Traffic - another Tragedy of the Commons

Aorist Rods and the Energy Crisis

I remembered this passage from Douglas Adams' story "Young Zaphod Plays it Safe" in the Hitchhiker's series:

Aorist rods were devices used in a now happily abandoned form of  energy production. When the hunt for new sources of energy had at one  point got particularly frantic, one bright young chap suddenly spotted  that one place which had never used up all its available energy was -  the past. And with the sudden rush of blood to the head that such  insights tend to induce, he invented a way of mining it that very same  night, and within a year huge tracts of the past were being drained of  all their energy and simply wasting away. Those who claimed that the  past should be left unspoilt were accused of indulging in an extremely  expensive form of sentimentality. The past provided a very cheap,  plentiful and clean source of energy, there could always be a few  Natural Past Reserves set up if anyone wanted to pay for their upkeep,  and as for the claim that draining the past impoverished the present,  well, maybe it did, slightly, but the effects were immeasurable and you  really had to keep a sense of proportion. 
    It was only when it was realised that the present really was being  impoverished, and that the reason for it was that those selfish  plundering wastrel bastards up in the future were doing exactly the same  thing, that everyone realised that every single aorist rod, and the  terrible secret of how they were made would have to be utterly and  forever destroyed. They claimed it was for the sake of their  grandparents and grandchildren, but it was of course for the sake of  their grandparent's grandchildren, and their grandchildren's  grandparents.

22 April, Earth Day

Republic Day adress at IISc

Prof. Balram, Director of the Indian Institute of Science, addresses the gathering at the flag hoisting ceremony on Republic Day. One line that I found especially memorable, is quoted below.

".. (looking at the main building) I have not known any academic institution celebrating national holidays in such historic, inspiring surroundings... Jamshed Tata, whose statue you see behind me, was a man who dreamt about the future of India... When you walk in front of this building you should take a moment to think about India's past, reflect about it's present and may be dream about it's future ..."

--Prof. Balaram, Republic Day Speech, Jan 26, 2010.