FIFA WC 2010 SOUTH AFRICA

Now that the world cup is finally round the corner here are predictions (finally) for the biggest sporting event on the planet.

GROUP A:

SOUTH AFRICA; MEXICO, URUGUAY, FRANCE

SOUTH AFRICA: They qualified as the hosts. I do not see them progressing through the first round.

MEXICO: At one point during the qualifications it seemed doubtful that we would see Mexico in South Africa. But after the departure of Sven-Goran Eriksson they got their campaign back on tracks. Carlos Vela the young Arsenal striker will be the player to watch out for.

I think they will have to fight it out with Uruguay for the second qualification spot from the group.

FRANCE: They should not have qualified in first place for the WC. But the French handball team is here and it will be very difficult for them to not win the group. If they win their group they might find themselves facing Nigeria or Argentina (less likely). But I hope they get knocked out in the group stage.

URUGUAY: They qualified via the playoffs for the WC. I don’t think they will progress beyond the first round.

GROUP B:

ARGENTINA; NIGERIA; KOREA REPUBLIC, GREECE

ARGENTINA: They survived a torrid qualifying campaign to reach the WC. The question is will Lionel Messi perform for them. If he does then I think Argentina has one of the SF berth assured. With Maradona as their coach it will be interesting to see the team selection. Aside from Messi players like Tevez and Sergio Aguero are match winners in their own right.

NIGERIA: Assuming they finish first or second in the group they can face either France or Mexico. (I think they will finish second). It will be an interesting second round match and I believe Nigeria can reach the Q/F.

SOUTH KOREA: They are strong Asian contenders but I do not see them finishing above Argentina or Nigeria in the group.

GREECE: Winners of EURO 2004, it will be very difficult for Greece to progress to next round from this group.

GROUP C:

ENGLAND; USA; ALGERIA; SLOVENIA

England: From pretenders to serious contenders, England under Fabio Capello is a team to reckon. With players like Rooney, Lampard, Terry, Gerrad they are hoping for a second WC win. The only weak link in the chain is the goal keeper. I think the lack of a strong keeper will see England miss out the WC. A SF spot seems likely for Capello’s men.

USA: I expect them to qualify second (although Algeria might have some other ideas) from the group behind England. This would mean that they are likely to face Germany in the next round; where they will make an exit from the WC.

Algeria: I hope they give USA the run for their money for the second spot in the group. If they draw their match with the USA it may go down to goal difference to see who clinches the second qualifying spot.

Slovenia: Stunned Russia to reach the WC. They have a slim chance of making the second round, but I do not think they will make it out of the group.

GROUP D:

GERMANY; AUSTRALIA; SERBIA; GHANA

Germany: The Germans are always a strong side and it is expected that they will win the group. Having to face the second placed team from group C means that they should get through to the Q/F without much trouble. It is here where thighs can get interesting as they might end up facing Argentina.

Australia; Ghana; Serbia: The second qualifying spot from this group is open and any one of the three teams can grab it. I don’t think there is much to separate the three and the results will depend on the performance of the teams on the match day. Whoever finishes second will draw England in the next round which should mean an end to their campaign.

GROUP E:

NETHERLANDS; JAPAN, CAMEROON, DENMARK

Netherlands: Now that Spanish have won Euro 08; the Netherlands can be officially labeled as the perennial under achievers. They are in a difficult group with Cameroon and Denmark both teams capable of causing upsets. If the Dutch can play their game I expect them to top the group; but it will not be easy

Japan: They were the first team to qualify for the WC. To reach the second round in this WC will be a monumental effort for them.

Cameroon: Although they barely qualified for the WC I expect them to reach the next round. If they can pip the Netherlands they will have a very good chance of making the Q/F.

Denmark: They won their qualifying group (over Portugal). Much depends upon their game with Cameroon.

GROUP F:

ITALY; PARAGUAY; NEW-ZEALAND; SLOVAKIA

Italy: They are the defending world champions. They are not as strong as they were in 06, but it would be foolish to write them off. The real test will be in the Q/F where they might end up playing Spain.

Paraguay, Slovakia: They will fight it out for the second qualifying spot from the group.

New Zealand: An incredible achievement for them to have qualified for the WC. I don’t see them causing any troubles for the rest of the teams.

GROUP G:

BRAZIL; PORTUGAL; Côte d'Ivoire; KOREA DPR

Brazil: Probably the favorites along with Spain. They had a good qualifying run and although placed in a though group look set to go all the way to the finals.

Portugal: The bad boys of last world cup. Their qualifying run was not smooth and had to qualify through the payoffs. They will fight it out with Côte d'Ivoire for the second qualifying spot.

Côte d'Ivoire: Probably the strongest team in Africa, I think they will outplay Portugal for the second qualifying spot.

KOREA DPR: A complete unknown. They can be the spoilers in the group by holding one of the other teams to a draw.

GROUP H:

SPAIN, CHILE, SWITZERLAND, HONDURAS

Spain: The current number 1 team in the world is favorites along with Brazil to lift the world cup. The probably have the side amongst all the teams in the competition. I think a final between Spain and Brazil is on the cards.

Chile: Another strong team from South America. They can make it into the next round but will face Brazil there.

Switzerland: They can upset Chile for the second spot only to meet Brazil in the second round.

Honduras: They qualified for the WC by superior goal difference over Costa Rica. I don’t see them making any waves at the competition.

ITALIA WINS !!!!!!!!

THE FINAL :- ITALIA WINS....ITALIA WINS....ITALIA WINS....
Zidane ...oh ....Zidane what were you thinking? What a way to end a career with a senseless head-butt to the chest of Italy defender Marco Materazzi. But what a day for the Azurries....they win the world championship for the fourth time. What a match...and Italians finally won a penalty shootout.


1) ITALY :- WORLD CHAMPIONS .......The Azzurries simply ROCK. What a performance from Italy. Despite the scandal going on back home the azzurries played some fantastic football. The defense was awesome with Buffon doing a really good job on the goal line. Cannarovo, Grosso, Zambrotta, Gatuso and Materazzi ....what a defensive line and Nesta was out injured. Totti, Lucatoni, Inzaghi and Del Piero led the attack supported by Gattuso and Pirlo who ruled the midfield. Hats off to the Azzurries.

2) GERMANY :- They had the advantage of having possibly the best the coach in the world cup in Juergen Klinnsmann. I wish he continues to stay as the coach. I was really impressed with the Germans.... they had a new flair in their game. The squad was balanced with young players like Podolski, Lahm, Odonkor and Schweinsteiger and with vetrans like Ballack, Klose, King Kahn and Lehman. I really fancy the Germans do well in Euro 2008 and the next world cup along with ofcourse the Azzurries.

3) FRANCE :- Zidane Zidane......what a sad way to end a illustrous carrer. I had not even picked France to advance to the quarter finals. Zinedine Zidane showed us why is considered as probably the best payer in past decade. Not that he had to..we already knew that, but he cast a shadow on that with the senseless butt on Materazzi. Altough I was totally blown away by Zidane I was not that impressed by France except for their game against Italy and Brazil. I am not sure how their future team looks with Zidnae, Makelele, Thuram retiring from the game. Barthez looked shaky in the goal. One player who stood out along with Zidane was Ribery. He was impressive with his speed and skills. Altough Henry got 3 goals I doubt he was at is best. I don't think France will do well in Euro 2008 but can regroup in 2010. The French need a new coach along with some younger players.

4) PORTUGAL :- The bad boys of the world cup with 24 yellow cards and 2 red cards. The portugese did really well under Scolari to reach the semi-finals. Ronaldo was impressive with his runs up the flanks but he needs support with a good center forward. Ricardo was great in the goal. This was also probably the last we saw of Figo in international football. If they can find a good center forward they can be a pretty good side for Euro 2008.

Rest later.

The man The machine.........

Oh....how I wish I had a snowmobile more than anything else.........The best thing to own during winter........no restrictions on where to go...one is no longer limited by the roads and the weather......with a snowmobile no hill no plain and no forest is out of bound....it is an ultimate expression of power and freedom.......

.

M31

The sky has been very good in the night of August 3 to 4, 1764; & the constellation Andromeda was near the Meridian, I have examined with attention the beautiful nebula in the girdle of Andromeda, which was discovered in 1612 by Simaon Marius, & which has been observed since with great care by different astronomers, & at last by M. le Gentil who has given a very ample & detailed description in the volume of the Momoirs of the Academy for 1759, page 453, with a drawing of its appearance. I will not report here what I have written in my [observing] Journal: I have employed different instruments for examining that nebula, & above all an excellent Gregorian telescope of 30 pouces focal length, the large mirror having 6 pouces in diameter, & magnifying 104 times these objects: the middle of that nebula appeared rather bright with this instrument, without any appearance of stars; the light went diminishing up to extinguishing; it resembles two cones or pyramides of light, opposed at their bases, of which the axis was in the direction form North-West to South-East; the two points of light or the two summits are about 40 minutes of arc apart; I say about, because of the difficulty to recognize these two extreminties. The common base of the two pyramides is 15 minutes [of arc long]: these measures have been made with a Newtonian telescope of 4 feet & a half focal length, equipped with a micrometer of silk wires. With the same instrument I have compared the middle of the summits of the two cones of light with the star Gamma Andromedae of fourth magnitude which is very near to it, & little distant from its parallel. From these observations, I have concluded the right ascension of the middle of this nebula as 7d 26' 32", & its declination as 39d 9' 32" north. Since fifteen years during which I viewed & observed this nebula, I have not noticed any change in its appearances; having always perceived it in the same shape.

Image is taken from here.

Extract from
Mem. Acad. for 1771, p. 446-447 (first Messier catalog).
[p. 457] 1764.Aug. 3. RA: 7.26.32, Dec: 39. 9.32.B, Diam: 0.40.
The beautiful nebula in the girdle of Andromeda.

Binary

01010100011010000110111101110101011001110110100001110100
0111011101101111011101010110110001100100
01101101011000010110101101100101
01000001
01110000011011110111001101110100
0110100101101110
011000100110100101101110011000010111001001111001

The brother's were Wright !!!!!

From the earliest times, humans have had a fascination with the heavens. Many believed that the heavens were home to the gods. Religions related stories of airborne chariots and winged angels that descended from the heavens to speak to humans. Flying creatures that were half human and half beast were legendary, and birds and fantastic winged creatures pulled boats and other vehicles through the air.
Few moments in history have done more to capture the essence of the human spirit - freedom of the pursuit of dreams - than the Wright brother's historic first flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.... twelve seconds that changed the world! And what twelve seconds they were...Mankind was no longer confined to the ground but could soar the vast heavens as gracefully as a bird without any limitations.
In the last one hundred years, and to a lesser extent for thousands of years, both aviation and spaceflight have played an important part in social history. Most would agree that this role has largely been positive. Aviation has made the world smaller and brought people closer together. It has provided an avenue for those with special skills and talents in countless areas to shine and to express themselves. It has improved the lives of many people. Spaceflight, too, had a positive impact on life in the 20th century. It has opened up the vastness of the Universe and if not exactly able yet to explain how life began, has provided us with substantial clues. It has, to a great extent, achieved what writers could only imagine a hundred years ago.

Agni

Do not look at Agni
as an entity directed upward
to deter the ominous
or exhibit your might.
It is fire
in the heart of an Indian.
Do not even give it
the form of a missile
as it clings to the
burning pride of this nation
and thus is bright.


Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam is the President of the Republic of India.

If you could be born again...

If you could be born again
where would you want to live?
well, I would like to live
where there may be sunshine
blue skies, stars at night and dreams
and there must be you that I love

well there might not be
sunshine and blue skies and
stars at night and dreams
where I live
but there must be you that I love
because you are the one for whom I live.

Crater Lake (1 of 3)

Finally I am blogging after a break of about 2 weeks. This weekend we (my brother and I) went to Crater Lake. Crater Lake is about 700 miles south of Seattle. We decided that instead of taking the shorter route along an interstate (highway) we will drive along the Pacific Coast Highway. The Pacific Coast Highway runs along the western coastline of the US from Washington (Olympic Peninsula) all the way down to California. We started Saturday morning and took our first break at Canon beach. Nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Coast Mountain Range, Cannon Beach; is famed for its forested headlands, towering monoliths and miles of pristine, sandy beaches. Continuing south from Canon beach, our next stop was at Tillamook. Tillamook is the home of Tillamook cheese (a local brand which is quite good). So how can a visit to the home of a cheese company be complete without a visit to the cheese factory? It was really exciting to see the cheese being made (It was somewhat like the Aarey Milk Colony factory). With our stomachs full we made out way towards Crater Lake.

Crater Lake is located in southern Oregon on the crest of the Cascade Range, 100 miles (160 km) east of the Pacific Ocean. It lies inside a caldera, or volcanic basin, created when the 12,000 foot (3,660 meter) high Mount Mazama collapsed 7,700 years ago after a large eruption. The lake is approximately 5 miles (8 km) wide, and is surrounded by steep rock walls that rise up to 2,000 feet (600 meters) above the lake's surface. Following the collapse of Mount Mazama, lava poured into the caldera at several places even as the lake began to rise. These flows created underwater features as well as Wizard Island, a cinder cone that rises 764 feet (233 meters) above the lake and is surrounded by black volcanic lava blocks.

The dramatic color of Crater Lake is the product of its great depth, the purity and clarity of its water, and the way light interacts with water. Water molecules absorb the longer wavelengths of light better (reds, oranges, yellows, and greens). Shorter wavelengths (blues) are more easily scattered than absorbed. In the deep lake, some of the scattered blue light is redirected back up to the surface where we can see it. Around the edges where the water is less deep, some of the unabsorbed green light is reflected back up, too. Although the color of the lake can vary from day to day depending on wind, cloud cover, and the angle of the sun, the different shades of blue are always spectacular.

Since the lake is filled almost entirely by snowfall, it is incredibly pure. Sunlight is able to penetrate the waters of Crater Lake to great depths. Researchers using an instrument called a "Secchi disk" can easily determine lake clarity. They simply lower the 8-inch black and white disk into the water, and measure the depth at which the disk is no longer visible from the surface. For most lakes, readings deeper than 100 feet (30 meters) are rare, but Crater Lake holds a world record clarity reading of 142 feet (43.3 meters)!

We took a boat ride in the lake. The boat ride is offered by the National Park Service and is a two hour tour along the circumference of the lake. One has to climb down about 750 feet to reach the only accessible part of the lake. The water was extremely clear and had a dark shade of blue. I had never seen something like this before. In the evening we camped at the Mazama campgrounds. There was a ranger show that night which included a slide show of the mountain and information about the flora anf fauna on the mountain.

Park forests are composed mostly of conifers, although a few hardwood species can be found. Starting in the park’s lower elevations (about 4,500 feet or 1,370 meters), ponderosa pine forest is the first zone seen. The ponderosa zone gives way to lodgepole pine forest at about 5,000 feet (1,520 meters). Sometimes referred to as “dog’s hair forest” because of the dense, scraggly stands of thin lodgepoles, this zone covers vast areas. Mountain hemlocks become dominant at about 6,000 feet (1,830 meters). This zone has the final tall trees in the park and has limited underbrush. The next zone is almost purely whitebark pines and extends from about 7,500 feet (2,290 meters) to the top of Mt. Scott, the highest point in the park (8,929 feet or 2,721 meters). The whitebark pine zone is more an open woodland than a forest.

One thing is for sure, Crater Lake ranks amongst the most beautiful places I have ever seen.

Crater Lake (2 of 3)

Crater Lake (3 of 3)

Dark Matter Axions

For each of the stellar, galactic, and galaxy cluster/super cluster observations the basic principle is that if we measure velocities in some region, then there has to be enough mass there for gravity to stop all the objects flying apart. When such velocity measurements are done on large scales, it turns out that the amount of inferred mass is much more than can be explained by the luminous stuff. Hence we infer that there is dark matter in the Universe. Dark matter (DM) candidates are usually split into two broad categories, Baryonic and Non-Baryonic with the second category being further sub-divided into (HDM) hot dark matter and cold dark matter (CDM) depending on their respective masses and speeds. CDM candidates travel at slow speeds (hence "cold") or have little pressure, while HDM candidates move rapidly (hence "hot").
Astrophysical observations increasingly suggest there's a large amount of cold dark matter in the universe, and the axion, a hypothetical elementary particle, is a compelling dark-matter candidate. Dark-matter axions normally have only feeble couplings to matter and radiation, but a RF cavity threaded by a magnetic field causes a few nearby halo axions to convert into microwave photons. These photons can then be detected with an exquisitely sensitive receiver, and several groups around the world search in this way for Milky Way halo axions at the upper end of their expected coupling range.
The research group at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory launched a high-sensitivity upgrade that exploits advances in low-noise quantum electronics. These upgraded receivers are by far the world's most sensitive to microwave radiation, having noise near the quantum limit. This upgraded experiment will be definitive, capable of detecting or ruling out the entire range of plausible dark-matter axion masses and couplings.

Summary of talk by Leslie Rosenberg at the University of Washington science colloquium.

Sarkar

One of the best movies I have seen so far...........amazing.....at last a hindi movie with no songs (the movie did not warrant any songs but with hindi movies ...) and Abhishek Bachan is simply superb. I was a bit apprehensive before watching the movie as may people had told me it is a copy of "Godfather"..with a bit of Mumbai politics. But Ram Gopal Verma has really done a great job..... fantastic....The best dialouge for me was in the end when Abhishek tells the CM "Main bhi to vohi cahata hoon"......
A good hindi move after a long time with excellent performances by all.

37 inches of rain in a day...that's crazy !!!!

What a day for Mumbai......it rained 37 inches in 21 hours.....that is the highest recorded rainfall in day for over a century in India. It even beat the previous record at Cherapunji, Assam. The rains have totally crippled the city rendering thousands stranded all over. It must be total chaos over there...no electricity (as power had been shut off), no communications. I remember when I was back home it had rained about 20 inches in a day..........and it was a mess. I can only imagine what it must be like now. Reports say that some places are under 12 feet of water...that’s entire ground floor...Reports from my neighborhood are surprisingly ok (considering the situation everywhere else)..the road link was cut because of waist high flooding, but there was no loss of life. Water did enter the ground floor apartments though.
One of my friends coming to US had to turn back (as did thousands of other traveller's) as all flights were cancelled. So were the trains and the roads were blocked too...the city was completely cut-off from the rest of the country....
well that's monsoon back home.....I am just hoping that life returns to normalcy as soon as possible.

How i yearn for the rains...

The last ten days have been an extremely dry and hot (for seattle) with temperatures in mid 80's. No rains and no clouds in sight...it is just burning down here....

Mount St. Helens

Today was my 5th visit Mount St. Helens. It is perhaps the most active volcano in continental North America.

The last major eruption occurred during May 1980. This eruption completely changed the landscape, converting the once richly forested region into a lunar like dead surface. Life has since begun to return to the mountain. But the mountain is very much active even today. St Helens remained pretty much dormant from 1980 until about 2004 when once again it shook to life, this time with steam and ash eruptions. Today the mountain is highly active with sporadic ash eruptions and almost continuous steam eruptions.

I had visited the mountain last year during the eruptions, in fact I was at the Johnston observatory when it was evacuated and closed. It has recently been reopened again. I visited St. Helens again this January and it was still steaming. In fact today morning there was a small ash eruption and steam eruptions continued throughout the day. We went to the windy ridge viewpoint today. You can also see the live Mount St. Helens web-cam here.

The photographs showing the comparison before and after the 1980 eruption have been taken from USGS/CVO archives.

Gene Transfer from Bacteria to Plants : Genetic Engineering in Nature

Agrobacterium tumefaciens, a common soil bacterium causes the destructive plant disease, crown gall, characterized by the formation of tumorus overgrowths at the site of infection. These overgrowths result from the transfer of DNA and proteins from Agrobacterium into plant cells where the DNA is integrated into the plant genome, and expressed, leading to the synthesis of plant growth regulators and food for the bacteria. This transfer of DNA from a prokaryote to a eukaryote is the only recognized natural example of trans-kingdom gene transfer. Indeed, most tobacco plants contain Agrobacterium genes that resulted from an infection in the distant past. Interestingly, the transfer mechanism used by Agrobacterium is common to the mechanism used by many human pathogens to transfer proteins into human cells, thereby causing disease. This natural genetic engineer has been exploited to genetically transform agriculturally important plants to confer resistance to a wide range of harmful pests, such as insects and viruses, as well as to herbicides. Agrobacterium can transfer DNA into many other eukaryotes including algae, fungi and human cells in the laboratory. Other bacteria, besides Agrobacterium are now being developed to genetically engineer plants and other organisms. What many biologists once thought could never happen in Nature is, in fact, a rather common occurrence and its mechanism is far more interesting than was ever envisioned.

Summary of talk by Dr.Eugene Nester at the University of Washington science colloquium.

Harry Potter

Atlast ...the sixth book in the series Harry Potter and the half blood prince is out. I finished reading it (yes...i am harry potter fan). I guess the story gets more exciting , but I liked the first three books more.

Lazy weekend

Monday...and back to work...this weekend was really slow...overcast and dull weather... atleast i got some work done...watched "Batman Begins" on saturday...found it ok...i liked the joker one better.

Freedom :- By Vinit Ogale

A look at Freedom :- Vinit Ogale

What is freedom ? The right to be free, the state of being free ? Which of course forces us to ask free from what ? As we think about it, it suddenly dawns upon us that freedom is not really easy to understand, much less define. On looking up its definition we see that freedom is "liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another". So is that really freedom? Who then truly is free? Is freedom then just another yard spun old wives tale. No, it is not so. Is your freedom so fragile that it can be shattered into a million pieces by simple act of restraint. Do you rob you child of its freedom when you force him to eat spinach at dinner.
The true meaning of freedom, I believe is simply the power to think. No man, beast or machine can ever strip you of your freedom. Each and every person has within him the power to free himself. Placing someone in a cell can never imprison his mind. Covering his eyes can not curtail his sight. But convince him to stop thinking and you have imprisoned him for eternity.
This leads us to religion and religious instruction. So often, we see around us, someone saying that earth is flat, pigs can fly and not going to church is heretic. Do they stop and think "Why?". Of course, they say,because the orange catholic vedas or the Dela Lama says so. Please understand here that I am not attacking what the orange vedas or Dela Lama says. In fact I hold both in high regard because they like all free people represent and embody independent thought. But the written word no matter how ancient or widely accepted can never replace what you think. If you read something and agree with it then you still remain free. But once you start justifying your actions by resting on the orange catholic vedas and not the pillars of independent thought, you throw away your priceless freedom just so that you no longer need to take the effort to think.