Drones are coming!

To what the next decade will belong too? Some may think of several alternatives such as internet, smartphones, twitter and facebook. But I think that all these belong to the past. The next decade will surely belong to drones, small airplanes that can be remotely controlled from a remote source like someone standing on ground below or sitting in front of a computer console, hundreds of miles away.

Drones came into lime light for a totally different reason during Afghanistan imbroglio, when US secret service CIA used them in targeted killings. Realising the tremendous potential of drones, many commercial undertakings have been experimenting with drones to find out if they could be used for delivery of products and materials. Amazon Inc, a US company, unveiled in 2013 a project aimed at delivering packages to customer's doorstep by using "octocopter" mini-drones with a mere 30-minute delivery time. Coming nearer home, a Mumbai based pizza outlet, Francesco's Pizzeria, known for its thin-crust pizzas made with fresh herbs and a "secret" BBQ lime sauce, used for the first time in India an unmanned drone to execute a delivery by taking the aerial route on May 11, 2014.

A famous Chinese actress internationally acclaimed for her role in the movie Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Zhang Ziyi, was celebrating her upcoming 36^th birthday on the weekend with her boyfriend Wang Feng and other friends. During this party, a white drone flew toward her. Wang feng quickly retrieved an engagement ring from inside the drone and then got down on one knee and popped the question to Zhang, whether she would marry him? Mighty excited, Zhang said “yes” before welling up, and the newly engaged couple kissed and embraced. To complete the show the night sky lit up with pre-arranged fireworks.

Can we make use of drones to spread unique properties of some foul smells to do some unpleasant jobs? The police force in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh state, India, think so. They think that a pepper spray can effectively control unruly mobs by showering them with it. They feel that the method will be "less harsh" than a baton charge. Police hope that it will also be more effective.

However, some people hate drones simply because they threaten the privacy of an individual. 'Deer Trail', a small farming and ranching town of just 600 people, located on high plains, about 55 miles east of Denver in Colorado state, USA, is considering a motion that the town pays bounties to anyone who shoots down a drone.

Phillip Steel, the man, who has put forward this whimsical proposal, is a resident of this town. He is a 48-year-old army veteran with a master's degree in business administration. He feels that there is a past precedent for similar actions. Governments once paid bounties to hunters who killed animals that preyed on livestock, but only after they produced the ears of the killed predators.

It is not that Deer Trail citizens have seen swarms of drones flying above them. Even Philip Steel, the proposer, has not seen any of them. He however says that some local ranchers outside the town limits have seen them. Why has he then come out with this proposal in that case? would be the natural question in everyone's mind. He explains that his idea is symbolic but the expansion of drones for commercial and government use is becoming alarming. He adds: "We don't want to become a surveillance society." According to him, if the town trustees do not vote to adopt the ordinance, it would go before voters in a special election. He hopes that his proposed motion will curtail the use of drones over the area as people flying the drones would be afraid that it would be shot down.

Frankly, I think Phillip Steel is just trying to swim against the tide. Whenever major changes in lifestyle force themselves upon us, there are always people who take great pride in resisting them. I have couple of friends, who proudly say that they are internet illiterate. What can we say to them? Perhaps Phillip Steel is just one of their tribe.

"Drones are coming!" is the writing on the wall and no one can stop them. We should be more positive in our approach and look towards the benefits instead of opposing them. Delivering an engagement ring might have been an idyllic use for a romantic occasion but there could be practical uses like delivering documents, medicines, food at a very low cost and utmost speed. The future for drones seems exceptionally bright.

1st May 2015

  

Awakening a sleeping beauty from space

During my first ever visit to US, way back in 1984, I used to be quite amazed to see lots of stuff like sofas, chairs, televisions, which appeared to be in good condition to me-left on the curbside-in spaces adjoining the foot paths. Coming from India, where I was tutored all along from my childhood not to throw away anything if it can be used, it was a real culture shock. In India, it is not customary to throw away any stuff if it can be repaired. Even when a replacement piece is bought, usually the old one would be sold off. There is a huge market for such stuff in India and people from small towns can get working gadgets and furniture at a ridiculously low cost because of this system.

I had asked my fiend in US about this stuff, found discarded on curb sides of the roads and what happened to it. He was quite philosophical about it. He said no one wants old stuff in US. Every month, companies bring out new designs and advertise widely on television and news papers. People go for the new designs and not knowing what to do with their existing stuff, simply discard it on the curb side. It usually ends in junkyards from where it may end in landfill. In fact, the entire American economy or consumerism works like this. People do not buy things because they need something. They mostly buy it because they are made to believe by clever advertising that they need it.

It is one thing to discard a sofa or a television because it has become old, but American space agency NASA has even gone to the extent of discarding a spacecraft because it had simply become old. Only difference is that instead of curb side it was left into space.

NASA had launched it's “ International Sun/Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) satellite on August 12, 1978, into a heliocentric orbit to study the interaction between the Earth's magnetic field and the solar wind. The spacecraft allowed scientists to observe for the first time the high-speed stream of electrons and protons known as the solar wind before it reached Earth. NASA renamed it as International Cometary Explorer (ICE) on June 10, 1982, after it had completed its original mission. It was now used to study the interaction between the solar wind and a cometary atmosphere. On May 5, 1997, NASA simply ended the ICE mission. The old earth station transmitters that could talk with ISEE-3 were switched off and thrown away. Surprisingly the spacecraft ISEE-3 was never turned off and a carrier signal was left operating. Since that day ISEE-3 spacecraft has been looping around the sun on a 355-day orbit. The transmitters on board of spacecraft are still broadcasting, waiting for its next command.

After having spent 36 years in space and 17 years after it was discarded, a motley group of engineers, who call them as 'Skycorp,' want to revive the spacecraft and see whether it can be put to use. Fans of the old spacecraft still exist, who argue hat it could be used to train future scientists and engineers. Skycorp, has its office in the building that once housed a McDonald's fast food joint, serving US Navy's Moffett air station, north-west of San Jose, California. After closure, NASA had converted the base into a research campus for small IT firms, academia and non-profit groups. Talking about his company, Mr Dennis Wingo, an engineer and entrepreneur says that they call themselves as techno-archaeologists. Mr. Wingo has a track record of extracting miracles from space antiques that NASA has given up on. If the project was to be undertaken, Spacecorp needed funds. Nearly US$160,000 were collected on crowdfunding website RocketHub, to help pay the costs.

Mr. Wingo's first job was to handshake and talk with the spacecraft. By no means, it was a simple task as no one knew how to command it and no one had the full operating manual anymore. Only some contradictory fragments were available. Mr. Wingo's team succeeded in building a new transmitter that could talk to the spacecraft and went all the way to Puerto Rico to install it on Arecibo Observatory radio telescope.

At the end of last month (May 2014), Mr Wingo's team finally succeeded in talking to the spacecraft. He says that after 36 years in space, the craft, the International Sun- Earth Explorer-3 (ISEE-3), appears to be in good working order and his team should be ready to fire the engines of the spacecraft to move it to the desired location, which could be an Earth orbit, within weeks.

I feel that Mr. Wingo's team has achieved something that could be considered as almost impossible. It is not only the technical expertise but also the commercial part of it, which involved generating funds for the project. Like the sleeping beauty from the classic fairy tale for children, he has actually managed to awaken a real sleeping beauty in space.

17^th June 2014

Wither Electronic media in India?

A few years back, during my stay in US, I often watched (perhaps because there was nothing better to do.) television new channels such as CBS, NBC, Fox news or Headlines news (now called as HLN) available to viewers in US. To be frank, I never felt satisfied watching the news there. In a typical new broadcast, they would devote 60 to 70 % of their newscast time on news about local crimes such as muggings, murders, rapes and street brawls, 20 to 30 % of the time on local politics and sports and remaining time of few minutes on news of any real significance. I also came across the concept of 'Breaking news,' for the first time, though most of the news under this category was always stale. I had then thought that after all I was a foreigner and my interests were bound to be different from what locals wanted to see on their TV and the channels perhaps are satisfying the needs of the community.

The TV in India of those days, was vastly different from that of today There was a single channel called 'Doordarshan,' which happened to be state monopoly and was being run by a Government ministry in Delhi in a typical socialist pattern. Newscasts on Doordarshan were extremely dull and included boring discussions that could always induce sleep in the viewer within few minutes. The news was always scrutinized to see whether it confirmed to the broadcast rules set by the Government. No views or expressions that would be contrary to Government line or news about any scam in the Government was ever allowed.

But advent of cable TV changed all that. Slowly there was a plethora of TV channels available. Government was initially very reluctant to allow private TV channels to broadcast news as it was scared that anti Government views would be transmitted on air. Finally, Government gave in and Private news networks slowly developed. To day, we have in India, a plethora or a bouquet of news channels that broadcast news not only in English or Hindi but in most of the regional languages too. This has been a healthy trend for our democracy too because almost any point of view can be aired now.

Unfortunately, a new trend has developed lately in English language news channels in India besides the gimmick of dishing out some stale news items under the garb of 'Breaking news.' As an example let me give you from what was being discussed in the prime time slot at 9 PM on Five major TV channels during last four days. From the TV news discussions in the prime time on these channels, it would appear to anyone that the most important national events ( in the order of priority) that are taking place in this country of 1.25 Billion people are as follows:

*Alleged rape of a young female assistant editor by the middle aged chief editor of an investigative news portal during some kind of conference in Goa.

* Trial of a wealthy couple (both are dentists.) living near Delhi for murder of their own 13 year old daughter and a house servant and their subsequent conviction.

* Alleged watch ordered by an erstwhile home minister of a state of a young female architect at request of her father, who felt that she was under threat. Father accepts that he had requested this and the young woman has no complaints.

For last four days, out of all major English language news channels, almost all were found to be discussing about above three items of news in the prime time, even when very crucial state elections are being conducted at this time and people are expecting a major political upheaval in the country. I found only one channel broadcasting a programme about elections in a state, in prime time during last four days.

I find it grossly wrong that national media have been wasting their prime time slots on crime news instead of talking about matters of national interest. This, according to me is not a healthy sign at all and soon we may have a situation, where electronic media would loose their relevance and credibility and like 'Doordarshan' days of past, we would again have to depend on BBC and CNN to give us an objective and true picture of the happenings.

If this is not yellow journalism, then what is it? Danger signs are all there.

28^th November 2013

Shoot down that drone!

This is one bit of news that would gladly warm the hearts of Taliban and other such terrorists, carrying on with their nefarious activities on borders between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Ever since US forces started attacking with rockets and bombs the places here, by means of unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, these little pilot-less aircraft flying on their own, have become their top dreaded enemy.

Deer Trail, a small farming and ranching town of just 600 people, located on high plains, about 55 miles east of Denver in Colorado state, USA, is considering a motion that the town pays bounties to anyone who shoots down a drone.

Phillip Steel, the man, who has put forward this whimsical proposal, is a resident of this town. He is a 48-year-old army veteran with a master's degree in business administration. He feels that there is a past precedent for similar actions. Governments once paid bounties to hunters who killed animals that preyed on livestock, but only after they produced the ears of the killed predators.

Similarly, he has proposed that the town would pay $100 to anyone who could produce the fuselage and tail of a downed drone. The bounty would be paid only if one of the two has remained undamaged. Under his proposal, hunters could legally shoot down a drone flying under 1,000 feet with a 12-gauge or smaller shotgun.

It is not that Deer Trail citizens have seen swarms of drones flying above them. Even Philip Steel, the proposer, has not seen any of them. He however says that some local ranchers outside the town limits have seen them. Why has he then come out with this proposal in that case? would be the natural question in everyone's mind.

He explains that his idea is symbolic but the expansion of drones for commercial and government use is becoming alarming. He adds: "We don't want to become a surveillance society." According to him, if the town trustees do not vote to adopt the ordinance, it would go before voters in a special election. He hopes that his proposed motion will curtail the use of drones over the area as people flying the drones would be afraid that it would be shot down.

I thought that on the face of it, the proposal looks outright whimsical. But on second thoughts, I feel that it is a symbolic gesture against increasing use of modern technology to interfere in private lives of other people. As it is, there is very little personal information that can be kept hidden from the social media. Now on top of that, you can be under surveillance of some one, who might use the information gathered by him for his commercial advantage to your disadvantage. Such information also can be used even for some criminal activities.

Imagine a drone flying above you and noting all the finer details of your daily routine. Your hobbies, likings and everything. I would not like to be a subject of such a drone search for myself. Phillip Steel's proposal no longer appears to me silly any longer. Eventually all societies around the world would need to bring in similar laws. Apparently, Deer Trail may not be the only town thinking about such a legislation. Some towns in Texas are also thinking on these lines.

This video clip, embedded here, will make things clear, I think!

On the lighter side, Steel says that the town would require to establish a drone recognition programme that would train the shooters to properly identify the targeted aircraft. His proposal clearly stipulates:"In no case shall a citizen engage an obviously manned aerial vehicle." (HaHa!)

19 July 2013

Agent Orange

10^th of August 1961, is considered as the saddest day in the last 50 years of history of Vietnam. On very this day, American aircraft had sprayed a chemical known as Agent Orange on jungles of Vietnam. This chemical was transported in steel drums, which were painted with orange stripes on the outside and this is the reason for which the chemical was commonly known as Agent orange. 

This chemical has a property by which it destroys all the flora or foliage, including shrubs, trees and grasses, on the ground, where it is sprayed. US Generals had thought that US forces find it difficult to fight the Communist Vietnamese soldiers, because they are hidden in the dense jungles of Vietnam. It was therefore decided by US chief of staff that the jungles themselves should be destroyed so that the Vietnamese soldiers would be exposed and decided to use Agent orange for this purpose. Between 1961 and 1971, or in a decade, American airplanes sprayed 80 Million Liters of Agent Orange on Vietnam Jungles. Agent Orange contains a deadly poisonous substance known as Dioxin and it was found that in this decade approximately 366 Kg of Dioxin was sprayed on Vietnamese soil.

The Army Generals, who took the decisions of spraying Agent Orange, perhaps never thought about the ill effects, this deadly poison would have, on the innocent common people of Vietnam, who were not involved in this war at all. According to an estimate, the decade of spraying of Agent Orange affected at least 4.8 Million innocent Vietnamese and at least 3 or 4 hundred thousand people must have lost their lives in this period. 

 

For hundreds of thousands of other people, bad long term effects were caused by this chemical, such as Cancer and Genetic mutations. Large number of children were born in subsequent years with terrible physical disabilities. Today within the southern city of Ho-Chi-Min city itself, there are more that 4000 such citizens that are affected by Agent Orange.

A social service organization known as VAVA or Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange is making efforts to help the sufferers of Agent Orange. American senator John MacCain claims that US Government has spent more that 46 Million Dollars on care and rehabilitation Agent Orange affected Vietnamese people. However in 2005, in a legal suite filed against the manufacturers of Agent Orange, American judiciary has given a judgment that has ruled against the 'Agent Orange affected' Vietnamese people. Because of this judgment it has become almost impossible to get any funding from US Government for help to these affected people. This organization (VAVA) is now trying to arrange charity shows of popular rock stars to raise money to help these people. Vietnam Government has also decided to mark, 10^th of August of every year as “Orange Day,” to remember these unfortunate people.

I saw recently some photographs of these affected people and also of the genetic defects with which some post war children are born with. The photographs are so pathetic and sad that it requires a special effort to stop and not to cry.

12 January 2013

An Aircraft Boneyard

I am sure that those of the readers, who might have seen the Hollywood flick “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” would definitely remember the shots of the huge airport shown in the film. I was always under impression that this airport must have been set up in the film studio itself on a miniature scale using small model aircraft. However, it is quite bewildering that such an airbase is actually in existence near Tucson city: Arizona in USA. There is a small difference though; Tuscon airbase is no airport but a huge cemetery for old disused aircraft. 

 

This aircraft dumping ground, official known as Davis-Monthan Air Force base is as large as 1430 American Football fields or has an area equal to 2600 acres. It is popularly known as Boneyard, a name which describes it rather accurately, and was built just after second world war.

The weather at this airbase is extremely dry and that perhaps was the main reason for selection of this place, as it was thought that the aircraft based here would not be damaged by rusting. Besides the dry weather, the soil at this place also has some unique kind of properties. Just below an upper layer of dust, the soil consists of an extremely hard layer of soil. Because of this hard layer, it has been possible to park all kinds of aircraft here without constructing a concrete tarmac. A unit of United States Air Force called “309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG)” keeps busy on this airbase, looking after the aircraft. It is hard to believe that this airbase has more than 4200 aircraft and 10 space craft parked with a combined value exceeding 35 Billion Dollars.

This one of a kind museum of real aircraft, boasts of F 14 TomCats. The readers might recall that these aircraft had featured in the Hollywood movie, Top Gun featuring actor Tom Cruze. The other aircraft parked here include B 52 Flying Fortress Bombers of cold war era and anti tank A 10 planes. During last 25 years, at least 20 % of the aircraft parked here, were refurbished for use again. Many of such planes were sold to other countries also. The planes which are beyond refurbishing are normally cannibalized to recover spare parts, which can be used in other planes of similar class. The planes that are beyond any use are mainly sold as junk or scrap.

After seeing the pictures of this airbase with row after row of neatly parked aircraft, I was reminded of a childhood memory, which I can always recollect. About 25 miles away from my home town, Pune in India and near a railway station called Dehu Road, there used to be a huge motorized vehicle depot of military transport vehicles, many of them from WWII vintage. This depot used to be along a railway line towards Mumbai. Whenever, I used to travel by train to go to Mumbai, I would keep watching from the train window, long and never ending rows after rows of all kinds of military transports parked in a most systematic way, which only an army can do, as the train moved slowly along. Later on, the depot was moved somewhere else and since then I have always missed that great spectacle of my childhood days, whenever I happen to travel by train. Now I realize that this depot of yesteryear and the Tuscon air base, as seen, curtsey Google earth, both highlight how mind bogglingly large the defense industries really are.

 

I can imagine that some small kid living in Tuscon and moving along the perimeter of this airbase in his dad's car, must be getting similarly thrilled looking at the rows and rows of modern aircraft as I was once was with the vehicle depot, and later kept dreaming about them.

I wouldn’t call the Davis-Monthan Air Force base as an aircraft cemetery or a Boneyard. I would prefer to call it an aircraft dream factory for the kids.

27 September 2012

The Bread Winner

 In the year 1968, a professor from Stanford University, Paul Ehrlich, wrote a book. He named it as ‘Population Bomb’. It immediately hit the bestseller list. In this book, the author had spelt a bleak future and doom for the Indian people. He had predicted that in decades of 1970 and 1980, millions of Indians would die because of starvation, as Indian agriculture was totally incapable of feeding the rising population.
Those of us, who remember the food situation in India in the decades of 1950 and 1960, can vouch that the situation was serious. Because of terrible shortages and scarcity of foreign exchange, Government of India was forced to accept inferior quality wheat offered by US Government as free gift. American farmers, in fact had produced this wheat, as animal feed. Due to food shortages, there was wide spread black marketing in food. The situation did look like Ehrlich’s predictions.

In the decade of 1970, the situation changed rapidly as if someone had waved a magic wand. From 1965 to 1970, wheat production from India increased from 12 million tons to 20 million tons. In 1975, India became for the first time, a net exporter country of wheat. In the year 2000, wheat production touched 75 million tons. How did this happen? Who made this 600% growth, now known as Green Revolution, possible?
The magician who managed this trick was a humble American agriculturist. His name was Norman Borlaug. Besides India, he achieved this Green revolution in Pakistan, Sudan and much earlier in Mexico. In 1970, Norman was awarded Noble prize for peace. The award committee had commented that “more than any other single person of this age, he has helped provide bread for a hungry world.”

Norman was born in 1914 on a farm near Cresco in the state of Iowa in United States. He graduated from University on Minnesota, majoring in Forestry. He worked for some time for U.S. department of forests but returned to university to complete his post graduation in Plant Pathology and later did his Doctorate.
He left his cushy job in 1944 to join a research project in Mexico to create new wheat varieties to increase production. For next decade, he put in hard work in this research station having very primitive facilities. He never said no to any work right from pulling a plough, as no Tractor was available. He used to spend up to 12 hours per day, carefully cross-fertilizing the wheat flowers with a small paintbrush. By 1956, his hard work had paid off. Mexico’s food production had doubled.

In 1965, Indian Government invited Norman to India. He helped to establish hundreds of research stations in north India. Even when the Indo-Pak war was raging, he demonstrated to hundreds of Punjab and Haryana farmers, his hybrid wheat varieties. The farmers from India, took up his Hybrid seeds in a big way and converted their lands into  goldmines. In 1984, even after retirement, when a call came from Africa, he went back to the fields.
When he was young, Norman had never seen human Hunger as such. In 1933, during great depression, he saw for the first time a man begging for food in New York. This incidence made a mark on him and he realized that no nation could have peace on empty stomachs. His initial research work was about the most dangerous ‘Rust’ disease on wheat crops. He developed a hybrid variety resistant to this disease. He crossbred this, with an indigenous Japanese variety called ‘Norin’ to produce a hybrid, which brought about Green Revolution in India.
After India, Pakistan and then Sudan became self-sufficient in food. In all these countries, which had become self-sufficient, the population growth rates actually started decreasing along with incidence of diseases. This was exactly contrary to what Paul Ehrlich had predicted.

So called Green environmentalists, never really approved Norman’s hybrid wheat varieties. They claimed that these were unnatural. Norman always countered their argument by saying “Nature has created wheat by cross breeding various types of grasses. If we continue this process and produce better varieties it is not unnatural” He believed that if all nations increase their food production by adopting his methods, 8 billion people, who are likely to inhabit the earth by 2025 would find no food shortages anywhere.
It is best to ignore the green brigade. For Millions and Millions of people from developing countries, Norman Borlaug has been their Breadwinner in true sense. All of us are greatly indebted to this man for having saved our lives.
Norman Borlaug died on 12^th September 2009, at a ripe age of 95.

The House smells rotten eggs!

Just imagine, that you have purchased a brand new apartment or a house with a big loan from a bank. You have thrown a grand house warming party, where you invited all your friends and well-wishers. You move into the house after that, hoping to have a wonderful time in the house with your family. After few days, you are horrified to find that the house smells of rotten eggs all the time. Presuming that the smell must be coming from the fresh coat of paint, you use fresheners, deodorants and essence sticks. But to no avail, the smell refuses to go. After few more days, you notice that all your family members are having some or other problem with breathing. Some have body rash. Then you suddenly find out that the new aircon you have installed, has already started rusting.

Papa Doc

(माझ्या ब्लॉगचे एक नियमित वाचक व माझे मित्र श्री. सहज यांनी मला या ब्लॉगपोस्टचा दुवा पाठवला आहे. त्याबद्दल प्रथम त्यांचे आभार. )

या वर्षीच्या 25 फेब्रुवारीला, पपा डॉक किंवा डॉक्टर वॉल्टर वॉटसन यांनी वयाची शताब्दी पूर्ण केली. म्हणजे हा दिवस काही फार निराळ्या पद्धतीने पपा डॉक यांनी घालवला असे मुळीच नाही. नेहमी प्रमाणेच ते सकाळी पावणे सात वाजता उठले, त्यांनी न्याहरी केली व साडे आठ वाजता ते रोजच्या प्रमाणे हॉस्पिटल मधल्या आपल्या कामावर हजर झाले.