~ Wildlife. Robots. Drones ~

Probably the only place where most of us would agree to use Drones, i.e. to monitor wildlife. National Geographic uses Robots & Drones to film African Lions at Serengeti.

The big cats are on a steady decline over the last couple of years. It is sad to note that 5000 - 6000 lions are bred in captivity till 5 years and then released for hunting. Thats shocking to hear. You can listen to it here.

Don't forget to visit the beautiful micro-site setup by NGC, The Serengeti Lion. Love the Design & UX of the site.

I wish India adopt Drones & Robots or Technology in general to save Wildlife

Via: The Verge | Note: All photographs by Michael Nichols & Bent Stirton for NGC.

~ Winner of NGC Traveler Photo Contest 2013 ~

These two images stand out for me compared to the others.

Merit Winner: Portrait of an Eastern Screech Owl. Masters of disguise. The Eastern Screech Owl is seen here doing what they do best. You better have a sharp eye to spot these little birds of prey. Okefenokee Swamp, Georgia. (© Graham McGeorge )

Third Place Winner: Say Cheese. Cheetahs jumped on the vehicle of tourists in Masai Mara national park, Kenya. (© Yanai Bonneh)

View all the winners here.

~ Tata Nano ~

It might be the world's cheapest car. But the vision of Ratan Tata, ex-chairman of Tata Group, was to provide an affordable 4 wheeler for many Indian families who were commuting on Indian roads.

NGC's Mega Factories has an episode on the birth of Nano. The hurdles faced during the production were not just limited to engineering alone. It faced hurdle during the commissioning of the factory, where it had to move the entire operations from West Bengal to Gujarat; nearly 2500kms.

The mega factory has 130 robots which operate along with humans to produce about 250,000 cars per year. Quite impressed with the output & modernization of the factory.

~ Tesla ~

Tesla Motors, Inc. is a electric company based out of Silicon Valley. The *youngest* car company in the USA, which raises the whole game. Elon Musk, the man behind Tesla Motors, has a very fascinating vision towards the integration of technology towards a greener, economical and cleaner planet {or may be Interplanetary travel & life expansion}. 

I admire his vision and how it is being made into a reality by his group of innovators. They are bringing a massive change towards how the future of Urban Transportation would be in the next 5 years. 

Despite all the coverage Model S has been getting from the mainstream media over the last 3 months - John Broder on NYT, The Verge, Car & Driver, Auto Blog. Elon Musk says that he is not worried about critique or negative feedback, but has a problem with false reviews.

Keeping all that aside, I was amazed at the whole new approach which Telsa Motors undertook to build an electric car. The infrastructure is massive & totally different from the other combustible car manufacturers. While some of the luxury sports cars are hand crafted in European countries, Telsa brings in life-sized Robotic automation to get a car running. The way these Robots are trained by their handlers to achieve the precision output in their operations, across various floors, left me spellbound. 

I will stop talking and let you watch the NGC documentary on Tesla Motors & Model S

Feel harnessing the Solar energy to produce electricity would hold the key in many of the developing countries to make Electric Vehicles a more viable option. In a country like India where scheduled power outages are common  even in the cities, the adoption of EVs can happen only if there is holistic planning & execution by both Government & EV companies.

As of now I cannot afford a car from Telsa Motors, however have been patiently waiting for the latest version of Reva well over an year since it was announced in Delhi Motor Show Jan 2012. From what I read, Mahindra has been waiting for Govt of India's National Electric Mobility Mission Plan 2020 which plans to provision subsidy or benefit for the consumer buying electric vehicles. Googled about it & see that Reva are set to announce something on 18th of March 2013.

I know there would be a lot of opposition & skepticism towards electrical car manufacturer, be it Tesla or Reva. Eventually people will realize the benefits  of an electric vehicle which is more economical & environmental friendly in an urban setup. A Better, Cleaner & Greener is the way to go in the future. 

Reading: Elon Musk - Wired | Youtube Interview | On Reva - Reva | Launch of E20 on Mar 18th | NEMMP Vision | A moment in Sun

Updates 

"I don't know--the whole 'winner of SXSW' thing is really weird this year," says GroupMe cofounder Jared Hecht. "You know what I think is really cool this year? More people are here to listen to Elon Musk talk about sending ships into space, and I think that's just awesome and fundamentally different than coming here to hear about the next big social media app." †

Elon Musk @ SXSW | Why Tesla Motors is betting on Model S

~ Women in command ~

Quite an unusual title for a movie review post on Zero Dark Thirty. The story revolves around Maya, played by Jessica Chastain, the analyst who did all the hard work and never gave up against various odds including encountering the male ego.

Kathryn Bigelow has done a great work in highlighting that essence of Maya throughout the movie. Brilliant direction & editing keeps you hooked without getting bored in the 157 minutes of drama.

Am sure the movie will bag few Oscars, hope Jessica will get one for her role. I thought the movie would be about the planning and execution of Operation Geronimo as narrated by an Ex-Navy SEAL in his Autobiography No Easy Day. However, the movie starts with events as early as 2004 covering various incidents - London Bombing, Marriott Hotel explosion in Pakistan, New York TimeSquare plot - till the tracking & nailing of the messenger who leads to the Abbottabad safe house. 

I would have liked a bit of showcase of how Navy SEALS  grouped, organized & train. I guess that is off limits for an Hollywood movie maker. When I watched the hanger scene where the SEALS are introduced, I was waiting to see if they match the description - who are not your regular army soldiers, they have beards, long hair, tattoos, etc - of the men as told in the biography & they did. The casting team have done their research in fielding the actors who match the SEAL members. One of the reasons why I admire Hollywood and their movie making. Also, there isn't too much of VFX or gadgets extravaganza involved in the movie, which keeps most of the scenes real. They definitely could have done a better job for the scenes which were shot in Delhi to hide the Indian shop signage.  

Overall a great movie, watch it. For the operations by SEAL team am gonna watch this one by NGC.

P.S: I wish men across the world treat women as equals and the discrimination ends.

~ Myth of Doomsday ~

21.12.12 | 13.0.0.0.0

13.0.0.0.0 is the representation of 21 Dec 2012 in the Mayan Calendar for you. The highest possible day in their calendar. After that it will switch to 0.0.0.0.1 which is 22 Dec 2012. For Mayans this was a very significant event to OBSERVE and hence the popularity of today.

Well I learnt all this via this beautiful talk by Bill Saturno. He is a National Geographic grantee and archaeologist. How I wish my history classes in school were narrated like this. Do watch the video.

~ Birds of paradise ~

The birds below are surreal & look like some painting. Yes, indeed they are natures' creation. They are for real. Thanks to Tim Laman who has spent enormous time & perseverance for documenting these beauties from ARU ISLANDS, MALUKA, INDONESIA. 

Mr Laman, did 18 expeditions over 8 year period & 39,000 photographs to document them. I bow to him for his passion to explore & share with the lesser mortals. With this, I feel there are still some parts of the world which is still unaffected from mankind's madness.

Note: All the images are photographed by Tim Laman. Am in no way selling them or distributing them.

Via: NGC | Bird of Paradise Gallery  

~ Prancing Horse: Patience, Passion, Performance ~

Yes, you read it right - Patience, Passion, Performance.  Those 3 Ps in the order is what it takes to deliver a Prancing Horse on the road. Actually those three adjectives are related to the people who work at Ferrari factory to produce the ultimate super car.

Loved the documentary on Ferrari by NGC under Ultimate Factories. It's more than a year old, July 2011 to be precise. It documents the various stages of the birth of Ferrari 599 GTB Fiorano.