Stereo Mood - emotional internet radio

Stereo Mood is an awesome site I've just discovered that I anticipate to start using quite regularly. I usually don't use these free music/radio sites like last.fm and stick with itunes instead, but I especially like the concept of this 'emotional' internet radio. You select your 'mood' from the homepage, and there's an arranged playlist with songs best suited  to your mood or activities. chillout, its raining, just woke up, energetic, bohemian, spring cleaning, heaps of lists to choose from. Even if you 'feel like crying' there's a list for you too!


I love how music can be so powerful in creation emotions and bringing back memories. Maybe I'm a bit of a music snob, but I secretly judge people by the kind of music they listen to, as it can really say a lot about a person. I threw on the 'working' mood playlist the other night when a few of us were working late in the office, and a nice mix of explosions in the sky, four tet, radiohead, iron and wine, and sam cooke came on- nice! The only downside is the songs don't stream the fastest here in India.

Another fun distraction is the Art Project powered by google, which allows you to digitally explore museums around the world, zoom in and view artworks, and save your favourite pieces in a collection.

TED Tuesday - Energy (R)evolution

22 year old performance poet Sarah Kay gives an inspiring Ted talk:

A few weeks ago I posted a recent TED Talk given by Bill Gates (Innovating to Zero) where he stressed the need to get CO2 levels down to zero by 2050, whereby the only effective way to do that on such a large scale was through nuclear power. His suggestion was a nuclear reaction that could run untouched for decades on nuclear waste, of which huge amounts are available. In the wake of the recent nuclear disaster in Japan, many are starting to rethink the role of nuclear in our future.

In this TEDx talk, a member of Greenpeace International argues against nuclear power and makes a case for the effectiveness of solar, wind, thermal and other renewable energies.

What do you think? 

Music Monday and Celebrating Holi

Song from Destroyer's new album Kaputt

Last week I made a field visit to one of our centers to visit customers in rural villages to conduct surveys. Staring up at the starry night while laying on the back of a rickshaw bouncing along a country road was pretty surreal, thinking how far I was from home and excited to be having this kind of work experience taking me to such interesting places.

It was super cool to go to an off-grid area at night where it's near complete darkness. We walked around with our solar lamps, visited some customers, and as per usual developed a small following. On the ride back our autopan, being driven by some 12 year old kid, broke down. He and his 2 buddies turned it around, pushed back to the nearest market, and found some mechanics. While they were welding we sat at a little stall drinking tea and watching the Canada vs. Australia cricket match. 

We tried to explain the concept of 'look natural' - didn't work.

Village electrification - embroidery

Saturday we went to Eden Gardens cricket stadium in Kolkata to watch the Netherlands vs. Ireland World Cup match. Also this past weekend was Holi, the Hindu festival of colours which commemorates the victory of good over evil, and is celebrated by throwing water balloons and other missiles filled dye . I am still completely covered in pink dye, and guessing scalp, hair, eyelids, and ears will be dyed for at least a week, so upcoming business meetings should be interesting.

Music Monday - Attending a ceremony in a remote island village

This weeks music selection is from Radical Face, a band from Portland, Oregon. Heard of these guys from an Oregonian by the name of Max who I worked with on the vineyard in New Zealand last year and also lived with us in our awesome community backpacker flat. I loved listening to music all day at work, it made some of the tedious hours fly by, and the best part was switching ipods and hearing others' music recommendations.

Last week I got to go to an inauguration ceremony for a solar mini-grid village electrification project set up by an Australian company and sponsored by WWF India and the Australian government. It was a full day trip, requiring a 3 hour bus ride from Kolkata followed by a 3 hour boat ride to a remote village in the Sunderbans. The Sunderbans is a National Park in eastern India that consists of a massive land mass of wetlands that empty out into the Bay of Bengal in the Indian ocean. There were heaps of Mangrove trees which have breathing roots and grow in salt water, pretty neat. There is also a tiger reserve that's a main tourist attraction for the area that we went by, however did see some species of monkey chilling on a concrete post on the way back at night and I SWEAR I saw a light flash up near his mouth as if he was smoking a cigarette, then he jumped down and walked away. Of course no one else believed me.

All around awesome trip, got to meet people from various organizations all working on interesting projects. There was a long lineup of school kids to greet the arrival of our boats, as well as a cool group of drummers and dancers that led the procession. We walked about a kilometer to the site of the mini-grid setup for the ribbon cutting ceremony, got to check out the system and panel setup as well as a few huts to see the lights in action. Following that was an official ceremony under a tent attended by the community and a lovely return boat trip backdropped by a lovely sunset.

Tomorrow is TED Talk Tuesday, which will be a video that argues for a solution opposite of that suggested by Bill Gates on his recent Ted (which I posted last week).