IPL, Cricket, Politics and Money

IPL is rocked with controversies. There were many fears at the start of the initial IPL that the spirit of the game will be damaged due to the extensive amount of money being involved. In this season all those fears have been realized to be true. It was found out that not only players but also officials and owners of teams were involved in spot fixing and betting.

This will be a great black mark on the game of cricket. The most serious problem is the response of the BCCI towards these allegations. Although BCCI criticized RR players who were accused of spot fixing, they kept silent about the arrest of Gurunath Meiyappan who is the son in law of current BCCI president. Also BCCI tried to cover up the Gurunath's connection with CSK stating that he is only a enthusiastic fan. It's president should really answer these questions regarding the allegations.

The greatest threat to the cricket is not money but the BCCI. The arrogant manner the current president controls the board is apparent to the whole world. BCCI does not care about the ICC and other cricketing nations. This was evident in the BCCI stand against the UDRS. Only BCCI opposes UDRS and as a result it is not compulsory in cricket matches world wide. Also BCCI intervened to the removal of Tim May form the ICC panel and somehow managed to get that position to one of their own employee. Also the BCCI is beyond the control of Indian government. It have all the money and power to influence the ICC.

I would not be surprised if at the end of the day all the big betters, fixers and bookie owners were some how released due to intelligent cover up stories and due to political influences and some small scale fixers are sentenced for wrong doing. This was evident form the attempts to hide the facts about the connection between Gurunath and CSK. 

Anyway I think it's the right time to other cricketing nations to come forward and reduce the power of BCCI in the ICC. And also Indian government should try to regulate the actions of BCCI. Cricketing fans should use their voice against corruption in cricket and try to save the wonderful game of cricket from all evil. 

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

Workshop on Web Application Security Challenges and Defenses by Sujit Christy

Snickometer

Invented in the mid-1990s by English computer scientist Alan Paskett, the Snickometer is used in a slow motion display to determine whether the ball did touch the bat , even slightly to determine if it was out. Although this was used earlier in UDRS, but unlike Hawk Eye and Hot Spot currently not used in UDRS. This is also known as the Snicko.

A Snickometer works on a simple principle. Filter the ambient noise, and amplify the relevant signal. The ball hitting the bat produces a sound of a particular frequency. The stump microphone will pick up the sound of the ball hitting the bat. It first filters this sound which is of a particular frequency from all the ambient noise. This can be achieved with the help of a resonance filter. At the receiver this sound is amplified and plotted to note the variation in the sound. A sharp variation denotes the bat hitting the ball and a flat peak means the bat has hit the pad or part of the body. This plot is viewed along with the replay of the shot to synchronize the movement of the ball and the spike in plot.  So in the situation where the batsman was ruled out, a review on TV with the Snicko will accurately determine the outcome.

Advantages and Disadvantages

The technology used for Snickometer is relatively simple. It only requires a slow motion camera and good microphone which are available in any international cricket match. Thus the cost of the Snickometer is very low making it affordable to any country. Sometimes Snickometer takes a considerable amount of time to give the output. This is due to the synchronization issues of the video and the audio. But with the development of the technology the synchronization will be done automatically and the results will be available as soon as the incident occurs. 

Also the Snickometer only indicates that a contact happened. This contact may be between bat and ball, pad and ball or the bat and pad. It is up to the umpire to take the final decision. Thus this leads to inconclusive replays in some cases. But in Hot Spot it clearly shows the area the contact occurred.

Being a very simple and cheap technology it is surprising that, it is no longer used in UDRS. It can be combined with Hot Spot technology to make better judgments about LBW and Catch decisions. Out of the three technologies used in UDRS, Snickometer is the least controversial technology yet it is not even used in UDRS. And the most controversial technology is Hawk Eye which is made mandatory. The Hot Spot technology lies in between and it is made optional in UDRS. Just like humans no technology is hundred percent accurate. So always we have to use the technology wisely and improve the accuracy of decision making process to make the game of cricket more fair to both teams. 

"So Close No Matter How Far" - Six Degrees of Separation

What if you have to send a message to some person you don't know directly and communication mediums such as email, mail or telephone were unavailable? Then the only method of communication will be via personal contacts. We can search for a friend of us who directly know the intended the recipient. But what if, none of our friends know the recipient directly? Then probably we have to depend on some other intermediate person who can connect one of our friends to the intended recipient. What if there is no such person. Then another intermediate person is required. 

This gives the rise to an interesting question , "What is the maximum number of such intermediate people needed to make sure that we can send a message to anyone in the world ? " or in other words "What is the minimum number of people between any two people in the world ?".

In six degrees of separation concept it says that this value is 6. This concept was introduced by the

The Film

Hungarian Author Frigyes Karinthy in one of his short stories in the year 1929 named "Chains". This was later popularized by a play named "Six Degrees of Separation" written by John Guare. There is also a film titled "Six Degrees of Separation" based on the same story (Will Smith is the main actor.Yet this film is boring) .

So there are at most only five intermediate persons between any two people in the world. I can personally send a mail to Barrack Obama via five intermediate persons. I can contact Chuck Norris via five people. I can connect with Mr.ABC from country XYZ through just five persons. It sounds so amazing and fascinating. So the real question is "is it true ?" Though this was initially introduced as a concept many people have tried to prove it mathematically and practically and amazingly most of those attempts have been somewhat successful. 

In 1967, American sociologist Stanley Milgram devised a way to test the theory, which he called "the small-world problem." He randomly selected people in the mid-West to send packages to a stranger located in Massachusetts. The senders knew the recipient's name, occupation, and general location. They were instructed to send the package to a person they knew on a first-name basis who they thought was most likely, out of all their friends, to know the target personally. That person would do the same, and so on, until the package was personally delivered to its target recipient.Although the participants expected the chain to include at least a hundred intermediaries, it only took (on average) between five and seven intermediaries to get each package delivered. Milgram's findings were published in Psychology Today. This has confirmed the number of links is actually close to six.

Apart from that experiment there were many other experiments and theories. Some of them used mathematical derivations and assumptions as well. With the advancement of technology there are several internet experiments which have tried to check the validity of this concept. One of the interesting experiments is the game "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" which was invented as a play on the concept. The goal is to link any actor to Kevin Bacon through no more than six connections, where two actors are connected if they have appeared in a movie or commercial together. It was created by four students at Albright College in Pennsylvania, who came up with the concept while watching Footloose. On the 13th of September, 2012, Google made it possible to search for any given actor's 'Bacon Number' through their search engine. The "Oracle of Bacon" gives a version of this game based on the IMDB database. Using this we can search for the connection between any two actors. Even the Sri Lankan Actors are connected with Kevin Bacon or any other International actors with a very small degree of connection. As an example "Kamal Addaraarchchi" is connected with "Kevin Bacon" via just three intermediate actors. 

There may be tribal groups in the world who have never encountered other civilizations. Thus finding a connection with them will be an impossible thing. In that case this concept will not be true. Apart from that fact all other improvements in technology has resulted in a well connected world. Thus the six degrees of freedom will most probably be true for most of the people in the world. And it is expected that this value of six will be further reduced with the development of the communication technology, transportation facilities and multimedia . Thus the connectivity in the world is so tight and as humans we are "So Close No Matter How far" .

Wind of Change

I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the wind of change

The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers
The future's in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

Walking down the street
Distant memories
Are buried in the past forever
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

The wind of change
Blows straight into the face of time
Like a stormwind that will ring the freedom bell
For peace of mind
Let your balalaika sing
What my guitar wants to say

Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams
With you and me
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away
In the wind of change

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind_of_Change_(song)

Pi Day

Today is the "Pi DAY". We have dedicated special dates to celebrate various reasons. And March 14 (or in numbers 3-14) is the day dedicated to celebrate the mathematical constant "Pi". The representation of this date consists the first three digits of the mathematical constant "Pi". Thus it is selected as the "Pi" day. It is a day celebrated by mathematics lovers and probably a day hated by maths haters.

Pi Day Google Doodle 

There are sites specially designed to celebrate this day such as http://www.piday.org/. And it contains useful information about the constant "Pi". Alternatively another day is celebrated as the "Pi" approximation day which fall on July 22nd (22/7) which represents the widely used approximation value of "Pi".