tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-261080072024-03-07T06:16:31.384-08:00Raag's CornerMy blogs are my expressions about global, local issues and/or personal experiences. For specific topics, please check the categories.Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.comBlogger96125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-79934277969226313552010-05-25T11:36:00.000-07:002010-05-25T11:36:41.639-07:00Helpful Instructions for First Time Internationl TravelersI haven't posted for a while, and looks like I am not going to be posting for some time in future either. However, recently I compiled a set of instructions for my parents, when they were traveling to US for the first time. You are welcome to customize and use it as per your requirements.<br />
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Dear Papa and Mammi Jee!<br />
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This email has a detailed explanation of things you might expect on your International Travel. Please keep a print out of this email with other documents I have mentioned below. <br />
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Some Indian phones work internationally. So, check out if your cell phone will work in US. <br />
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<b>Please do read through this mail completely.</b><br />
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Documents to carry (You might know, but please look at it again)<br />
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1. Passport - It should have the visa within it.<br />
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2. Copy of your ticket. You have an e-ticket or an electronic ticket. You should have a printout of that.<br />
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3. Your second identification document - Voter ID Card or driving license. This is very important.<br />
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4. Packet of documents I sent you for the visa interview. Keep a copy in big bags and one in carry bag.<br />
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5. My contact information and other details. You should have my business cards.<br />
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Day of flight.<br />
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1. Wear relaxing clothes and have a thin jacket in your carry on baggage.<br />
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2. It would be safe to reach airport 2.5-3 hours before the flight.<br />
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Now the details about your travel<br />
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1. The way you must pack is that you should have a small hand bag like ladies purse for mammi jee, a small hand bag (like school bag) for papa jee and one carry bag for you (Which can have clothes of one day at least, toothbrush, paste, comb, and some vanity things). <br />
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2. Pack everything else in other suitcases. These suitcases will be checked in. Checked in means that the airlines will take these bags from you at the departure airport and deliver at your destination airport. Do not overload the bags please. They should each be less than 23 kgs. Two bags for each of you means you can have a total of four of these big bags. <i>(These requirements have changed recently)</i><br />
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3. You will be carrying your passport and visa in your hand until you board the aircraft (boarding means sitting at the aircraft). They check it number of times.<br />
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4. When you get to Indira Gandhi International Terminal (IGI), you can take a cart for each of you, keep your bags in them and go inside the terminal. A guard will see your papers before letting you in the terminal.<br />
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5. Once you get inside the Indira Gandhi Terminal, they will security check your big bags. After the security check at the entrance at IGI, you will proceed to the ticket counter of American Airlines with ticket and passport in hand. They will check in your big baggage, and give a boarding pass for each of you. The boarding passes will have your seat number, flight number, boarding time, and boarding gate number.<br />
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6. Now you will have just your ladies purse/hand bag, and a carry bag with you.<br />
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7. You will have to move through security. There will be people guiding you at all the steps. Don't hesitate to ask if you are confused about anything. Once you move through the security and passport stamping, you will be in the international area. Now you are out of India. You will be able to do duty free shopping if you wish.<br />
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8. You can wait in the terminal in front of your gate (gate number is written on your boarding pass) for your aircraft boarding to start. They board by the seat numbers and they will call your seat number.<br />
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9. You will be sitting in your seat about 11:45 pm. You will be tired and you can take your sleeping pill or a glass of wine (however, they do not serve anything until the plane is in the air) to sleep.<br />
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10. Your flight food preference is set as Asian Vegetarian, do make sure to confirm that with air hostess before eating when they serve food.<br />
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11. In the aircraft, the toilets are very small and western style, you will have to use tissue paper there only.<br />
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12. Try to get as much sleep in the aircraft as you can before you reach Chicago. Make sure to walk around couple of times as well.<br />
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13. You might feel cold in the plane, you can ask for blanket from air hostess and wear your jacket.<br />
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14. Before you reach Chicago, you will get a Customs clearance form. Just declare that the worth of your things as $200. Also say that you are not carrying any agriculture product.<br />
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15. In Chicago, you will have to get through Immigration and they will stamp your passport, take your fingerprints and picture. Just tell them what all they ask. They are generally very helpful. You can ask them if you have any question.<br />
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16. Once you are done at the immigration counter, you will have to collect your baggage that you had checked in at Delhi. You will see signs of Baggage Claim and you can always ask Airport attendants "where to claim your Baggage". Your Baggage Claim section will show your Flight Number plus same people who were with you in the flight from Delhi.<br />
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17. You will pass through the international line and then you will go through the "American Airlines counter" again and check in your bags there. Ask airport attendants if you can't find it.<br />
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18. Once you check in with American Airlines you can go and wait in front of your "gate number" or roam around the airport. Remember in US, toilets are referred to as "Restrooms." There are no waiting rooms at airports for cheap ticket holders like us.<br />
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19. You will have enough time to brush your teeth and eat something at the airport.<br />
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20. If you are hungry and want to eat anything, safest bet would be french fries, biscuits, cakes, coffee, veggie burger. Make sure to ask if it has no meat, no chicken, no fish, and no shrimp.<br />
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21. Chicago to San Jose should be pretty small and easy flight. Once you come out of the aircraft at San Jose you will have to go to baggage claim again as you did at Chicago airport. Keep your baggage in cart.<br />
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22.. You will have to come out of airport and you will find us. I will not miss you as you missed me in Delhi.<br />
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23. Call us if your phone works in Chicago or we will try to call you as well. In case, your phone do not work, you can request anybody to lend their cell phone and you can call me at xxx-xxx-xxxx, else do not worry about it.<br />
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YoursRaaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-70242043304993339862008-09-19T22:46:00.001-07:002008-09-19T22:46:41.730-07:00Tips to buy a coconut with some common sense!<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>I was at an Indian store few minutes back. An Indian couple there was buying a $1.00 coconut. To ensure that the coconut is fresh and they do not waste their $1.00, they asked the shopkeeper to break the coconut, then saved the coconut water in two polythene bags, and broken coconut in another polythene bag. Three bags for a coconut which doesn't need one. In an effort to be very smart and save $1.00, they are now going to drink the coconut water that will be in a polythene bags for quite some time, waste some more bags and plastic, and remove the freshness of coconut. Fresh food in plastic, especially the low grade plastic should be avoided.<br/><br/>Next time, if you want to buy coconut (the one you can use for making chutney), shake it, if you can hear water shaking, its fresh and good. 100%. People break to check only dry coconuts, not the one with water. I know environment is last thing on most minds, but a simple common sense and google can be used some times.<br/><br/>~Raag<br/></div>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-47415687365720416402008-09-14T21:48:00.001-07:002008-09-14T21:48:10.477-07:00People have become very systematic these days!<div xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml'>And when they go to buy grocery, they very carefully put each cucumber in a clear plastic bag, bananas in another such clear plastic bag, Jalapenos in clear plastic bag, each cantaloupe in the clear plastic bag, and then they pack all these individual plastic bags in the grocery bags. Since these bags get heavy they request another plastic bag from the bagger. The shopping cart looks mostly like the ones below. It's difficult to realize if they are buying grocery or grocery bags.<br/><br/><img height='244' width='324' src='http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SM19ny9KjHI/AAAAAAAAAq0/9Cb1Z2r5koA/%5BUNSET%5D.jpg' style='max-width: 800px;'/><img height='247' width='333' src='http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SM1907dEf8I/AAAAAAAAAq4/NOCv3Hm0_1c/%5BUNSET%5D.jpg' style='max-width: 800px;'/><br/><br/>At home they throw the big grocery bags in trash, and put all these vegetables in refrigerator. Every time they take out some of these vegetables they throw the clear plastic bags in trash. Many times the vegetables packed in these bags do not get enough air and get bad in those plastic bags and they are thrown in the trash. <br/><br/>Using huge amount of plastic is already normal in our life cycle these days, and we exacerbate the problem by adding more and more plastic. If you have no idea how these plastic bags are made, they are made up of "petroleum."<br/><br/>I do not understnad how is it convenient to pack bananas in plastic bag and then remove the pack once you reach home? How is ot convenient to pack cucumbers, Cantaloupes, and already packed vegetables and unpack them again? I can understand using those packs for Okra, beans, some leafy vegetables and that's it. You anyways have to (should) take out these things before you keep them in refrigerator. In Walmart today, I saw a lady packing a Bleach bottle in two plastic bags. I do not understand how come people get so engrossed in a habit that they confuse convenience and habit and intermingle it with stupidity.<br/><br/>Some people say they recycle the plastic bags. Either they lie or they are among 1% of the people who recycle the plastic bags. Some "supposedly" use them as trash bags. As per my experience, only few of the trash cans are of the size of the grocery bag. Also, these bags mostly get teared up by the time they reach home, making them useless as trash bags. As per the small clear plastic bags are concerned, they are not worth for second use for anything.<br/><br/>There are some people who bring reusable grocery bags, however I have "never ever" seen any immigrant (Indian, Chinese, Mexican, other Asians, South American etc.) family using reusable grocery bags. Being an Indian, I mostly go to Indian grocery store and I have never ever seen any other person using these kind of bags (I know some of my Indian friends use that though). It is surprising to see Indians detached with environmental issues, because statistically they are the most educated ethnic groups in US. Perhaps, education and sanity doesn't always go together.<br/><br/>I would also like to see stores providing some incentives of using grocery bags. Safeway gives you a 3 cent incentive (ridiculous) every time you use your own bag. Trader Joe lets you enter into a weekly raffle. I sometimes request discount from some stores for bringing grocery bags. Sometimes they do give the discount. In next few days I will write feedbacks to most stores to provide incentive for people who use reusable bags, and will post them here.<br/><br/>This post was mostly a rant although I didn't want it to be. In the next post I will try and post some feedback letters I post to the big grocery stores.<br/><br/>~Raag<br/></div>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-90759351681206670672008-09-10T23:01:00.005-07:002008-09-11T10:21:49.623-07:00Circuit City and its Fraudulent "firedog" Service<span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;"></span></span> <div style="font-family: arial" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> <div class="pom_bulls"> <p><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">So, I was looking for a reasonable laptop last month. I found the most reasonable laptop on Circuit City website. The website gave me the location of couple of stores where it was available for $479.99. I went to the store to buy it and they said they were out of it, but sent me to another store which had the laptops available. This other store was in Palo Alto, CA. That store had only two pieces of the laptop available that I was interested in, but both had the "firedog" service done on it. Circuit city charged me $39.99 for this firedog service. They supposedly had done following things on the laptop.</span></span></p> <span style="font-size:100%;"></span><span style="font-size:100%;"></span> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">• Perform initial setup</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">• Run Microsoft updates</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">• Clean up icons & software</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">• Personalize desktop</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">• Set user-access controls</span></p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">• 90-day guarantee</span></p> <span style="font-size:100%;"> <p>First of all they pretty much forced me into buying this service, as they never gave me an option to buy this laptop without the service. Now, in this service, they run through the intial setup of laptop and make a user named Owner. This is probably the easiest thing. Then they remove the only security feature of Vista i.e. User Access Control (UAC). Further they move all the desktop icons to a folder. They run Microsoft updates and then charge you $39.99 for it. They also supposedly 'optimize' the computer for faster boot up.</p> <p>So I bought my laptop on Aug 22, and as soon as I switched it on in the store, it started downloading updates and the firedog people started giving me reasons that the computer was last updated on Aug 3, 2008 (I realized later that it was actually Mar 8). I said it doesn't matter, "if I am paying you $39.99, I need the service." They said you can sit here and we will do it for you, but will not refund the extra charge. I stopped arguing, bought the laptop and came home. Updated the computer with 23 updates. I was pissed and so I mailed Circuit City on their website as follows.</p> <p>"</p> </span> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">Hi,</span></p> <span style="font-size:100%;"> <p>I bought a laptop on Aug 22, 2008 from Circuit city at E. Bayshore Road, Palo Alto, CA. The laptop model was ACER Aspire 5720-4126. The laptop was supposedly sold with firedog package that added $39.99 to the total cost of the laptop. I went to the store expecting a price of $479.99 as advertised on the web that day. There were only two laptops available on this model and, only on this store.</p> <p>So, this firedog was forced onto me which I didn't want at first place itself. Further firedog service hadn't done things that it promised. It still had lots of freeware programs installed, the computer took about 2 minutes to boot, and the computer was not updated for more than 20 days.</p> <p>In wake of these things, I think I was cheated for $39.99 by Circuit City, and I think it's done on a regular basis to all the customers. I would like to lodge a formal complaint in this regard and would appreciate a formal response from Circuit City. In next few days, I will post the picture of unwanted program from "uninstall program" and a video that shows the time taken by this laptop to boot on my blog, if my complaints are not taken seriously.</p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">Thanks"</span></p> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <p>I got the following response:</p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;">"</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-transform: none; color: rgb(0,0,0); text-indent: 0px; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; white-space: normal; letter-spacing: normal; border-collapse: collapse; font-variant: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2font-size:100%;"> <table style="border-collapse: collapse" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="331" border="0"><tbody> <tr></tr> </tbody></table> </span></p> </span> <div class="pom_bulls_l"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-transform: none; color: rgb(0,0,0); text-indent: 0px; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; white-space: normal; letter-spacing: normal; border-collapse: collapse; font-variant: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2font-size:100%;"> <table style="border-collapse: collapse" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="331" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td style="padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px" width="331"> <p><img height="86" alt="Welcome!" src="http://www.circuitcity.com/image/app/nav/redesign_welcome2.jpg" width="331" /></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td style="padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px; font-family: arial,sans-serif"> <table style="border-collapse: collapse" cellspacing="6" cellpadding="0" width="328" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td style="padding-right: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px; font-family: arial,sans-serif" valign="top" width="316"> <p><span>Thank you for signing up to receive our weekly emails. </span><span>We’ll keep you informed of our best in-store and online promotions and send you updates on our n</span><span>ew products and services.</span></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></div> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-transform: none; color: rgb(0,0,0); text-indent: 0px; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; white-space: normal; letter-spacing: normal; border-collapse: collapse; font-variant: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2font-size:100%;"> <table style="border-collapse: collapse" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="331" border="0"><tbody> <tr></tr> </tbody></table> </span><span style="font-size:100%;">"</span></p> <span style="font-size:100%;"> <p>I did record a video that shows very normal time for Vista to shutdown and boot, and will upload it pretty soon. Well, couple of days later the computer told me that Vista Service Pack that was released in May was not installed either. Screenshot for update history is below.</p> <p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; "><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sSoVnj65sbU/SMi1Ad9sZ_I/AAAAAAAAAqc/tymORajO25A/s1600-h/VistaUpdate082908_history.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5244640785720961010" style="cursor: pointer" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_sSoVnj65sbU/SMi1Ad9sZ_I/AAAAAAAAAqc/tymORajO25A/s320/VistaUpdate082908_history.jpg" border="0" /></a></span><br /></p><p><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></p> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <p>Screenshot for Vista SP1 update is below.</p> <p><span style="font-size:100%;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; word-spacing: 0px; text-transform: none; color: rgb(0,0,0); text-indent: 0px; line-height: normal; font-style: normal; white-space: normal; letter-spacing: normal; border-collapse: collapse; font-variant: normal; orphans: 2; widows: 2font-size:100%;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgWjfCz4tofPNbEgrtDxxQku3PwA0bffq4QzNXWAxsXM-IXLFAhXxux2dgMyAmTgbkXfBkqp8vhuBUR_PrhrvuyZnDj0ps04PSDb7MNBNcM8ItDOESlFsAkY79q-XdH0V81rVf/s1600-h/VistaUpdate082908.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5244640904089766114" style="cursor: pointer" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgWjfCz4tofPNbEgrtDxxQku3PwA0bffq4QzNXWAxsXM-IXLFAhXxux2dgMyAmTgbkXfBkqp8vhuBUR_PrhrvuyZnDj0ps04PSDb7MNBNcM8ItDOESlFsAkY79q-XdH0V81rVf/s320/VistaUpdate082908.jpg" border="0" /></a></span><span style="font-size:100%;"></span></p> </span><span style="font-size:100%;"> <p>I called the store, and the manager and the computer guy said either I can return my laptop, or take it to the store and they will update it for me. Frustrated, I called Circuit City at 1-800-THE-CITY, and nobody ever picked up the phone there. I finally called American Express to cancel the extra $39.99 that I paid to circuit city and now Amex will dispute that with Circuit City directly.</p> <p>It is frustating to see how big stores like these dupe the customers for small things on regular basis. I am not sure if BBB (Better Business Bureau), does care about fraud of these small things.</p> <p>~Raag</p> </span></div> </div>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-85686731866609131252008-08-30T17:54:00.004-07:002008-08-30T17:57:21.553-07:00Everything's Cool - Trailer<div align="center"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 0px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-08044552956975906 visible" href="http://youtube.com/v/PUkda2Zb8Wk"></a><a style="left: 340px ! important; top: 0px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-08044552956975906 visible" href="http://youtube.com/v/PUkda2Zb8Wk"></a><a style="left: 340px ! important; top: 0px ! important;" title="Click here to block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-08044552956975906 visible" href="http://youtube.com/v/PUkda2Zb8Wk"></a><object width="425" height="350"><param value="http://youtube.com/v/PUkda2Zb8Wk" name="movie"><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://youtube.com/v/PUkda2Zb8Wk" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></p><br /></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Saw this movie yesterday. It's a pretty good presentation of controversies surrounding Global Warming (unfortunately this has become politically uncorrect word today).<br /><br />It has a good historical background of this issue which will be helpful for the people who hate Global Warming issue just because it was raised by Al Gore, a political leader.<br /><br />Cheers<br />~Raag<br /></div><p></p></div>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-59642109197109769462008-08-27T19:16:00.002-07:002008-08-27T21:39:15.914-07:00McDonalds Advertising in Hindi in Mountain View, CA.<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">I just saw this ad on a Valley Transit Authority (VTA) bus on route 22. It's interesting that they are advertising in<br />Hindi.<br /><br /><div align="center"><img src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SLYKGenfiCI/AAAAAAAAAiw/KJJWvrmdqR0/%5BUNSET%5D.jpg" style="max-width: 800px;" title="McDonalds Advertisement in Hindi in Mountain View" alt="McDonalds Advertisement in Hindi in Mountain View" width="" height="" /><br /></div><br />~Raag<br /></div>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-36885991370119780852008-08-10T22:57:00.004-07:002008-08-21T08:10:41.783-07:00We Indians are very proud of you Abhinav!!! And now more medals<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><a href="http://olympics.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/3350682.cms">India Challenge - India@Beijing - Beijing 2008 Olympics - The Times Of India</a><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">EDIT:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">India won another bronze medal on Aug 20. This time in wrestling by Sushil Kumar. There is another medal confirmation by Indian pugilist Vijendar. He is in semis. These medals are more so appreciated as they are won not only against the strong opponents at Olympics, but they are won againts lax system, poor resources, and pathetic politics. This Olympic will be a record as "most won medals won by India in any Olympics", three</span>.<br /><br />Abhinav Bindra won first ever individual Olympic gold medal for India. This is a gold medal for India after 28 years. He won it in 10 m air rifle event. This is a really proud day for India.<br /><br />~Raag<br /><blockquote></blockquote></div>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-4609521008505847682008-08-10T14:27:00.002-07:002008-08-10T14:37:47.373-07:00"You look familiar, I think I have seen you in Cisco"<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Me: "No, I do not work in Cisco. I work at Company 'ABC'."<br /><br />Mr. India: "O sorry! By the way, I am Mr. India. Where are you from?"<br /><br />Me: "Oh, I am from Jhumari Talaiyya!"<br /><br />Mr. India: "Great, I have a friend from that place too. So what work do you do?"<br /><br />Me: "I just lay eggs."<br /><br />Mr. India: "Fantastic, lets meet up some time. May I have your number please?"<br /><br />Me: "Uh, it is XXX-XXX-XXXX."<br /><br />Mr. India, calls and checks, if I get the ring.<br /><br />Mr. India: "Ok, see you later."<br /><br />Exactly two days later.<br /><br />Ring Ring.<br /><br />Mr. India: "Hey hi, Mr. Jhumari Talaiyya, this is Mr. India here."<br /><br />Me: Hi.<br /><br />Mr. India: "How are you doing?"<br /><br />Me: "I am fine, how about you."<br /><br />Mr. India: "Great, Thanks for asking. Hey listen, I have an e-commerce business. It's a partnership based business. You look very enterprising and I think it would be a good utilization of your spare time."<br /><br />Me: "Is it related to Quixtar, Amway?"<br /><br />Mr. India: "Uh, why did you ask?"<br /><br />Me: "Get the heck out of here. Do not call me again, and I am not interested."<br /><br />This is a very familiar conversation, many Indians could relate to. Walmart, Malls, Target, Ross, anywhere you go, you get constantly cornered by fellow Indians trying to talk you into their "e-commerce" business. Bay area and Silicon Valley is very badly infected by these menace. It is scary to talk to any other Indian whom you do not know. Either they will be interested to sign you up to this business, or they will think that you are looking for to sign them up.<br /><br />It has made difficult to make new Indian friends in the Bay area as you are always doubtful of other person's intention. I am sure, many of my friends have their share of horror stories with these people.<br /><br />Although, I have not been very succesful to avoid all of these attacks, I can give you some tips to avoid them. Do not stray around an Indian couple who are formally dressed in a location, where other people are casually dressed. Be especially away from Indian couple who appear to do shopping at these places, but have empty shopping carts. If somebody wants to talk to you out of blue, just do not give your phone number. And if you do, save them as "Do not pick" in your phone book.<br /><br />I hope keeping these tips in mind will save you some harrassment from the e-commerce business people.<br /><br />~Raag<br /><br /><br /></div>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-20192211614597531112008-08-04T23:01:00.002-07:002008-08-13T23:41:48.615-07:00Follow up post to "Providence, RI is partly responsible for the food problem in World"<div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><span style="font-style: italic;">EDIT</span>: The <a href="http://mishranurag.blogspot.com/2008/07/providence-rhode-island-is-partly.html">previous post</a> was also <a href="http://www.beloblog.com/ProJo_Blogs/shenews/2008/07/blogger-provide.html">discussed here.</a><br />I got several responses to my <a href="http://mishranurag.blogspot.com/2008/07/providence-rhode-island-is-partly.html">previous post</a> regarding my experiences at Providence, RI. Thank you all for that. My friend Sumit wanted me to mention him specifically as he was responsible for part of the eventful trip I had in Providence. First of all I was so excited to meet him that I forgot my suitcase at Boston airport and then he took the keys of my rental car :).<br /><br />Several people responded my food observation in Providence. I mentioned that restaurants in Providence serve monstrous proportions of food. Many people had views mentioning that restaurants should serve that much food, and people should be able to bring leftovers home. First of all, I would like to mention it that although I wrote what I observed, almost everybody in my group observed the monstrous proportions of food.<br /><br />I have visited nearly fifty or more cities in US and if I note only a specific city for its food quantity, then there is something to note. Regarding leftovers, its a good idea to take the leftovers and eat it later. However, if restaurants regularly serve us more food than we can eat it at one sitting then there is something wrong. Plus restaurants charge us more money for that. Leftovers is a once in a while thing. It is like if you want to go to buy grocery, the merchant makes you buy extra grocery than you need.<br /><br />Leftovers are not always a good idea. For tourists its not convenient to take leftover back to their hotel and eat it next time. Somebody in the comment suggested to get a hotel that has all the possible amenities. No Thanks. I don't want to spend extra fifty bucks to get all the amenities so that I can warm up the overpriced food next time.<br /><br />Leftovers are not a sustainable solution either. First of all, extra food is cooked, packed in styrofoam box, stored in refrigerator, reheated mostly in styrofoam boxes, or thrown in trash more often than not. Wastage at several steps.<br /><br />One of the respondents suggested that he wants to have a full satisfactory meal when he is in a restaurants. If you have a little more appetite, then you can order several dishes along with main course. It doesn't mean that restaurants should serve food which has twice more than recommended daily nutritional requirements for a common person to each customer.<br /><br />In a world, where food prices have gone over the top, several places have had riots due to food price increase and food unavailability, supporting a culture of food wastage is a sign of ignorance and arrogance in my view.<br /><br />~Raag<br /><br /></div>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-33780887584411303952008-07-23T21:45:00.000-07:002008-07-23T22:10:25.662-07:00Providence, Rhode Island is partly responsible for the food problem in World.<p>First of all, I apologize to the people who read my blog regularly for not updating content for quite a few months.  Anyway, I was in <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=providence,+Rhode+Islands&ie=UTF8&z=13">Providence, Rhode Island</a> couple of weeks back to attend a conference.  I didn't have much time to roam around the city, however I checked a new restaurant or brewery every night in the area.  Any restaurant I went to served huge amount of food. At some places food was served in plates as big as counter top.</p> <p>In one of the Indian fast food places, one of our professor went to eat something and server gave him 'half a kilogram' of rice.  So, my professor politely said please do not give me that much food. The server quipped, "Throw what you don't end up eating."</p> <p>In one of the other places, we were nine people and only seven people ordered food.  Although all nine ate, the leftover was enough for at least 3-5 people.  I was getting curious and so I asked the waitress about this monstrous serving size. The waitress however was pretty slim with nice figure.  She said people in Providence do not like to be served little food. They get angry. </p> <p>I asked, "But the people here look slim and not unnecessarily fat."  She said because you are looking at us (waiter and waitress), and then she pointed at our table and said "We don't eat that food."</p> <p>So my conclusion from the trip was Providence is probably the reason for food problem in the world. Have you also been to a place where they serve food portions of the size of monsters?</p> <p><strong>Eventful Trip:</strong> The trip was very eventful for me. I flew from San Francisco on time and reached Newark on time in the morning. I was supposed to fly from Newark to Providence at 8:20am by Continental Air.  The flight got delayed 20 minutes, and it kept on getting delayed, until they told us at 12:00pm that they "might" be able to fly at 3:00pm. Their plane had mechanical trouble. They gave me a $8 coupon, and it costed me $10 to eat a meal at the airport.</p> <p>I decided to fly to Boston, which is an hour from Providence. They gave a seat to Boston at last minute at 2:45p. I reached Boston, and met with my friends who were coming from Atlanta. They were supposed to take me to Providence. I had to go to Providence airport as I had booked car from that airport. I could not change my reservation as Budget Rental Cars would charge me $300.00 for that. Anyway, I reached Boston, MA, met with my friends and forgot my bag on an airport shuttle.  The shuttle driver after dropping me, went on break, and then it took me more than an hour to find my bag. By the time, we got back to Providence, picked car from rental place and reached hotel, it was about 9:00pm. I was supposed to reach at 8:00am. </p> <p>The conference was uneventful, however on the last day, one of my friend took the keys of my rental car and went to Boston to catch his flight. He realized that after he reached Boston. Then he left the key at airlines counter, I booked another car to go to Boston and get the keys. I was supposed to return this car on morning in Providence city and the previous car at airport. The city office was supposed to open at 8:00am and my flight was at 6:00am. Fortunately my friend said he will return the car that was supposed to be returned to the city office and I could return the airport car. I woke up at 5:00am, reached airport at 5:30, returned the car and boarded the aircraft at 5:45am. The flight was ready to take off at 6:00am except that it didn't. It never took off. We were deplaned an hour later. Continental again gave us a coupon of $8.00 as compensation where a breakfast costs about $10.00. They rerouted me with the longest possible flight with US airways. I was supposed to reach San Francisco at 11:00am in the morning, and reached at about 9:00pm.</p> <p>In between, my friend told me that I parked the car in the night at wrong place and I got a $20.00 parking ticket for that. A befitting end to the whole drama.</p> <p>Raag</p> <p><strong>Funny fact:</strong> I learnt today that total fuel consumed by California is more than the total fuel consumed by India or China.</p> Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-14107946566952557142008-04-17T08:43:00.006-07:002008-04-18T09:16:41.439-07:00Our Cross-Country Drive<p>Finally, we left Blacksburg for good in February 2008, to go to Bay area, CA. We decided to drive our Toyota Camry all the way. It was 2700 miles drive and we were excited. We started our drive on a Sunday morning and planned to drive about 750 miles each day. Visually, the travel was as the following map.</p><br /><br /><iframe marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" src="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Blacksburg,+VA+24060&daddr=94536&jsv=107&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.684144,82.265625&ie=UTF8&s=AARTsJpBhDqIPvhdK8m5ttdIL--YgA9wtg&ll=37.020098,-96.240234&spn=48.413726,74.707031&t=p&z=3&output=embed" scrolling="no" width="425" frameborder="0" height="350"></iframe><br /><small><a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&geocode=&saddr=Blacksburg,+VA+24060&daddr=94536&jsv=107&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=35.684144,82.265625&ie=UTF8&ll=37.020098,-96.240234&spn=48.413726,74.707031&t=p&z=3&source=embed" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 255); text-align: left;">View Larger Map</a></small><br /><br /><br /><p>When we started in Blacksburg there was snow all around and wind chills. However, we were lucky to have sun that day. Beautiful, sunny Blacksburg reminded us of the wonderful years we spent here.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmBH9wJDI/AAAAAAAAAUY/PPBcrN_faMw/s1600-h/000282.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Snow in Blacksburg" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmBn9wJEI/AAAAAAAAAUg/GbqflPhp7rs/00028_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmCn9wJFI/AAAAAAAAAUo/OxZGgO0hlio/s1600-h/dscf00392.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Snowy Blacksburg" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmC39wJGI/AAAAAAAAAUw/ug_U4NKnh0E/dscf0039_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> </p> <p>We entered into Tennessee in just few hours. The Tennessee welcome center was quite big and designed artistically. The landscape of Tennessee was not much different from Virginia, but it was definitely flatter. We drove about 490 miles in Tennessee.<br /><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmD39wJHI/AAAAAAAAAU4/aPKzVadSUSo/s1600-h/DSCF00762.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Tennessee Welcome Center" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmEn9wJII/AAAAAAAAAVA/DMFyQ0M8O-c/DSCF0076_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmFn9wJJI/AAAAAAAAAVI/xhmmC8f28gk/s1600-h/DSCF00772.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Tennessee Welcome Center" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmGX9wJKI/AAAAAAAAAVQ/hFT-mxuw6jI/DSCF0077_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> </p> <p>We entered Arkansas in the night. I have been here few times but it was first time for Vinny. We booked a hotel on phone and then called Dr. Saraswat. Dr. Saraswat is my senior from my undergrad college. Well, it was a mistake to call them after booking the hotel and we realized that after we got some nice scolding, and a great welcome from Dr. Saraswat and his wife in Little Rock, Arkansas. They cooked a really nice dinner for us. Too bad, we forgot to click a picture at their house.<br /><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmHH9wJLI/AAAAAAAAAVY/uhQizD5Zjxw/s1600-h/DSCF00802.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Vinny in Arkansas Welcome Center" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmHX9wJMI/AAAAAAAAAVg/nGn8OLNZn4I/DSCF0080_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmH39wJNI/AAAAAAAAAVo/o8WITBlivvo/s1600-h/DSCF00852.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="A scenic view in Arkansas from I-40. (The scenery is behind us :)" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmIX9wJOI/AAAAAAAAAVw/P0FEluqEZ58/DSCF0085_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a><br />We started from a place called Conway in Arkansas, which is very near to Little Rock in the morning. The time zone change was showing its effect and we got up a little early. On the I-40 in Arkansas, we got a chance to catch a scenic view in our camera.</p> <p>We did not have to travel much in Arkansas and we were in Oklahoma by early noon. They really had a nice welcome center. Oklahoma welcome center displayed some interesting examples of some skills of Indian's craftsmanship. I found an interesting quote in the Oklahoma Welcome center as well.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmJX9wJPI/AAAAAAAAAV4/sk_6Qth1orA/s1600-h/DSCF00892.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Oklahoma Welcome Center" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmJn9wJQI/AAAAAAAAAWA/Dm3KPL72XT4/DSCF0089_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmKX9wJRI/AAAAAAAAAWI/xLsUmFULGhw/s1600-h/DSCF00992.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Inside Oklahoma Welcome Center" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmK39wJSI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/dik28OWynQI/DSCF0099_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmLX9wJTI/AAAAAAAAAWY/M-TnXJVlCJA/s1600-h/DSCF0093%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Quote in Oklahoma Welcome Center" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmLn9wJUI/AAAAAAAAAWg/yV6Xuu5lWYg/DSCF0093_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmMH9wJVI/AAAAAAAAAWo/shgSB2mQWF4/s1600-h/DSCF0102%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Oklahoma Landscape" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdmMX9wJWI/AAAAAAAAAWw/OK3Sjiz4fp4/DSCF0102_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> </p> <p>Oklahoma was mostly flat, and pretty much deserted on Interstate 40. We reached Tulsa, in the afternoon. We wanted to eat at a nice Indian restaurant, but we didn't know address of any restaurant. So we tried the <a href="http://www.google.com/goog411/">GOOG 411</a> service for the first time. Those who do not know about it, it is a service to find out local businesses by dialing 1 800 GOOG 411. We ended up at an amazing restaurant <a href="http://www.gopuramtasteofindia.com/">Gopuram</a> at Oklahoma City. We had a nice buffet. </p> <p>We reached Texas around evening. The welcome center for Texas was just a welcome sign. They didn't have any rest rooms there. We saw quite a few windmills as soon as we reached Texas. The size of these windmills were really huge. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdpTn9wJXI/AAAAAAAAAW4/h3iaseAHoeY/s1600-h/DSCF0115%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Welcome to Texas" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdpUH9wJYI/AAAAAAAAAXA/zIh1ckrskFk/DSCF0115_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdpVH9wJZI/AAAAAAAAAXI/g95_fd-9x_Q/s1600-h/DSCF0112%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Wind mills in texas" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdpV39wJaI/AAAAAAAAAXQ/YyyPp4w2IJI/DSCF0112_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdpWX9wJbI/AAAAAAAAAXY/zqbdWNRcmZo/s1600-h/DSCF0118%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Nevee missed a train" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdpW39wJcI/AAAAAAAAAXg/8TS_XWjpQ40/DSCF0118_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdpXH9wJdI/AAAAAAAAAXo/lz8AeLFBtjo/s1600-h/DSCF0119%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Train again" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdpnn9wJeI/AAAAAAAAAXw/vyRc1NZFNAA/DSCF0119_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> </p> <p>We reached Amarillo, Texas in the evening. Interstate 40 passed though the Amarillo, so we were able to see that city. We in fact did some shopping at Kohl's there. Having interstate in the city is positive as the people passing buy can actually see the city and may be visit it as well. Amarillo, however, like many other US cities is also made for cars, not people. You cannot walk between two showrooms if they are just 20-30 feet apart. That rant some other time though.</p> <p>Around the time we were going to pass Texas, we saw a beef farm right beside the interstate which was more than a mile long. All the beef in the farm were waiting to get butchered. I hadn't seen animal agriculture at that scale before, it was overwhelming. At the end of Texas, severe wind was blowing which was shaking our car badly. We entered New Mexico after dark, and the time zone changed as well. We stayed in Tucumcari, New Mexico that night in a Super 8 Motel. Actually, that was first time I stayed at a Super 8, it was pretty good. Tucumcari looked like a small beautiful town. I could see Route 66 from my room in motel. Route 66 is considered were scenic.<br /></p> <p>We started from Tucumcari in the morning and reached Albequrque, NM during lunch time. My cell phone was having problems, so I had to go to a verizon wireless showroom in NM. Albequrque, NM is situated in a valley with mountains surrounding it. Its a beautiful place. I talked to four people in NM, two verizon wireless representatives, one hotel receptionist, and one native Indian at the roadside. They were not only very nice, they had a very special warmth as well. May be that's a characteristic of NM people? There was a village situated right beside Interstate on a dormant volcano. I think I forgot its name, but some Indians were on the road and one of them told me about it. The nearby areas had black earth due to that volcano which erupted few hundred years back. New Mexico had some snow by that time, and the surrounding areas were looking very beautiful. Enjoy some other pictures from new Mexico as well.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdpoX9wJfI/AAAAAAAAAX4/I0b9WpVXa8w/s1600-h/DSCF0141%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Village in NM beside I40" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdppH9wJgI/AAAAAAAAAYA/JVbaV8bBivI/DSCF0141_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdp1n9wJhI/AAAAAAAAAYI/d1LL5CTJlKU/s1600-h/DSCF0143%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Village and a dead volcano in New Mexico" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdp2H9wJiI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/5xz4syXuezU/DSCF0143_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdp239wJjI/AAAAAAAAAYY/h5Vsf9VqCr4/s1600-h/DSCF0125%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="NM Landscape" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdp3X9wJkI/AAAAAAAAAYg/cKq9iE0g_04/DSCF0125_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdp3n9wJlI/AAAAAAAAAYo/1ILxtntFc64/s1600-h/DSCF0133%5B5%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="NM Landscape" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdrXH9wJmI/AAAAAAAAAYw/xmhNbQjG0B8/DSCF0133_thumb%5B1%5D.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdrZX9wJnI/AAAAAAAAAY4/zpUe_DQvbpM/s1600-h/DSCF0144%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="NM Landscape" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdraH9wJoI/AAAAAAAAAZA/PTf3q2HvAvg/DSCF0144_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdrb39wJpI/AAAAAAAAAZI/idwbcC_wgKk/s1600-h/DSCF0146%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="NM Landscape" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdrcH9wJqI/AAAAAAAAAZQ/8FMZtceN7KY/DSCF0146_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> </p> <p>Arizona had a nice welcome center. It was based on the theme of an Indian village. </p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdrfn9wJrI/AAAAAAAAAZY/c2LxTxdSPL0/s1600-h/DSCF0152%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="DSCF0152" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdrgH9wJsI/AAAAAAAAAZg/oDUoH4gh-2I/DSCF0152_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdrgn9wJtI/AAAAAAAAAZo/DQH5r-QVJhc/s1600-h/DSCF0149%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="DSCF0149" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdrhH9wJuI/AAAAAAAAAZw/4KUsc_gXZiQ/DSCF0149_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> </p> <p>The interstate in Arizona had some big statues of dinosaurs which appeared to be running towards the interstate.</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdrhn9wJvI/AAAAAAAAAZ4/-43nkgDDhpM/s1600-h/DSCF0161%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Dinosaur running towards I40" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdriH9wJwI/AAAAAAAAAaA/a37XS-18ty0/DSCF0161_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvrX9wJxI/AAAAAAAAAaI/HHqCWjVKNqE/s1600-h/DSCF0162%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Dinosaur running towards I40" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvsH9wJyI/AAAAAAAAAaQ/5zMPnM8tI5Q/DSCF0162_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvun9wJzI/AAAAAAAAAaY/FIFEKtoIW_0/s1600-h/DSCF0156%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="If not dinasaur, then me" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvvH9wJ0I/AAAAAAAAAag/JUjtnA6BMpQ/DSCF0156_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvv39wJ1I/AAAAAAAAAao/-a_X0V0Ej40/s1600-h/DSCF0150%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Snow in Arizona" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvw39wJ2I/AAAAAAAAAaw/a6X-TY3AB3M/DSCF0150_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> </p> <p>Arizona was looking really beautiful and we entered California by night in the pacific time zone. California didn't have any welcome centers, although California welcomed us by checking our cars. I think they do not allow import of agriculture products and live animals. We stayed in Needles, CA that night.</p> <p>We still had to travel about 550 miles in California and reach our apartment in Fremont before 5 to get the keys. Thankfully, time zone change helped us wake up by 5 and leave Needles by 6. This was our fourth day of driving, but we were as excited as we were on day one. We were less than half a tank of gas when we left Needles and were planning to get it filled before moving forward, but we forgot and realized when we were in the desert of Mojave national park. That area was dry and deserted as in the pictures below and you could easily see small wild animals (fox, rabbit, deer etc.) running around .</p> <p><a href="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvxn9wJ3I/AAAAAAAAAa4/nItxVa4TKg0/s1600-h/DSCF0164%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Desert in California" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvx39wJ4I/AAAAAAAAAbA/5UiN40RViT8/DSCF0164_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvy39wJ5I/AAAAAAAAAbI/udAvqy7xz3U/s1600-h/DSCF0165%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Desert in California" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvzX9wJ6I/AAAAAAAAAbQ/uSBCKWY8v6o/DSCF0165_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> </p> <p>We tried to call 411 (couldn't call 1800GOOG411 as my phone was discharged and another phone was out of minutes), but that was not of much help, as we didn't know the name of city or county where we were. We had no other option than to drive as far as we could. We finally found a place called Ludlow, out in the desert, which had only two gas stations in total and nothing else as far as one could see (one could see for miles actually there). We could have been in serious trouble if that place was couple of miles away. Once we got the gas, we started again. California had the most varying landscape, changing from desert, to snow covered mountains to huge agricultural farms to concentrated cities. You can see the varying landscape of CA in pictures below. We found amazingly big wind mill farms near Mojave as well.</p> <p><a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdvz39wJ7I/AAAAAAAAAbY/BK74fRLxDzY/s1600-h/DSCF0167%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Nobody in the vicinity" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdv0H9wJ8I/AAAAAAAAAbg/BEWPWYNPVdw/DSCF0167_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdv039wJ9I/AAAAAAAAAbo/onhq16HtFGI/s1600-h/DSCF0169%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Never missed a train again." src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdv1X9wJ-I/AAAAAAAAAbw/MhzfBgqycaI/DSCF0169_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdv2H9wJ_I/AAAAAAAAAb4/R6rqJOBJm6o/s1600-h/DSCF0175%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Snow laden mountains in CA from far far" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdv239wKAI/AAAAAAAAAcA/ibDqEllLh0o/DSCF0175_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdv4H9wKBI/AAAAAAAAAcI/Bam5cxQOTAs/s1600-h/DSCF0177%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Can you see the wind mills?" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdv4n9wKCI/AAAAAAAAAcQ/IGk1X2lGPpg/DSCF0177_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdv-X9wKDI/AAAAAAAAAcY/JhPt-bHpyxU/s1600-h/DSCF0186%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Snow in Cali? Yeah..." src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdv-39wKEI/AAAAAAAAAcg/LyCkk4gjKnk/DSCF0186_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwAH9wKFI/AAAAAAAAAco/Yb1byzMqmGY/s1600-h/DSCF0192%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Wind mills from closer distance" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwAn9wKGI/AAAAAAAAAcw/MVrfov9SGW8/DSCF0183_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Amazing ladnscapes of CA" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwBX9wKHI/AAAAAAAAAc4/iqHMgxBdpj0/DSCF0192_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /> </a><a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwCX9wKII/AAAAAAAAAdA/p4NghZkRiK0/s1600-h/DSCF0197%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Plain areas with agriculture" src="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwC39wKJI/AAAAAAAAAdI/zDcBsKrIG6M/DSCF0197_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh3.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwD39wKKI/AAAAAAAAAdQ/IU89wydGn9g/s1600-h/DSCF0198%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Lot of fruits" src="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwEH9wKLI/AAAAAAAAAdY/kXWSnfmav8Q/DSCF0198_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> <a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwGH9wKMI/AAAAAAAAAdg/tiZgZBwkDwg/s1600-h/DSCF0201%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Looks like the default wallpaper in Win XP" src="http://lh6.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwGn9wKNI/AAAAAAAAAdo/riVSMcpH1Ow/DSCF0201_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> </p> <p>We had lunch in Bakersville, CA. We were able to reach Fremont, CA before 5, and we got the keys. In few minutes, we left for Ikea to buy the bed. We took the picture below couple of days later to show how dirty our car was after so much driving.</p> <p><a href="http://lh4.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwHH9wKOI/AAAAAAAAAdw/QSKMvIaDn14/s1600-h/DSCF0202%5B2%5D.jpg"><img style="border-width: 0px;" alt="Dirty car." src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/mishranurag/SAdwHX9wKPI/AAAAAAAAAd4/6EAgYKXPLNM/DSCF0202_thumb.jpg?imgmax=800" width="244" border="0" height="184" /></a> </p> <p>I always wanted to do a cross country travel like this, and I am glad I did it with my better half. It was an amazing experience. The visual panorama we experienced for four days will always be in our minds and heart like a treasure. All of that cannot be illustrated in the pictures or in my shoddy writing, but hopefully you liked them.</p> <p>Raag</p>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-75078679389088396622008-02-02T08:00:00.001-08:002008-02-02T08:01:56.762-08:00Encouraging people to buy and use reusable grocery bags<p>I haven't written in a long time, but those of you who followed my <a href="http://mishranurag.blogspot.com/2007/10/global-warming-issue-or-just-politics.html">Global Warming: An issue or just politics</a> will remember that I had committed 10 hours for community service as part of VT-ENGAGE program.  I wanted to spend these hours to encourage people to buy reusable grocery bags and use them as often.  One of the grocery stores in Blacksburg <a href="http://oasisworldmarket.com" target="_blank">OASIS WORLD MARKET</a> agreed to help me in doing it.</p> <p>The OASIS owner was very enthusiastic towards this project and she ordered 500 reusable bags from 1 bag at a time for this project.  She also committed to sell those bags at the cost price.  The process took a little longer as we had trouble finding a reliable and cheap place to buy those bags. Finally, everything went well and I was able to do it yesterday, couple of days before I am leaving Blacksburg for good.  A colleague from my department also helped me for couple of hours. She is Chinese, so she was able to convince some Chinese customers.  I was at the grocery store for about 4 hours and was able to sell about 35-40 bags.  As percentage wise I was able to sell the bags to 20% of customers during that time frame. </p> <p>Some people don't care about this issue at all.  They do not want to think or even talk about it. Some people said that they have bags but forget to use them. I requested them to remember it everytime they come for shopping, and develop a guilt if they don't.  I hope I was able to bring some change into the society.  </p> <p>Below are some pictures of the event.</p> <p><a href="http://lh5.google.com/mishranurag/R6STsXHLZUI/AAAAAAAAARo/18z-KFqhgL8/Anurag1%5B3%5D"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 5px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="184" alt="Me trying to convince people to buy reusable grocery bags" src="http://lh3.google.com/mishranurag/R6STs3HLZVI/AAAAAAAAARw/Iya59udPTuM/Anurag1_thumb%5B1%5D" width="244" border="0" /></a> <a href="http://lh6.google.com/mishranurag/R6STtnHLZWI/AAAAAAAAAR4/zd_id7CC_EI/Anurag2%5B2%5D"><img style="border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 5px; border-left: 0px; border-bottom: 0px" height="184" alt="Me trying to convince people to buy reusable grocery bags" src="http://lh3.google.com/mishranurag/R6STt3HLZXI/AAAAAAAAASA/TAj5WpqY-iQ/Anurag2_thumb" width="244" border="0" /></a> </p> <p> </p> <p>I am leaving for Mountain View from Blacksburg, tomorrow and will be driving the 2700 miles distance. I hope I will be able to post some pictures from the way.</p> <p> </p> <p>-Raag</p> <p>PS: By the way, I had gifted these kind of reusable bags to my friends in Christmas as well.</p> Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-84843242859727231942008-01-06T10:58:00.001-08:002008-01-06T11:36:19.049-08:00An interesting argument for deciding the course of action whether there is Global Warming or Not!<div class="wlWriterSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:3a3195f5-94d7-4f0c-bf9c-bfabe330958a" style="padding-right: 0px; display: inline; padding-left: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-top: 0px"><div><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bDsIFspVzfI&rel=1&border=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bDsIFspVzfI&rel=1&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></div></div> Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-2360902375314421282007-11-13T08:59:00.000-08:002007-11-13T09:04:35.412-08:00Two nice articles for Global Warming SkepticsThey are both published in BBC and I am just providing the links. They are fairly short and you must be able to read them quickly. Some of the points covered in these articles are the ones I have already covered in my previous articles on <a href="http://mishranurag.blogspot.com/search/label/environment">environment</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7081026.stm"> Unravelling the sceptics</a><br /><br /><a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/629/629/7074601.stm"> Climate scepticism: The top 10</a><br /><br />I still have to write in details on the effects of individual contributions on reducing Global Warming and other numerous environmental benefits. Keep checking this place.<br /><br />RaagRaaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-18483004480475181852007-11-07T09:54:00.001-08:002007-11-07T09:55:51.373-08:00Diwali 2007 at Virginia Tech<p>See this video for what Indian Students Association has to offer this year at Diwali celebration!</p> <p> </p> <p> </p><div class="wlWriterSmartContent" id="scid:5737277B-5D6D-4f48-ABFC-DD9C333F4C5D:8be23c6f-4c3b-4482-afc7-703ea606c117" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline;"><div><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/wBxGW84iN74"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/wBxGW84iN74" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object></div></div> <p></p> <p> </p> <p>Raag</p>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-1462826775116790362007-10-27T19:41:00.001-07:002007-10-27T22:14:06.099-07:00Global Warming: An issue or just politics?<p><strong>Background:</strong> Virginia Tech has come up with a campaign where each Virginia Tech member, faculty, staff and alumni will promise 10 hours of community service as a tribute to the victims of April 16, 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech.  Different people have promised community work in several organizations in and around Blacksburg and elsewhere.  I also promised 10 hours of community work. To utilize these 10 hours, I wanted to set up a stall in a grocery shop talking to people about buying reusable grocery bags and stop using petroleum based plastic grocery bags. I also wanted to use that occasion to talk to people one to one about several environmental issues as well.</p> <p><strong>Now what happened:</strong> I chose Kroger grocery store for this place as they have started selling reusable bags recently and it generally has crowds of lots of young students.  I went to talk to the Kroger Manager today and he outrightly rejected the proposal. He did not like the fact that I was being supported by <a href="http://sierraclub.org/" target="_blank">Sierra Club</a>. He said the organization was too political.  He added on to that I will be talking about environmental issue specifically "Global Warming" which is a political issue.  He said this might (or definitely will) annoy some of their customers and he didn't want his customers to complain.</p> <p>"Global warming, a political issue?"  I was really surprised to hear that.  I have always considered that to be an environmental issue.  As per as normal IQ goes global warming is a phenomena by which the greenhouses gases absorb heat which makes this planet inhabitable.  The balance of greenhouses is delicately maintained by several natural processes.  However, several human activities increase these greenhouses gases in atmosphere and are causing the increase in global temperature.  There are several serious repercussions of this increase in temperature and I have discussed some of them in my <a href="http://mishranurag.blogspot.com/search/label/environment" target="_blank">previous posts related to environment</a>.</p> <p>I have followed several discussions and read several articles but I am not convinced that global warming is a political issue and it should not be taken that way. It's an issue of screwing up the mother nature which inhabits us.</p> <p>On a positive note, a grocery store at Blacksburg agreed to my proposal instantly.  They will get reusable grocery bags so that I will use this occasion and convince people to use them. The grocery bags will be sold at cost price as well. The store manager also gave me several ideas to organize that stall.  At the end of the day I was able to convince one store of my idea.  I will let you know how that goes.</p> <p>Let me know what do you think,</p> <p>Raag</p> Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-17124366471895077682007-10-17T22:03:00.001-07:002007-10-17T22:04:39.554-07:00When technology pulls us backward<p>Couple of years back wireless Internet became ubiquitous and it became available on airports, hotels, restaurants, cafes everywhere. With the widespread availability of Internet, businesses took it as opportunity and started to sell the usage of Internet at these public places.</p> <p>Now, to get access to wireless Internet at most of these public places, you need to sign up for some monthly service or pay exorbitant amount of money through credit card. So, you have to pay upwards of $7 if you want to check your mail real quick on an airport or even Starbucks. In the hotels also, the Internet is getting extremely costly. We went to a conference in Minneapolis, MN in summers and the rate of Internet was as high as $15.00 per day. Although we are in highly advanced world most of the people were not using Internet until they really really had to. On a sidenote, however, there are still couple of places with free Internet without any registration and sanity. One of them is Denny's restaurants. You can find them on almost all the highways in US.</p> <p>At Virginia Tech, we can buy licenses for many software to work. I wanted to buy the server edition of MATLAB but its annual license expires in couple of months. So whether I buy the software in Jan or Dec, I pay the same amount and need to renew it in January. How is that for technology? Now many a software are server edition, that means they will work only if I have Internet. So, if I get stuck in an airport or I am staying in a hotel with costly Internet and I want to work on my laptop, I have to pay for that costly internet just for my software to work.</p> <p>To me technology means efficiency. If something is not efficient, its not advanced, whether its a car or a computer system. We have recently experienced many popular software like MS Windows, ESRI (ArcGIS), are getting bloated and inefficient.</p> <p>Anyway, I went to a Starbucks few days back. Besides the fact that they did not have Internet at all, that place was supercold. I asked if they could do anything about it, they told me that the temperature was controlled by a central unit and they cannot do anything about it. Besides the fact that temperature outside was in upwards of 80, workers in that place were wearing warmer clothes, and I was not able to sit there for long because of that cold temperature. This technology of air conditioning is supposed to make us feel comfortable, or uncomfortable and blatantly waste huge amounts of energy. I have felt this central AC crap many a times before as well. I know in some offices people keep heaters to counter the cold AC. The most stupid way to waste energy.</p> <p>In Virginia Tech library last week, the temperature inside was too high in the evening as it became a little colder outside. And since it was controlled automatically, people had no option than to feel hot. In my department there is a classroom with special air conditioning unit. And the AC switches on as soon as somebody enters in it. It also makes it colder than that starbucks. The whole time in that class you wait for it to get over, get out and feel better. How is that for technology?</p> <p>Raag</p> <p>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Al Gore and IPCC won the Nobel prize for peace, for their efforts in raising awareness about Global Warming. I take this space to congratulate IPCC and Al Gore both and I hope it will raise some more awareness.</p>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-84639007462202723042007-10-09T17:08:00.000-07:002007-10-09T17:39:57.964-07:00Those five minutes of wait at the parking lot today...I was waiting at the parking lot in front of my department today. There was a lady sitting in a Jeep Cherokee (which is already a gas guzzler) with engine on and was talking to somebody on phone. I was there for five minutes and I am sure that lady was there before I came and she must have been there for sometime after I left.<br /><br />All those five minutes, I was about to go and ask her to switch her engine off, but I didn't do as she was talking on phone. I kept thinking, what would make people realize that we waste too much; "An inconvenient Truth?" information pamphlets? exorbitant price of energy (gas, electricity)? rationing? a morality class...<br /><br />I was at a party at my friends place few days back. The party was a lot of fun no doubt, but one thing really disturbed me was that everybody was throwing the bottles and cans of beer in trash. I believe we could have had as much fun if there were boxes for recycling those cans and bottles. I realized that talking about something like this at that party would not have been welcomed, but should I have said something there? What do you think? Should I have said something to the women in incidence above? Would you have said something if you were there?<br /><br />From what I believe; in this arrogance of money, power and youth, we must not forget our responsibility to our Mother Earth.<br /><br />On a positive note, I started using Kroger Canvas Shopping Bags for shopping and I think I saved about 100 plastic bags in last couple of months. Also, in the Graduate Student meeting today in my Department I suggested students to bring their own cups for drinks to reduce wastage, and the suggestion was well received. I hope it will help :).<br /><br />Raag<br /><br />To read my other posts on Environment, <a href="http://mishranurag.blogspot.com/search/label/environment">click here.</a><br />Join me on <a href="http://change.org">Change.org</a> if you wishRaaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-23857353757201020082007-10-06T10:37:00.000-07:002007-10-10T08:44:38.084-07:00Email is an important tool - Use it wiselyI have been thinking to write on this topic for a long time because I realize that emailing habits and its use is changing rapidly which has its good and mostly bad effects. Emails have become so ubiquitous that some people have stopped realizing its importance. I believe there are several points regarding emails that people must know for a better experience with such a great tool.<br /><br />1. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject of Email</span> - Always give a subject to your email. Long or short-but it should tell what a person should expect in the email. 'No Subject' emails can be more often considered as spam by spam filters. Never capitalize all the letter of email subject, it will increase the chances of your email be considered a spam.<br /><br />2. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mail Forwarding </span>- Avoid this temptation as much as you can. Do not forward the mails which say 'Forward this mail to so many people, else xyz will happen.' If the mail is interesting and you really want to forward it, remove this line and other stuff which adds because the mail comes through so many places. Add the addresses in BCC, so that it will be difficult for unscrupulous program to harvest email addresses form your mail. If you keep on forwarding emails regularly without cleaning as I mentioned earlier, you might be flagged as spammer by many servers. Even if servers do not flag as spammer, many recipients will. I know I would.<br /><br />3. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Emails are not instant messaging</span> - The person might be reading your mail at the instant you wrote or may be few days later. Try to be a little explanatory in your emails. Make sure there are few (no) spelling mistakes and not many acronyms are used. Write the emails in a structured way unless they are a quick reply to a question. Especially when you are writing emails to a professional contact, you must maintain proper structure of the mail without spelling mistakes.<br /><br />4. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Proper mail structure </span>- Proper mail structure means; clear subject of the mail and the mail should start with Dear/Respected, then subject matter and end with Sincerely or regards with proper contact information as signature. A mail with improper structure may be flagged as spam and that happens quite often.<br /><br />5. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Mail management </span>- My suggestion is that if you do not know how to manage emails or cannot do that, do not use email. It is extremely frustrating when somebody says that they didn't receive emails (If I send email to you then you will receive it). In rare chance it might be considered a spam, and so it is important to check a list of your spam emails regularly and block unnecessary emails. Filter your mails to proper label or folder for proper viewing and management. Set up a fixed time to reply to mails.<br /><br />6. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Be careful what you write in email </span>- Emails are pretty much a proof and do not destroy themselves. So, if you badmouth about someone on an email, be ready for that email to be used against yourself at the worst of times. This lesson is mostly learned the hard way, unfortunately.<br /><br />7. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Orkut/Facebook are different than email</span> - People forget that quite often. Orkut/Facebook are for writing short messages and wishing at the right occasions, may be forming some group or collaboration. Scraps are not for writing long, detailed and/or personal messages for the world to see. Do not use very personalized words like abuses as well in scraps. Scrapbook is the worst place for that.<br /><br />8. <span style="font-weight: bold;">Maintaining multiple email accounts - </span>Many people maintain multiple email accounts with one as a work email, one as contact email and one for signing up for subscriptions and spams. It is important then to give correct email address to people whose emails you want to read and reply. If you have somebody's work email, do not forward funny or viral mails to that account at all.<br /><br />If the mails are managed properly and attended to regularly, you can accomplish several important tasks through the emails itself. In the following post, I would talk about managing emails in a little more detail.<br /><br />Let me know if you find above tips useful.<br />Raag<br /><br /><a href="http://mishranurag.blogspot.com/search/label/Computing">My other posts related to computing.</a>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-6276394648191192042007-09-16T16:31:00.000-07:002007-09-16T16:50:38.087-07:00Global Warming and so called severe effects on our life style<span style="font-style: italic;">I wrote following article for Collegiate Times, Virginia Tech. The articles was published in its edited form and the online version was not published either. Following is the original letter.</span><br /><br /><br />It has been amusing to see how <a href="http://www.collegiatetimes.com/">Collegiate Times</a> chooses its article and letters. I wrote one article for Collegiate Times on <a href="http://mishranurag.blogspot.com/2007/05/global-warming-and-scientific.html">“Global Warming and Scientific Uncertainty,”</a> which talked about how a familiar term in scientific literature is constantly being abused by people who want to negate the concept of global warming. I wrote <a href="http://mishranurag.blogspot.com/2007/08/oil-and-oil-everywhere.html">another article about how Oil and Gas companies are using the Global Warming in their benefit by starting to drill in pristine Arctic</a>. Later, I published both of them in my blog. Collegiate Times didn’t find both of them worthy enough to publish, but they definitely found the article by Tim Edison “<a href="http://www.collegiatetimes.com/stories/2007/09/05/column__global_warming_argument_doesn_t_tell_the_whole_truth">Global Warming doesn’t tell the whole truth.</a>” I am not expecting this article to publish in Collegiate Time either, but it might be worth a try.<br /><br />There are several holes in Tim’s article, but I want to discuss the most ridiculous statement by Tim Edison “..before enacting policies which will inexorably alter our way of life and damage our economy.” I cannot understand how anything you do to reduce global warming can affect your life style and American economy. I am trying to list some changes which I did in my life and want you as a reader to analyze if it can affect anybody negatively. I am listing their positive effects except their effect in reducing global warning.<br /><br />1. Recycle: I recycle most of the waste generated in house and office, (although feel bad that there is not good way to recycle biologically decomposable waste in Blacksburg). By recycling I feel happier for needing lesser space in land fills, lower number of cut trees, and reduced pollution.<br /><br />2. Reduced Wastage: I have called the companies to stop sending me mail marketing offers and catalogs. That saves some trees, my time, space and wastage.<br /><br />3. Using less electricity: By switching off devices when they are not required, using low power bulbs, increasing AC temperature by couple of degrees, making my apartment complex to replace my windows with double pane glasses, I save something on electricity. I feel good for lower electricity bills, lower coal usage, cleaner air and lower pollution. I hope it will result in future generations with lower breath related problems and other side effects.<br /><br />4. Reusable grocery bags: I got them from Kroger, and feel very great to use less petroleum based grocery bags. Again they are product of petroleum and we all know its story. In last month, I think I avoided about 100 grocery bags by using reusable canvas bags.<br />5. Higher mileage car and maintaining it properly Lower gas bills, cleaner air, reduced dependence on non-renewable energy source and I hope not another war for oil (Hold your breath for Iran and Arctic area).<br /><br />These and several other small things, I and some of my friends practice and I don’t think these are affecting our life style severely. These changes in life style will definitely give positive feeling and help you solve several global problems. Reducing wastage is the key to survive. These adjustments in your life style can at least save you some money, and in the time where every <a href="http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/SavingandDebt/P70581.asp">American is born with a debt of $8000,</a> I think it is wise to save a little bit of money. Not changing the life style will only affect the economy of those companies who do not want their consumers to get intelligent and want them to consume and waste as much as they can.<br /><br /><br />RaagRaaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-1376313617692840212007-09-05T10:58:00.000-07:002007-09-05T11:10:09.596-07:00Story of BhasmasurIn Hindu scriptures, there is a story of a person who became demon named Bhasmasur.That person did a lot of praying to “Lord Shiva” (a Hindu God) for long time.Lord Shiva became happy and asked him what he wished for. The person requested for a power to destroy (Bhasma) anybody he wished for, just like we want to have more and more arms and weapons. Lord Shiva fulfilled his wish and said he can destroy anybody by putting his hand over their head, and that person’s name became “Bhasmasur” (Bhasma = Destroy, Asur = Demon). Just like we can aim and shoot anybody whom we like using guns, airplanes, may be satellites.<br /><br />Since Bhasmasur had power to destroy anybody he grew stronger and stronger and in the lust for more power he planned to destroy Lord Shiva himself to become more powerful. Just like when we arm another country or group who comes back to us after some years. Anyways, Lord Shiva got scared and ran to another God “Lord Vishnu” and requested his help. Lord Vishnu said Bhasmasur has become very strong and now he can be killed with his own power only. So Lord Vishnu made a plan and disguised himself as a beautiful seducing woman and went to Bhasmasur.<br /><br />As soon as Bhasmasur saw this woman he proposed her. The woman (Lord Vishnu) said that for her to accept his invitation, he will have to dance with her. Bhasmasur accepted and started dancing with the woman. While dancing, the woman kept her hand over head, Bhasmasur - lost in the intoxication of extreme power and lust, in an attempt to copy her, kept his hand over his own head and destroys himself.<br /><br />I have heard this story from my parents a few times since childhood, and it’s interesting to see so many of its live practical examples everywhere. We can relate it to the amount of weapons on Earth which can destroy all life on earth multiple times, we can relate it to arming the groups or countries who come back to us, we can relate it to a concept of arming each and every person with a handgun, or rifle as a measure to protect human life (we forget that the soldiers in Iraq are far more equipped, still close to 4000 of them have died and many after Iraq lost the war), we can relate it to the amount of pollution human being has created to destroy Earth’s natural processes (and not accept it) and so forth.<br /><br />The story has been repeated since human civilization for ages and being repeated again. One of the latest example is the <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/05/loose.nukes/index.html">"mistaken" flight of nuclear bomb all over the US in B52 bomber.</a> Although, the science and knowledge has improved a lot since human being appeared on this earth - our dressing style has changed, we use internet, we fly airplanes, but have we become really civilized since then? I wrote an<a href="http://www.collegiatetimes.com/news/2/ARTICLE/9030/2007-05-02.html"> article in Collegiate Times long back</a> and said that may be it’s a right time to watch an old movie called <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0083987/">“Gandhi,”</a>I think it will always be right to time watch it once more.<br /><br />RaagRaaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-28650983339733316702007-08-23T14:55:00.000-07:002007-09-12T08:41:40.646-07:00Oil and Oil everywhere<span style="font-style: italic;">EDIT on Sep 12, 2007: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/09/11/arctic.ice.cover/">Arctic sea ice cover at record low</a></span><br /><br /><o:p></o:p>It has been amusing to see several lobbies trying to make us believe that Global Warming is a hoax, and it is more amusing to see many of these lobbies are partially or fully funded by Oil Giants. Their effort against the concept of Global Warming and the impact of human being on Global Warming did show some results and there is still a good amount of confusion regarding this concept. As a result of this confusion, many people do not take this concept seriously and some who started conservation as a part of their life are not so serious about it or are dubious about it.<span style=""> </span>Although there is a good amount of people who are trying their best to reduce their footprints on Earth, this problem needs attention from each one of us.<o:p> </o:p> <p class="MsoNormal">There has been news for quite sometime regarding the conflict we are starting to see in <st1:place st="on">Arctic Circle</st1:place> of Earth. <st1:place st="on">Arctic</st1:place> is on extreme North of Earth and it used to be covered by ice mostly until recently. As a side-effect of Global Warming though, the ice in the Arctic area is melting. Due to the melting and reduction in ice cover of this area more and more sunlight is being absorbed instead of reflecting back to atmosphere, which is further increasing the rate of melting of ice. The temperature in this area is increasing at double the rate of rest of the Earth.<o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">So what?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Arctic is extremely rich in oil and gas. And now that the ice is melting fast it is feasible to extract these resources from Arctic area. But who owns <st1:place st="on">Arctic</st1:place>? <st1:country-region st="on">Russia</st1:country-region> always claimed it to be its part, <st1:country-region st="on">Canada</st1:country-region> is there too, <st1:country-region st="on">USA</st1:country-region> always had an interest in Arctic and then we have <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Denmark</st1:place></st1:country-region>. The thirst for Oil is deadly, and we have already seen it in the form of <st1:country-region st="on"><st1:place st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> war. And to get an idea of the amount of the resources in <st1:place st="on">Arctic</st1:place> for which the world is thirsty, "It contains about 40% of the world's requirement of Energy."<br /><br />Also, now that companies are trying to fetch the resources from <st1:place st="on">Arctic</st1:place>, they are going to ruin that place as well. God Forbid, if we see a war for that area then I don't think we will have the Earth or Environment to save. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Let’s hope for some sane policies for the whole humanity in coming days. Do your best to save the environment and pray that these companies do not spoil some more of Earth's pristine areas in <st1:place st="on">Arctic</st1:place>.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Raag</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p>Relevant Links:<br /><a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0731/p01s01-woeu.html">http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0731/p01s01-woeu.html</a><br /><a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10217691/site/newsweek/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10217691/site/newsweek/</a><br /><a href="http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/qthinice.asp">http://www.nrdc.org/globalwarming/qthinice.asp</a>Raaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-24078334513811254292007-07-18T12:28:00.000-07:002007-07-18T12:34:18.273-07:00Broken Drinking Water Fountains at Public PlacesI am the kind of person who hates to pay to buy a small bottle of water and increase waste. I always carry a bottle of water with me and refill it whenever possible. However, I notice that the public drinking water fountains at most of the rest areas, malls and other public locations in United States do not work properly or do not work at all.<br /><br />Nonfunctional drinking water fountains appear so systematic that I think they are kept nonfunctional under some scam. It may be that the companies which sell bottled water make sure that these fountains do not work so they can sell more and more of their bottled water. I have taken road trips more than 1000 mile long in a stretch and I rarely found a good water fountain even at State Welcome Centers. If they work, they take forever to fill a small water bottle, or the flow is so small that you cannot fill bottle completely.<br /><br />I went to San Francisco Center (Westfield Mall), and the water fountain there was not working at all. This place as its name suggests is the center of major activities in San Francisco, and always has lots of tourists in its vicinity. Nonfunctional water fountain at such a major location do need an explanation. I found the water fountain at Mall of America, Minneapolis not working properly either. At Squires Student Center, Virginia Tech, the water fountain at the most prime location is real bad. The water comes out of it, but neither can you drink it nor can you fill it because the flow is small. That fountain has been broken for at least last five years, and I have complained couple of times about it.<br /><br />The other place where I saw poor drinking water fountain was in an Amusement Park, Great America in Santa Clara, CA.<br /><br />I think there must be some kind of inquiry to find out if this is really a scam, or at least these water fountains must be repaired for people who want to use these fountains. Did you see a non functional water fountain at a place you didn't expect? Do comment about that.<br /><br />RaagRaaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-6403923102902874342007-07-16T08:46:00.000-07:002007-07-16T08:47:17.329-07:00Repeal the VA "Civil Remedial Fees" for Traffic Offenses PetitionPlease sign the petition against the ridiculous traffic violations fine in Virginia. To read more about these new fines, <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3335562">read here.</a> <br /><br />To sign the petition, click on the link below.<br /><a href="http://www.petitiononline.com/va3202/petition.html">Repeal the VA "Civil Remedial Fees" for Traffic Offenses Petition</a><br /><br />RaagRaaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26108007.post-61477977465110546712007-05-26T15:45:00.000-07:002007-06-02T12:32:15.672-07:00Lets Try and Act like Human, For a ChangeI have noticed on many occasions that we always try to subscribe to a set of theories or theorists while we discuss or analyze an issue. More often than not we also assign the person to be a subscriber of a theory or theorist while we discuss something.<br /><br />We become liberal or conservative, democrat or republican, christian or hindu or Muslim or representative of some other religion, we become ardent supporter of Global Warming concept or go totally against it, we talk about extreme gun control or providing everyone with guns, and so forth. In essence, we tie ourselves to many chains of prejudices or theories before getting into the ring or discussing or resolving any issue.<br /><br />The point of discussion becomes "how to convince other with my thoughts," and then nobody listens to anybody. We always think our theory is important than anything else in this world. The people who lobby strongly in support or against of any issue are politicians and media and then they always make left or right of an issue to be more important than issue itself.<br /><br />Then we either follow Bush or Al Gore, Glenn Beck or Michael Moore, CNN or FOX, BJP or Congress. I also think that's how the choices are presented to us as well.<br /><br />Surprisingly small interests start playing major role in big problems. It can be easily observed that we rarely see any<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consensus"> consensus</a> or resolution in solving big problems of world, country or region(s). Be it poverty, hunger, AIDS, deteriorating environmental conditions, increasing world population etc.<br /><br />The next tome you try and discuss anything or resolve anything, try and act like human, untie the shackles you are bound with, free up your prejudices, just think what your contribution is or what your contribution should be towards a better world. Just be humans, for a change.<br /><br />RaagRaaghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17899437600804420902noreply@blogger.com3