Are boxing Injuries Justified-BBS

Are boxing Injuries Justified-BBS

BBS stands not for Bodu Bala Sena but to Buruwan Bihikarana Sirasa.

This is the second installment related to sports injuries.

Are boxing Injuries Justified?

The simple answer is NO.

Could they be prevented?

The answer is No and Never.

Sirasa is Head in Sinhala and is a Mogul Media meant for headless and heedless guys and girls.

I met an old friend in Kandy today who was guy who retired from Bank to devote his time for social work.

He is an amiable guy with soft spoken way of life, known among his clientele for his free thinking capacity.

The topic to begin was football and I cleverly slanted it to my last blog piece's opening questions, to open a free for all discussion on, in the middle of the pavement.

In this FREE city of Kandy there is no space for free thinkers to gather and discuss something topical.

But there were massive billboards advertising a school boy's last boxing bout.

If we had a sane Mayor in Kandy he would have banned this advertisement for the sake sanity.

Not to be.

My friend told me the mother (she has become an authority in boxing) of the young guy had claimed that there won't be any risk in boxing.

He wanted me to educate the masses.

I think we need a Public Apology from the Moguls without brains who are running Headless. Heedless “Sirasa Media”.

For torturing facts for media gain and misinformation at large.

If you want tone down version of sports injuries please read blog piece, “Are Sports Injuries justified?”.

If you need real facts and figures read the reproduced piece from British Medical Journal (BMJ) below.

Are Sports Injuries justified?

Are Sports Injuries justified?

The simple answer is NO.
Could they be prevented?
The answer is Yes and No.
Why?
We never find perfect gentlemen/ladies playing it by the rules.
What is my resolve/or reaction?
It is always guarded optimism but in reality never achieved.



Reproduction from BMJ.

This predates the TV Media of Sirasa and is from Veritable Print Era.

This is for the Pol Buruwas and Puththalam Buruwas of Our Media to Read.

News Item
Boxing should be counted out, says BMA Report.

Amateur and professional boxing causes brain damage and should be banned, says the BMA IN A LATEST REPORT ON BOXING. The BMA argues that there is now enough evidence for secretary of state for national heritage to call an independent inquiry into the risks. The report, which reviews in detail 20 new research papers on boxing, looks particularly at amateur boxers in Britain. 
Its previous study in 1984 was criticized by the British Amateur Boxing Association (BABA) for concentrating on foreign studies of professional boxers. The BABA has 35,000 registered amateur boxers between ages of 11 and 35.

“ We have when Joseph Striclan, a 15 year old British amateur, was killed in his second fight that if anyone throws a punch hard enough it can kill.” said, Dr. Jeffrey Cundy, a member of BMA board of science and education. “the report makes this evidence conclusive. There are now more sensitive techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychometric testing that show that not only is there immediate brain damage after a bout of boxing but also an accumulation of damage that can continue for 20 years after the boxer retires. 
 

There is 15-20% CHANCE A BOXER DEVELOPING DEMENTIA AFTER PROFESSIONAL CAREER.

Our recommendation is simple-people should not hit each other on head (It is alright hitting the Media Head of SIRASA on his Vertex)”.

The report estimates that the heaviest blow in boxing can be equal to a 12 pound padded wooden mallet traveling at 20 miles an hour. A swinging hook to one side of the jaw is the most dangerous as it causes the head to rotate in vertical plane. “All the boxers know that a strong punch landing in this are is likely to lead, to win a knock out, because of the brain damage that this movement produces”, says the report.

The effects on the brain include surface damage to the cortex, particularly the frontal and temporal lobes and multiple tears of neuronal networks called Strich Lesions. 
Tension between the brain tissue and blood vessels can cause bleeding, especially in the substantia nigra and deep periventricula tissues.

In the long term, the BMA's report says, professional boxer are at risk of developing the Punch Drunk Syndrome (our politicians have this syndrome-especially when they are in opposition-most of them in power are moribund and brain damaged), dementia pugilistica. The syndrome, which can develop years later after boxer has retired, results in blurred speech, loss of coordination, dementia and premature death. The report finds conclusive evidence of long term brain damage in professional boxers, but the evidence for amateur boxers, because of the small number studied is less clear (that is the caveat).

The news article goes on;

Learning and Memory Deficit (applies to children)

Other neuropathological studies of boxers' brain show that gliosis and atrophy are concentrated in the medial structures of temporal lobe-limbic system-concerned with memory and behaviour (BMJ forgets to mention about sexual functions).

The report states this is why neuropsychiatric testing of memory and behaviour pattern are more sensitive than imaging in detecting brain damage.

Postscript

Cassius Clay, lately known as Mohammad Ali for his Muslim faith was my favorite star only second to Nelsen Mandela, not due to his achievements in sports arena, but due to his vociferous fight against American War Machine against the Communist Vietnam.

He choose to go to prison for 7 years by refusing the compulsory conscription and his title was striped and he came back and won it.

In my book freedom revisited, I have a special mention of Nelson Mandela and Ali.

Cassius Clay was Classic Figure both in sports and politics.

He has all the features mentioned in this article and BMJ diplomatically avoid mentioning him but it was implied in retrospect.

The lyrics of the “black superman” is another hit in our time.

I dedicate this blog piece to Actor Christopher Reeve and Michael Schumacher, too.

Riding Accident Paralyzes Actor Christopher Reeve

Actor Christopher Reeve, best known for his role as Superman, is paralyzed and cannot breathe without the help of a respirator after breaking his neck in a riding accident in Culpeper, Va., on Saturday.

Reeve suffered fractures to the top two vertebrae, considered the most serious of cervical injuries, and also damaged his spinal cord, John A. Jane, the University of Virginia neurosurgeon treating Reeve in Charlottesville, revealed yesterday. 
 

Reeve, who is 42 and has enjoyed a prolific screen and stage career, was thrown from his horse and landed on his head during the second of three trial events in an equestrian competition. 
 

He was wearing a helmet and a protective vest at the time. 
 

"He has sustained complex fractures to the first and second cervical vertebrae . . .," Jane read from a statement at a news briefing. 

"Mr. Reeve currently has no movement or spontaneous respiration. 
He may require surgery to stabilize the upper spine in the near future."

Michael Schumacher in Critical Condition After Ski Accident

Seven-time Formula 1 champion Michael Schumacher survived 307 F1 races, winning 91 of them, and his racing career was not without serious accidents. But it was a family ski trip to France that has caused the most serious injury yet for the 44-year-old German. Schumacher was skiing on an unmarked trail with his 14-year-old son at a resort in Méribel in the French Alps on Sunday morning, and reportedly fell and hit his head on a rock. 

It’s said that Schumacher was wearing a helmet.

He was rescued by two members of the ski patrol, and promptly airlifted to a hospital in Moutiers, then transferred to another in Grenoble better equipped to handle head trauma. While initial reports insisted the accident was not serious, the news became more ominous as day turned to night. As Europe went to sleep, its presses printed headlines like The Mirror‘s: “Michael Schumacher Fighting For His Life.”

This is a story that can and will change hourly, but at this point it’s understood that Schumacher underwent emergency brain surgery, and while early reports said he was conscious, subsequent ones confirmed he was in a coma upon arrival in Grenoble.

Are Sports Injuries justified?

Are Sports Injuries justified?
 
Are Sports Injuries justified?
The simple answer is NO.

Could they be prevented?
The answer is Yes and No.

Why?
We never find perfect gentlemen/ladies playing it by the rules.
What is my resolve/or reaction?
It is always guarded optimism but in reality never achieved.

I have had two injuries related to hockey.

One related to long jump and hop step and jump (most likely, trying to jump to the pit prepared for the seniors, being myself a junior and landing on the hard surface instead of the sand).

I have had few injuries on my knee top but the one I hated was the boil that followed and the traditional treatment my father planted on it.

Boiled rice and salt.

This is well before Mercurochrome and Flavin were available.

That treatment was horrible and I vowed myself not to get injured again in my life.
 
Fortunately we had very smart family doctor who used to give a thumping jab of penicillin over ethyl chloral spray.

If not for the penicillin I could have been a non entity by teen.
 
Such was the status of medical care then.
 
Why did I did not write this before?
For over a month, I stood fast and watched others pain in the comfort of my bedroom.
That is something I never enjoyed for 40 years.

Now after a month of soccer, I cannot drop to sleep.

I was a sports addict and TV addict (TVs were not here in Sri-Lanka) in UK.

What I enjoyed most was snooker and billiards and I was good enough to beat all my mates in UK.

One condition (it was a ploy) I request from my employer in UK always was is there a snooker table within reach of the hospital or within itself.
That tricks the panel and I get the job beating over 60 odd candidates with similar potential.
They used to asked where this brat has learned this game which is typical British.
I tell them, that I played billiard from childhood.

Which is a big lie and I had two more other lies one on chocolates and one on coca cola for the nurses.
And no more lies during the entire period abroad.

They hate lies.
 
If any of my former employers read this, please do not castrate me now.

I learned it from the marker at the University Club before that in the Faculty with trial an error basis.At Digana when it was height of JVP activity in 88-89, I could play only snooker/billiard and squash (I was hopeless in both Tennis and Squash).

We used to play well pass midnight (no patients and no entertainment with blackouts elsewhere) and I was the first to start generators in every private hospital I worked since then.

Thank god, I was working with foreign principles and they were here to launch our first satellite which southern insurgency ruined for good.

I wanted to start some worthwhile academic writing and was looking for a set of typewritten notes I made before we had the first 486 computer in the university.

Quite by accident I found an article from BMJ (I only subscribe to Linux magazine and rarely read medical journals, except the digital NEJM, occasionally) related to sports and boxing.

I have reproduce the data which was 20 years old;

I was astonished to find they have introduced boxing in schools.

It is stupidity at the highest level.

I do not mind BBS monks practicing boxing among themselves and ruin their own brains instead of the “dayakayas”.

One of my mothers (maternal) uncles died in rugby and the British banned it then in schools.

My mother and especially my father were averse to me taking part in any sports and all my sports  honours were secretly achieved. 

All the same I knew the correct balance.

I enjoyed sports but any accolade were little bonus to my emerging ego.

Now the facts.
1. Number one for fatal accidents (death) is riding a horse.
Accidents exceed motor racing.
Less strains, sprains, dislocations and fractures.
But I have seen ruptured spleen with the horse kicking the rider.

But would not even mount an elephant (just the respect for this majestic beast), never mind, not in my life a horse.

I prefer, watching them racing in a racing track and be the doctor in attendance (no betting allowed) for the jockeys and sign their books for a small fee.

That is high fun.

2. Number two is boxing (there is always irreversible and accumulating injuries that culminate in dementia).
(read my blog piece "Is  boxing injuries justified."

3. Number three is Rugger.

4. Number 4 is martial arts.

5. Number five is soccer

6. Hockey my favorite is number six (I have had one injury as an adult, that was due to a guy who never played hockey before hit my shin).

Never in my life I have hit a guy with my stick intentionally but this guy's fingers were squashed by me with a single sharp trick we use to warn the bad guys on field.

He never came again to play.

Of course I have broken the front set of teeth of a non academic staff member unintentionally and he never returned but was duly referred to Dental School at Dangolla.

Then there was a beautiful burger lady who attracted (including the two guys mentioned above), the undesirables when keeping goal, as a reserve.

I was not a saint when I was young and in competitive sports.

It was true to most of us.
But there was no criminal intent. 

She only had one go at her solar plexus with a tone down strait from my stick, the ball landing on the middle of her chest (if my aim was bit to the right or left it would have been disaster for her bulging breasts) and we practiced uninterrupted for the rest of the season and we emerged as the champions beating Colombo, in a penalty shoot out.
She never came agian for hockey.
I thank god for that!
 
I think my download of Bodhi Linux is finishing and I am feeling sleepy and next installment will come when I wake up again.

Mind you cricket comes last.

Football, Officials and Referees.

Football, Officials and Referees.


I totally agree with Diego Maradona that the Colombia play maker James Rodriguez should have received the award.

I have to make few more comments.

I watched all the games and slept over 180 minutes (not by choice but by accident) of only two.

First was with Argentina and Brazil.

Other was the final. I woke up at about 4 A.M. To see 0 and 0 at 88 minutes.

I enjoyed the last 30 minutes.

I started supporting Italy.
Then when they were out I started supporting France.
Then lastly Argentina and never Brazil.
Why I did not cheer Brazil.
1. There was heavy bias on Brazil on referring.
If they did not blunder, Colombia would have been in the semi final having ousted Brazil and we may.
Almost all the football coaches cut a poor image in front of the camera except German Coach.
I feel sorry for Brazil for having a coach like Solari!
Then the Holland coach made an excellent move to send in the reserve goally in an earlier game and did try it when it really mattered.


3. Why I did not like Germany?
Well they were the most disciplined and clinical in their display.
They did not have the flair of South Americans, Italy, France or Spain.
It is dull to watch them PLAY and WIN.
I prefer Digital Football instead on the computer.


It was not players that did the damage to the game.
I pity the players.


1. First the referees.
2. Then the officials (Suaraz incident).
There were much worse fouls and the poor star of b Brazil would have been paralyzed.
The offender escaped with little remorse.
With these guys running FIFA football will get from bad to worse.




Argentina legend Diego Maradona called the decision "unfair".
All the goals from World Cup 2014
The 53-year-old, who was named the best player when Argentina won the World Cup in 1986, said "marketing people" had chosen the wrong man.
Speaking on his television programme, De Zurda, Maradona said Colombia playmaker James Rodriguez should have received the award.
The Golden Ball and other individual prizes, such as the Golden Glove award for the best goalkeeper, are decided by world governing body Fifa's Technical Study Group, a panel including former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier.


Blatter said: "I was a little bit surprised when I saw Messi coming up to collect the best player of the competition."
Blatter believes Messi was given the award on the strength of his four goals during the group stage.
"If you compare the beginning of the tournament and why the Argentina team got into the final, they were decisive," he said.

VSIDO - Debian Sid with FluxBox

VSIDO - Debian Sid with FluxBox

This is a Debian Derivative with FluxBox  Window Manager.
The beauty of this distribution is that it runs its desktop on 125 MiB.
If you hate the gorilla sized KDE, this one is for you.
Another feature is one has to only Right Click to get the menu.
The IceWeasle, my favorite browser now can block advertisements and has a script writing ability too.

Enjoy the freedom of FluxBox.

Undermentioned but Useful Linux Distributions

Undermentioned but Useful Linux Distributions

It is more than three years ago I analyzed and rated over 25 Linux Distributions.

It is time for me to mention few of those not mentioned then but altogether very useful, handy and light weight distributions.

1. Bodhi Linux with Enlightenment Desktop

It used to be down below 400 MiB then but has expanded to over 650 MiB.

2. ArchBang

Arch derivative much user friendly than Arch (not for newbies)

Ther are two other Arch derivatives Manjaro and Antegos with graphical installer.

Manjora has many desktops and Antegos is only on gnome desktop.

3. Bridge Linux that bridges the gap between Arch Linux with experts to Linux user with minimal skilss with command line activity.

It bridges the gap.

4. Gentoo Linux Minimal

This is the Linux distribution that build up from scratch.

I have never tried it, since my download speed is prohibitive but I have tried it with the live DVD which is very impressive.

It totally different experience.

Go to its web site and follow its detailed instruction if you have a fast internet.

5. CrunchBand Linux

It is a Debian derivative over 800 MiB.

6. Clonezilla

Clones images and just over 100 MiB.

7. My favorite is AnitX or MX 4.2 a Mepis/Debian derivative.

Then there is Linux from scratch Ebook with detailed instructions.

Football, Costa Rica and Sri-Lanka-Comparison

Football, Costa Rica and Sri-Lanka-Comparison

1. Small Latin American Country.
Small Indian Ocean Country.

2. Peaceful from 1949 after the Civil War (against the Army)
Many bloody insurgencies and Civil wars.

3. No Army
A big Army for a small nation.

4. In quarter final in world cup football
No Asian country in the qualifiers.

Wold champions in limited over in 1996.

5. 14 peaceful presidential elections
Most violent elections of all.
Soon after the election the opposing candidate sent to prison on flimsy grounds.


I hope Costa Rica wins against Holland / Netherlands and play the semi-final.

Costa Rica in the 20th Century

Historically, Costa Rica has generally enjoyed greater peace and more consistent political stability compared with many of its fellow Latin American nations.
Since the late 19th century, however, Costa Rica has experienced two significant periods of violence. In 1917–19, General Federico Tinoco Granados ruled as a military dictator until he was overthrown and forced into exile.
The unpopularity of Tinoco's regime led, after he was overthrown, to a considerable decline in the size, wealth, and political influence of the Costa Rican military.
In 1948, José Figueres Ferrer led an armed uprising in the wake of a disputed presidential election between the previous president Rafael Ángel Calderón Guardia (he served as president between 1940 and 1944) and Otilio Ulate Blanco.
With more than 2,000 dead, the resulting 44-day Costa Rican Civil War was the bloodiest event in Costa Rica during the 20th century.
The victorious rebels formed a government junta that abolished the military altogether, and oversaw the drafting of a new constitution by a democratically elected assembly.
Having enacted these reforms, the junta relinquished its power on November 8, 1949, to the new democratic government.
After the coup d'état, Figueres became a national hero, winning the country's first democratic election under the new constitution in 1953. Since then, Costa Rica has held 14 presidential elections, the latest in 2014.
All of them have been widely regarded by the international community as peaceful and transparent.
With uninterrupted democracy dating back to at least 1948, the country is the most stable in the region.

Puppy Linux-Simplicity-Slako 5.6.5.6

Puppy Linux-Simplicity.
Slako 5.6.5.6 a Modular Puppy

Simplicity is a "good puppy" in Modular form and well organized for guy/girl
new to Linux.
Mind you I love the "old Puppy" format in less than 100 MiB.

It has two versions "minimal" keeping the tradition of fitting into 256 USB flash drive and a "desktop" with over 500 MiB.

I recommend the bigger version to newbie.

Portable Applications in Linux, I Love

Portable Applications (Linux) I Love

All these are available from SourceForge from www.portable.application.com software.
All of them, except a few I have used in Linux platform over the last 15 years or so and now they are available for windows platform free.
Lot of them are new versions.

They are small except games applications and have paf (portable application form) tag.

All these are free and one must generously appreciate the work and time of the developer community!

1. Games were the one that were we missing in Linux those days and my favorites are
Pingus
Marble
Supertux

2. Words
Abiword
Libre portable

3.Browser
SeaMonkey
Lately Qupzilla
Mind you Firefox and Chrome are also available and I do not like both of them and are Buggy and Baggy.

4. Server
Xampp
SQLite database browser

5. Notes
Evernote
KeepNote
Anote
Focus writer portable

6. PDF
Sumatra

7. Media
VLC Player
Juice
Audacity
Mplayer

8. Graphic
Gimp

9. Page Makers
Scribus

10. Dictionary
Artha

11. Utilities
Putty
Virtual keyboard
UnetBootIn

Handy Linux

Handy Linux

Handy Linux is a pretty good Linux for a Linux beginner, especially if one is 

migrating from windows.

Its live CD boots up breezily.

It is coming from France but has an English version.

I downloaded both versions since it makes me to revise my poor ability in French.

French version is 1.5.1.

English version ha [10n and 1.5 as its name tag. 

There is 486 for computers older than 2005 and 686 for new computers.

Software center is good.

Its home page is both in French and English.

There is lot of good stuff coming from French, being a socially active (I mean Linux community) guys and girls.

One of those is MultiSystem Booting for USBs and another in Linux for Kids.

Thanks guys and girls, especially the people working on multi-language development

Is Biting in Football Physiological or Pathological?

Is Biting in Football Physiological or Pathological?

To football referees and pundits it is pathological, especially if one comes from England.

This is especially true since Surez, scored the winner against England.

To me biting is a physiological in every sense, in the animal world including human, the mammal emancipated from animal instincts.

But taken inhibitions out in a moment of state of trance.

In football unlike in cricket, everybody, managers, players and spectators and everybody who is addicted to soccer is in a state of trance (I wish to call it involuntary meditation) for 90 to 120 minutes.

If one watches a spectator in this trance state one may see involuntary movements, the doer does not realize, the reflex action that simulate the player/players he/she watching.

In this scenario, it is an involuntary action but not voluntary.

Is is justifiable to punish for involuntary action?

Only the doer knows it.

In this country we have rugger players biting ears of the opposite players in the scrum or pack without getting caught which nobody can see in camera, unless we have camera mounted down under on the playing field.

This action is voluntary since the doer knows he cannot be caught.

I do not think a professional player will do that in under full media cover.

My objection is one cannot look at a video and decide that as involuntary physiological action or voluntary pathological incident by a panel of football judges.

They are part of the game caught up in this trance state and rules can be bent to suit the panel not the player.

In this scenario, the player like in cricket should confess (did no catch the ball or did whip the bail before the ball was in hand).

Surez antics after the incident may have been collaborative but in that sense he should not be penalized since that was after the fact or the act.

Even a psychologist might not be able to delineate this in a moment of post-traumatic psychoanalysis (drama).

In this case psychologist takes over interpretation, which I am against since he can be wrong 50% of the time.

Lie detector may or may not be useful.

The bottom line is, that the player owns the responsibility of bringing the game into disrepute.

I would have given Surez a suspended sentence in this case not a total ban.

After all in this country Buddhist monks who propagate hate go scot free and rank criminals get suspended sentence!

LinuX-BBQ-Enjoy the Gourmet

LinuX-BBQ, Enjoy the Gourmet

Below is a review by a Linux User.
It sums up everything, this Linux Distribution is about.

It is pretty good and even a  regular Linux user needs little gray matter to use it.

I LOVE it since it/them, since most of the distributions use few resources and BBQ users all the window managers there in Linux.
It used to be only about 10 when I started Linux.

There are over 76 (excluding, Gnome and KDE) window managers.
What an achievement of Linux which Apple and Windows can NEVER match.
It is all a different ball game, football included.


Softpedia Linux has links to

LinuxBBQ cream and I am trying to download LinuxBBQ,threesome for the last three days and the link to it breaks in midair.

I hope they introduce torrent files, to poor guys like me who has a very poor download speed and Telecoms Service even at night.

 Not my own comment but a Linux user at large.
Thumbs UP the best distribution I have come by during my 10 year or so venture with Linux. The creator seems to never sleep while dishing out new spins constantly and the community is top notch. If your looking for any type of distro this place seems to have it. Hell they got rare minimalist, skinniest, sparse, lean, lean & mean, average, ordinary, unique, unique, big, plump, fluffy, bloated. It's all good. I still got ribs on my plate I ain't even touched and I'm full!

Not The Final Update on USB MultiBooting-Note on MX (4.1) Linux

Not The Final Update on USB MultiBooting-Note on MX (4.1) Linux
 
This is written in in the same style as “not the 9 O' Clock News”, where Mr. Bean started his career (Mr. Aitkinson).
In Linux one should never say final update.
It is ever, improving like in Total Quality Management (TQM), Linux developers, especially the, Debian Developers, never say it is the end of the line, but a new beginning.
Debian is bit too, high for me and I used Mepis and AntiX instead, which are Debian derivatives.
Debian has gone well beyond my old computer, I could not test Debian, Multiboot utility myself.
I downloaded, MX 4.1 today (New name for AntiX), tested its Live USB utility which is very easy graphic utility to make a Live USB.
It is easy as a cheese cake, and I need not elaborate how to make one.
If you are not sure read my other blog posts.
Steps are,
1. Download MX 4.1 (torrent or direct).
2. It is a live CD.
3. Run Live session.
4. Click Live USB (right click will get you the applications and it is in accessories).
5. Insert a USB.
6. Format using Gparted (which is in system when right click at desktop).
7. Locate the live iso and click OK.
It is better to use  Ext 3 file system instead of FAT 32.
I would say why?
I had a Microchip which I could not erase the proprietary boot menu hidden (SONY was the culprit and I paid twice the price of a non proprietary Microchip) in the file system.
I tried it for nearly one month formatting, even with Gparted but it won’t let me erase the 1.8 MB booting code.
With Gparted in MX 4.1, I finally erased everything and made a Live Microchip mounted on a USB mounting Key.
MX 4.1 has UnetBootIn utility which makes a live USB, which was my favorite but it makes only one Live System.
USB Multibooting of Debian lets you remove or add any distribution to your USB, as long as it has the capacity.
French (Ubuntu distribution only) MultiSystem (it could not erase the SONY code) does not allow you to remove.
I am pretty sure they will do that in due course, if somebody translate (My French is bad) this blog piece into French and post it.
Thanks a lot Guys and Girls of Mepis and MX.

Rule of Law, Cricket and Sri-Lankan Armchair Pundits

Rule of Law, Cricket and Sri-Lankan Armchair Pundits

Sri-Lanka arm chair pundits wake up only when cricket is played.

They dare not utter a word (mums the word) when politicians (sometimes in opposition) in power or officials stooges bending down their back to politicians break the rules.

I will list a few for them to wake up from political slumber.

1. when a heroin dealer clears a consignment and when out Minister of Buddha Sasana and PM signs the letter of clearance.

He is innocent.

2. When officers in the Inland Revenue clears a colossal amount of money to bogus importers (for a over a decade), the law does not apply.

Only one officer from a ring is convicted.

3. When spirits are imported in the name of cosmetics, the law does not apply.

4. When police summarily execute an IRC, the law does not apply.

5. When a sitting judge entertain a woman in chamber, in recess, the law does not apply.

6. When a politician is involved in gang rape, the case get prolonged until the sitting judge, retires or elevated to a higher plane.

7. Law applies only a commander orders a pair of night vision goggles.

8. When a sitting judge gives a verdict defending poor Advanced Level students, the judge is convicted of misbehavior.

This is a land of contrasts.

The list is lengthy like Linux Python or the real Python.

I need not bore you with the rest.

Anything is possible in this land including in cricket.

Where are the Gentlemen in Cricket?

Where are the Gentlemen in Cricket?
 
I sometimes feel ashamed to be a Sri-Lankan.

There are hundred of reasons but I will list only a few.

1. Our politicians lie blatantly and what is worse is that they are proud of it.

2. Sri-Lankan including politician do not work on a schedule or on at least a flexible Time Table.

Our politicians only have private agenda.

Good example is our ethnic issue we are prolonging and procrastinating (both sides).

3. We have the most ugly constitution in the world, and generation of politicians who promise to change it abrogate their responsibility.

4. Then, the Buddhist Insurgency (that is how I wish to call it unfortunately), the latest fashion, Buddhist monks have taken over police duty while our policemen will kill suspects not convicted arbitrarily.

The explanation generally is that they were taken to a hide out / dug out and were exploring hidden weapons and the suspect got hold of a weapon and attempted to kill a policeman.

This is kids stuff and explanation.

5. I never thought, cricket will be on this list.

Let me explain why I do not watch cricket now.

One of our ex-minister of sports was known to have used his goons to kill university students.

That was his sports, primitive hunter gatherer mentality.

Another was good at rigging polls at massive scale. 
Rigging vote was his sports.

He also had a penchant for female athletes.

Another one was a thug who suppressed the voting rights of minority. 
Thuggery was his sports.

I have dealt with many other issues especially mass scale corruption in building new cricketing venues and plundering money even in laying Grass not on the cricketing turf but he was a TURF man by default.

Only reason we became proud was cricket.

That was because of winning the World Cup.

I have a prediction, that we will not go beyond quarter final in 2015.
I need not analyze the reasons.

When cricketers become politicians (except Arjuna Ranatunga), they think they can use their influence to win games by hook or by crook.

That was what happened in England.

Win the game by hook or by crook.
He was supposed to be coming from a premier Buddhist School (when we look at some monks this is not an aberration) in Colombo.

He was under scrutiny for his balling action.
He should have been prudent in his selection and choice of activities on the field.

He wanted become a hero and actually became a minion in front of  ardent Sri-Lankan expatriates.
I am not defending the English cricketer.

I am ashamed of the umpires too. 
 
They could have been proactive after the first warning.
They did not.
Many of their umpiring decisions were pretty bad.

Sri-Lankan captain should have been conscious of the fact that his team mate was under scrutiny and he could have pulled him out of the deep end of the pool.
He did not.
He allowed him to sink in disgrace.

One of the reasons, I think is that the Sri-Lankans do not have self belief of winning, even in such a low key match.

The glory of the winning was under the dark sky, just like the typical weather in spring in England.

If they do not have that self belief how can they win the World Cup?

Cricket sometimes is a mind game, the present day cricketing is noted for its lack.

Not dirty tricks under the carpet.

For some unknown reason, I felt he was not ready for the top job and now I feel he is not good at shepherding the minnows (size of the country not the population).

He was predicted as the most valued player in the last world cup.
He could not complete and compete at the last world cup.

He will be in the next world cup.
He will surly burn out well before the final stages of the game.

He comes as a baller and only balls when the conditions suit him and not the team.
He does not believe in his balling.

How can he give confidence to younger players when he himself does not have confidence?
 
That is the bottom line.

When he balls he might get blasted but then as the captain he can withdraw himself easily which option Malinga does not have.

I am not suggesting Malinga is a better choice.
 
Good player does not become a good captain.
Good example is Cook.
 
England is ruining his talent but they have many talented players and during the next few months they will find a good captain.

Unfortunately, we do not have a pool (for captaincy).

Like politicians our cricketers will slit the next one in line and I do not think we play as a team.
 
Every player is trying to secure his place and secure his pocket with money not glory.

I am sorry, Sri-Lankan cricket lovers, for my scathing remarks.

I will not write anymore on Sri-Lankan cricket.
That was my resolve for many years now.

But keeping silent is very bad.

That is why our politics is in ruins (on the field and outside).
 
I am writing on behalf of the spectators not on behalf of the cricketers.

I do not care for them now.

I would pen down few lines on Chandhimal before writing my obituary (like the obituary on Democracy) on cricket.

Like the comments of South African sport writer Chesterfield (I hope I got the name), I have a query on him.

He queried who is this Chandhimal, before the last world cup?

I was not much interested last time, I wrote a response under his comment thinking it was Chamara De Silva (I thought Chesterfield was not picking up Sri-Lankan player names which are not like Christian names but he had made a mistake but in fact I made a mistake).

That was the first time I knew about Chandhimal.

My current comment is who ruined Chandhimal?

I think it is Sri-Lankan sports writers and Dhilshan.

Dilshan was sent as an opener by one of the cricket selectors to ruin his career.
Dhilshan knew that the AXE was on him and he thrived on the challenge.

What happened was the CHEAP and CHIEF selector had to go.

I think Sanath (chief selector) has to go before the voters oust him in the next election after failing at the next world cup, if he wants to keep his parliament seat with a big pension.

That is what I call a wise counsel (from me to him).

There was a very bad taste in my mouth, when Angelo (them vying for the top post) let Chandhimal get his century, risking a loss in a one day international in England.

When did Chandhimal win a game for us after that.

That was self before the game (both Angelo and Chandhimal).

One was eying for the top post and the other to secure a as a regular player.

Both ploys were bad when there is collaboration.

One succeeded and the other is out of the team.

This is total mismanagement.

What we need is Total Quality Management (TQM).
We do not have it now like the Singer's Punchhewa, who was behind our victory as a non player.

We also need good sports writers like Chesterfield.

We do not have any.

I think Chesterfield is in heaven and I am told by Maha Brahma, they are not allowed to play or watch cricket in heaven.

They only allow Mega Cassino Play, just like in Sri-Lanka.

Our Cassino owners have direct access to Heaven, Hell (for players), Cricket and Sri-Lanka.

Postscript;

Mind you there were three ex-captains on the field when this happened.
The incident ruined their (bad taste in their mouth) image too, especially Mahela who walks out when he knows, he is out.

I think both Mahela and Sangakkara should retire, if they feel their body is out (I call it the burn out syndrome), in style now but not after failing under a bad captain.

I respect whatever their personal goals and decisions and wish them happy life after retirement.

Both of them have done wonders.

I think Dhilshan is already showing signs of burn out and reconsider his options,too.

Tropical Fish-Global Warming-My Exotic Fish.

Tropical Fish-Global Warming-My Exotic Fish.
 
I was expecting a catastrophe.
It surely did come toady.

One day of negligence all but four of my Neon Tetras are gone.
My final diagnosis global warming created by our coal power production.
England has one of the warmest spring currently.
Summer is yet to come.
Thee decade age UK was closing all the mines and decommissioning all the Coal Power units, mainly due to health reason.
In our country, the health minister is obsessed with cigarettes but does not utter a word about coal power and its emissions.
One hour of coal power is probably equal to ten to hundred times the tobacco smoked by all Sri-Lankans.
That is my formula.
 
He has got his priorities mixed up, I believe.

I have talked about coal power, pollution and global warming for decades but when it affected my pet  fish even a few lines on coal power is necessary as a preamble.

Tropical fish survive between  76 to 82 Fahrenheit (24 to 30 degrees Centigrade).
The temperature in my roof top garden is over 95 Fahrenheit (32 degrees) and above and my Guppies were dying by numbers in spite they in the shade.
As a precaution green swordtail (hard to find now) were taken to a shady tank in December.
I had a big problem of increasing there number from a tiny stock (five years of trouble) and they do now breed as profusely as guppy.
My guppies were down to 5 due to global warming 7 yeas ago.
That was an epic that I have recorded elsewhere.
Now I have a  beautiful collection of them outdoors,mainly to control mosquitoes.
(My real interest is water plants with beautiful tiny flowers which bloom almost every day due to warm weather).
They started dying in numbers.
I was not happy and I decided to keep a tiny stock in case the previous epic episode repeat itself and they will be down to five again.
From the day one my tank started giving problems.
I found some exotic plants and the algae invaded my tank. discoloring their leaves.
The guppy stated breeding in their new found water front.
The Neon tetras were outnumbered.
But they remained healthy.
But not toady.
Most of them were dead some were making their last breaths.
I did all what I could but only four survived.
The casualty included one algae eater.
Few guppies were included.
Yesterday, I was out and came late and did not bother to have a casual look at the fish tank.
They would have been showing signs of ill health which I missed.
I am pretty sure the temperature would have gone up to 32 degrees Centigrade, which is the normal outdoors.
Mind you this is Peradeniya only a walking distance from Botanical garden.
I even have noticed they were watering the grass lately.

Not only tropical fish even the tropical plants are dying.

Thanks to Coal Power Mania.

There is no chance for my water plants to survive, if I take a week holiday.

This is not a miracle but man made.

LibreOffice Freezing on Me

LibreOffice Freezing on Me

It is time for me to write my experience with Openoffice and Libreoffice.

1. I was never happy with window's office with no particular reason.

2. Then I tried wordperfect from Corel but was not happy but I was really happy with its presentation package (similar to powerpoint but much better) with slide show.

3. I was getting fed up with windows anyway and I was into Linux by stroke of accident.

4. This was the period when copyright law was not in existence in this blessed land like in India (known for violating copyright, right, left and center, now overtaken by China) but the country was flooded with pirated software (in Colombo but later in provincial cities).

5. There was a chap in Nugegoda who had worked in Singapore but later established himself here in a showroom with all the pirated ( with few original) software.

6. He had a limited collection of Linux CDs and the first working Redhat 8.

I cold never lay my hands on Redhat 7 (I managed to find five CDs but unfortunately one CD was defective).

7. I managed to find 6 Cds of Debian (my university was using Debian in the Engineering Faculty).

It took years for me to master Debian installation, eventually I got a hang of.

8. Ubuntu was not on the scene but Knoppix was available.

One of our guys made a Knoppix ? Debian Sinhala version briefly.

He is now a Top Linux workaholic and an expert helping even the Debian Team.

9. My only Guru was Linux Bible/s and the CD/DVDs that came with the books.

10. Word Star (could not get it to work) was there but  open office was teething, then.

11. Managesd to find an open office (1 CD, then not as big as today).

12. I installed it in windows but no fonts for Sinhala.

13. Fedora (gave up at core 3) was making entry but I started hating it, coming back from Redhat.

But Fedora 3 and later Mandriva/Mandrake Linux had Sinhala font capability.

Sinhala UNICODE was not in existence, but a Budhhist Monk (Swiss I believe) of Western origin was developing Pali Unicode for Pali texts.
His name, if I remember correct was Metta Vihari.
He was dishing out Ubuntu then.

14. SuSe wasmy  next discovery (Koffice was there but I never used it) and I got hitched to it before OpenSuse.

I still have high regard for SuSe.

If not for SuSe, I would have by now given up on Linux.

15. I did not know there was a higher order of word processing (LaTEX) in existence and Vi was not my friend.

16. Then PCLinux and Live CD (I still do not know which was the first Live CD, ? Knoppix or ? MCLinux).

In each one of those distributions, I tried Open Office and never wanted to write my thesis, entirely on Open Office.

I used Microsoft Words and the university also insisted that, I should work on Microsoft.

But by no hindsight, I made a copy of my thesis also in Open Office.

17. When I first used it Open Office in one of those instances asked me whether to remove (hindering especially the page layout and sometimes numbering pages) the Microsoft Macros.
I said YES.
Then when I looked at Open Office file it was less heavy (there were lot of pictures, graphs, SPSS data) and the full file fitted with a Floppy Disc.

Microsoft file had to be written into a CD.

Then when I started printing in Microsoft, I could not get (finalized) my book into the format the university prescribed.

I was in a SHOCK and the deadline was nearing.

18. As a last resort, I went back to Open Office and removed the nasty Microsoft Macros and then the page layout came back to the prescribed format.

Beauty was it did not take even a minute of my precious time.

I said Good Bye to Microsoft Word, for good then, and was much more comfortable in Linux, not one distribution, but at least 20.


19. My first book was done on Abiword.

Abiword is excellent in removing Macros but it never warns you.

20. Lately I started using LibreOffice for my books and it did not give me any problems and it is sleek.

21. It has problem with page numbering and page sections etc; but since I use Abiword to begin my books (page layouts, sections are determined first with Abiword) I have only dealt with  minor glitches and hindrances with LibreOffice.

22. But I have not been able to deal with the Memory (partly my fault, I still download and test Linux as a hobby and my home folder get bloated in no time) and the memory Cash of the backup folder.

23. I had to go for the ultimate price, backup files and full format the partition and re-install Linux.

Then download the latest LibreOffice.

Since this happened twice (once before my regular overhaul, this time thankfully coinciding with my mid year overhaul-never end of the year), I think I should report it to the wider web instead of sending them an email.

24. I did something different, this time round.

I used SuSe to access my files specially the next two books.

25. It is advantages to have at least two Linux distributions (in my case minimum three and Knoppix Live CD to recover from major disasters-never would happen, I believe) in your hard drive. 

Better still have the files in the Cloud.

This scenario, made me to write a new (edition) book on Linux possibly.

Not a Bible!

Postscript
1. My advice for you is to choose a Distribution with LibreOffice as a default (almost all have it not CD versions of distributions).
LibreOffice is a huge file because of numerous language.

It fits in with a DVD over 1000 MiB.
If you are using it on windows and with only English, it is scaled down to about 200 MiB, but does not have the same functionality as in Linux.
It is based in France just like the MultiSystem booting from USB.
Getting the information to France in English is difficult.

If you want to use Open Office from Apache, you will have to use Debian, but Debian in General is for Linux experts.

Peppermint Reinstall

Peppermint Reinstall
I had some problem with LibreOffice.
For the second time LibreOffice froze saying I have exceeded the cash at backup folder.
Instructed me to FREE memory and try but it never re-started LibreOffice.
I immediately re-installed SuSe in my second hard drive and used LibreOffice from Suse and backed up my last two books in preparation (I am getting lazy to write now) and downloaded Peppermint and created a MicroSd USB using ImageWriter of SuSe and reinstalled.
Installing with USB was brisk except for the installation of language pack (local servers are very slow).
Just to wild the time till it installed the language pack, completed this blog piece.

Peppermint use a light weight window manager (unlike KDE and SuSe).
That let me do the background work using Google Document.
Peppermint does not have Office.
I will download it later.
Software center is excellent.

ImageWriter from SuSe-KDE based

ImageWriter from SuSe
SuSe has a good image writer.
This is the first KDE based USB creator that worked without a problem for me.
In fact I created a Peppermint in a MicroSD loaded to a USB adapter.

Postscript;
1.Make sure USB is formatted with FAT 32 using Gparted.
Most of the memory cards have proprietary files for booting, at boot level and they should be erased.

2. This is a very dangerous Utility, my advice is for you not to use it.

Reasons 
1. It renames the USB or MicroUSB and one cannot erase it, unless one uses the command line.

2. It cannot erase the proprietary MicroSDs (e.g; for example Sony).

3. Due to the above fact it won't boot.

4. It does not tell you what file systems it uses and Gparted cannot read them.

5. Its ?Grub or boot menu is pretty bad.

Once used, even MultiSystem utility cannot change its name.
In other words this utility corrupts the file systems and partitions, one might not use them again.

I lost only two MicroSDs (only 1 GiB capacity but expensive (one Sony and one non-proprietary).

I will use command line and recover them but it is bit of a hassle for any ordinary Linux user.

In hindsight, this is the utility I will use when I want to discard any USB utility in final cremation procedure, so nobody would recover my identity.

Knoppix 7.0.4-Booted From MicroSD-with Iceweasel Browser

Knoppix 7.0.4-Booted From MicroSD- With Iceweasel Browser

This is booted from a microSD (2 GiB) mounted on a USB Key adaptor (sold on the payment) from China.

This is an example that one need not be hooked to Android but one can work on a versatile Linux Live CD.

My favorite Knoppix.

One should neither become a Slave to the tecnolgy nor the Operating System but use the internet productively even with a MicroSD.

I heard the RoboLinux has changed to FireFox dropping Iceweasel which wasn't a good idea.

Iceweasel warns you at the entry point (in this case my blog site ) but gives the otion partially allowing (3/5 ratio) the cookies.

This an excellent workaround.

I have already stated what had happened to Pinguy Linux elsewhere, where a malaware (automatic with Firefox) disrupts the internet freedom.

Bye, this was just testing time for me.