OMG WTF LOL - Webtalk

Ever wondered what in the world kids today are talking about when they use words like: "TTYL" and "LMAO" and "IMO"? Well if you're trying to figure out what that little 13 year old brat said to you in the chat room, then look no further. Here's an entire Uber-dictionary of words 'dat' people use while chatting over 'da' internet.

Like OMG!

It burns! It burns! - Talking Point

Guess what Mr. Raza accomplished today? I was smoking some mango flavored hookah on a hot, 'Sunny California' afternoon, watching an episode of the ever-riveting Simpsons while sipping on some tea: a perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon. I was half-way in to Euphoria when my friend walked in and I offered him the hookah. A BIG mistake. While I was handing him the pipe, I inadvertently tipped the hookah and it landed right on me. That wasn't the bad part. The little pieces of coal on top of the hookah shattered (It's a special kind of coal that breaks up easily) fell straight on to my left foot, my right hand wrist, my left hand index finger and thumb. 'Ouch' would be an understatement.

I'm all bandaged up now but thankfully the agonizing stinging has gone. What a day this has turned out to be. It started off with me on my way to achieving 'Nirvana' on the 'Light vehicle' as the Bhuddists call it and ended up with me taking a wrong turn and ending up in the burning flames of hell. Like all men I didn't stop and ask for directions and ended up in a pit somewhere. Figure that.

Bombay battered by heavy rains - News

I apologize for this news update since it's coming a little too late. Moving on to the real story, Bombay's (Mumbhai) busy life was on moratorium after heavy rain obliterated a huge portion of the metropolitan's communications network, apart from the death and destruction. People have been using hand made rafts and boats to travel , however, the situation is gradually improving. People have started to return to their normal lives after all, Bombay is almost a twin sister to New York, in other words, a city that 'hardly' sleeps.

Relatives of the victims mourn
the loss of their loved ones

Image Source: Houston Chronicle

The Bombay stock exchange received a deafening blow after thousands of people were displaced from their homes and a little under feared dead. Reports indicate that there may have been close to 37 inches of rain in one day - passing the previous record of 33 inches that Bombay received in 1910. Further information is available at:

SFgate

Astronomers discover 10th planet - Space

Astronomers in the US claim to have detected the presence of a 10th planetary object within our solar system. It has been named: "2003UB313" at the moment, but a more appropriate name will be assigned to it once more information about this mysterious planet is revealed. It is said to be about 97 times farther than the distance between the sun and the earth. It was first photographed in 2003 but not enough evidence was available at the time to suggest that another object larger than Pluto existed within our own solar system. For more information, please click on the link below:

More Information...

Pakistan Day @ LA - Local Events

Pakistan Zindabad, Pakistan Paindabad!
It's here again, and it's going to be much bigger and louder this time around! Yes, it's the Pakistan Day festival once again at USC on the 6th of August. But it doesn't end there; Junoon will be performing live in front of an expected audience of over 30,000+ for over 2 hours. You thought that was it? Well, you were wrong again. Ali Azmat will then be performing live from his new solo album, 'Social Circus'! You're probably jumping out of your seat right now at the thought of watching Junoon performing live, aren't you? It's not over yet. They say All Good Things Come in Pairs. I disagree. I say All Good Things come in a bunch! The Junoon concert is FREE! Yes, it's absolutely free, just as the rest of the event! Now isn't that something? The location that was chosen for this mega-event is the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum across the street from USC. For more information, visit the official website for the event:

Pakistan Day official website

Just for laughs - Humor

Useless Disclaimer: The following passage contains explicit humor and may be offensive to some people. It may also not be suitable for all ages, races and even followers of certain religious ideologies and/or cults.

Two immigrants, new to America, are wandering around on their first day off the boat in New York City, seeing the sights. Pretty soon they realize it's time for lunch and they're hungry from walking around all morning. They see a street vendor selling hotdogs.

The first immigrant says, "I can't believe it! They eat dogs in America."
The second immigrant, although equally shocked, replies, "Well, we're going to be Americans now, so we have to behave like Americans and eat like Americans."

They approach the vendor and bravely order two hotdogs. The vendor hands them their meals in paper sacks. They find a park bench nearby where they sit down to eat their first American meal. The first immigrant looks inside his sack. Closing it quickly, he turns to his friend in shock and asks:

"Uh, which part of the dog did YOU get?"

Ashes 2005 Report - Sports

Well well, it's that time of the year and Australia have taken the long trip all the way to England to compete in one of cricket's most celebrated, yet most intense rivalries of all times. England have put together a formidable team to face the mighty Australians, unlike the past. Before we get to the actual series, let us discuss a little bit about the Natwest series which preceded the commencement of the much awaited Ashes.

The Natwest series pitched three international teams against each other, namely: England, Australia and Bangladesh. Most people were dumbfounded as to why Bangladesh had been selected to play against two of the world's strongest sides however, their skepticism was soon proven wrong when minnows, Bangladesh comprehensively chased a respectable total of 249 by 5 wickets. Mohammad Ashraful, the stylish and extremely talented Bangladeshi youngester smashed 100 off 118 deliveries, sending a shock wave within the Australian dressing room. This was a deafening blow to the Australians adding to their woes from their defeat at the hands of the English county team, Somerset and their prior defeat to England in a Twenty20 match.

Soon after, Australia were once again beaten by a young and powered up English side. This defeat finally woke up the Australians who then went on to win every match thereafter, apart from the final which ended up in a tie against England. The two teams shared the trophy and even though it seemed like the Australians had returned to their habitual ways of expecting nothing less than a victory, the English had put up a strong show; this finally made the Australians realize that the English were in no mood for complacency.

The series may have ended in a tie, but England emerged as the moral victors, having chased a target of 196 and scoring two runs off the last over to secure a draw; just when everyone thought Australia had all but sealed the series at the home of cricket, the Lord's cricket stadium. The Natwest series came to an end and both Australia and England had a considerable amount of time to prepare for the upcoming Ashes 2005.

Test cricket is an entirely different ball game, in comparison to One Day cricket. Test cricket is the most holistic form of game amongst all versions of the sport. It draws out every aspect and talent of a true cricketer while testing their endurance over a period of five whole days. Of course, the game does not necessarily stretch that long at times, as was witnessed in the 1st test of the Ashes 2005 cup. The match ended on the fourth day when England were set a mammoth target of 420 by the ever-resilient Australians, which was always a tad bit too difficult to achieve against the powerful Australian bowling line-up.

Ricky Ponting was fortunate enough to win the toss and consequently elect to bat on a pitch that seemed to degrade later on during the course of the match. The Australians started off steadily with Justin Langer scoring the team's highest score at 40. Matthew Hayden scored a disappointing 12 off 38 balls when he was emphatically bowled by a marvelous outswinger by Hoggard. Ricky Ponting and the rest of his batsmen failed to contribute with the willow, ending their first innings at a measly 190, giving England the perfect opportunity to build a huge total which would be unachievable in days to follow.


Vaughan - Failed to to make
an impression with his
batting or his captaincy

Image courtesy: Telegraph.co.uk
England got off to a dreadful start when they lost Trescothick to a magnificent delivery from Glenn McGrath which turned away from the batsman at the last moment to produce an outside edge in to the safe hands of Shane Warne. This wicket also marked McGrath's staggering 500th test wicket, only the fourth man to accomplish such a monumental feat after team mate Shane Warne, Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan and former West Indies captain and pace bowler, Courtney Walsh. From that point on the England batting line-up was completely dominated by some ferocious pace bowling from McGrath and Lee, and as always, Warne working up his magic to reduce the English side to a humble 155.


McGrath - Getting better
with age

Image courtesy: BBC
Australia had to capitalize on the second chance that came their way and recuperate from their first innings downfall by amassing a respectable total. The Australians bounced back by scoring 384 before being bowled out by a fired up English bowling attack. There were all round contributions from the Australian batting order with Ponting, Hayden, Clarke and Katich scoring 42, 65, 91 and 67 respectively. The English were set a massive total of 420 with two entire days remaining; the perfect opportunity to turn the game around. As always however, the Australians did not go in to the field to beat the English by time or watch the match culminate in a tie. England started off very wellTrescothick and Strauss playing some flamboyant strokes around the ground, placing themselves in a comfortable position, in terms of morale and scoring rate. The two batsmen were well on course and they didn't seem to falter the least bit initially, but Lee and Warne had other ideas. Lee removed Strauss seizing a brilliant caught and bowled opportunity while Warne got rid of Trescothick who was beginning to look dangerous.


Warne troubled the English
batsmen with his magical spin

Image Courtesy: BBC
Warne and Lee sent the two incoming batsmen back in to the pavilion soon afterwards with Vaughan being left dumbfounded by a lightening fast delivery from Lee. The only resistance from the miserable English batting side in either innings came from Test debutant, Kevin Pietersen. The selection committee's gamble of selecting between Thorpe, a veteran of 100 Tests and Pietersen paid off. Pietersen scored a patient 57 off 148 balls in the first innings and 64 not out in the second innings, a valiant effort from a youngster who was new to the Test arena and when the rest of the team was in simple words, crumbling down at the other end.


Pietersen - A brave Knight amongst
the trembled peasants

Image Courtesty: Sportinglife.com
The English side ended their innings at a pathetic 180, suffering a heavy defeat by 239 runs at not only their home ground, but the home of cricket. All is not lost as England will play four more Tests against an extremely determined Australian side in the forthcoming days. The next Test beings Edgbaston on the 4th of August. For a listing of the Ashes schedule, please follow the link below:

'Australia in England' Schedule and results

Hydrogen Powered Airplane - Technology

The Global Observer
Image Courtesy: BBC

A California based company - AeroVironment has announced the successful flight of the world's first ever hydrogen powered airplane which marks a huge leap in the advancement of the airline industry. This innovation if ever feasible, will facilitate in providing a major boost to the aviation industry. The airplane is named the 'Global Observer', which has a wingspan of over 15m in length and carries fuel cells loaded with liquid hydrogen. The hydrogen in the fuel tanks combine with the oxygen in the air to produce electrical energy which in turns powers the propellers. Full story...

Resurrected dogs - Science

You guessed it. Scientists at Boffins labs have been brewing up something mind-blowing, and it shows in their latest scientific achievement. They have recently brought back clinically dead dogs. The process sounds very simple. First, once the dog has been pronounced clinically - mind you, not completely dead, as in where the central nervous system stops responding. According to Wikipedia, the definition of 'Clinical death' is as follows:

Clinical death is usually defined as the medical state in which it is impossible to revive a person with any technology at medicine's disposal, in essence the complete and irreversible cessation of all body functions. Despite the fact that the body continues to live in cases of brain death, it is also seen as a valid definition of clinical death by almost all medical establishments.

In relation to emergency medical care, clinical death occurs when the patient's heartbeat and breathing have stopped. The reversal of this state is possible through CPR and other treatments.

Secondly, the dog's blood is flushed out of it's body and replaced with a saline solution maintained at a few degress above zero point. This process forces the dog's body temperature to fall to a mere 7 degrees celcius compared to the normal 37 degrees. The major organs and tissues are preserved, even though the animal is clinically dead. Their bodies are then pumped up with their blood once again, and bringing back the heartbeat via electric shocks. It all sounds too simple to be true, but science has advanced so far that anything that we may consider unlikely is likely to be in the news in a couple of years, and sometimes even months.

Scientists believe they can bring back
humans to life within a few years.

Image courtesy: News.com
The entire story is available at News.com:

News.com

Cricket 2005 - Gaming

Well well... the long awaited cricket 2005 has hit the shelves and is up for sale. Although, I would HIGHLY recommend against spending your money on such a futile venture. Not to discredit the hard work and money that EA has put in to it, but the difficulty level of the game is way beyond one's expectations. The game seems to have three levels of difficulty which I discovered only after I had considerably improved my the timing of my cover drives and straight drives. What makes this game so difficult is that there is no real tutorial included in the game that would help you understand the various kinds of strokes a batsman can play. Of course, it does come with a "nets practice" mode, but even there one must learn the nitty gritties of the game by oneself.

Overall, the graphics, the vareity of shots that are available at the batsman's disposal, the different field settings, the option to switch between auto and manual fielding, the availability of even the most unrecognized domestic teams and the option to create/modify players, the option to play first class, domestic, international, and even Twenty20; deserves full credit. Apart from that, the actual gameplay is fairly difficult to pick up, especially for a novice cricket gamer. I suggest downloading the demo and tryinig it out first before actually purchasing the game. The demo is available at:

http://www.3dgamers.com/games/cricket2005/downloads/

The offical website for Cricket 2005 is:

http://www.eaplay.com/australia/games/pc/cricket/cricket2005/

I've posted a a couple of screenshots from the game at the end of this message.

Enjoy!

An orthodox front foot cover drive


An elegant back foot cover drive

Updates! - Site News

Well folks, I apologize for not having updated this place in a while. It's mostly due to one reason, namely: Laziness. It's the most prominent attribute in my personality. Anyway, look out for some updates coming your way because I have a few interesting things that I'd like to share with everyone. So grab your hookah and tea and read on!