Executive Knowledge Lines - July 2009

July 2009

Rs 25 Dh 10

04 17

Vol. 4  Issue 12

US$ 3 Euro 2.5 S$ 5 SFr 4 Trivandrum

General

Nutmeg The Spicy Spice AdvanTech

Spintronics Next Generation Electronics

18

Energy

Tapping Solar Energy Through Satellite

Authenticity, Brevity, and Clarity in Knowledge Dissemination

20 28 40

Info Bits

Pillownauts Astronauts on the Ground News Scan

Hairs going Gray Stress Contributes

Books Scan

The New Asian Hemisphere Shift of Global Power to the East

More under...  Journals Scan  HealthScape  Tech Brief

Volume 4 Issue 12 July 2009

Editorial Office: Knowledge House, Mathrubhumi Road, Trivandrum 695 035, India.

Contact: Senior Knowledge Executive Tel. 91 471 247 2928 e-mail: eklines@gmail.com www.knowledgelines.com

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.

- Saint Augustine of Hippo Chief Editor N T Nair Technical Editor Dr. B N Nair Editorial Board Prof. V K Damodaran P R Chandran, Prof. Harimohan Bhattathiri Advisory Committee Dr. D S Rane Dr. P M Mathew (Vellore), Dr. V Nanda Mohan Authentication Editors Dr. C G Sukumaran Nair, Simon Zachariah

2ď ŽExecutive Knowledge Linesď ŽJuly 2009

C ons u lt a nts Finance R Bhadrakumar FCA Production Ravisankar K V Director Advertising and Subscriptions S N Nair

Chennai

V Mohan Tel: 044 24348648

Kolkata T R R Menon Tel: 03324715653

Mumbai S G Nair Tel: 02227617959

Although no sculptured marble should rise to their memory, nor engraved stone bear record of their deeds, yet will their remembrance be as lasting as the land they honored.

– Daniel Webster There's no glory like those who save their country.

– Alfred Lord Tennyson This writing is prompted by a train of thoughts that went through my mind while passing near two recruiting camps: One for selecting soldiers and the other for police constables. Both cases are almost identical in their selection parameters like physical fitness, age group, education level etc. Those who get through finally, undergo the respective training and join either the military unit or the state police force, as the case may be. Of course, both the positions are not bed of roses. But there are major differences when it comes to the intensity of risks, with the soldiers destined to face risks of the highest order.

During a combat, say in a border area, the hapless jawans are required to fight the enemy, not knowing how well-armed the other side is. It is a blind fight, braving all the odds and purely in the interest of protecting the territories or fighting terrorists. They are unsung heroes, with no newsreporters or videographers to cover their brave actions, unlike in an internal riot or so handled by policemen. They are away from their families for most of the periods and the little time they get to spend with their families once in a year, flies off just like that. Added to this, their finances are also not that sound, being in the lower rung of the military ladder. In the present society where money alone counts, the jawans cut a sorry figure, compared to their blessed counterparts in the state law enforcement regiment, who enjoy a life of least risk with lots of chances for being tempted to fall prey to unholy income, and many are cases where they utilise it as an opportunity.

It is high time we amply acknowledged the role of these guards of the country, ever ready to make sacrifices. In a corrupt society, such icons of patriotism do deserve the best deal.

The dead soldier's silence sings our national anthem.

– Aaron Kilbourn N.T. Nair ntnair@gmail.com

Trivandrum 1 July ’09 July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines3

General

Nutmeg

The Spicy Spice

N

utmeg or Myristica fragrans is an evergreen tree of Indonesian origin. The fruit of the nutmeg tree produces two spices namely nutmeg and mace. Nutmeg is the actual seed of the roughly eggshaped and sized fruit, while mace is the dried lacy reddish covering or arillus of the seed. This is the only tropical fruit that is the source of two different spices.

Nutmeg is grown in countries like Malaysia, the Caribbean, and South India, especially Kerala. In Kerala, the tree is known as Jathi and the mace is called Jathipatri. Similar species grow in Papua New Guinea and some parts of India, where it is known in Hindi as Jaiphal.

There is some evidence to suggest that Roman priests burned nutmeg as a form of incense, although this is disputed. It is known to have been used as a prized and costly spice in medieval cuisine, used as flavourings, medicines and preserving agents, which were at the time highly valued in European markets. In Elizabethan times it was believed that nutmeg could ward off the plague, and nutmeg became very popular.

Nutmeg was traded by Arabs during the Middle Ages and sold to the Venetians for exorbitant prices, but the traders did not divulge the exact location of their source in the profitable Indian Ocean trade and no European was able to deduce their location.

In August 1511, on behalf of the king of Portugal, Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Malacca, the hub of Asian trade. Soon after, Albuquerque sent an expedition of three ships led by Antonio de Abreu to find out the location from where nutmeg came. The expedition located Banda in Malaysia, arriving in early 1512, as the centre of nutmeg production and remained there for about one month, purchasing and filling their ships with nutmeg, mace and cloves, in which Banda had a thriving trade. The trade in nutmeg later became dominated by the Dutch in the 17th century. The British and Dutch engaged in prolonged struggles to gain control of the nutmeg producing island. At the end of the war the Dutch gained control of the island in exchange for the British controlled New Amsterdam (New York) in North America. Thereafter, the Banda Islands were administered as plantation estates, with the Dutch mounting annual expeditions in local war-vessels to extirpate nutmeg trees planted elsewhere. As a result of the Dutch interregnum during the Napoleonic Wars, the English took temporary control of the Banda Islands from the Dutch and transplanted nutmeg trees to their own colonial holdings elsewhere, notably Zanzibar and Grenada. Today, a stylised split-open nutmeg fruit is found on the national flag of Grenada.

Culinary Uses Nutmeg fruit-pod is used to make jam and pickles, or sliced finely, cooked and crystallised to make a fragrant candy.

Nutmeg and mace have similar taste qualities, nutmeg having a slightly sweeter and mace a more delicate flavour. Mace is often preferred in light dishes for the bright orange, saffron-like hue it imparts. Nutmeg is a tasty Nutmeg Seed addition to many food products July 2009ď ŽExecutive Knowledge Linesď Ž5

Mace (red) within nutmeg fruit

and drinks. It may also be used in small quantities in garam masala.

Ground nutmeg is also smoked in India. Nutmeg grounds are often used as a spice for savoury dishes.

In Europe, nutmeg and mace are used especially in potato dishes and in processed meat products. They are also used in soups, sauces, baked goods, and vegetable preparations like Brussels sprouts.

Commercial and Medicinal Uses Several commercial products are produced from nutmeg, including essential oils, extracted oleoresins, and nutmeg butter. The essential oil is obtained by the steam distillation of ground nutmeg and is used heavily in the perfumery and pharmaceutical industries.

The oil is colourless or light yellow, smelling and tasting nutmeg.

It contains numerous components of interest to the oleochemical industry, and is used as a natural food flavouring ingredient in baked goods, syrups, beverages, and sweets. The essential oil is also used in toothpastes, and is a major ingredient in some cough syrups. In traditional medicine nutmeg and its oil are used for treating illnesses related to the nervous and digestive systems.

In low doses, nutmeg produces no noticeable physiological or neurological response. Large doses can be dangerous, potentially inducing convulsions, palpitations, nausea, eventual dehydration, and generalized body pain. In large amounts it is reputed to be a strong deliriant. Users report both negative and positive experiences, involving strong open-eye-visuals (hallucinations), and in some 6ď ŽExecutive Knowledge Linesď ŽJuly 2009

cases quite severe anxiety. Users may feel a sensation of blood rush to the head, or a strong euphoria and dissociation. Nutmeg contains myristicin, a weak monoamine oxides inhibitor.

Nutmeg contains no amphetamine derivatives nor are any formed in the body from the main chemical components of nutmeg.

However, a risk in any large-quantity ingestion of nutmeg is the onset of ‘nutmeg poisoning’, an acute psychiatric disorder marked by thought disorder, a sense of impending doom/death, and agitation.

Nutmeg was once considered an abortifacient, but may be safe for culinary use during pregnancy. However, it inhibits prostaglandin production and contains hallucinogens that may affect the foetus if consumed in large quantities.

World production World production of nutmeg is estimated to average between 10,000 and 12,000 tonnes. Production of mace is estimated at 1,500 to 2,000 tonnes. Indonesia and Grenada dominate production and exports of both products with a world market share of 75% and 20% respectively. Other producers include India, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka and Caribbean islands. At one time, nutmeg was one of the most valuable spices. It has been said that in England, several hundred years ago, a few nutmeg nuts could be sold for enough money to enable financial independence for life.

[CGS]

In Forthcoming Issues  Metal to pump Liquid Uphill  Superconducting Germanium Semiconductors  Very fast Hydrogen Atoms from the Moon  Satellite Phones: Staging a comeback  Truth Serum: To obtain information from an unwilling suspect  Erasing Scary Memories: Through well-timed reminder July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines7

Defence and Warfare

I

Kautilya’s Arthasastra

n the political set up of the Kautilyan era, with many small states around waiting for an opportunity to pounce upon one another with their expansionist tendencies, defence and warfare become the foremost task of a ruler, pushing even the welfare of the people to the background. As a matter of policy, Kautilya advocates war only as the last resort, when diplomacy and conciliatory efforts fail to promote peaceful and cordial relationship with the neighbouring states. Nevertheless, he recognizes the necessity of war to protect the interest of the state and explains various methods to overcome the enemy, right from the construction of forts to the actual operation in the war front.

In ancient days, forts played a dominant role in war, next only to armed forces and it is therefore natural that Kautilya explains elaborately the techniques of constructing a fort. The principal fort has to be built in the capital city, where the king can take shelter and withstand the siege of a powerful enemy for a considerable period and initiate diplomatic moves. The other forts should be located on the frontiers of the state in places where natural protection like rivers, mountains, deserts or forests is available. Each fort should be surrounded by three moats filled with water and infested with crocodiles. There should be a rampart of earth round the fort, covered with thorny bushes and poisonous creepers, with a parapet on top. On the parapet, turrets are built from which archers can shoot arrows unnoticed. The bridge over the moat in front of the gateway should be detachable. The approaches to the fort are to be strewn with various kinds of traps for obstructing the march of the enemy troops. Secret escape routes, which could be used in emergency should also be constructed.

Kautilya follows the traditional division of army (Chathuranga) consisting of infantry, cavalry, chariot and elephants. He discusses the methods of recruitment to all the four divisions of the army and the arrays and the weapons to be used in the war. Disagreeing with earlier chroniclers who upheld the theory that an army recruited 8ď ŽExecutive Knowledge Linesď ŽJuly 2009

from higher varnas are superior to the recruits from lower varna, he maintains that the best army is from the Kshatriyas, who are hereditary soldiers of tested loyalty with expertise in handling all weapons. His objection to the brahmin troops is that they are likely to be easily won over by the enemy by a mere prostration.

Each wing of the army is under a separate commander who is subordinate to the chief of defence (Senapathy). The Senapathy is one of the highly paid officers of the state with a salary of 48000 panas per annum. The soldiers, war horses and elephants are given training daily at sunrise except on notified holidays.

Setting up of a base camp near the battle field is one of the preliminary tasks in a military campaign. The camp should be at a site far away from the capital city of the conqueror and very near to a mountain or forest-fort in his own country. The base camp is a semi permanent fortified area, with a moat, towers and ramparts and it is divided by roads into five concentric sectors. The king would be stationed at the innermost sector protected by his personal body guards and the outer sectors are occupied by other troops. The camps could be rectangular, circular or square in shape depending on the terrain. Guards should be posted at eighteen vantage points and they should be changed at regular intervals. The entry into the camp is regulated with passes. Soldiers trying to leave the camp without a written order are liable to be arrested.

The actual battle ground would be away from the base camp requiring a few days march. The route for march of army should be chosen by assessing the suitability of the terrain. ‘The order of march shall be the commander in front, the king and women in the middle, horses and body guards on the flanks, elephants and reinforcements at the end and finally the Chief of Defence. The same shall be the order of encampment’.* The array of the army while marching would depend on the anticipated direction of the attack of the enemy. If an attack is foreseen on the front, the array should be that of makara (crocodile), if in the rear, that of sakata (cart), if on the two sides vajra (thunderbolt) and if an attack is anticipated from all sides, then the array should be sarvatobhadra (uniformly circular). If the march is through a narrow route, the July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines9

array of suchi (needle) is recommended. The speed of march of the army would vary from one yojana (15 Kms) to two yojanas a day depending on the circumstances.

Kautilya takes into consideration the mental equilibrium of soldiers marching to the war front and he suggests various measures to instil confidence in their minds and boost up their morale. On the previous night of the battle, the king should perform religious ceremonies prescribed in the Atharva Veda. He should also call his army together and tell them that he is also a paid servant like them and declare that the wealth of the enemy would be shared by them when the battle is won. They should be reminded that brave soldiers go to heaven and the cowards to the hell. The priests should speak of the magic spells they have used against the enemy and the astrologers the good omens for them and the bad omens for the enemy. Physicians, with medicines, oils, bandages and surgical instruments should also be kept ready in the rear to attend the wounded.

Kautilya gives detailed description of the arrangement of troops in the actual fight. A warrior on a horse is supported by three soldiers on foot in front and three soldiers in the back. There should be five horses for each chariot or elephant with the accompanying soldiers.

‘The minimum array ( for a chariot or elephant formation) is nine chariot-units in the centre, each flank and each wing, arranged in three rows of three each. Since each chariot or elephant has its own attendant five horses and thirty men, a formation consists of a minimum of 45 chariots, 225 horses and 1350 men. The number of chariot-units in each row can be 5,7,9… upto 21’**. Other possible combinations are also explained in the treatise to suit different conditions. The weapons used for fight are of four types viz (1) yanthra (machines) like talavrinda ( a machine to raise wind dust), musalayashti (pike), trisula (trident) etc. (2) Ayudha (weapons) like bows and arrows, swords and discus, (3) avarana (armour) like sirastrana (helmet), kantathrana (neck guard) and lohajalika (a coat made of metal rings) and (4) upakarana (other instruments) like satagni (a mobile pillar studded with nails and udhghatima ( a machine to pull down towers).

10Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

After the battle formation, one or two groups of the array should attack the enemy, while the remaining troops are kept ready for supporting the attack. As a general rule, the infantry shall be attacked by horses, horses by chariots and chariots by elephants.

In the battle, the conqueror should use various methods to strike terror in the enemy forces such as; ‘use of machines, occult practices, assassins killing those busy doing something, witchcraft, proclamation of the conqueror’s association with gods, using carts or elephants or herds of cattle to frighten, inciting traitors, setting fire to the enemy camp and killing the ends and rear supporters and camp followers. Agents in the guise of messengers may also create panic by spreading false information such as the burning or capture of enemy’s fort, the revolt of a kinsman, or the rebellion of a jungle chief in his territory’.*** When the enemy takes shelter in a fort unable to withstand the assault, the aggressor should concentrate his attempts in besieging and capturing the fort. Kautilya suggests five methods for capturing a fort: (1) psychological warfare (2) enticing the enemy out (3) weakening him (4) infiltrating the forces into the fort and (5) taking the fort by direct attack. The last method should be adopted only when all other attempts fail, because it involves heavy expenditure and loss of men. The right time for storming a fort is when raining

EKL Sudoku 32 [Very Hard ]

EKL SUDOKU #30

Improve your concentration.

Use reasoning and fill each row, column and 3 x 3 grid in bold borders with each of the digits Improve your concentration. Use from 1 to 9. reasoning and fill each each row, column and Solution on page 34 3 x 3 grids in bold borders with each of the digits [BNN] from 1 to 9.

VERY HARD

9

2 5 3

4 2 5 9 3

7 5

4 3 7 9 8 7 2 6 1 9 3 9 6 8

July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines11

or when the sky is cloudy and when the enemy troops are tired after prolonged fighting. It would be advantageous if the enemy’s resources could be depleted before the actual siege by cutting off his supplies, destroying his crops and persuading the people in the vicinity of the fort to settle elsewhere. The moat around the fort should be encircled by forces after filling it with earth or draining out the water. With the help of elephants, the ramparts should be breached and the enemy troops coming out from their hiding places should be hunted down. The conqueror should exert pressure on the enemy simultaneously to surrender by using other methods like setting fire to the fort. Kautilya describes the use of a rustic missile for this purpose using pigeons, crows and kites. Fire brands are tied to the tails of these birds and released to fly towards the fort.

Domesticated animals like cats and dogs could also be successfully used in this way to help the besieging army. Kautilya, true to the Indian tradition, prohibits harming anybody, who has surrendered or fallen down in the fight, or laid down his weapons.

After the victory, the conqueror is advised to sue for peace if the opponent is stronger or atleast equally strong, but destroy the enemy if he is weak. A defeated army should never be harassed too much to the extent of provoking him to resume the fight.

Kautilya has laid down specific rules of behaviour for the conqueror in the conquered territory. The conqueror is advised to accept the language, the customs and beliefs of the acquired territory and participate in their fairs and festivals. As far as possible, he should follow good humoured policies like granting honoures and favours to the people and win over their loyalty and allegiance.

He should protect the customary rights and tax exemptions of the local chiefs and other important personalities. Officials who are disliked by the people should either be transferred to difficult areas or removed from service. The stipulation of such a benevolent behaviour towards the defeated territory is an eloquent testimony to Kautilya’s practical wisdom and sense of righteousness.

[N S Mannadiar] * Kautilya, The Arthasastra, L.N. Rangarajan, P 708. ** Ibid, P 722 *** Ibid, P 726 12Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

HealthScape

Managing Chemo-radiation

By Preventing Dryness in Mouth

X

erostomia, otherwise known as dryness of mouth is the side effect of chemo-radiation therapy in patients with head and neck cancer. This condition is caused by dysfunction of the major salivary-gland, which results in impaired mastication, and deglutition leading to gastric-dysfunction. Also, microbial populations within the oral cavity are altered resulting in dental caries. The oral mucosa becomes dry, cracked causing painful ulcerations, altered taste sensation, loss of appetite, loss of weight etc. and these side effects adversely affect the general well-being of the patient. As a solution to this problem it was thought that if one submandibular salivary gland is surgically transferred to outside the radiation field (before attempting radiation) it would preserve its function, thus preventing dryness of mouth. This was done on eight patients of the age group of 44 to 65 fulfilling mainly the following criteria: 1. The patients had biopsy proven squmouscell carcinoma of larynx oropharynx or hypolarynx.

2. Clinical and radiological absence of contra-lateral nods etc., after obtaining their signed and informed consent.

All the Eight patients chosen had proper and normal salivary gland scan. None complained of dryness of mouth.

For each patient, the submandibular gland was dissected and left pedicled on the facial artery and facial vein of the submandibular ganglion. The gland was left on retrograde flow through the vessels, bearing in mind: a. Any suspicions levels of lymph node had to be sent for clinical evaluation. b. If cancer was detected, the transfer should be abandoned altogether.

The gland was then repositioned in the submental space over the anterior belly of digastric muscle, anchoring it in place with suture.

The posterior and inferior borders were outlined with a 25 gauge wire to help identify the gland during radiation therapy. It should be noted that: July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines13

1. The surgical procedure is simple and is of less than 45 minutes duration, with no complications.

2. The patient’s salivary gland function should be evaluated by salivary flow studies using the University of Washington quality of life (QOL) questionnaire.

Treatment Administration During the treatment, the transferred salivary gland was identified and confirmed by CT scan. A split beam technique or appropriate shielding was used to keep at least 80% of the gland outside the radiation field. The conventional doses 6,000 to 7,000 CGY at 200 CGY / Faction, which produced xerostomia, were used.

It was ensured that the weight of each patient was checked weekly and salivary flow measured both in stimulated and un-stimulated conditions. The QOL data of the Eight patient chosen showed: (a) Four had normal saliva (b) Three had minimum saliva loss (c) One had moderate loss of saliva and (d) None had suffered from severe or no saliva condition.

The patients were kept on close watch to detect any pattern of recurrence. It was confirmed that none had dry mouth or weight loss, as the patients continued to eat throughout the treatment.

They where free of complaints like dry, cracked and painful oral mucosa, higher dental caries levels, ulcers, altered taste sensation and loss of appetite etc. The general health of the patients also showed improvement.

The surgical transfer of submandibular gland to submental space (outside radiation field) before chemo-radiation treatment would prevent radiation-induced-dryness of mouth. This treatment would thus largely benefit head and neck cancer patients.

[Dr Anil V. Koruthu]

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

– Winston Churchill

14Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

Tech Brief

Electronic Glue

A New Semiconductor

R

esearchers at the University of Chicago and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have developed an “electronic glue” that could accelerate advances in semiconductor-based technologies, including solar cells and thermoelectric devices that convert sun light and waste heat, respectively, into useful electrical energy.

Traditional semiconductors are expensive and can make largescale applications such as rooftop solar-energy collectors prohibitively costly. For such uses, engineers see great potential in semiconductor nanocrystals, sometimes just a few hundred atoms each. Nanocrystals can be readily mass-produced and used for device manufacturing via inkjet printing and other solution-based processes. But a problem remains: The crystals are unable to efficiently transfer their electric charges to one another due to surface ligands - bulky, insulating organic molecules that cap nanocrystals.

The “electronic glue” developed at the University of Chicago solves the ligand problem. The developers describe, how substituting the insulating organic molecules with novel inorganic molecules dramatically increases the electronic coupling between nanocrystals.

[Source: University of Chicago] July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines15

Incandescent

New Life through Reconditioning

I

t seems that the incandescent bulbs are on their way out due to the new developments in CFL, LED and HID technology. But it may be possible that traditional bulbs could be made just as efficient as CFLs and keep their cheap price tag.

A team of researchers at the University of Rochester have come up with a process involving LASER technology, that makes a 100 Watt bulb consume less energy than a 60 Watt bulb by creating nano and micro-scale structures on the tungsten filament. The structures make the tungsten more effective at radiating light and the bulb much more efficient.

The structures are made on the filament by an ultra-intense femto-second LASER pulse that lasts only quadrillionths of a second. Yet the LASER can be powered by a wall outlet, meaning implementing these LASERs into manufacturing should be a simple task.

The process can be used not only to make the light brighter, but to also change the hue of the light by manipulating those nanostructures. If this process is commercialized, the efficiency of CFLs could be built into the simple incandescent bulbs.

Whoever is spared personal pain must feel himself called to help in diminishing the pain of others. We must all carry our share of the misery which lies upon the world.

– Albert Schweitzer 16Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

AdvanTech

Spintronics

Next Generation Electronics

E

uropean researchers have developed novel concept devices called spintronic devices using ferromagnetic semiconductors.

They have created enormous advances in microelectronics, leading to faster, instant-on start times and orders-of-magnitude increases in data storage capacity.

Spintronics is short for spin transport electronics – electronic devices that use the spin of an electron to carry information.

Currently, semiconductor devices work using charge, with positive and negative charges denoting the 1s and 0s of binary language for computing. According to researcher Charles Gould, electrons have another degree of freedom, namely spin of the electron, and you can also control their spin, or their magnetic orientation.

Spin then becomes another information carrier. There are numerous advantages to the technique. Information stored by charge is volatile; it disappears as soon as the current is cut off. This is why people can lose hours of work if there is a power cut and they forgot to save. But in the proper environment, spin is non-volatile.

In magnetic material, once you switch spin to up or down it stays in that orientation until you switch it back. This could lead to instanton devices.

Spintronic devices also use little power. And, at least theoretically, spintronic devices could have very high switching speed. Also, spintronic devices have excellent scalability, because they are based on ferromagnetic semiconductors, and semiconductor manufacturing technologies are well established.

[For details: www.nanonordic.com] July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines17

Energy

Tapping Solar Energy Through Satellite

T

echnology by which solar energy is captured via solar power satellites (known as powersats) and transmitted wirelessly to receiving stations at various points around the globe is being developed. On successful development thousands of megawatts of power may be harnessed and shifted between receiving stations situated far apart throughout the world - all in a matter of seconds.

The PowerSat Corporation in USA has announced the filing of a patent that includes two technologies, BrightStar and Solar Powered Orbital Transfer (SPOT), which enable the reduction of launch and operation costs by roughly $1 billion for a 2,500 megawatt (MW) power station.

The space solar power (SSP) tapped by powersats is a clean, viable solution to the world’s growing energy problems. Not limited by weather or geography, SSP solves the intermittency problems of earth-based renewables by providing a reliable and flexible energy source that is available always.

The underlying technology components are proven and systems are expected to be deployable within a decade. PowerSat Corporation’s first patented technology, BrightStar, allows individual powersats to form a wireless power transmission beam without being physically connected to each other. This “electronic coupling,” conceptually similar to cloud computing, effectively eliminates the need to handle large (gigawatt) levels of power in a single spacecraft.

Because of BrightStar, one transmission beam may now come from hundreds of smaller powersats.

Another advantage of Brightstar is increased reliability. If any of the individual component satellites fail they can be easily replaced without significantly affecting the performance of the system, thus establishing much greater reliability.

The other technology being patented by PowerSat, Solar Power 18Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

Solar Tower

World's Largest

T

he world's largest solar tower started generating electricity in Sevile, Spain recently. The plant has a capacity of 20 MW and will be able to power 10,000 homes. The plant is made up of 1,255 mirrors, each taking up 1,291 square feet, that focus solar radiation on a 531-foot tower. The heat boils water in the tower which creates steam. The steam then turns a turbine, making electricity.

This is the second solar tower to go on-line in Spain, with the other capable of generating 10 MW. The solar towers are just part of a 300-MW solar-thermal complex planned by Abengoa that will also include four 50-MW plants that use parabolic troughs instead of towers. The entire complex should be up and running by 2013.

Spain became the world's second largest producer of solar PV last year, with 3,000 MW installed and with these new projects, it seems they are on their way to leading the world in concentrated solar power as well.

[For details: http://news.cnet.com]

Orbital Transfer (SPOT) propels a spacecraft to an optimal, Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) using electronic thrusters that are powered by the same solar array that is eventually used for wireless power transmission. Until now, all satellites have had to use chemical propulsion or a chemically fueled “space tug” to move from Low Earth Orbit (LEO), which is 300 -1,000 miles in altitude to GEO, which is 22,236 miles in altitude.

SPOT technology also decreases the weight of a powersat by 67%, dramatically reducing launch costs, and enabling PowerSat modules to fly on rockets to LEO, deploy their solar powered electronic thrusters and then fly themselves out to GEO. GEO, the orbit for most communications satellites, is optimal because it allows a powersat to harvest the sun’s energy continuously.

[For details: www.embeddedtechnology.com] July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines19

General Info Bits

Pillownauts

Astronauts on the Ground

T

he scientists at NASA’s Human Test Subject Facility in Galveston, Texas, are trying a new type of bed rest to simulate the moon’s gravitational field. A person lies, face up, on a bed tilted up at exactly 9.5 degrees with feet resting on a panel. The experiment places just about the same amount of gravity on the feet as the moon would. It is for removing some of the effects of 1 G and achieving one-sixth G along the long axis of the body.

While previous bed-rest studies have required a commitment to lying in bed for 90 days, the feasibility studies for the lunar analog study require only six days in bed. If the test subjects can handle it, which they appear to be doing, it will be extended to much longer periods of time. It’s a novel analog, though, so the study team is taking it slow.

The effects of lying in bed for months on end are not pretty.

Our bodies are used to being used. Astronauts and “Pillownauts” as some study participants call themselves, experience muscle atrophy and even some mild bone-density loss. They also may experience headaches, nausea and a host of other unpleasant symptoms. It 20Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

can take astronauts weeks or months to readjust to the Earth’s gravitational force.

In fact, that’s exactly why NASA runs these bed-rest studies.

They help them to understand the physiological changes that the body undergoes when it’s not being used like a normal human body.

They can try out ways to mitigate the problems that arise.

[For details: www.news.softpedia.com]

A Tricky Proof

lex was pulled over for speeding down the highway; the officer came to the drivers window and said, “Sir, may I see A your drivers license and registration?” Alex said, “Well officer I

don’t have a license, it was taken away for a DUI.” The officer, in surprise, said, “What, do you have a registration for the vehicle?” So Alex replied, “No sir, the car is not mine I stole it, but I am pretty sure I saw a registration card in the glove box when I put the gun in it.”

The officer stepped back, “There is a gun in the glove box?”

The man sighed and said, “Yes sir, I used it to kill the woman who owns the car before I stuffed her in the trunk.”

The officer steps toward the back of the car and says, “Sir do not move, I am calling for backup.”

The officer calls for backup and in ten minutes another highway patrolman arrives. He walks up to the window slowly and asks the man for his driver’s license and registration Alex said, “Yes officer, here it is right here.” It all checked out so the officer said, “Is there a gun in the glove box sir?”

Alex laughs and says, “No officer, why would there be a gun in the glove box?” He opened the glove box and showed him that there was no gun.

The second officer asked him to open the trunk because he had reason to believe that there was a body in it. Alex agrees and opens the trunk, no dead body.

The second officer says, “Sir I do not understand, the officer that pulled you over said that you did not have a license, the car was stolen, there was a gun in the glove box, and a dead body in the trunk.”

Alex looks the officer in the eyes and says, “Yeah and I’ll bet he said I was speeding too.”

July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines21

GPS System

Chances of Performance Degradation

T

he U.S. government has announced increasing concern over the quality of its Global Positioning System (GPS), which could begin to deteriorate as early as next year, resulting in regular blackouts and failures – or even dishing out inaccurate directions to millions of people worldwide. The possibility that new satellites would not be launched in time was announced in late April, because of cost overruns of defence department space programmes.

The functioning of GPS relies on a network of satellites that constantly orbit the planet and beam signals back to the ground that help pinpoint your position on the Earth’s surface. GPS service cannot maintain its level of precision if old satellites wear out before new satellites are launched as replacements, and the ability of the system to provide full coverage could dip below 95% between 2010 and 2014, when the Air Force plans to begin replacing the current block of satellites with a newer generation.

The satellites currently in orbit have been maintained by the U.S. Air Force since the early 1990s, and according to a study report, the potential failures are due to mismanagement and a lack of investment.

The most likely failures would occur in the atomic clocks and reaction control wheels in the satellites, which are equipped with back-up parts, but time has already taken its toll on all but the last atomic clock on 18 US GPS navigation satellites, according to the report. If 22Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

Infofuse

To Transmit Short Messages

I

nfofuse, a rudimentary new communication system dev- eloped by a group of researchers can transmit small messages on occasions of emergency. In a new study, researchers printed patterns of three different flammable metallic salts on a nitrocellulose fuse and then set the fuse on fire. As it burned, it emitted pulses of different colored light that can be interpreted with a Morse code system.

In the study, researchers explain that they developed a code for the alphabet, numbers and four special characters (a full-stop, comma, exclamation mark and the “@” sign) based on the presence or absence of one of the three metals in each dot. Extra coding information comes from the length of the dot, which determines the duration it burns, and the space between dots, where no colour is produced. They placed dots of the three metals – lithium, rubidium, and caesium – on the paper using an ordinary ink-jet printer. When the infofuse was set alight, its precise patterns were “read” by an optical detector.

The researchers developed the infofuse in response to a call from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for technologies to allow soldiers stranded without a power source to communicate. But it is not just military types who could find a use for the infofuses; they could come in handy in all sorts of emergencies.

For example, it could be of use as a type of signal flare…. When people are stranded, regular flares give you only a couple of options: ‘I’m in trouble’; ‘I’m OK’,” but “Infofuses could be used to transmit a more informative message such as, ‘How many people are there?’ and ‘We are hurt” [For details: New Scientist] the failures do occur, the report warned, “some military operations and some civilian users could be adversely affected”.

There are 31 functional GPS satellites in orbit now, with only 24 needed to provide full coverage. But for additional applications like measuring sea levels reliably, more are required, and they should work well.

[For details: Nature] July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines23

News Scan

Digital TV Broadcasting

Transition from Analogue Domain

T

he shape of future broadcasting scenario will change tremendously by the advent of Digital Television. Foreign countries are now in the path of change over from its old analogue system of broadcasting to digital domain. Application of digital technology to television sciences provides higher picture quality and sound quality than conventional analogue terrestrial television transmission, and at the same time, increases the efficiency of the use of the spectrum by allowing multiple programme services to be broadcast in current single-programme channels.

Today’s television broadcasting business and consumer electronics industries are very much impressed by this technology due to new financial opportunities it is offering. Cable operators have got a new option to increase their revenue by providing digital TV services. Compared with current analogue television services, digital broadcasting has the potential to provide a range of multimedia services in the form of audio, images, data and text, with applications not presently available. The transition from analogue to digital technologies applicable to television service is actually the result of a natural growth of the convergence of Television, Telecommunications and Computer Science with the support of digital technology.

Digital TV supports high-definition TV (HDTV), which uses one of the two formats: 1280 X 720 pixels or 1920 X 1080 pixels and provides a picture quality approaching 35mm film and a sound

Digital Terrestrial TV Broadcasting System 24ď ŽExecutive Knowledge Linesď ŽJuly 2009

quality approaching that of a compact disc. HDTV is particularly suited to large screen television display. The process of digitising HDTV images results in a video data stream on the order of 1200 Mbps. But an 8 MHz channel could only support a data stream of around 20 Mbps. So data compression is required in the order of 60:1 for transmitting an HDTV signal through an existing channel.

Normally a broadcaster prefer to use standard-definition digital signal, because the bandwidth of a Digital TV channel can be subdivided into multiple subchannels enabling different programmes on the same channel. So there is an option between a single HDTV signal and multiple lower-resolution signals over the same channel.

In a Digital TV system, transmission and reception are carried out in the digital domain. Digital streams of moving pictures and sound are compressed, multiplexed and digitally modulated before transmission. At the receiving end, decoding, error correction and de-multiplexing are done by means of a set-top-box or by using a specially designed digital TV receiver.

Use of compression technology allows multiple services in a single broadcasting channel at low operating cost. Video compression allows the transmitter to send only the data needed to pass on the difference between each picture frame, rather than the whole picture, therefore removing repetitive information and enabling several digital services to be transmitted within the same frequency. Multiplexing and appropriate transport mechanism enable interoperability between digital media such as terrestrial broadcasting, cable distribution, satellite distribution etc. Proper digital modulation technique needs to be applied in order to achieve the required spectral efficiency.

Suitably designed channel coding is necessary to reduce errors in both single carrier and multi-carrier modulation systems.

Various technology standards are available for implementing digital television broadcasting and reception. The technology based on ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee) standards is used in United States, which can replace the existing analog NTSC television system. Japan has created another standard called ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) for converting their existing television stations to digital. DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) is the standard used in China for digital terrestrial July 2009ď ŽExecutive Knowledge Linesď Ž25

transmission.

The most popular one is DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting), which is internationally accepted open standard for digital television used in Europe and Australia. These technologies have its own separate set of specifications based on the data distribution path used. The path may be terrestrial, satellite, cable, handheld devices etc. These standards give information on the exact physical means of transmission and on the data terminal devices of the distribution system.

India has chosen DVB-T (Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial) for its Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT) broadcast in July 1999 after 18 months of study and testing. The state broadcaster Doordarshan started a pilot trial during 2002 in Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai and Chenai. Doordarshan recently introduced Mobile TV (TV on mobile phone) on trial basis, based on DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting – Handheld) standards, with Nokia support.

Modulation is based on data delivery media and the normally used techniques include QAM (Quadrature Amplitude Modulation), COFDM (Coded Orthogonal Frequency division Multiplexing) and VSB (Vestigial Side Band modulation). The compression techniques used are MPEG-2, MPEG-4, JPEG, AC-3 etc.

Digital TV programmes can be viewed, regardless of how the data delivery technique may be, using a suitable set-top box, which decodes the digital signals into signals that analog television can understand. Now iDTVs with integrated receivers are in the market, which do not require any set-top boxes.

In a Digital TV system, interaction between the end-user and the broadcaster is possible through the use of a return path. An Internet connection is normally used for the return path. Being a net enabled product, Digital TV has a respectful position in the market and in the near future, we can expect a new generation product, which can be used both for running computer applications and for TV viewing.

Analogue picture quality may come down based on antenna connection and weather conditions. On the other hand, Digital TV gives perfect picture initially and becomes completely blurred or no-picture condition on noise pickup. In the case of distant 26Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

channels, analogue signal is available in degraded state; but digital signals may be perfect or may become completely unavailable.

Multi-path interference is more significantly affecting Digital TV reception than analogue TV reception. This can be rectified by using a directional antenna outdoors, aligned with the transmitting location. Similarly, Digital TV reception problem due to dynamic multipath interference can be sorted out by using proper digital modulation technique. By overcoming the present-day limitations of bandwidth and compression algorithm, the digital image quality can be improved up to a remarkable level.

At present, many countries simultaneously broadcasting the same channel in analogue and digital form. The existing analogue service will be stopped, as the digital service will become more popular. Digital TV broadcasting initially started in UK, Spain and Sweden during 1998 – 2000 and now they are able to launch digital service in many parts of their countries. The whole of the UK will be digital by 2012.

In the United States, all TV broadcasts will be exclusively digital by the end of 2009. FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has already set a deadline of 12 June 2009 to stop all analogue TV transmissions. Digital switch over in Japan and Canada is scheduled to occur in 24 July 2011 and in 31 August 2011 respectively. China is scheduled to switch in 2015. Brazil started the switch over to digital in December 2007 and estimates to finish the process within 7 years.

Germany launched digital transmission in Berlin in November 2002 and became completely digital in August 2003. Other countries like Canada, France, Finland, Denmark, New Zealand etc. are also actively in the field of implementing digital broadcasting.

Even though introduced in 1998, Digital TV technology is not in its full level of maturity; a lot of research and development activities are going on in several parts of the world for achieving its full capabilities. For digital television services to be successful, there must be a common agreement on standards in the areas of source and channel coding, modulation methods, content identification, and error protection and correction. It is also important to consider interoperability among different transmission media like terrestrial, cable, satellite etc. [ T S Ajayghosh, CDAC, Trivandrum] July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines27

Hairs going Gray Stress Contributes

R

esearchers have discovered that hairs going gray indicates signs of stress. The kind of “genotoxic stress” that causes damage to DNA depletes the melanocyte stem cells (MSCs) within hair follicles that are responsible for making those pigment-producing cells. Rather than dying off, when the going gets tough, those precious stem cells differentiate, forming fully mature melanocytes themselves. Anything that can limit the stress might stop the graying from happening, the researchers said.

According to the researchers of Tokyo Medical and Dental University, the DNA in cells is under constant attack by exogenouslyand endogenously-arising DNA-damaging agents such as mutagenic chemicals, ultraviolet light and ionizing radiation. It is estimated that a single cell in mammals can encounter approximately 100,000 DNA damaging events per day. Consequently, cells have elaborate ways to repair damaged DNA and prevent the lesions from being passed on to their daughter cells.

Once stem cells are damaged irreversibly, the damaged stem cells need to be eliminated to maintain the quality of the stem cell pools.

The team found that excessive genotoxic stress triggers differentiation of melanocyte stem cells. Earlier the loss of hair color was attributed to the gradual dying off of the stem cells that maintain a continuous supply of new melanocytes, giving hair its youthful color. Those specialized stem cells are not only lost, they also turn into fully committed pigment cells and in the wrong place.

The findings lend support to the notion that genome instability is a significant factor underlying aging in general. The researchers support the “stem cell aging hypothesis,” which proposes that DNA damage to long-lived stem cells can be a major cause for the symptoms that 28Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

Jewel in the Lotus Somewhere in the Himalayas…

Evening golden, the sun rays soft, A bird chirps in the garden, a soft, sweet song.

A breeze wanders fluttering leaves, In my heart, peace and calm.

Alone, I toast all the life, Watching lives drifting away.

Flowers dance a forlorn waltz, In my heart, peace and calm.

Far away, snow falls in the hills, Autumn is here, winter at bay.

Down below, lights flicker in homes, In my heart, peace and calm.

A boy plays a flute far away,

Mules pass by, bells tinkling in time.

Time, like a caress with love, In my heart, peace and calm.

What has been life, what it’ll be, All that matters is I am me.

I am, here, now, forever and ever, In my heart, peace and calm.

Blanket of hills falls over the sun, Darkness falls over the land.

Lotuses bloom in the chant of monks, In my heart, peace and calm.

[Balachandran V] balanpnb@gmail.com

come with age. In addition to the aging-associated stem cell depletion typically seen in melanocyte stem cells, qualitative and quantitative changes to other body stem cells have been reported in blood stem cells, cardiac muscle, and skeletal muscle. Stresses on stem cell pools and genome maintenance failures have also been implicated in the decline of tissue renewal capacity and the accelerated appearance of aging-related characteristics.

[Source: www.cellpress.com] July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines29

Technologies in Horizon

Auto Technology

A

New Advances

utomobiles are fast transforming themselves as electronic products, with more emphasis on safety of passengers and public and other conveniences for driving with pleasure. Some of the early high-tech innovations include, for example, the first automatic transmission called Hydra-Matic Drive introduced in 1940 by GM in its Oldsmobile, the electric ignition, automatic windshield wipers, power steering, airbags, cruise control etc.

Here are some cutting edge auto-technologies likely to become commonplace in the coming years: • Rear-mounted radar Reversing the car is a real adventure, especially in the overcrowded parking spaces. Although rear-pointing radar has been around for a few years alerting drivers to unseen objects immediately behind them – a fence, wall, tree or another vehicle – new radar technology searches for approaching cross traffic. When it “sees” traffic approaching while you're backing up, it sounds an alarm.

Chrysler's Cross Path Detection System and Ford's Cross Traffic Alert are examples.

• Night vision with pedestrian detection The new system, more advanced than the already existing night vision systems, pinpoints pedestrians, highlighting them on a dashboard display, including the direction in which the pedestrian is moving. Night View Assist Plus from Mercedes-Benz and pedestrian identifier from BMW are some new offerings.

• Parental control and Vehicle Tracking Most parents are worried that their teen driver might speed or be distracted by playing the vehicle's audio system at an excessive volume. The new system can be programmed to limit speed and volume. Ford's new MyKey system is an example which when programmed limits the speed and the audio volume. Also, the new GPS tracking system that updates a vehicle's position every 10 seconds can alert parents through their cell phone if the vehicle's preset speed threshold is exceeded or if the vehicle

30Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

enters/exits certain areas. It is also a handy tool for businesses that need to track their fleet vehicles. Small and portable, the tracking device can be moved from vehicle to vehicle.

• Cameras Camera systems that provide a rear view of the vehicle when shifted into reverse are common today. The new trend is toward multiple cameras to display a panoramic view when parking.

Precise distances are indicated by lines on the image. It also sounds an alarm when the vehicle closes in on an unseen object during the manoeuvre. BMW's Valeo multicamera system employs three to five cameras, depending upon the version.

• Driver capability Although it might be beneficial to have a system that evaluates driver’s fitness to drive and shuts down the vehicle when incompetence is detected, we aren't there yet. But technology exists that measures a driver's alertness and issues warnings when a driver is judged overly tired or impaired. Attention Assist, found in the 2010 Mercedes-Benz E-Class, remembers a driver's normal behavior behind the wheel and establishes it as the driver's baseline profile. Continually measuring factors such as speed, lateral acceleration, steering wheel angle, pedal use and so forth, the system determines if there is any deviation from the baseline. If so, it alerts the driver visually and audibly that it's break time. Even external influences such as crosswind and road surface are factored in.

• In–car Internet Wi–Fi Internet access from a moving vehicle is still in the future.

Now systems that allow for surfing using cell phone technology are evolving. The first system to turn a vehicle into a Wi-Fi hotspot is Autonet Mobile that uses a 3G network to supply an uninterrupted signal regardless of cell tower blind spots, tunnels and so forth. Chrysler's UConnect Web system and Ford's Work Solutions are examples.

[For details: www.cnbc.com, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org] July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines31

Spoken Web

C

Voice Driven Internet

an common man create websites? Probably not, because of the language barrier. This prompted Guruduth Banavar, the director of IBM’s India Research Laboratory, and his colleagues to devise a system based on what is known as “voice extensible markup language”, similar to the hypertext markup language used on conventional websites, that allows a website to be built and operated more or less by voice alone.

The “spoken web” is realized on mobile phones, which are already proving an effective alternative to computers for obtaining information online in poor countries. Like making voice calls, people can get access to the web, if their phones are up to the job. Across the developing world there are a number of successful banking and money-transfer services that rely on mobile phones rather than computers.

The voice sites are hosted on standard computer servers and behave much like conventional websites. At their most basic they are designed for local use, acting as portals through which people can find out such things as when the mobile hospital will next visit their village, the price of rice in the local market and which wells they should use for irrigation. Instead of typing in a web address, the user rings the website up. Then, with a combination of voice commands and key presses, he navigates through a spoken list of topics and listens to subjects of interest.

Further, by selecting an appropriate option with the handset, the user can add content to a voice site by recording a comment that is then made available to others. This can then be accessed as one of the “latest additions” or “most listened to” items in a spoken sub-menu. More important still, though, is that people can use a mobile phone to build their own voice sites—a process that, even a non-expert could learn in as little as ten minutes. A carpenter or autorickshaw driver, for example, can advertise his services, receive and confirm offers of work and even undertake basic commercial transactions through such a site. And the site can store offers of work when its owner is unavailable — as often happens in places where several people share a handset.

32Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

Your Inspiration To Be Your Best Self The good you find in others, is in you too.

The faults you find in others, are your faults as well.

After all, to recognize something you must know it.

The possibilities you see in others, are possible for you as well.

The beauty you see around you, is your beauty.

The world around you is a reflection, a mirror showing you the person you are.

To change your world, you must change yourself.

To blame and complain will only make matters worse.

Whatever you care about, is your responsibility.

What you see in others, shows you yourself.

See the best in others, and you will be your best.

Give to others, and you give to yourself.

Appreciate beauty, and you will be beautiful.

Admire creativity, and you will be creative.

Love, and you will be loved.

Seek to understand, and you will be understood.

Listen, and your voice will be heard.

Show your best face to the mirror, and you’ll be happy with the face looking back at you.

[Sourced by: Susy Mathew] Like a more conventional website, a voice site has a mechanism by which information can be linked together and browsed, both backwards and forwards. The system IBM employs to achieve this, the hyperspeech transfer protocol (HSTP), is similar in principle to the hypertext transfer protocol that provides links from one conventional website to another. The HSTP allows, for instance, someone listening to an item on a voice site to hear another linked item and then return to the first one and continue listening from where he left off.

July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines33

Solution

In Lighter Vein

Marriage Blues

☂ Marriage is the triumph of imagination over intelligence. ☂ If you want your spouse to listen and pay strict attention to every word you say - talk in your sleep. ☂ A lady inserted an ad in the classifieds: 'Husband Wanted'. Next day she received a hundred letters from ladies. They all said the same thing: 'You can have mine.' ☂ When a woman steals your husband, there is no better revenge than to let her keep him. ☂ Just think, if it weren't for marriage, men would go through life thinking they had no faults at all. ☂ First guy says, 'My wife's an angel!' Second guy remarks, 'You're lucky, mine's still alive.' ☂ You have two choices in life: You can stay single and be miserable, or get married and wish you were dead. ☂ At a cocktail party, one woman said to another, 'Aren't you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?' 'Yes, I am. I married the wrong man.' ☂ A woman is incomplete until she is married. Then she is finished. ☂ A little boy asked his father, 'Daddy, how much does it cost to get married?' Father replied, 'I don't know son, I'm still paying.' ☂ Then there was a woman who said, 'I never knew what real happiness was until I got married, and by then, it was too late.'

EKL Sudoku 32 Solution

34Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

9 1 2 7 5 6 8 4 3

4 8 5 3 2 1 6 9 7

3 7 6 8 4 9 2 5 1

7 4 9 2 6 8 1 3 5

8 2 1 9 3 5 7 6 4

6 5 3 4 1 7 9 2 8

5 3 8 6 7 2 4 1 9

1 6 7 5 9 4 3 8 2

2 9 4 1 8 3 5 7 6

There are those who, attracted by grass, flowers, mountains, and waters, flow into the Buddha Way – Eihei Dogen July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines35

Hope is always available to us. When we feel defeated, we need only take a deep breath and say, “Yes,” and hope will reappear.

– Monroe Forester 36Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

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July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines37

38Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

The 90 – 10 Account 90% of our worries is due to 10% carelessness.

90% of our work is routine while 10% requires thinking.

90% of our tension is due to 10% laziness.

90% of our friends moves away while 10% remains with us in emergency.

90% of our heaped papers is never referred again.

90% of our work could be done by our subordinates, and you are genuinely required ony for 10%.

90% of our decisions could be taken immediately, and only 10% requires indepth analysis.

90% of the errors only will be detected by the creator of a document.

?

90% of our debtors pay the dues in time, 10% makes our nights sleepless.

D

Important Question

uring my second month of nursing school, our professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions, until I read the last one: 'What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?" Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name? I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Before the class ended, one student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade. Absolutely, said the professor. "In your careers you will meet many people. All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say hello". I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines39

Books Scan The New Asian Hemisphere The Irresistible Shift of Global Power to the East Book by: Kishore Mahbubani, Singaporean diplomat Published by: Public Affairs, New York

I

n the first century CE, Asia accounted for 76.3 % of global GDP. Western Europe at this time accounted for only 10.8%. In the year 1000 CE, Western Europe's share of global GDP was 8.7%.

Asia's, in contrast, was 70.3%.

This balance began to shift with the Industrial Revolution. In 1820, Western Europe's share had grown to 23.6%, while Asia´s had shrunk to 59.2%.

Around this time, Western offshoots with significant levels of GDP, including the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, began forming as well.

In 1820 this group made up for only 1.9% of global GDP, but by 1998 these offshoots accounted for a little more than 25% of the world GDP. Western Europe's share was 20.6% in 1998, while Asia's global share was only 37.2%. The rise of the West, in other words, happened very quickly, within the last two hundred years.

Author Kishore Mahbubani, in this book, makes keen observations about Asia and 40Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

the West, as sampled above. He argues that today's great question is whether the West will accommodate itself to the rise of Asia and that there are reasons to worry that it will not. For centuries, the Asians (Chinese, Indians, Muslims, and others) have been bystanders in world history. Now they are ready to become co-drivers. Asians have finally understood, absorbed, and implemented Western best practices in many areas: from freemarket economics to modern science and technology, from meritocracy to rule of law. They have also become innovative in their own way, creating new patterns of cooperation not seen in the West.

Will the West resist the rise of Asia? The good news is that Asia wants to replicate, not dominate the West. For a happy outcome to emerge, the West must gracefully give up its domination of global institutions, from the IMF to the

World Bank, from the G7 to the UN Security Council. History teaches that tensions and conflicts are more likely when new powers emerge. This, too, may happen. But they can be avoided if the world accepts the key principles for a new global partnership spelled out in The New Asian Hemisphere.

The need to develop a better understanding of our world has never been greater. We are now entering one of the most plastic moments of world history.

The decisions we make today could influence the course of the twenty-first century. But it is clear that the worldviews of the leading Western minds are trapped in the previous centuries. These minds cannot even conceive of the possibility that they may have to change these worldviews to understand the new world. Unless they do, we could make disastrous decisions.

Kishore Mahbubani, a global thought leader, combines in this book a prodigious knowledge of history, a flair for lucid analysis and advocacy, and the pragmatism of an experienced diplomat. The result is a set of prescriptions that leaders and citizens of the world in both hemisphere would do well to heed, says Strobe Talbott, President of the Brookings Institution.

Contents: • The Three Scenarios: The March to Modernity; The Retreat into Fortresses; The Triumph of the West • Why Asia is Rising Now? • Why is the West not Celebrating?

• De–Westernization: The Return of History Incompetence, • Western Asian Competence?

• Prerequisites for Global Leadership: Principles, Partnerships, and Pragmatism [Source: R Narayanan]

It’s good to have money and the things that money can buy, but it’s good, too, to check up once in a while and make sure that you haven’t lost all the things money can’t buy.

– George Lorimer

July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines41

Redesigning Society Book by: Russel L. Ackoff & Sheldon Rovin Published by: Stanford University Press

T

he authors use three essential concepts to redesign the society: doing the right thing, focussing on what we want, and thinking systemically.

First, Peter Drucker made a distinction between doing things right (efficiency) and doing the right thing (effectiveness). This is an incredibly important distinction that is not given enough attention in public affairs. An example of doing the wrong thing right is the constant improvement of the automobile, the authors say. Our automobiles are becoming faster even in the face of more urban congestion; they are becoming roomier even when the average occupancy of a driven automobile is fewer than two persons; and they are becoming bigger with the concomitant increase in fuel consumption even with their known contribution to environment pollution. Most of our intransigent social problems like crime, terrorism, deteriorating education, inadequate healthcare, poverty etc. are consequences of doing the wrong things.

Second, most attempts to address societal problems are acts of desperation and ploitical expediency. Many current efforts to improve society are directed at getting rid of what we do not want rather than getting what we do want. A homely example of getting rid of something and then getting something worse occurs when we turn on a TV and get a programme we do not want. It is easy to get rid of an undesirable programme by changing channels, but it is commonplace to get a programme that we want even less.

In this book, Ackoff and Rovin use systems theory to develop new approaches to governance, the structure and function of our cities, and civic leadership in general.

They contend, “it is only through creative thought and innovation that our society will be transformed into one that provides a more equitable distribution of wealth, quality of life, and opportunities for development.”

Some comments by readers:

42Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

“This is an important, original treatise on all the critical problems of our time. No one treats complex systems better than Ackoff and Rovin!” – Ian Mitroff, University of Southern California  “Redesigning Society presents a fresh, intellectually invigorating way of looking at many of the major issues that confront American society today. In an increasingly complex world, this book provides much-needed clarity and direction, both establishing conceptual principles that can guide planning and presenting concrete, detailed alternatives to stimulate discussion and new thinking.” - Chun Wei Choo, University of Toronto Finally, a reply received on 25 June´09 from Russell L. Ackoff, author, in response to a mail from the Editor of EKL: Dear Mr. Nair: Thank you for your interest in our book, Redesigning Society. We had hoped it would stimulate wide discussions of the designs contained in the book, but it has not done so. Individuals who have read the book have told us how stimulating and provocative it was. This is gratifying but the failure to initiate a wider public discussion is disappointing. We conclude that the designs are too radical for current political tastes. We hope that in time this view may change and the designs may even be seen as prophetic.

Russell L. Ackoff (RLAckoff@aol.com) Contents:  Society and its Design  Governance  The City, Housing, and Transport  Health Care  Education  Welfare  Crime and Punishment  Leading Development  Epilogue: How to Get Started?  Appendix: A Way of Resolving Conflict [Source: R Narayanan] 

I am not a teacher but a fellow traveller of whom you’ve asked the way. I point ahead, ahead of myself as well as you.

– George Bernard Shaw July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines43

Journals Scan IEEE Spectrum The Magazine of Technology Insiders May 2009

T

he technology industry is suffering mightily from the global economic crisis.

For example, semiconductor industry is expected to have a drop in revenue by 24% in 2009 and enterprise software sector will have a flat revenue for the year. But there are some bright spots even in the midst of this gloom, say, in sectors like LEDs, Virtualisation, and MEMS. The LCD TV market may be all gloom and doom, but LEDs are increasingly becoming the way to light the screen up. So far, cold cathode fluorescent lamps were doing the backlighting job in TVs or LCD monitors. Now LEDs are taking over from them, to give slimmer TVs with improved contrast ratio. In 2009, LCD TV market will gobble up $ 163 million woth of LEDs, doubling the previous year's figure.

In an economic downturn, there will be all out effort to do more with less. So, virtualisation software which basically lets a company get more mileage out of its computing infrastructure by creating the equivalent of multiple machines per computer, is a natural fit. Gartner says the overall market will grow 43% to $2.7 billion in 2009.

MEMS accelerometer is increasingly becoming part of cellphones these days. MEMS market is likely to grow at 12% in 2009 to reach $ 1.4 billion, another example of technology beating bucking trends.

This issue discusses these topics in more detail.

Contents:  Thanks for the memories: Cover story presents Robert Dennard, the inventor of DRAM  25 Microchips that Shook the World  Next-Gen Ultrasound  Cellphone Security Threat  Robotic Seals Aid Research  Touch Screens with Feeling  The RFID as Computer  Ultraviolet Radios Beam to Life (Source: EKL Info Library)

44Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

The Futurist Forecasts, Trends, and Ideas about the Future May– June 2009

P

redicting what will happen in the decades ahead is an urgent need to prepare for the eventualities. A group of Silicon Valley VIPs is venturing into opening a university to study technology trends and to teach bright graduate students how to bring the power of technology to bear on problems that today seem insurmountable. These grand challenges include poverty, bioterrorism, and climate change. The Singularity University, as the new endeavor is being called, has partners from Google, NASA-Ames, and the X–Prize. Ray Kurzveil, inventor and Futurist is the mastermind behind this initiative which will meet at the NASA-Ames campus in Silicon Valley during the course of 2009. According to Kurzweil, the average human born during the twentieth century can scarcely contemplate how this growth will disrupt businesses and create new areas of opportunity in the century ahead. A detailed discussion for and against such a university appears in this issue.

Highlights of Contents:  Wild Cards in our Future: A wild card is an unexpected event that would have enormous consequences if it actually occurred  How 'Wild Cards' may Reshape our Future  The Disappearance of Food: The Next Global Wild Card  The Wild Card Sampler  Are Market Economies Imploding?  Artificial Intelligence Displaces Service Workers  Sunspots and a Communications Catastrophe  Your Solar-Powered Future: It's closer than you thought  The Case for Micronations and Artificial Islands  New lands in the Twenty-first Century  A Mini-History of Micronations  Looking Toward the Future in the Midst of Economic Uncertainty  Synthesis – An Interdisciplinary Discipline  Nuclear Power's Costs  Last-Resort Solutions to Global Warming [Source: EKL Info Library] July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines45

Budget  A budget helps you plan where your money is to be spent, instead of wondering where it went.  A budget is a method of worrying before you spend instead of afterwards.  A budget is a way of reminding yourself that you cannot afford the kind of living you've grown accustomed to.  Practice thrift or things will drift.

46Executive Knowledge LinesJuly 2009

The Last Word When the winds of change blow, some people build shelters, and some build windmills.

– Chinese proverb Owned, Edited, Printed, and Published by N T Nair, 186, PTP Nagar, Trivandrum 695 038 Printed by Akshara Offset, TC 25/ 3230(1), Thoppil 3, Trivandrum 695 035 Published at Trivandrum. Editor: N T Nair July 2009Executive Knowledge Lines47

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