The Armchair Critic

All Said. Nothing Done.

[armchaircritic]

What’s With The Carbon Myopia?

I recently came across an article that questioned the environmental credentials of resuable cloth bags vis-a-vis plastic carry bags (HDPE bags in this article). A couple of key points made in that article:

Conventional plastic bags made from high-density polyethylene (HDPE, the plastic sacks found at grocery stores) had the smallest per-use environmental impact of all those tested. Cotton tote bags, by contrast, exhibited the highest and most severe global-warming potential by far since they require more resources to produce and distribute.

The UKEA study calculated an expenditure of a little less than two kilograms of carbon per HDPE bag. For paper bags, seven uses would be needed to achieve the same per-use ratio. Tote bags made from recycled polypropylene plastic require 26, and cotton tote bags require 327 uses.

So the answer to the question the article raises "Are tote bags really good for the environment?" is "Hell, No!" right? Well, it's not that simple.

The article conflates enviromental impact with global warming potential (highlighted in bold above). So, if you go by global warming potential of the different bags, there would seem to be no debate here. In the life-cycle of a reusable cloth bag, the green house gas (GHG) emissions involved in the raw material production (growing cotton) and bag manufacturing itself end up being more than 300 times that of a plastic carry bag. So, unless you use the cloth bag over 300 times (thrice a week for two years), you're worse off in terms of climate change impact. But is climate change the problem we are trying to mitigate by switching from plastic bags to cloth bags?

Some facts:

Plastic bags constitute 10% of all trash generated in the US.

Plastic bags and plastic film constitute 25% of all trash recovered from the US East Coast despite their light weight per bag

Plastic bags constituted 10% of all trash collected from the stream and river systems in and around the city of San Jose

GHG emissions from plastic bags constitute 0.06% of annual GHG emissions globally

Plastic bags don't degrade natually and seem to last forever. Sea creatures eat them. Bigger sea creatuers eat smaller sea creatures that eat plastic bags. There have been several cases of threatened and endangered marine species that are found dead because they made an afternoon snack out of a plastic bag that travelled several thousand miles to their habitat. And then there's the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Even if the plastic bags end up in an intended end-of-life situation (recycling/incineration/landfill), it is still not without its issues.

Per the City of Cupertino's research, less than 5% of plastic bags end up being recycled. Unless the required quantity and quality of plastic is available to be recycled, this isn't even a profitable operation for the waste management company.

Most cities do not permit incinerators within city limits for air pollution-related reasons.

Landfills are not an environmentally benign option either. Siting a landfill is no easy task, and often leads to environmental justice issues. Lower-income and politically disenfranchised communities often end up with the landfills in their backyard, since the well-off and politically correct scream "Not In My Backyard (NIMBY)".

On the other hand, plastic bags contribute only 0.06% of global GHG emissions every year, from the energy and materials used in the raw material extraction and bag production. Even if you were to replace all plastic bags with cloth bags and use each cloth bag only 30 times, they would still only result in 0.6% of all GHG emissions globally. This number would go down with every subsequent reuse of the cloth bag.

Or in other words, choosing between a plastic bag and a cloth bag based on its life-cycle GHG emissions is like choosing between installing a water purifier and not installing based on its GHG emissions. The key factor in the former is trash, and in the latter is water quality, not GHG emissions. Or taking a non envionmental example, it is like choosing your car based on the weight of the rear view mirror.

So why is this article focusing only on carbon emissions and climate change impact? Actually, so is another article arguing against the switch to cloth bags : "Trash isn't the real problem. Climate change is." Yes, climate change is indeed the most pressing environmental issue that we face today, but is that reason for this form of carbon myopia? I think not.

The Atlantic article, in the second half of it, morphs into a not-so-subtle rant against smug, virtue-signalling, hybrid-driving affluent environmentalists:

Every product is manufactured and consumed with some ideal in mind. Pictures of tote bags—such as those from stock photo websites or advertisements—make the ideals we project on them visible. People are depicted carrying fresh fruits and vegetables in their tote bags at a sunny farmers’ market. These people are seen in intimate groups. They wear casual, modest, warm-weather clothing. They don’t handle digital devices. They take their bags to the beach, the park, art openings, concerts, through cosmopolitan urban communities and idyllic rural escapes. They are fulfilled and creative. They are middle class. They inhabit the landscape of tote-bag dreams: healthy, waste-conscious and ecologically responsible, conservatively ethnically diverse, carefree but productive, connected, affluent, tolerant, adventurous, optimistic. In short, they’re virtuous.

If the article were merely an avenue for the author to further a worthy cause first taken up by south park, it would be understandable. But when it detracts from the main issue at hand regarding plastic bags - trash, but worse, misinforms the readers about what environmental impacts to consider in choosing their grocery bags, it becomes a problem.

What's the solution then? Sadly, the environmental impacts of our choices are extremely difficult to measure and compare. As the tired cliche goes, the devil is in the details. The onus to identify the facts that matter in making an informed decision, unfortunately, falls upon us.

Something to think about, before you retweet the next article that asks "Is XYZ really good for the environment?"

[armchaircritic]

Community-adjusted EBITDAs and Organic Gluten-Free Blockchain-Powered Profits

So here's a situation. The market is full of bond investors who are badly in need of yields. You want to take advantage of that. But a prominent ratings agency, in its review of your company, noted that it expects "meaningfully negative" cash flow this year and the next. Which means, as a growth-oriented start-up, you're not sure you'll have enough cash to pay even the interest on your debt, leave alone repay the principal. So what do you do?

If you thought, "I guess I'm not ready for the bond market as yet", think again, sucker! WeWork issued over $700M in unsecured bonds despite being cash-negative because their new metric, "the community adjusted EBITDA" was hella positive. So let's take it one step further and simultaneously float a bond issuance and an IPO. How? "Organic Gluten-Free Blockchain-Powered Profits"!

For those wondering what this is, let's start from the beginning. Traditionally, Profit and Loss Statements look like this:

A. Revenue

B. Expenses

C. (A - B) Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA)

D. Depreciation and Amortization

E. (C - D) Earnings Before Interest and Tax (EBIT)

F. Interest

G. (E - F) Earnings Before Tax or Profit Before Tax (EBT/PBT)

H. Taxes

I. (G - H) Profit After Tax (PAT)

It is not uncommon for companies to come up with minor adjustments to the above categories based on circumstances unique to each company. So, WeWork supplies free beer on tap in their workspace. And the expenses line item (B) turns red when fed into Excel. People love the former and hate the latter. So they got rid of the latter and called the new EBITDA the "community-adjsuted" EBITDA.

Now how do we improve upon that? Lines D,F and H in the list above are also negative, red-fonted and a drag on our profits.

Since our business is certified organic, there cannot be any depreciation or amortization, obviously. Poof! Off goes line D.

Which lender is going to charge interest on a blockchain-powered business? That goes against the very spirit of a decentralised ledger and tokens and hey, don't we now offer double-IPAs on tap? Line F, who?

That leaves us with taxes. Fie upon the government that taxes poor celiac-afflicted gluten-free businesses! That's just heartless! Remove that!

Tada! Here's the new adjusted "Organic, Gluten-Free Blockchain-Powered Profits"!

Now what about revenues? Where do they come from? Oh right... Organic, Gluten-Free and Blockchain-Powered? Add some AI, a subscription fee and watch then money flow in!

Masayoshi Son, are you there?

[armchaircritic]

A generation grows up, finally

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when it was sacrilege to say anything against Sachin Tendulkar. Unless of course, you were the parent or grand parent of a boy who ignored school, sleep and all else when India was playing. It was then acceptable to needle the son with "How much did Tendulkar hit? Nothing? Is that what you stayed up all night to watch?" The boy would be stung by that comment and would decide not to watch the fourth day's play of the test match against the West Indies at Bridgetown, Barbados. Until the game started at 7.30 PM. This time Tendulkar would score a hundred albeit in what would eventually be a losing cause. It made staying up until 3 AM worth it. Even if the next morning his father would look at the late city edition of The Hindu and say "As usual! India can't win when he scores." The boy has another ephemeral episode of sanity and decides not to watch the first one-dayer. Until, of course, the game starts. Another sleepless night, punctuated by his dad's comments when he wakes up to go to the loo : "What's the score?" To the boy's rotten luck, Kumble would have bowled the first full toss in 7 overs. "Oh! They're hitting sixers! Go to sleep, India will lose!" or later on "Tendulkar in the 90s? He'll slow down. Go to sleep, India will lose!" Within one week, the boy is exposed to the three most common accusations of Tendulkar's frailty: 1. He doesn't always score. 2. If he scores, India loses. 3. He slows down in his 90s and consequently causes India to lose. Of course, the person making these accusations is doing it not because he doesn't like Tendulkar or cricket but because he is concerned about his son's unhealthy interest in cricket. Because, as I said earlier, this was back in the day when even Sanjay Manjrekar could only wax eloquent about the man he called "Teyndoolkar." Times have changed now. The younger guns started to make their mark, India started winning whether he scored, didn't score or slowed down in the 90s. And ever since he struggled to get that purely statistical landmark of the hundredth century, more and more people started questioning his presence in the Indian team. The recent modes of dismissal only served raised the decibel levels of those that didn't want him anymore. It also made the arguments of those who still wanted him shrill and purely emotional. But very few made compelling arguments one way or the other. They either appealed to emotion or cited anecdotal examples to make their cases. But this was a different kind of criticism, fueled more by Tendulkar-hate than concern about children's interest in cricket. Because, by now, people stopped caring as much about Tendulkar. Kids weren't bunking school to watch him play anymore. His arrival at the crease did not raise the pulse of the entire nation anymore. His dismissals weren't resulting in switched off television sets. Until the Wankhede test last week. It was the same exhilarating feeling as he arrived at the crease. The same butterflies in the stomach as he prepared to face his first ball. The same missed heartbeat as he played at and missed a wide half-volley. It was the 1990's all over again. I was a little kid again. Tendulkar was a prodigious talent again. If that wasn't enough, it was the same crestfallen feeling and desire to turn off the TV as he got out. And if that wasn't enough, it was the same anger rising up inside expecting the dad to come by and ask "Did Tendulkar get out before getting a century? To an unknown bowler? Ha!" But that didn't happen this time. An era had ended. A generation had finally grown up.

[armchaircritic]

A Random Rant

I hate cliches. Despise them, actually. Almost as much as this guy hates runners. But there are times when you are too tired to come up with clever titles for faux-intellectual posts about life, universe and everything else pretentious. These are the times when you realise why you really have a blog - your own space to rant, vent, spew venom and make unsubstantiated claims, all in an annoyingly public forum that lets everyone who knows you on facebook, twitter, tumblr and gmail that you just wrote a new post. This is one of those times. Hence the cliche of cliched blog post titles, "A Random Rant". That it is alliterative is no saving grace. It doesn't even hold a candle to "Obsessively Obsequious". But I digress. I am tired. And this is an angry rant filled with hatred. When I read the aforementioned article on WSJ, I was struck by two things - 1. What kind of journalistic standards or lack thereof permit articles like this to make the cut? 2. What kind of messed up person spews this kind of vitriol on people who are just running to stay healthy? Answering the first question will probably need a post of its own. But the second question turned out to be rather easy to answer. You don't need to be a messed up person to hate something as innocuous as running, or runners. Or bikers for that matter. Yeah, that's where this post is heading. I hate bikers. Almost as much as I hate those damn cliches. Not all kinds of bikers. Just the ones who race down sidewalks. And mow down pedestrians. Like me. I got hit by a biker. From behind. On a sidewalk. I was knocked against a wall and then down, in the process acquiring plenty of bruises that continue to hurt more than a week after the accident. My first reaction? "I @#&!ing hate bikers!" Here was a biker, no helmet, no lights, no reflective clothing, racing down the sidewalk filled with people on his bike, mowing me down and all he gets is a slightly bent front wheel? Where's the justice in the world I ask you? No, he did not have a bell nor did he call out that he was behind me. Nor was I the only person on the sidewalk. Maybe Stakos was mowed down by a runner as he walking on the sidewalk one day. Or maybe he is just a #@&*. But I understand irrational hate. So, you morons, stop biking on the sidewalk. If there's no space on the road, don't take your hate out on us poor pedestrians. Specifically, stop crashing into me. I don't like it. And it detracts me blogging superciliously about energy policy and property tax regulation. And worse, it makes me resort to terrible cliches. The world can do without more cliches. And poorly-written crap like this. And disjointed and grammatically-puke-inducing sentences. End of A Random Rant.

[armchaircritic]

Indian Wind Industry Gets ... uhm ... Second Wind

As of April 2012, the accelerated depreciation benefit for wind energy projects in India was discontinued. This was expected to hit the industry hard. This fear seemed real enough until some developers recently figured out that they didn't have to depend on turnkey solutions from wind turbine manufacturers anymore. How did this happen? For many years, the major reason for the growth of the wind energy sector in India was the accelerated depreciation benefit. Captive consumers, as industrial electricity consumers are referred to, were the majority of the wind project owners. For industries such as the cotton spinning mills, investing in an electricity producing asset depreciating its value at 80% annually was an extremely attractive option. Since they didn't seek to build large wind farms but just erect one or two turbines, their needs didn't quite make an attractive proposition for wind energy developers. So wind turbine manufacturers such as Suzlon, Vestas and, in the past, NEPC stepped in to offer turnkey wind solutions to the mill owners. They would take care of land acquisition, permitting and grid interconnection, and obviously the turbine manufacturing and installation. Since the primary incentive was the accelerated depreciation benefit, neither the mill owner nor the turbine manufacturer cared if the turbine generated any electricity or if the grid had capacity to evacuate that power. To counter this perverse incentive, generation based incentives were introduced. The power producer would get paid Rs. 0.50 (US $0.01) for every kWh of electricity generated. While this increased the number of entrants interested in more than accelerated depreciation to about 30% of new projects, it still did not incentivise the utility companies (now transmission companies) to provide the necessary infrastructure to evacuate the power. To counter this, the government introduced Renewable Purchase Obligations (RPO) mandating that a certain percentage of electricity purchased by each utility be from renewable sources. After this, the government also decided to remove the accelerated depreciation benefit and the feed-in tariff and instead introduced a Renewable Energy Credit trading exchange. While everyone feared it might sound the death knell for the wind industry in India, especially with solar energy getting a boost through the National Solar Mission and individual state solar missions, wind energy developers realised that they could take advantage of the drop in turbine prices worldwide. A few developers, like Green Infra, Greenko Group and Mytrah Energy, decided to discontinue the existing model and instead develop the projects (acquire the land, take care of permitting and interconnection) themselves and turn to the manufacturers to just order the turbines. As the Bloomberg article points out, companies like Vestas, Gamesa and Suzlon, were still charging high prices for projects despite the fall in turbine prices, citing high development costs. Breaking the vertical integration by decoupling turbine manufacturing from development, these developers are now able to realise the monetary benefits from falling turbine prices by ordering from manufacturers like GE and developing the projects themselves. With turbine prices falling and coal prices still rising, many more wind developers might do what these three developers did. From this case, it seems like the New and Renewable Energy Ministry hasn't yet been infected by the policy paralysis that the other ministries seem to be caught in. Having the right kind of incentives in place and letting the private sector figure the best path ahead seems to have worked here. And oh, pardon the lame pun in the title. I haven't been blogging lately and the rustiness wears off really slowly!

[armchaircritic]

An Open Letter to Markandeya Katju - Part 1

Dear Sir,

I want to congratulate you on your not-so-recent appointment as the Chairman of the Press Council of India. Since taking over, you've done some amazing things, some of them so amazing that I cannot help but resort to hyperbole while describing your achievements. So please excuse me if this letter seems a little sycophantic. I really mean this, every word of it. Just like you did, last year.

Also, I write this in several parts because I admire you greatly and have a lot to write to you about, and could not possibly write the whole letter in one sitting.

Hardly a few days after you took over the Chairmanship of the PCI, your dynamic and bold nature was on display in your op-ed. You hit the nail on the head with your three-point summary of the problems with the media in India.

Your first point particularly resonates with me. The media focus (or focuses, if I were to consider media to be a singular noun, like you do) on trivial things. I share your pain when you say :

"To give an example, I switched on the T.V. yesterday and what did I see? Lady Gaga has come to India, Kareena Kapoor standing next to her statue in Madame Tussand’s, tourism award being given to a business house, Formula one car race etc. etc. What has all this to do with the problems of the people?"

I too have, on several occasions, turned on the TV, skipped past Doordarshan and Discovery Channel to go to Star Cricket, NDTV, CNN-IBN and other such trashy electronic media and been depressed by their focus on trivial content. I am sure millions of other Indians who watch these channels agree with you that they had no choice but to watch the trash on air and let the media think that's the content they wanted. If only they had the choice to turn off the television.

You hit another nail on the same head when you lament about the importance given to astrology in the media. You say:

"Many T.V. channels show astrology. Astrology is not to be confused with astronomy. While astronomy is a science, astrology is pure superstition and humbug. "

What is most appreciable here is that you not just state obvious facts, but you also state the impeccable logic behind that statement.

" No doubt most people in our country believe in astrology, but that is because their mental level is very low."

I couldn't agree more with you. Most people in India indeed have a very low "mental level".

Where you differ from armchair critics (By the way, I think you should address and lambast them in a separate article) is that you provide solutions and demonstrate their efficacy with brilliant statistics.

" These will [...] be [...] informal get-togethers where we will discuss issues relating to the media and try to resolve them in the democratic way, that is, by discussion, consultation and dialogue. I believe 90% problems can be resolved in this way."

My belief is that 80 per cent people who are doing wrong things can be made good people by patient persuasion, pointing out their errors, and gently leading them to the honourable path which the print media in Europe in the Age of Enlightenment was following.

Admirably, you even back up your personal beliefs with statistics. How many people in India can do that? Very few, since we know that most Indians' mental level is very low.

Yours Sincerely, Arvind Balachander

End of Part 1.

Coming up: Your penchant for facts. And your rightful sense of outrage. And your belief in democracy.

[tambrahmrage]

First World Iyer Problems

[armchaircritic]

Whattey Bulb!

[armchaircritic]

Whattey Bulb!

[armchaircritic]

800 Million Indians ready to pay more for renewable energy?

Yes! Apparently, that's how popular renewable energy is in India, if you go by articles like this that are reporting on a survey by Mercom Capital titled the Indian Renewable Energy Awareness Survey.

Sounds incredible, right? Right! If, by incredible, you mean not credible. Let's dig into your report a little.

There seem to be two major claims in this statement.

Claim 1: 71% of Indian consumers are ready to pay more for renewable energy.

Proof:

So, 39% said yes, 32% said maybe and you think with education, we could convert the maybe's to yeses? That makes total sense. I buy your 71% number now completely, Mercom.

Claim 2: 71% of Indian consumers are ready to pay more for renewable energy.

Proof: Now that you have convinced me about the 71% number, tell me more about these Indian consumers. They're from all over the country, right? A representative sample, right? Absolutely right!

Perfect! From around Bangalore and Mysore. For those without an idea of where these places are:

Image source: World Geographics

That clearly is very representative of the whole nation! Well done, Mercom!

Oh wait, you said 71% of Indian consumers. How many did you survey?

A total of 509 respondents were interviewed for this survey.

You managed to survey 509 out of 1.1 billion. That's about one half of one hundredth of a percentage point (0.000045%). Can't get any more comprehensive than that!

To break it down, 198 of the 509 people said "Yes, we'll pay more for renewable energy". 163 people said "Maybe...". Wow!

361 = 800 Million. Hence Proved!

[armchaircritic]

Julley!

That's Ladakhi for Hello. That's what they speak in Leh. That's where I am right now. 12,000 feet above Mean Sea Level.

Day 1 : August 14, 2011 : Chennai

6.00 PM : We set off on a trip on time. How did that happen? Right, we forgot to print our return tickets. Dhristi Pariharam - Check! See a VW Beetle on the way to the airport.

6.25 PM : No traffic jams. Reach the airport in just 25 minutes. Of course, there's the idiot who's late and demands to be allowed to bypass the security queue. Of course, he's allowed to.

6.35 PM : Check in all our naphthalene-ball-scented winter clothes and get our boarding pass to "Lee". "No oxygen there!", I am informed. Oh no! "No problem, just hold your breath and save the oxygen in your lungs", comes the solution. Humour from the airport staff, thanks to the lack of crowds.

6.50 PM : Dinner! Packed idlis and molagai podi. See a couple of people buy idli and sambar for exorbitant prices at the airport. Ha!

8.20 PM : Plane takes off at the scheduled time. What's happening? Amma finally gets the window seat. To our surprise, dinner's part of the package in the plane. Dang! If only it weren't Gayatri Japam!

Day 1 : August 14, 2011 : New Delhi

11.10 PM : Plane lands in Delhi on time. What's happening, really?! Terminal 3 - seems posh and big. Really big. Thankfully we get a ride on the airport vehicle. All of you who pushed past me in the plane to get out and still got to the exit after we did - SUCK IT!

11.25 PM : After a bit of searching, we find the transfer section. Delhi Airport Recycles (atleast Terminal 3 does), but unfortunately I don't get to use it. :| The departure are is pretty sweet! There are even long reclining seats meant for the overnight stopover at the airport. Atleast, we decided that it was.

We even had pigeons for company!

Day 2 : August 15, 2011 : New Delhi

1.00 AM : Unfortunately some airport staff decide that the seats next to the ones we're sleeping on are meant for midnight airline gossip. "Happy Independence Day", I wish them as we relocate to another spot in the airport to try to get some sleep somehow. These recliners are even more fancy. Curved to comfortably fit your back or your big backside.

2.30 AM : Paavi pora edam paadhalam - Some other airport staff decide to load and unload some cartons very noisily a couple of feet from where we are still trying to sleep. "Happy Independence Day", one of those guys wishes me.

4.00 AM : Brushing my teeth in the restroom. Some Caucasian-looking dude walks by, gives me a dirty look and tut-tuts in disgust. Oh really? It's on!

"Yes? Did you say something?" "Huh? What?" "You said something?" "Er... I don't think this ... is the place ... for brushing..." "You have a problem? YOU HAVE A PROBLEM? " "No... No... No... Sorry!"

BOOYAH!

4.45 AM : Boarding starts, 20 minutes before schedule. We could get used to things happening according to plan! Friendly Caucasian dude is one row ahead of me. Doesn't turn back for the entire duration of the flight. Ha!

5.45 AM : Plane takes off. Of course, on the dot!

Day 2 : August 15, 2011 : Leh, Ladakh, Jammu and Kashmir

6.45 AM : Beautiful views of the Ladakhi landscape - dry sandy plateaus, rocky/andy mountains, some snow-capped peaks and green valleys - as the plane descends. Plane lands, ahead of time! Waits ten minutes to get a gate position. 13 C! Brrrr!!! And oh, yes, the checked in baggage comes out on time in good shape. The guy from Hotel Cho Palace is waiting for us with a placard. The hotel is just 5 minutes from the airport. Looks great on entry. "Hayya! Apples!" - Amma is clearly excited! Room's perfect too. Running up the stairs in the Himalayas is not a good idea. We're all terribly out of breath by the time we come to our room.

7.45 AM : Bathe in cold water. Refreshing!

9.00 AM : Breakfast - corn flakes, oatmeal, sliced bread with jam and butter and finally the local dish - aloo paratha. Still don't understand how people can have stuffed parathas for breakfast. Masala Chai is excellent, almost as good as mine!

10.00 AM : Crash! Finally shut our eyes to sleep. Dreamless slumber.

1.00 PM : Wake up and get ready for lunch.

2.30 PM : Done with lunch. Excellent - hot, tasty and super fast service.

3.00 PM : Meet Singchey Wangchuk - the guy we spoke to over the phone for reservations. Knowledgeable, polite and honest. Make travel arrangements for tomorrow. Repeatedly advises us to not do stupid things like going for a walk on our first day in such high altitudes. For some reason, the lack of oxygen reminded me of Michelle Bachmann's love for CO2.

3.30 PM : Another cup of excellent masala chai.

4.00 PM : Appa and I ignore Singchey's advice. Set out on a walk towards the airport. Get past crazy furry cows and crazy furry dogs. Turns out my fear of dogs has not been conquered. Damn! Interesting architecture - stone compound walls for every single plot of land. People store water in drums that are locked. Clearly, oxygen isn't the only thing in short supply - serious water and trust deficit.

6.00 PM : YET ANOTHER cup of still excellent masala chai to celebrate the completion of our long walk.

8.00 PM : Hungry and waiting for the dining hall to open for dinner. Finish typing out the Day 1 and Day 2 report.

[armchaircritic]

Of people, glass houses and stones

Really, America? You want to play this game? What if the headlines tomorrow read :

No? Not to your liking? You get to do business with totalitarian regimes that crush popular dissent with force, but we can't? These kind of double standards don't work anymore. Maybe if you were a country with a AAA credit rating...

[armchaircritic]

Coming Home

That's what it is to come back home after 2 years! (© Bill Watterson)

[armchaircritic]

Transformation

How dramatically things can change!

"Welcome back to a different India, one that is less respectful of privacy" screamed the headlines on Friday the 5th of August. The Economic Times (ET) ran a front page story with the header, "The Woman Who Runs India is Unwell & India Doesn’t Know". The next day's editorial demanded transparency. The article went on to say:

The sort of secrecy that the Congress has resorted to over Mrs Gandhi’s health is reminiscent of practices behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War. When doddering, old leaders of ruling communist parties ailed, were hospitalised and died, their countrymen were kept in the dark. Only those vying to succeed and those mediating those power struggles got to know until the dust had settled and the victor had been wiped clean of signs of the battles he had survived, in preparation for public anointment. India, happily, is in a different part of the world ,by geography, time and political system.

Let's breakdown ET's analogy. "When [...] leaders of ruling [...] parties" - okay, you got that one right, ET "ailed, were hospitalised" - spot on, there too "and died," - nope, the last I heard, she's still kicking, but what's an analogy if you don't make a straw man argument "their countrymen were kept in the dark" - surely now, that's not true.

Were we told that Sonia Gandhi was ill? Yes.

Were we told that she's been hospitalised? Yes.

Were we told that she was to undergo surgery? Yes.

Were we told who was in charge of her duties while she was away? Yes.

All that was not told were the specifics of the illness, which is a private matter about which an individual has a right to withhold information from the public. And what was that about power struggles, victors and anointments? And so, I went to bed lamenting the rapid deterioration of ethics in the Indian print media.

"Welcome back to a different India, where the Times of India preaches journalistic ethics!" screamed the editorial when I woke up. I was pleasantly surprised - no, that's too mild a word, shocked, stunned, startled, awestruck... you get the idea - to find this editorial in the Times of India (ToI), a sister publication of the Economic Times. A case of the right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing?

Which one's the tabloid? (Photo: Arvind B.)

In any case, the several-year-long hunt for a replacement for The Hindu is now over - Welcome ToI!

[armchaircritic]

Wind ahoy!

That the once-little town Udumalaipettai, where I spent the first two years of my life, has a lot of wind farms is a well-known fact. That a lot of the wind power generated, especially during peak production periods in August and September, is left unutilised is not as well known to the general public.

When I last visited a wind farm near Udumalaipettai in late July a couple of years ago, more than half the wind turbines were not running despite high and consistent wind speeds because there either wasn't enough demand or because there wasn't enough transmission capacity. (Photo: M. Balaji, The Hindu)

While some say this is because of lack of transmission capacity to receive this energy, the Tamil Nadu state government says it is because there is not enough demand during the nights in August and September. The state government's reason did not make a lot of sense given that the HT (High Tension) electricity customers in the Udumalaipettai-Tiruppur-Coimbatore region were largely cotton mills, textile mills and textile dyeing industries. They were already suffering from scheduled power outages to reduce the load on the grid and hence would have gladly ramped up their night shifts to make use of the excess wind power.

The Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa, announced today that the HT industrial customers in the state would no longer have to face 20% power consumption reduction if they opt to use wind power at night. Notwithstanding the all-too-frequent energy-power confusion ("100 MW of wind energy"), this report raises a couple of pertinent questions:

If the announcement takes effect from today, how does it address the lack of power evacuation infrastructure? If transmission was the bottleneck in delivering wind energy to load, how did it disappear overnight?

If Tamil Nadu has over 6000 MW of installed wind capacity and August and September nights are the peak production periods, why are only 100 MW of power being dispatched in this manner?

[armchaircritic]

Welcome Back to the Midwest

Struggling to carry two heavy suitcases down the stairs to the Blue Line station in Chicago? No worries, there's a homeless man offering to help me carry it down. (I turned him down because my mom told me not to talk to strangers...)

Can't find enough change to buy the ticket to O'Hare from a stupid ticket vending machines that returns no change and accepts no credit cards? No worries, there's the helpful attendant who says "No man, I'm not letting you buy a $10 ticket for a $2.25 ride. I'll let you through for free. Have a safe trip!"

Struggling to carry the same two heavy suitacases down the next set of stairs to the platform? (What's the deal with the CTA and their super in-accessible subway stations?) No worries again, there's the same helpful attendant from the ticket counter who offers to carry one of the suitcases for me. (This time I accepted the offer - he paid for my ride, he is no stranger anymore, right?)

Trying to go through security screening 5 hours before the boarding time? The TSA agent looks at the passport, looks at the word Chennai and says "Vanakkam! There's no food past this point. You should come back an hour or so before boarding. Actually come either at 5.45 or at 6.30. There's a huge rush between 6 and 6.30."

It's good to be back in the Midwest, even if just for 2 days!

[armchaircritic]

Oh Snap!

At a restaurant today: "Your name?" "Arvind." "Sorry?" "Arvind. A-R-V-I-N-D." "Sorry, A-R ... ?" "A-R-V-I-N-D." "Huh?" "V as in Victor, I-N, D as in David." "A-R-V... I?" "Yes, I as in India." "I-N..." "D." "B?" "No, D. D as in David." "A-R-V-I-N-D. Wow. Weird name!" "What?!" "Your name is weird!" "Your FACE is weird!" Thanks Matt, for giving me a good comeback line for these situations.