Maria Sharapova - Super Model or Athlete?

Well, It's a new year - and Australian Open has already started.

One player who was making the headlines was Maria Sharapova. The Russian star had supposedly made history by signing the most expensive sport's contract ever!!

Nike has agreed to pay her 70 Million US$. In return, Maria will adorn the Nike dresses for 8 years. Assuming Maria will play for another 8 years - Nike get excellent visibility across the world!! Maria certainly wouldn't complain about the money!!

Makes me wonder - Is she a super model or an athlete?

Well, Nike will get maximum benefit if Maria stays for a longer time at the tournaments.

We had a surprise at the 2010 Australian Open with Maria being ousted in the first round itself!!

One thing that attracted attention - maybe more or maybe less than her loss - was her peacock dress!!

Looking at her, I found it surprising on how she actually managed to play!!

Well, with 8 more years to go, we will certainly have many more surprises!!

Solar eclipse - 15 Jan 2010

Well, a majestic astronomical event is scheduled to occur on 15th Jan 2010!!

Humble humans across some parts of the earth will be privy to witness a solar eclipse on this day - when the moon will come in between the sun and the earth - thereby casting its shadow on the earth's surface!!

Well, Eclipses do occur. But what's so special about this one?

Simply speaking - it's the longest eclipse of the entire millennium(Y2K to Y3K). Doesn't it awe you?

We can consider ourselves lucky to witness such a grand moment in our lifetime.

People across Africa, Maldives, India, Sri Lanka and China will be specially lucky - with the total eclipse being visible in some parts of these countries!!

Y2K - 10 years on

New Year 2010 is here - in just about 5 days!!

Well, this new year is special - just because it signals the end of the first decade of the 21st century!!

A little over 10 years ago, as the 21st century was about to be heralded - Y2K was the buzz word!!

Y2K was a critical computer problem - related to the fact that "years" in computer systems were stored in 2 digits. On 1 Jan 2000, the "year" was expected to roll over from 99 to 00.

With this, it was estimated that the systems would not be able to distinguish between the year 2000 and 1900. Many organizations across the world spent millions of dollars trying to fix the problem. The net result was highly successful - with very very few errors reported across the world!!

Catch all the details here!!

And one comment by Alan Greenspan in 1998 highlighted how programmers across the world underestimated their capabilities on developing long running computer systems!!

"I’m one of the culprits who created this problem. I used to write those programs back in the 1960s and 1970s, and was proud of the fact that I was able to squeeze a few elements of space out of my program by not having to put a 19 before the year. Back then, it was very important. We used to spend a lot of time running through various mathematical exercises before we started to write our programs so that they could be very clearly delimited with respect to space and the use of capacity. It never entered our minds that those programs would have lasted for more than a few years. As a consequence, they are very poorly documented. If I were to go back and look at some of the programs I wrote 30 years ago, I would have one terribly difficult time working my way through step-by-step. ”

—Alan Greenspan, 1998

What is Boxing Day??

Well, for the last 15 years - almost since the time I've known cricket - I have heard about the Boxing Day Test. The Boxing Day Test starts on the next day after Christmas.

This made me think that 26th Dec is always referred to as Boxing Day. And how wrong i was!!

Boxing Day - in the simplest terms - is the first weekday after Christmas!!

Considering this, it can either be on 26th Dec or 27th Dec or 28th Dec!!

As per Wikipedia, the name derives from the tradition of giving seasonal gifts, on the day after Christmas, to less wealthy people and social inferiors, which was later extended to various work people such as laborers and servants.

Misconstrued Laws

On Thursday 24th Dec 2009, just about every newspaper in India had a news headline declaring that Indians could now fly their National Flag even at night!!

The first two lines of the article are mentioned below

==

Indian citizens can now fly the National Flag even at night. This is subject to the condition that the flagpole is really tall and the flag itself well-illuminated.

==

This made me wonder what kind of laws are we making?

Laws which can easily be misconstrued!!!

What is the meaning of "really tall"? Is it 1 feet or 100 feet?

And what is "well-illuminated"? Illuminated with a 0 watt bulb or a 100 watt bulb?

Its high time we started making intelligent laws. Laws which have only one clear meaning. This will make our legal system more strong and prevent any misuse in the loopholes of such laws!!

Intelligent Mind

Once in a while we come across a person whose thought process is quite different from the people we meet daily.

Or many many times, the same old people think differently - making you appreciate their intelligence!!

Well, all this is linked to their mind - who at times or maybe always tries to think at a different level altogether!!

Here is one article which tries to explore this behavior. Quite interesting I would say!!

And if the article is to be believed, we can ourselves build a intelligent mind - just like we are developing a skill!!

The Russian Mentality

Heading towards Russia? Or planning to interact with the Russians?

Well, this is one article which may help you - a bit!!