Jobs : the movie

UFC 168 : Rhonda Rousey and Chris Weidman wins but UFC is definitely not for me

I was introduced to UFC only in 2013 just out of curiosity of watching some real good knockouts like Tyson did and there was a lot of talk about one of the best sportsperson in the world as Anderson Silva. I got hooked into it and watched a lot of MMA clips and found them good and educative on the techniques utlised and the different holds used in a fight which we are never going to see in boxing.But like any other contact sport this is brutal I knew that.
 Rhonda Rousey Vs Miesha Tate
After Rousey famously broke Miesha Tate's elbow in the first fight which I never really could watch the full clip  as it was just too painful to watch but atleast appreciated the technique used to get that position.

This rematch was especially known for their long feud between the two camps and I have noted down Dec 28th about 2months back to remember watching it online and I woke up early on cue to see it.This rematch was slightly better since Tate managed to take Rhonda to 3 rounds and I had a feeling that if it went to the 4th or the 5th round Tate would have had a better chance but Rhonda somehow managed to get the position she wants and puts Tate on her famous ARMBAR hold and makes her tap out.  
Chris Weidman Vs Anderson Silva 2
Now Anderson Silva was the reason I got to know about UFC and one of the first Live matches i saw online was the first fight between these two. It was kind of comical finish as Anderson was just playing around doing nothing and Weidman got a punch in and it was over..... Hardly a champion finish. So,everyone expected the real Anderson Silva to come in the second match and I was also enthusiastic on the same and after a good match between Rousey and Tate thought the "Spider" would show up. But what followed was this.....

 It was an unfortunate accident but it convinced me that UFC is not for me. I would like to see a knockout but this game is just too brutal and I cant watch that..

Me Playing sheet music of popular songs

Self taught on how to play the keyboard now enjoying this wonderful Piano App by Revontulet Studios. "Silent Night" "Bridal Chorus" "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and others. Hopefully will learn more songs on the way. Wonderful way to learn the keys. Playing the keys on a Samsung Galaxy Tablet

Book Review : A Gift to Remember by Mellisa Hill

I have not read many books of the 21st Century since I had some time to kill in my hands thought I should start doing it.So i downloaded a random book and went through it in my tablet. It is not very long so I finished it in two days.

I did not choose the book based on any reference or reviews ,just thought about getting a very recent book from any author cause I have not read a thing which is created in the past 8 years, so I just downloaded the first book I came across and had no idea what genre was it or about the author. I found out very soon that its a Womens fiction and most of her readership are women. It started with a general description of the main character "Darcy" and the development of her character as a book geek.An accident turns her world upside around and only increases her fantasized reality and phantasm to greater heights and how it affects her in the end.
I loved how Melissa seems to build the tension and in the process also creates new charcters in the book till the end .I especially loved how all the famous quotes by the greatest authors at the start of each chapter.Infact, there are a lot of literary references in this book but almost all are women fiction which made me somewhat ignorant.(Pride and Prejudice, Little women etc)The movies were enough for me!!She has managed to make the book suspenseful and also succeeded in giving a fathomable ending.It is also kind of reminiscent of an imaginative person who revels in the absolute beauty of their vivid imagination and try to project the same to reality. I could relate to that.

Minnesota Timberwolves @ LA CLippers - 23rd December 2013

Wat a match i witnessed today. LA Clippers looking like a top 4 team this season with Doc Rivers at the helm playing against a much improved Timberwolves team with Kevin Love playing like a MVP. Him and Pekovic are like an Offensive front court nightmare. I Beleive that Timberwolves are the only team in the nba where their top 2 scorers are a 5 and a 4. This is a throwback to Old school basketball and Pekovic especially looked unstoppable at the post.

Kevin Love and Pekovic
These two looked absolutely unstoppable.Both Blake griffin and De Andre were abused time and again and a premier blocker like DJ couldnt find any type of defense against the fast hook shots of Pekovic. Kevin Love seemed to hit more hook shots than jump shots in this game which is kind of surprising as Jump shooting is his game.They struggled in jump shots though. Kevin Martin was good though going 7-12 but for some reason he played only 32 minutes.He played similar minutes in OKC but he should be playing more in a team like the Wolves as they have a very thin bench and with rubio becoming worse everyday his minutes should and eventually will increase. They finished with a combined 79 points in this Overtime game.
Clippers defense
I remember watching the Celtics Clips game and was amazed how good the Clips defense was. They clearly played better defense than the Wolves. Darren Collison was amazing in this category and even scored the same points as Chris Paul.Even CP3 has become more of a facilitator under Doc and would be grateful for not expounding excessive energy like he used to under Del Negro.The Clips look like a bonafide Payoffs team and the tenacity and will power showed today against wat looked like an unstoppable duo in Love and Pekovic. I liked how they went for the steal and not fouling K.Martin who made the mistake of going to his own half to get the ball and was immediately double teamed by Collison and Paul which enabled them to get a quick basket.I like how Jared Dudley was still in the game even after going 0-6 before in the final minutes.
The reason for the Wolves loss
The minutes of K Martin and Corey Brewer has to increase. Brewer is a top rated defender and is almost unstoppable transition offensive option.With the two bigs doing the bulk of the scoring and Rubio becoming a dud I believe that Corey brewer can be made into a ball handler and a viable third option along with K Martin. T.Wolves can still make the Playoff if they could find more defense and it might also help K Love in his MVP bid as his stats are just PURE GOLD !!! and being a losing team would take a lot of sheen out of it.

Clippers @ Celtics - 12th December 2013

Clippers @ Celtics
Couldnt miss this one when one of the champion head coaches goes back to his old team which he lead to their first championship in two decades like Doc Rivers.There are a lot of equations at play here like the famed Celtics defense Vs the unstoppable Clippers offense. A veteran Head coach like Doc vs the 37 year old rookie head coach Brad stevens.
Docs effect on the clippers

Both these coaches have been amazing for their teams. Doc has instantly made the Clippers a championship contender just by being there ans stressing on defense which the Clippers lacked severely.Especially the way he is treating and preserving his star players are amazing. In this game he rested Chris paul and rarely encouraged Blake griffin to be the offensive star for the Clips. Expecting more than 20 points from Blake is unfair to him especially if you have offensive players like Jamal Crawford,Chris Dudley ,Riddick and now the infamous Stephen Jackson. I think the very fact that Jamal Crawford takes more shots than Blake makes this team win more.But the most visible effect by Doc is the defensive approach he has bought to the Clips. Collision,De andre Jordan are first class defenders and can hold their position quite well, even Blake is gettin better in defense and rebounding.Chris paul should be loving to play under Doc system as there has been significant less pressure on him than the previous two seasons with the Clips under Vinny Del Negro.Chris Paul used to run his own plays,create opportunities for others and also be a closure for the Clips in the past two seasons.Now sometimes he isnt even on the floor when the Clips makes a run.
Brad stevens effect on the Celtics
He is famous for making a mediocre College team into a champion team at Butler and when Danny Ainge blew up the Celtics team for rebuilding thought that it would best rebuild with a rookie head coach in Brad. Wasnt he right....Brad has somehow managed to make a Rondo less team which should be way below the playoff teams into a top 6 team in the East. He has continued the defensive approach by Doc at the Celtics by encouraging the Bradley.Courtney Lee stranglehold on the defense and making Jeff Green and more importantly Jordan Crawford into a superstar. The rise of Jordan Crawford was a surprise to everybody and it is a testament to Brad's system.The Celtics usually defies their regular season standing at the playoffs and usually making it to the conference finals.Maybe they can make a run with their defense first approach this year as well
The Game
Clippers does not have a illustrious history at the Celtics centre. Infact Chris Paul - th ebest point guard in the league averages 8 points against the famed Bradley,Courtney Lee defense.Going into this Celtics were holding their opponents to a 40% FG% and making it low scoring games.The game was pretty close most of the way but the Clips defense with the combination of Jamal Crawford amazing offense pulled the clips through.This game is a testament of how good coaching makes better teams.

The Avengers Funniest moments

Back to the future in real Life

How does Apple make Billions of $s as profits but does not pay a cent of Tax

This article by Simon Bowers of the Guardian enlightens us how????
Cathy Kearney, an accountant in the Irish city of Cork, appears to live a fairly modest home life. A graduate of the local university, her home for 15 years has been a dairy farm outside Youghal, a seaside town a short drive from the city.

The 49-year-old lives with her husband and children in a large, but far from grand, farmhouse. Outside work she is involved in the local church. She is also, at first sight, the brains behind much of Apple's exceptional global success in recent times.

Kearney is the Silicon Valley computer giant's top lieutenant in Ireland, and has overseen the explosive success of the company's operations in Cork, responsible for selling iPads, iPhones and MacBooks to scores of markets across Europe, the Middle East and Africa. No less than $22bn of Apple's profits – two-thirds of the total for the group – came from Kearney's Cork companies in 2011 alone. Back in the United States, Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive, has described this international success as unprecedented.
Two years ago Kearney featured in a list of Ireland's 20 most powerful women produced by the Irish Independent. It declared that Apple's success owed much to her "shrewd direction", though it also noted that she was a very private individual and had refused to provide biographical details or a photograph of herself.
"We focus on our products rather than individuals as we like to recognise the team effort at Apple," a spokesman said.
Kearney did give one interview last month, however – speaking in private to US Senate officials. They have been gathering information about Apple's Irish operations on suspicion that the group is aggressively – though legally – shifting profits from operations around the world, particularly from the US, to Ireland in order to pay less tax.
Of particular interest to the investigators was a cluster of companies, registered at Apple's Cork office, to which had been transferred development rights, outside the Americas, to many of the group's products. As one senator put it last week, Apple had "shifted that golden goose to Ireland". Poring over paperwork for these companies, Senate staff saw the familiar names of senior California-based Apple executives, including Cook himself. They also saw Kearney's name – again and again.
Probing further, among the companies they alighted on was Apple Operations International, the top Apple holding company in Cork. Kearney is the only AOI director in Ireland. Directors' duties usually include attending board meetings. But the Senate officials discovered she had attended just seven of 33 AOI board meetings over almost seven years – once in person, the other six by telephone. All but one of the meetings were in California, where the other directors were based.

Meanwhile, in four years, almost $30bn of profits poured into AOI, though it has no physical presence or employees in Cork or, indeed, anywhere else on the planet. One source on the Senate subcommittee on investigations joked that AOI and others were "iCompanies – i for imaginary, invisible".
Back in 1997 Kearney's job title at the Cork office was financial controller, though she may have worked there longer than that. Apple declined requests for an interview with her. Guardian inquiries were redirected from Cork to Apple Europe Limited, a company in Mayfair, London, with about 300 marketing and sales staff. Today, Kearney's formal business title is vice-president of European operations for another Cork company, Apple Distribution International. But it is her directorships of AOI and other Apple subsidiaries that have attracted attention. They help satisfy incorporation requirements under Irish law, and some of them do employ staff in Cork. What surprised investigators most was that at least three of these companies, including AOI, appeared to have no tax residency anywhere in the world.
Their boards have been able to tell the Irish tax authorities that Kearney, the sole Irish-resident director, cannot be judged to manage or control these companies, and that important decision-making rests in California.
As a result, AOI and others are not deemed tax resident in Ireland.
Meanwhile, because these same companies are incorporated at addresses in Ireland, under US law they appeared not to be tax resident in the US either. "Magically," observed Senate committee chair Carl Levin, "it's neither here nor there."
The Cork accountant is indeed an important woman, running a Cork office of up to 4,000 staff.
But she has also helped saved Apple billions in tax.
It is amazing that how this model helps to make Apple Operations responsible for two-thirds of the profits of the Apple Enterprise as non - tax resident in all the countries,it is unbelievable how the DTAA(double taxation avoidance agreement)which is drafted by OECD allows this to happen if the taxable entity is a non-resident in both the countries.

Why are the Spurs so good.... season after season

I always had this question that how can a basketball team made up of essentially three veterans of the past decade and a handful of other team rejects or very low draft picks seem to have a 60% win ratio in the past 16 seasons. Kelly Scaletta from BR had this wonderful report on the same.
Gregg Popovich, the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, has established his place on the Mount Rushmore of coaches, alongside Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson and Pat Riley. What makes him and his team so successful, though?

Establishing he belongs with the greatest is not hard.
According to Basketball Reference, Popovich is 247 games over .500 for his career, putting him third all time.
If the Spurs win 58, he’ll move into second this season. Considering the Spurs are off to a 14-2 start, that’s a distinct possibility.
He is on pace to have his 16th consecutive season winning at least 60 percent of his games. No team in history, not even the Boston Celtics of the 60s, has ever come close to that. No other coach, not even Phil Jackson, has even brushed up against that.
In fact, after perusing Basketball Reference’s data, it appears no other coach or team has ever even had more than 12 such consecutive seasons.

That he has been able to have such a sustained level of success in a league that has extended to 30 teams and in an era of free agency, it’s all the more remarkable. When you consider that San Antonio is a small market, it’s phenomenal.
(The city of San Antonio is the seventh largest in the country, but based on market size, it is only 37th, making it the fourth-smallest market in the league).
With four wins in five finals appearances during that span and two Coach of the Year awards, the credentials are clearly there for Popovich to lay claim to the title of hands-down greatest active coach in the game. But, what has he done to get there?
There are three things that make him so successful: the X’s and O’s of his system, his cultivation of an atmosphere where players desire to put the team and system above individual glory and his developing a familial environment that relieves the pressures of the game.

The X’s and O’s


Ultimately, coaching begins with a system. Nothing else matters if you don’t have one. It’s very hard for a player to be where he is supposed to be on the court if he doesn’t have somewhere to be. That’s not a problem in San Antonio.
Popovich has developed an offense that is consistently one of the best in the league.
These are not your slightly older brother’s version of the Spurs that dominated the aughts with Duncan-led boring ball. No-sirree-Bob! These are the new and improved, Parker-led Spurs. These guys run up and down the court.
Since 2011, they are the seventh-fastest paced team and have the fourth-most efficient offense in the league. Only the Miami Heat have a higher effective field-goal percentage. How do they generate so much offense?
The Spurs' use of screens is outright beautiful. They’ll use pick-and-rolls, double screens, triple screens and even quadruple screens to set up an open shot. Here’s a perfect example. (This was literally the first play I looked at. I didn’t have to go scouring for one). Look at the number of screens set for Tony Parker on this “loop play” to create an open shot.

First, the Spurs set up a screen with Matt Bonner, also forcing the Utah Jazz into effectively screening out Parker’s defender, Alec Burks, and themselves as well. Burks fights through the screen, though, and keeps up.
Parker runs through the screen and loops around, where Kawhi Leonard sets a second pick. Now, Parker can either come around Leonard, catch the pass from Duncan and drive to the rim, having a serious mismatch against Richard Jefferson, or, if Burks can fight his way through the second screen (which he does) Parker can go high and let Duncan set a third one.
Now, Parker is running at full speed, and Duncan is setting the pick. Burks can’t get through the third screen, and Parker has the wide open jumper for an easy two.
This is the essence of Popovich’s offense. Create open shots by setting screens.
And, it’s not always multiple screens setting up a shot. Sometimes, it’s one player blocking out two players at one time. Watch Matt Bonner (sort of) screen two Orlando Magic to set up this open three for Marco Belinelli.
he Spurs run a beautiful kind of team game, with every player constantly doing his job. They use team ball to set up shots, and that’s on coaching.
The defense is no different in that, once again, it’s the team concept that rules the day.
Popovich likes to have as many players as possible in the paint, keeping it packed, utilizing as much of the three seconds as possible. Each defender bobs in and out, maximizing the time they can spend in the paint. This sort of discipline comes from practice and deliberate coaching.
They shift their perimeter defenders to the strong side, and when the ball gets passed to the opposite side, they just seamlessly flow to where the ball is, always keeping the paint packed and the point of attack protected. Again, this issues from coaching.
The Spurs have ridden this team-oriented defense to the second-best efficiency in the NBA.
There’s no “I” in Spurs, but there is a “U”.
The amazing thing about the Spurs is that they’ve had so much success in spite of the lack of perceived “talent” on the team. For a team without it, they have an awful lot of it.
Consider the facts.
Apart from Duncan, who was taken first overall in 1997, the Spurs start Leonard (taken 15th), Parker (taken 28th), Tiago Splitter (taken 28th) and Danny Green (taken 46th).
Green came within a Ray Allen miracle of going from the D-League to the NBA Finals MVP.
The other heavy rotation players include Boris Diaw (whom they picked up off the waiver wire), Manu Ginobili (taken 57th), Marco Belinelli (signed with a mid-level exception) and Patty Mills (taken 55th).
This is a group of players that Popovich has developed into something more than they were before they got there. If you have a few players who end up being more than you thought they’d be, it’s good fortune. When it’s virtually every player you coach, it’s good coaching.
There are no attention-seeking glory hounds on this roster, and there is no room for them.
It helps that leadership, from the owner, Peter Holt (if you’re not a Spurs fan, you probably couldn’t even name him), down to the stars, Duncan, Parker and Ginobili, all buy into the philosophy. The system is what matters here.
For the Spurs, ultimately, it’s Popovich who calls the shots. Make no mistake about it. Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated quotes Manu Ginobili.
If Pop is really mad, then you drop the discussion. We might talk for 10 minutes about how to defend the pick-and-roll, and he may change his idea. But once he is convinced that is the way, then that is the way. And if you don’t follow, you end up in the Pop doghouse.
The players all buy into the system, in part because they’re required to, but in part because it works. This amalgamation of lottery leftovers and waiver-wire waifs has had greater team success, but each individual has also enjoyed a greater career for having bought into the system.
On the Spurs, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts, and each part has become happily greater because he has been content to merely be a part of the whole. There are no divas on this team. They have no place here.
Cultivating a Culture of Winning
For a man name Gregg, there are a lot of “gr” words that describe him well. “Great” comes to mind, but so do “grump” and “gruff.” Then again, so does “gregarious,” “gravity” and occasionally it seems (on the inside at least) “grinning.”
Perhaps the best word, though, is “grandpa.” The particular mix of grumpy and love he seems to deliver to both players and commentators alike is grandfatherly. How apt that his nickname is “Pop.”
For all the task-mastering Popovich does, he does so with a genuine concern for his players. They realize this, and it pays dividends. They want to play for him. They want to play for each other.
And, this is something absolutely cultivated by Popovich. As he reveals to Golliver.
Yes, we’re disciplined with what we do. But that’s not enough. Relationships with people are what it’s all about. You have to make players realize you care about them. And they have to care about each other and be interested in each other. Then they start to feel a responsibility toward each other. Then they want to do for each other.
And I have always thought it helps if you can make it fun, and one of the ways you do that is let them think you’re a little crazy, that you’re interested in things outside of basketball. ‘Are there weapons of mass destruction? Or aren’t there? What, don’t you read the papers?’ You have to give the message that the world is wider than a basketball court.
In this little bit of goofiness on the bench between Ginobili and Duncan here, you see the kind of harmless fun that happens on a team where the players have a genuine affection for one another. That’s a chemistry cultivated by Popovich.
With other coaches, the tough, exacting style that Popovich has wears players down over time, but the reason he has been able to sustain success with it for 16 years and counting is because he blends together his expert understanding and exacting style with a human side.
President Theodore Roosevelt once said, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care." It's an apt expression to describe the relationship between the Spurs and their coach. In short, it’s more than what Popovich does that makes him so successful, it’s who he is.
It’s not any one of those three things that account for his success as much as it is the way he’s managed to weave them together into something that has become what you expect from Spurs basketball.

***
Often, when people discuss the Spurs, they ask whether Duncan made Popovich or Popovich made Duncan. That’s the wrong question. Duncan would be great anywhere, and so would Popovich. But Parker, Ginobili, Bruce Bowen and a host of other players are who they are because they had Pop.

He didn’t make Duncan great, but he turned the Spurs into a great franchise. Outside of Jerry West and the Los Angeles Lakers, it’s hard to think of any one person who has had a greater impact on one team for so long a time. He truly is one of the great coaches in the history of the game.

Beyond Two souls - My fav scenes

The End of an Era : Sachin and Anand

November 16th 2013 would go down in history as the day when the careers of two great sportsmen of India came to a dramatic close.While Sachin gave a stirring farewell speech on his home turf,Anand made a invisible statement that he is becoming old for this game. I was fortunate enough to be at the Hyatt Regency to witness Game 6 of the World Chess Championships, after four hours of play i could see Carlsen clearly relaxed and getting up from his chair often to take a walk while Anand hardly looked away from the Board for the entire 4 hours. Anand looked tensed and putting a lot of pressure on himself and eventually lost a drawn rook ending game.No World Champion should lose two drawn end games in a row like that. It is normal for Carlsen to drive the game towards a dull position which looks like a draw and then make some very precise moves to make gold out of a slight advantage.Anand should have been prepared for it in his preparation, clearly old age has caught up to him and the torch has been passed.And I was there to witness it.


We all know that the void left by Sachin would be filled by many capable hands of Indian cricket but the void which is going to be left by Anand might never be filled. That is a disappointment for the Chess enthusiasts like me in India.

Commentators for the World Chess Championships

The Commentators has been decided for the World chess Championships. Thankfully it is going to be in English and by the following two well known chess players. Well maybe just one...
Lawrence Trent

He became popular after commenting in the recently concluded Candidates Tournament at London. It was an exciting tournoment with a very close finish and Lawrence was good in it.But he had a lot of guest commentators, wonder there would be any guest commentators here. Anyways, I watched the last couple of rounds in the Candidates and liked the way in which the Lawrence went about it, not to mention his accent probably adds some color to the commenting as well.
Susan Polgar

Susan is probably the brains in this duo. Anyone who reads her blog like I do will understand her talent of analysing complicated lines and the human element involved in it rather than just watching the chess engine to commentate on the game which novices like us would like to do. She is a true GM who can understand the moves which are difficult to identify over the board and can provide some insight on the psychological aspect of the game.
Both of them are going to be at my hometown Chennai for the match. Cant wait for it.

Opening Theme for TV Series "The Wire"

Best Kulfi ever

I had my best Kulfi @ Kebab Factory. It had a tinge of Elaichi and Pan taste.

Books on Business Models and Innovation

Though i could kill some time along with learning innovation skills with these books. They are short and easy to read - with some really nice Indian case studies like Godrej etc.

NBA Season Preview

Just enjoying watching this series of NBA Preview videos by Jalen rose.

Atonement : Briony by Dario Marianelli

This music defines the movie. amazing sheet music by dario marianelli. Using the typewriter as a musical instument !!

Article on bird flipping atheletes : Kohli makes the cover

Just saw the report from Br
Link

Hurray!!!! Got my ticket for Wold Chess Championships

Anand - Carlsen happening in my hometown Chennai. There is no way that Im going to miss that. Nice to get this ticket from Delhi Chess Federation

Interview with Anand :Preparing for Carlsen

David Simon : Creator of "The Wire"

"The Wire" is the honest TV Series ever on US television. The reality of public institutions in any democracy is shown vividly in this series.

EOTSM : Memory Erasing Scene

Cabin in the Woods : Downstairs Scene

Derek Cianfrance Interview

Possible Offensive sets by the Celtics in 2013

Read this wonderful article in BR about the sets to be employed by Brad Stevens - the new coach of the Celtics.
Offensive Sets
Stevens has a number of preferred sets he likes to run in order to create open shots. They're designed to put players in a position to make a play, whether it's isolating a big man in the post or giving a guard a driving angle.
Spread
Butler upset the No. 1-ranked Indiana Hoosiers early last season in a fantastic game they pulled out in overtime. In crunch time, Stevens ran this stretch set for crucial possessions. It allowed Butler to give its best player, Rotnei Clarke, the ball with space to operate and make a high-percentage play.
A popular set at every level, including the NBA, Stevens spreads his wings in the corners and bigs in the paint. This gives the point guard extra room to work.

From here, the ball-handler is in a playmaker position. Stevens can allow him to work one-on-one in an attempt to beat his man and draw a help defender.
For this particular play, Stevens called for a high-ball screen with a big man who can shoot it.
The Celtics frequently ran out high-ball screens for Rajon Rondo, which is something Stevens is likely to continue calling. Given the open court he has to work with, Rondo's quickness and craftiness off the dribble makes him difficult to contain on the perimeter.
Rondo and Kelly Olynyk, Boston's promising pick-and-pop rookie center, could thrive playing the two-man game in this set. Butler converted on the same play later in overtime, spreading three players out at the baseline and sending the big man out for a ball screen.
This time, the ball-handler uses the screen and hesitation dribble to penetrate and get to the rack.
Flex Offense
The flex offense, which is popular at the college level, is predicated on ball movement, screens and motion. Jerry Sloan is most famous for using it in the pros.
It's an offense that sees constant action with a variety of different options and Plan Bs to fall back on. Below, Butler goes into the flex offense by using cross screens (or flex cuts) and spacing to isolate Matt Howard, their top post player, in his sweet spot with room to operate.

If the defense is able to take away Howard in the post, Butler could then reverse it, where more down-screening action and movement is ready to take place.
The ball keeps moving until a mismatch or open shot is finally found.
You can expect Jeff Green to play a huge role in this offense. At 6'9'', he's got the size of a 4 and the skill set of a 3. Green should see a number of favorable matchups that coach Stevens will try and exploit.
And by trading Paul Pierce, the Celtics lost their top shot-creator. It wouldn't be a surprise to see Stevens implement some flex sets into Boston's offense to help open up some scoring opportunities.
Box Set
Stevens likes to run box sets, which run a number of quick-hitter plays to set up open looks and jumpers.
The offense sets up like a box with a man at each corner of the key.
In this case, the guard at the far low block circles around the top of the key, gets a screen from the high-post man and cuts to the near wing.

Once he gets the ball, the initial far-post screener follows and sets a ball screen before slipping into space for the open pick-and-pop.
With big men like Olynyk, Green, Brandon Bass and Jared Sullinger capable of knocking down mid-range jumpers, Stevens should have some of these box sets ready to go.
Execution
College isn't the NBA, where you can put the ball in a guy's hands and expect him to go get you a bucket.
Coaches need to rely on play-calling and their teams' ability to execute. This is where Stevens' teams typically shine. Like Rivers used to do in Boston, Steven can draw up some pretty impressive stuff with a clipboard. Within a play, each player needs to do their part, whether it's being a decoy in the corner or setting an important screen. Take a look at a little misdirection play Stevens uses to pick up an easy half-court bucket.
While the ball is moving on one side, the back screen is happening on the other, hence the misdirection. But the play was made possible by Butler's ability to draw Wisconsin's big man away from the rim. This is really all about recognition and setting an effective screen. Butler timed the play beautifully and executed it to perfection. Without Pierce and Kevin Garnett, the Celtics will be looking to pick up as many easy buckets as possible. And Stevens' mind, playbook and point guard should allow them to do so.

Defensive Rebounding
One of the great qualities about most Brad Stevens teams is that they clean the defensive glass. KenPom has Butler's defense ranked No. 11 in the country in opponent offensive-rebounding rate. Butler has been ranked in the top 20 three times since 2010 and at 40 or better since 2009. Without Garnett, Stevens is likely to put a large emphasis on defensive rebounding. This is an area where the rookie Olynyk needs to improve and one that Sullinger must establish his presence in.
The Fit
Throughout his time at Butler, Stevens has mostly stuck to a man-to-man defense. Offensively, there's nothing spectacularly unusual about his system. There are no surprises or special tricks Stevens has in his bag on either side of the ball. He seems to have a counter for everything and a sense that smells weakness. Stevens has the right plays for right moment for the right people. No system or defensive scheme is going to make this Boston team a contender in 2013-14. But Stevens' savvy game-planning and organization-first approach should be a great long-term addition and fit with this team. If Rondo can remain patient, he and Stevens could probably pull off some pretty magical stuff on the offensive end.
Thanks to Jonathan Wasserman for the above illustrative article on sets.

Books from Flipkart

I have received my ordered package from Flipkart containing two books from David Baldacci and Amish Tripathi's Shiva Trilogy

Just finished the first David Baldacci book,it kept me up all night and it was exciting like watching an action movie.No wonder David Baldacci is one of the bestsellers of this generation.
Amish tripathi seems to have a taken a more scientific look on religious mythology which makes it look almost like a historically accurate story on the Indus valley civilization. Just finished the first book of the series, can make out how this is going to go.A truly inspiring effort by Amish on the tricky task of writing religious stories.

Blue Valentine : My favorite scene.

I knew that Blue Valentine had an Academy award nomination but never got around to seeing it. After seeing "The Notebook" a few months ago I thought i got to watch more Ryan Gosling movies. Eventhough I was terribly disappointed with the drab script of Ides of March.I thought Blue Valentine being a romantic movie should be where Ryan feels at home. The movie did not disappoint. If "The Notebook" was about the development of a relationship. This movie describes the slow disintegration of a relationship. Wonderful work by the Director Derek Cianfrance. This is the most honest movie I have ever seen on a relationship.

Both Ryan and Michelle's performances were enthralling and they really utilized the script to display their full range of acting.I have a favorite scene in the movie which had a conversation between them. The script is reproduced below.
Cindy is Michele's character and Dean is Ryan's.
CINDY
Why don’t you do something...
DEAN
What do you mean?
CINDY
I don’t know.
DEAN
What does that mean? Why don’t I do something?
CINDY
Isn’t there anything you want to do?
DEAN
Like what?
CINDY
I don’t know. You’re so good at so many things, you could do anything you wanted to do, you’re good at everything that you do, isn’t there something else you wanna do?
DEAN
Than what? Than be a husband, to be Frankie’s dad? What do you want me to do? In your dream scenario of me doing what I’m good at, what would that be?
CINDY
I don’t know, you’re so good at so many things, you can do so many things, you have such capacity.
DEAN
For what?
CINDY
You can sing, you can draw, you can dance.
DEAN
Listen I didn’t wanna be somebody’s husband and I didn’t wanna be somebody’s dad. That wasn’t my goal in life. For some guys it is... Wasn’t mine. But somehow, I’ve found what I wanted. I didn’t know that and now it’s all I wanna do... I don’t want to do anything else,
it’s what I want to do. I work so I can do that.
CINDY
I’d like to see you have a job where you didn’t have to start drinking at 8 o’clock in the morning to go to it.
DEAN
No, I have a job that I can drink at 8 o’clock in the morning. What a luxury, you know. I get up for work, I have a beer, I go to work, I paint somebody’s house, they’re excited about it. I come home, I get to be with you. That’s like... this is the dream!
CINDY
It doesn’t ever disappoint you?
DEAN
Why? Why would it disappoint me?
CINDY
Because you have all this potential.
DEAN
So what! Why do you have to make money off your potential?
CINDY
Look, I’m not even saying you have to make money off it. Don’t you miss it?
DEAN
What does potential even mean? What does that mean, potential? Potential for what? To turn it into what?
CINDY
(flustered) You know, we rarely sit down and have an adult conversation. Because every time we do, you take what I say and you turn it around into something that I didn’t mean. You just twist it. Start Blabbing, blah blah blah blah blah.
DEAN
If you're not interested in what I have to say then maybe I just shouldn’t say anything. Cindy laughs.
DEAN (cont’d)
That’s funny, huh? What’s funny about that?
CINDY
Good luck. I’d like to see you think about what you say instead of saying what you think all the time. Good luck, give it a try!
DEAN
What are you doin, you wanna fight me?
CINDY
Yeah I wanna fight you.
Some wonderful writing there coupled with good acting made that scene memorable for me.

Best Trash talkers of NBA

Jalen Rose Report - 11th july,2013

EPIC RAP BATTLE !!!! BILL GATES VS STEVE JOBS

Why'd you name your company after your dick!!!!!

MVP!!!! MVP!!!!!

Miami Wins the NBA Championship

What a game it was today!!!! Lebron get his second consecutive ring...... Two in a Row .... You are truly a legend. But all of this would not have been possible if not for this amazing game tying three pointer in the last seconds of regulation in Game 6 from the Old Warrior Ray Allen

Tweener from Radwanska

Catchy Kmart Ad

Remember watching this ad in Australia... kind of was in my head for days can't get out of my head searched in youtube to hear this jingle again

Carlsen Anand - Norway Chess 2013 - Press Conference

Wonderful to see the World Championship Contestants to have such a cordial press conference after a drawn match in Norway. Especially @6:38 when Anand pauses for the audience to find the winning move for White

Whats the difference between a Chit Fund and a Ponzi Scheme

When Bernie Maddoff made billions of dollars in a Ponzi Scheme by cheating Wall Street Junkies and Hollywood celebrities,I learnt wat a Ponzi Scheme means.
Since then I believed that a Chit fund and a Ponzi Scheme are one and the same eventhough i know one of them is legal.
Now I,ve got my answer.
Vivek Kaul from FirstPost explained the same in this article
Saradha chit fund has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. But the question that no one seems to be answering is whether Saradha chit fund was really a chit fund? A little bit of digging tells us that Saradha was nowhere near a chit fund. It was nothing but a Ponzi scheme, where money brought in by new investors was used to pay off the old investors. Before we get into the details, lets first try and understand what exactly is a chit fund.
A chit fund is basically a kitty party with a twist. Yes, you read it right. The essential part of any kitty party organised by ‘bored’ housewives across India, other than the eating, drinking and gossiping, is the money that is pooled together. So lets say a kitty has twelve women participating in it, with each one of them putting Rs 5,000 per month. The women meet once a month.
When they pool their money together it works out to a total of Rs 60,000 every month. Twelve names are written on chits of paper. From these twelve chits, one chit is drawn. And the woman whose name is on the chit gets the Rs 60,000 that has been pooled together.
When they meet next month eleven names are written on chits of paper and one chit is drawn. The woman who got the money the first time around is left out because she has already got the money once. The woman whose name is on the chit gets the Rs 60,000 that has been pooled together this time around. And so the system works. Every month a chit is drawn and the pooled money is handed over to the woman whose name is on the chit that has been picked. Of course, the women need to keep paying Rs 5,000 per month, even after they have got Rs 60,000 once. By the time the women meet for the twelfth time everyone who is in on the kitty gets Rs 60,000 once. And that is how a kitty more or less works. So what is a chit fund? A chit fund works more or less along similar lines but with a slight twist. Lets assume that the 12 women that we considered earlier come together and decide to contribute Rs 5,000 every month, as they had in the previous case. This means a total of Rs 60,000 will be collected every month. This amount is then auctioned among the 12 members after a minimum discount has been set. Lets say the minimum discount is set at Rs 5,000. This means the maximum amount any women can get from the total Rs 60,000 collected is Rs 55,000 (Rs 60,000 – Rs 5,000). After this discount bids are invited. All the women bid. One woman bids a discount of Rs 12,000. This is the highest discount that has been bid. And hence, she gets the money. Since she has agreed on a discount of Rs 12,000, that would mean she would get Rs 48,000 (Rs 60,000 – Rs 12,000). She will also have to bear the organiser charges of around 5 percent or Rs 3,000 (5 percent of Rs 60,000). This means she would get Rs 45,000 (Rs 48,000 – Rs 3,000) after deducting the organiser charges. The discount of Rs 12,000 is basically a profit that the group has made. This is distributed equally among the members, with each one of them getting Rs 1,000. This money that is distributed is referred to as a dividend. Of course the woman who got the money, will have to keep contributing Rs 5,000 every month for the remaining eleven months, like was the case with the kitty. This is how chit funds works and they are perfectly legal if they are registered under the Chit Funds Act 1982, a central statute or various state-specific acts. What if two or more women bid the maximum discount? It is possible that two or more women in the group are equally desperate for the money and bid the highest discount of Rs 12,000. Who gets the money in this case? In this case there names can be written on chits of paper and one chit can be drawn from those chits. The woman whose name is on the chit drawn, gets the money. Who do chit funds help? A chit fund helps those people who are facing a liquidity crunch and by bidding a higher discount amount they can hope to get the money being accumulated. So in the example taken above the woman gets Rs 45,000 by bidding the highest discount amount of Rs 12,000 and paying charges of Rs 3,000. But her contribution to the chit fund has been only Rs 5,000. So by effectively paying Rs 5,000, she has managed to raise Rs 45,000, which she can spend. Of course she will have to keep paying Rs 5,000 for the remaining eleven months. But by doing that the woman gives herself an opportunity to get a bulk amount once. The chit fund company typically does not ask what the winner of the amount wants to do with the money. As Margadarsi Chit Fund, one of the largest chit funds in the country points out on its website “The purpose of drawing the prized amount need not be disclosed. It can be used for any need by the member for Example: House construction, Marriage, Education, Expansion of business, buy a Computer or any other purpose at his discretion.” What kind of returns do chit funds give? As is clear from the above example, chit funds the way they are structured cannot give fixed returns. The kind of return an individual participating in a chit fund gets depends on the maximum discount that is bid in each of the months. The higher the discount, greater is the dividend that is distributed among the members of the chit fund. In the example taken above the maximum discount bid was Rs 12,000. This meant Rs 1,000 dividend could be distributed among the women who were participating in the chit fund. If the maximum discount bid was Rs 6,000, then a dividend of only Rs 500 would have been distributed. The returns also depend on the organiser charges. At 5 percent, the organiser of the chit fund in the example taken would get Rs 3,000 every month. At 3 percent he would have got Rs 1800 every month. Higher organiser charges mean that there is lesser money to distribute and hence lower returns. While organiser charges are fixed in advance, the maximum winning discounts are likely to vary from month to month, depending the desperation of the individuals bidding. Given this, there is no way a participant in a chit fund can know in advance the kind of returns he can expect. The same stands true for the organiser of the chit fund as well, who cannot know in advance the kind of returns that a participant is likely to get. Also even at the end of a chit fund, calculating returns is not easy. There are multiple cashflows. In the example taken above, every month there is an outflow of Rs 5,000 for every women who is a part of the chit fund. There is an inflow of dividend every month, which varies from month to month. One month in the year there is an inflow of the bulk amount that the woman wins because she bids the maximum discount in that month. To calculate the exact return, the internal rate of return formula needs to be used. It is difficult to execute this formula manually and needs access to a software like Excel. Was Saradha a chit fund? As we just saw a chit fund cannot declare in advance the return an individual is likely to make, given the way its structured. With Saradha chit fund and its promoter Sudipta Sen, that doesn’t seem to have been the case. Returns were promised to prospective investors in advance. As an article in the Business Standard points out “Sen offered fixed deposits, recurring deposits and monthly income schemes. The returns promised were handsome. In fixed deposits, for instance, Sen promised to multiply the principal 1.5 times in two-and-a-half years, 2.5 times in 5 years and 4 times in 7 years. High-value depositors were told they would get a free trip to “Singapur”.” If the principal multiplies four times in seven years it means a return of 22% per year. The question is how can such a high rate of return be promised, when bank fixed deposits are giving a return of 8-10% per year? Also, the fact that a rate of return was promised in advance clearly means that what Sen was running was not a chit fund. This is proven again by a recent order brought out by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) which is against the realty division of Saradha. As the order points out“The average return offered by the noticee (i.e. Saradha)…when the investor opts for returns were between 12 percent to 24 percent.” At the cost of repeating, a chit fund the way its structured cannot declare returns in advance. So what was Saradha then? The various investment schemes run by the various divisions of the so called Saradha chit fund, which were raising money from investors in West Bengal and other Eastern states, can be categorised under what Sebi calls a collective investment scheme. A collective investment scheme(CIS) is defined as “Any scheme or arrangement made or offered by any company under which the contributions, or payments made by the investors, are pooled and utilised with a view to receive profits, income, produce or property, and is managed on behalf of the investors is a CIS. Investors do not have day to day control over the management and operation of such scheme or arrangement.” Lets take the case of the realty division of the Saradha chit fund which the Business Standard article referred to earlier says was “the company most active in collecting money from depositors.” Against the money collected Saradha promised allotment of land or a flat. The investors also had the option of getting their principal and the promised interest back at maturity. The land or the flat was not allotted to investors and the investors did not have day to day control either over the scheme or over the flat or land for that matter. The money/land/flat came to them only at maturity. Given these reasons Saradha was actually a collective investment scheme as defined by Sebi and not a chit fund. Where did all the money collected go? This is a tricky question to answer. But some educated guesses can be made. If the Saradha group was collecting money and promising land or flats against that investment, it should still have those assets? Can’t these assets can be sold and some part of the money due to the people of West Bengal be returned? Media reports seem to suggest that all this was simply a sham and there are no real assets. Saradha was trying to create an illusion and was trying to tell its investors and its agents that this is what we are trying to do with the money we are collecting from you. But there was nothing really that it was doing. The Business Standard quotes a Saradha group agents as follows : “We were bemused to see that only three or four people were working at the site which was being developed as a township. Sen said it would take 20 years to develop the projects as the company had so many businesses and it was not possible for him to oversee all of them,” says Abradeep, a Saradha agent.” Agents were also frequently taken to Sen’s Global Motors factory which had stopped production in 2011. But when agents came visiting, around 150 people posed as workers in an operational motorcycle factory. If the money being raised from depositors was put to actual use, then flats would have been built and motorcycles made and sold. All this leads this writer to believe that Saradha and Sen were simply rotating money. They were using money brought in by the newer investors to pay off the older investors whose investments had to be redeemed. At the same time they were creating an illusion of a business as well, which really did not exist. In the end Sen had to ask his agents to rotate money as well. As the Business Standard points out “Depositors say Sen’s companies were prompt with payments in the first year. Trouble started in January when his employees didn’t get their salaries on time. Then agents were told to make payments for maturities with fresh collections or make adjustment against renewals.” This is what happens in any Ponzi scheme. So where do chit funds fit into all of this? Saradha chit fund is not a chit fund. And that seems to be the case with many other so called chit funds in West Bengal. A report in The Asian Age says that there are 73 chit funds running in West Bengal. The question is how many of these funds are genuine chit funds. What seems to have happened is that a private deposit raising effort from the general public has been labelled as a chit fund. As Vinod Kothari writes in The Hindu “The West Bengal ‘chit funds’ are not chit funds at all, since these have a different structure. Chit funds are mutual credit groups where money circulates among the group members, and the monthly contributions of the chit members are received in rotation by one of the members who bids for it — much like a ‘kitty’…The several names that keep popping up in West Bengal are Collective Investment Schemes or Public Deposit Schemes.” Most of these collective investment schemes or public deposit schemes do not have any business model in place. They simply rotate money using money brought in by later investors to pay off earlier investors. They also pay high commission to agents to keep bringing new investors. That keeps the Ponzi scheme going. And as long as money brought in by later investors is greater than the money that has to be paid to earlier investors, these schemes keep running. The day this equation changes, these so called chit funds go bust. The same happened in case of Saradha chit fund as well.
Thanks to Vivek Kaul for the above detailed explanation on Chit funds

Punch Lady : Korean Movie

A funny take on the serious issue of domestic violence

Dead Space 3 Full story

First White sanded Beach - Goosebumps

The Best Icecream I ever Had - A Raspberry Ice Cream

Picking Strawberries at Ulverstone

Preston Waterfalls

Gunns Plain Caves,Tasmania.

Visited the Caves in Burnie,Tasmania. They have really preserved the Caves in its natural beauty for hundreds of years.