The Slipper Saga continues.....

It's become a bit of a fad this election season. Yes I'm talking about throwing footwear.

This afternoon, Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had a slipper hurled at him while addressing an election gathering in Channarayapatna in Hassan district.

The slipper missed its mark but fell on the stage. Chandrashekhar, a resident of Kodihalli, has been arrested by the police. Karnataka's law minister Suresh Kumar said other leaders would have forgiven similar incidents but it seems the CM decided that the police should carry out the necessary action under law to deter others. Looks like the shoe throwers' luck has just run out.

Frankly, the whole flying footwear protest thing is getting a bit boring. Think of something else guys, be innovative. ;-) Just kidding. Kids, don't try this at home (or at election rallies) :D .

Bahrain Breaks the Ferrari Jinx

The infamous record of 1980-1981 still stands for Ferrari. They'll be heaving a huge sigh of relief over at Maranello. Raikkonen took 6th today for the team (taking 3 championship points with that position) while Massa finished out of the points cursing his KERS all the while.

Brawn GP, of course have had a stupendous start this season, and they stole the show today too, with Jenson Button taking the top spot on the podium.

Mclaren's fate still remains to be seen with an FIA hearing for the team and Hamilton (yeah, and you never knew what you said was a lie, did you Mr. Hamilton, what a joke) on the 29th of April.

The funny part today was Barrichello stuck behind the Renault. He kept waving his left hand at Piquet as if he'd move over for him.

Prime Minister, have a shoe.....

About an hour back, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had a taste of the new trend. At Ahmedabad, a 28-year old computer engineer threw his shoe at the Prime Minister. But there seems to have been a wide cordon of around 20m in front of the dais, so this guy's shoe never even got close. Damn, why try if you're sure to miss.

The man has been taken away by the police and the preliminary questioning by the Crime Branch has revealed that the man just wanted some publicity (yeah right, like this was the best way to get it). Anyway, the PM has (graciously, cos its election season ;-) ) asked the police not to press charges against the man.

Still no hits, just misses.

A record Ferrari would rather not have....

One more F1 qualifying session (Bahrain) down, and the Ferrari's have got themselves in rather dismal 8th and 10th positions on the starting grid. At this rate they're looking at the worst season start they could ever have had with not a single point from the first three races.

Ferrari last failed to score points in the first three races in 1981 (and in the year before), the drivers then were Gilles Villeneuve and Didier Pironi were driving for the team, and the 3 litre 12 cylinder that they drove was in no way competitive.

Mix-ups have been plentiful this season, with Raikkonen being let out on extreme wet tyres on a bone dry track at Malaysia and a miscalculation on Ferrari's part (pure arrogance) that put Massa at 16th position on the starting grid. One need not even be reminded about last season's horrendous pitstop blunder where Massa was let go from the pits with his refuelling hose still attached.

The days of Jean Todt, Ross Brawn and Michael Schumacher's title-winning Italian machine look like they're long gone. The legendary Austrian driver, Niki Lauda, even said that this heralded a return to Ferrari's " spaghetti culture", a reference to the way in which Ferrari used to depend more on passion that performance and reliability. And the current car, the F60, has displayed neither (of the latter two). Out of the 6 times its been driven (3 races and by 2 drivers in each race), the car has retired thrice and never finished at anything better than 9th place.

Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo is flying in for the F1 Bahrain race on Sunday. But things don't look too good, what with Ferrari's F1 boss Stefano Domenicali saying, "We knew we would suffer in China, and in all probability we will be suffering again here this weekend."

A spy in the KKR Camp - A guide to his nicknaming

I suppose it's the last thing "King Khan" needs but of late, a person professing to be a player from the Kolkatta Knight Riders has been sharing inside info about the team and about the antics of other players as well as some commentators, on an anonymous blog.


The picture he paints of most people is not quite flattering (and probably very accurate). He's called his team owner "Vinnie Dildo", Sreesanth as "Appam Chutiya", Tendulkar - Little Monster, Yuvraj - Prince Charles of Patiala, Shane Warne the Sheik of Tweak with a penchant for Mammary Land, and Chris Gayle - Calypso King, Lord Almighty - Ganguly, Meera Bhai - Harbhajan, Big Sister - Shilpa Shetty, Sandy Baddy Babe - Mandira Bedi, Little John - Ishant Sharma, Bangla Tiger - Mushrafe Murtaza and Junta Tormentor - Mendis.


There's more - Kishen Kanhaiyya -- Ravi Shastri, Pedophile Priest – Gilly, Kaan Moolo – Agakar, Bhooka Naan - Buchanan, Ganji Hangar - Sanjay Bangar, BubLee- Brett Lee, Gilli Danda - Ashok Dinda, Mangal Pandey - Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Little Sister - Shamita Shetty, Phoren baba - Mccullum, Peter ka Beta / Re-peter - Peterson and a few choice ways of describing Mr. Mallya (Mr. Batlivala).

Others mentioned include:
Candy Nickle - Andy Bichel, Sheeghra Patan - Yousuf Pathan, Jesse Ryder - Bevda, Big Mac - Mathew Hayden, Chintu Singh - Anureet Singh, Joker - Meiyang Chang, Shakespeare - Akash Chopra, Ram - VVS Laxman, RDB - Randeep Bose, John Wrong - John Wright, The Baja of Baroda - Anshuman Gaekwad, Havaii Chappal - Greg Chapell.


Chatterjee Kaaku refers to The Old Guy from the Ad posted by the KKR(Kolkata Knight Riders) Team where he says ‘Tum Bhi Jeetoge’.

30-04-2009
Lady Jaya - Jayawardene
Arnold Power - Ramesh Powar
Castro - Fidel Edwards
Ghati Baba - Rohit Sharma
Aila - Sachin Tendulkar
Springbok - Morne Van Wyk
Lady Jaya - Mahela Jayawardene
Deeghra Patan - Irfan Pathan
Dewar - Rahul Dravid
Pamela Indersingh - VRV Singh
Big Brother - Raj Kundra
Babli - Preity Zinta
Aila - Tendulkar
Buddhiman Baba - Wriddhiman Saha
Sticky something - Ricky Ponting
Boy George - Joy Bhattacharya

10-05-2009
Panty Curry = Robin Uthapa
(Logic - Pandy = Pig in Coorgi, Pandy curry is the most relished food of coorgies)
Chirkut Teli = Virat Kohli
Chinnu Popli = Sreevats Goswami
Gilli Danda = Ashok Dinda
Budhimaan Baba = Wridhiman Saha
Bubaan = Arindam Ghosh
Chikna Pussy = David Hussey
Durbaan of Patiala = Tom Moody (coach of Punjab)
Vakeel Saab = Kumar Sangakkara (training to become lawyer)
Saala Slimeball = Lalit Modi
Cool Dude = M S Dhoni
Bunty = Ness Wadia (Babli's mate)


No one really knows who this person is, or whether he really exists, but it seems a bit difficult to think that every one of the scandalous encounters and events within the team and off the field he describes can be made up.

Let's see what comes of this, and I sincerely hope no one catches him. That blog is just too much fun.

If you'd like to see the Fake IPL Player's latest posts, you can find them in my bloglist on the right as well as the fake IPL player section in the left sidebar.

UPDATE(s):
I've added a more complete list of names.

5-May-09 More Names added

Poor Shah Rukh Khan has just gone back home, vowing not to return unless his team starts winning matches.

On April 30, the fake ipl player blog had this as part of an entry:
"P.P.P.P.P.S. I have decided to retire from all forms of cricket after IPL. I will disclose my identity on our last match day. "
We await eagerly for this revelation, sure to be a stunning one, if he's for real that is.

Note: The fake ipl payer blog sure has a huge fan following, in a month of blogging, the blog has nearly 4500 followers. In the end, he might not really be an IPL player....

LTTE's fight at a close?

The number of civilians having escaped from the "No Fire Zone" is at 77,793 as per reports from the Sri Lankan Army.

The fight for Tamil rights in Sri Lanka should have been peaceful, but instead it took the form of terrorism and separatism. Now it looks like the fight might be nearing an end. If the tigers sincerely claim to be interested in protecting the civilians, then why fire at those who try to escape from the NFZ of their own free will, why doesn't LTTE supremo Prabhakaran surrender and end this senseless fighting which the LTTE cannot win? Political leaders in Tamil Nadu meanwhile are trying to extract the maximum mileage from the issue.



Also, the latest news is of the surrender of the two LTTE leaders - Velayudam Thayanidhi alias Daya Master, and George - at Puthumathalan. George was the interpreter for the late political head of the LTTE, and he was apparently active in documentary work for the LTTE.

Daya Master was heavily involved in indoctrination of LTTE cadres and he was the one responsible for all the Tigers' press releases and media communiques. He was essentially the spokesman and media head of the organisation (picture above).

The (slipper) onslaught continues...

And the latest victim of the footwear frenzy is Jeetendra, the actor, who was campaigning for the Congress in Maharashtra.

On the 21st of April, Jeetendra was at a Congress road show in the town of Nandurbar, when he was at the receiving end of a slipper flying through the air which fortunately (or unfortunately) MISSED!!!!! The thrower, Dilip Ingle, was set upon by party workers, though no case was booked against him.

But its not just footwear being thrown around, biriyani is making the rounds too. A food packet (allegedly containing the above mentioned delicacy) was thrown at Congress MP Shantaram Naik, on Apil 19th, while he was at a rally at Curchorem town in Goa. The packet was thrown by Rama Gauns Desai, a party worker of the Congress, who then shouted at Naik "You all are liars", in Konkani. He was arrested and a case was registered against him, though Naik said the man might have been upset when Naik hadn't showed up at an event that Desai had invited him to.

Sorry about the late post, but my net connection was down for a day or two.

Overhaulin'

Nothing is permanent but change.... And so, you might observe that the blog has changed a great deal from when you last visited. I tried changing it to a 3-column template, and then my friend Avinash suggested that instead of me messing up my blog, he'd do it for me. So he spent several hours rewriting the template for the blog, and he's done a really wonderful job. If it weren't for him, I'd have gone mad with CSS and XML. Thank God, and a BIG THANK YOU to him. This is the same guy who's blog I'd written about a few posts earlier. Thanks Avinash!!

So after he had his way with it, I've been adding some of the old widgets back while omitting some of the widgets that might be too heavy for users on slower connections, like the Finetune Radio and the Freedom Fighters soundtrack for Star Trek's trailer. And I've added new ones like the RSS feeds for Top Gear's Car News, and the front page from BBC News, a national geographic photo widget, a customised google search option for my page, as well as implemented adSense.

Besides all this there are two major changes when you click on a blog post. Yes, when you click on a blog post it goes to the post's individual page. Once you're there and you've finished reading it, you'll now see a "Related Posts" list at the bottom, so that you can continue reading further with some related topic. Besides this I've also added an embedded comment form on the post's individual page which lets you comment without having to open an all-new page for the purpose.

Oh, and all you lazy people, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE leave a few comments and suggestions, just takes you a minute or two of your time. And do use the options for choosing whether an article is funny or interesting or cool below each post....

And if you want any music running in the background, you can click the blue last.fm radio button in the right sidebar (nothing jarring or headbanging mind you). I've set it such that it no longer starts automatically when the site loads.

Thanks again to anyone who reads this and to Avinash for helping me out big-time.....

A successful launch - and a first among Indian Universities :D

Here's a PTI report on the launch of India's RISAT-2 and AnuSat. The RISAT-2 has an Israeli built module that apparently gives it an extremely high resolution eye-in-the-sky capability, but authorities are still denying its a spy satellite.

AnuSat is a micro-satellite that was built by the Madras Institute of Technology, a constituent college of Anna University (the guy who wrote it put in 'affiliated to' in the report, that ain't right). That's where I study and for once, I'm proud of it!!! Three cheers to the students and professors who put their heart and soul in the project.

At the end of the article I've put in a video of ISRO Chairman, Madhavan Nair, speaking after the launch.

RISAT and ANUSAT satellites placed in orbit

Press Trust of India / Sriharikota (ap) April 20, 2009, 11:58 IST

Aiming to bolster India's defence surveillance capabilities, ISRO today successfully launched its first all-weather spy satellite that will help security agencies keep a watch on the movements on the borders, from its spaceport here.

The PSLV-C12, carrying 300-kg Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-2) and 40-kg micro educational satellite ANUSAT lifted off from ISRO's Satish Dhawan space Centre here at 6:45 am and placed into 550 km orbit around earth.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, weighing 230 tonnes at the time of launch, soared into a clear sky from the spaceport here, about 90 km north of Chennai.

At the end of the 48-hour countdown, the 44-meter tall four-stage PSLV-C12 blasted off from the second launch pad with the ignition of the core first stage.

RISAT has all-weather capability to take images of the Earth and would also be beneficial in mapping and managing natural disasters, such as floods and landslides, besides amplifying defence surveillance capabilities of the nation. It would also help keep track of ships at seat that could pose a threat.

As per specifications, RISAT is different from previous remote sensing satellites as it uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), equipped with many antennas to receive signals that are processed into high-resolution pictures.

The 40 kg micro satellite ANUSAT, the co-passenger of RISAT 2, has been built by Anna University, to demonstrate the technologies related to message store and forward operations.

ANUSAT, the first built by an Indian University, is a 'store-and-forward' communication satellite that will help transfer confidential academic material and also monitor drought and wasteland, urban planning and other studies.

RISAT2 has a lifespan of three years and ANUSAT, one year.

Different from previous remote sensing satellites, RISAT2 uses Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), equipped with many antennas, to receive signals which are processed into high-resolution pictures.

The SAR, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries, equips RISAT with defence capabilities. The SAR payload can take images during day, night and in all weather conditions, including under cloud cover, a capability that Indian satellites do not have.

Nair said ISRO has "big goals" to achieve this year, referring to the line up of ISRO launches. "All this put together... It is going to be almost like the fireworks season at Sriharikota."

Today's is the 15th flight of PSLV, which has so far launched 30 satellites-- 14 for India and 16 for foreign countries -- since 1993.

PSLV had also launched the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft on October 22 last year.

Blogs and Tags - Avinash's Blog

All bloggers have one goal in common - to expand their subscriber base. Here are a few ways I have discovered that might benefit fellow bloggers :

One feature that should be abused to the maximum is the tags option in the various blogs. This is because most ...... Continue Reading...

A blog to watch out for...

A very good friend of mine has started down the blogging path.

He's quite a geek when it comes to the internet, tech stuff and computer security. And he's a total nut case like me. So take a look at his blog via this link. He's put up a whole bunch of awesome pictures that he took in San Diego. Ask him for higher resolution versions of the same if you want, he'll oblige. And any programming / network security / web-page building / hosting queries, he's the one to ask.



The blog has started off with the aforementioned pictures and an article on Meta Tags (useful for bloggers mind you). I'll be linking to his articles too as they come up on his site right from my page from now on.

Obama's a terrorist now?? - yes if you're Advani

In a rather silly slip of tongue, Mr.Advani found himself saying that the US had realised that even "Obama Bin Laden" had a safe place to stash his funds. He went on with his speech without a pause though. This is why one shouldn't get other people to write your speech (especially a BJP Task Force on illegal money ;-) ). And if you do, please do give it a read before you get on stage. If you still get it wrong, I suppose you need better glasses.

A few minutes later, an aide passed a bit of paper to the BJP's prime ministerial candidate who corrected himself, "I have been told that I have just made a mistake". (He hadn't realised it till then? Yeah, right).

Advani was speaking at a press conference in Mumbai on April 17th when the above events occurred.
Enjoy the video:

Let the shoes fly..... LATEST "ATTACK"

Last week I asked - who's next???


Today, my question finds an answer. None other than the saffron party BJP's prime ministerial candidate, L.K. Advani. The flying-footwear fiesta's latest victim had just got on stage at a rally in Katni in Madhya Pradesh, when a slipper was thrown at him.

Amazingly, the thrower was the ex-Katni District President of the BJP, Pavas Agarwal.
Apparently, the man was miffed at the way he'd been left on the sidelines thanks to some things that had been happening within the party. He found himself led backstage and escorted away by the police.

And yes, he missed again. SIGH.......

This is my fourth consecutive post relating to shoes being thrown at politicians. Let's see how many more will follow, what with the trend being quite a rage among the people :D .....




So, considering the shoe throws I've mentioned over past weeks, the latest SCORE :

SHOTS - 5 ( 2 shoes thrown at Bush, but it counts as 1)
SHOTS ON GOAL - 2
HITS - 0
Accuracy - 40%

A lesser-known throw

While we're all on the topic of shoe-throwing, there's a lesser known (and heavily censored in China) throw that slipped past a bit unnoticed.

The Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was on a three-day visit to the UK and he had signed several trade agreements with the British PM Gordon Brown. The incident occurred during his speech at the University of Cambridge to a select group of students (mainly Chinese). As you can see in the videos below, a man with a German accent stood up at the back of the audience and shouted, “How can the university prostitute itself with this dictator?”

While he continued, “How can you listen to these lies?”, security guards converged on him. Before they could get him though, he let fly a heavy grey trainer. It landed a few feet away from Wen. (Damn it, missed the politician AGAIN!!!)

Police in Cambridge said that a 27-year-old man, Martin Jahnke (a German national) had been charged with a public order offence and would appear in court the next week and he faced a maximum fine of 5000 pounds and six months in prison if convicted.

The audience shouted at the man "Get out", "Shame on you" while Jahnke was led away. Do note, the audience was mainly of Chinese origin. Mr. Wen however merely termed the incident as "despicable". He later urged leniency for the man who'd thrown the shoe.

A demonstrator also threw an egg when the premier arrived for an engagement in London at the weekend. I couldn't find a video of the egg though.

Check out the videos of the shoe-throw below:


Wen Jiabao's reaction to the throw - doesn't show the shoe, but you can hear it when it hits.



This video shows you the protester shouting at the Chinese Premier and being escorted out of the hall.

UPDATE: Another miss..... Damn it!!!

A few days ago Jarnail Singh's shoe flew past Home Minister Chidambaram's bemused face. Today, another brave soul named Raj Pallet fly a shoe at Navin Jindal, while he was campaigning in Kurukshetra. The 65-year old retired School Principal who took the shot missed, but the police didn't quite let him go. Apparently the old man was pissed off at the Congress government's policies. Add to that his son allegedly losing a job at Kurukshetra university when the Congress came to power.

Navin Jindal's in a forgiving mood, but the police have booked him for public misbehaviour under the influence of alcohol.

The miss can be excused though, because the poor man was drunk. Oh, if only he'd been sober.....

So many rallies, so many meetings, so many opportunities left before election day. What I want to know is ....... Who's next??!!!

Of journalists, footwear and politicians....

What drives some journalists to show throes I wonder? Perhaps its the new 'in-thing'....

Today, Jarnail Singh of Dainik Jagran decided to give it a shot (quite literally) at the Indian Home Minister Mr.P.Chidambaram. He was asking the minister a question about Jagdish Tytler (a Congress leader allegedly involved in the anti-Sikh riots) who had been given a clean chit of late. In the words of Jarnail Singh himself, what he (Mr. Singh) did was perhaps not the right way to go about a protest. The Congress and the Government have decided not to press any charges against him, so he's been let off. Here's a video of the incident. Just look at the expression on Chidambaram's face. Priceless!!




If you're looking for the guy who started this novel (and rather funny method) of protest - you'll find the video below. This of course is the Iraqi shoe-thrower, Mr. al-Zaidi. In the middle of the news conference, (a royally pissed-off) Iraqi television journalist Muntadar al-Zaidi stood up and shouted "this is a goodbye kiss from the Iraqi people, dog,", hurled one shoe and then followed it up with "This is for the widows and orphans and all those killed in Iraq." before hurling another size-10 at (then) American President George W. Bush. And boy, what an awesome throw. And George Bush's first dodge was like Keanu Reeves from the Matrix. Cool!




Doesn't quite appear to be too effective though, given that:
1. Neither thrower has hit their target.
2. Though Mr. Singh was let off lightly, al-Zaidi was handed a 3-year jail sentence.

Lets wait till reporters of the fairer sex take this up as a hobby, then it'll be high heels ...... ouch!!! When that happens, I sure wouldn't want to be in any world leaders' shoes (no pun intended).
One thing that bugs me, though. Why do these guys always miss ;-) ?