Are you kidding me? Dutch league won on goal difference

Both PSV an Ajax finished with 75 points but PSV won on goal difference finishing with +50 on goal difference to Ajax's +49. To make things more intriguing, AZ Alkmaar was leading before today but lost. There were three teams who had a chance to win till the last day. Nice!

Story here.

It is finished

Father, into your hands I commit my undergraduate education.

2007 NBA Playoffs: First round predictions.

The NBA playoffs started today without much fanfare. As usual, the West is more exciting than the East. Most of the intriguing matchups are in the West and the East is just like bleh (defintion 2/4).

So, here are my predictions for the first round.

Western Conference

• Mavericks - Warriors: The Mavs win this in six maybe seven. The only reason I think the series will last long is because the Mavs have struggled against the Warriors (0-3 against them this year) and the Don Nelson factor.
• Suns - Lakers: Suns win in five. The only hope the Lakers have of doing anything in this series is for Kobe to drop 70 every game and the Lakers find a way to play defense. Last year's heroics wouldn't be repeated here as this Phoenix team is better (Amare is back) and the Lakers are worse (due to the injuries).
• Spurs - Nuggets: very intriguing matchup. The Nuggets actually have a chance to beat the Spurs with AI and Carmelo but I think the Spurs' experience will come through and they'll win in six or seven.
• Jazz - Rockets: the Jazz started off well but cooled off late. T-Mac finally wins his first playoff series. Houston in six.

Eastern Conference

• Pistons - Magic: Pistons in four. If the Pistons are as lackadaisical as they sometimes get, the Magic will steal one game.
• Cavaliers - Wizards: the Eastern conference lost its attraction they day Agent Zero went down. The Cleveland-Washington rivalry takes a break this year as this shouldn't even be a contest with the Wizards missing Gilbert and Caron Butler. Cleveland wins in 4.
• Raptors - Nets: Vince Carter goes back to his fomer team and ends thier season in six games.
• Heat - Bulls: Everybody says this is the one team Miami didn't want to face. The Bulls will have avoided them if they had won their last game as they would have clinched the second seed instead they fell to fifth although they have home-court advantage in this series. One of the best series in the first round and definitely the best in the east. I think D-Wade, Shaq and the rest of the Miami crew will find ways to win games and the Heat will win this in seven.

Manchester United blows title race wide open

Manchester United's draw with Middlesbrough today blew the Premiership wide open as Chelsea just needs to win out to win the title. The Chelsea - Manchester United can effectively decide the title although Chelsea travels to the Emirates stadium before they host United. Arsenal now has a part to play in the destiny of the EPL trophy.

I have been waiting for Manchester United to choke for a while as they've led the league for so long and they have finally started cooperating. If they end up not winning the title this season, this season will draw parallels with Arsenal's 2002/2003 season where we were on top for so long and stuttered at the end losing the title to Manchester United.

No matter what happens, we are in for an interesting end to the season.

3-way calling

3-way calling has always baffled me and anytime I want to do it, I fail. I always manage to put the first person on hold, call the other and then end up with either one of the two people I am trying to talk to being on hold. The best I am able to do is switch who is on hold, never being able to get both of them on the phone at the same time.

Well, today, I was trying to do a 3-way call between my cousins, my brother and I. And I kept on failing. After numerous tries, I gave up. Normally, I would have let it end there but I am trying to apply myself more so I googled 3-way calling on my phone and I came up with this (It's so easy, right?). I was able to get it to work by testing it on my brother's cell and room phones. Alas, when I was trying to get my cousins back on the line, they have moved to more productive things??? and didn't pick up.

It's 2.20AM and I need to be up early in the morning so that's it for tonight. Hopefully, when next I really have to do it, I'll remember.

Arsenal v Bolton / Baptista / Aliadiere

So we finally get a win, Liverpool drops points and the battle for third is on. This win virtually guarantees fourth position except we get into another rut like before.

Fabregas was so animated and charged up about the goal, you could see that all the talk of the midfield not producing goals and Arsenal lagging behind the other top English teams is getting to the team. Hopefully, they'll have this feeling (or remember how it felt to suck) at the back of their mind for a while which will enable them to remain charged up and ready to prove the critics (me included) wrong.

I think Wenger's actions today proved that there's no future at Arsenal for Baptista and Aliadiere. I watched only the second half of the game so I can't comment much on what the first half was about. It seemed he started with a 4-5-1 formation with Ljungberg in a supporting striker role. First strike. He then took off Ljungberg after 60 minutes and brought in Diaby as a striker/supporting striker. Second strike. And this is not the first time. It seems Diaby even started in that role against Newcastle on Monday. Third strike. Baptista eventually came on for Hleb though. Both Baptisita and Diaby were profligate so Diaby is definitely not the solution to our striking problems.

I thought Diaby was supposed to be the next Vieira, not Bergkamp, or Ian Wright. Baptista has never made the cut at Arsenal and I would be glad to see the back of him. Even Aliadiere who I have always backed never took his opportunity this year with all the injuries we had and that should be the end of his career at Arsenal. Are we getting Reyes back? Hopefully not. He was more productive than Baptista has been (except those two Carling Cup games when he deceived us all) but he was a whiner and he has made it very clear that he doesn't want to be here.

So what are our striking options for next season? Well, there's Henry and van Persie who must not be injured for a single second next season. There's Adebayor and that's it. That's not good enough. Either we bring Bendtner back and give him his chance or we buy someone else. I am not sure if Walcott is a striker or a midfielder so I am not even putting him in the equation as he's not delivered the goals when given the chance. Hopefully, he'll be a pleasant revelation next season.

Debunking myths about the "Third World"

Interesting stuff...



This Prof. Hans Rosling is really an engaging speaker. Africa generally is still far behind the rest of the world though... [Via Sanaz Ahari]

Happy Easter

:)

Arsenal ripe for takeover

Stan Kroenke just bought ITV's shares in Arsenal. I have always felt the current administration had taken us as far as they could and I have been secretly awaiting a takeover since Roman Abramovich started this revolution in 2003.

I have no idea how this will affect the club but hopefully when the takeover eventually happens, it puts Wenger (or whoever is in charge then) on his toes and forces him to stop thinking about the future and concentrate on the present and give us immediate results.

One quote from ANR's article that resonated with me was: Arsenal has not realised it's now a big club. Hopefully, that changes soon.

The sad thing is I had secret hopes of buying the club one day. Well, we'll see how that goes. And what's up with all this talk about billionaires suddenly? Two days ago, it was Oprah, now Kroenke and Abramovich, who's next?

Oprah's speaking at my graduation

I'm not sure how excited I should be (if I should) but Oprah is speaking at my graduation this year. If you are jealous, my work here is done. If not, heh...

Update: Howard's press coverage found here. Patrick Swygert's (Howard President) letter to the class of 2007 is here. Is it too early for the letter to be out?