San Marino 2006 GP Winners/Losers

Winners

1. MS. A great race to hold back Alonso. Similar to what Alonso did last year. However, Alonso only held MS back after the final pitstop last year whereas this year it was for almost half the race. It would have been interesting to see if MS could hold Alonso back in some other circuit. He has held other drivers before, notably Ralf in Brazil a few years ago and Hakkinen in Sepang. My money would still be on MS holding Alonso back in most other circuits.
2. Alonso. 36 out of the maximum 40 in the first 4 races is pretty awesome. He leads MS by 15 points and there are 14 races to go. There is no doubt that Alonso will win a few more races this season, and the lead will increase. A repeat of 2005 perhaps
3. JPM. A quiet race. Bit lucky that Honda screwed up badly with Button's car, otherwise, it might have gotten interesting
4. Webber. Good job to get into the points. Score 1 more for Williams over BMW. Plus a huge gap between him and Rosberg on a circuit that Rosberg has driven before.
5. Bridgestone. Stronger result with 4 drivers in the top 10. All those test miles in Europe will definitely help.

Losers

1. KR. Looked off-colour all weekend. Was stuck behind Webber for 1 half of the race and then behind Massa towards the end. Overall, 5th is not too good. It looks likely that this is beginning of the end for Raikkonen's term at McLaren.
2. Honda. Really screwed up pitstops. The problem with RB was bad enough but the screwup on Button cost them quite a few points. This is especially irritating, given that JB pulled out the road and DNF'd in Aus. The hope was that he would challenge for a podium (win looked unlikely to me) and make up for that loss. They seem to qualify well and fall back in the race.
3. BMW. Was nowhere in the picture. With Heidfeld indisposed, it didn't look too good for them
4. Ide. First mistake - tipping over Albers. Innumerable others - holding back front runners
5. Overtaking. RIP in this race.

Myopic view of f1, formula1, sanmarino, 2006, winners, losers

Injudicious colonial hangover

The Times of India reports that the High Court and Supreme Court judges no longer have to be addresses as "My Lord" or "Your Lordship". Instead they will now be addressed as "Your Honour". In the lower courts, just a succient "Sir" would do. link.

Couple of other silly things from the past are still prevalent.

1. The whole concept of a summer vacation is rubbish. Why on earth should the highest court in the land go on holiday? Does that mean that justice is ignored for that time? I would think that the system came into place during the British Raj, when most judges were British. Given the difference in climate between the UK and India, it made sense to have a summer holiday to escape the heat, esp. if you weren't used to it. In modern times, this makes no sense. The summer holidays can be seen here.
   
2. Blacks Robes are next on the list. Why do we need them? I agree that there is no way that you would trust a lawyer or a doctor who is not dress formally. So, let the lawyers be allowed to just dress in formal clothes. A Coat and Tie should suffice. link.
   

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Baseball Explained

Cricinfo has an article that explains cricket from a baseball point of view. link. The article suggests that it is from an "American" point of view, but the correct terminology would be from a Baseball point of view.

Ian Chappell used to play both cricket and baseball, though he's more famous for playing cricket. Apparently, cricket was the summer sport and baseball the winter sport down under.

Let's see if I can explain baseball from a cricket point of view.

1. Every game has nine innings. Unlike test cricket where there are 2 innings per side, each cricket innings is called a half-innings in Baseball.
2. Like cricket there is pitcher who "pitches" the ball and a batter who tries to score a run.
   
3. There are 4 bases - 1st base, 2nd base, 3rd base and home base. If the batter hits the ball, he has to run. In case he doesn't make it to any of the bases in time, he's run out in the same fashion as cricket. Once the batter reaches a base, he can choose to stay there and the next batter comes in. This continues until the first batter goes through all the bases to reach home base. At this time a run is scored
4. If 3 batters are out then the half innings closes and the other team comes on field to bat. This continues for 9 innings and the team with the higher score wins.
5. There are no wickets in baseball, only strikes. A strike occurs when a batter swings and misses the ball. 3 strikes and the batter is out.
   
6. Unlike cricket, there are only some areas that a batter can hit the ball. In case, he hits it to an area out of bounds then the ball is called foul. 3 fouls and the batter is out
7. If the batter hits the ball outside the ground, similar to a sixer, then he gets to go around all the bases for free. This is called a home run and it earns 1 run. If there are already batters in other bases, all of them get to complete their home run and each one earns a run. If there are batters at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd bases, and the current batter hits a home run, 4 runs are scored.
8. Also unlike cricket, multiple batters can be run out at the same time. This is called double or triple play.

More information on Wikipedia.

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F1 on google calendar

One of the best ways to keep track of the F1 Season is to add the F1 Calendar to google. Google has come out with their own web based calendar and it rocks! One of the nicest feature (IMHO) is the ability to add different calendars from the net and track them side by side to your own. One of these is a nice F1 Calendar that is available here. (via)

1. Click on Manage Calendars
2. Choose Import Calendars
3. Cut and Paste this link and Voila! the 2006 calendar is added.

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RIP Dr. Rajkumar

Kannada Cinema's most cherished thespian Dr. Rajkumar, fondly called "annavaru" passed away today - April 12, 2006.

May his soul rest in peace.

Myopic view of rajkumar, karnataka

Australia 2006 GP Winners/Losers

Winners

1. Alonso. Had the speed all the time and even though KR finished less than 2 secs behind, I think that's more due to Alonso slowing down rather than KR catching up. If he really wanted to he could have finished 10-15 secs ahead
2. Ralf. A great result and that too only Bridgestone tyres. Was consistently fast throughout the weekend. 3rd place is good given the disasters in the first two races. Was the only Bridgestone runner in the top 10.
3. BMW. Double points finish. Though Williams have a faster car, its more fragile.
4. Fisi. Managed to get past Button in the most dramatic way.
   
5. RB. Finally got some points for Honda, but still has to get used to the Non-Ferrari way of doing things. Hope he can score more as the season progresses.
   

Losers

1. JPM. Spin king; not just once. The car finally decided that enough is enough!
2. Ferrari. Both drivers out during the race and it wasn't as if they were setting the track on fire at any time during the weekend.
   
3. Speed. Just a bit too anxious to get past DC and ended up being classified behind.
4. Williams. Lots of promise, but rotten reliability. I accept that they are a privateer team now and with customer engines, one doesn't expect them to dominate, but they did show some good speed

Unluckiest Soul

1. Definitely Button. 4 points would have kept him in 2nd place in the championship and one never knows how close he will be at the end of the season to Alonso :-). Nevertheless, he gets a brand new engine at San Marino and if the race has fewer safety cars, he might be able to finish on the top step.
   

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