A,E,I,O,U Kings 4 U

Woods who was the beneficiary of a Padraig Harrington meltdown on the 16th hole Sunday at the Firestone Country Club, is reportedly being fined for having an opinion about how that might have happened to his playing partner.

The full story of Sunday's incident is here. In short, the course officials invoked a rule under which if play is considered too slow by any group it is warned and thereafter can be penalized a stroke if it continues.

Both Tiger and Harrington were playing under the same threat but only Harrington seemed to be affected by insufficient time to hit from the rough and then off the green. The lead turned on his mistakes and he wound up losing by four strokes after being up by one.

Tiger Woods who is roundly criticized for being robotic and predictable when he answers questions has been fined, according to a report posted on espn.com. A source close to the PGA leaked the information since the Tour doesn't discuss fines that are levied.

Woods who rarely if ever utters a controversial word, spoke in what I thought were modified tones but apparently that was all too much for the PGA. The wording of the rule is :

"It is an obligation of membership to refrain from comments to the news media that unreasonably attack or disparage tournaments, sponsors, fellow members, players or PGA Tour."

Notice the use of the word "unreasonably". You decide for yourself if the judgment of the PGA is correct. Tiger's words were reported as:

"Like I was telling him out there, 'I'm sorry that John (the course official) got in the way of a great battle,' because it was such a great battle for 16 holes," Woods said. "We're going at it, head-to-head, and unfortunately that happened. Paddy and I will definitely do it again."

"I don't think that Paddy would have hit the pitch shot that way if he was able to take his time, look at it, analyze it," Woods said. "But he was on the clock, had to get up there quickly and hit it."

PGA Commissioner Tim Finchem has taken a page from the Roger Goodell and Bud Selig handbooks. You don't spit into the wind and you don't cast aspersions on the officials. But come on now, was what he said truly "unreasonable". Of course not. Woods can afford whatever it is and in a way it might endear him more to his fellow golfers. Sort of like taking one for the team. Well, OK, not exactly but you get the picture

Originally published in Sports Illustrated Magazine, December 8, 2008

On a steamy July 20th afternoon in 1968, Eunice Kennedy Shriver strode to the microphone at Soldier Field in Chicago and convened the first Special Olympics Games. It was only seven weeks after her younger brother, Robert, had been gunned down in the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, and about five weeks before the Windy City exploded in violent confrontations between police and protestors at the Democratic National Convention.

The assassination and the violence had lasting political effects on the American landscape...and, in a much different way, so did the Games at Soldier Field.

With a crowd of fewer than 100 people dotting the 85,000-seat stadium, about 1,000 athletes from 26 states and Canada, all of them routinely classified in those days as mentally retarded, marched in the opening ceremonies and followed Shriver as she recited what is still the Special Olympics oath:

Let me win,
but if I cannot win
let me be brave
in the attempt.

Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, who would become a polarizing figure at the convention that August, attended the four-day event and told Shriver, "You know, Eunice, the world will never be the same after this."

While skeptics shook their heads and most of the press ignored the unprecedented competition, Shriver boldly predicted that one million of the world's intellectually challenged would someday compete athletically.

She was wrong. Today, more than three million Special Olympic athletes are training year-round in all 50 states and 181 countries. They run races, toss softballs, lift weights, ski moguls, volley tennis balls and pirouette on skates. There are World Winter Games, the most recent in Boise, Idaho, in February, and World Summer Games, which will be staged next in Athens in 2011. Documentaries, Wide-World-of-Sports presentations, after-school TV specials, feature films, cross-aisle Congressional teamwork and relentlessly positive global word of mouth have educated the planet about Special Olympics and the capabilities of the sort of individuals who were once locked away in institutions. Schooling, medical treatment and athletic training have all changed for people with intellectual disabilities as a result of Shriver's vision; more important, so have minds, attitudes and laws.

The Extended-Range Electric Vehicle that is redefining the automotive world is no longer just a rumor. In fact, its propulsion system is so revolutionary, it's unlike any other vehicle or electric car that's ever been introduced. And we're making this remarkable vision a reality, so that one day you'll have the freedom to drive gas-free.

Chevy Volt is designed to move more than 75 percent of America's daily commuters without a single drop of gas.³ That means for someone who drives less than 40 miles a day, Chevy Volt will use zero gasoline and produce zero emissions.²

Unlike traditional electric cars, Chevy Volt has a revolutionary propulsion system that takes you beyond the power of the battery. It will use a lithium-ion battery with a gasoline-powered, range-extending engine that drives a generator to provide electric power when you drive beyond the 40-mile battery range.

Chevy Volt. Launching 2010.

• PROMISING PERFORMANCE

  Updated: 06-10-09

  "The test mule we drove clearly shows that the Volt and Voltec platform has a bright future," says Crunchgear.com. WATCH the test drive and READ the review. The Volt is "definitely real" writes Popular Science. READ MORE

• QUICK AND QUIET

  Updated: 06-10-09

  An all-electric test drive of a Volt test car left USA Today impressed with the vehicle's combination of power and quiet refinement. READ MORE

• ELECTRIFYING AND ELECTRIC POWERED

  Updated: 06-10-09

  "The beauty of the Volt is the size of the battery," says Tony Posawatz, Vehicle Line Director for the Chevy Volt. Find out more about how the battery performed during a Car and Driver test drive. READ MORE

• THE BENEFITS OF ELECTRICITY

  Updated: 04-16-09

  Chevy Volt will go up to 40 miles on a full charge.(4) For many of us that could mean a lot of electric-only driving in our futures. Learn more about Volt's ability to use electricity as fuel. READ MORE

Did you hear? Google’s launching a new, upgraded version of its search engine soon. And just as important, the search giant released the developer’s preview of it today. Google () promises that the new search tool (codename “Caffeine”) will improve the speed, accuracy, size, and comprehensiveness of Google search.

While the developer version is a pre-beta release, it’s completely usable. Thus, we’ve decided to put the new Google search through the wringer. We took the developer version for a spin and compared it to not only the current version of Google Search, but to Bing () as well.

The categories we tested the new search engine on are as follows: speed, accuracy, temporal relevancy, and index size. Here’s how we define those:

Speed: How fast can the new search engine load results?

Accuracy: Which set of results is more accurate to the search term?

Temporal Relevancy: Is one version of search better at capturing breaking news?

Index Size: Is it really more comprehensive than the last version of Google?

So without further ado, here’s the test:

1. Speed

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The first category is incredibly important. How fast do these Google search results come at you anyway? Even a tenth of a second can mean millions for the search company as the longer it takes the load, the more likely someone will go look for results somewhere else.

So how fast is the new search? Lightning fast. As you probably know, Google tells you how long it takes to load results. We tried a few search terms, starting with “Dog.” Here’s the speed result:

Compare that to the original Google search:

0.12 vs. 0.25 seconds? They doubled the speed! That’s tremendous. We tried it with a variety of search terms (”The end of the universe is not here,” “There is no way that you cannot find ben parr. He is hiding back behind the tv,” “FriendFeed (),” etc.), and in every instance, the new Google won.

The only potential weak spot was when we added search commands like quotes, subtraction signs, and more. In this case, it was a 50/50 shot as to which Google search was faster.

As for comparing it to Bing: Well, they don’t display how fast it generates results. It’ll have to sit out this speed test for now.

Winner: The New Google

2. Accuracy

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While more subjective, accuracy is probably the issue that users care about most. Does the search engine find what you want on the first try? Well, we did our subjective test. New version:

This piece of computer hardware may not win any awards for its ergonomics, but "you can however use it as a mouse , so you might want to eat it, but you're probably better off using it to navigate the cursor around." Available now, priced at $33.

this is the true story behind the Aussies attacks on Indians

here I refers Narada Ji.....

I switched off the lights of my bed room and got into the bed under the donna. It was raining heavily in Sydney since morning and noise of water over flowing the gutters and falling on the concrete floor below was relentless.

Knock, knock knock, I heard on the door of my house.

I jumped out of the bed wondering who would come to my home at 11pm at night without phoning ahead. It is no time for call centre people either, to sign me up to some new phone scheme. Slightly scared, I peeped through the key hole on the main door. I could not see the face clearly but could see the saffron color lungi on the man knocking on the door. An Indian, perhaps a sadhu, my religious fear overtook me and I quickly opened the door.

Before I could ask who, he was, the sadhu looking man wearing saffron robe and holding a string musical instrument brushed me aside and came inside the house to save himself from the rain.

I am Narada, Lord Narada from the heavens. I have been sent to Australia because many Hindu devotees are ringing temple bells all over India asking Lord Vishnu to save their Indian relatives in Australia from race-riots by Australian against Indians.

Ahh, Narada Ji with his Veena, sakshat darshan, I prostrated in front of him and offered him a seat.

I have come to report on the race riots against Indians going on in Melbourne and Sydney. I have been roaming in both cities, everyone is going around their business happily. Where are the race riots. You must help me find them, Narada Ji goaded me.

I said, Prabhu, there are Indian students fighting for their lives in Sydney and Melbourne hospitals. Sure, you are aware, you would know that.

Oh those, Narada ji took out his lap top, punched some numbers and said, yes, you are right, but they are only two cases among two lakh of my devotees, where are the others and where are the race riots. Your family back home is worried about you and you seem to be merrily getting ready to tuck yourself in bed and snore.

In the morning, I took Narada ji to Australia Student union office.

Oh! Attacks on Indians, the beer belly guy hanging with his girl friend in the union office exclaimed, they are not targeted against Indians, some Indians just to seem to have the habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I could not help but agree with him. Off course, Indians have the habit of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. We happened to be in the path of Moghul ambitions and were ruled by them. Then we happened to be growing spices and British decided to rule and humiliate us. There is nothing new about it, we Indians do not know how to be safe like all those other white Australians. Australian have never been enslaved, we can learn a few things about safety from them.

Narada Ji was not satisfied by my historical analysis, take me some where else, he commanded. I took Narada ji to a politician in Melbourne.

Oh! Attacks on Indians, off course they have happened. Its because Indians are a soft target, the politician retorted, we are not a racist country.

Now, he must be right. Most Indians have very soft bodies which can be easily stabbed by a knife or bones that can be broken by a blow. It is our fault that we do not have bodies made of steel. Off course a soft target will get battered by an attacker.

Narada ji was still not convinced. He chided me, Don’t be egoistic, just because Hindus pray more to Lord Vishnu, does not mean Lord is impartial to them alone. Lord has made everyone of the same clay, soft and perishable clay, Indians or Australians and everyone else.

I wondered then why are only Indian softies being attacked, why other people who have equally soft bodies are not so prone to being attacked.

I decided to take Narada Ji to Police head quarters thinking, sure these people will know why Indians are being targeted.

The Police commissioner was busy as he had been called by Prime Minister Rudd. Mr. Rudd had just congratulated Indian Prime Minister on his re-election over the phone and first thing he did after that, was to yell out loud, get me the Police commissioner immediately, our hopes of staying our economy afloat may be dashed if this Indian press continues its frenzy of race riots and Indian students decide to go and pay their fees to some other country. Our standard of living is at stake was yelling the trades minister

We could not see the Police commissioner, but his polite secretary arranged for their information officer to see Narada Ji.

Narada Ji told him the purpose of his visit and even named a few suburbs where there have been incidents against Indian students.

The information officer punched a few numbers on his computer. His old dot matrix printer made loud screeching noises and then fell into silence. He bent over and tore off the sheet of paper he had just printed.

There are no crimes against Indians, he said with an air of confidence. See, my computer tells me. The suburbs you have mentioned are some of the safest to live because they have least number of reported crimes.

Narada ji took one more disappointment in the face and gave a blessing to the officer and stood to leave.

The officer impressed by Narada ji’s divinity, came up to the lift to see us off. While we were waiting for the lift, he confided in Narada Ji.

These damn computers, ever since they have been introduced, we are not able to use our anecdotal evidence any more. I have heard from the grapevine and word on the street is that, yes, Indians are being attacked very frequently and regularly. But what can I do, some thing must be wrong with our computer system because for past five years, it has been showing the same statistics.

Can’t you do something to protect the Indians, now that I know that you know that the problem does exist, asked Narada Ji.

My hands are tied, he pleaded with Narada ji with folded hands. Every year, the computer works out how many police men do I need based on last years reported statistics. My police force has to deal with lot more than what the computer is telling us. My staff is already over stretched. Head office will not give me more constables because the computer says there is no crime.

Now, that is easy to fix, I said. We Indians can fix computers, that is what we are best at.

Narada ji took me to Mr. Bhatia’s home, world expert on computers and asked him to look at what is wrong with the Police computer system.

Mr. Bhatia glued to the computer screen for a few hours and then gave his verdict. There is nothing wrong with the Police computer system. You need to get me some specific data and then I can investigate further. Get me a crime that was reported and I will trace it through the computer system and then I will be able to find what is wrong with it.

We left Mr. Bhatia’s home and headed to meet some students.

I have been robbed three times, I have been robbed five times. I have been beaten, my nose has been broken. And it seemed there were more students ready to tell their harrowing tales.

Give me the FIR number of your report and I will ask Bhatia to investigate, Narada ji requested one of the students.

FIR!!!

There was a puzzled look on the face of the students.

We did not report the crime, said every student in a chorus.

We have come here to study and do not want to get involved. If we report they will cancel our Visa. And what will the police do anyway. If I go by my experience of Police in India, they will only harass us further.

I have come here to study and go back. I do not want to get involved with the Police, said a student from Gujrat.

I can beat those ruffians up, but my family has taken a loan to send me here to study, I don’t want to do any thing that will jeopardise my education. Besides, why should we trust this Australian Police, what if they charge me as a criminal and deport me, said a student from Punjab.

The problem is, Indians are not reporting crimes against them.

Narada Ji has packed his bags and gone to his next assignment.

By :kings