Friday, July 24, 2009

To an energetic future

Very encouraged to hear about GE Smart Grid, which uses power data to alter consumer behaviour for their benefit. So, for example, if your power meter clearly indicates you pay more for using the washing machine in the evening, then you can use it in the morning instead and save money. This project is also working on allowing consumers to generate their own electricity from solar panels (for example) and selling it back to the utility company. Though this Business Week article says that it only results in a monthly reduction in expenditure of $2, don't forget to read the comments section where Mark Brian, GE's Home Energy Manager who is featured in the article, clarifies:

My overall bill is down almost 20% since I received the smart appliances and started modifying my consumption behavior. The $2.00 savings number quoted above is a comparison to my actual "variable rate" bill, and what my bill would have been if I had paid a flat rate of 6% per kW-hour. What this tells me is that I have successfully avoided the price increase that came with time-of-use pricing. Overall ... my bill is still down 18%-20% on average and I'm successfully bypassing the electricity price increase!
On the heels of Google Power Meter and what I heard at the 'Revealing Energy' sessions at TED Global yesterday, I think making energy-saving a commercial business project can really do wonders for our future generations, and I don't mean to sound fluffy when I say that. I'd use GE Smart Grid or Google Power Meter in a snap if they were available to me. I think that apart from making sound financial sense, they'd really contribute to environmental sustainability. Those are only good things, no? And companies like GE and Google are demonstrating that they are outward-looking by investing in these projects. Hats off to them.  

Friday, March 14, 2008

How to explain THAT to your kids :)

In India, it is really tough to explain the whole birds-and-the-bees deal to kids. I don't think I know any parent who's done that without humming and hawing. Heck, there are even parents who don't. MOST parents I know fall in this category and just sort of expect their kids to know from various sources (school? their friends?) when the time comes.

Well, check this out. It is one of the most interactive, fun ways I've seen yet to explain love, sex and tell them that the world is going to be one hell of a confusing place in the years to come!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Get them some air!

If you don't know what this is, then you're not an Apple fan, obviously.

Anyway, this person missed his flight because the airport security officials didn't know what it was, either!!!

Monday, March 10, 2008

Guess who prefers Obama

No, no VVIP or anything. This ad run by the Hillary Clinton campaign must be familiar to most people by now, where she suggests that she'd be the best person to answer the phone in the White House when you are sleeping at 3 a.m.

Turns out that the little girl in that ad is now actually 17 (Getty Images had rights to the footage and it was used by the Clinton campaign), her name is Casey Knowles and yeah - she is an avid Obama supporter!!!

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Are you too busy recording, or living?

"We talked about a number of other things—I can’t remember what—and he took a few pictures with his phone, which I thought was lame. I mean, if you’re too busy recording the experience, are you actually having it in the first place?"

- Hari Kunzru, 'Raj, Bohemian'

That's a thought I always have when I see friends of mine take pictures and pictures and pictures at the rate of one every minute almost, when they go out partying. I take pictures too, but not so many, because - and this is why I put in the quote here - if you’re too busy recording the experience, are you actually having it in the first place, as Kunzru says in his great short story that touches on consumerism and the urban socialite's 'hectic' life.

Is home where the heart is?!

Got this from my cousin in an email....with the message 'This bike was parked here in 1985. The owner is still in Saudi Arabia'.

And then at the bottom, 'at least visit your native place once a year'!!!!

Monday, March 03, 2008

....

Sometimes it is just too tiring to be good.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

Sunday entertainment!

To brighten up your Sunday, I hereby present....George W. Bush. LOL!!!!!!!