No worry for Kerry

Supporters of Kerry rejoice and relax. An Indian astrologer has predicted victory ;-)

Haven't had a chance to post in the last couple of days. The Red Soxs actually won against the Yankees completing the cricket-baseball metaphor I referred to earlier.



iPodcurrent: Tomari Pathipane Chahi - Shyamal Mitra

;-)

During the course of writing my thesis, I was reminded (by my advisor) of this wonderful quote by Mark Twain:

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.

Grinding through my data - it sounds so true.

(Perhaps the first mention of something remotely related to science on this blog.)

And while we are at it - rephrasing Ernest Rutherford :

"All science is either biophysics or stamp collecting."

iPodcurrent:

Lamest sporting excuses

10 of the lamest excuses used for explaining why they lost. #5 and 6 relate to cricket. #1 is absolutely hilarious !!

The 10 lamest sporting excuses

Sunday October 3, 2004
The Observer

1 Lighton Ndefwayl The Zambian tennis player responded to his 1992 defeat in a local tournament by compatriot Musumba Bwayla with a mature, considered critique of his rival's skills: 'Bwayla is a stupid man and a hopeless player. He has a huge nose and is cross-eyed. Girls hate him. He beat me because my jockstrap was too tight and because when he serves he farts, and that made me lose my concentration, for which I am famous throughout Zambia.' A co-commentator's job on Eurosport surely awaits.

2 Mervyn King Blamed his 2003 defeat to Raymond Barneveld in the world darts championship semi-final on the air conditioning. 'I asked for it to be turned off before I went up there and it wasn't. I asked for it to be turned off at the break - it wasn't. The air conditioning doesn't affect Raymond because he throws a heavier dart and a very flat dart.' Hmmm. The organisers insisted the air conditioning had been switched off for the entire match. Mervyn, you require... a better excuse.

3 Carol Gaudie The Australian netball player tested positive for the male hormone testosterone in 2002, claiming her drink was spiked at a nightclub. Spiked with testosterone, Ms Gaudie? Presumably by one of those men who prowl nightclubs seeking out a woman with a hairy back, huge muscles and a Harry Secombe-style baritone. She was given a two-year suspension - and a 'must-try-harder' note.

4 Ronnie O'Sullivan O'Sullivan had forged an 8-3 lead against Steve Davis in the best-of-19 Masters final at Wembley in 1997 when a female streaker entered the arena. The Rocket promptly lost the next seven frames - and the match - later claiming that the shock interruption had, er, broken his concentration. Funny, we had always assumed by the way Ronnie carried himself that he had seen a naked woman before. The Nugget, naturally, was unmoved by such fleshy delights.

5 Sri Lanka The cricketers blamed their defeat against Pakistan in the 2001 ICC Champions Trophy final on their intolerably tight clothes, which they claimed were too small and restricted movement and mobility. 'We had to add extensions to the trousers and the shirts looked more like tight-fitting women's blouses,' complained skipper Sanath Jayasuriya. Their tailor was later instructed to make kits one size larger. Shane Warne's kitman had the same problem for 10 years. Talking of which...

6 Shane Warne The Australian leg spinner took no prisoners when he tested positive for a banned substance in 2003, leaving the World Cup in disgrace. He simply blamed his mum. 'My mother gave me a diet tablet,' he said, stopping just short of handing out her photofit and address as he did so. 'I'm shocked and absolutely devastated.' Warne claimed he took the Moduretic pill to make him look less fat on TV. He was given a 12-month ban.

7 Rupert Lowe The gammon-cheeked Southampton chairman blamed the sacking of Paul Sturrock on a 'constant stream of negative and unfair media coverage. Those people responsible for perpetrating this unsatisfactory situation, often in return for financial reward, should take a long hard look at themselves.' We presume Lowe possesses a mirror. Only a couple of weeks earlier he had stated: 'Paul has to deliver results, that is what he is paid for. The honeymoon period is over.' Best of British, Sir Clive.

8 Jose Cardenal The Chicago Cubs baseball star is credited with two of the all-time great excuses for shirking duty. He told his manager on the opening day of the 1974 season that he couldn't play because his eyelid was stuck open. Apparently, he'd 'slept funny and couldn't blink'. Easily done. Two seasons earlier, Cardenal had declared himself unfit to play because crickets in his hotel room had kept him awake all night. What a pro.

9 Manchester United The Theatre of Excuses' lasting triumph was the famous fable of the grey away kit, which was blamed for a 3-0 half-time deficit at Southampton in 1996. 'The players couldnae pick each other out,' moaned Fergie. Must have been all that grey grass. United changed to white shirts at the break, but still lost 3-1. The grey kit was swiftly pensioned off. Fergie's evasive genius transcends sport: he was cleared of speeding in 1999 after entering the rarely heard plea of 'diarrhoea'. 'I had to go somewhere quickly,' he told the ashen-faced judge.

10 Finland After a terrible Athens Olympics, Finnish daily newspaper Aamulehti concluded: 'We dominated one event: finding excuses.' Javelin thrower Paula Huhtaniemi led the pack. 'The big stadium surprised me,' she said. 'I could not direct the javelin right.' Meanwhile, women's 5,000metres runner Kirsi Valasti blamed her performance on an unfamiliar masseuse. Sailor Sari Multala put her abject slowness down to a bag that got caught in the back of her boat. Wonderful.

Rationale

This month's 10 was selected by Graeme Thomson. Here he justifies his choice:

I could have gone on and on. Sport - as life - is littered with self-delusionists. When Newcastle drew at lowly Stevenage in the FA Cup, in 1998, Kenny Dalglish proclaimed that the 'balls were too bouncy'; while Rotherham goalie Chris Mooney once blamed a howler on the blinding glare created by his centre-half's bald head. So I decided I wanted a combination of the serious and the seriously stupid, the high-profile and low-key: hence Shane Warne and Carol Gaudie sitting cheek by jowl with Lighton Ndefwayl, Mervyn King and Rocket Ronnie.

Most cases are recent, because the desperate art of excuse-making is a relatively new phenomenon. Some initially seductive candidates ebbed away. I dismissed Becks's Euro 2004 penalty miss because - his scowl at the spot notwithstanding - primarily, it was others making excuses on his behalf. And I left Rio Ferdinand on the bench, because his sorry Harvey Nichols shopping tale about why he forgot to take a drugs test actually had the mundane ring of truth about it.

Rupert Lowe is here simply because the chance to make a public mockery of odious, ignorant hypocrisy should always be seized, while there are few things more amusing than a whole team concocting a tall tale: Finland, Sri Lanka and Manchester United offer corking examples of the collective excuse. Anyway, if you don't agree with this list, don't blame me: the dog ate my first draft.

Disagree with our selection?

We thought so. Write and tell us who or what should be there instead, justifying your choice in no more than 50 words. Send your cards to: 10 Lamest Excuses OSM, 119 Farringdon Rd, London EC1R 3ER or email us: osm@observer.co.uk

iPodcurrent:

Greatest comeback ? Some cricketing perpective on MLB

Red Sox beat Yankees 4-2 and tie series at 3 all.

Okay, I am not becoming a Baseball nut overnight - but what a comeback by the Red Sox!! The commentators in the third and fourth game I was watching kept saying that no team has ever come back from a 0-3 deficit to win (In all of the american major professional sports, it has been done only two times in NHL). That still may not happen in this series - but then no one was seriously expecting a game 7 !! When the Red Sox won game 4 though, I did have a feeling that they might somehow claw back.

I do not claim any expertise in the nuances of baseball, so I am not sure how pitch rotation and other stuff will affect game 7. But from a purely sporting point of view, the Red Sox should have an advantage in that game. They are carrying the momentum and by going even from a 0-3 deficit their confidence should be sky high. Yankees on the other hand must be thinking 'what if...' particularly in game 4 when Riviera failed to close the game at the bottom of the 9th.

Although any comparisons will be extremely superficial - but in cricketing terms this is almost like India's comeback against Australia at Calcutta in 2001. Of course , that was a single test match - while this is a series. But one could draw a (somewhat tenous) parallel between each day in a 5 day cricket test match and each game in a baseball series. Indians were really down and out on the first two days of that match - they fought back somewhat on the 3rd day - but still behind the Australian single innings total. Day 4 - the Asutralians bring champagne to the ground - hoping to celebrate by the end of the day - but an amazing stand by Dravid and Laxman and by the end of the fifth day its the Indians who are celebrating.

In a broader philosophical context, I always beleive that no matter what kind of a hole you are in or how bleak things look, when you take each day/hour/game etc. at a time - it is possible not only to break even, but come actually come out on top. (okay - maybe it is time to go to sleep !! - its been a hard day's night)

iPodcurrent: Its been a Hard Day's Night ;-)

Gmail and Google Desktop

Finally got my Gmail invite, courtesy of SFX, who are promoting the Mozilla Firefox browser. The invite was in response to placing a Firefox banner on my web-site. For those who have been living in a cave for the past year - Gmail is Google's new e-mail service - launched earlier this year with an awesome 1GB storage space ("never ever having to delete you e-mail" !!). But the service is at the beta stage, so you can get an account only if you are invited. I beleive initial invitations were given out to regular bloggers @ Bolgspot. Those using the e-mail service in turn got a chance to send out invitations. This has, of course, created a cyberspace class-division of the g-mail haves and have nots. G-mail invites have been a hot commodity and have been bartered (there is web-site dedicated to gmail swapping), 'e-bay'-ed or given away in promotions (as in my case). A look at this site will show how desperate some people are for an invite (one guys needs it to impress his girlfriend). Of course all this buzz is really great for Google (as if they needed any more publicity).

Anyway, there is the privacy issue with respect to G-mail. In very lay terms, Google is going to scan every incoming and outgoing mail for the message 'context' and delivers ads based on that. Privacy and civil rights groups are of course outraged. But there are others who are not so worried.
I have not made up my mind yet. To some extent, simply knowing how hyper the privacy and civil liberty unions are and how they often have knee-jerk reactions, perhaps the issue is kind of overblown (some more thoughts on that here). I would not really want someone out there to be building a 'profile' of myself based on what I am writing in private mails - but the question is whether Google is making up such profiles. Google says 'no' - but privacy groups are contending that there is nothing to stop Google from doing so in the future. Either way, gmail is not going to be my main e-mail right away - so I will just wait and watch.

My other google related activity yesterday was to download the Google desktop. This is a search engine that will run on your desktop and can search keywords in your computer within files (Words, Power Point, Excel.), mails, cached web-pages etc. Unfortunately, the web and e-mail search features work only with IE and Outlook programs and not Firefox and Thunderbird. But people are trying to get google to add this feature. If you are a Firefox or Thuunderbird user - send in your request. So far, I have not really needed to use the search program - but I have tried out some obscure words and they returned resonable searches.
Beware though, the program requires a whopping 1GB storage !!

iPodcurrent:

aaargh!!!

Why doesn't it rain when India needs it - like the last day at the Bangalore test. Anyway, the match was a draw after washed out the final day's play. Should have have put some money down on that draw option - odds were 1:15 !!

More later today....






iPodcurrent:

Final Day Showdown

210 needed in 90 overs with 10 wickets in hand. Can they do it ? Answer in another 8-9 hours. Odds @ Bet365.com:

Ind  1.28

Aus  3.75

Draw 15

3-1 in favor of India. Go desis !!

Meanwhile, I watched a pretty entertaining baseball match yesterday with the Yankees thrashing the Red Sox 19-8. While I am still learning the nuances of baseball - it seemed like a pretty shoddy effort by the pitchers on either side. It's like a 350+ runs ODI innings in cricket. Moreover, as I write, the Yankees are leading 2-0 at the top of the 5th innings. As possible 4-0 drubbuing !!

iPodcurrent:

Middle order still dissapointing

The Indians are now 56 runs ahead with 4 wickets in hand. Could have been much better but the middle order had yet another disappointing day. Dravid 26, Laxman - the supposed terror for the Aussies, 4, Gang 9 - what's up with these folks. I am getting the feeling that Sachin's prescence makes some difference to the Indian middle order. The other players probably feel a little less pressure with Sachin around and play their natural game, even when he does not contribute. We really missed him today - Chennai is his happy hunting ground and the game could really have been taken away from the Aussies today itself.

Still its not too bad - Kaif and Patel needs to settle themselves and make sure that we get another 100 runs at least - if not 150. That would be a good lead on a detiriorating pitch. Remember that India has to bat last. Last time in Chennai we made heavy weather of a 155 run chase.
Congrats to Sehwag on a good 155 - otherwise we would have been in real trouble. I won't say that he has returned to form - with his attitude while batting, he can really get going anyday - a few chances here and there does help ;-)
Congrats to Warne on being the highest wicket-taker. Just a small statistics here:
Warne v/s India: 33 wkts @ 54 avg
v/s England: 132 @ 23 avg.

Go desis !!




iPodcurrent: PPenny Lane

Politics

I have made a consious decision not to write too much about politics, especially the current US politics on my blog. There are literarily thousands of blogs out there covering the topic. However, I will jot down some thoughts as soon as I get the time. Right now, I am just too busy finishing up and submitting three papers at the same time.

I did see the beginning of the Bush-Kerry debate last night. There was a kind of funny moment - Kerry was quoting Bush having mentioned that he did not think much about Osama Bin Laden. Bush responded, in an obviously rehearsed non-chalant manner: "I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations." As expected, Bush pronounced the word 'exaggeration' with some effort - but then he got it right and there was a marked satisfaction and thrill on his face. It was like a small child being able to open the wrapper on his cancy for the first time on his own !!

iPodcurrent: Start me Up - Rolling Stones

Good news in the morning.....

...on the cricket front. Australia bundled out for 235 runs. Actually it is pretty impressive considering that they were 136 for no loss sometime after lunch. This has an eery similiarity to the last Ind-Aus series in India - when Aus would pile up runs in the morning and then gradually lose wickets and the momentum in the afternoon sessions. That time it was Harbhajan Singh doing the damage - today it was Anil Kumble - the old war-horse. Unfortunately, Yuvi got out to Shane Warne towards the end of the day. Hopefully, we can build a solid innings tomorrow.

iPodcurrent: Helter Skelter - U2

Heard on TV......

" Marriages are like flowers..............the fake ones last longer " !!!
- Jay Leno on the Tonight Show (talking about Bill and Hillary Clinton's anniversary)





iPodcurrent: Me and BobbyMcGee - Janis Joplin

Mental disintegration from within

Finally some sensible perspective on Indian cricket team.
Mental disintegration from within

Australia will come hard at India in this game, black armbands and all. And they won't resort to much mental disintegration – Steve Waugh's watchword has been largely ignored by the current outfit – either, at least not overtly. Not that they need to, when sections of the Indian media are sledging their own team far more than a McGrath or Warne ever did.

Another copy?

'Vaastu Shashtra' - directed by some Saurabh Narang is being touted a lot these days. From the storyline, it sounds eerily like a rip-off on The Shining .
Hopefully, a movie backed by Ram Gopal Verma will be slightly different.



iPodcurrent: Positively 4th Street - Bob Dylan

Cool Ads from Apple

Some really cool ads for Apple products:

http://www.esm.psu.edu/Faculty/Gray/movies.html

More knee-jerk reactions about India's defeat

(click on the title for the article)
I wonder who gives these imbeciles the job to write in a national newspaper? Do they even understand anything about sports or even about the practical matters in life? Can't believe how low the standards of TOI have fallen.

Sure the Indian team played badly - but sacking half the team and the coach in the middle of a series does not get problems solved. If we followed this moron's advice last time Australia visited India - the whole team would have been sacked after the first test and we would have never had the amazing comeback.

According to this insightfull article, Chopra's loss of form is due to Ganguly's comment about wanting Yuvi as the opener along with Sehwag. Firstly, I think too much is being made out that one comment made a long time ago. Secondly, shouldn't Chopra, now been given a chance by Tendulkar's absence (assuming that Ganguly would have gone for Yuvi in place of Chopra if T'kar was playing), grab it, play some good knocks and make sure that he is indispensible for the team? Besides he seems to have been unlucky in at leats one of the innings.

However, of all the inance comments in the article - this one takes the cake -
"Loyalty is commendable, but there is too little thick and too much thin now."

Bugger....

Seems like I am destined to just miss out on the latest cool gagdet !! Last year, I purchased my DELL just a few months too early and missed out on Centrino.
When Soma gave me the 40GB Click-wheel iPod, a month ago, I had the absoluetly latest 'thing'. Not for long as it turns out:
Think Secret - EXCLUSIVE: 60GB iPod to pack photo-viewing features

The irony of it !!

An Australian (that too Glenn McGrath) complaining about sledging !

Bhajji got scot free despite abusing: McGrath - Sify.com

Unsolicited Advice 1

I love giving advice to people. In my native tongue, Bengali, people like us are called 'gyani', 'paka' etc., most often in a playful derogatory sense. But that does not discourage our creed, who know that most people in the world are just lost and need someone to show them the direction.

Also since this is my blog in my corner of the vast cyberspace - I will dish out advice, both of practical nature as well as philosophical, from time to time ;-).

Here is something practical: for those few out there who do not know about it, start using the Mozilla Firefox browser in place of IE. It's got some really cool features and you can actually import most of your settings and all your links and bookmarks from IE. You can still use the googlebar and in addition there is a general box that can be used for google/yahoo/amazon/dictionary or any other engines of your choice. Check it out for yourself from the link below.If any of the reasons I gave is not convincing enough, here is the clincher - it's not from Microsoft.

Nobel in Economics

...was awarded today to Finn E. Kydland and Edward C. Prescott.

The Economic Nobel is technically called the 'The Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel' .

Alfred Nobel in his will did not specify a prize for Economics in his bequest. It was instituted by the Bank of Sweden at its 300th anniversary. Apparently the Nobel family is contesting the use of the word "Nobel Prize" for this award. Fair enough.

Now read this article in the TOI.

Seems like people back home have too much time on their hands !

Procrastination......

....yep I am pretty good at it. Blog was created about a month ago and I am finally finding time for the first (second) post. Since this apology of a blog is now linked from my apology of a web-site, I had to add some stuff here.

Anyway, still busy with writing my thesis.

Meanwhile India lost the first test against Australia by 217 runs. The margin could have much smaller without some horrendous umpiring decisions. I dont want to sound too whining but lets face it, Steve Bucknor is long past his use-by date - this is not the first time he has made mistakes. Billy 'crooked finger' Bowden on the hand seems to consider himself a star in his own right. Someone needs to remind him - no matter how funny his gestures are on the field, people come actually come to watch the Tendulkar cover drive or the Warne googly. He needs to concentrate on getting his on-field decisions correct rather crusading against the use of technology in umpiring.
Interestingly, this is the same umpiring team that more or less denied the Indian team a chance at history earlier this year in Australia.