Watch out, here comes the Attire Police!

Here we go again. A local Hindu organization has filed a case against actress Shriya for wearing an outfit that offended Hindu culture.

She may not worn an outfit that befits the event, but let me assure you that there is nothing objectionable to the outfit. For the record, I am not offended.

It is high time that we stop spending valuable tax payer's money and super precious court time in handling cases like these. I guess the courts have millions of important pending cases to rule before figuring it takes cases like this. Indian judiciary system must do something about victim less crimes and handling frivolous cases like these.

Some of these people must find something to do with their lives.

Guys, you can check out more of Shriya here.

This headline caught my attention.

Pay Right

In recent times, we have seen excessive pays for CEOs that is not in line with the company performance.

But it is time to acknowledge and credit the Amex (AXP) Board and CEO Ken Chenault for agreeing to this structure.

Even more striking are the extraordinarily high hurdles the board requires Chenault to clear if he's to get any of those options. To receive the full grant, he must beat several goals over the next six years, an unusually distant time horizon. AmEx's earnings per share must grow at least 15% a year on average, revenues must grow at least 10% a year, return on equity must average at least 36% per year, and total return to shareholders must beat the S&P 500 average by at least 2.5% a year. Chenault can receive a fraction of the grant for lesser performance, but below certain limits, which are still quite high, he gets nothing.

Now consider a couple of scenarios. Chenault misses all the targets but the market booms, returning 10% a year, and AmEx stock matches it. After their full term of ten years, his options would be in the money by $258 million - but he wouldn't get any of that. Why? Well, AmEx's stock presumably rode a rising tide, and his shareholders could have done just as well with an index fund while exposed to less risk. Alternatively, the market returns just 6% a year, in line with what many experts predict, but under Chenault's leadership AmEx hits all the targets and the stock returns 9% a year. Chenault collects a pretax gain of $222 million after a decade - an awful lot, but his shareholders are $35 billion richer than if they had chosen an index fund, and he's a hero.

Let us hope many more corporate leaders follow his example.

NFL Divisional Playoff Games - Thoughts

Note: I will try to post my thoughts on the weekend NFL games on Monday/Tuesday on a regular basis.

NY Giants (21) beat Dallas Cowboys (17)

NY Giants continue their road wins and get their most important win of the season at Dallas to get into the NFC Conference Championship game. They will have to travel to Green Bay and beat Favre and the Packers next week to make it to Super Bowl.

The Giants Defensive Line continued their outstanding play. The huge Dallas O-Line got outplayed by the consistent Giants D-Line. The Giants pass rushers harassed Tony Romo in the second half consistently. The Giants win is even more impressive because they have to fill in their secondary with back up players after Aaron Ross got injured and they played impressively to stop the talented Dallas wide receivers. Terrel Owens was a non-factor in the second half of the game. The return of terry Glenn did not have a great positive impact for Dallas.

It looks like it is safe to bet that a Manning would always play in the Conference Championship game. But very few would have expected Eli Manning to play instead of Peyton. Eli has stepped up big time and managed the game very well for the Giants. He has cut down his mistakes and ha splayed smart. His 2 minute drive at the end of the first half was a huge morale booster for the Giants going into half time.

Game Ball: My game ball goes to Steve Spagnuolo, the Defensive Co-ordinator of Giants. He is the rising coaching star and a head-coach in waiting. He is a Jim Johnson disciple and he follows his master's techniques consistently and with remarkable success so far.

Green Bay Packers (41) beat Seattle Seahawks (20)

As usual the weather forecasters got it wrong. Light snow was predicted before the game. By the time game got into the third quarter the ground crew has to use fancy snow equipment to see the hash marks.

Ryan Grant, the Green Bay RB survived two early costly fumbles to make it a career day for him. Grant ran for 200 yards and Favre managed the game beautifully to get a win.

I think Seattle cannot win on road in the playoffs. They were not ready for the bad weather and Ryan Grant. When Favre is playing smart, it is going to very difficult for Giants to beat Green Bay @ GB. Eli Manning is not experienced enough to beat Favre and the Packers.

Game Ball: My game ball goes to Ryan Grant. Dah!

San Diego Chargers (28) beat Indianapolis Colts (24)

This is the shocker. I think Indi lost it in the fourth quarter when Peyton manning tried for too many deep balls instead of getting first downs with easy check down throws to Tight End and Running Back. He played like this couple of years ago in a loss to New England. Indi offence tried to score too fast by going for too much. They should have played like Brady and Patriots. Take what the defense gives, make first downs, move the chains and sustain the drives.

Game Ball: Vincent Jackson of San Diego. He made some spectacular plays and helped San Diego on many 3rd down situations.

Having said that, Philip Rivers acted like a jerk by getting into verbal jaunts with the Indi crowd. If he is smart he will learn about class and quarterbacking from Brady and the Pats next week. I pick Pats to win this one easily.

New England Patriots (31) beat Jacksonville Jaguars (20)

Another clinical performance from the Pats. Do whatever it takes to win. As I said earlier, Brady can win throwing deep bombs to Moss or dunk and check to Faulk and Watson for easy first downs. What else can be said - Pats are Pats.

Game Ball: Tom Brady - 26 of 28. Dah !

Cricket and technology

It' high time for cricket to get hi-tech. (courtesy Prem Panicker)

Here's some ideas on cleaning up and improving cricket.

1. Scrap the "take the word" idea

Even though this is not used very often in today's game - there is a rule in place to accept the fielding team captain's opinion on questionable catches. Some umpires like Benson seems to like this idea.

Cricket is no longer a gentleman's game. I am not saying that players are not gentlemen. The game has become too commercialized with huge money at stake to believe the cricketer's integrity on the field or accept correctable human errors on the ground. We can no longer believe a captain/player's opinion on whether a catch was taken cleanly. It is like asking a NFL defensive back if he had committed pass interference.

2. Technology and Challenge

As everyone has been suggesting, we have to use technology effectively. We have to use TV replays for catches, LBW decisions. We have to bring in the challenge system like NFL whereby both teams (batting and bowling) should be provided with 3 or 4 challenges per innings. The captain or any player should be able to challenge an umpire's decision. This should be referred to a 3rd umpire for further review. The final decision should be based on conclusive video evidence or else the decision on the ground stands. The teams should be able to retain successful challenges - that is they won't lose a challenge if they win a decision in their favor and they can use that challenge at a later part in the innings. The team that loses the challenge must be penalized 20/25 runs. That is if a batting team loses a challenge, their score would be reduced by 20/25 runs in addition to losing the challenge. If a bowling team loses the challenge, the batting team would gain 20/25 runs that may categorized as "Penalty Runs". So Penalty Runs on a score board could be positive or negative based on their challenge.

3. Front Foot No Ball

As Prem Panicker of rediff.com has suggested in multiple articles, the umpire should no longer judge front foot no balls by the bowlers. The umpire has too little time to make a decision on no ball and then decide if the batsman is LBW or not. There is too much room for error. We can easily use "cyclops" technology to decide on front foot no balls and let the umpires focus on the batsman.

4. Constant review of rules

There should be constant review of rules every year and see what works. If there is a need to tweak the rules, then make the changes. There is harm in making the game better and removing human errors as much as possible. Don't hesitate to make the required changes on order to preserve the tradition that is no longer valid in this age of technology and commercialization.

5. Increase the pool of players

Allow 13 players to be part of the team with 11 players active at any point in the innings. Of course, only 11 batsman should be allowed to bat - but the batting team captain can play any 11 out of 13 players. This will game more interesting which bring in additional strategies to the table. The batting team will have to focus on additional bench bowlers and athletic fielders that bowling team may deploy on the field. The bowling side may be surprised when a bowling all-rounders bats instead of recognized batsman.

RIP - Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to conquer Mount Everest has passed away.

I will always remember his famous "We knocked the bastard off" comment. I have attended too many quizzes at school/college where this was a standard question.

New words in dictionary post Sydney Cricket Test

Ponting: (n) (adj)
1. A substance or entity or even a person of unquestionable integrity
2. An act of uncivilized behaviour. [Also, pontingness (n)]

Usage: The judge was driven towards justice because he knew that the pontiff was a ponting.
Sir Bonkers said, Don't try to bully me. I surely can fathom the pontingness in your eyes.

Bucknor: (n) (adj)
1. Temporary blindness leading to missing out on the obvious.
2. To be at the wrong place at the wrong time.
3. Situations leading to grave judgement errors.
Usage: I feel bucknored by my boss; Life often throws a bucknor at you.

Benson: (n) (adj)
1. Something that legitimizes a severe bucknor.
Usage: First they bucknored me and then they bensoned it! I am toast.
Also see bucknor


Courtesy: Through email from Chandra

Monkeys - 101

In wake of the recent "sprit of the game" incidents, here's a primer on Monkeys - 101.

In other words, if you call an Indian cricketer a “monkey” and a “bastard” during the course of a innings, as Brad Hogg is said to have done, he is more likely to take offense at his parentage being questioned, rather than his lineage.

Amen!

Eagle Pattasugal Poster @ Disney Animal Kingdom, Orlando

I never expected to see posters in Tamil at Disney Animal Kingdom, Orlando, Florida. I also saw a few other authentic posters/themes from different parts of the world. This one is classic poster that we are used to seeing in Tamil Nadu, India.

Legs pointing toward sky

I have enough problems being steady on the ground. This is why I am not a dare devil roller coaster maverick.

A roller coaster stalled at the top of a loop at China's biggest amusement park, leaving passengers stranded upside down, their legs pointed toward the sky.

Tiger's path to a Billion dollars

This article by Yahoo's Dan Wetzel caught my attention. He states that based on PGA's FedEx Cup - PGA version of year end play off tournament, Tiger would retire with a Billion dollars - yes, the one with the B.

FedEx Cup earnings are put in a retirement fund. If we go by the conservative assumption that Tiger would win 7 FedEx Cups over his career, he could end up with a retirement fund over a Billion dollars, as listed below.

Path to a billion
How Woods' retirement plan could possibly reach $1 billion, even if his production falls off, and he doesn't make the top 70 in some years.

Year	Assumed retirement fund compensation
2007	$123,100,000
2008	112,900,000
2010	95,000,000
2011	87,200,000
2013	73,100,000
2015	61,500,000
2017	51,800,000
Total	$604,600,000
Plus interest	114,700,000
Plus other plans	300,000,000
Total	$1,018,700,000

But the line that best summarizes Tiger's earning potential is the following:

"When it came to figuring out the plan, Tiger was the last person we thought about," said Joe Ogilvie, the tour pro who helped implement it. "For Tiger, $10 million is a rounding error."

Amen !