A report says:

Oman is in talks to buy up to 24 Eurofighter Typhoon jets from British group BAE Systems in a deal worth at least 1.4 billion pounds, the Financial Times reported Thursday.

The business daily, citing British defence sources close to the negotiations, said the Gulf state wanted to replace its 24 ageing Jaguar jets with Typhoons within the next four years.

The Eurofighter multi-purpose combat jets have been developed by a consortium of Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain, with work divided in 1998 according to the number of aircraft each country planned to buy.

The FT said the jets planned for Oman would come out of the 88 that Britain is committed to buying, and help secure billions of pounds of maintenance and support work for BAE. Saudi Arabia and Austria have also ordered the jets.

(Photo: Internet)

This is a common scene near Lulu Hypermarket in Darsait after 8pm. If you are coming from Muttrah/Port side, then god save you. Sandwiched between trucks –– in front of you, and on the right side –– you can witness ‘lorry rallies’ wherein a truck travelling at 20 kmph tries to overtake another truck cruising at 15 kmph. These fellas are having a ball.

What makes you say that Muscat Airport Interchange was badly designed?

In the international standard for highway design, there is a geometrical element used, called transition curve (Known as ‘Clothoide’ in Europe). It enables the car driver to turn his steering wheel from a straight position slowly in the position he needs to drive the car through a curve with a constant radius.

The below image demonstrates the transition curve from a straight point (R=00) by slowly increasing the turn to the point where the transition curve gets permanent.

They refused to listen to me. The results you can see when you go to the interchange, with crash marks all over the place. I had cautioned the consultancy firm extensively on four critical spots where accidents could occur, and unfortunately, my prediction has come true.

The design firm called me an idiot and they said they will do all what is necessary with the yellow road markings. When I received this idiotic answer from them, I resigned from the contracting company I was working for.

It was very clear the design firm has no clue about transition curve (Clothoide) and for what reason a highway designer inserts this geometrical element into any highway design. This transition curves are not used to please any designer, instead these curves are an essential part of any design.

The mathematical formula for these transition curves is indeed very complex and only a few designers might full understand and be able to handle these curves accurately. I think in Oman, you will find very few engineers who are familiar with the calculation of “Fresnelsche Integrale”, which is the basic mathematical formula for ‘Clothides’.

Why was no consideration given to pedestrians while designing Muscat Airport Interchange in the initial stages?

I was always pressing the design firm and other authorities to find some solution for the pedestrians. Nobody was following my advice and now nearly every day a pedestrian is killed on the spot. It would have been very simple to construct an underpass near the old clock tower during construction of the flyover bridge.

Coming from Wadi Kabir to Al Bustan, the interchange towards Qantab is another sample of very bad design and implementation. There might be a lot more critical spots around Muscat; I just need some more time to identify these locations.

What should be the primary aim of road designers while designing highways?

Stick to international standards – which means safety for road users and pedestrians too.

Do you think road designers have a role to play in reducing accidents in Oman?

By using international standards in Oman’s road and highway projects, you may reduce the rate of accidents by 50% and more. By using a correct design for the Muscat Airport Interchange, the accident rate could have been reduced by 75%. The Airport Interchange is the worst design I have ever seen in my life. And I’ve designed highways for 30 years and up to a value of about 1 billion US dollars.

Are consultants/contractors under pressure to deliver projects which might have an impact on the quality?

There might be some pressure from a client but is should not impact the aspects of road safety. Each accident is a serious matter and any highway designer’s first priority must be safety.

The Knowledge Oasis Muscat’s (KOM) Digital Nation Seminar on blogging was held yesterday at Muscat Inter-Continental Hotel. Over 100 people attended the event. The five-member panel comprised of Abdullah Al Jufaili (Intilaaqah), Raed Dawood (Nawras), Zaid Zabanoot (GUtech), Sachin Toprani (Omani eCommerce) and yours truly. Anwar Al Asmi (RealityCG) was the moderator.

The discussions touched upon subjects like blogging in Oman, corporate blogging, and blogging from academic perspective. Among the 100-odd people who turned up for the seminar, a handful acknowledged they follow blogs, and only a couple of them were bloggers themselves. Not an interesting statistic to have for a blogging seminar. Muscati was present as well. Other than him, I am not sure if other bloggers from the Omani blogosphere did manage to attend the event.

Post-seminar, I met a few couple of them who said they read my blog regularly. It’s a nice feeling to meet the readers of the blog in person. A few of them came up with “how to start a blog” type of queries. My experiences yesterday proved that blogging is here to stay.

I had done a bit of home work for this seminar. Find some points below:

Readers have faith in blog content as much faith in traditional media.

Blogs are driven by youth.

Bloggers in Oman are in the age group of 15 to 40 years.

There are around 50-odd blogs in English in Oman and out of that 10-15 are active ones.

Only 1 percent of the population has access to broadband internet in Oman.

PR companies will soon approach bloggers to pitch stories.

Corporate blogging in Oman is in its infancy.

Blogs with poor writing skills fail to attract readers.

Start-ups more keen to adopt technology and embrace social media tools like blogging, facebook, twitter, etc.

Corporates in Oman are watching, and not ignoring new trends.

(Photos: Mohammed Ali)

A report says:

Geologist Peter Kelemen and geochemist Juerg Matter said the naturally occurring process can be supercharged 1 million times to grow underground minerals that can permanently store 2 billion or more of the 30 billion tons of carbon dioxide emitted by human activity every year.

Their study will appear in the November 11 edition of the Proceedings of the Natural Academy of Sciences. Peridotite is the most common rock found in the Earth’s mantle, or the layer directly below the crust. It also appears on the surface, particularly in Oman, which is conveniently close to a region that produces substantial amounts of carbon dioxide in the production of fossil fuels. (more)

With Oman planning to switch over to alternative fuels like coal and heavy oil in the long term, capturing carbon emissions could be a viable option – both financially and technically. But, it is a different story that economic boom has resulted in rocks paving way for new buildings in commercial areas.

A desert in Oman covered with carbonate mineral.

Scientists sample a stalagmite of carbonate minerals in Oman. (Photos: Reuters)

I got my money, the full amount of RO 230. I had a major battle to get it. I had to work myself up the corporate ladder for over 90 minutes till I met the acting manager for the whole North Batinah region. He washed his hands off and wanted to push me to Muscat. I refused point blank and he said it is not his problem but Muscat Omantel’s finance section, so I should go there.

Anyway I refused and asked him to set up either an appointment or a conference call with the person immediately. For his bad luck, the person picked up the phone and they had a heated discussion for 20 minutes and finally I got my deposit money. It was a very terrible experience. Being made to fight for your rights. There are a huge set of subscribers like me waiting for deposit refunds. Because I made the most noise I got it. I see no solution to this problem and my memories of Oman are definitely tarnished without doubt. I wish somebody could help other folks get their money back as well.