Kerry wins now?

Alright...here we are. It just gets interesting. Isn't it?
Washington Redskins have lost the game to Greenbay Packers 14-28. So according to the Washington Redskins Rule President Bush should lose the elections and Kerry should win.
But, hold on. Two things happened this year.
First, Red Sox, broke the jinx of losing against Yankees and they won the series. Second, New England Patriots' 21 winning streak, the longest in NFL history, was ended today by the Pittsburg Steelers. So, this seems to be a season where records and jinx are broken. So will the Washington Red Skins rule jinx be broken this year and will Bush get re-elected to the White House?
It just gets interesting. Isn't it?

Young blood replacing young blood ?

It's over. A record held for more than 3 decades by India was smashed last week. I'm glad to know that BCCI is bringing in new players like Gautam Gambhir, Dheeraj Jadhav, paceman Shib Shankar Paul and wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik. I'm all for it. We need some young blood. BUT,huh...we need young blood to replace the old, not other young. I felt so bad that Akash Chopra, Yuvraj Singh, Ajit Agarkar and Parthiv Patel were dropped and VVS Laxman, Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble are still in the team. With bat, Parthiv Patel performed better than the 3 of them. Akash Chopra, Yuvraj Singh and Ajit Agarkar performed in par with these 3 seniors. So why are they still in the team? I'm not asking to sack these 3 seniors. But they definitely need to be dropped for few matches so that they can get their acts together, learn the basics and gain some confidence. I just can't understand the selectors. They always seem to take decisions with just the next 1 or 2 matches in the mind and not think about the future, say the next 3 years or 4 years.

Remember, sometime back I told that I laid foundation for something...well...now it's official. Iam glad that it's happening.

"I have a plan".
"Hope is on the way".

-John Kerry, October, 2004

Is he talking about Indian cricket team?

The jet thunder over Richmond yesterday afternoon was comedian Carrot Top in an F-16 fighter jet. Carrot Top, who was performing last night in Richmond, took an afternoon "familiarization flight" with a Virginia Air National Guard pilot, said 1st Lt. Mark Widener, a Guard spokesman.
The noise startled a number of Richmonders as the jet passed swiftly over the city about 2:15 p.m.

Richmond Timesdispatch

Was he insane?

What a day!

Today afternoon at around 2.00 p.m. I heard the sound of a plane very close to our building. It sounded as if the plane was heading towards our building. I work at 20th floor. Almost all my friends in the floor got kinda jittery and started to look at the window. But we couldn't see anything. One of my friend told he saw a B-2 bomber flying just on top of our building. Another friend told that he saw a fighter plane, more like an F-16. Then at the same time the alarm went on for building evacuation. Even thought it was a routine evacuation drill, and we were announced about this drill a week before, the timing made it really look like a real evacuation.whew... what a day!

Few days back I had sent an email to ICC (International Cricket Council) proposing some changes. Today I got a reply from them. Hope they implement my suggestions.
I copied the email below.

From : Enquirys Email
Sent : Tuesday, October 26, 2004 3:15:39 PM
To : "Vimal"
Subject : RE: ICC Feedback: (Proposed changes to Cricket to make it more interesting)


Thank you for your email and your ideas, the ICC always appreciates
receiving new ideas from committed cricket fans.

Kind regards

ICC Corporate Affairs

-----Original Message-----
From: CricInfo system account
[mailto:cricinfo@web1010.london.uk.cricket.net] On Behalf Of Vimal
Sent: 10 October 2004 18:09
To: icc-site-reply@cricinfo.com
Subject: ICC Feedback: (Proposed changes to Cricket to make it more
interesting)

Name: Vimal
Email address: vimal_n@hotmail.com
Subject: Proposed changes to Cricket to make it more interesting

Comments:
I propose 3 changes, which is sure to make the game of cricket more
interesting.

(1) Challenge : The teams should be allowed 2 challenges. When the
umpire gives a decision, which the team/coach feels is an incorrect
decision, they should be allowed to challenge the decision. And third
umpire should come into the picture.

(2) Distribute Field Restriction : One day matches has the field
restriction for the first 15 overs. I believe making the field
restriction more flexible, just say, make it 3 session of 5 overs each,
and the fielding team captain can choose when to apply each of the 3
sessions. This will definitely make the game more interesting by having
an additional strategy to think about.

(3) Timeout or Communication : The coach, should be able to communicate
with the team by timeouts, say 2 for each team, or should be able to be
in touch with the captain by wireless.

These 3 changes will definitely change the game for better and make it
more interesting.

Thanks
vimal

Today morning my friend Rahul met with a minor accident. Boy was he lucky? Yes he was. Look at this.
1. It was a minor accident
2. No one was hurt
3. The car he hit had 2 young beautiful ladies
4. The first cop who arrived at the scene was a young beautiful lady officer
5. The second cop who arrived at the scene was a young beautiful lady officer
6. The cop did not give him any ticket for the accident
7. The cop did not give him any ticket for not having the state inspection sticker

Will India level the series?

Alright. Here we are. Third test between India and Australia. Will India level the series? Will the Aussies go ahead 2-0?

Wicket : Initial reports say the wicket still has considerable amount of grass on it. Is that a good news for India?
I can only think of two things.
1. India played very well against the Aussies in Australia, in bouncy wickets. India did not play well in both the test matches here in India in spinner-friendly wickets. Did Sourav and the team think that may be they should try a wicket which looks like an Aussie wicket and see if they play well?
2. Is Sourav going to ask the groundsmen to shave off the remaining grass the night before the match and make it more spinner-friendly?

Openers : Even though Sourav says that he prefers experienced batsmen opening, I have a feeling that he may go ahead and ask Parthiv to open with Sehwag.

Whoever wins the toss will elect to bat first and put up a huge score and try to bowl the opponent twice.

விமலின் முதல் தமிழ் வார்த்தைகள்- இனய தளத்தில்

விமல் எழுதும் முதல் தமிழ் வார்த்தைகள். இது ஒரு சோதனை வாக்கியம்.
வாழ்க தமிழ்!
வளர்க தமிழர்கள்!

Saturday I took my friend Dixita, to Lotus Temple Ashram. I've been here zillion times, but even then every time I go here, I feel new and fresh and calm and energetic. What made this trip more interesting was the fact that the drive, in addition to being in country roads, was so beautiful with fall colors.

India TEAM

TEAM(Team for Educational Activities in Motherland) helps the society better by providing basic amenities to poor elementary schools, especially in rural India. Please let me know if you would like to be a part of it.

http://www.indiateam.org/

Thanks
vimal

Team America - World police

Last night I went to the new satire ' Team America - World police'. It was hilarious. Some of the scenes in the movie is little bit 'awkward' and the lyrics funny but definitely not printable. But overall it's a fun movie to watch.

Washington Redskins decide who becomes president?

THE WASHINGTON REDSKINS RULE. This one has an impressive winning streak--for 72 years, the victory or defeat of the Washington Redskins in their last game before the election has predicted whether the incumbent party holds the White House. If the Redskins lose or tie, the incumbent party loses the election. If the Redskins win, so does the incumbent party. By any measure the accuracy of the Redskin rule is notable. It has correlated with presidential electoral outcomes in 18 of the past 18 elections back to Franklin Roosevelt in 1932. The probability of a Redskin victory or defeat correctly forecasting the presidential election 18 elections in a row has been calculated to be about one in 260 million. The Redskins’ last game before the election is with the Packers on October 31.

Mysteries in Veerappan's killing

The police say, Veerappan and his aides were traveling in the ambulance van, and as soon as they got that intelligence they chased and compelled them to surrender. But as Veerappan and his aides started firing back, the Special Task Force (STF) was forced to retaliate. But according to some locals and local newspapers, there seems to be some confusing elements in this story.

First, the police says the STF chased Veerappan’s van in a lorry, and when Veerappan started firing at them, they retaliated. But no bullet is said to have penetrated the front of the van. Instead, the front of the van, without a bullet mark, from windshield to the top has crashed severely.

Further, if a vehicle is shot from outside the bullet hole should be protruding inside the vehicle. But in the van in which Veerappan came, most of the bullet holes are protruding outside. That means, those bullet holes were the result of shooting from inside. If Veerappan and his aides were firing at the STF, they should have fired through the glass window and not through door and rest of the parts (Unless Veerappan and his aides had decided to fire-at-will without aiming).

While we are debating if the bullets originated from inside the van or outside, the people who were inside such a bullet ridden van should be carrying many bullet wounds. But that’s not the case. Veerappan’s forehead alone has 2 bullets. Reports say it looked like he was shot from a point-blank range. The lorry which was said to be under fire, has just 3 bullet holes in it’s diesel tank. The STF searched for all the bullets under torch light and retrieved all of them. As a result, the type of bullets used also remains a mystery.

The van, in which Veerappan came, was covered. Reporters were allowed to take pictures of the van only from outside. The screen inside the van was pulled to cover the inside.

Some unconfirmed reports say that Veerappan may have been caught at least 3 days before this event. As he had diabetes and poor eye sight, he was unable to even walk and the police is said to have used this opportunity to take him to hospital. In the hospital he is said to have talked about many ‘truths’, which would have created a political turmoil if revealed to the public, and in order to prevent that he was killed and this fake encounter was setup. There is also a talk that this encounter was arranged in order to divert the attention of public from Jayalakshmi case which has been a big headache for the police department recently.

Veerappan’s wife Muthulakshmi has told reporters that her husband would never have surrendered to the police and he must have committed suicide by shooting himself. There is also a speculation that in the van, surrounded by STF, Veerappan may have asked his aide to shoot him so he may not be caught by police alive.

The police was very adamant to burn Veerappan’s body, but the locals opposed it and in the end the police had to bury him. When the police was asked if the DNA test was done to confirm Veerappan’s identity, they said it was not done and was not necessary as the fingerprints matched.

Was Veerappan really killed during the encounter?
Did Veerappan's van have a head-on collision with a lorry coming from the opposite direction? Was he killed in that accident? Is that why the front of the van was crashed without any bullet mark?
Did Veerappan commit suicide by shooting himself in the van?
Did Veerappan ask his aide to shoot him inside the van, surrounded by STF?
Did the police catch him days before and killed him and set this fake encounter?

Last week when I was cleaning my apartment I found this book on Nostradamus, which I had bought earlier. Today morning I was flipping over the pages and came across this particular Quatrain(C2Q2)

"The blue leader will inflict upon the white leader as much evil as France has done them good. Death from the great antenna hanging from the branch. When (he is) seized, the king will ask how many of his men have been captured"

The particular phrase which caught my attention was "Death from the great antenna hanging from the branch"(A death is broadcast on TV? ).

Are they talking about the Iraq beheadings shown in TV ?
Did not the French behead people with Guillotine?

Immediately I scrambled the Internet to see other translations of this quatrain. This is what I got.

"The blue head will inflict upon the white head as much evil as France has done them good: Dead at the sail-yard the great one hung on the branch, when seized by his own the King will say how much."
Is the word sail-yard actually a 'tower or aerial or antenna'?

I created a record :-)

'Kungumam' tamil magazine is advertising today in Sun TV that their latest issue sold more than 1 million copies and it's a record. Man... I thought I was the only addition to their subscription this week. Well...let's say that I became their subscriber and brought good luck to them :-)

Popular votes

Today while driving back from work, my friend Pat and I were discussing the electoral college vote in US, and how the president is elected. We were thinking whether it is really a democratic way of electing a president because the president is elected by proportionate vote and not people's vote directly. Then I realized that even in India, we do not elect the prime minister directly. Yes, even we do not have popular vote. We vote and elect members for parliament and whichever party or coalition has majority of parliament members, gets to decide on the prime minister and run the administration. Of course, the president of India is elected by electoral college by both houses of the parliament, but then, our President’s post is more of a ceremonial post. Then I asked Pat which countries have popular vote, and elects its chief or head directly. He said Finland is one. Then later I came home and did some research on the Internet and found few countries which elects its chief or head by popular vote. These are some of the countries : Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Mexico, Finland, France, Russia. Interesting!

How is the President elected in US?

Some of my friends from India were not aware of how exactly elections in US work. It's different from how it works in India. So here I try to explain the process in simple terms.

Everybody votes, and whoever gets the most votes becomes president, right? Nope. That method, called the Popular Vote is not used to elect the President of United States. Instead an indirect system called the Electoral College is used to elect the president. This isn't really a national election -- it's a whole bunch of separate state elections.
Each state gets a certain number of electors (Electoral Votes); one for each senator (which means two, because there are always two senators) and one for each representative (which depends on the state's population as determined by the census). So in almost all cases, whichever candidate wins a given state wins all of that state's electoral votes, and it takes a majority of the electoral votes to win the overall election.
For example, Florida has 27 electoral votes. Just say Bush wins 15 of those 27 votes, then he wins the state and all the 27 electoral votes goes to Bush. Got it?
There are total 538 electoral votes. A candidate must receive 270 of the 538 votes to win the election. So, while winning the popular vote may not ensure a candidate's victory, a candidate must gain popular support of a particular state to win the votes in that state.
Some states like Utah, Wyoming, Idaho mostly votes for the Republicans. But some states like Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin etc are called swing states (also referred to as battleground states). Swing states are ones in which recent presidential elections have been decided by a narrow margin -- in some cases, less than one percent. That's why you see the candidates, Bush and Kerry, campaigning in these states often. The goal of any candidate is to put together the right combination of states that will give him or her 270 electoral votes. Hope I didn’t confuse more :-)

hmm, It's 1.00 am here.I don't know why, but I couldn't sleep. This is the first time I remember getting up like this at this time. I was just flipping over the channels...comedy central(Jon Stewart's Daily Show) is making fun of Bush and Kerry...MSNBC is talking about Bill O'Reilly...Sun TV is flashing the news that Veerappan has been killed while Prabhu and Kushboo are busy dancing for a song...followed by the song from the movie 'Puthu puthu arthangal'. Ilayaraaja is great, he is a genius, even now his songs are so melodious, love to listen to them...I've noticed that AR Rehman's songs are hot when the movie is just released, but after like 50 days, they don't seem to sound so good...whereas Ilayaraaga's songs even now are so good.Anyway, it's a new song now and my favorite Reema Sen is dancing for the song 'Dai Kaiya vechukitu summa iruda' from the movie 'Giri' ...Aaaha...here we go...Veerappan is in CNN Home Page "Police kill India's 'Robin Hood'" ...Oho it's 2.00 am ...what am I doing at this time of the night blogging...let me go catch some Zzzzzzzzs.