Thought for the day

Being honest when disseminating research results is not a great idea.

I should know this.

What is CCS?

The McKinsey Quaterly presents a quick introduction to Carbon Capture and Storage via an interative feature. If you have no clue as to what CCS  is, this is a  good place to start.

Best job?

JobsRated.com have put up, what they call, a comprehensive ranking of 2oo jobs (Hat tip: Cosmic Variance). As per the rankings, a mathematician has the best job in America, followed by an actuary, statistician, biologist, software engineer etc . Twelfth on the list is a philosopher. Yes, a PHILOSOPHER. If P.G. Wodehouse were alive today and involved in the rankings, philosophers would have made it to the top of the rankings. This is what he wrote of philosophy and  pilosophers:

There are situations in life which are beyond one.  The sensible man realises this, and slides out of such situations, admitting himself beaten.  Others try to grapple with them, but it never does any good.  When affairs get into a real tangle, it is best to sit still and let them straighten themselves out.  Or, if one does not do that, simply to think no more about them.  This is Philosophy.  The true philosopher is the man who says “All right,” and goes to sleep in his arm-chair.

from MIKE, A Public School Story by P.G. Wodehouse

Philosophers would have also beaten clergy to the top of the most satisfying job in Plum’s opinion.

For the sake of completeness I must mention that lumberjacks come at the bottom of the list, making it to the top of the 10 worst jobs in America.

Let me leave you with the question – Is there a “best job”?

Happy New Year

To Listen

To listen is to collect information except for people from authoritarian societies where to listen is to follow orders.

Shell, CCS and Clean Coal

Shell are advertising their version of the energy future prominently in the NY Times as sponsors of NY Times Extra. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) figures prominently and have a nice write-up on it. CCS needs to be better understood by the public and all efforts are appreciated. Nevertheless, they haven’t got the artwork right on many levels….least of which is trying to catch a gaseous CO2 with a net.

Another thing which gets to me is using the term clean coal to indicate coal gasification with CO2 capture. Clean coal is a misnomer – coal can never be CLEAN. I work with coal gasification myself and believe that this a critical area in the near future – but selling it as clean is doing a disservice. It gives skeptics cheap shots at the technology, as can be seen at sites such as This is Reality and Coal is Dirty.

I do not agree with the main theme of either of these sites. Like it or not, coal will be the predominant fuel for the next 30-50 years and CCS is a viable technology for mitigation of greenhouse gases (mainly CO2) . More on CCS and coal gasification in later posts.

The White Tiger

Earlier this week I read Aravind Adiga’s The White Tiger – winner of the Man Booker prize for 2008. While a lot of reviewers have high praise for the novel, particularly the “new voice” it brings, I found the book to be quite ordinary. Though a fun read it is certainly not worthy of the Booker prize  in my opinion.

Mirrors and fatherhood

For one of those gnostics, the visible universe was an illusion or (more precisely) a sophism. Mirrors and fatherhood are abominable because they multiply and disseminate that universe.

– Unnamed heresiarch of Uqbar

or

Mirrors and copulation are abominable, because they increase the number of men.

– Unnamed heresiarch of Uqbar

From Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius – a do-I-even-need-to-specify-short story in Labyrinths by Jorge Luis Borges. It has been over 8 years since I read the book – my personal copy packed in a box somewhere in Metuchen, NJ. I bought the book at Stockholm airport this week for a friend and couldn’t help reading it over my evening cuppa.

I certainly can’t gift the book to my friend now. On the bright side, I get to read Borges again. Ha!

Back to bloging and CCS

It has been over a year and a half since I blogged. This is mainly because I had (have) been writing a lot for work – my thesis, papers, reports etc. – that I could not bring myself to indulge in yet another writing ‘project’. Even though the writing for work shows no sign of reducing, I figured it is about time I started blogging. This has been prompted by a few questions my friends and acquaintances have regarding my work and Carbon Capture and Storage in particular. I will try to present my views on CCS and industrial energy efficiency.

There are quite a few blogs out there on renewables etc., but hardly anything on CCS. Hopefully this blog will serve that purpose. This does not imply that the blog will preclude all other interests if mine.

KuttiMe turns 2 today

KuttiMe, Ananya, Anu, Kurumbu Princess, whichever name you reply to…..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE ANGEL.