Sarath Chandra Pandurangi's Blog

A Well made movie

Soon the dream of having a futuristic Electric Motor Cycle will become a reality. The Tron-white vehicle, code-named c-1 and manufactured by lit motors, is foretold to be in showrooms by 2014. The all electric motorcycle will have gyroscope that will eliminate the need to put your foot down for balancing. The expected 200 mile range on a 6 Hr charge is not bad for a Electric Motor Cycle. Innovative technology that integrates with your phone and internet, makes it really futuristic. Did I mention glow light tires? Here is a sneak peek

Here is one company committed to Green alternative fuels and reducing carbon foot print. Google is no less a real life research lab. Plugin Electric cars are the fastest way to remove dependency on oil. They may eventually become energy hogs (if everyone will buy these), but for the moment, they are a viable solution. Advances in renewable energy may make electric even cheaper, easy to produce - until then, its only time for ideas.. like these..

  The site paperbecause.com, is from domat, a paper manufacturer, promoting the use of paper. For one consideration, they claim paper is physical and associates it with a emotions, features and relatively subtle nuances that cannot be attributed to electronic media counterparts.   Tree Huggers, Green advocates, on the contrary, try to reduce the use of paper. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. For once, however, the use case of paper seemed to be apt. It is true that opening a paper card is much more thrilling than opening an e-card. Paper well hold well for physical and free-expressive mode of holding thoughts or expression. They press on the idea of how paper makes it easy to annotate, carry around with you – campaigning against campaigns like " Don't Print this ".   They also claim, paper ads make a better marketing tool than emails or online campaigns. This is a little far-fetched argument, if not absurd. Google would not have made so much money if not for online ca...

Don't buy those water bottles again. Bobbles – is a pet bottle that can be your very own personal water filter – on the GO!! It filters out chlorine and other contaminants as you drink. The filter , replaceable, lasts for about 300 bottles. Does the job for about two months. The filters are available separately. The Bobble is also a good idea environmentally speaking. As the Bobble website notes, 1.5 million barrels of oil are used annually to make plastic water bottles, most of which are then casually discarded. We had been buying bottled water. Looks like now we'll be drinking from our Bobbles. (This trip to India this time lasted 6 months. I wish I came to know about this before. I would have saved so many water bottles)

Indian government is bent on a  hazardous called the Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage, and it's coming up for a vote in a couple of days. The bill lets U.S. corporations off the hook for any nuclear accidents they cause on Indian soil. They'd only have to pay a meager amount, and Indian taxpayers would be stuck paying crores for the nuclear clean up and to compensate the victims. There is a lot of dissent in the blogosphere and the Indian press about this. However, It is unclear why the ruling UPA Govt seeks to bring this to the table. Greenpeace is launching a petition asking the PM to hold a public consultation before introducing the bill. http://www.greenpeace.org/india/stop-the-vote You can also voice out on facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Petition-against-Civil-Liability-for-Nuclear-Damage-Bill-in-India/384059698828 Do your bit, Google it and voice your opinion.

Laptops get hot after long use. As they old, they get hotter; and sooner. Sometimes, working in a room with AC running doesn't even help. What makes the situation worse, they shutdown after getting extremely hot. Buying a USB laptop cooler pad is one solution. But here is a simple DIY, that can save you money and your laptop those extra amps. Here is a simple yet powerful solution to it. No – not the "cleaning the processor fan fins" tip. Take a Tissue Paper / Bath towel. Dampen it with cold water. Make sure you remove all of the excess water. Take a flat board to support your laptop's bottom. If your laptop is an "always on desktop replacement", you can use the table it is resting on. Keep the dampened paper/towel on it. Make two or three bars of cardboard (about 1/2 inch wide, length to cover your laptop, considerable height) Keep the laptop on the dampened towel using the bars to elevate it a little. The fans running on the laptop use the mo...

Dont print that email/document. Its not a request. Its a real, honest, warning. Dont do it. You must be really out of this world, or of the last millenium, or simply a silicon dimwit to use that printer instead of using it electronically. In the first place, you are consuming (carelessly) yet another enviromentally expensive resource. No, not the paper. The Tree (do you know how long it takes for a tree to be ready for paper manufacturing? and all those chemicals used to make it?). On the other hand, it is much easier to search an electronic catalog than manually looking up a drawer full of business requirements in hard copy. Instead of printing those comminucation emails, jira tickets, corporate bills, use case documents (and the list goes on..) - scan them / store digitally. Many of these start off as electronic documents. Use those. You can make it worth even more by using Google Desktop search or similar tools. Much worse is printing books/study material for *reference*. Are you...

Driving back from work, this friday, My friend and I were having an interesting discussion. He suggests driving close to the car (tailgating ) in front and coasting there would improve the Fuel Efficiency because it reduces Air Drag. Spat came my answer: NO. My point was, even in a highway situation, this saving would be less when compared to the fuel expense to catch up with him if there was ever a break in speed (and that going back from work, speeds do break quite often). Not to mention the additional risk of an accident. Although I felt triumphant myself, He didnt bulge in. His example was, the cyclists in a marathon. They keep themselves together to reduce air drag and use lesser energy. So in the weekend, I do this research. Apparently My friend was very correct on the Cyclists. It is scientifically proven that Cyclists get advantage by moving in groups and there by reducing the drag. Logically (theoritically too) it might sound appropriate to connect the dots to cars. But lo...

When I bought my Hybrid, I donated my old car. At that time, I thought, If I am buying a Hybrid, I am reducing my carbon foot print. But, Someone else is getting that old car and driving it for another 3 years. So am I really reducing the foot print? We want to use paper bags instead of plastic ones, but the earlier weighs a lot more than the latter - so transporting them burns more carbon. Same applies to using paper towels or Blow Driers. Who is calculating the trade offs? how do we know we are really going Green? Be sure of that next time.. For now, on a lighter note - Catch a bit of Colbert's Report.

Look ma, finally the world understands - Its easier better to cruise than break hard after a speed rampage. For all the better things, Look at the green side of high gas prices. People are talking thinking about mass commute or Car pooling. Resulting in Less Traffic. Lesser Accidents. And Much lesser pollution. Car manufacturing companies making cars not for *speed* but for *green*. Revolution and research in alternative fuels. Good Excuse for using your old bike to ride locally :). In turn improving your health! As they say, Nature does take its course;

I am a Proud Vegetarian. I don't eat Meat or Eggs. People say its hard here in US to be one. I beg to differ. The mere fact that I am hail and healthy these 4 years is a definitive proof. Apart from being bullied and trash talked by The Meat-Eaters, There is really nothing that makes this choice of mine any more than a debatable issue at a lunch or dinner. Other things aside, I am writing this blog having watched a PETA Video. Before you click on the play button, I ask you - If you are a vegetarian : Dont watch it. If you are not : Dare to watch it till the end. If you think going veg is just a fashion, think again . Even if you just want to do it for Fashion . Do it. Go Vegetarian. And Feel better asking the waiter for a Vegetarian Entrée in your next lunch.

Happy Earth Day folks. Go out there. Save something precious today for our chidren's tomorrow. Go green. you don't have to be a Super hero to save the planet. Its in crisis and it needs every one of you. And the moment aint any better than today! Save atleast ONE A4 sheet today. Feel proud about it. And Pass on the pride!

In most asian contries, its much cheaper to repair equipment than replacing it. Like if some television blew out because of a small transistor, there are a thousand technitians who can fix it for 1/100th of the TV's Cost. Here in US, I found it very dissappointing to see people replace the whole TV just for a transistor. First it is very enviro-expensive and second it is very arrogant to do that.. There are so many things you can repair and reduce your enviro-footprint. Think about it.

I am a Tree Hugger . I try to reduce my foot print on the environment. I am a proud owner of a beautiful Camry Hybrid On the same green lines, I try to help increase awareness in people about going green. Its not really hard . Do you want to peek how much happens in your daily life that effects the size of your foot print? Check this out .