rantlust

Posted by anupcs on March 30th 2007 in Celebrity, Entertainment, Music, Television, USA
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Even if you won’t admit that you watch “American Idol” like 35 million other Americans, you must have still heard of the cult phenomenon who is Sanjaya Malakar. The 17 year old hula dancing, shaggy haired, half Indian, half Italian, effeminate dude who will single-handedly bring down the show if he wins it. A few weeks ago, such an eventuality would have been scoffed at (Simon Cowell famously quipped that he won’t be back if Sanjaya wins Idol this season) but now it’s not looking that unrealistic. He’s the underdog that has become a strong wild horse and not because he’s a fantastic belter of songs… far from it.

Due to the efforts of his many tween fans, Howard Stern, and the web site votefortheworst.com the erstwhile shy teenager has beat all odds to make it to the top 9. On the other side of the coin, this Darwin award potential is on a hunger strike till Sanjaya gets booted off. Of late, he has become emboldened and seems almost carefree while on stage. From causing young girls to bawl uncontrollably (original here; SNL spoof here) to confounding the judges, Sanjaya has brought life to an otherwise boring season. While he is no Frank Sinatra, I don’t think he’s William Hung either. He’s definitely better than your average Karaoke singer. And no matter what Simon Cowell thinks, Idol is not just a singing competition. It’s about the whole package.

I have never voted for a contestant on Idol before but I think this year, I am going to join Stern and the purveyors of votefortheworst.com and start calling in my votes for Sanjaya.

A whole new vocabulary has sprung around Sanjaya now: if you are his fan, you are a fanjaya; if you are his mom, you are momjaya; if you start copying his wacko hairstyles, then you have been sanjaya-ed; and now, if you are a supporter of him on rantlust, you are a rantjaya.

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Posted by renéejo on March 26th 2007 in History, Humor, Video
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When the book replaced the scroll…

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Posted by tafkap on March 24th 2007 in Celebrity, Developing Nations, Rants, Sports
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Shashi Tharoor had an opinion piece in the NY Times about cricket and American apathy towards it. I must say that it cannot be one of his stronger attempts at writing (actually the only Tharoor I have read is bits and pieces of ‘India from Midnight to the Millenium’). The bottom line of the piece is - Americans are too brutish to get cricket.

Besides being humorless and filled with bromides, (”And the notion that anyone would watch a game that, in its highest form, could take five days and still end in a draw provokes widespread disbelief among results-oriented Americans.”), the piece also demonstrates a blissful ignorance about baseball while making a facile attempt at comparing it with cricket.

In describing the futility of interesting Americans with cricket, he states:

Why try to sell Kiri Te Kanawa to people who prefer Anna Nicole Smith?

Pray tell, which ‘people’ prefer Kiri Te Kanawa to Anna Nicole Smith? Being too much of boor to have heard of Kiri Te Kanawa before this piece, I’d rather not make the acquaintance of these splendid people myself.

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Posted by anupcs on March 20th 2007 in Government, Society, Technology, Travel, USA
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Are you on the No Fly or No Fly Watch list maintained by the US Department of Homeland Security? Now you can check if you are potentially on these lists by visiting nofly.s3.com and typing in your name. These lists are based on an algorithmic software known as Soundex developed in 1918(!) to analyze US census data. Soundex works by removing vowels from names and then assigning numerical values to the remaining consonants.

Note that this is not the actual No Fly list but an implementation of the alogrithm that the DHS uses and is based on the best known public data on terrorists. And the fine print at the site states:

The results generated in this demonstration are a product of a compilation of the best available data regarding suspected and known terrorists. Publicly available terrorist names from various reliable government and non-governmental sources were merged to create a comprehensive list. Because federal investigators are constantly adding and deleting the identities of terrorists on various lists provided to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) there is no simple method for the taxpayer to easily acquire immediate information regarding suspect names.

I am not on the list but John Smith (the most common name in the US) is.

[via The Huffington Post]

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Posted by riyer on March 19th 2007 in Education, Internet, Journalism, Productivity, Statistics, Women, World
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A few of my friends, my wife included, frequently bemoan the fact that the world as we know it is coming apart and things are getting worse every day. The daily onslaught of news on the human condition does not help alleviate this feeling for them.

Ever the optimist, I assert that on the whole this generation is doing better by itself and by its fellow man compared to any other generation in the past. Obviously I say this with no data, only as someone who is actively engaged in a grounds-up effort to provide opportunity to those who have none. Personal experience of being with some of these people gives me that optimism. Now it turns out that there is also data available to show that our lot is getting better, not worse.

Take a look at Gapminder They present human development data across the world in some very cool and innovative ways (Google has acquired their technology to make it available for free).

Go to the tools section and try out the GapMinder World, 2006 (the first one on the Tools page). You can change the X and Y axes (It defaults to Income v/s Life Expectancy but you can change them (e.g. you can compare Life Expectancy v/s Military Spending). It gives you a clear indicator on how things are changing around the world (except in Sub Saharan Africa where, due to the AIDS crisis, things have slipped back a bit).

BTW: It is also a fantastic way to get kids interested in statistics. Over the weekend my 6 y.o look at it over my shoulder and the next thing you know she spent more than an hour in front of the computer playing with the X and Y Axes. She kept telling me everything from “How Malawi compares with the United States in Child Mortality (I explained to her what that is)” , she was playing with Physicans per 1000 people etc, population growth over time etc.

I would also recommend the 1 hour Tech Talk they have posted (given at Google) and the video on Slums.

(Sorry, this post does not fit into any one category that we have - so I choose a few of them)

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Posted by papi on March 17th 2007 in India, Sports
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Today must rank as one of the most dramatic days in cricket history. At the grandest stage in world cricket - the World Cup - two of the least fancied nations, derided as minnows before the competition began, beat two of the game’s traditional powerhouses. India was beaten by its lesser known neighbor Bangladesh, while Pakistan saw its WC campaign ended on St. Patrick’s day by the rampant Irish. Both Pakistan and India are rated as strong batting sides, but their bowling attacks were expected to be their weakness. Pakistan was missing two of its premier strike bowlers, while India lacked a genuine fifth bowler to get through the middle overs. Instead, the vaunted batting lineups were the ones which failed in both cases, and not to searing pace or wily spin either, but rather to wicket-to-wicket, straight up and down stuff. After all the hype and overblown promise leading up to the big event, the Irish and the Banglas finally arrived bearing the reality check. It did not bounce.

On today’s BBC sport website, there was a story that Indian batting star Sachin Tendulkar is now a comic book superhero. The Banglas were not impressed.

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Posted by john on March 17th 2007 in Sports
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Six sixes in a cricket over. It is one of cricket’s most coveted achievements by a batsman and for the first time in international cricket, it was done. The setting was the South Africa versus The Netherlands match during the Cricket World Cup currently underway in the West Indies. South African batsman, Herschelle Gibbs, is the proud owner of the record. Gibbs hit six consecutive sixes in a single over against a hapless Dutch bowler, Daan van Bunge.

To the uninitiated, a six is the most runs a cricket batsman can score with a single batting stroke and requires the ball to fly out of the field of play without bouncing … sort of like hitting a home run in baseball. A cricket bowler gets six consecutive chances (at a time) to bowl at batsman to try to get him out. This six-ball bowling effort is called an over. The bowler is required to bowl all six balls as legitimate deliveries to the batsman facing him that allows the batsman to have a chance to play at. If any bowling delivery is illegitimate for any reason, the bowler is required to re-bowl that delivery and the batting team’s scorecard is enhanced by one run as a result. These illegitimate deliveries are called extras for self-evident reasons. Anyway, ignoring these extras, if a bowler cleanly bowls an over, an opposing batsman can technically hit 36 runs off him. A holy grail of cricket. This is not the first time that six sixes have been hit in such a way. First class cricket has seen the great Sir Gary Sobers do it first and later by India’s Ravi Shastri. However these first class cricket occasions were not international matches. Gibbs is the first to have done this in an international match and at the World Cup no less. For his achievement, Johnnie Walker whiskey brand will donate US $1 million to Habitat for Humanity.

Relive Gibb’s superb achievement here:

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Posted by renéejo on March 16th 2007 in Africa, Europe, Music, Raves, Video
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Césaria Évora is the singer that comes to mind when people think of the Cape Verde islands. Now, after seeing her live late last year in Cape Verde, I believe Suzanna Lubrano can give Évora a run for her money. The music styles are very different. While Évora sings a type of music called morna (a type of blues), Lubrano sings a more upbeat type of music called zouk. The music is infectious and great to dance to and Lubrana has a distinctly sexy voice. Her smouldering looks don’t hurt either. I am proud to say that she calls The Netherlands home (she moved here with her parents when she was four).