India wins Champions Trophy - smart captaincy by MS Dhoni

They call South Africans chokers and would blame everybody else for poor organizing skills…….

The Champions Trophy fortunately did not turn a damp squib though the final of the 8 Nation tourney was much different than what it was intended to be….. the tournament of 50 overs had a T20 ending……… Ishant Sharma’s 18^th over turned the tide in India’s favour and the final over of Ashwin sealed the game.  India could successfully defend the target of 130 and won by 4 runs ~ Dhoni jumped with joy as celebrations followed.  The score card would read : India 129 for 7 (Kohli 43, Jadeja 33*, Bopara 3-20) beat England 124 for 8 (Morgan 30, Ashwin 2-15, Jadeja 2-24) by 4 runs ~ but there was more drama than the details could elucidate.

As one kept watching TV for updates and refreshing Cric webs – there was rain and more of it – weather had already curtailed many of the matches during the tournament and the finals after loss of time due to rain was to be a 20 overs each finals.  England on their home turf won the toss and chose to bowl – the chase is always better – more so if DL were to come to play…

So in the circumstances Dhoni sure deserves praise for his handling of the team – the field placement which had slip, gully and silly point for spinners; the most expensive bowler Ishant turning out to take 2 crucial wickets in his last over and Ashwin dishing out the last over in style…  With three overs left and 28 to get - Umesh Yadav had two to go, Ashwin, Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar one each - Dhoni went to Ishant. Prior to that 40 required of 24; 6 wickets in hand  – Jadeja bowled.  Ishant’s 17.2 disappeared for a six and 3^rd was a wide….then he got Morgan and off the next got Ravi Bopara too… 19^th again bowled by Jadeja who got Butler out.  Off the last over 15 required Chris Broad and Treadwell playing… 2^nd ball went for a 4 bringing it to 11 off 4.  6 required off the last and Tredwell was beaten by the turn allowing Dhoni to jump in joy…

The Man of the Match  was  Ravindra Jadeja; Shikhar Dhawan won the golden bat.  For fans, Mahindra Dhoni is the only captain to win  T20, 50 over world cup and Champions trophy.  [not to speak of IPL and Champions League] ~ a great match when you know that India was 66 for 5 at one stage. For Indians who won all the 5 matches, this was hardly the ideal setting – the toss was for a 50 over aside, Indians had breaks two of them in between, while England had a T20 chase ! ~ the match should have been played today……… but there was no tomorrow and hence played ~ still India won.

The organization was a mess - a final without a reserve day when it rained throughout the tournament.  So much planning go into minute details of sponsors, selling TV rights, tickets and other things inside the stadium but the spectators always get the raw deal. If it rains for a week then you cannot do much about it. But by not planning to have a reserve day and forcing a game, the administrators exhibited their lack of care for the millions of fans who keep the game alive.

The 1979 World Cup was lost after a dreary but huge opening partnership of  Mike Brearley and Geoff Boycott; 1987 was lost with a reverse sweep of Mike Gatting and in 1992 Imran and Injie took the cup away…. In 2004 Champions Trophy – it was almost won but Courtney Browne and Ian Bradshaw played innings of their lifetime……….and now it was Team India…. Well done Dhoni’s men…

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

Did Samsung pay Apple in nickel coins...... ?!?!?

The World Wide Web is replete with information, so easily available ~ but not what all you read may be true !!

The news now is that the legal war between Apple and Samsung is far from voer ~ not in U.S. courtroom  right now but in at least a half dozen countries on four continents.   According to reports Apple Inc has won a legal battle on one of those continents. While the final verdict has not been officially filed yet (that comes later with the determination of damages), a court in Japan ruled this week in favor of Apple, stating that  Samsung had indeed infringed on a  patent  for a "bounceback" scrolling feature on its Glaxy series of handsets.  This verdict was only considered preliminary, as the Tokyo District Court said it still needed further review to determine if Samsung should pay damages to Apple Inc.  and how much.

Last year Internet was ripe with a news :  Apple was awarded more than $1bn (£632m) in damages after its rival smartphone and tablet manufacturer Samsung was found to have copied critical features of its iPhone and iPad.  The news was that the US jury stunned observers by returning a decision after just two and a half days' deliberation following four weeks of legal argument. The jurors rejected every single one of the South Korean company's patent claims, and backed Apple's claim that Samsung had breached US antitrust laws by trying to keep its wireless patents as a monopoly.

Samsung was quoted as saying: "This verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer. It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices. It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies.

the trucks lined up with coins !!!

Then came the ‘Internet meme’ which circulated hot stating --- this morning more than 30 trucks filled with 5-cent coins arrived at Apple’s headquarters in California. Initially, the security company that protects the facility said the trucks were in the wrong place, but minutes later, Tim Cook (Apple CEO) received a call from Samsung CEO explaining that they will pay $1 billion dollars for the fine recently ruled against the South Korean company in this way. The funny part is that the signed document does not specify a single payment method, so Samsung is entitled to send the creators of the iPhone their billion dollars in the way they deem best. This dirty but genius geek troll play is a new headache to Apple executives as they will need to put in long hours counting all that money, to check if it is all there and to try to deposit it crossing fingers to hope a bank will accept all the coins.

Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics was quoted as saying to his counterpart - You can use your coins to buy refreshments at the little machine for life or melt the coins to make computers, that’s not my problem, I already paid them and fulfilled the law.  The story ended with the Q : Let’s see how Apple will respond to this.

A search on this revealed that this was entirely untrue……….and here is the newsitem that appeared  in Guardian UK on this.  It stated that trucks in picture were those on the A40 highway in London. It logically stated that one needs  2,755 to carry a billion dollars in nickels. The article categorically stated that the fine had not yet become payable  and still more all United States money are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.  Thus it would be Apple's choice whether it accepted the payment.  It further stated "A nickel weighs 5g. It would take 2,755 18-wheeler trucks (max legal tare 80,000 lbs) to carry the money." The amount of copper involved (95% of each nickel) is truly humungous because a billion is a very big number.

The story actually originated on El Deforma, described (by many) as "an Onion-like Mexican website" - that is, specialising in fake news.  Thanks to Guardian UK for this and the lesson learnt is

‘double check anything that you read and do rush to share in on FB or any other social media’

With regards – S. Sampathkumar 

22^nd June 2013.

MOL Comfort breaks in to two... and aft and fore parts are floating !!

There are times when you feel [in hindsight] that it is a misnomer ! ~ this Comfort now offers no comfort to its Owner and users.. !!

A SHIP looks massive and majestic ~ it is a symbol of strength – they are built strong to weather the vagaries of seasons and the action of waves.  It has many components – some of which are Keel frame, deck plating, bulkhead, keelson, longitudinal stiffener and more….  South Korea is the world's largest shipbuilding country with  and very high global market share…. Its emergence has seen Japan losing some way. China is an emerging shipbuilder that briefly overtook South Korea during the 2008-2010 global financial crisis

Despite all the clamour for strength, brittle fracture in ships has been a concern since the spectacular structural failures of the Liberty ships and T-2 tankers during and subsequent to World War II.  There can be various reasons right from the quality of material used to structural deficiencies that cause brittle fracture resulting in vessels going down.  Now comes another instance of crack in hull.

The vessel involved is MOL Comfort, a 2008 built, 86,692GT Fully Cellular Containership, on a voyage from Singapore, Hong Kong, Japanese Ports and Vietnam, bound for Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and European Ports including Hamburg, Southampton and Le Havre. It is reported that the  vessel suffered a crack in its hull amidships during heavy seas, whilst heading westbound in the Arabian Sea   on 17th June 2013. It is understood that the 26 crew have transferred to a support vessel. The vessel was initially said to be taking on water, however later reports confirmed that the vessel with 7,041 TEUs on board had broken in two, with pollution and debris reported in the area.

Built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and classed by ClassNK a mere 5 years ago, the MOL Comfort is a new ship; ships should not break and certainly not new ones…. Sure it was checked and approved by Classification society too… ensuring the safe design and construction of merchant vessels and prevention of incidents like these is the founding mission of the Societies.

While some reports stated that the vessel has sunk, it presently appears that the two halves were still afloat. The cause behind the incident was yet to be ascertained. It was also not known what the ship was transporting.  Indian Coast Guard coordinated the rescue operation and all the 26 members of the crew--- 12 Russians and 14 Filipinos-- were rescued.  Indian officials said that the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre, Mumbai diverted three ships - MV Hanjin Bejing, MV Zim India and MV Yantian Express, which were travelling nearby, for the rescue operation.

With an overall length of 316 metres (1,037 ft) long, moulded beam of 45.6 metres (150 ft) and fully-laden draught of 14.5 metres (48 ft), MOL Comfort is too large to transit the Panama canal and is thus referred to as a post-Panamax container ship. She measures 86,692 in gross tonnage and 48,825 in net tonnage, and has a deadweight tonnage of 90,613 tonnes. The container capacity of the ship, measured in twenty-foot equivalent units (TEU), is 8,110 of which 4,616 TEU is stored on the deck and 3,494 TEU in the holds. Like most large container ships, MOL Comfort is propelled by a single low-speed two-stroke crosshead diesel engine coupled to a fixed-pitch propeller. Together with her sister ships, MOL Comfort was the first container ship classified by Nippon Kaiji Kyokai to utilize ultra high-strength steel with an yield strength of 470 MPa in her hull structure.

Some reports indicate that the two sections of the vessel  remain afloat in stable conditions albeit under adverse weather and said to be drifting at approximately 2 knots in an east-northeast direction. The fore part was reported at 13-00N 60-40E, whilst the aft part at 12-57N 61-10E. Owners have arranged a patrol boat out of Jebel Ali, UAE to monitor the vessel and in preparation of towage. The patrol boat is expected on the scene on 23rd June. In the meantime Owners are arranging salvage operations, said to be with Nippon Salvage and Smit Salvage.

Tokyo-Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.  reported the status on  June 19, 2013 that the vessel could not continue sailing under its own power from June 17 because the hull fractured in 2 parts while under way on the Indian Ocean.  20^th June update stated that the fore and aft parts were drifting and some containers might have been lost or damaged during the incident.  Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd, the company owner of the MOL Comfort container ship, which broke on 2 parts updated the status of MOL Comfort as of 23:00 JST (18:00 Dubai time) on 20th of June, 2013. The container ship still couldn't continue floating under its own power from 17th of June, 2013 because the hull split off 2 parts while under way on the Indian Ocean.  The patrol vessel that has departed Port of Jebel Ali, U.A.E. is being expected to arrive at the ocean site on around 24th of June.

MOL (Mitsui O.S.K. Lines, Ltd.)  is a Japanese transport company headquartered in Toranomon,Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The company's main area of operations is international shipping. Its alligator logo can be seen on containers in ports around the world. They have a strong presence in Asia.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

21^st June 2013.

Photos courtesy : www.vesselfinder.com

Traffic changes in Anna Salai [Mount Road] effective 19th June 2013

Chennai has few good stretches of roads…. Perhaps. Chennai is not ideally planned – the arterial Mount Road (Anna Salai) takes most of the traffic and there are no parallel roads.   The city has choked many a times whenever political agitation or a show of strength by any leader  left the city paralysed.  The balance is so thin that some diversion occurring somewhere, would adversely affect people elsewhere and one can see huge crowds waiting for the buses and vehicles piling up unable to move. Traffic  snarls are too common as vehicles try to by-pass another – and sadly, you have little options or the proverbial ‘hobson’s choice’. 

May be some solution would dawn … the façade of  Chennai is set to change………… – decades ago, Cinema will show heroine landing up in Chennai  from a village – the camera would show the Central station, LIC in Mount Road, Pallavan Transport buses, Anna Samadhi and the like – now lot is expected of Chennai Metro which runs underground and over the road in some places.   With Metro rail, something impossible happened – traffic in the main artillery road – Mount Road aka Anna Salai was regularized.  Many eye-brows were raised when effective 1st March 2012, prime part of the Mount Road after Devi Paradise complex – from Wellington junction [just prior to Alankar theatre and LIC] was made one way – vehicles plying towards Spencers Signal were not allowed to use that stretch of Anna Salai and were re-directed towards GP Road, Whites Road, to join Anna Salai near United India HO.  

Slowly, people got used to changes and the traffic in one side of the road started flowing somewhat freely.  Subsequently more parts of the Mount Road became one way… there were many other parts of Chennai too which took the brunt. 

A small stretch of Mount road from VGP [opp to erstwhile famous Bata show room] till the Buhari hotel ~ in between housing Santhi Theatre complex, Devi Paradise Complex, Suguna Vilas sabha [GPO / Saradhas / Dhun Building / Hotel Mathura on the other side]  remained normal – not any longer.

From 19th June 2013, the Chennai city traffic police  has  introduced new diversions in Anna Salai to ease traffic congestion. With the present change, vehicles travelling from Teynampet, Spencer, LIC in Mount road  towards Omandurar Complex [proposed Specialty hospital / Sectt complex] Chennai Central are diverted towards Dams Road / Pudupet Road / Gaiety / Casino  to reach Anna Salai.

Vehicles coming in the opposite direction from The Hindu Office / P Orr Sons /  Chennai Central are allowed to travel asusual on Anna Salai.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.