All my Flights

Till now, I have flown a total of 481,333 miles. That is more than 19 times around the world, and twice the distance to the moon.

I have done this via a total of 187 flight segments, passing through 37 airports, in 11 countries and utilizing 24 carriers.

I have flown as north as Edinborough (EDI), as south and east as Kuala Lumpur (KUL), and as west as San Francisco (SFO).

The longest flight I have taken is the 14 hour leg from Dubai (DXB) to New York (JFK). The shortest is the 37 minute hop between Milwaukee (MKE) and Chicago (ORD).

All these stats are thanks to two things. One, my idiosyncrasy of keeping a log of all the flights I have ever taken. The second is the site for people like me called OpenFlights.org

All I needed was a bit of excel transformation to convert my existing flight log into a format acceptable to the site, upload and done.

That is how I know that if I had taken all the flights one after another, I would have spent 43 days, 22 hours and 39 minutes in the air. In reality, if I include all the check-in and waiting times, you could call it about two months in airports and flights around the world.

Cell phones & Cancer (infographic)

It was a strange feeling when I heard about CNN's breaking news that cell phones caused cancer. I had long known the need for caution, when it came to microwave radiation. But singling out the low power of a mobile phone in this age of electro-magnetic saturation seemed too fantastic.

Yet, the first few paragraphs in the CNN article seemed to portray it as a done deal. As if the most damning of evidence had quietly piled up. The strangest part was that there was no new studies being cited.

It took a little searching around and spending some time with comments on sites, that are not CNN, for things to start making sense. There were no new studies. Instead, based on the existing data (and wishy-washy footnotes that had been known for years) WHO had decided to formally include cell phone emitted EM radiation in the "needs confirmation" category. Yes, lead is in that category, but that is lead. Not inorganic lead compounds. Those are in another category which includes those items that actually do cause cancer.

The CNN article made it seem like cell phone radiation belonged to that other list.

Nevertheless, at the suggestion of a colleague, I figured the best way to reasearch this would be to put an infographic together. Here it is, on the left. It quickly introduces the EM spectrum and the ionizing vs non-ionizing nature of different radiation. And how the amount of energy emitted by a cell phone is limited. Before citing the tremendous body of research that has found no clear indication of a linkage between mobile phones and cancer. And finally a quick review of the grouping system used by the WHO and why Group 2B does not mean the sky is falling down.

This is one of the longest infographic I have made. Click for the full size.

1 Gpbs Bandwidth (infographic)

Infographics was a way was for me to tackle and (try to) express uncommon news and large numbers. One such opportunity came along when I heard of the Gigabit per second experiment that Google was planning. I had followed with amusement as cities did everything that they could to woo Google.

But the Gigabit per second is a truly revolutionary concept, for which there are no known applications at the moment. Yes, there are ideas - but in the classic chicken-and-egg style - nothing has materialized.

The problem with solutions that come in search for problems is this - they could either herald the next big thing. Or they could just be the beginnings of a bubble, that was driven more by a vague promise than hard reality.

This was my attempt at putting down on paper, why the 1 Gpbs is a lot of bandwidth. And this is also the first infographic that uses layers in Inkscape.

Exercising: A reality check (infographic)

My attempt at making an information-free infographic. All numbers are made-up, imagined or worse - "felt".

When I had first stopped making excuses for not working out, I confess my expectations were rather rosy. I had both underestimated the neglect I had heaped upon my person over time, and had easily overestimated the turnaround time required to undo said neglect.

I had heard about the 30-day rule, and figured that would be the least I owed myself. But what the rule does not tell you is that there are legitimate reasons to quit exercising within that period. Legitimate because your body vehemently disagrees with the need for exercise and tends to protest rather persuasively. Getting through the first 30 days is like trying to impress a teenager. If you get so much as an imperceptible nod, you can call that a resounding success.

The second source of perpetual disappointment was the weighing scale. It first inched up, then decided it liked the higher perch and refused to come down. Yeah I felt better, but that was no measure of success. It is as if one came to work for the satisfaction and not the money. Maybe the analogy is not perfect, but you get the point.

But as they say, there is a silver lining to every cloud of misery that is exercising. Mine was that I got to make an infographic. And for once, I did not have to bother with collecting information for it.

Airline Passenger Protection (infographic)

Recently DOT announced new rules, effective September, designed to increase protection to passengers, particularly as a reaction to passenger complaints. This infographic is an attempt to provide context to the proposed changes, along with the key impact the changes will have for the average air-traveler.

This is also an attempt to make an infographic on black.

Bubble 2.0 (infographic)

Got the idea from a recent foolish post about the potential of a bubble in the web 2.0 space. If you stop and think about it, well, it does make some sense. Tools without a proven revenue source with billion dollar valuations? Given the media's preoccupation with Facebook and its ilk, the hype can only get worse.

Here is a prediction: the moment this recovery begins to take off in earnest, there is going to be a spate of IPOs by the social networking companies, with some interesting valuations.

India's Quest for the World Cup (infographic)

Woo Hoo! Congratulations to team India for bringing the World Cup back to India, after 28 long years.

There is something about superstition when you talk about Indian cricket. Especially if it is the title match of a tournament. More so if the tournament in question is the Cricket World Cup. I went back to my lucky bathrobe after the two wickets fell at the opening of the Indian chase. The wife made sure she sat on my correct side. Brother skipped watching the match with a group, because he had to make sure he sat at the exact same place as the successful quarter & semi finals. Hey - whatever works!

Here is an attempt at putting together an infographic depicting India's performance in all the Cricket World Cups. Go, India! Go!

Always Coca-Cola

I still remember the first time I had a coke in a can. It was in India, after Coca-Cola's second coming, post economic liberalization in the country. The can itself cost 20 rupees, an affordable luxury at that time. I remember the intense anticipation, the impatient seconds of study to figure out out to open it, and then the surprising let down in the taste department. Even as I loudly tried to convince me and those around me that it indeed tasted better if not the same.

Nevertheless, coke was and continues to be a part of the familiar; a cornerstones of my world. There is yet to be a place I have been to, that the familiar red and white had not already visited. So when I came across some "facts" about the company, I had to try to make an infographic out of it.

More importantly, I needed a reason to try out inkscape - an open source vector graphics tool. I needed a better way to make infographics, and for all its capabilities, gimp was quickly turning out not to be the tool for it.

Enjoy.

Science, Engineering & Technology

I guess I first got the idea when NPR decided to introduce a culinary story, and referred to modern cooking methods like using foams and freezing as "scientific" cooking methods. I guess I did not understand why cooking on the stove was un-scientific. Or worse, scientific being used as a synonym for modern? Or new fangled crazy?

Close on the heels, I lost it when when someone referred to using a custom XML schema as new technology. And ETL as a brand-new capability.

So this is my attempt at helping bring a little sanity back into the use of terms like science, engineering and technology.