Friday, May 19, 2006

 

007


Casino Royale


M: This may be too much for a blunt instrument to understand
Any thug can kill.
I want you to take your ego out of the equation

Bond: So you want me to be half monk half hitman?

M: I knew it was too early to promote you

Bond: One understands double o's (00) have a very short life expectancy.

Bond is back...

Monday, May 15, 2006

 

Shaastra 2006 video

shaastra is the annual technical fest of our college. It is the first ISO certified technical festival in India. It is one of the tech fests which, I believe one should participate at least once in his life time. Its simply worth it! You get lots of prizes in case you win some event. Prizes include cash prizes of the order of 6000-8000 Rs, goodies of the kind iPod, Bike, Internships in prestigious firms such as ge etc. Moreover you get to listen to some great techies and entreprenuers sharing their experience, you listen to a lot of technological happenings through out the world, you listen to nobel laureates through video conferences etc. You also can participate in lot of events such as robotics, programming contest, software/hardware design, quizzes, how things work, Make things work, Rocketry etc. You can attend workshops on latest happenings in technology and management.

If one feel his/her head is too much bogged down with tech, you can take a break, and participate in events such as gamedrome, where you compete on games such as counter strike, quake, aoe etc. or you can participate in ignobel paper presentation or read the newsletter that is very nice. In the evenings, you can watch a few sci fi movies as well.

Its real fun, and more importantly, you learn a lot. So, come be a part of shaastra if you still are in college.

Here is the promo video of shaastra 06, enjoy! And don't count on me because, I am passing out this year :D

Saturday, May 13, 2006

 

Go Gatlin!


Yesterday in the IAAF Super tour meeting in Doha, US Sprinter, the current Olympic and World Champion Justin Gatlin shattered the record set by Jamaica's Asafa Powell last year. The new timing of 9.76 seconds is 1/100th of a second faster than the previous record.

Amazing isn't it? I have been wondering how low will the record go. There is an article by Steve Cram in BBC on this.

Cram says "In fact, both of them have said they are capable of taking the world record down to 9.70."

Wow! I can't even think about it!


Anyways, as both Powell and Gatlin are contemporaries, we are all set to watch a tough clash between the two speedsters and many more making and breaking of records in the years to come.

Leaving aside the drug issues (Of course it is a very serious one, but I cannot do much about it :P), I respect the two sprinters as their feat is something that cannot be emulate by us.

When we look back and contemplate about our life, and look forward to shaping the future, the best examples to follow are those of these athletes. Their dedication and determination are something that makes them special. Think about the time they spend on practice, nets etc. and the discipline they follow on their daily diet and routines. All these restrictions are aimed at name, fame and ultimately, glory. They duly deserve what they get.

On the other hand, there are the likes of Ben Johnson who tries to take the shorter way in, and their careers are shattered. This shows that there is no substitute to hardwork, and shortcuts are not always the right thing to do.

I bow to these atheletes. (Hope these guys are clean, but :P)

Here is my post last year, when Powell broke the record set by Tim Montgomerie. Least I knew then about Justin Gatlin.

Jamaican Asafa Powell has clocked a new world record timing of 9.77 seconds for 100 meters record on 14/06/05. He broke the three-year-old record of Tim Montgomerie (9.78 seconds). It’s really amazing to know the speed of these people for 100 meters. The average speed of Powell is calculated to be 36.84 kmph!

Yesterday I was jogging as usual on the treadmill. I am not claiming that I am a great sprinter; in fact I know I am pathetic when it comes to sprinting. I found it so difficult to clock even 18 kmph, i.e. half of the speed at which Powell ran. The guy is only 22 and he is on the top of this world! Hope he will be able to better his own record.

Speaking of world records, I was wondering about the maximum speed at which a human can run! In 1996, when Donovan Bailley of Canada clocked 9.84 seconds (well that’s the first world record feat I remember). I thought no body would be able to break that record. But in 1999, came “the American Express” Maurice Greene. He bettered the record of Bailley by a mammoth (hmmm.. for sprinting this is a huge margin) 0.05 seconds. I thought this would be the limit…

Again the record was shattered. In comes Montgomerie in 2002 with 9.78. He was on his dream run for the whole year, until the allegations of drugs distracted him. Now he runs as though he is in search of his lost soul :(

I am sure now that Powell has the grit and determination in him to improve his best, hopefully that happens in a couple of years… But the question here is, where is the limit? Is there any limit for the max speed that a man* can achieve. Or will there be some day when he will be running his 100 meters in say 5 seconds? God! I can’t even imagine that situation.

Here what I feel is that, after some years, the time reaches some limit, then we will be forced to go for more accurate measurements. For example, in 2020, the world record for 100 meters can be something like 9.543 seconds, where the previous record might be 9.539 seconds. That’s how I think the records will go. And I strongly believe that these records will be broken as long as there is an event called 100 meters sprint :)

So go ahead Powell… U can do it. \O/

*Man: This is because the women’s 100 m record remains unbroken for the past 15 or so years. Florence Griffith Joyner of USA, clocked the record time in 1988, I think. I really feel that there was some error in the measurement , either the clock was bugged or they forgot to calculate the wind speed, as the present women sprinters are nowhere close to that record and with the looks of it, this record is likely to remain forever.


Saturday, May 06, 2006

 

My Toast

My Hostel Rogue's gallery Pic. (The hostel nite theme was Oscar, and I am holding one. I was caught unaware in this photo!)


Here is how my friends toasted me.

Sreejith "The Stepnie"

Funda of nick: When he was an Internal Publicity Co-ordinator for Shaastra in his second year, Topa and MCP (Two Seniors) pained him to introduce his fellow girl co-ords to them. Sreejith then asks: "Why do you want them? You already have girl friends, and you want some stepnies?"

The epitome of innocence [:)], at least to those who don't know him [:(]. The guy should have been pained but was too nice to be [?]. He is probably the second most popular guy among girls in Kerala [:D, phew!], after Mohanlal [:O].

He still has his 10th class autograph book which has entried from his friends. He doesn't remember a thing about the guys in his class, but remembers every minute details about the girls [:| This was a conspiracy against me. They asked only about the whereabouts of my classmates belonging to fairer sex.]

Unconfirmed reports say that he has learnt all his biological lessons from monkeys. Once when a troop of monkeys attacked the hostel wing, and all junta were cowering in their rooms, he peeps through the window, and closely observes two monkeys making out [When? :X]

Stepnie has two faces. One, his normal cheerful nature, which is seen quite often, and the other, that of a maajor bulber. Sometimes he just takes your breath away. He may just look up at the sky, point at a plane and ask what it is (exaggerated :X). So, he is also known as Pottan. During one of Prof. X's corrosion classes, when he was talking about hydrogen damaged blow holes, Stepnie, after listening closely for half and hour, suddenly asks, "What is that blow job thing sir?
[Who said I was listening? The incident was embarassing, but :((]

You can never watch a movie with him. He always sleeps off just before the end. He has even slept during in the theatres during the movies. (True: The movie was atrocious, and the most logical thing then to do was to sleep off).

A veggie during the morning, after noon and evening, he suddenly transforms into a carnivore at night,especially during the full moon nights. (Grrr... and please don't tell my mom that I eat non veg :P)

He can be unusually pessimistic at times. During the Alumni Affairs Secretary elections (Both hostel and institute), he used to go to vibin and tell him: "Machaa, I don't think they are voting for me. I am gonna lose daa". He incidentally won both the elections. (True)

He has a fascinating choice of colors, fluorescent being his favorites (Yeah, so?)

Lately he has become very diplomatic, possibly preparing for the challenges of his office work. For this year Saarang, he was a PR coordinator for IViL. He has come up with gems such as "First we must discuss the issue and then come to a conclusion." (Hurr...what is wrong in that?)

To stepnie, our mallu boy, we toast!





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