Thursday, July 28, 2005

NASA grounds shuttle program again

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Florida (CNN) -- NASA has grounded its space shuttles until engineers solve the recurring problem of falling debris, NASA's mission managers said Wednesday.

Pieces of debris tore away from the shuttle Discovery during liftoff Tuesday -- despite NASA spending hundreds of millions of dollars trying to prevent a repeat of the problem that caused the 2003 Columbia disaster.

Read more

Monday, July 25, 2005

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Lance wins the time trial

A Beautiful Conclusion To A Dominant Career

There’s nothing left for Lance Armstrong to do at the Tour de France. He’s done it all but this year’s race would have seemed a little incomplete had he not won a stage on his own. Tomorrow will be the American’s last day as a professional cyclist and he’ll stand on the podium at the Champs Elysees as the only man to have won the race seven times. But today he had some business to attend to. In the race of truth he had to prove exactly why he’s The Boss of the Bunch. That’s exactly what he did.
I couldn't have put it better. Lance, thank you for everything.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Huricane Names


Atlantic Names

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Arlene
Bret
Cindy
Dennis
Emily
Franklin
Gert
Harvey
Irene
Jose
Katrina
Lee
Maria
Nate
Ophelia
Philippe
Rita
Stan
Tammy
Vince
Wilma
Alberto
Beryl
Chris
Debby
Ernesto
Florence
Gordon
Helene
Isaac
Joyce
Kirk
Leslie
Michael
Nadine
Oscar
Patty
Rafael
Sandy
Tony
Valerie
William
Andrea
Barry
Chantal
Dean
Erin
Felix
Gabrielle
Humberto
Ingrid
Jerry
Karen
Lorenzo
Melissa
Noel
Olga
Pablo
Rebekah
Sebastien
Tanya
Van
Wendy
Arthur
Bertha
Cristobal
Dolly
Edouard
Fay
Gustav
Hanna
Ike
Josephine
Kyle
Laura
Marco
Nana
Omar
Paloma
Rene
Sally
Teddy
Vicky
Wilfred
Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda
Alex
Bonnie
Colin
Danielle
Earl
Fiona
Gaston
Hermine
Igor
Julia
Karl
Lisa
Matthew
Nicole
Otto
Paula
Richard
Shary
Tomas
Virginie
Walter

Windows Longhorn is officially Windows Vista

The folks at Redmond have long pointed to the user interface of the next generation Windows release as one of its major selling points. Now, Microsoft has chosen an official name for Longhorn with just that in mind. Enter: Windows Vista.


More at http://www.betanews.com/article/Longhorn_Gets_a_Name_Windows_Vista/1122002477

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's speech to the US Congress

There is much we can accomplish together
Mr Speaker, Mr Vice President, distinguished members of the US Congress, ladies and gentlemen

I deem it a privilege to be invited to address this Joint Session of the US Congress. I thank you for the invitation. I bring you the greetings and good wishes of the people of India.India and the United States have much in common that is very important to both countries. You are the world's oldest democracy, we are its largest. Our shared commitment to democratic values and processes has been a bond that has helped us transcend differences.

Read the rest of the speech at http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/jul/19pmspeech.htm

A Brief History of Medicine

Source : Anon

2000 BC: Here, take this root.
1000 AD: That root is for a heathen. Here, say this prayer.
1850 AD: That prayer is superstition. Here, drink this potion.
1940 AD: That potion is snake oil. Here, swallow this pill.
1985 AD: That pill is ineffective. Here take this antibiotic.
2000 AD: That antibiotic is artificial. Here, eat this root.
2005 AD: That root works! Read about it on my blog!

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Obligatory 'Tour de France' Post

Lance is still in yellow (what's new, you ask)

What's new!!! Hmm.. For one, we are seeing a far more mature lance out there. He is still strong and extremely competitive but he is showing us again and again this year what a master tactician he is. 9 more days to go before we know who the winner is. Lance has a comfortable lead over all the other pre-race favorites. But, we still cannot write off basso, ullrich, kloden and vinokourov. Agreed that they haven't shown much for us to argue on their favor but I just have a gut feeling that they will not take this total domination lying down much longer. Now that the race is in the pyrenees we can definitely expect some resistance from basso and ullrich at least.

In my opinion though, LA is on his way to an unprecedented/unsurmountable(?) 7th victory barring any crashes/injuries.

Allez.. Lance.. Allez

I know the identity of the half blood prince

Dear Blog reader,
I just finished reading the Half blood Prince(HBP) . It was an interesting read from the beginning. After the first 3 chapters, I could easily see this book was definitely going to be a lot darker than any of its predecessors. And dark it was. I still cannot believe that I have been a HP fan for the last 6 years. And, so far, I have never been disappointed by JKR. After I finished reading the book, I went to mugglenet and a couple of other forums just to see what people made of 'HBP'. A lot of people were focussing on the 'death' and some were even taking it personally. However, I felt a lot like the way I felt after 'The matrix reloaded'. Too many unanswered questions. Can the next book do justice to all of them ? The Geek that I am, I enjoy this whole business of waiting for the next HP book. The countdown has already started in my mind. I hope that it is long (1000+ pgs).

Sincerely,
Your friendly neighborhood harry potter geek

Tuesday, July 12, 2005

10...9...8....7....6....

"Discovery sits at Launch Pad 39-B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, awaiting the final "go" that will send it rocketing into orbit on the first Shuttle mission in more than two years.

The seven crewmembers, led by veteran Eileen Collins, will travel to the International Space Station, testing new safety procedures and delivering supplies to the orbital outpost."

(From : http://www.nasa.gov/externalflash/rtf_front/index.html)


Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Stage 5

From the official website :

Robbie McEwen has beaten Tom Boonen to win the fifth stage by about 30cm. The radar clocked McEwen at 63km/h as he crossed the line. The top seven in the stage is:
1. Robbie McEwen (AUS - DVL)
2. Tom Boonen (BEL - QST)
3. Thor Hushovd (NOR - C.A)
4. Stuart O’Grady (AUS - COF)
5. Angelo Furlan (ITA - DOM)
6. Allan Davis (AUS - LWT)
7. Bernard Eisel (AUT - FDJ)

Earlier in the day, an interesting incident led to a small delay. LA felt that it was improper for him to be in yellow as he felt that the yellow jersey belonged to Dave Zabriskie from Team CSC. Dave crashed in the team time trial yesterday and lost the yellow to lance. However, the tour officials felt otherwise and made lance exchange his Discovery jersey for the yellow jersey.


Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Results of the Team Time Trial

The time trial (team) results are in.

The top five teams in the fourth stage from Tours to Blois are:
1. DISCOVERY CHANNEL TEAM 1h10’39"
2. TEAM CSC at 02"
3. T-MOBILE TEAM at 35"
4. LIBERTY SEGUROS - WÜRTH TEAM at 53"
5. PHONAK HEARING SYSTEMS at 01’ 31"

The overall standings reflect the ominous form that Lance 'The Boss' Armstrong is in. LA is currently in the first place while his teammate George Hincapie is in the second place 55" behind.

Dave Zabriskie from CSC had a big crash and limped to the finish. Apparently, he lost a lot of skin and blood was dripping everywhere. Let's hope that this injury would not be a show stopper for him. Keep fighting, Dave.

Allez.. Lance... Allez

BTW : If you are a lance fan, check out the commemorative edition from Sports Illustrated. I bought it yesterday and it is awesome.

All you wanted to know about 'The Half Blood Prince'

Random facts about the book

  • We will learn a lot more about Voldemort in this book.
  • HBP will be an intense book, but with light-hearted moments.
  • Harry will leave Privet Drive early again, for a "much pleasanter" reason than in book 5.
  • ............
(From :http://www.mugglenet.com/books/futurebooks/book6facts.shtml)

Monday, July 04, 2005

And then there were 17

Tom Boonen of the Quickstep team took the sprinting honours today by winning the third stage. He now has the green jersey(le maillot vert) to show for his efforts. Dave Zabsriskie is still in the yellow jersey. Lance is currently in the 66th place but has a comfortable lead over his rivals. Can't wait for the mountain stages to begin.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

1 down, 20 to go

The soft spoken Dave Z from Saltlake city stole the thunder from LA winning the first stage of the 205 tour de france. The avid cycling fan amongst you might have noticed a familiar name in the top 3. Vino is back!!!. Alexandre 'Vino' vinokourov who gave Lance a run for his money in 2003 is back again. He was out last year after an accident. Check out the official website for more information.

Here are the standings :
1. Dave Zabriskie (USA - CSC) 19km in 20’51"
2. Lance Armstrong (USA - DSC) at 2"
3. Alexandre Vinokourov (KAZ - TMO) at 53"
4. George Hincapie (USA - DSC) at 56"
5. Laszlo Bodrogi (HUN - C.A) at 59"
6. Floyd Landis (USA - PHO) at 1’02"
7. Fabian Cancellara (SUI - FAS) at 1’02"
8. Jens Voigt (GER - CSC) at 1’04"
9. Vladimir Karpets (RUS - IBA) at 1’05"
10. Igor Gonzalez de Galdeano (ESP - LWT) at 1’06"
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