Why I became an Environmental Engineer

Why I became an Environmental Engineer

So, Shea asked a good question yesterday.  Why did I decide to go into Environmental Engineering?  First, maybe I should define it, as in my experience it is a little known field.  According to the U.S. Department of Labor:

“Using the principles of biology and chemistry, environmental engineers develop solutions to environmental problems. They are involved in water and air pollution control, recycling, waste disposal, and public health issues. Environmental engineers conduct hazardous-waste management studies in which they evaluate the significance of the hazard, offer analysis on treatment and containment, and develop regulations to prevent mishaps. They design municipal water supply and industrial wastewater treatment systems. They conduct research on proposed environmental projects, analyze scientific data, and perform quality control checks.

Environmental engineers are concerned with local and worldwide environmental issues. They study and attempt to minimize the effects of acid rain, global warming, automobile emissions, and ozone depletion. They also are involved in the protection of wildlife.”

Now, the simple answer to that question is that when I was a sophomore in high school, my dad grounded me until I had decided what I wanted to study in college.  (The relationship I have with my dad is complicated, and we are not actually very close.)  I picked Environmental Engineering, mostly because I liked science and math.  I didn't really know what it was about. 

When I was a senior in high school, I had the opportunity to intern at our local water treatment plant.  There, I discovered that I found water treatment fascinating, and decided that that was what I wanted to do. After a poor initial college choice, and a transfer to a school that I loved, but where I got an essentially useless (to me, anyway) degree, I ended up at UMass, where I met Angeler and Phoebs.  They are still 2 of my closest friends.

On second thought, I didn't just "end up" at UMass.  My professors at GCC (now GCU) knew I wanted to go into engineering, and found me several summer internships to apply for.  (And the degree isn't totally useless- an engineer with a liberal arts degree is a rare creature.  Y'all will have to trust me when I assure you that you would not read the blogs of my colleagues.)  I applied for, and was accepted to, an internship at UMass.  The work I did that summer further convinced me that I wanted to study EvE.

So, UMass 4 years, got my degree, and a job in NC.  I was running a drinking water pilot plant for my current firm, albeit at another office.  At that office, I did mostly drinking water work, with some wastewater work thrown in for variety.  After orchestrating a transfer to my current office, I now work mostly on groundwater remediation, doing technology demonstration studies.  I am trying to pick up more drinking water optimization studies, but that has been a tough sell.  However, I think that will come.

I enjoy what I do, and I like that I am, in some sense, helping to make the world a better place.  My family has a history of service-oriented careers, and that is important to me.

As an aside, I enjoy it when y'all ask questions.  Please do!  (Although, I won't promise to answer all of them.  Most of them, but depends on the subject matter.)

http://blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com/

http://blogbusinessworld.blogspot.com/

 

The question often arises about where to send articles for publication. While there are many websites that accept articles for free publication, not everyone is aware of the free article sites themselves.

Here is a website that lists many article submission sites, where you can send your columns, posts, and articles. Most of the listed sites are free for some or all of your written submissions. The various listed directories are also categorized so your article can be targeted directly to its intended audience.

Strategies for Becoming

Strategies for Becoming
A Successful Consultant

By WENDY S. ENELOW

Fifteen years ago, working as a consultant was considered an unusual career choice. There were few consulting firms and even fewer individual practitioners. Instead, professionals preferred the stability of corporate employment, with its fringe benefits, so-called "job security" and promotions.

Now corporate life is different: With limited opportunities to advance and little if any stability at large companies, consulting has emerged as a viable alternative to traditional career paths. Unlike permanent executives, consultants create their own employment opportunities by selling their services to multiple clients.

Corporations love this trend since it allows them to hire experts on a contractual basis instead of incurring the costs associated with recruiting full-time employees and paying compensation and benefits. Companies can pay a fee to receive highly specialized functions, knowledge or operating support only as long as they need it. As long as companies aren't locked into long-term commitments and consultants enjoy brisk demand, it's a quick deal benefiting both parties.

The prospect sounds great: Hang out your shingle and go to work for yourself (or so some professionals think). Unfortunately, many overlook a factor that's vital to long-term success -- a marketing plan.

With consulting practices now numbering in the tens of thousands, you'll hardly be the only one trying to capitalize on experience in your chosen niche. Developing a reputation as an expert in your field will help.

Consulting is all about positioning yourself as an expert, says Betsy Gooding, president of Practice Advantage, a Charleston-based consulting firm specializing in healthcare management. "If you can demonstrate that you have the knowledge and expertise that your clients need, and powerfully communicate that information, you'll consistently outperform your competition," she says.

Pitching Your Services

The issue now becomes whether you understand how to market your practice in the face of increasing competition.

Laurie Szczutkowski is a business and personal-success coach in Forest, Va. Her specialty -- life coaching -- was virtually unknown several years ago but now is expanding rapidly. "Being talented and offering a consistently superior service is, of course, essential," she says. "However, it's just as critical that you be able to market yourself, establish your credibility and build your reputation."

Market visibility and a unique message are key, she says. To distinguish herself from her competition, she takes every opportunity available to speak before professional audiences, publish articles and engage in other "image-building" activities.

Kevin Skarritt, co-founder and vice president of AcornCreative.com, a Brentwood, Calif.-based technology consulting group, has a similar challenge. With so many Internet companies vying for business, he had to find a way to stand out from others. His research quickly showed potential customers want more than simply a Web page designer. They need a new media expert.

"To meet the needs of the narrow niche market I'd identified, I created a team of Internet technology and design professionals that could meet the diverse needs of my clients," he says. "Then, I designed a portfolio of print and electronic marketing communications to promote our unique services."

Indeed, every consultant must be a keen marketing strategist, able to parlay chance opportunities into consulting assignments. Consulting engagements won't knock at your door. You'll need to plan a strategy to position yourself and increase your visibility in your niche market.

To promote his consulting firm that specializes in international development for U.S. corporations, Mike Florimbi, president of Florimbi Partners International in Dallas, used a range of marketing resources, including print brochures, e-mail, a Web site and personal networking. "Marketing has made the difference between a mediocre attempt at consulting and a really successful venture," he says.

Marketing Tools

But which marketing tool is best for you? Should you develop a resume, brochure, flier, print-ad campaign or other promotional material? What about the value of a Web site in today's rapidly emerging e-commerce marketplace?

Unfortunately, there's no single answer. Your choice will depend on the market you're trying to penetrate and how much you're willing to spend.

For instance, whether you choose a Web site, brochures, fliers or a resume depends on your initial budget. Multicolor, multipage brochures cost thousands of dollars. Web sites can run in the hundreds, even thousands of dollars. Instead, you might select a one-page flier that's well-presented and visually attractive at a fraction of the cost.

Either way, it's best to have your print and electronic marketing materials professionally prepared, experts say.

Regardless which promotional vehicle you choose, it should:

• appear upscale in its visual and graphic presentation
• effectively highlight your expertise and specific accomplishments
• include your professional and academic credentials (e.g., degrees, certifications, teaching experience, public speaking expertise, media experience, publications)
• describe the full scope of your services
• promote your past consulting assignments (if appropriate)
• use testimonials where possible (prospective clients likely will be interested in what others have to say about you

Where to Get Business

Also remember that you can't deliver your services until you've developed a client base. To generate a list, use the following resources:

Contacts. Networking is the single best method to build business relationships and identify consulting opportunities.

Past employers. They already know the quality of your work and achievements. Notify them that you're now a consultant and available on a contractual basis.

Professional associations. Become an active participant in as many associations as possible. Attend meetings to network with other members and promote your practice. Get the membership list and do a targeted direct-mail campaign. There's often a strong affiliation between members which can benefit your marketing efforts.

Civic and community associations. Through these organizations, you can connect with other professionals who have similar volunteer interests.

Chambers of Commerce. A great source for networking and identifying opportunities in your local market.

Colleges and universities. Many schools help start-up ventures in need of specific operating, financial and technological expertise. Establishing an affiliation with one or more may lead to promising referrals.

Small-business incubators. Another great source for networking with entrepreneurs in need of specific consulting expertise to launch their ventures.

Venture-capital firms. These firms often engage consultants for specific projects, start-ups, acquisitions and other high-profile engagements. Once you've established an affiliation, engagements can become routinely available as the firm acquires additional holdings.

Banks and lending institutions. Bankers know everything about their business clients. Most important, they are aware of companies that need strong and effective management support (particularly in turnaround and reorganization situations).

Marketing Rules to Live By

Once you open for business, never forget the basics:

Marketing and building a professional image are critical.

Don't confuse marketing with sales. Clients want to feel helped, not just sold on your services. So anchor your campaign in your ability to solve problems and provide expert insight. To that end, tout accomplishments rather than your credentials. Clients are interested in results.

Play it cool -- even if your cupboard's bare, let prospective clients think business is knocking down your door. Clients may lose confidence in your abilities if you seem hungry for business.

Sell information in the form of books, manuals, software, audio and videotapes or databases. You'll educate people and promote your business indirectly as you familiarize prospects with your expertise.

Individualize your consultations. If you provide help that appears formulaic or packaged, clients may feel cheated. They believe their circumstances are unique and worthy of special, custom treatment and solutions.

Never cut your fee to get business. Instead, focus on the quality of your service, not your price. Whether clients retain your services will depend more on the quality of help you provide than on the fees.

Even if you need the income, cutting your fee without reducing your workload suggests that your fees were inflated to begin with. If suspicions arise, a contract may be lost.

Developing a reputation

Developing a Reputation
Part I: A Consultant's Most Valuable Asset
By Scott Allen
• Part 2: Be Prolific • Part 3: Be Ubiquitous • Part 4: Be Generous • Part 5: Be Dependable • Part 6: Be Credible    From Other Guides • Choosing a Business Trainer or Consultant (Small Business Canada) • Ten Low-Cost Ways To Promote Your Business (Small Business Canada)    Elsewhere on the Web • Creating a Reputation • Overcome Negative Perceptions • Strategies for Becoming a Professional Consultant   Consulting is perhaps the most accessible entrepreneurial business one can undertake because there's basically zero start-up cost. There's no office to rent, no inventory to buy, no special equipment, no franchise fees, no incorporation costs, and you can spend as little or as much as you want on advertising and marketing. Simply put, all you really need is to know how to do something that most people don't know how to do and would be willing to pay money to either learn how to do or have it done for them. Just about anyone can hang up their shingle and say, "I'm a consultant". Of course, that's why consultants have developed a bad reputation in some ways. Jokes abound about it: "A consultant is someone you pay to tell you what you already know." "I got laid off last week." "So you're unemployed?" "No, I'm a consultant." Q: How many consultants does it take to screw in a light bulb? A: Let me do some research and get back to you on that. Many professional organizations have popped up, both for the consulting field in general and for particular areas of practice, in order to address these issues. They provide standards of practice and certifications to raise the level of professionalism in the industry. Some would argue that knowledge is a consultant's most important intangible asset, but in reality, reputation is. Knowledge can be easily bought, or even sub-contracted, while reputation can't. You could know everything in the world, but if no one knows you know it, you're not going to make a living with it. The most effective form of marketing is still word-of-mouth referrals, and that relies entirely on reputation. Some consultants are fortunate enough to start out with an established reputation in their industry. If you're fortunate enough to be one of those people, then congratulations to you - you've already got a huge head start! But in either case, there are several things you can do to build reputation when you're first starting out, even before you have referenceable clients: Be prolific. Be ubiquitous. Be generous. Be dependable. Be credible.

diary of a start up

Diary of a Startup
Alane Ebner is starting an architecture practice. She has set the rather ambitious goal of going from launch to thriving practice in just 82 days. In order to do that, she has brought in a team of experts to deal with bookkeeping, contracts, graphic design, real estate, web design, etc. -- 22 experts in all.

What makes Alane's story so fascinating, though, is that the whole process is being recorded daily in a group blog written by all the team members called AlaneByDay.com. They're currently on day 25 of 82. If you'd like to see a step-by-step narrative of how a business is launched by a team of experts, this is your chance. While it's particularly applicable to a professional services business, many of the lessons here are applicable to any business.

One word of caution... remember the basic scientific principle that by observing something, we change it. Alane's business is getting far more attention than the typical architecture startup as a result of this unique approach. That won't be easily duplicated, although it certainly should get you thinking about some unique approaches you might take to call attention to your business.

Be proactive and contact them

The Power of Follow Up

From Scott Allen, Your Guide to Entrepreneurs. FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

Say what you're going to do and then do it

It never ceases to amaze me how few business people make the time to follow-up after they have made initial contact with a prospect or customer. In the last few months, I can think of at least eight different situations in my own life (business & personal) when someone did not bother taking this initiative. These included a landscaper who designed plans for our property, two different people who spoke to me about creating a promotional piece of literature for my business, a sales rep for a pool company, and a men’s fashion salesman who was asked to send information. In each of these situations I was very interested in the product or service offered by the vendor.

This got me wondering…why don’t people follow-up? I think there are several reasons.

They don’t want to appear pushy. It may be true that following up too frequently will come across as being pushy. However, very few people ever come close to crossing this line. In fact, one the few times, a salesperson was pushy was more because of his tone, rather than fact he actually followed up. As a business owner, I believe it is our responsibility to keep following up with our prospects until we know for certain if they want to do business with us. However, I also strongly believe that we can cross that line by making too many calls in a short period of time. So where’s the happen balance? It depends on your business. A weekly call is more than enough to keep in touch providing you make sure your call is short and to the point. Don’t waste your prospect’s time by droning on and on. Also, if possible, provide some additional value during your follow-up call. This may give your prospect a reason to choose you instead of a competitor.

They forget. It’s easy to forget considering how busy we are. We may have every intention of calling our prospect but we get caught up in our business. Unexpected problems crop up, we find ourselves spending more time in meetings ad stuck in traffic, and because we didn’t schedule the follow-up, it doesn’t get done. This is a common dilemma but one that can be avoided by considering the follow-up like a scheduled appointment.

They make false assumptions. I once submitted a proposal to a company and told them I would follow-up on a certain day and time. Unfortunately, I was extremely sick that particular day and it was several days before I recuperated. I then wrestled with whether or not I should call him. I was concerned he would question why I didn’t call as scheduled. In the end, a simple apology was enough to rectify the situation and move the sales process forward.

When someone doesn’t immediately return our phone call or email message, we usually assume the worst – even if this assumption is not verified. I have learned from experience that a lack of response can often be attributed to the fact that the other person is just too busy to respond or does not have an answer for you. They think that the customer or prospect will contact them. I think this is one of the most common myths entrepreneurs fall prey to. They think that if they do a good job the customer will automatically call us back – we don’t need to follow-up. Unfortunately, we cannot rely on this if we want to achieve our sales goals. I remember talking to a couple of independent business owners at a networking function. Both lamented the fact that companies did not return their calls. I pointed out that the average executive receives dozens of phone calls everyday and often hundreds of emails. They are extremely busy which means they forget and the more time that slips by, the less important your product or service may be to them.

They have never been taught. Many people have never received formal sales training and have not learned why they should follow-up and how to make this happen. This is relatively easy to remedy. Start by asking or telling your prospect that you will follow-up on a specific day or time. Tell them how you will follow-up (telephone, email, face-to-face) and record this in your day planner or time management system. I use Outlook and now include a reminder so I don’t forget to follow-up.

Follow-up should also be completed after the sale is completed. A quick telephone call after your product or service has been delivered confirms their decision to buy from you. I make an effort to send every client a handwritten thank-you card once the sale has been confirmed and again when the services they requested have been delivered.

Here’s the bottom line. You can easily differentiate yourself from your competition by making the effort to follow-up with your prospects and customers. Don’t take it for granted that they will call you. Be proactive and contact them.

See what KBC2 is doing ... sab ko bakara bana raha hai!!!

See what KBC2 is doing ... sab ko bakara bana raha hai!!!

6 x 100 x 10 x 20 x 20 = 2400000

24 lakhs in 20 minutes..

cue is KBC 2!

Any guesses ??

6(Rs/SMS)  x 100(entries)  x 10( cities ) x 20
(districts ) x 20(states) = 6 x 400000(people trying
for the 2 lakhs cash price )

Imagine what if 1000 entries try out from 100 cities
??

The figure simply grows by 2 more zeores and yields a
whooping 24 Crores!!

And it does not stops there... 1000 entries from 100
towns is a very small number .. in practice it could
be another multiple of 100 or worst case a multiple of
1000 on an average..

In that case it is 24 x 100 crores earnings in just 20
minutes on every episode!

And the price money :-))  mere 2 CRORE ( and from
whose pocket ;-) )

Smart Buisness by Sidharth Basu!

And the best part of  this calculation is just the SMS
earning!

What about the Ad money ??

A rough annual profit calculation goes like this..

2400 x (5 x 4)(episodes/month) x 12  = 576000 crores

Let even 50% get dissolved in taxes and other
payments, still you will be left with  ( which
includes even the meagre 480 crores of price
money..i.e., if every episode bags 2 crore prize!! )

2,88,000 Crores profit ( only from SMS !!!! ) of
Indian Industry.

connecting the dots

 

----- Original Message -----

From: JEBEEN@aol.com

To: JEBEEN@aol.com

Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2005 8:02 PM

Subject: 10/16/05

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn't have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can't capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky – I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation - the Macintosh - a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn't know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me – I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I retuned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple's current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I'm pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn't been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle. As with all matters of the heart, you'll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don't settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right." It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn't even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor's code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you'd have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I'm fine now.

This was the closest I've been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don't want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life's change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma - which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960's, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish." It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.

FAMILY-LEVEL FIXED-DOME BIODIGESTER

FAMILY-LEVEL FIXED-DOME BIODIGESTER
One cow produces an average of 10 kg of wet dung a day, equivalent to approximately 2 kg of dry matter. If cow dung is to be the main feedstock, the dung of approximately six cows (diluted with water) will be sufficient for a small biodigester of 9 m3. This biodigester would produce 2 m3 of biogas a day at 25°C, sufficient for the cooking needs of a family of around six people. At 30°C, the same digester would yield 3 m3 of biogas a day, sufficient for the cooking and lighting needs of the same family. In this case, the biogas would replace an average of 10 kg of fuelwood and 0.5 litres of kerosene per day, or roughly 4 000 kg of fuelwood and 200 litres of kerosene a year. It has been demonstrated that gas produced from the manure of at least three cows  is sufficient to replace about 75 percent of the fuelwood normally used by a family of six people (Dalibard, 1995).

BLOOD MEAL FROM SLAUGHTER HOUSE

Blood meal is dried, powdered blood collected from cattle slaughterhouses. It is a rich source of nitrogen, so rich, in fact, that it may burn plants if used in excess. Gardeners must be careful not to exceed the recommended amount suggested on the label. In addition to nitrogen, blood meal supplies some essential trace elements, including iron.

this earthquack, teaching for us

Every natural calamity has some new lesson to teach us. The last two — the tsunami of December 26, 2004, and the heavy flooding of Mumbai on 26th July this year brought their own insights. The tsunami alerted us to the need to urgently protect our coastline from tidal waves — as much as we can; the latter taught us that we can ignore the state of urban drainage only at our peril.
Similarly, the October 8, 2005, earthquake — with its epicentre near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan — has brought with it some new lessons. The Pakistan earthquake has not spared India either. It may be worth recalling that the January 26, 2001, Bhuj earthquake was strongly felt in the Sind province of Pakistan and that it had claimed about 50 people in Sind at that time.
The similarities do not end here. The structural damage that surfaced in Pakistan this time and in India were also almost similar. ‘Margala’, the 11-storeyed building in Islamabad — located at a distance of about a hundred kilometres from the epicentre, suffered heavy damage. We could have been looking at the buildings that collapsed in Ahmedabad, four years ago. Remember ‘Shikhar’, a 11-storeyed building in Ahmedabad which collapsed like a pack of cards at that point? It is significant to note that a number of other structures in the vicinity of ‘Margala’ and ‘Shikhar’ were either not affected, or had suffered only minimal damage. There is in the fate of these two buildings a great deal of information that structural engineers in India and Pakistan should try to decode, so that they can come up with better designs for high-rise buildings in areas that are earthquake-prone.
Against this background, let us examine the fate of conventional structures. Press reports and television coverage indicate that there has been extensive damage in the mountainous areas of this region. The area in the vicinity of earthquake epicentre is situated at an altitude of 2,000 to 3,000 meters. Seismic vibrations have more amplitude at higher elevations. For example, take a 30-storeyed building. It will have the least vibrations at the level of the ground floor but, as you go higher, the amplitude of the vibrations increase. The earthquake damage in Baramulla, Uri, Poonch, and so on, which are located at heights of about 1,500 to 2000 metres, and at a distance of about 60 to 90 km from the epicentre, was therefore more severe, as compared to the damage at Islamabad or Haripur, which are at a distance of about 60 to 90 km, but situated at an elevation of about 500 metres or so.
The effect of height on the damage perpetrated by the earthquake on buildings was very clearly seen. When one side of a house rests on a hill or mountain, the house has either not suffered at all, or the damage done to it has been minimal. This is due to the fact that the house does not vibrate as a single unit. It forms a small part of the entire mountain.
This can be better understood if you consider the example of Shimla. We have tall buildings in Shimla. Some of the buildings here may have five or more floors, but invariably one side of these building is not a man-made wall but the mountain itself. Such buildings will not suffer heavily during an earthquake. However, tall structures — isolated and open on all sides —are likely to suffer heavy damage. The High Court and Medical College buildings in Shimla should be scrutinised and studied from this angle.
One of the more interesting lessons to emerge from the Pakistan earthquake s, incidentally, an exceedingly useful one for the armies of India, Pakistan and China. It is most unfortunate that some jawans of the Indian army died because their bunker had collapsed after the earthquake. The Pakistan army also suffered many casualties. Ironically, the bunker is meant to be one of the safest places to take shelter in during military operations. Even deep penetrating bombs find it difficult to go through their covers, made of reinforced concrete and steel. A soldier is supposed to be safe in his bunker. He gets his food, water, shelter, bed and rest in it. But the experience of the latest earthquake has shown that while the bunker may give maximum protection from aerial bombardment, it will not provide even short duration protection if the attack comes from the ground. This means that now army engineers must get busy in designing bunkers which will not collapse during earthquakes. They should ensure that suitable modifications are made in design so that these structures meant to protect soldiers do not sink or collapse on them. This earthquake needs to be studied in terms of bunker design.
Let’s go to our next lesson — an important point about about sediment in rivers. When a moderate to heavy earthquake (with a magnitude of 6.5 or more) occurs in the catchment area of a river, a huge amount of soil, loose and fragile rock, and other material falls into the river, increasing its sediment content greatly. In hydrological terms, this is known as "fully charged". The River Indus and a number of rivulets have been charged to their maximum sediment-carrying capacity. If there is a dam downstream then the entire sediments are deposited in the reservoir. The flow of seismo-sediments in the river can be observed for six to ten months after an earthquake. This effectively reduces the useful life of a reservoir.
This means that the sediment deposits in various dams will now have to be examined. The January 1975 Kinnaur earthquake in Himachal Pradesh — with a magnitude of 6.5 — generated a huge amount of sediments which were terminally deposited in the Bhakra reservoir. Now both India and Pakistan need to examine the feasibility of building check dams upstream of the existing dams, so that the seismo-sediments are deposited in them and only water flows downstream.
These are just some of the lessons we can glean from this tragedy. There are, without doubt, several more. All these need to be studied so that we in this region can be better prepared to face reversals of this kind. The situation, in fact, warrants an extensive field damage survey on the part of both countries. Let us turn our grief into a learning experience.
The writer is a senior research seismologist. He was a former chief research officer of the earthquake engineering

Geocaching

If you're not familiar with Geocaching, let me elucidate. Geocaching is a game where people hide caches (containers with various objects, including a logbook), post the GPS coordinates to a website, and other people try to find the cache. Now, there are a lot of variations to the game, such as encrypting the clues to the cache, having staged caches where each stage gets you one clue closer to the final cache, or "virtual" caches where the final destination is a monument or marker of some sort. (For additional information, go to geocaching.com) Bottom line, geocaching is a fun activity and I highly recommend it.

SPIRITUALITY

we have to realize thta we have our original centre in GOD and thta we can not exist without him.Somwhere along the way we have made a terrible mistake and displaced this divine centre with a sense of separate me.The purpose our life is to connect with GOD.try to return to our original unity with GOD,this should be our first goal in life.pay attention to your inner life and its developement.you have already achieved a lot for your outer life like making money,love life,anything.knowing the validity of spiritual truth can only be accomplished by living them, not just reading or talking about them.real spirituality consists of experiencing these truths instead of just believing in them.

Re: Quake Experience from rediff

 

----- Original Message -----

From: saleem

To: Arun Bapat

Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2005 11:36 PM

Subject: Quake Experience from rediff

Sat Oct 8 17:25:45 2005
Name: Sheikh Junaid
Email: shjunaid@rediffmail.com
Quake Experience: I was sleeping at the time when the tremors started ( It is the month of Ramzan for muslims and usually after getting up very early in the moring around 4 am and eating food and offering prayers, muslims sleep again for sometime) and for first 10 seconds it was quite slow and i was at the 3rd floor and i quickly realised and went up to 4th floor to my parents and the frequency of tremors increased a lot and i could see the Fans and lamp Jars hitting the roof, i felt like i was in some amusement park and on some ride! We were so scared but didn't because there was no point moving down because the streets are so narrow and already there were so many people out there and God-forbid if some building collapes more casualities would be there on the streets then in the buildings....We remembered the tremors of the Gujarat earthquake, it felt like same, but it was for more time around 1 minute.....I am from Hauz rani, Khirki extn near malviya nagar and near my home i could see a newly made building got separate from the other building, actually this new building was built as if it was attached, which is very common in delhi, but now they are separate and there is quite lot of gap around 6 inches or more....If at anytime the quake epicenter is going to be Delhi or near Delhi i am afraid not even a single house would be spared and all will collapse especially conjusted areas like Hauz Rani,Khirki Village, Khirki extn, malviya nagar and many more place in central, western delhi like Pahad Ganj!
City: NEW DELHI

---

Sat Oct 8 17:26:52 2005
Name: saleem
Email: saleemasraf@yahoo.com
Quake Experience: we are acustomed to earthquacks as we are from North east Of India where minor tremors are felt every now and than. i calmly told my wife to go down stairs alongwith my children and move towards the nearby park.waise, the stair case is a danger zone also.
City: New Delhi

todays earthquack

An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale, with its epicenter in Pakistan, shook parts of North India on Saturday morning.

The Bhuj earthquake of 2001, which flattened parts of Kutch region in Gujarat, measured 6.9; the Latur earthquake, which caused extensive damage in Maharashtra in 1993, notched 6.4.

Your quake experiences

Your quake experiences Back | Next  Sat Oct 8 13:17:15 2005 Name: VINEET SANTOSHI Email: vineet_santoshi@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I was driving my bike to office on red signle my bike is moving like a boat i was supriesed every body was looking each other this nature City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:17:46 2005 Name: NEERAJ Email: neeraj.bhatia@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: Everything was quiet.Suddenly things started shaking.. we could see shaking window blinds and everbody was havin an indifferent and experience City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:18:04 2005 Name: Sunil Macwan Email: rushi_intl2003@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: Never to say....This was a great exp. of my life....like a high BP of a man, the heart beat increased.. the same way i wast felt the earth beats... City: Anand Sat Oct 8 13:18:19 2005 Name: archana Email: archanamishra@yahoo.co.in Quake Experience: i was waiting for my friend outside her hostel suddenly i found that someone is pushing me after some time i realize that it was earthquake City: chandigarh Sat Oct 8 13:18:32 2005 Name: A.Murali Reddy. Email: muralireddya@yahoo.com Quake Experience: I am In Kabul it is around 8-30 am just I am reading my mails on laptop suddenly on my table laptop shaking little bit immediately run away from office, but still I have fear may be earth quake come again. A. Murali Reddy. City: Kabul Sat Oct 8 13:18:47 2005 Name: Abhijit Das Email: abhijitdas86@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: Our aquarium in our house in New Delhi crashed onto the ground and the sofa moved from one end to the other. City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:19:09 2005 Name: karthik Email: karthikv22@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I wremember the time as i was jus lookin at my watch.we were waiting for our college bus.me and my friends were sitting on a platform. I felt a sudden movement I initially felt that it was my head that was spinning. , so when everyone felt the same way we then thought it was the platform. When we reached college, we got to know that it was a quake. City: Dehradun Sat Oct 8 13:19:24 2005 Name: debashis Email: debashis_mazumdar@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: i was talking to my colleague, when we felt a sudden tremor and saw the computers shaking and the fan swinging, all the people in the office started vacating luckily nobody got injured, and there was no damage to building, but pretty horrifying experience. City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:19:52 2005 Name: PANKAJ Email: PANKAJ_JAIN1985@REDIFFMAIL.COM Quake Experience: I WAS NOT ABLE EVEN TO FEEL IT City: DELHI Sat Oct 8 13:20:05 2005 Name: Sanjeev Email: sanzy_28@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I was in office..... and it was like somebody is pushing my chair then after few minutes i came to know that its earthquake... but its tooooooooooooo scary... Thanks to God Almighty that we are safe City: Vaishali (Ghaziabad) Sat Oct 8 13:20:19 2005 Name: sanjay Email: vo12da@yahoo.com Quake Experience: Arround 9:25 am my computer started shaking, I thought its elelc. prob.Next my chair started shaking.I thought my friend is doing something.but he was bussy with pfone.Then i saw almira it was also swaying.Then i saw the one cable which was shaking.At that moment i relised tha it is an earthquake.Me & my friend rushed to open space. City: baddi,distt:solan,Himachal Sat Oct 8 13:20:56 2005 Name: juned umer Email: umer_80@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: Today morning at 9.25 am I am sitting down infront my computer in the office. suddenly something is hanging in our top. I so anxes. In running out the office. We are so nerves & after 10 minutes we are relaxing. J&K is very upset God bless him. City: Chandigarh Sat Oct 8 13:20:57 2005 Name: G. Agrawal Email: grics@sify.com Quake Experience: Well it was around 9.00 I was standing in my factory which has a small water pool. Suddenly the water starts shaking and the 1/3 water just overlowed. Then I hear the clattering of the factory windows. By the time we evacuated the building it was all over. We could see the entire shed shaking. Luckily there was no damage caused. City: Kathua Sat Oct 8 13:21:00 2005 Name: T R Balakrishnan Email: trbala2005@rediff.com Quake Experience: Not felt in New Mumbai City: New Mumbai,Maharashtra Sat Oct 8 13:21:17 2005 Name: Shahzad Email: bunny2000@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: As you know it is the holy month of our ramzan going on, we slept so late after taking sehri(pre dawn meal)but we had to wake up early yo attend office.I was reciting Quran in loud voice and my mother was also in other room. We live at the fourth floor of our building. Suddenly i felt some viberations. I adjusted my chair as it is of some shaking nature and started again on Quran but again i felt even the table over which i was doing the same. I looked back my sister was on her bed in other room complaining that some thing has moved inside her bed and viberating it my mother also felt the same. in no time we took a final nod that this is an earthquake. we started jumping stair by stair but instantly i thought ofmy third floor family whose husband goes office early in the morning she must be left with her two wards she would be feeling helpless. I knocked out her door and lifted her one of the child and asked to run as she by the time now has also felt the tremor. Thus, we all just came out of the building and escaped the high shocking tremors to fall on us. City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:21:40 2005 Name: SANJAY GUPTA Email: gupta_law@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I was in Metro train, when quake came, so we could not expereince anything. On reaching office, I came to know about this massive quake. City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:21:49 2005 Name: sarvesh sharma Email: sarvesh_net@sify.com Quake Experience: I was opening the shutter of my shop as somone from behind told me that dont go inside it is earthquakd .but i Have not felt it but looking at the sky cables are flactuating like when wind blows fast nothing serious City: Karnal Sat Oct 8 13:22:10 2005 Name: chandra mohan v r Email: chandramohanvr@yahoo.com Quake Experience: just having my breakfast. had a feeling of wave motion for about 20 seconds...............I mean a sort of flying in air....... City: Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:22:21 2005 Name: parmods Saxena Email: springchitran@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: When I feel earthquake that time i was busy with my son. i live in 4th floor. i was sitting with my child on the floor. i said there is Bhukamp. My child was confused what is going on. Everybody of my family rushing towards main door to get down immediately. My wife was more tense in this situation. she asked to me ran away but i said don't run because at this time you can't reach the ground floor. When everything was settled down my whole family got down the building. At that time every ssociety member was out of their flats. After that everybody was sharing their experiences. City: panchkula Haryana Sat Oct 8 13:22:22 2005 Name: Rajeev Ranjan Email: irajman@gmail.com Quake Experience: I experienced the quake much before it came, the couple in our neborhood were having a row over something and the whole colony could hear it. I awake by the utensils and their grudges, and said to myself "The earthquake is here...." Lo! 2 mins...and the quake came...my bed started moving, i thought my roomoe might have left the door open, and have gone! I checked beneath the bed whether any dog, or anything was creating mischief. I was still half asleep! I found nothing, just then a book kept on the cupboard above my head feel over ...and I realised what was it! I got out of home, and the parrot was shouting in the cage "Mithu..mithu.." well...just then the couple suddenly retorded to silence. And i realised quake was over! City: ghaziabad Sat Oct 8 13:22:44 2005 Name: shahzad Email: bunny2000@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: As you know it is the holy month of our ramzan going on, we slept so late after taking sehri(pre dawn meal)but we had to wake up early yo attend office.I was reciting Quran in loud voice and my mother was also in other room. We live at the fourth floor of our building. Suddenly i felt some viberations. I adjusted my chair as it is of some shaking nature and started again on Quran but again i felt even the table over which i was doing the same. I looked back my sister was on her bed in other room complaining that some thing has moved inside her bed and viberating it my mother also felt the same. in no time we took a final nod that this is an earthquake. we started jumping stair by stair but instantly i thought ofmy third floor family whose husband goes office early in the morning she must be left with her two wards she would be feeling helpless. I knocked out her door and lifted her one of the child and asked to run as she by the time now has also felt the tremor. Thus, we all just came out of the building and escaped the high shocking tremors to fall on us. City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:23:08 2005 Name: Tiddi Email: tiddi_x@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: it was a good saturday morning and i was having ny breakfast when the aquarium's water, started shaking rapidly , all the fish were on one side of the aquarium and even my table and the chairs started shaking, that was the time i realised that it was an earthquake, i took my family and ran out of the building in which i stay on the first floor, the shakes were there for a good 2 minutes. All the pple who live in our building came out of their apartments. Thank God no damage was done. City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:23:16 2005 Name: Mohit Prashant Email: mohitprashant@yahoo.com Quake Experience: I was having a breakfast and suddenly i felt that my chair was moving and i thought of a GHOST!!! My friend infront of me shouted on me...Why r u shaking so fast??? I wondered and tried to control my chair but all in vain..and then suddenly i heard people shouting...BHOOKAMPP!!! City: Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:23:24 2005 Name: chander shekhar sharma Email: cshekhar81@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: i was working at my work place when i observed that my legs are trembling and some thing is going out of under my feet. then i realised that it was an earth quake that rocked b\my town of hamirpur. in the meantime, there was noise of earthquake and hundreds of people came out of their shops and houses. one of them fell from his chair. however, so for no loss to life and property has been reported from any part of the hamirpur district in himachal pradesh. City: hamirpur (HP) Sat Oct 8 13:23:58 2005 Name: sanjay.s. Email: s_vichare@ventura1.com Quake Experience: i was not a witness for the bhuj earthquake,but we reached bhuj on 28 th morning...we left bombay on 26th evening,reached ahmedabad,,,shopped goods for the affected people and proceeded to bhuj....we stayed in kutch for 6 days...visited around 20 villages and distributed the goods personally...we 10 of us got the ultimate satisfaction in life...we contributed individually for this good cause...each one to his own capacity....we thank god for having given us the strength and courage to serve our fellow indians.... City: mumbai Sat Oct 8 13:24:26 2005 Name: Bhanu Email: bps102@hotmail.com Quake Experience: I was about to enter my office building(3-storey)when i saw people rushing out of it before i could understand people in and around offices and factories also came out on road. some were running towards their vehicles to take them to safe place. It was really unique experience in eight years i have been here City: Noida Sat Oct 8 13:24:37 2005 Name: K C SAHOO Email: krishna_ss1@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: The earth quack was felt in Delhi also. At cannaught place I was sitting in office at 6th floor when the table and newspaper started shaking.The chair also started shaking. I could not understand immediately. Then all from the office started vacating and rushed outisde the building. Realy the experience was shocking. I pray God to help the affected people in J & K and Pakistan.Administartion and International AID agencies should help the affetcted. GOD BLESS ALL City: Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:24:59 2005 Name: Balaji Email: balaji09@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: January 26th, 01 I was in my house and my wife and baby (5 months) were at my in laws house. I was alone with Snoopy (my dog, a labrador)and since previous day snoopy was very restless and was not sleeping and disturbing be in the night and had tied him up which i had never done and in the morning i took him out and came back and had my b.fast and at 8 snoopy started running around the house and barking in balconies and then went to the cupboard where his leash was kept and barked and then went to door and barked and this continued for about 15-20 minutes and he even jumped on me to take him out and i was not listening to him so he got angry and went below the dining table and vomited (dogs can do this) in anger, then i went to the balcony to get some mud from the flower pot to clean the vomit and then everything was quite and not single a bird was chirping and then there was this loud bang and balcony railing shook a little and i thought the train going next to my house must have banged into something but the railing started rattling and then i thought that pakistan must have sent a stray bomb on ahmedabad and hwen i looked into my room i saw the fan swinging from one side to another and then realised that this was quake and whole building was shaking and then i ran out and snoopy came in front and caught his collar and ran with him out.Came back after the shaking stopped and packed a few things and immediately went in the car with snoopy and my person from the office who had come for some work and while going to my in laws place i saw 2 apartments of 5 floors falling like a pack of cards.then i reaslised why snoopy was so impatient and thereafter for a few days whenever he behaved slightly abnormally everyone owuld be out of the house with snoopy in tow and this became a sign and all neighbours also used to come out since ours was a 10 storyed apartment block City: Ahmedabad Sat Oct 8 13:25:18 2005 Name: varinder sharma Email: varinder_4@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: hi, That was my 2nd-3rd experience of earthquakes. At 9: 22 AM i m sitting in my office and suddenly i felt that my chair was moving then i suddenly saw a bottle of water it shakes i ran away outside the premises, people from native companies also gatherd outsides. i saw a loaded truck shaking in front of me. then i rang to my home , my mother told me that she was lying on bed after free from kitchen & suddelny she felt the bed was moving and they ran outside the house they saw our car is also moving., peoples are gathered on roads. we are discussing with our collegeous & friends. but after sometimes we back to normal. thanks GOD no one is hurt. City: Chandigarh Sat Oct 8 13:25:46 2005 Name: Sundaram Email: mohansundar123@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I am working in the computer . Suddenly I felt computer and my tables are skaking . Some feeling in my body . Suddenly sparks in my mind it is a Earthquake and i informed my colleages suddenly we gone to open terrace . It was great Experience in my life . No casualites . City: Faridabad Sat Oct 8 13:25:55 2005 Name: gensharma Email: gensharma@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: My cooler was shaking vogorously and water came out of it. It was horrible. City: Chandigarh Sat Oct 8 13:26:22 2005 Name: Mayank Shukla Email: mayank_er@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I was having my tea at a dhaba near IIT Delhi, Ber Sarai when for the first time in my life experienced the tremors,firstly i thought that it was due to my bad health but when i saw crowd of people coming out from their homes i realized that something was unusual and when i talked to them they also felt the same and all of us waited outside our houses for half an hour and then returned to our rooms with a fear that it may strike again. City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:26:33 2005 Name: Niranjan Email: lniranjan@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: Now that I'm no more in that company, I feel free to talk about my ex boss & his 'black' tongue. It was the July of 2003 in northern Italy when my colleague & I were travelling with my ex boss on a train. We were passing through rocky mountains of the Dolemite range when my boss asked the other passengers if there has ever been an earthquake in this part of the world, considering its geographical nature. The others answered with an almost angry hint of 'NO' as earthquakes were almost unheard of in this region since humankind set foot. Everyone but my ex boss expressed surprise. We alighted at Bozen station & were waiting for our escort when a mile long freight train passed the station. A few seconds after it passed through, there was a loud roar for a couple of seconds. We were certain the freight train had derailed. A few seconds later there was louder roar & the earth shook violently for about 10 seconds. Everyone in the platform of this otherwise laidback place was at their feet, themselves shaking like a leaf. The sturdy structure of the platform somehow reassured us all's fine. My colleague & I looked distastefully at our then boss. It was Northern Italy's first earthquake since humans inhabited the region. City: Mumbai Sat Oct 8 13:26:51 2005 Name: ANIL BATRA Email: anilbatra2000@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I was in toilet when this happend, my bath tub and whole bathroom was shaking, this was continue for 1 minuts atleast. Then i go to my Hall Room, and watch the news, and there was the Breaking News for Earth Quake. City: NEW DELHI Sat Oct 8 13:27:13 2005 Name: rajesh Email: rajeshveena@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: quake very bad in the chandigarh region City: chandigarh Sat Oct 8 13:27:16 2005 Name: jack Email: kebaojack@rediff.com Quake Experience: shock,fear, City: New delhi Sat Oct 8 13:27:21 2005 Name: Anand Kumar Email: anandmandhian@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I was at mess in a boarding school.When ground shook then it seemed to me that i am feeling uncoscious but later i realized that it was a mild earthquake. City: Dehradun Sat Oct 8 13:27:49 2005 Name: samarendu Email: samarendu_saha@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: The duration and way very things swings make me feel that if epicenter is quite away from here (Delhi) than it would have cause a great damage to man and material City: Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:28:06 2005 Name: Harinder Email: hpsangha@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: While walking I was feeling headche and I was unable to put my foot on the road at the spot I intend to do. City: Chandigarh Sat Oct 8 13:28:36 2005 Name: chirag bhavsar Email: chirag010678@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: no experience about this earth quake. City: ahmedabad Sat Oct 8 13:29:06 2005 Name: Rupesh Kumar Das Email: rupesh_eil@yahoo.com Quake Experience: We were working in the office in Panipat Refinery and all of sudden our computer and table startes shaking. Then we ran out of the office along with our fellow colleagues City: Panipat Sat Oct 8 13:29:14 2005 Name: a.k aprson Email: bhushan_arora01@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: Pray to God many times during and after the tremors/quake that such should not happen on earth. Really heart beat is still there. City: Amritsar Sat Oct 8 13:29:14 2005 Name: Manoj Rawat Email: m20s10rawat@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I was alone at Home and enjoying bed. Suddenly, I felt that my bed is shaking and time was arund 9.25A.M then I thought that it is only my dream but when it was for more then two minutes then i understood that it is earthquake which was having slow rate. Peoples of our society have come outside from their flats and discussing about the quake but I had to go to office so I had been engaed in my routine works and reached to office at 10.30A.M. City: Noida Sat Oct 8 13:29:26 2005 Name: Jalandra Email: jalandrakk@yahoo.co.in Quake Experience: At that time, i just put my scooter on stand and started moving towards my office, but suddenly i heard the shouts from from the neighborhood and i thought it was because of festive season. Then I saw people from my office as well as from other places running towards in open area and everybody was saying - "bhookanp aa gayaa" and then i also noticed that a vertical water steel pipe wass shaking for few seconds. When the things settled, i phoned to my wife and she told me that in kitchen when she heard the noise of shaking utencils she thought of a mouse creating problem. My mother sitting on a chair thought her son had been shaking her chair. On top floor of our building, even double bed got shaked and all the people started coming out from the houses. I t was really shockable....and unbelievable. Thanks. City: NOIDA Sat Oct 8 13:29:35 2005 Name: Imran Khan Email: jamia97@hotmail.com Quake Experience: I was sitting in my office on the ground floor in C.P when suddenly my chair started shaking. I thought that maybe I am not feeling well and it is all an illusion. It was only when I saw people running out of the building that i realised that it was an earthquake!!! nquite a SHAKY experience!!!!!! City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:29:54 2005 Name: O.P.SOMANI Email: somaniop@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I was sitting before my computer email to my friend. At the send commabd I felt giddy and my chair vibrating. I removed my specks and cleared my eyes. But It was still the same. Then suddenly my wife from bathroom declared, hey its an earthquake. We quickly stepped down from the fouth floor to go in open .By that time most of the people were already gathered. City: NOIDA Sat Oct 8 13:30:02 2005 Name: saurabh singh Email: saurabhsingh_78@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: i was sitting in my room around 9:10 am and reading news paper. then i was feeling like every thing is moving. i ran towards outside. and call all other my room mates. and all of us ran towards outside. then we realise that it was earth quake. thank god we are safe. City: jaipur Sat Oct 8 13:31:16 2005 Name: mukesh Email: mukesh65@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: was about to leave office, when my wife said its a earthquake, i thought i was having some giddiness but later carefully concentrating reallised she was right and asked all of them to come out, the best was when i went to my paanwalla to enquire, he said he thought that the first paan he had for himself- he seems to have added more of jarda and was spitting since he too felt giddiness. City: new delhi Sat Oct 8 13:31:49 2005 Name: Pramod Email: Pramod009@rediff.com Quake Experience: This is my third live encounter with the Earthquake, the first two are minor one, but todays quake is really major, as i am praparing to leave for the Office suddenly felt that the my legs are shaking, felting something wrong with me, but quickly recognize the massive movement of the Earth, call my brother (watching TV) and my MOM (In kitchen)to come out in open as quake has struck. Now everybody around were in panic and come out of their houses,my MOM who is very religious in nature start praying to GOD to save all from this, the quake was so massive that we can't even stand properly, the quake keep jurking the earth for about 4-5 minutes, the electricity goes-off and Telephone line become dead for a while. It is really an experence of life-time. I am still in shook. But as Jammu is a city of Temples, with the grace of God we all in Jammu are safe. The Govt. have to take a lesson from it, and keep its machinery on high alert to copp-up with any evantuality. As Old Jammu is really in a bad shape and a quake like this can make extensive damage there. God Bless u all. City: Jammu Sat Oct 8 13:32:09 2005 Name: namitha Email: namitha_2001us@yahoo.com Quake Experience: it was in the morning around 9-30 or so,we all just started our PCs,checking mails etz.Suddenly glass with water shaking,chairs all shaking..and then some screams,,Earthquake!!!!Thats It..A Spark of all the thbngs which i saw on Tv abt Earthquake came in to mind!!and I just ran out of my office with my collegues and called up my home to make sure all are safe City: Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:32:21 2005 Name: prasoom Email: williamphilip007@hotmail.com Quake Experience: I was tying my Shoe lese at that time when earthquake come my bed was twisting like a boat I just shouted (Mami bukam aa raha hai) that time my mom was making for me roti she also shouted and my brother was studien at another room he was studien in his bed he was also saying that my bed was also twisting like a boat we all come out from our house when I seen that our electric post was shaking This inset end was really shocking for me. City: Noida, UP, India Sat Oct 8 13:33:06 2005 Name: Sandeep Kumar Email: sand_bambha@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I am resting on bed that time,and in one moment there was big shout in my locality,"sab bahar niklo"_ _ _ again and again. City: New Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:33:11 2005 Name: s.gnanavel Email: sgnanavel@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: I was taking my breakfast in my office , felt that my chair revolving as well as up & down . i thought of giddiness because we were worked yesterday full night. Then all rest of the people also rushed outside the office to the open yard. this is my first experience and it was much thrilling experience. City: Khatauli , Sat Oct 8 13:33:16 2005 Name: Karthik Email: fermisoft@yahoo.co.in Quake Experience: We felt the tremors for around 30 seconds. They were quite strong. No casualities in our area. City: Noida Sat Oct 8 13:33:38 2005 Name: Partha Pratim Dutta Email: partha050@gmail.com Quake Experience: I was getting ready for my office when this happened. Initially I did not feel anything although my mother kept saying that there is an earthquake but I ignored it. Then I noticed the water in the bottles kept on the dining table were shaking then I realised that it really happened. Immediately I alongwith my mother ran out of my 3rd Floor apartment to the ground. There were people all around shouting and yelling. For a while I was under shock. I immediately called all my sisters in Delhi and was relieved to know that all are safe. City: Delhi Sat Oct 8 13:33:54 2005 Name: Amit Joshi Email: amitduttjoshi@rediffmail.com Quake Experience: It was horrible, Me and my colligue were sitting on the chair and both were moving , we were on the forth floor of of the building, we came out of building through stairs.... experiencing quake on stairs also.... i skipped three stairs while coming down... Thanks to god we were safe but ou legs were shivering... still shivering... City: Jaipur

hey is COCA COLA & PEPSI ON THE WAY OUT

hey is COCA COLA & PEPSI ON THE WAY OUT

[http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/jun/25spec.htm]

Drink that fizz out

Sangeeta Singh June 25, 2005


Dabur Foods and PepsiCo, market leaders in the Rs 180 crore (Rs 1.8 billion) juice industry, need to watch out this summer, for the heat may scorch them. There are no less than 10 other non-carbonated drinks in the market, four or five in the juice segment itself.

Top on the list of newcomers are Tuk 3, Kohinoor and B Natural. While Kohinoor comes as a guava-apple mix, B Natural is a mixed fruit cocktail with apple, strawberry and banana.

To wean customers from their usual apple or orange juices, these players are not only offering fruit concoctions but also offers like buy-one-get-one free and have flooded the shelves of superstores.

Not just that. Biggies like Hindustan Lever and Amul have launched their new drinks and are cashing in on their distribution networks to make quick inroads all over India.

While Amul's Masti Spiced Buttermilk is available even at the Vaishno Devi shrine, Lipton Ice Tea is selling in metros and mini metros. Besides, energy and health drinks are proving good alternatives to high-calorie carbonated waters.

Cashing in on the trend of young consumers looking for healthy products, Hindustan Lever Limited has launched a 250-ml glass bottle of iced tea for Rs 9.

The company is targetting young adults in the 18-28 year age group. "Out of home and on the go consumption among the younger generation is increasing and Lipton Ice Tea, which offers natural vitality, responds to this," says an HLL spokesperson.

To give its consumers a truly international experience, Lipton IceTea is also available in 245 ml cans, 200 ml vending cups and one-litre tetrapacks for Rs 20, Rs 10 and Rs 49 respectively.

Gujarat Milk Cooperative Marketing Federation's Masti Spiced Buttermilk (masala chhach) is being retailed across the country through its 3,000 odd distribtutors. And with the consumers' ever-growing craze for healthy food, this sub-50 calorie drink has caught on very well.

Priced democratically at Rs 5 for a 200 ml pack, this drink is also helping BJP workers maintain their cool and is liberally being served at the party headquarters in Delhi.

Then there is Mother Dairy's Safal brand which is seen as a major competitor. Mother Dairy claims Safal offers absolute value for money. It sell its one litre juice under the brand name Safal at Rs 60. Dabur's Real and PepsiCo's Tropicana are in the Rs 65 plus category.

This season the company is introducing mango and guava variants. And Paul Thachil, CEO, Mother Dairy is hopeful that Safal can be one of the largest selling juices because of its distribution network and low price. "With 1,400 outlets and Safal being 10-15 per cent cheaper than its competitors, we have an edge," says Thachil.

But PepsiCo has not given up as far as adding novelty is concerned. It has added mango and guava nectar flavours to its Tropicana range. Also, it's launched a special edition of Mirinda, the Batman Blast Berry Fusion for two months, as an in-and-out drink.

The drink is a combination of grapes and black currant, and according to Lloyd Mathias, executive vice president, PepsiCo, is based on thorough research. However, Pepsi's idea is different; it is to commemorate the release of the Hollywood blockbuster Batman Begins.

These drinks are available in 200, 300 and 600 mls priced at Rs 6, 8 and 18 respectively. "The special edition is Pepsi's endeavour to offer its customers something new. For instance, we launched Pepsi Blue during the world cup," says Mathias.

Again, Dabur Foods's Real, which claims a 60 per cent marketshare, has added lemon-barley and muskmelon variants to add to the Coolers range of aampanna, pomegranate and watermelon this summer.

Dabur does sales of Rs 7 crore (Rs 70 million) out of its Rs 110 crore (Rs 1.10 billion) juice business. It has also experimented with combining fruits and vegetables, and has just launched orange-carrot-mixed fruit, cucumber-spinach-mixed fruit and beetroot-carrot-mixed fruit juices.

With prices in the Rs 65-68 /litre range for most of the brands and Rs 78 for the new fruit-vegetable category, Real juices are perceived to be expensive.

"Not really, Tropicana is more expensive than us. Besides, we are still the largest player in the juice segment. That illustrates that people are ready to pay for quality," says Amit Burman, CEO, Dabur Foods.

Dabur and Tropicana also seem to have withstood competition in the past, when Leh Berry with seabuckthorn made waves in the market two years back.

If market sources are to be believed, Ladakh Foods, the company making Leh Berry, ran into problems with the Jammu & Kashmir government over sourcing of seabuckthorn. But for those hooked on to seabuckthorn, there is hope in Tuk 3, which uses this.

For sportsmen and gymmers, Austrian energy drink Fullpower has made inroads into India. Priced at Rs 75 for a 250 ml can and with just 42 calories, the drink may give the existing energy drink, Red Bull which sells at Rs 95, stiff competition.

"Loaded with vitamins, taurine, caffeine and glucuronolactone, it does not only replenish our essential body fluids but also gives us more energy," says Ajay Hasija, managing director, Fullpower.

The company is currently selling through retail outlets in metros and Hasija claims 70,000 cases have already been sold since its launch in February.

Fullpower is also aiming to sell the drink through outlets in gymnasiums and sports complexes. Red Bull or Fullpower are also being used by bartenders for making cocktails.

Since only 15-20 per cent of the people are juice-drinkers, there is room for the market to expand. And with all the choice, prices are bound to come down as well.

It's a win-win situation -- only, despite all the innovation, the names seem to be getting sillier and sillier. What does Tuk 3 mean?