Friday The 13th

Today is Friday the 13th. Here are some 13 facts about Friday the 13th which some people believe as a bad day.

1. More than 60 million people worldwide claim to be affected by a fear of Friday 13th. Some of them won’t go to work, drive cars or get out of bed on this day.
2. The fear of Friday the 13th is called paraskavedekatriaphobia.
3. According to the British Medical Journal there is a significant increase in traffic-related accidents when the date is Friday 13th.
4. Every year has at least one and at most three Friday the 13th.
5. Famous people born on Friday the 13th include Samuel Beckett (13 April 1906), Margaret Thatcher (13 October 1923), Fidel Castro (13 August 1926) and Steve Buscemi (13 December 1957).
6. Tupac Shakur died on Friday, September 13, 1996.
7. The Uruguayan rugby team’s plane crashed in the Andes mountain range on Friday, 13 October, 1972.
8. Many hospitals have no room 13, while airports don't have a Gate 13.
9. Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were said to be sufferers.
10. The Athens Olympic Games opened on Friday 13th of August, 2004.
11. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would not travel on the 13th day of any month and would never host 13 guests at a meal. Napoleon and President Herbert Hoover were also triskaidekaphobic, with an abnormal fear of the number 13.
12. Mark Twain once was the 13th guest at a dinner party. A friend warned him not to go. "It was bad luck," Twain later told the friend. "They only had food for 12." Superstitious diners in Paris can hire a quatorzieme, or professional 14th guest.
13. The number 13 suffers from its position after 12, according to numerologists who consider the latter to be a complete number — 12 months in a year, 12 signs of the zodiac, 12 gods of Olympus, 12 labors of Hercules, 12 tribes of Israel, 12 apostles of Jesus, 12 days of Christmas and 12 eggs in a dozen.

Queen Band - Probably the Kings of Rock

Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1970, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury (lead vocals, piano), Brian May (guitar, vocals), John Deacon (bass guitar), and Roger Taylor (drums, vocals). Queen's earliest works were influenced by progressive rock, hard rock and heavy metal, but the band gradually ventured into more conventional and radio-friendly works, incorporating more diverse and innovative styles in their music.

Queen formed in 1971 and in 1973 signed their first recording contract for EMI. That year they released their first album, QUEEN. The same year saw their first major UK tour, and in 1974 they released QUEEN II as well as making their first UK headlining tour. They made their first US tour, and in November released SHEER HEART ATTACK which was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic.

Bohemian Rhapsody is considered as the best rock song in the history. "We are the champions" and "We will rock you"some of their other hits which have been very popular. More information about the band can be found at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_(band). 

Bohemian Rhapsody

We are the Champions

We will Rock You

Love of my life

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !

"O Holy Night," also known as Minuit, Chrétiens (Midnight, Christians) or Cantique de Noël.The original French lyrics were written by Placide Cappeau (1808-1877) and the melody was composed by Adolphe Adam (1803-1856) who composed the score for the ballet Giselle. The song was first performed in 1847 during a Christmas Eve mass in Roquemaure. It was later translated from French to English by John Sullivan Dwight (1813-1893).

This Christmas carol was played live over the radio on December 24, 1906. The Christmas radio show was broadcasted by Reginald Fessenden from Brant Rock, Massachusetts.

Source: www.christmas-lyrics.org

Oh holy night, the stars are brightly shining

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth

Long lay the world in sin and error pining

Till He appeared and the soul felt it's worth

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn

Fall on your knees

Oh, hear the angel voices

Oh, night divine

Oh, night when Christ was born

Oh, night divine

Oh night, oh night divine

Truly He taught us to love one another

His law is love and His gospel is peace

Chains, shall He break for the slave is our brother

And in His name all oppression shall cease

Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we

Let all within us praise His holy name

Christ is the Lord

Their name, forever praise we

Noel, Noel

Oh night, oh, night divine

Noel, Noel

Oh night, oh, night divine

Noel, Noel

Oh, oh, holy night

Merry Christmas  and a Happy New Year !

SLPL at the Halfway Stage

Inaugural SLPL is now in it's halfway stage. 15 matches out of total 24 matches have been completed and two teams have almost been knocked out (there is a slight chance for Basnahira and Uthura to qualify, given that a combination of results go in their favour, which is highly unlikely ) and one team have already qualified to the semi finals.Other four teams are playing for the three slots available in the knockouts. Here are some of my opinions on the SLPL so far.

• The attendance for the matches were very low. The matches played at the RPS Colombo were the least attended matches. This has been one of the major criticism of the SLPL. As I get to know the price of the tickets are not high and a lot of tickets are distributed freely. But it should be noted that unlike in India the available market is very low. After all we don't have a population of 1.2 billion as in India. Even Mumbai have a population of 12 million which is more than a half of Sri Lanka's entire population. So it is somewhat unfair to expect a good attendance for SLPL as in IPL.

• However I think if matches are played on different venues the attendance can be increased. Galle and Dambulla would have been good revenue generators. Probably for the next edition of SLPL they should have some matches at those venues. 

• The teams are named according to provinces in Sri Lanka. But being a small country divisions based on provinces is not that evident as in India. As the matches are just played in Colombo and Kandy there is no fan base for these teams from their respective provinces. I think this is also a reason for the low attendance in matches. Also the players in those teams do not belong to the respective provinces. It's funny that Sanath Jayasuriya being an icon from Matara playing for Kandurata. Also the names given to teams are very annoying. After all I am still wondering about the meaning of word "Dundee" ???

• Currently Sri Lanka is facing a power crisis due to droughts and the breakdown of the Norochcholai power plant. Most of us experience a power cut of three and a half hours each day. But most of the matches are played under floodlights. With the low number of attendance and the current situation in the country , flood lit domestic matches are the last thing we want.  

• The major motivation for organizing this tournament was the profit. SLC was desperate for money especially after going bankrupt. After the successful audition of the team-franchises it was evident that this has the potential to become financially successful. But we must not forget that Sri Lanka manged to incur a huge loss from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2011, while all other hosting countries made huge profits. Thus I am not surprised if I get to know that SLC incur a huge loss from this SLPL. 

• Anyway I think this is a great opportunity for Sri Lankan players. Senior players can make this a chance to prepare for the T20 world cup next month. Also this will be a great opportunity for young players  to show their talents and make a name for themselves. I sincerely hope that at least few players will make their way in to the national side through this series. 

A Simple Card Trick

This is a simple card trick and it's correctness can be easily shown using the Pigeon-Hole principle.For details about Pigeon-Hole Principle visit http://shashindrasri.blogspot.com/2011/11/pigeon-hole-principle.html.

Card Trick based on Pigeon hole principle from Shashindra Silva

It's Left Handers Day - some facts about left handers

Today (August 13) is International Left Handers day. Here are some interesting facts about left handers.

A Great Place for Free Online Learning - Coursera

Coursera is a great place for online learning. This has subjects varying from Computer Science to History , Sociology, Medicine and Music. All the subjects are offered from the top ranked Universities in the world. Currently there are 16 Universities affiliated with Coursera and this includes MIT, CIT , Stanford University and Princeton University.

Some available courses 

The courses offered are well organized. Around 5-12 hours per week are required to complete a course and the duration of the course will be 6-16 weeks. Almost all the courses includes weekly lectures which have a duration of around 10-20 minutes. There will be several lectures per week adding up to 2 hours per week. Also there may be weekly quizzes, assignments or programming assignment depending on the course. Quizzes will either MCQ or short answers which will be evaluated automatically. Assignments are normally peer reviewed. Also most of the courses have an end exam and mid exams.After the completion of the course participants will receive a certificate if they have performed well in exams and assignments. But this certificate will not be considered as an official certificate offered by the relevant University.

Coursera is started by Andrew Ng, an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University, and Director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab and Daphne Koller a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Stanford University . Although this was started in this year it has many partners. Currently all the courses are free and the business model is not finalized. It is expected that it will be something about selling the information about participants to potential employees and offering of certificates.

Currently Coursera offers more than 100 different subjects. The number of enrollments per subject some times exceeds 100k. These courses will give a very good chance to learn some thing new in a very organized manner. The quality of the courses are very high and it is very good chance to experience the future of e-learning. This will be a very good opportunity to gather international quality knowledge freely.Visit the Coursera web site from the following link.


https://www.coursera.org/

Words are all I have, to take your heart away - Bee Gees

Bee Gee legend Robin dies

Robin Hugh Gibb (22 December 1949 – 20 May 2012) was a British singer and songwriter. He is best known as a member of the Bee Gees, co-founded with his twin brother Maurice and older brother Barry. He had another younger brother, Andy Gibb, who was also a very popular solo singer.

Below is one of my favorite songs.This is a song by the Bee Gees, written by Barry, Robin and Maurice Gibb. Barry said in 1996 on the VH1 Storytellers television show that it was written for their manager Robert Stigwood.

Smile an everlasting smile, 

a smile can bring you near to me. 

Don't ever let me find you down, 

cause that would bring a tear to me. 

This world has lost its glory, 

let's start a brand new story now, my love. 

Right now, there'll be no other time 

and I can show you how, my love. 

Talk in everlasting words, 

and dedicate them all to me. 

And I will give you all my life, 

I'm here if you should call to me. 

You think that I don't even mean 

a single word I say. 

It's only words, 

and words are all I have, to take your heart away. 

Some Chuck Norris Facts- Explains Many Things

• Chuck Norris' tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried. 
• Chuck Norris has already been to Mars; that's why there are no signs of life there. 
• The Great Wall of China was originally created to keep Chuck Norris out. It failed miserably. 
• When Alexander Bell invented the telephone he had 3 missed calls from Chuck Norris 
• Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice. 
• Chuck Norris wakes up his alarm clock 
• Chuck Norris doesn't call the wrong number. You answer the wrong phone. 
• There used to be a street named after Chuck Norris, but it was changed because nobody crosses Chuck Norris and lives. 
• Some magicians can walk on water, Chuck Norris can swim through land. 
• Chuck Norris remembers the future. 
• Chuck Norris and Superman once fought each other on a bet. The loser had to start wearing his underwear on the outside of his pants. 
• Chuck Norris will never have a heart attack. His heart isn't nearly foolish enough to attack him. 
• Chuck Norris received his pilots license by just looking at an airplane. 
• Chuck Norris does not hunt because the word hunting infers the probability of failure. Chuck Norris goes killing. 
• Chuck Norris called 911 to order Chinese food and got it. 
• Only Chuck Norris can dislike on Facebook 
• Chuck Norris uses a sundial at night. 
• When Chuck Norris looks at himself at a mirror, there is no reflection. There can only be one Chuck Norris. 
• Contrary to popular belief, Chuck Norris cannot fly. He just jumps and chooses when to come down.