A load of crap from an idle brain

The jury has given its verdict: the rupee will retain its Indian character with an international flavour. The five-member panel has chosen IIT post-graduate D Udaya Kumar’s design from among five shortlisted symbols and recommended it for Cabinet approval.

Kumar’s symbol (on the left) is an amalgam of the Devanagari ‘Ra’ and the Roman capital ‘R’ without the stem, very much in line with what Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had envisioned. “We intend to formalise a symbol for the Indian rupee which reflects and captures Indian ethos and culture,” Mukherjee said in his Budget speech this year.

The chosen symbol has the Finance Minister’s approval, said a Ministry official.

The Ministry had organised a symbol design competition with a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh with the condition that it should be applicable to the standard keyboard, be in the national language script or a visual representation and should represent the historical and cultural ethos of the country.

Full news here

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….today since i got married   And am stuck at work

First Anniversary post

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I hope i got the title correct.  Spain are the Champions.  Blame Google translator if its wrong

The once in 4 years extravaganza comes to an end and Spain get the bragging rights for the next 4 years.  The 2008 Euro Champions and now the World Champs, Spain deserve all the praise and respect.

Didnt bother to wake up at 2:30 in the morning to watch the match.  I do love the sport, but not as crazy to wake up at unearthly hours to watch the sport.  Though i had woken up at more or less the same timings last World cup to watch Italy – France battle it out.

In these times of Financial crisis (with Spain being one of the worst affected countries in Europe), this win will come as a soothing balm for the Spanish people.

Viva Espana.

PS: Thank God, this was not the IPL finals and thank God there was no Lalit Modi.  Imagine him droning on and on being the best thing since sliced bread and all the hard work he did to ensure the tournament’s success.  Class is surely not something to be associated with either Modi or IPL.

Above pictures courtesy: FIFA

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Finally, i finished reading this book.  Have been reading it on and off for the past 6 odd months.  In the meanwhile have finished reading a few others too.  Odd, because the book is a very good read and written with lots of historical references.  For someone who loves to know the Roman, Greek, French, British and American history, this book is a treasure trove.

The authors of this book are Bill Bonner & Addison Wiggin who have been writing the free daily newsletter, The Daily Reckoning for more than 10 years now. The newsletter covers a lot about the daily economy, world politics, investment strategies, gold, stock market etc.  Bonner is also the founder and president of Agora Publishing.

The authors believe that the America of today has left the values of its founding fathers far behind and has become an imperial power instead of being a country.  Bonner also believes that the end of America is also coming soon.  The author talks about the dollar crisis, the coming end of the US economy. He writes about how successive US governments have gone to war and wasted all resources, the decoupling of the dollar to the gold standard, the federal reserve under Alan Greenspan with his inflationary policies totally wrecked the US economy.

Quoting from Amazon,

Bonner and Wiggin view ancient Rome as the classical model of empire. Running an empire was an expensive business; the folks in the homeland needed to be mollified with government handouts (bread and circuses), while a large military had to be maintained in the frontier. Rome used its military power to exact tribute from neighboring states; it was a protection racket, no different from the Mafia. Nevertheless, this scheme generally kept the central state solvent and the territories at peace. The United States is also an empire, Bonner and Wiggin maintain, but it does not follow the classical model. It placates its citizens with massive distributions of government largess while using its powerful military to exert influence and keep peace abroad. However, “[i]nstead of getting paid for providing protection, the United States is on the receiving end of loans from its tributary states and trading partners ” (p. 77). This is how the United States became the Empire of Debt.

Empire of Debt: The Rise of an Epic Financial Crisis
Authors – Bill Bonner & Addison Wiggin
Pages – 384
Publisher – Wiley

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After Saina, its Paes again.  Consistency when you are 37 years old is no joke.  At a time when tennis players hang up their racquests, Leander Paes is still going strong.

India’s Leander Paes and Cara Black of Zimbabwe beat South African Wesley Moodie and Lisa Raymond of the US 6-4, 7-6 (5) to win the Wimbledon mixed doubles title here Sunday.

With this victory, Paes surpassed his one-time doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi in winning the most Grand Slam titles for India. Paes now has six doubles and six mixed-doubles titles. Bhupathi has 11 Grand Slam titles — four doubles and seven mixed doubles titles.

Full article here

Above pictures courtesy: Wimbledon

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The South American giants, Argentina & Brazil have joined their counterparts from Europe (England, France, Italy) in being knocked out of the world cup.  The only surprise in the line up happens to be Uruguay.  The perennial underachievers, Spain and Netherlands are also into the semis.  The only consistent team to appear in the semis are the Germans.  But at the beginning of the tournament, they weren’t the favored team.   The young German team has belied all expectations by battering the favourites Argentina 4-0.

So, this is how the semi final line up stacks up.

Uruguay  vs  Netherlands on 6th July 2010

Germany  vs  Spain on 7th July 2010

My money is on a Germany-Uruguay final.  But then, have the Germans peaked a bit too early? Spain might be looking at making it a grand double after winning the Euro-2008.  The Dutch with all their egos and infighting are capable of making it to the final too.

Pictures courtesy: FIFA

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Seeing an inept, incompetent, overhyped England team being torn to shreds by a German war machine.  The English team didnt even deserve to enter the knock out stage of the competition.  With France & Italy too gone, the most prominent European teams have exited.

Germany 4-1 England

It would be sad to see Germany and Argentina meeting in the next round as only one can go through.  Sad, i love both the teams.

Above picture courtesy: FIFA

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Its a hat-trick of wins for Saina Nehwal.  After the Indian Open and the Singaporean Open, the defending champion Saina has won the Indonesian Open again in Jakarta.  True, the top seeded Chinese were not in the draw, but it doesnt take the sheen away from the wins of the World’s 3rd ranking player.

Ace Indian shuttler Saina Nehwal continued her rampaging form as she completed a spectacular hat-trick of titles by clinching the Indonesia Open Super Series with a three-game triumph over Japan’s Sayaka Sato on Sunday.

Unbeaten for the past three weeks, the top seeded defending champion defeated her unseeded but resolute rival 21-19, 13-21, 21-11 in a rollercoaster encounter that lasted 45 minutes.

This was Saina’s third successive title, having won the Indian Open Grand Prix at home and the Singapore Open Super Series Tournament last week. This is also the 20-year-old world number three’s third Super Series title overall.

Read the rest of the news here

Above picture courtesy: Dhirendra

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