What is SOPA?

There were a lot of status updates on Facebook and tweets going on regarding SOPA Blackout. Even, I shared the Wikipedia SOPA Blackout page. Even though I shared that link, I didn't know what the SOPA was. ;)
To figure out that, I Googled and found this interesting article. I'm sharing this for knowledge of everyone who follows my blog.

What is SOPA?

SOPA stands for the Stop Online Piracy Act. It is one of two bills being considered by congress today. The other is the Protect-IP Act.

They are well-intentioned. They want to prevent piracy and copyright infringement. But they do so in an overly-aggressive, innovation-endangering way. They allow the entertainment industry to censor sites they feel "engage in, enable or facilitate" infringement.

The issues with SOPA:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation describes SOPA as the "blacklist bill" because it would "allow the U.S. government and private corporations to create a blacklist of censored websites, and cut many more off from their ad networks and payment providers."

That means the Attorney General would have the power to cut off select websites from search engines like Google. It could also cut off advertisers and payment processors like Visa from the sites. The Attorney General could essentially kill all of a site's traffic and revenue in a matter of days.

SOPA only allows targeted sites five days to submit an appeal. That doesn't leave much time for them to defend themselves before losing their site and their revenue altogether.

What tech companies and innovators are saying about SOPA:

The heavy regulation SOPA implies isn't sitting well with many of tech's best and brightest. People from AOL, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Zynga, and Facebook have all signed a letter to congress that opposes SOPA. The letter states:

"Since their enactment in 1998, the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions for online service providers have been a cornerstone of the U.S. Internet and technology industry’s growth and success. While we work together to find additional ways to target foreign 'rogue sites,' we should not jeopardize a foundational structure that has worked for content owners and Internet companies alike and provides certainty to innovators with new ideas for how people create, find, discuss and share information lawfully online.”

What is American Censorship Day?

The reason you're reading about SOPA so much is because congress is reviewing both acts today. As such, EFF, Public Knowledge, Free Software Foundation and Demand Progress have named today American Censorship Day. They're encouraging people all over the web to fight for "Internet freedom."

Source: "This Is SOPA, The Crazy Bill Everyone In Tech Is Worried About," businessinsider.com, January 18, 2011.

"Nai Doova"—Bolgoda Lake

"Nai Doova" is a small island located in the Bolgoda Lake in Piliyandala, Sri Lanka. Nai Doova is one of the 8 islands in the lake. Other famous islands are Ruskin Island, San Michelle Island, and Picnic Island. This island is called as "Nai Doova"—Cobra Island in English—due to a historical reason.

"People lived around the area used to dump all the reptiles caught in their backyards into to this island, that's why they call it as Nai Doova" Mr. Nimal (who's managing a small restaurant) told me.

Bolgoda Lake is a tributary of Kalu Ganga which starts from Adams Peak. It is presumed to be the largest natural lake in Sri Lanka, covers almost two thirds of the Kalutara district, extending from Anguruwatota to Piliyandala. It is also the largest fresh water lake in Sri Lanka. The lake's depth is said to be in the range of 20–50 feet.

There are number of restaurants and hotels established around the area. They provide facilities for activities such as half day or full day Eco Tours for sight seeing and Bird watching, Sun Bathing, Pedal Boats, Motor Boats, Rowing, Sailing, Trawling, Angling, Jet Skiing etc.,

One can get to this place by traveling on Colombo–Horana road. After traveling about 0.5km from the Piliyandala town, there is a road on to the right-hand side—called "Madapatha Road." Drive about 2km–3km on the Madapatha road and come to the Madapatha junction. From the junction, drive straight about 1km to get to this place.

Read more: http://chaletbolgoda.com/bolgodaLake.html

Well done LIONS! I am still proud to be a Sri Lankan!

I was planning to write something on my blog today with a winning mind ... It is interesting, even after seeing our boys get defeated by Indians in the Worldcup final 2011, still I can write something with a winning mind set.

I saw on the facebook, some Sri Lankans are criticizing our players who had been their champions and heros until they scored 275 by batting first in the final. Isn't it unfair?

Our players played really well throughout the tournament and provided fantastic cricket entertainment to Sri Lankan cricket lovers. Check out the following records:

• Dilshan is the No. 1 run scorer in this worldcup (500 runs in 9 matches, with an average of 62.5, and with a strike rate of 90.74)
• Sangakkara and Tharanga holding 3rd and 5th position in that list scoring 465 and 395 respectively.
• Do not forget, Mahela has scored more than 300 runs—304 to be exact—with the stunning inning he played in the final by scoring unbeaten 103.
• Highest batting average of 93.00 hold by Sangakkara beating the "Man of the Series"—Yuvraj Signh.
• Mehela, Dilshan, and Tharanga scored 2 centuries each while Sanga and Dilshan scoring 4 half centuries (50s) each during this tournament.
• Dilshan scored the 3rd highest score (144), while Tharanga scoring the 5th highest score (133) in the tournament.
• The legend Murali is in the 5th position by taking 15 wickets in the bowlers list. Do not forget the great commitment he showed even with having an injury.
• Malinga holds the 2nd place of best bowling figures list by taking 6 wickets for 38 runs including a hat-trick.
  
• The best wicket keeper in the tournament is Sangakkara. He has contributed in 14 dismissals by taking 10 catches and 4 stumping chances.
• Most number of catches in the tournament has been taken by Mahela (9 catches).
• Highest partnership of the tournament is 282 runs by Dilshan and Tharanga against Zimbabwe. Well, not only that, they even hold the 2nd place by scoring 231 against England with 2 unbeaten centuries.

I have a question for the guys who criticize the team in facebook. After reading all these records, are you guys still criticizing our players?

One would ask, don't you have a criticism against anyone? My answer is, "Yes I have ..."

That is against poor Chamara Silva. He played as a specialist batsman in the worldcup team. Following is his performance:

• Against Canada - dnb; Pakistan - 57 runs 78 balls (SL lost); Kenya - dnb; Australia - dnb; Zimbabwe - 4 runs 2 balls; New Zealand - 3 runs 5 balls; Quarter Final - dnb; Semi final - 13 runs 25 balls
  8 matches, 77 runs, 110 balls
  Average 19.25 (4 innings)
  Sangakkara took time until the final match to realize that there's no point of keeping him in the team anymore.
  

Other than that, it has been a wonderful overall performance by the Sri Lankan team.

I changed my status in facebook to "5 runs to loose the worldcup 2011 ... CONGRATULATIONS going out to India ... and for the LIONS of my country ... well played guys!!! Runners up!!!" when I realized that we're definitely going to loose the match today.

Right after loosing the match, I changed it to "Finally, Sanga's luck, Mahela's courage, Slingas of Maliga, and Dushra's from the legend Murali were not enough to bring the cup home ... but ... many congratulations to my team ... still I am proud to be a Sri Lankan :)."

Yes, I am still proud to be a Sri Lankan! Many CONGRATULATIONS to our Sri Lankan team and thank you guys for the great entertainment provided.

Regards,
CJ

China Passes U.S. As World's Top Car Market

BEIJING—Automobile sales in China last year raced past the U.S. market for the first time to take the top spot, as Chinese government incentives helped sales surge 46% from a year earlier to 13.6 million vehicles amid a broader global slowdown.

December auto sales in China nearly doubled, increasing 92% from a year earlier to 1.41 million vehicles, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers said Monday.

Record sales in China last year coincided with the lowest sales total in the U.S. since 1982, as the credit crisis and the resulting slowdown in the economy prompted U.S. consumers to scale down ...

Source: http://online.wsj.com/

One of the Best Cricket Catches Ever

Bill Gates on Sri Lanka

To Get Rid of the Sad Feelings in My Mind

My prediction of becoming world champions again under the captaincy of "Sanga" could have been true last night, if our team played at the same pace they used to play throughout the rest of the tournament. Anyway, I don’t want to criticize the captaincy or players by writing this note, because they brought wonderful entertainment by playing good cricket—I have few things to mention here to get rid of the sad feelings in my mind:

• Although he scored some runs, "Sanga" didn’t lead the team: I must say that World Cup final match is not the correct time to try new things out. I have few question here:
  
  
  
  • How did Jehan Mubharak come in 3rd in the batting lineup? I heard the same question was raised by both international and local commentators during the match. One might ask "what if that worked?" I would say, "Ya, that’s true ... but, the final match is not the correct time to take that sort of a risk."
  
  
  • Why was Isuru Udana placed before Angelo Mathews in the batting lineup? Angelo Mathews played some sensible cricket throughout the tournament. He played well even though he was sent to the field during the latter stages of the matches. More importantly he remained not out, like he did yesterday. International commentators mentioned that he is an active player who is always "in the game" and not switched off during play. Instead of just playing the game, he has a good idea about what’s happening around. I would like to predict one more thing here. I feel Angelo Mathews will make a good captain some day. He demonstrates good qualities of a captain.
    
  
  
• Sri Lankan players batted without responsibility from my opinion. They should have been more responsible, since it was the final match. Dilshan failed for the second time in this tournament at a crucial time. However, no one can blame at him because you can’t rely on one player at all times:
  
  
  
  • What did Mahela do? Didn’t he see that there was a slip fielder? As the former captain of the team, he should have played more responsibly.
  
  
  • Why did Chamara Silva play in the final game? He didn’t play at least one good inning throughout the tournament. Wasn’t there a replacement for him? Thilan Thushara, an all-rounder should have been a good replacement. If they wanted a batsman there were players like Indika De Seram.

Anyway now it’s all done, and I would like to congratulate the Sri Lankan team for becoming the runners-up—and thank them for the wonderful cricket they played throughout the tournament. At the same time, I wish good luck to Sangakkara for his guidance in becoming the runner-up team.

If it was an ordinary match vs. Pakistan I would say they can take this as a lesson and do better in future. But, It was the final match of the ICC T-20 World Championship 2009!