Norway-1st country to become 100% electric powered

Norway will become the first country in the world to be run on electricity and will be known as the first fully electric powered nation.

Electricity outage is very common in India and many other developing countries across the world. It causes difficulties for a common man.

Everything is being automated now a days and electricity is the core foundation or base of this.

But there are some countries where government puts primary focus on energy sector and designs, formulates and implements policies and laws that give priority to electricity.

Electricity is going to be the lifeline of each one of us in the future.

Energi Norge, an industry advisory body in Norway published a 24 points plan for the switch to electricity, including providing free charging for electric cars across the country and tax exemptions for drivers.

A full conversion to electric cars would require considerable effort within the transport industry.

The body suggests that Norway will operate entirely by using clean energy by year 2050.

Hydro power is currently the source of over 96% of the nation’s electricity and there are more than 110,000 electric cars used in the country.

The country’s ministries have recently declared that no vehicle will be run on any fossil fuel after 2025.

 

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Plane-longer than a football field

Microsoft has developed an airplane longer than a football field and has a wingspan of 385 ft. It is named as Stratolaunch.

Yes, this is the world’s largest plane weighing about 1.3 million pounds.

It weighs 500,000 pounds without fuel and it can carry fuel weighing 250,000 pounds.

It has 28 wheels and has six 747 jet engines.

The aircraft is 238 feet from nose to its end and is 50 feet from the ground to the tip of its vertical tail, its highest point.

This plane developed by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen unveiled it for launching satellite toting rockets into space. This was unveiled in California’s Mojave Desert on 31^st May 2017.

The plane is not developed to carry passengers but to carry and launch rockets into space.

This project was being developed for last 6 years and is expected first launch as early as 2019.

This innovation will reduce cost of launching small vehicles into space.

Adventure journey in the dark

It was night. Time to leave office.

Cabs start moving at 9.15 PM though shift ends at 9.00 PM.

This is the typical life of a BPO employee.

We were 4 people all hailing from Rohini. We asked driver to take route via Delhi Cantonment and Tilak Nagar.

The driver was adamant and suggested that he would take us through Kapashera and Dabri Mode and we would reach home earlier than other days.

We told him that we were not aware about this route but he said”Sirjee you need not worry as I know the route”.

We sat comfortably and waited to reach home.

We generally take Delhi cantonment route where the cab travels through Hari Nagar, Janakpuri District center and finally reach Rohini via outer Ring Road. We generally reach home by 10.30 PM.

The cab crossed Kapashera and we reached road which was clean and very wide resulting in fast movement of traffic. We entered Dwarka and thought we would be hitting Dabri Mode soon and then Janakpuri District Centre.

There was a dead end and the cab slowed down. We all thought cab would turn right. But the driver took left  instead. We told him, “Bhaiya you have taken a wrong turn and should have taken right turn”. But he said he knew the route and was going the right way.

The cab started moving through congested roads and there was very slow movement of traffic due to narrow roads and market.

At one point the cab came to a standstill and remained idle for about 5 minutes. The cab started moving.

Suddenly a two wheeler came from the opposite side and hit our cab from right side. We felt that the cab was hit but the driver did not stop the cab. Another two wheeler coming from the opposite side shouted that the cab has been hit and bumper has come out a bit. The driver stopped the cab after some time where the traffic was thin. He went out and checked the bumper and after 30 seconds came back on his seat.

We were happy!

We all were waiting to say something as the route was very long and we were going through congested roads.

One of my colleagues said, “Bhaiya time and efforts were wasted as you have taken a long route and now your cab has also been damaged. You will have to spend money to get it repaired. You should have listened and have taken the recommended route”.

The driver laughed and said, “Sir Money is not a problem. I was earning Rs 3 lakhs in 20 minutes sometime back and repairing cab is not a problem. You sit comfortably and enjoy the ride”.

I became curious and asked how he earned so much amount in 20 minutes. He told us that we would not be able do it. I asked if he could tell me, I should at least be able to earn Rs 1 Lakh in 20 minutes.

He laughed and said we would not be able to do it.

I insisted if there was any specific reason. He simply said that was illegal work.

I laughed and told him that it could be illegal thing only otherwise it is not possible to earn Rs 3 lakhs in 20 minutes.

He was convinced to speak and said, “Sir I arranged to get license of weapons and hence earned so much amount”.

We were surprised and kept quiet and looked at the driver with suspicion.

Meanwhile the cab moved through isolated narrow road that seemed to be countryside village. There was no light on the street. We informed the driver that he had taken a wrong road but he did not accept it. Finally we hit Sagarpur road and then the driver realized and said, “I had missed one cut earlier and hence taken the long route”.

We had no choice. We simply said, “Bhaiya take your time and drop us at our home”.

The driver continued his conversation. He told us that 1275 cases were registered against him.

We all looked at one another and then at the driver. For few minutes it seemed we were sitting with a criminal.

The driver told us that he could not get be released from the courts in Haryana and finally was released from Chandigarh High court after paying Rs 22 lakhs in one go.

Naturally it was possible for a driver to pay Rs 22 Lakhs when he can earn Rs 3 lakhs in 20 minutes.

The cab finally reached Janakpuri District Centre and we all felt relieved as now it would not take much time to reach Rohini.

I was thinking how this driver could be financially well. You will always find difference between a driver and an owner of a cab in terms of dressing sense, language and attitude among other things.

I realized that the same cab driver had come previous night who was not allowing us to switch on AC of the cab. He insisted that he did not have instructions from his supervisor.  The AC was switched on after about 20 minutes after having discussion with the transport department and the supervisor of the driver.

How could a person who had to ask supervisor to switch on AC had told us about earning such a large amount.

We all were realizing that the cab driver had cooked up the story so that we do not feel bored in this long journey.

But we all enjoyed this trip. Seemed to be an adventure in the dark.

Finally we reached home at about 11.00 PM about 20 minutes later than other days.

I could not sleep for an hour and kept on thinking about the driver.

Had it not been a cooked up story then we would have landed in a difficult situation.

The company should have records of background verification of each person driving the cab so that we all feel safe while reaching home.

 

Flying Cars

No traffic jams. Imagine travelling in space to reach office. No traffic lights, no jams.

Yes this is possible with flying cars that have become craze.

Just sit in the flying car, start engine and it will take off just like plane. Reach office in 10 minutes, land car on the road, stop engine and park it.

People imagine flying cars with full automation where it can do whatever human mind thinks.

People are also imagining vertical take off and land (VTOL) of car just like planes and fighters that will be VTOL functional in the near future.

Flying cars will save time and fuel. But it may require licensed pilot to fly a car since this forms part of aviation. If control is given to anyone irrespective of the skills required, it may result in accidents and will not be a safe transport.

Let’s hope for the best.

 

Bermuda Triangle-Mystery in deep Ocean

Bermuda Triangle.

There are many things associated with this. But one thing never escapes our mind which is vanishing of ships and aircrafts once it enters Bermuda Triangle.

This lies in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean.

Scientists believe that this happens due to very strong electromagnetic waves that forces ships and aircraft beneath the sea and pulls it down very deep onto the surface of the ocean. Even signals are lost in this process and hence no strong evidence has come till now even though scientists across globe are doing research on this.

One more thing- Believe it or not. The Bermuda Triangle had been described earlier in Rig Veda & Atharva Veda also.

VTOL-Future planes

Have you heard Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) technology?

This is the future of planes, helicopters and fighter jets that can land and take off vertically. This is just like standing and sitting on a fixed place.

This is especially useful where runways are not very long or where airports and helipads are built in hilly areas like Hong Kong, Bhutan and few other countries. There is very little space in these areas and planes have to hover in the sky for a long time before final take off.

Few planes who successfully tested VTOL include Lockheed Martin F-35B, Elytron 2S and few flights by NASA.

Few benefits include:

• Can take off and land vertically, as a helicopter would, without any support equipment such as a catapult launch or capture nets
• High aspect ratio wings result in 24 hour endurance which is unmatched in the industry
• Longer flights than a helicopter and can land in an either horizontal or vertical flight configuration

This technology has many potential applications that include the following:

Military applications such as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance

Commercial applications where extended mission UAV capabilities are beneficial, including law enforcement, firefighting, crop surveys, pipeline surveys, or oil field management

People with extremely deep pockets will also use this instead of cars and this may become reality somewhere around Year 2030.

Elon Musk, pioneer in technology (that includes Hyperloop) has plans of inventing VTOL electric planes that will use electricity instead of fuel.

 

Now Planes can Land on Circular Runways

Planes have to wait for long time before landing at airports in case the runway is not free or another flight has to land. The flight is in queue wasting lot of energy, fuel and time and making noise pollution.

Now the concept of circular runways is underway where planes can land at any point reducing wastage of time, efforts and fuel and will also reduce noise pollution and frustration.

This will be done keeping in mind the wind direction.

This concept will become reality only Dutch scientist Henk Hesselink and his team at the Netherland Aerospace Centre succeeds in their experiment.

This will be a 360 Degrees airport and will have greener environment.

 

 

Drive in India instead of Make in India

Drive in India is better than Make in India.

Trucking has been one of the least respected professions in India.

Truck drivers drive for days with working shift of 12-18 hours daily for transporting goods from one state to another state of India. They do not take rest and sleep either in trucks. This results in delayed transportation of goods.

Relay  a new and better way of trucking has been conceptualized by Rivigo, a logistic company. The purpose of Relay is to revolutionize standard of living and attraction of truck driver. The truck driver gets better community life along with cellphone and better wages as per village standards.

Every driver drives for 4.5 hours and halts at designed pits and another driver takes the driving seat. The steering wheel changes hands every 4.5 hours till the truck reaches its destination.

This has resulted in improved life of truck driver who gets more time with his family and is able to get more time to sleep and take care of himself and his family members.

Mr. Narendra Modi should focus on Drive in India as it will generate millions of jobs and will cut down time of transporting goods by upto 50%.

 

 

Live Volcano in Andaman Islands-Only one active in India

Do you remember last volcano erupted in Andaman & Nicobar Islands in India?

It last happened about 150 years ago and since then it has been lying dormant. However eruption started again in 1991 and has been showing some activity since then.

Now again it has started spewing smoke and lava.

If it happens it will be detrimental to tourism business in the islands which has one of the most scenic and clean beaches in India.

Barren Island in Andaman is the epicenter of this volcano. This island is uninhabited and visitors can see this island by travelling through chartered boats after obtaining permission from Department of forest, Port Blair.

Researchers from Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Goa based National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) confirmed this after obtaining samples of coal like black material.

Never seen before-Foam based kites

Have you ever seen kites made of foam that can fly without human intervention?

Yes.

This happened in International Kite festival (IKF) 2017 held on 8th- 14^th January in Ahmadabad city in Gujarat. It was held on the side of River Sabarmati.

Many kite flyers from across the globe including China, Malaysia, Japan, USA, Indonesia etc had participated in this Uttrayan festival with innovative design.

The kites are made of strong material so that it can fly for a longer time and give stiff competition.

Never mind.

We will visit this festival next year if you were not able to make it this year.