Messi at WC 2010

Not being a particular fan of football or the FIFA world cup, I’m now a convert. My reasons are voiced lucidly by tbray’s take on it:

..The sense of occasion, and the widespread joy it brings to so many around the world. Something that causes this much intense shared feeling just can’t be a bad thing. On balance, I’d say the World Cup is one of the good things about being a member of Homo sapiens.

Wavin’ Flag

I love the song. It is uplifting, and the choice of the song is courageous. These times are well known for political correctness, so the choice of a song on “Freedom” at the world stage is good.

However, the spirits came down a bit when I looked in the history of the song. Wavin’ Flag was originally released in March ’09. The song is powerful, and the lyrics hard hitting. Excerpts :

Born to a throne, stronger than Rome
But Violent prone, poor people zone
But it’s my home, all I have known
Where I got grown, streets we would roam

So we struggling, fighting to eat and
We wondering when we’ll be free

Read it in it’s entirety here. I was saddened to learn Coca-Cola, who selected the song as the WC anthem got rid of the “darker lyrics”. The PR blurb is :

It’s about the one time that we all get together and the world forgets its conflict and its problems and we focus on this unity and celebration. That moment is connected now to ‘Wavin’ Flag.

I thought Coca-Cola missed the mark here. Selecting the original song for all of it’s power would’ve been a better choice. Acknowledging, rather than setting aside, these “dark” issues would’ve been the bolder thing to do. Hear the actual song, and compare it with the “Celebration Mix”.

Of course Fifa and K’Naan are all happy with this. Who am I to complain!? I do wonder what N.Korea, China, etc think of the song.

The Games

• The refereeing has been silly in many games. Not sure if this is the norm.
• Messi is sublime with his tackling. Deservedly the best player in the world right now. The Sachin of football right now (or Federer.. take your pick).
• Spain looks in very good form. They get a lot of hits on goal, but fail to convert. If this improves, they are at the top of my list to win the cup.
• Argentina at the top of that list as well.
• Cristiano Ronaldo seems to be the only one in Portugal with some flair. Their match against Brazil dragged.
• USA/Slovakia/Ivory Coast showed guts. Bravo.

Other Notes

• Shakira’s moves! Waka Waka is one hell of a catchy tune!
• Is the reason to not use TV cameras to help referee decisions idealistic? I hate watching bad actors getting fouls their way, and blatant offenses go unnoticed.
• I also hate the delaying tactics by the winning team during the last minutes of the match. Are you that scared?
• Nice to see Italy go! Their sportsmanship from last WC still has a bad taste.
• Give more red cards to intentional tripping of attackers. Encourage good football.

India?

Which brings me to the end of the post. When will this country with 1/6th the population of the world produce a dozen good footballers?! I like all the hype behind football right now. It gets pages of newsprint, compared to cricket’s quarter page. I hope this is not a passing fancy with the game, but rather reflects the birth of interest in a non-cricket game. We sorely need it.

Falcon 9 Maiden launch

About a couple years ago, in an argument on space and science, I took the position that the government should invest more in science, and space travel. I lost the debate.. the government has no business using public funds for endeavours like these, and that it’s only true calling should be maintaining liberty. Everything else would follow.

I’ve since watched the evolution of SpaceX, through it’s many failures, rallied on by  it’s gritty founder and chief Elon Musk.

“We’re not going to cut and run if we have a few issues. We’re not going to cut and run if we have a lot of issues. We’re going to see this through.”

Elon’s been called “a Renaissance man in an era that needs them.”. Read a very-well written profile of him at GQ.

Yesterday, SpaceX successfully launched it’s indigenously built Falcon 9 into orbit.

Congratulations, Elon Musk. Many more successes to you.

Unnecessary Detail?

Are special keyboards made for “naughty” kids? Is there a discount?

As I stepped out, a vegetable-seller was going past in his cycle. A bamboo container filled with cabbages was placed behind the bicycle seat.

He motioned to me.. asking if I wanted to buy cabbages. I shook my head. He continued looking (perhaps pleadingly, but he had a face that suggested he was always in this state).. and asked if he could speak. I went to him.

“Kannada baratta”, he asked. (“Do you speak Kannada”)
“Swalpa”, I replied (“Yes, a little”)
“Do you speak English”
“Yes”
“I need help with my daughters’ education”

I shrunk back. This is one of those money grabbing stunts, I thought. Something else told me to continue listening, and not walk away. He pulled out a sheet of paper.. it had a list of textbooks and authors.

“She got 92% in her finals.. and is now preparing for her MBA”. I don’t exactly recall what he said next, except that it was genuine pleading (atleast sounded genuine). The gist was that he needed help with getting those books for her daughter.

What struck me most was his English. I have friends who abuse the language and grammar, what is termed locally as Hinglish (a mixture of Hindi and English). Yet this wretched man seemed to speak in an almost perfect grammar. He didn’t use big words, but what he said was simple and correct.

I now looked at the numbers on the list.. books listed at 275, 300, 150. The college asked for the “latest editions”, he said. This could be construed to mean he’d rather have cash, than the books themselves, in case I had any. But having experienced this “latest edition” gimmick in college myself, I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

The suspicion that I was being suckered never fully left me as I stood there listening to him. Perhaps the previous experienced with being cheated still left a bad taste.

Then I mulled, So what if I was being tricked. The man stood there.. in worn-out clothes. He was educated (by his good English). He was going from door to door, on a dilapidated cycle, trying to trick people by pretending to be a cabbage seller. Isn’t that a bad enough state to be in? To be forced to seek charity as a way of life. Where begging, rather than being a state of last resort, is instead the common state.

I’d decided to give him 100 Rs (I spend that on coffee with friends). He didn’t thank me.. but said something else. I think it was in Kannada, to the effect “can it be 200?”, but I’m not sure. I answered “Sorry, that’s it”. His expression said “Thank you”. He handed me a cabbage. We both knew that was not a fair trade. Was it a gesture of thanks, or simply a ploy to convert the act that took place from charity to a trade. What misery was his, to be put in such a position?

I refused the cabbage, asking him to keep it. He cycled forward, looking for the next person to sell to. I went back into the office, back to being concerned about the summer heat.

Shadow of the rings

The cool thing about this particular picture is not the big shadow running down on the rings. It’s the shadow of the smaller particles that form the white ring towards the center.. if you notice closely, thay cast a shadow on the next set of rings.

Watch the entire series of images here.

On a related note, I’m reading Arthur C Clarke’s Rama series..

Pawfaliki

This wiki package is under 50 kb in size, has an easy to use wiki syntax, is CSS based, and has a very cool dark look. It matched my needs almost perfectly.

Test it out at www.pawfal.org

Fancy URLs

One minor nit I had was how the URL looked.. for example the About page would look like

http://www.pawfal.org/index.php?page=About

rather than a nice wiki like

http://www.pawfal.org/About

So like any good FOSS denizen, I went ahead and implemented small changes for this. Get the modified sources: pawfaliki052-modified.tar.gz

If you’d like to see the changes, get the diff for the original package at this bug I raised. (Note, I’ve renamed pawfaliki.php to index.php, and added a .htaccess file). The changes would go in if theres another release (the last one was a while back).

So there. Give this very small wiki package a try.

I came across this page with astonishing pictures of Antarctica, on the Big Picture

The Commonwealth Glacier in the Transantarctic Mountains

an Iceberg

And, by far my favourite, this picture of an ice carved cave, titled “Ice Tunnel”

"Ice Tunnel" by Brooks de Wetter-Smith

Go take a look at the whole series.. the cold, dark, brooding, star-filled, aurora clothed, ice-covered continent will take your breath away.

And to plan your future travel, IAATO is a good place to star.

Thats it for now.. we should be getting some pictures of our natural satellite from our man-made satellite soon.. will blog then.