Archive for June, 2008

Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form, such as electricity, using wind turbines.

Although wind currently produces about 1% of world-wide electricity use,it accounts for approximately 19% of electricity production in Denmark, 9% in Spain and Portugal, and 6% in Germany and the Republic of Ireland (2007 data).

Advantages

• Wind is free, wind farms need no fuel.
• Produces no waste or greenhouse gases.
• The land beneath can usually still be used for farming.
• A good method of supplying energy to remote areas

Disadvantages

• The wind is not always predictable - some days have no wind.
• Suitable areas for wind farms are often near the coast, where land is expensive.
• Wind turbines are noisy. Each one can generate the same level of noise as a family car travelling at 70 mph.
  
• Many people see large wind turbines as unsightly structures and not pleasant or interesting to look at.
• They disfigure the countryside and are generally ugly.
  When wind turbines are being manufactured some pollution is produced. Therefore wind power does produce some pollution.

This video has Steve Ballmer saying tearful goodbye to Bill Gates on his last day at work.

Gates recalled nearly 30 years ago when he was trying to attract Ballmer to the company, which only had about 30 employees at the time.

“I’d hired my friends, which was a small set, and that wasn’t going to get us there,” Gates said.

Indian Billionaire Vijay Mallya’s Kingfisher Airlines is re-evaluating whether it should launch the international operatios or defer it for a few months.

Due to sharp rise in aviation turbine fuel prices, the slowdown in international travel and the uncertainty in the aviation market (many US carriers have gone bankrupt) Kingfisher Airlines has decided to rethink its whole strategy of flying abroad.

Kingfisher Airlines was scheduled to launch its international operations with a Bangalore-San Francisco service on August 27. The inaugural flight to San Francisco was to be followed with flights to other destinations like New York, London and cities in South-East Asia.

[ Source : Business Standard ]

100 basis points is one percentage point(1 % ).

A unit that is equal to 1/100th of 1%, and is used to denote the change in a financial instrument. The basis point is commonly used for calculating changes in interest rates, equity indexes and the yield of a fixed-income security.

For example, if the Bank raises interest rates by 50 basis points, it means that rates have risen by 0.50% percentage points. If rates were at 2.50%, and the Fed raised them by 0.50%, or 50 basis points, the new interest rate would be 3.0%.

[Source: Investopedia ]