WEEKEND FOOD FOR THOUGHT
How did this get here? Episode 7. CLOTHES It has been emphasized sufficient times in my series of posts on role of Shipping in your daily lives that over 90% of the world’s traded goods travel by sea. The efficiency of modern shipping is what allows for the “fast” in fast fashion. Look in […]
How did this get here? Episode 6. WOOD
There is some misconception that everything made of wood around you is brought to the factories by trucks from nearby jungles. Anyone who thinks 2 seconds more about it can readily understand that wood products are all around us even though there are no real jungles nearby. Wood in various forms, whether raw or processed, […]
How did this get here? Episode 5. Staple Foods
The world can widely be divided into rice eaters and bread eaters. The distinction often refers to the division between Eastern, rice-based cultures, and Western, wheat-based cultures. Historically, the contrast between “rice eaters” and “bread eaters” has been used to highlight deep-seated cultural differences, not just dietary preferences. Globalization is beginning to blur the traditional […]
How did this get here? Episode 4. Electricity
Electricity is also termed power; and it is exactly that. Electricity is the true lifeline behind all development, infrastructure and civilizational growth. Electricity was never truly invented since it is a natural phenomenon. The understanding and application started way back in 600BC. From there to building the first power plant (thermal) took about 2450 years. […]
How did this get here? Episode 3. Internet
Try to ask friends how Internet works; how is data carried between continents. Most of the adults think that satellites carry the data from continent to continent. Kids think fairies may be involved. All of them are wrong. It is not a tall claim. Without ships you would not have Internet, International communication, Internet of […]
WEEKEND FOOD FOR THOUGHT
How did this get here? Episode 2. Vehicles We are surrounded by foreign cars whichever country we are in. There are numerous trucks, motorcycles and other vehicles that are also around us which mostly are not manufactured in that city or country. There is not much thought given to the process which brings these vehicles […]
How did this get here? Episode 1. Refrigerated Cargoes
I find it strange that people are least informed on how things get to where they are. Behind everything that you see around you, there is a story of travel and trade. This is an attempt to make you think and appreciate the process behind things being where they are; it’s called Logistics and it […]
Life comes a full circle!
Last week I visited the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras campus in Chennai. I was truly intimidated by the grandeur of the campus. It was a place where I could not get an admission after my schooling. Yet, here I was, after many years, having a discussion with a senior professor about the process […]
Where is the grass greener?
Roman Poet Ovid wrote “Fertilior Seges est alienis semper in agris”. It is the Latin proverb that expresses the idea that “the grass is greener on the other side”. A majority of all my friends seem to have roughly the same story – of being from humble beginnings. Our parents gave us a platform better […]
Living without Humans
Humans have three levels of needs – necessity, comfort and luxury. All of human innovation and infrastructure is made for these needs but focus tends to be more on comfort and luxury as these innovations and infrastructures also need a ROI to go with. With AI in the fray, as was with Big Data previously, […]
