F-WWOW

Courtesy Airliners.net, a peek at F-WWOW, the Airbus A380 that debuted on April 27, 2005.

Just like its call sign, I can only say.."WWOW" (sic).
I hope that Singapore Airlines experiences success with this aircraft, if only so Boeings domination of the big aircraft market will end. But only time will tell.

Essential Mani Ratnam

Maligned, misunderstood, revered, copied, inspired, creative, gutsy, innovative. There are many words you could use to describe Mani Ratnam and his movie-making abilities.

Here is an interesting look.

Larry O'Brien Trophy

And so we've just seen the first full weekend of the NBA playoffs 2005 completed. 16 teams, two conferences, a bevy of interesting match-ups, and a lingering conspiracy against the NBA.

Out East, the Miami Heat, Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics and the Chicago Bulls figure to win their first round series, with the Heat and Pistons having a relatively easier time against the New Jersey Nets and the Philadelphia 76'ers respectively than the Celtics against the Indiana Pacers or the Bulls against the Washington Wizards. And just from observing the Heat and Pistons, right now, thats an entertaining match-up thats also a toss-up. If they meet in the Eastern Conference Finals as they are supposed to, that should provide for some hard-hitting heavy-weight fireworks. And I am sure Shaquille O'Neal is motivated against these guys after what they did to his Los Angeles L(F)akers in last summers NBA Finals.

Out West, the Phoenix Suns managed to stave off the Memphis Grizzlies and the Sacramento Kings lost by just five to the Seattle SuperSonics, even after the Kings guard Mike Bibby kept offering the Sonics the game as a gift with his horrendous shooting performance (1-for-16). But the two upsets so far in the early goings of the first-round series happened to the San Antonio Spurs and the Dallas Mavericks. Supposed favorites to meet up in the Western Conference finals, they have a lot of work to do to even get out of the first round. Thanks to the terrible shooting by the Spurs, the Denver Nuggets stole game 1 while the Houston Rockets took one from the Mavericks again thanks to terrible shooting by the Mavs. All said, I think San Antonio will be the only higher seed to fall in the first round, leaving the door open for Phoenix to drive onto the NBA finals. As it stands, I expect Phoenix to be facing off against either the Denver Nuggets or the Seattle SuperSonics in the Western Conference finals.

Look for a Phoenix Suns vs. Detroit Pistons finals, with Phoenix taking the crown.

* If San Antonio manages to get by Denver in the first round, all bets on the Phoenix Suns are off. The Spurs are one team that the Suns do not want to face.
** All the above predictions are made after just one game of each of the first round series. And all these predictions are in blatant violation of the first rule of NBA play-off predictions.
*** That first rule is, there are really no rules to predict the outcomes of series after just one game.

Enjoy the playoffs. Unlike the NFL with its one-game knock-out, the NBA playoffs ensure that almost always, the better team advances. So, if you are not in favor of cinderallas, and would rather see grit and true talent surface, watch these NBA playoffs.

Guess Who's Coming...

...to dinner?**

Where: San Francisco, CA
Where exactly: The household of the Draytons (Matt and Christina)
When: This evening, at 6.30 pm.
Who: The Prentices (John Sr. and Mary)
Why: The Draytons' daughter Joanna and the Prentices' son Dr.John Wade are in love and plan to marry.

If life were really so simple and with such ease and without problems, there wouldn't have ever been the need for this 1967 classic.

There was just this one little problem. The Draytons were White*, the Prentices were Black*. And it was the roaring 60's, the height of the civil rights movement and race-riots.

Starring three Academy Award winners in Spencer Tracy as Matt Drayton, Katharine Hepburn (Tracy was her off-screen beau as well) as Christina Drayton and Sidney Poitier as John Wade Prentice, this movie does not even pretend against manipulating the viewers emotions. And goes the whole hog in getting the viewers to think about prejudices and bigotry and ignorance.

Dr. John Wade Prentice and Joanna Drayton met at some conference in Hawaii, and after a whirlwind romance, have fallen in love and want to marry. And they are flying down to San Francisco to meet Joanna's parents and seek their blessings. Only, he happens to be Black*, and she White*. And oh, her parents are said to the bastion of liberalism in San Francisco, her father Matt Drayton, as publisher of the newspaper Guardian, well respected in San Francisco.

What follows is the tale of this movie, how prejudices and ignorance puts the color of a person above the person itself. Even the Drayton's Black housekeeper is prejudiced against the doctor, at one point accusing him of being a fraud, saying "I dont care to see a member of my own race getting above himself".

This movie deliberately makes you examine your prejudices by eliminating any other reason to dislike John Wade Prentice. According to the notes on the inside-jacket of the DVD, the writers made the character of the doctor perfect, with the idea that if you were to disapprove it would be because of prejudice.

Contemporarily, this movie may lack the punch it definitely had back when it was released. And yet, this timeless classic serves as an excellent reminder of the follies of prejudice/hatred/bigotry. And to not let the "pigmentation problem" become an issue.

If you've not seen this yet, rent it and see it.

Personally, this movie is a favorite because of the pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, two of my fave actors in film. Poignantly enough, this happened to be Tracy's last film. He died just a couple weeks after completing this film.

* Deliberately avoided the PC terms of Caucasian and African-American.
**A big thanks to my pop for recommending this feature. Now I have the privilege of owning a copy of the DVD feature.

The ONE Campaign

♪ We are not asking for your MONEY. WE are asking for your VOICE ♪

♪♪ ...a new effort...to fight the emergency of global AIDS and extreme poverty. Each ONE of us can make a difference. Together as ONE we can change the world.

♪♪ Goals

♪♪ “WE COMMIT ourselves - one person, one voice, one vote at a time - to make a better, safer world for all.”

♪♪ Why ONE (percent)?

♪♪ Promo-video

♪♪ "One by one..,we can beat...starvation...extreme poverty...AIDS...by working together......We are not asking for your money. We are asking for your voice."

This thoughtful (and thought-provoking) campaign was on Comedy Central Sunday afternoon. Apparently this campaign has been out for a while, and they are asking for us citizens to sign a declaration of support. A declaration of support for a ONE percent increase in allocation of government funds to fight global poverty and AIDS. See Why One link above. If its successful in atleast getting the public to realize the spectre of global AIDS and poverty, this campaign would be a huge success. Hopefully it gets the Hill to provide that extra one percent to fight poverty.

Illinois' Fighting Illini

Illini a team like no other

The NCAA Basketball season has wrapped up, the Tar Heels of the University of North Carolina have been crowned the national champions (thank god that they do not call themselves the World Champions of College Basketball like their peers in the professional arena do).

The recently-ended March Madness, for all the drama and overtime games and last-minute comebacks, really fell short on one side - providing us the spectre of a grown man shedding tears. For the uninitiated, Roy Williams, the Tar Heels head-coach, is a rather emotional man and has been known to shed tears when his teams lose especially in the national title game. Anyways, that sadism aside, what this years March Madness failed to provide was the exclamation point to the spectacular season that the University of Illinois Fighting Illini team was having. They had been ranked as the best team in the nation since about December of 2004 - thats almost four straight months as the No. 1 team. They embodied team spirit to the core (cliched I agree, but this was a team that was far greater as whole than the sum of its parts). On paper, no where close to many teams on talent, but they had the "it" going for them - chemistry.

Chemistry, camaraderie, trust, team-execution, these are things that are often overlooked in team sports, especially when faced with the razzle-dazzle of superlative individual talents. Heck, NBA is caught up in its own idolatory craze, its losing sight of the fact that the league represents what is arguably the best team sport in North America (American football is a contender too, but that game is so drawn out, so stretched out, I sleep off during games sometimes). Proof of chemistry being the overridingly important factor over an assemblage of talent actually came in droves this past couple years.

Anaheim Angels of 2002, Florida Marlins of 2003, Boston RedSox of 2004, San Antonio Spurs of 2003, Detroit Pistons of 2004, New England Patriots of 2003 and 2004, University of Connecticut Huskies of 2004. Not to diminish the talent of these teams. But what put them over the top was their sheer chemistry - their ability to come together as a team.

This brings us back to the incomplete story of the 2004-5 Fighting Illini basketball team. Their ability to execute as a team, to trust each other on the floor. One play from earlier this year sums up their "team"-ness. In their Feb 23, 2005 game against Northwestern U., the Illini showed how basketball was probably meant to be played. After garnering a rebound, the Illini ran back to their offensive end, and set their play up, and ended up using the entire 35-second shot clock before making a shot. And no, unlike the selfish Kobe Bryant, they didnt just keep dribbling the ball. They passed the ball around an incredible 15 times, meaning that during that possession, all five players handled the ball an average of three times. Imagine the precision passing, the cutting, the movement without the ball. Simply wow. As one coach succintly put it, they passed up good shots to make great shots. Despite their short-comings against the Tar Heels in the championship game, this is one team, that, to me atleast will not be forgotten just because they came in second.

Environmental Heresies?

Courtesy Glenn Reynolds, via MSNBC

http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/05/issue/feature_earth.asp?p=1

"...adopted a new theory that shocked many demographers: human population is leveling off rapidly, even precipitously, in developed countries, with the rest of the world soon to follow. Most environmentalists still haven’t got the word. Worldwide, birthrates are in free fall. Around one-third of countries now have birthrates below replacement level (2.1 children per woman) and sinking. Nowhere does the downward trend show signs of leveling off. Nations already in a birth dearth crisis include Japan, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Russia—whose population is now in absolute decline and is expected to be 30 percent lower by 2050. On every part of every continent and in every culture (even Mormon), birthrates are headed down...

Apparently though, someone forgot to tell India and China :)

Interesting article talks about alternative energies to fossil fuels (nucular or nuclear energy). And as the above quote mentions, it looks at population as a problem, just not in the current contemporary shouting-yourself-hoarse rhetoric. Now before you get on my neck about how population is a menace in the developing nations, I am not talking of a short term solution and neither is the article. And the population growth rate, even in India is below 2%. What we really need, is better management (duh! isn't that the case in almost every problem?)

G.C.T.N.Y.C

The Grand Central Terminal in collage. From upper left to lower right: View of Atrium, Architecture on wall, Chandelier in waiting area, Length view of Atrium, Architecture on roof, zodiac axis representation on roof, atrium view...in a pile and in collage.

My Canadian Penny

It was probably at the local coffee shop. It was possibly at the local grocery. Heck. It might have been the liquor (& convenience) store across the street. I dont know. But one of these stores ripped me off.

A whole whopping $ 0.002. By giving me a (Queen Elizabeth) Canadian Penny instead of my favorite (Lincoln impression) American penny.

Now, who do I write to get my money back? The Federal Reserve?

Kids Say The Darndest Things

Laugh out loud books are those that make you smile and laugh (oftentimes belly laugh) even if you are reading it in public (train, bus, wherever).

And the book pictured above, qualifies heads-down amongst such books.

Selected samplings from this gem of a book by Bill Cosby.
+ "Mr. Cosby," a six-year-old once told him,"I know your wife's name."
"Really?", he said. "What is it?"
"Mrs Cosby!"

+ Art Linkletter, who preceded Cosby on this show, summed up kids thus:"..mix raw truth, incomplete knowledge, preposterous speculation and pure imagination."

+ "Do you know the story of Adam and Eve?", asked Cosby of a 6-year-old kid.
"Everyone knows that story," replied the girl.
"Well who made Adam?"
"God"
"And who made Eve?"
"Eve was made out of a rib."
"Yes, but she was made from a special kind of rib."
"A chicken rib."

+ A girl of seven on the scientific wonders to be expected in the 21st Century.
"Whats the one great thing that still needs to be invented?", Cosby asked that girl.
"A roll of toilet paper that never runs out." Go figure!

I could go on and on, but then I would run the risk of being sued by Bantam Books for copyright violation. Plus, with my humor IQ on par with that of a grumpy gorilla, I will screw it up for you. So, get out to your local book store, and plunk down $6.75 for this petite-but-worth book. A recommended MUST READ.

Now, where is that pill to abate that ache from all those belly laughs.

Houston, We've had a problem

It was 13.13 hrs in Houston on April 11, 1970. Apollo 13, bearing astronauts James Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, FL.

Two days later, on April 13, Apollo 13 would take its three occupants on the ride of their life. Almost 35 years later, especially considering the recent ill-fated Columbia space-shuttle mission, this harrowing mission and the escape of the astronauts only serves to heighten the dangers of space missions, and that further underscores the bravery, and the daring-do of the men and women involved.

### Courtesy NASA here is a report by James Lovell, one of the three.

Vertigo

Alfred Hitchcock is considered the master of suspense for a very good reason. He sustains a viewers interest throughout the movie with well placed clues and suggestions, leaving the viewer wondering what is coming.

Also, his choice of music is astounding, and the strings with their deep tones can create an atmosphere of tension and apprehension, that adds to the mysteriousness of the movies.

Add to it my personal favorite style of Hitchcock - his penchant for continual camera work. If you remember from his movies, the camera does not switch back and forth from views at a dizzying pace. Instead, they tend to gradually turn with the protagonist, or follow the protagonist or stay at a long-shot, showing the total movements of the actor in one shot.

Add to this mix, James (Jimmy) Stewart, my favorite classic actor, and you get a movie thats a classic from the get-go. And thats what Vertigo really is.

Suffice to say, our protagonist suffers from the debilitating effects of vertigo after seeing a colleague plunge to death and has to retire from the police force. He is asked by a friend to follow his wife (played by the hauntingly beautiful Kim Novak), apparently because she has been suicidal and speaks of being haunted by voices from the past. Without giving too much (or anything else) of the plot away, suffice to say that this story takes some VERY interesting turns. And the plot weaves its way to an astounding climax that just leaves you gasping.

James Stewart's portrayal of the Det. John (Scottie) Ferguson is wonderful, and his voice with its notable drawl only adds to it. Kim Novak is manages to out-act Stewart, and convincingly portrays the haunted Madeleine.

I could write more about this movie, but it will not do as much justice as watching it yourself. A must-see/must-own DVD. (and oh, the restoration of the movie into this DVD quality version is astounding.)

Typical of many classics of the 1950's and earlier period, this movie was panned by the critics, and ended up with not as much commercial success as expected. And along with the hilarious laugh-riot thats "Bringing Up Baby", this movie is now amongst the classics of that era.

Parlez-vous Français?

Now, don't let the French tell you that you don't speak any French at all.:)

+ English words of French origin
+ French phrases in use in English

With such abundant borrowing of French words by English, why learn French eh?