The photo is from the Premier League web site Ten Seasons Awards section.

It is such a great illustration of the empathy (if not outright identification) of the sports fan with the athlete, all the more evident in English soccer because of the unique proximity of the stands to the fields.

I think I recognize Fowler, Owen and Heskey for Liverpool. After some search, i think the keeper is Massimo Taibi in his brief, who had a troubled cameo as Manchester United goalie.

How ironic would it be if he ended up in the photo of the decade …

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  Terming India&#8217;s nuclear energy agreement with the United States as a major success, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said the country could generate 40,000 MW nuclear power in the next ten years following removal of constraints in the atomic energy programme.
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  &#8220;In my visit to the United States, we have managed to reduce some of the constraints which have been hampering the growth of our nuclear energy programme and in the next 10 years, in addition to the 1,50,000 MW of capacity being added in the thermal and hydro sectors, another 40,000 MW could be generated through nuclear energy,&#8221; he said.
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  The Prime Minister was speaking after unf#urling the national flag at the Red Fort on the Independence Day here.
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  While stressing the importance of improving and creating more infrastructure for the country&#8217;s economic development, Dr Singh said shortage of electricity was a major inconvenience and there was need to ensure rapid power generaton.
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  Apart from the ambitious plan to boost power generation, the government has also drawn up an elaborate plan to modernise Railways, &#8220;so that our Railways become one of the best in the world,&#8221; he said.
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  Mr Singh said a dedicated freight corridor was being developed between Delhi-Kolkata and Delhi-Mumbai with an investment of over Rs 25,000 crore. Besides, the development of the national highways was progressing at a rapid pace. The work on an additional 30,000 km of highways has begun and soon six-laning of the Golden Quadrilateral will start, said the Prime Minister.
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  There has also been tremendous progress in civil aviation, and world class airports were being constructed in many cities. Besides ports are being modernised and many new ones are under construction, he said.
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  The Prime Minister stressed the need for balanced regional development while creating more infrstructure.
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  &#8220;In this new phase of development, we are acutely aware that all regions of the country should develop at the same pace. It is unacceptable for us to see any region of the country left behind other regions in this quest for development,&#8221; he said, adding that &#8220;we will also focus on the development of our border areas. We will ensure that these regions are provided basic infrastructure such as roads, electricity and telephone connectivity in the next three to four years.&#8221;
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A friend of mine just forwarded me this really funny video. It is about a reporter who is trying to do his job standing amidst the mass burning of a load of marijuana that was captured.

He does try his best to say the words right but surely the passive smoking has hit his heights 😉 Nice one. Watch it …

No idea how i got hold of this link but these comics are really good and funny. Here is one that started me to read more from the site.

Read an article today “Chemist Tries to Solve World’s Energy Woes” at Livescience. Chemist Dr. Daniel Nocera at MIT is trying to use the bountiful energy in sunlight to split water into its basic components, hydrogen and oxygen.

Well the research is still underway and is probably far from being complete but there could be some potential here. If it works, is practical and feasible, then in the future, we might be able to use something like this. Although i very seriously doubt the use of sunlight as a perpetual energy source for such a reaction, i would love to be proved wrong.

Here is an excerpt from the article where Dr. Nocera talks about future energy needs.

Nocera cites a calculation by Caltech chemist Nathan Lewis that power demands in 2050 will be so great that just to keep carbon dioxide emissions at twice preindustrial levels, a nuclear plant would have to be built every two days. There’s not enough room on the planet’s surface for other widely touted solutions such as wind and biomass to have much impact.

I seriously do not know on why people are so skeptical about the use of nuclear energy for producing power. It is much much safer and foolproof than it used to be; We can get almost limitless and perpetual energy if we produce fuel rods in Breeder reactors; It is environmentally friendly and clean. History has taught us a bad lesson about reactors but isn’t it time to move forward and think about how not to repeat the history by making advanced safety measures to avoid any kind of catastrophe. And safety is one of the important aspects that we are being taught. The end result is not just about producing power but to produce clean, safe power. And we are getting there …

I for one, strongly believe that reactors are the cleanest answer available to us to meet all the energy needs of the future. It is vital to realize this fact and start building reactors and reduce the usage of fossil fuels as much as possible before we end up imposing doom on ourselves soon. But oh well since economics and politics are involved in this earth saving venture, i know that we will wait until the situation that Norcera portrays in the excerpt is reached …

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  &#8220;I think he is as close as you are going to get to a living Albert Einstein today.&#8221;
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