When a pesticide is a pest! Endosulfan

The Indian govt./Sharad Pawar wants another panel to study endosulfan!

Over 70 countries have banned Endosulfan. We could at least learn from the Australians!
In 2009, Australia refused to ban endosulfan! In Oct 2010, they banned endosulfan!  They had the courage to say "The previous decision was made on the best available science at the time"!

"The continued registration and approval of endosulfan in Australia is likely to have unintended effects on the environment that cannot be mitigated", said the report, which was prepared by the Environment Department and the Department of Health and Ageing.


Please support the Global Ban on Endosulfan! http://petol.org/endoban

Noumpere - the UDRS

MSDhoni's rant of "whether it is 2.5m or 2.4 or 2.6" had the ICC throwing the rule book at him which had the BCCI solidly defending. The media and expert commentators have done hardly anything to dispel the confusion surrounding the technology. I do wish that Cricinfo had taken the lead to explain the rule book and clauses therein. Instead we have Grey is the colour of DRS. Everyone now knows that 2.5m is a criterion but how many talk of the associated 40cm sub-clause?

Elementary, my dear captain!

Let me make a layman attempt at explaining the rationale for the having numbers like 250 and 40 ...

After pitching the ball hits the pad after 40cm. The ball has to travel a further 250cm, another 6.25 times the distance that it has already travelled (2.9m from the point the ball pitches to the stumps). Hawkeye has 40cm in which to judge the trajectory of the ball and extrapolate it to 250cm! If there is an error of 0.5cm in determining the point of impact of the ball on the pad, then the error will also get multiplied by 6.25 times (about 3+cm - which is about the radius of the ball). If Hawkeye determines that the ball will hit leg stump, a provision of 3+cm error has to be made. So in reality the ball could be missing leg ... The umpire's original decision could stand. Whereas if it hits anywhere on the middle stump, despite the 3cm error it will hit the stumps almost surely ... Thus the DRS can be used to overrule umpire's decision in this case and rightly so. With this recent change, I'm glad that ICC has acknowledged the prowess of Hawkeye through this change, while the common man sees it as an admission of the failure of technology :-).

What happens if the ball hits the pad closer to the stumps?

If the ball hits the pad 60cm after pitching and there is a further 2.3m to go (2.9m from pitch to the stumps), then the error is multiplied only about 4 times. And Hawkeye has 60cm (50% more than 40cm) of video frames in which to determine/estimate the point of impact of the ball on the pad! The error would be less (say ~0.35cm) instead of the earlier 0.5cm ... The accuracy of Hawkeye's prediction in this case would increase drastically, wouldn't it?

2.4, 2.5, 2.6 does matter, doesn't it?

The geometry of the problem!

A bit of geometry illustrates the small margin of error that Hawkeye has got to play with ...

Consider the large triangle BCE.  BC=290cm, CE=11.5cm.  At point p1 on BC (Bp1=40), there is a line parallel to CE of length 'd', which cuts BE.  What is the length of 'd'? What would be 'd' at points p2 (30cm from B), p3 (50cm).  If instead of 'd' and error of 'e' is added at p1, CE would become longer by 3.5cm.  What value of 'e' would result in 3.5cm at CE?  Would the tolerance 'e' be higher at p1 or p2?

Thoughts on the technology front

There is unlikely to be a foolproof prediction mechanism, let's make best use of what we have!  In my view the makers of Hawkeye would be glad to put the 'confidence factor' on screen along with the trajectory displayed but would the experts/cricketers/arm-chair pundits be able to digest this?

Crop factor and Depth of Field!

For a change, this crop factor isn't about birds or photography itself; am just seeding a thought :-). Hope you enjoy the pictures though ;-)

I'd the privilege of attending the Vilanatti celebration at the Khammana village in Wayanad/Kerala. Rice was transplanted as part of the village festival.

Plough, Yoke, Hoe ...


Preparation afoot ...



Of the 100,000 varieties of rice, there was a snapshot of ~20 of them here. The focus was on improving the quality of the native rice varities through good seed selection. To get a critical mass of seeds, produced from the farms themselves, it could be a 2-year process.


Rice varieties and the Rice Sprouts

The seed companies are a real threat to the farming practice. They would patent varieties of rice, seeds and control farming in India. It is a huge market. The large companies just need to control the seeds :-). It is important that GM seeds don't become the only variety allowed to be planted in India. The control of seeds should remain with the farmer.


The seedlings are ready for transplanting ...


Transport before Transplanting!



Even the MLA had come over ... the minister unfortunately couldn't :-(
A sound reception


Getting down to the action ...



Experts and the First-timers ...




The Speech Acts ...; Usha Chechi has the minister speaking online; The release of The Bio-diversity Registry of Khammana

Usha Chechi is from Thanal. Thanal is a Public Interest Research, Advocacy, Education and Action Trust with the mission "Gather for all beings". I liked her fire, belief, concern, ...


Ramettan with friends; The Chieftain in a pleasant mood.

Ramettan, the tribal farmer, speaks science and panchayat politics! He believes that it is an important mix to ensure progress of the village and the community!! The Kurichiya community fought with Pazhassi Raja against the British.


In perspective ...

Beauty at every level; A field of view; Dragon flies can help handle pests ...


My photoblog would be incomplete without the picture of a bird ;-)
Flora or Fauna?

This bird is woven using a coconut leaf :-)

Hope you think about the farmers when you head out for lunch :-)

Insignificant test career and Stumped!

Of what use is a Test career with zero runs, zero wickets, and zero catches? This has featured in Cricinfo's Ask Steven recent columns. Patrick Kidd in his Times column mentions that only TASekhar has a 2-Test career.

One of those who qualifies for this 0,0,0 career, Rajindernath, actually has no catches but 4 stumpings :-). Some interesting ones that can stump you ...

PWSherwell   20  16
TAWard       19  13
PKSen        20  11
AH Jarvis     9   9
EFS Tylecote  5   5
Rajindernath  0   4

No stumping list is complete without Bert Oldfield (78, 52).
And there's Anju with 51 stumpings and 30 catches in her ODI career :-)

Pulp Fiction

I'd been to Ranganthittu Bird Sanctuary with family on 25/Jan/2008. It was a fun trip and the kids enjoyed it. I was hoping to get some good photos of the birds but wasn't as successful.

As we returned to the parking lot, I noticed some little bird activity in a tree. A little bird (flowerpecker?) was trying to pick a fruit. I knelt down with my 300mm lens and went trigger happy. The picture quality is average but I'm happy that I was able to capture this behaviour of the bird, the whole sequence.

View my Pulp Fiction.

Stump the Bearded Wonder ...

Bill Frindall is no more. I always enjoyed reading his 'Stump the Bearded Wonder' column.

We will miss his knowledge and the humor that he brought to the seemingly dry subject of scoring/statistics.

Great win for Test Cricket!

India, England, and Test Cricket won the first Test at Chennai.

England had the upper hand for a good part of the Test.  387 is a good target but when Sehwag gets going there isn't much that can be done!  Sachin played a winning knock, Gambhir, Yuvraj contributed a good deal too.

Strauss joins an elite list of Herbert Sutcliffe, George Headley, Vijay Hazare, Clyde Walcott, Sunil Gavaskar, Andy Flower, and Brian Lara with two centuries in a losing cause!

Photos from the India-Aus first test at Bangalore

I've (finally!) uploaded pictures from the first India vs Australia Test match (9-Oct-2008).

Hope you like watching Sachin, Ponting, Ishant, and some unorthodox shots!

Thank you, England

We are grateful to the English Cricket Team for agreeing to play the Tests in India. It is a very courageous decision and India appreciates the cricketers for being united during the tough decision making process.

I hope that the does very well. You've won already!

Speech is Silver!

Recently I discovered that "Speech is Silver"!

Speech == Argument

Silver == Argentum

Speech is a mumble-jumble of Silver ...
QED

Statistics, where does it lie?

Consider that a team has lost 5 wickets, where is the final score likely to lie? The last 5 wickets are likely to add only ~113 runs (110-116) irrespective of the starting scores (e.g. 300/5, 400/5, 500/5, 600/5). Strange but true ...

Charles Davis, on Cricinfo's It Figures, does a fine statistical analysis of the likely final score for an unfinished innings!

Which would be a bigger final score, SL's 952/6d or WI's 790/3d? SL might've reached 1028 vs WI's 996!! WI's chances of exceeding 1028 is 24% ...

Can this technique be applied to 'not out' innings as well? We could possibly determine Sachin's final score for 248* but it would be tricky for 400*, I guess. Would the averages be affected drastically?

Who says that cricket is just aggression? In this case, it is regression ...

Our country ...

During a recent chat with friends, a few statements were heard ...

"We, in the US ..."
"India is my country ..."

I chimed in: "Malaysia is .my country" ;-)

She taught me that ...

On a fine morning my daughter (< 3 years old) was trying to pick up a soft toy (a black and white panda).

(Conversation in Malayalam, our native tongue)
Doter: "Can you get me that chimpanzee?"
Me: "I don't see any chimpanzee!" (despite knowing she was looking for that panda!)
Doter: "That chimpanzee over there ..."
Me: "That is not a chimpanzee"
Doter: "I want that chimpanzee"

I decide to teach her about classes/generic/specifics ...
(after all, my age in years is more than hers in months :-))
Me: "If you ask for that 'animal', I shall get it"
Doter: "Ok, get me that animal"
Me: "Here it is. It is called a 'Panda'"

Doter: "In English it is called 'chimpanzee'"

... and I learnt a lot!

New Zealand's Ire on Ireland!

An Ireland vs New Zealand ODI match entered the cricket record books.

• The 290 run victory is the biggest ever!
• Both openers scored 150+ runs, the first such instance. Dravid and Tendulkar had scored 154/186 in an ODI but this is the first by the openers.
• 154 runs were scored in the last 10 overs, beating the earlier record of 146.

Why are these matches official ODIs? They aren't worthy of being one!

Chanderpaul - The long lasting ...

... Duracell of all time?

During the Aus-WI series, Chanderpaul repeated his long standing ability! During his 18 hours between dismissals, he had seen 18 wickets go down at the other end!! It is an extremely rarely incident. Against India (2002) he saw 21 wickets fall, which could be the record! He had 20 wickets in 2007.

This is his fourth stint of 1000 minutes between dismissals, which is a record!!! Nasser Hussain, Sachin, Dravid, Kallis have all done it once each ...

Sangakkara had a streak of 18 wickets during his 100*, 156* knocks where he had scored over 50% of the team's score in two consecutive innings! Jacques Rudholph had a streak of 18 wickets between dismissals too.

Get the Factz right!

How well does Powerset get its Factz right?

1. A cricketer's favourite query is Is Sachin God? Factz gets it right! :-). Of course, Sourav is not far behind ;-).


2. A traditional set theory query of Is Null set a Sub set gives a Power Set response! This definitely is a conspiracy by Powerset ;-)


3. Another query "Who killed Gandhi?" ...
   Factz from Wikipedia: we found that the following kill Gandhi
   madman, Nathuram Godse, Nathu Ram Godse and assassin
   
   Nathuram Godse He said, "No one should think that Gandhi was killed by a madman".
   
   
   The results also correctly include the assassinations of Rajiv Gandhi and Indira Gandhi.
   But Nathuram Godse did not intend "madman" to be listed as an assassin of Gandhiji!

I believe that in Semantic Retrieval it is important to handle "negation". It is non-trivial but very important as it modifies the semantics. "Negation" highlights the need to use NLP technologies in improving retrieval quality and "the intent" ...

Overall I'm impressed with the results of Powerset. It does get the Factz right ...

Firefox-3 World Record effort

Are you participating in the Firefox Download Day record effort? Well, I've pledged to! 17/June is THE day. What do the astrologers say? :-)

One factor that could prevent enthusiasts from switching immediately would be the extensions! Not all extensions would've been made FF3 compatible :-(. In my case switch proxy would be an example, I'll now have to look for an alternative (foxy proxy?). The guys with too many extensions that haven't been upgraded will find it difficult!

An Elementary search on Powerset!

A search for the only liquid non-metallic element doesn't yield Bromine but liquid nonmetallic element does! "non-metallic" and "nonmetallic" are not treated the same ... Maybe it isn't elementary after all :-)

Searching for the Eight Degree Channel?

Check out the Powerset Factz for the Eight Degree Channel!
Powerset identifies that the channel actually "separates" two islands!
Wow!!

Factz from Wikipedia: we found that Eight Degree Channel separated the following

Eight Degree Channel Eight Degree Channel	separated :	Laccadive and Amindivi Islands.

Photos from the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary

In early May, I'd visited the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary (near Mysore, India). The birds are lovely and present in large numbers though many had already migrated out of the sanctuary in April. Check out the full-sized images on Zooomr or on Flickr.

Which one did you like the most? I loved the orange little egret, snowy egret, the details of the black headed ibis, and the geometry of the stork wings ... I enjoyed capturing a 10MP image of a stork in flight - it was perfect timing and I may not repeat it again! :-)