Addicted to OIL!!

According to the CIA factbook nearly 77 million barrels of oil are consumed per day in the world. the USA leads with nearly 20 million barrels/day whereas India consumes about 2 mn barrels/day and china 5 mn bbl/day.

The estimated reserves, production and consumption of oil can be seen here

Oil is ofcourse used to produce petrol and diesel to power our automobiles like bikes, cars, trucks, buses, trains etc.. and kerosene to power the aeroplanes and for cooking purposes.

besides this oil is used to manufacture plastics, paints, engine oils, nylon, polyester, detergents, styrofoam, asphalt, cosmetics, printing inks, vaseline, fertilizers, chemicals etc..

No wonder Oil is called the Black gold. Our modern lifestyles are highly dependent on this resource.

But we will soon run out of it 😦

By the end of this decade oil production will start to peak and demand will continue to soar leading to higher oil prices and considering so many of our daily use products are oil extracts it could mean high prices all around. even food production depends on fuels and fertilizers made of oil.

According to
oilcrash.com the Most significant effects of this will be:
1.Gradual, permanent cut-off of fuel for transport and for industrial machinery. Global trade will greatly decline.
2.Agriculture (massive food shortages) depends heavily on fertilizers and chemicals made from oil.
3.Shortages of 500,000 other goods made from oil.
Therefore, reduction of virtually all business and government activity. Very serious unemployment.

For a perspective on how important oil is in our daily lives read the article on
Life after the Oil Crash

In conclusion Oil is much more entwined into our lives than we even realize and once we run out of this resource or even if production drops by just 10-15% there will be a massive disruption of life as we have got used to.

Are newspapers useless crap?

No, they are not.newspapers are useful crap. I found a new use for it lately. to wipe the windshield of my car. one of my friends on blr.in abhi advised me to use wet newspaper to clean the windshield. i was quite puzzled and when i asked some other ppl they too were as puzzled as me. so after trying out the soft cloth, cotton cloth, etc.. and nothing seemed to work satisfactorily i decided to try this one out. i took a bottle of water and tried it on the passenger side of the windshield and i was amazed at the result.then i used it all over the windshield and now it literally sparkles and i’am now able to see the dood in front of me ever more clearly before i run over him heheheh 🙂

PS – please use only regular newspaper for this purpose.do not use those sleazy supplements like the bangalore times to clean ur windshiled it might scratch the windshield.

Dictatorship or democracy?

Ah!! the many virtues of dictatorship. a “great leader” in command of the country. he utters and it happens.
He says let the trains run on time and they have no choice but to run on time.
He says let the potholes go away and they disappear in no time.

this is the romantic image of a dictatorship that people in our country have. they see the indiscipline and corruption prevalent in our society and chaotic conditions on the road and wish for a iron hand to set all things in proper order.

unfortunately dictators are a very inconsiderate lot. they have their own agenda and if u don’t agree with them u might end up hanging on a meathook.

How many times has this happened in human history. people raise someone to the status of a living god, a messiah, a saviour etc.. and that fellow steadily accumulates power into his own hands and starts getting rid of all those he sees as “inconvenient” and by the time he shows his true colors it is too late to do anything about it. he simply cannot be stopped.

The names roll out thru the ages and they come from every nook and corner of the globe caligula, nero, aurangzeb, hitler, stalin, mao tse tung, saddam hussein, the regime of iran etc..

each one of the above started with lot of promise but deteriorated into reigns of terror many times worse and inhumane than the regimes they replaced. corruption, nepotism or inefficiency did not decrease one bit under their iron hand. the only thing that they did more efficiently was terrorise people and wipe out all traces of dissent. they all had the secret police who were ruthless in their job to monitor the population for any signs of disobedience to authority. this is true today in china who our commie “intellectuals(sic!)” admire so much. it is a out and out police state where ppl are murdered or jailed everyday for showing any signs of deviating from the official path. the economic boom that china is showing is typical of that shown by any police state in the past like nazi germany or stalinist soviet union. they invest large sums of money in white elephants like bridges, dams, factories etc.. and once this profligacy comes home to roost the bubble is burst and the state either collapses or is now only held together by sheer terror of its ruling elite led by “The Dictator”. they have scant respect for the lives of the people and are not averse to use them as cannon fodder in wars or “great leap forwards(to where??)” social experiments which have caused famines and killed millions of people.

I for one think that democracy is best. The problems we are facing today in our country is due to excessive “socialist” influence. who the hell is marx and why the hell should he be some kind of icon for india? get rid of him pronto!!

Also our failure to devise a system to suit our needs and conditions but instead depending on a cut copy paste(from the british, american, canadian and timbuktu rituals) and tinker as the one in power(like nehru, indira or rajiv or whoever can buy some MPs vote) wants constitution.

not being transparent enough. our bureaucrats hate telling people more than what they think that the people should know. which is very little by the way.

the freedom of speech that makes this blog possible is in itself a great asset of democracy. it lets ideas be freely debated without having to please the whims and fancies of a one “great man”. without having to look behind u r back, without suspecting that one of your friends or family might report u to the secret police.

so next time some one walks up to me and says that in his divine wisdom that india’s problems will be solved by a “great dictator”. i’am not listening dodo :-).save ur wisdom for u r drinking buddies.

The Best Driver in Town!!

At last i have mastered the art of driving. i got my driver’s licence and i have trained myself in the zen art of half-clutch driving and changing the tyres though the art of parallel parking seems to elude me still. i’am able to coast down every morning and evening between my home and office without much issue.i have become instinctively wary about people overtaking from the left and people who insist on driving at a snail’s pace on the fast lane. the traffic sense is awfully pathetic among people in bangalore and one has to be really aware about what is happening all around. there can be real nasty surprises even for a veteran driver let alone a new one.

Me and my cousin went on a long drive to mysore this weekend and it was real cool.the road conditions seems to have improved a lot even though some 30% of the road is not finished yet.the potholes still remain at stretches within some city limits and traffic is reduced to a crawl at such places. otherwise we touched 100 kmph at many stretches along the highway.

I’am still not clear what needs to be done to get the award of the best driver in Town. does one get this award by following all the traffic rules judiciously or by just getting from here to there without running over something and not scratching the car traffic rules be damned!!.

The Way ppl drive around the city it looks like it is Law of the jungle and only the fittest will survive

Blr.in

One of bangalore’s best kept secrets it has its own forum blr.in. the discussion ranges from the open forum where one can raise and discuss any topic under the sun(or clouds) in bengaluru to Film n book reviews, Food joints, Humor, Discount/bargains and what not. demands have also been raised for a Tech and cookery section.

The discussions do get real heated out here.one topic about killing animals for food raised such passion that the whole thread had to be deleted.that apart it is really nice to see that ppl have so many views about a topic.unlike many other forums and mailing lists on the internet this forum has people i know and it is fun to pull their leg and crack some jokes at their expense LOL!!.

and if u need anything just check out the Have section if it’s not there then u can ask for it in the Want Section.very simple!! and a nice fun place to make some new friends.