My New Year resolution is to write an article and so I steeled myself and did it — I wrote an article — I wrote AN… … yep, that's right, yessiree, I done gone and nailed that! So that's that as far as NY resolutions go. And to imagine that billions of peeps just can't tap out the NY resolution!!! Well, I certainly don't want to blow my own toot-la-too so I won' say the obvio (as my young friend Donny pronounces it) and tell you that “I'm 1 in a zillion”, so there!
2015 has been tolled away by all and sundry from one side of the International Date Line to the other extreme. How one did it depended entirely on one's culture and by culture I mean the amount of moolah one had at one's disposal with no accounting of where the said moolah went. So the haves went to upscale dos at fancy venues and the have-nots stayed at home and watched the haves have a merry ol' time on the telly. I'm not going to put my money where my mouth is but I'm pretty sure there's a peak in the number of births round about September each year.
Lest you all begin to think that this article is going to be all serious and miserable let me hasten to assure you of the opposite beginning right now — intolerance, global warming, net neutrality, and board examinations at standards 5 and 8 (of course this article is India-centric!).
I'll begin with global warming — I just recently happened to watch an indie film (circa 2006) called "An Inconvenient Truth" - the subtitle ran "A Global Warning" with the latter word in red bounded by a red box. Apart from the fact that it was presented as a live exposition on the subject by none other than the former VPOTUS, Al Gore, it was good! It was technically good and factually good. And more importantly it was the love-child of good intentions. Al Gore stood there and expounded on the reality and effect of global warming and I must say that it was thoroughly convincing — at least, I was (thoroughly convinced, that is).
And just today (yep, NY's day 2016, none other) there was this BS article (of course not, silly! that's Business Standard not the usual BS!) article on the 'Net datelined "AFP/PTI Montreal December 31, 2015" headlined with a headline right out of a comic book — "Freak heatwave pushes winter North Pole above freezing" Yeah, you're right — sounds like an ice-blue Dr.Freeze is about to make his appearance with his Freeze Gun!The article also mentions the freak floods that put the north of the BritIsles under feetZ of water. The same story was carried by other newspapers like the Washington Post. All these associated articles confirmed what Al Gore spent two hours (oh ok, ok! 96 minutes… (some people, sheeesh!)) trying to convince us intractable folks was bound to happen sooner or later.
…and that's a fact! However, I present here the anti-view — yep, global warming is going to happen — as has happened many times before in the history of this good ol' Blue Marble! Bottom line: Que sera, sera! As my dear ol' Dad was so wont to say: Every genuine development requires a commensurate trauma! Amen, I say to that. So this GW will decimate (I am tempted to say instead "annihilate") the human race along with all flora and fauna. Culling. In extremis of course, but culling nevertheless. The remnants will be the next generation of homo sapiens sapiens — homo sapiens sapiens Version 2. And you know what? A thousand years down the line the humans out there will be referring to us — yes, US! — as the MISSING LINK! And that includes Einstein - wow!
You see, to cut down on GW effectively you have to cut down on not just fossil fuels but almost everything that is associated with technology. Yes, yes, I know you're convinced that a magic panacea is just round the corner. Great, but I'd advise you against holding your breath. Exhale!
Instead of cutting down on technology it is more effective to cut down on the (wasteful) consumers of technology — and that spells culling. Once the global population falls to a tenth of its present strength, the earth will have time to heal and recuperate from the excesses of our folly. Like I mentioned before, the humans who survived the trauma of GW and its after-effects will have developed in to a super species… something we can never imagine in our wildest imagineering! They (deo volente!) will then carry on and carry on and carry on… till Kingdom come!
Also as a brief side note to people who still insist on cutting down on the carbon footprint by going in for alternative technologies like solar panels and battery-driven automobiles — the present generation of solar panels and automotive batteries come with a built-in carbon footprint that effectively cancels the beneficial effects of using such technologies. Meaning, you spend 999 to save 1000 — not very economical even if you discount the hyberbole.
Moving on to net neutrality — there ain't nebber EVER existed a creature of that ilk.
Open market economics thrives on maxxing the enterprise's profits. One way of doing so is by increasing sales of products and/or services. This is usually accomplished in either one of two ways — (1) by lowering the cost-to-the-customer; (2) by giving additional benefits with the subject product or service (freebies). This encourages (healthy) competition amongst the market entities (i.e. the vendors and service providers). Open competition (with the essential requirements of being fair and healthy) always goes in favour of the consumer, the paying public, the buyer. Open competition helps to declutter the market — those vendors who are unable to survive will leave that market segment. This sounds harsh and heartless, I agree and I admit, but that's how the cookie crumbles in the big, bad, REAL world!
All the foregoing applies to any and all open market business enterprises. However the Internet is a very, very, different creature altogether. The Internet as we know it started off as a research network (ARPANet, circa 1969) hosted and funded by an agency of the US Department of Defense. Though its primary objective was transcommunication of military computer data over wired and also (at a later stage) wireless networks, it was modified to cater to similar data communication requirements for social, educational and academic institutions as well. The important thing to note is that the basic data carriage was done by an agency of the Department of Defense; the expenses were met from the DoD's own budget.
Bye for now!
Links:
For global warming:
An Incovenient Truth: A Global WARNING (Wikipedia article)
Freak storm pushes North Pole 50 degrees above normal to melting point
Freak heatwave pushes winter North Pole above freezing
For net neutrality:
ARPANET (Wikipedia article)

For a more complete version please visit my Anglo-Indian site!