LFS School Anthem

Welcome to this amazing performance, *ing Abhishek Ranjan, Neha Sinha Pappu (aka Abinash Rout), and PV Sushmita.

Great job guys !! Keep it up ;-). ROFL !!!!

ALCOHOROSCOPES

GEMINI Drinking style

Gemini's can drink without changing their behavior much-- they're so naturally chatty and short-attention-spanned that it's just hard to tell sometimes. They can amaze you by conversing with finesse and allusion, then doing something to belie an extremely advanced state of intoxication, like puking in your shoe. Gemini's possess the magic ability to flirt successfully (and uninfuriatingly, which is very tricky) with several people at once. They like to order different cocktails every round -- repetition is boring -- and may create a theme (like yellow drinks: beer, sauvignon blanc and limoncello) for their own amusement.

Quite true I must say. Except the flirting part ;-)

Note to self: Sleep properly before an exam. Especially an econometrics exam.

Energy: The Politics and Economics of

This post couldn't have come at a more opportune time. With Al Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to make the world aware about global warming it time we start talking about energy and the powers that govern them.

Most of the unwarranted politics in the world is around one of two things arms and oil. Oil primarily. One who has control of the oil well controls the way the world goes around. The developed world is so dependent on gasoline, aviation fuel and what not that it shudders to think of a day when people turn up to the gas station and the pumps have run dry. Especially the US. Hence its ever increasing desire to control the oil supplies in the world, by money or by force as witnessed by the recent wars (on terrorism ??). A lot of strife in the world is perpetuated by this fight for oil. The Al Kahida hates the US and the US hates their guts and both of them engage in mindless bloodshed that hurts the world at large. It divides people, us versus them. And I think most of it goes back to this fight for Oil.

Now why am I talking about oil politics? I think we have depended on this fossil fuel for a long enough time and definitely the debates show that this mechanism is not sustainable. We should look for alternate sources of energy. That has been common knowledge for years. But I believe asking the developed nations to lead the way would not help. Their switching costs are too high and most of the people in power want the monopoly of oil to continue. It fills up their coffers. An average American can't even imagine a day when there would be no oil left such is the dependence. Its very unlikely that they will make the switch.

This offers the developing nations a big incentive to explore new and sustainable energy sources. They have not made extensive investments for exploiting these fossil fuels and most probably they will not have a say in the allocation when OPEC decides the quota. I think it offers then an excellent opportunity to do extensive research and develop alternate forms of energy.

If they were successful this would definitely make them a more independent and prosperous as a country. It will also make the human race more sustainable and maybe the world a more peaceful place to live in.

Fall Break is here. YAY !!

Have a great fall break guys !!!

Life as a grad student

Life has strange ways of playing tricks with you. At times it puts you through really hard times, and yet you feel happy about it. I don't think I would have worked as hard ever in my life before, not even for the JEE. I guess that was a piece of cake compared to the effort I am putting in now. Some of that is definitely due to the fact that I have been away from student life for a long time, but most of it just because grad students in the US are expected to work a lot, especially here at Wharton. And I am doing mostly economics and statistics courses this semester dosent help things a lot, they being almost new topics for me. Add to that the fact that I am considerably underpaid compared to my last job [ boohoo :'( ], I am away from my friends and family and do not have the material luxuries that I was used to in my earlier life.

Even after having said all this, I somehow like this life. I like working till 2AM only to get back to my office around 9 in the morning. I think thats because I really love my department and the people around, it just has this energetic vibes. Like one of my friends said, "We have the coolest profs ever in our department. They are much cooler than the students". I don't think that speaks too much about the doctoral students here but I think she is absolutely right :-) Most of them bike to school, have a couple of startups/companies to their name and are real fun people to hang out with. And YEAH they are very well respected academically.

The only thing that worries me is I need to get into a routine soon and take out some time for myself, for my photography, travel and having fun. Or I just might die of boredom. But now I must head back to my books :-)

PS: I think I'll update my blog more frequently