social Networks : Time Guzzlers

Social Networking sites have become a thing of no use to me. When I look back, I am shocked at realizing how much time I have spent on Orkut, Facebook etc for the last 2 years. And I haven’t been socializing in the true sense. With the introduction of the new concept of Applications, it eats of more time of ours, for their own gains.

Aren’t we really paying these sites with our so precious time without even really socializing? I guess, in some time, social networking will reach a saturation stage, and people will find something better to replace it.

The Light and Fan Show

Enjoy the show and do leave your valuable feedback.
Thanks for watching.

Cigarette Butts

Here, lets not talk about the harmful effects of ony Cigarettes. We all know what Cigarette does to our health, our lungs and our lifespan. I myself was not anything sort of a chain smoker a few months back. I haven't completely quit smoking, but my weekly average has drastically come down to aroung 10 cigarettes/week. I am not here to preach other smoker friends to quit smoking, neither have I come across a novel way to quit smoking.

Its about something that I had never thought of before. And I was so shocked on my realization, the effect of smokers on the environment. Many of us are still ignorant about the harmful effects of not just cigarettes, but the litter on our environment. The Cigarette Butts. Here are some facts that one must know:

1. Cigarette Butts are not made of cotton, rather each butt is composed of 12,000 plastic-like cellulose acetate fibers which are specifically designed to accumulate particulate smoke components including toxic chemicals.
2. It can take up to 12 years for a cigarette butt to break down.
3. The nicotine trapped inside 200 used filters is sufficient to kill an adult human - 50 to 60 milligrams.
4. Nicotine isn’t the only villain as trapped tars and toxic gases leach into waterways too.

Let's just think about this answering some questions.

Q . How many smokers globally?
Ans: Although there are no accurate facts available, let's just give it a pessimistic figure. 1.2 billion = 1,200,000,000.

Q . How many cigarettes consumed per day?
Ans: Let's say 10 on an average per person. So Total = 12,000,000,000. That equals to the same number of cigarette butts as well.

Q . What is the volume of so many cigarette butts?
Ans: 20 cigarette buts = 10 ml, so, in Volume = 6,000,000,000 ml = 6,000,000 litres.

Q . What about annual figures?
Ans: Total volume of cigarette litter = 2,190,000,000 litres.

Q . Where do they go?
Ans: Streets, Lakes, Seas, Rivers, Parking lots, drains. Everywhere.

The nicotine and the other harmful chemicals that are trapped in the butts are easily leached by the rains which finally find their way to the streams, rivers and underground waters that directly affect the plant life, aquatic animals and the humans as well. Can we do something about this? Can these butts be prevented from directly contaminating our environment any further? Can we recycle them? I tried searching for ways to do this, but till now I have only found that, many researchers on this topic advise smokers to be a bit more responsible and use "Ash Trays". Is this the only solution?

How to start a "CHAIN MAIL"

To : Some Mail Ids

Subject : Hey people, please respond.

Hey people, Just hit reply to all and type in your message. Add some more names to the list.

Thanks and Regards,
Your Name.

NOTE: Please use "REPLY TO ALL" only.

Global Warming or "WARNING"

Everyone must have heard about Global Warming atleast once. But do we really know how is it going to affect us and our Earth, the only home for us in this Universe. Recently, I watched a documentary on Global Warming, "An Inconvenient Truth", which films the research done by Mr. Al Gore. The facts and evidences that he displayed in this short duration of a little more than an hour were very shocking to me. I would advise everyone to spend an hour to watch this documentary.
I am very sure that after watching this, you would definitely reduce your contribution towards Carbon Dioxide emissions. Even a pound less per indivisual would add upto to a considerable amount.



Have a look at one of graphs on the rising temperatures of the Earth against time.
http://cires.colorado.edu/~maurerj/scatterometry/global_temperatures.gif

According to the HDR 2007 (Human Development Report, by the UNDP), if this problem is not addressed very soon, we will definitely see climatic catastrophe throughout the world. HDR 2007 proposes that we should cut down our Carbon Dioxide emissions by 50% by 2050 to avoid another Ice Age. The Kyoto protocol signed by many countries asks for voluntary cuts in emissions. While almost all countries have agreed to this, the two biggest polluters, namely US and Australia have decided to stay out of this. It might take time for all the countries to bring in reforms and measures to tackle this problem. But we can start right away, without much effort, not even spending an extra dollar. So, Join the Earth and help stop "Global Warming". Please visit "http://www.climatecrisis.net" for some tips on how you can contribute. Spread the word.

If you have new ideas on how to contribute, please share with everyone.

Not convinced yet !!!, Think for yourself how your locality has changed since you were a child.


Source : www.climatecrisis.net

Vertical Ceiling Fans!!!!

Ceiling fans in our homes have always been like these. And they are really doing well in terms of circulating the air in our rooms effectively and keeping us cool in the hot hot summers. They are really a great invention. As we all know, the "WHEEL" is the greatest invention of all times, its quite fascinating that the fan is not a drastic modification of a simple "WHEEL".

The "WHEEL" was primitively used in an upright position, such that it rolled on a plane surface. To turn this simple "WHEEL" into a Ceiling Fan, we just had to change its alignment. You would say that without "Electricity", its impossible to run it. I would say, "Think Again". It was possible in the days when there was no electricity and you would be surprised as well to know that the first ceiling fans did not use any kind of electric motors. If you want to know more about the fans of the ancient times, you will get a lot to read in Wikipedia.

Thats enough about the history of Ceiling Fans. Lets come to the present. I have always wondered why the manufacturers haven't thought of a fan which would rotate in a vertical plane instead of the conventional horizontal plane. I personally feel, that these vertical fans would be more effective than their present counterparts. I am not a mechanical engineer though, neither do I have a good knowledge on Fluid Dynamics, I would love to do some research on this idea, and arrive at the feasibility of this "Vertical Ceiling Fans".

Arrgh!!!!!!....You will curse me for this weird idea. I was just lying on the bed, looking at the ceiling, with the fan turned on, and I don't know how this weird idea creeped into my mind.

But I have seen lots of research on the conventional horizontal fans, research on their blade-angles, number of blades, height of the fan, etc. but haven't heard or seen such a fan which can rotate at right angles to the conventional fans.


These "Vertical Fans", I believe would have the following advantages :
1. Concentrated air thrust in a particular direction.
2. They can be re-aligned either by remote or manually to point to a particular point of the room just like we adjust the fins of the AC.
3. Better circulation of air in the room.

Disadvantages :
1. Will take up more space.
2. Almost half of the air thrust will be wasted since it would be thrown towards the ceiling.


I can only think of these right now. If I get some more points, I will definitely add them. What do you think? Can you help adding some pros and cons to the small list I have put up. Please do comment.

I need this with my Bank Account!!!!

This was an idea I got while trying hard to save my expenses. Its getting more and more difficult to manage all my expenses, particularly when all the expenses are from a single account. Having different accounts is an obvious solution, but that would be more like managing accounts instead of your expenses.

Every month I chart a plan on my expenses. I roughly allot some amount to categories like

1. Phone
2. House Rent
3. Travel
4. Misc.....

But, the money for all these come from a single account. It would have been better if in my account, I have sub-accounts where I can distribute all my money. When making any payments or withdrawals from the ATM, I should be able to specify from which sub-account the money should be taken out. This way, I will be able to keep track of all my expenses very easily and manage them effectively. And at the end of every month, I should get a report which should show from which sub-accounts I have overspent and from which accounts I was able to save something.

I need this feature for my bank accounts. I want my bank account to look something like this.