So true..

"Oppositions never win. Governments lose!"
Not sure who said this first but heard it from Hon.David Hawker, Speaker, House of Reps, Australia.

Biocosmology = Reading God's mind

Charley Lineweaver's talk on biocosmology started with asking the audience if physics has anything to do with 'life'. Biology is often referred to as the 'life science'. Establishing the link between astrophysics or to be specific - cosmology and life is not easy. The real and complete theory of evolution must start right from the beginning. Beginning is known as 'Big Bang' in astrophysics. To understand 'life' one needs to appreciate what type of life is being talked about. Settling on a common theme for life, Charley presented a 'recipe for life':
Recipe ::
-presence of Hydrogen and Helium
-star formation
-possible star death/ explosion (supernova)
-accretion of debris (from star death) to form star and planets (note: debris must contain considerable quantities of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen, though we started out with only Hydrogen and Helium)
-planet must lie in 'habitable zone' (water-sustainable, as our known life forms depend largely on water)
-now, we don't want star explosions nearby
-with time, we might need some meteorites with carbon/ metals (sulphur/ phosphorus) to strike planet
-planet to form core, mantle and crust
-gases from mantle/ core to evaporate and escape but not all
-some gases get held by planet's gravity and form atmosphere
-lightning in atmosphere sparks amino acid formation
-life as we know it
P.S: Never did say it would be easy..

Hypocrite called Hayden

Matthew Hayden has every reason to complain. He has been overlooked for a spot in the ODI team by a rank under-performer in Damien Martyn. To add salt to injury, his opening slot in the ODI team is held by Simon Katich who is clearly out of place in the team (and international cricket).
But his outrage at pitch repairing or tampering in RSA is laughable as he was part of the team that was involved in this controversy.

L,R and W # 1

Listening, Reading and Watching..

Listening to - Beethoven Symphony # 9 in D
Reading -
Watching - Love me if you dare

Political arithmetic - 2

The AIADMK's seat-allocation has been announced. The 'equation' is given here.
Jayalalitha, incumbent CM, will contest from Andipatti. Last time elections were held here, the situation was quite different. The then-current MLA from Andipatti - Thanga Thamilselvan resigned so that Jayalalitha could get elected and become the Chief Minister.
The significance of Andipatti (in political terms) is that it was MGR's constituency and the nostalgia has been sustained since then. Loyalty is a major factor and the extra mile that the AIADMK MPs and MLAs go to make sure their leader gets elected will make this one a no-contest.

Update::
List of other AIADMK candidates are given here.

Practical love

I propose an alternative to everyone who does not want to believe in *true love*.. I give you - Practical love. Does you life get so hectic that you can't spend every living moment thinking about your beloved one? For those who still crave takeaway dinners and watching a DVD.. but can not be bothered with flowers and choclates..
get some PRACTICAL LOVE..

New beginnings..

Are new beginnings ever possible? As a concept, will they work?

Can anyone start completely anew, whilst still being a part of many other processes in life? Is it flawed to think of new perspectives without being judgemental of it? I think being 23 years old is not an easy task. My opinions are becoming rather firm. It's difficult to stay open to fresh ideas all the time, as there is a tendency to stick with 'what works'. So when I plan to make a new beginnings, there are many hurdles. Hurdles of 'old processes' and routines. Breaking out of this pattern is what I'm interested in..

Political arithmetic

DPA's seat-sharing has been decided. Still working out their arrangements are :
- AIADMK + MDMK + DPI combine
- BJP (who are going at it alone, but will only contest a few seats)
- DMDK Vijayakanth's political party (rumoured to contest all seats)
- Thindivanam Ramamurthy's breakaway Congress group

Knowlwdge is power..

An ABC broadcast on India tells us why there are one billions reasons to care.

Mr.Nice-Guys or why NZ won't win the CWC '07

Thank God for New Zealand's all compassionate cricketing samaritans. The world would be so worse off without these wonderful, caring gentlemen of highest calibre.
Scott Styris, "He[Shane Bond]'s trying to hit him [while bowling, presumably] but he's not trying to knock the guy out and if he does hit him then he is looking to see if he is okay."

Why Australia will not win Cricket World Cup 2007 - 1

Damien Martyn expresses 'amazement' at being selected in the Australian cricket test team after a mediocre performance at Ashes 2005, where he scored 178 runs at 19.77. Martyn's supporters believe that he was made scapegoat for the Ashes defeat but his performance in one-dayers since Ashes 2005 are summarised below (courtesy: Cricinfo Statsguru). He has averaged 32.53 in that period which is 7.5 lower than his career average of 40, considered the benchmark for a top-order batsman.

Statsguru - DR Martyn - ODIs - Innings by innings list

DR Martyn (Damien Martyn) [Player Page] - RHB; RM
Born: 1971-10-21 (present age: 34y 137d)

Filter: in matches that started after 2005-07-08.

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                     Mat  Runs  HS   BatAv 100  50   W    BB  BowlAv 5w  Ct St

filtered              19   488  79   32.53   0   4   -   -       -    -   7  0