Steam Center Blog

An Indian Farmer   Y esterday, a farmer committed suicide in the middle of Delhi in front of large crowds and TV Cameras. There has been a huge uproar over the incident. It is not that a farmer’s suicide as a result of financial distress is something new in India, but in front of TV it shocks human sensibilities much more. A single incident may expose past agonies that have been suppressed for long as happened with a single slap in Tunisia some years ago leading to the Arab Spring. About two thirds of Indian population lives in villages and a majority of these are directly or indirectly dependent on farming. Over the years while some development has taken place in cities, it is much less in villages. When the question is raised as to what might be done to improve the lives of modern villagers, some of the answers are simple and others complicated. The first thing that can be done is to deal with the simple and the obvious while not ignoring the complicated, and the...

The Pyramidal Solar Windmill Here is a new concept presented to researchers to examine further for the first time in this public blog. It has been named the New Pyramidal Solar Windmill Essentially it consists of a standard windmill mounted on a narrow hexagonal pyramid base. Three of its pyramid faces in the southern direction are used to mount Solar Photo Voltaic cells. The hollow base houses machinery to integrate the outputs of the windmill and solar cells. The figure here is merely a schematic and the exact configuration and design would emerge only from further analysis. The blogger throws this open to any interested researcher/designer for further investigation. A hexagonal rather than a pyramid of fewer sides will withstand wind loads better. Whenever the use of solar or wind generated electricity is considered the intermittent nature of these sources is a concern. Using the two together reduces the level of interruptions.  When solar alone is used on land as...

Nainital in the Himalayas E very now and then, news comes of climate changes in one part of the world or the other from California to elsewhere. It must be realized that climate has always been changing on the planet. There are cycles of changes that are year long, decade long, century long, millennium long, those spanning ten thousand years and others a hundred thousand years or longer. The ice ages of the past have been a part of these cycles as well as the rise and fall of ancient civilization from Sumer to the Indus Valley, (see http://alienaccount.blogspot.com ). Added to cyclic changes are what may be called climatic perturbations that are of a near random nature. When this perturbation is a severe one, it is called a climate extreme. Aside from natural causes, are some of the climate changes man made? Most scientists believe that some of the recent changes on the planet are caused by human activity that are contributing to climate change in a significant way, ...

  With a huge population on the planet, increasing use of chemicals and pollution, good healthy drinking water is becoming increasingly rare and many humans are managing with less than the best of drinking water just as they are managing with less than the best of good air to breathe. While with the help of modern medical intervention one may increase compromised life spans, the best quality of life becomes a far cry when humans miss out on sunshine, pure air, water and food. Perhaps the only way for humans missing out on sunshine and good quality air is to change their life styles and place of living. The best quality food may be obtained when one prepares one’s food from basic ingredients (as opposed to factory processed food) that are organic or near organic and well washed in case of fruits and vegetables. It is also possible to get good quality drinking water if one knows how to. Just a few simple steps will do. That is the focus of the present note. It may be ment...